Eastern Approaches
Raw but committed performances of music from emergent post-Soviet territories
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Frangiz Ali-Zade, Giya Alexandrovich Kancheli, Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Felmay
Magazine Review Date: 1/2003
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: FY7022
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Mugam Sayagi |
Frangiz Ali-Zade, Composer
Frangiz Ali-Zade, Composer Xenia Ensemble |
Chang Music III |
Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky, Composer
Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky, Composer Xenia Ensemble |
Night Prayers |
Giya Alexandrovich Kancheli, Composer
Giya Alexandrovich Kancheli, Composer Xenia Ensemble |
Author: David Fanning
From Azerbaijan, Frangis Ali-Zade (b1947) recently had an entire CD devoted to her by BIS, and her Mugam Sayagi has attracted the advocacy of the Kronos Quartet. However, in this work her intentions – to express ecstatic longing, in terms drawing on centuries-old Muslim traditions – are rather more interesting than their realisation, which, despite the addition of percussion in the later stages, is unimaginative and overlong. With their more suave overall approach The Kronos succeed rather better than the Xenia Ensemble in disguising these shortcomings.
Dmitry Yanov-Yanovsky (b1963), a Russian-Jewish composer from Uzbekistan, is far more creative in his handling of folk-derived material. He asks his string trio to imitate the sounds of the chang, a kind of small cymbalom, and within an essentially meditative framework his three movements cover a range of moods with a sure sense of timing.
More impressive still is Kancheli’s Night Prayers, from his cycle Life without Christmas. This is one of his darkest scores, and in its protesting intensity perhaps his closest to Schnittke. At the moment the only available alternative is Kancheli’s arrangement for saxophone and chamber orchestra, which in Jan Garbarek’s hands sounds much softer-edged than the new recording for the original forces.
Overall the Xenia Ensemble’s performances are not the last word in refinement, and the recorded balance is uncomfortably close. In compensation there is a palpable sense of commitment to the repertoire.
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