CD ECM Records Kim Kashkashian - Olivero / Mansurian / Steinberg: Neharot

2009

Kim Kashkashian - viola
Robyn Schulkowsky - percutie
Tigran Mansurian - pian
Jana Kuss - vioara
Oliver Wille - vioara
William Coleman - viola
Felix Nickel - violoncel

Münchener Kammerorchester, dirijor Alexander Liebreich
Boston Modern Orchestra Project , dirijor Gil Rose

Betty Olivero - Neharot Neharot  ( For Viola, Accordion, Percussion, Two String Ensembles And Tape )

Tigran Mansurian - Tagh For The Funeral Of The Lord ( For Viola And Percussion )

Komitas Vardapet - Oror ( For Piano )

Tigran Mansurian - Three Arias - Sung Out The Window Facing Mount Ararar ( For Viola And Orchestra )

Eitan Steinberg - Rava Deravin ( For Viola And String Quartett )

Kim Kashkashian’s new album following her Spanish and Argentinian songs on „Asturiana“ is a carefully composed prgramme addressing fascinating connections between three contemporary composers from Israel and Armenia. With five pieces respectively based on traditional laments of the Near East, Armenian chant and Hasidic melody, the focus is again on essentially vocal expressivenss. “What we hear in this music touches off resonances below the level of our acquired expeience”, writes Paul Griffiths in his liner notes. “Singing these songs, in a hybrid register that embraces male and female, Kashkashian’s viola sings for us all.” Betty Olivero started work on “Neharót Neharót” under the impression of the suffering and pain caused by the war in Lebanon in 2006. Olivero’s hypnotic lament for viola, accordion, percussion, two string ensembles and tape draws on allusions to Kurdish and north African songs, traditional oriental music and Monteverdi. The instrument’s singing abilities come even more to the fore in Tigran Mansurian’s “Three Arias (Sung out the window facing Mount Ararat)” which articulate the Armenian people’s longing for the holy mountain beyond the border. “Rava Deravin” by Israeli Eitan Steinberg is based on a melody for a poem by one of the greatest traditional kabbalists and was first conceived in a version for voice and instrumental ensemble. According to the composer, Kashkashian “manages to cry the prayer from within the strings, to murmur the sacred text with no words”.

* * *

BBC Radio 3, CD of the Year

There’s probably never been a more fascinating viola recording. Most of the music has been written in the last six years, often by middle-aged composers with substantial personalities… One is Betty Olivero, an Israeli who wrote the disc’s title piece… It’s a wonderfully dreamy, collagelike piece, tough, with a clear trajectory in its brooding viola writing, odd but eloquent accordion writing, and tapes of voices singing in welters of Mideast microtones. There’s so much in it that any given listening is going to be a unique and personal dialogue with where you’re at that day.
David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer

A strong contender for classical CD of the year and one that early Christmas shoppers should begin stocking up on is the latest ECM release featuring the extraordinary Armenian American violist Kim Kashkashian. The disc is titled “Neharót”, after a stunningly beautiful and profoundly moving piece written for her by the Israeli composer Betty Olivero. … Olivero’s piece is followed on Kashkashian’s CD by Tigran Mansurian’s “Three Arias”, resplendent works for solo viola and chamber orchestra by Armenia’s leading composer. This disc concludes with another beautiful Israeli work – Eitan Steinberg’s “Rava Deravin” for viola and string quartet – a haunting prayer in muted but glowing colors that finds common spiritual ground in Hasidic and Armenian song.
Mark Swed, LA Times

Kim Kashkashian’s interest in phrasing the viola like a human voice is beautifully indulged here on pieces by Armenian and Israeli composers which investigate correspondences between those cultures. Eitan Steinberg’s “Rava Deravin” was even transposed for the instrument from the Aramaic source text, while Tigran Mansurian’s “Three Arias” features an exquisitely yearning performance from Kashkashian. … Best of all is Betty Olivero’s “Neharót Neharót”, where the mournful violas drift among accordion drones, Armenian vocalists, and two string ensembles.
Andy Gill, The Independent

The pièce de résistance on this CD is Betty Olivero’s powerful and densely-worked Neharót Neharót. Scored for two string ensembles plus accordion and viola solo, this may only last 16 minutes, but is has the resonance of a major work. Opening with dark chords made even darker by internal dissonances, it develops a floridly mellifluous momentum through which viola and accordion cut their path in duet; its denouement is a brilliant rumination, at first veiled, then gradually more explicit, on the lament of Monteverdi’s Orpheus.
Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine

The mood throughout this seamlessly programmed disc is alternately serene and intellectually stimulating – these are powerful, emotional works of spiritual significance performed by a violist with a towering intellect, a devotion to her Armenian roots, and an ability to touch the divine.
Greg Cahill, Strings