ECM Records Tigran Mansurian: Quasi parlando

2012

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - vioara
Anja Lechner - violoncel
Amsterdam Sinfonietta ( dirijor Candida Thompson )

Tigran Mansurian :
- Double Concerto, for violin, violoncello and string orchestra
- Concerto No. 2, for violin and string orchestra "Four Serious Songs"

Issued in the wake of the great Armenian composer’s 75th birthday, this New Series album opens with Tigran Mansurian’s fiercely-concentrated Double Concerto, composed in 1978, and proceeds to new music performed by its dedicatees: the lyrical Romance, dedicated to Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and the intensely expressive Quasi parlando, dedicated to German cellist Anja Lechner. Both are premiere recordings, as is Mansurian’s Concerto No 2 (2006), subtitled Four Serious Songs, again with Kopatchinskaja, which concludes the programme. Throughout, the soloists and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, led by Candida Thompson, deliver committed performances.

***


The title of this emotionally riveting CD translates as ‘almost speaking.’ The speech of the Beirut-born Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian is colored with loss and longing and sometimes — as in the fierce Double Concerto for violin and cello — burning anger. There’s unspeakable tenderness in the Romance for violin, and raw vulnerability in the title track for cello.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times

Most imposing is the Double Concerto, in which violin and cello combine over two movements - the first building to a febrile confrontation before withdrawing into the shadows, then the second bringing a sustained and intense discourse, with the soloists inexorably drawn into the enveloping string textures. Both shorter pieces sound tailor-made for the soloists in question: ‘Romance’ unfolds as an initially lyrical dialogue whose poise is not regained after an agitated central phase, while ‘Parlando’ pursues a more discursive exchange well suited to the thoughtful artistry of Anja Lechner.
The emotional acuity of Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s playing is further demonstrated in ‘Four Serious Songs’ [… ] Those intent on exploring the music of this arresting figure could well start here.
Richard Whitehouse, BBC Music Magazine

Spellbinding work of beauty […] The Mansurian program is a woman’s affair with the young Moldavian violinist joined by cellist Anja Lechner and Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by its leader, Candida Thompson. Kopatchinskaja brings resilient radiance to Mansurian’s 2006 hauntingly plaintive Second Violin concerto (‘Four serious Songs’), which takes its cue from late Brahms.
In two recent short works for soloist and strings – ‘Romance’ (written in 2011 for Kopatchinskaja) and ‘Quasi Parlando’ (written in 2012 for Lechner), both soloists luxuriously capture the composer’s fluctuating twilight luminosity. The much earlier Double Concerto (1976) is more brittle, a quiet surface which is broken by an anger that has now become profoundly philosophical, and it is played with impeccable intensity.
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

This is ECM’s fourth CD devoted to the music of contemporary Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, who was 75 in January. It’s the first to feature violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, whose pure, rich tone and unforced eloquence do so much to create the special sound-world of the programme. ‘Quasi Parlando’ (that piece features instead cellist Anja Lechner, and they come together in the Double concerto) is an apt title for the album as a whole, for the essence of Mansurian’s obviously attractive idiom is the quality of a speaking voice: typically, here, a string soloist (or soloists) fronts massed strings, all expertly scored for and evoking timeless images of preacher and congregation, or (as in the brand-new, passionate ‘Four serious Songs’) solo singer and supporting, lamenting choir. […] an intensely beautiful disc.
Calum MacDonald, BBC Music