Violin Declamations from the Twilight of the Workers’ Paradise – Elmira Darvarova

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Nov 272017
 

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An empire in collapse. A daring escapee.
A deeply personal program of music from a time of turmoil — and hope.

Violinist Elmira Darvarova was communist Bulgaria’s worst-kept artistic secret. News of the young virtuoso’s talent had circulated in the West during the 1970s — even coming to the attention of Jascha Heifetz. An artistic collaboration with legendary cellist János Starker led to her daring escape from Bulgaria. She emigrated to the United States, where she eventually became the concertmaster of the MET Orchestra and founder of the New York Chamber Music Festival. Darvarova has extensively recorded both classical and world music, championing scandalously underexposed works by such composers as David Amram, Amanda Maier, Franco Alfano, and Joseph Marx.

Violin Declamations from the Twilight of the Workers’ Paradise is her most personal recording to date — a program of solo violin works from the waning years of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union by composers, including several that had been denounced as dissidents in their own countries, whose music was exposing the cracks in the “glorious workers’ revolution” — but also expressing glimmers of hope. The program includes four world premiere recordings. Darvarova also includes a detailed essay on the music and a first-hand account of artistic life behind the Iron Curtain.

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978): Sonata-Monologue for solo violin (1975)
Sylvie Bodorova (b.1954):Dža More – Gypsy Ballad (1990)
Grigory Zaborov (1935-1985): Improvisation (1978)
Afrodita Kathmeridou (b. 1956): Two Miniatures for solo violin (1978) — World Premiere Recording
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998): Praeludium in memoriam D. Shostakovich (1975)
Dmitri Smirnov (b. 1948): Two Fugues for solo violin, Op. 6 (1970)
Nikolai Badinski (b. 1937): Dialoghi per violino solo (1973) — World Premiere Recording
Elena Firsova (b. 1950): Fantasia for solo violin, Op. 32 (1985) — World Premiere Recording
Konstantin Soukhovetski (b. 1981): Postcard from the Edge (1990) — World Premiere Recording

Recorded on June 16 and 17, 2013 at Edith Chapel, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Recording Engineers: John C. Baker and Samuel Ward
Edited by John C. Baker
Mastered by Gene Gaudette
Produced by Elmira Darvarova and Gene Gaudette

Visit Elmira Darvarova’s Web site and Facebook page
Visit Urlicht AudioVisual’s Web site and Facebook page

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5984 (783583260442)

Digital release date: Nov. 27, 2017

CD available in January 2018

The Chamber Music of David Amram

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May 182014
 

“David Amram is arguably the most American of American composers. His music has drawn from a diversity of sources and styles: the American ‘classical’ style, theater and film music, the ‘great American songbook’, folk, jazz, blues, native American melodies and instruments, beat poetry, and many other influences. His music reflects America’s virtues of innovation, independence, and multiculturalism. And it’s a blast to listen to!”

– Gene Gaudette, Urlicht AudioVisual

David Amram — composer, conductor, multi-instrumental virtuoso, and author — is one of the most versatile, acclaimed, and truly unpredictable musicians America has produced. His surprising litany of achievements include the world’s record for number of performances of the Brahms Horn Trio (during his military service in the 1950s), musical collaborations with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg, numerous film scores including his acclaimed music for “The Manchurian Candidate”, pioneering work in promoting native American and world music, advocacy for music education and youth music programs, and a tour of Cuba in 1977 with Stan Getz and Earl “Fatha” Hines (the first visit by American musicians since the trade embargo of 1962). In 2012, the New York Chamber Music Festival presented an evening of Amram’s chamber music performed by acclaimed flutist Carol Wincenc, violin virtuoso Elmira Darvarova, New York Philharmonic hornist Howard Wall, the Face the Music Ensemble, the New York Piano Quartet, and the David Amram Quartet.

Program:

Sonata for Violin and Piano
Elmira Darvarova, violin • Tomoko Kanamaru, piano

Theme and Variations on “Red River Valley” for flute and strings
Carol Wincenc, flute • Face the Music Ensemble

Giants of the Night: A Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (version for flute and piano) – Andante
Carol Wincenc, flute • Hsin-Chiao Liao, piano

Portraits for piano quartet
New York Piano Quartet with guest cellist Wendy Sutter

Blues and Variations for Monk for French horn
Howard Wall, horn

Five Readings from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” for narrator(s) and jazz quartet
Ekayani Chamberlin, Adira Amram, Douglas Yeager, narrators • The David Amram Quartet

All works published by C.F. Peters Corporation

Recorded live September 7th, 2012 at Symphony Space, New York City

Engineered by Gene Gaudette and Howard Wall • Produced by Gene Gaudette

Total Playing Time 79:57

UAV-CD-5987

CD retail release date: July 22, 2014

Available NOW exclusively from Urlicht AudioVisual

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