Gidon Kremer, Nicolas Altstaed – Sofia Gubaidulina: Canticle Of The Sun (2012) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Gidon Kremer, Nicolas Altstaed – Sofia Gubaidulina: Canticle Of The Sun (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44.1kHz  | Time – 01:09:03 minutes | 600 MB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | © ECM Records GmbH
Recorded: July 2006 (The Lyre of Orpheus) and July 2010 (Canticle of the Sun) at Lockenhaus Festival

Two major works by Sofia Gubaidulina comprise this album: “The Lyre of Orpheus” (composed in 2006), for violin, percussion and string orchestra, and “The Canticle of the Sun” (1997, rev. 1998), for violoncello, chamber choir, percussion and celesta. Both pieces were recorded at the Lockenhaus Festival in, respectively, 2006 and 2010.

Sofia Gubaidulina doesn’t designate either of the pieces on this recording as concertos even though they feature a solo and ensemble, and that logic is evident in the sound of the music itself, which integrates the soloists organically into its texture and structure. Gubaidulina is unquestionably a modernist and employs a wide spectrum of contemporary techniques, but she is also a mystic, so her music tends to convey a striving for transcendence that’s expressed in luminous warmth. She wrote The Lyre of Orpheus for violin, percussion, and string orchestra for Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica, who deliver a radiant, shimmering performance. In her notes on the piece, Gubaidulina deals only with her somewhat arcane strategies for deriving pitches and chords, but the music itself glows with timbral ingenuity and sweetness, and almost inevitably invites the listener to call to mind the poignancy of the myth of Orpheus. She does not mention it in the notes, but she wrote the piece as a memorial to her daughter, which certainly accounts for the music’s intense depth of feeling. The Canticle of the Sun for cello, chamber choir, percussion, and celesta was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave its premiere in 1998. The unique orchestration gives it an atmosphere of luminous, ethereal mystery. She wanted to pay tribute to the cellist’s famously sunny disposition, and it has sections that make one of her most exuberant works; the cello sends major chords rocketing through the first movement and there is a furiously powerful roar of ecstasy at the end of the second movement. The piece ends in the major, in an exquisitely delicate filigree of interwoven lines. Nicolas Altstaedt gives a distinguished, deeply committed performance, and the Riga Chamber Choir “Kamer…” sings with lustrous tone. ECM’s sound is perfectly clean, realistic, and beautifully balanced. –AllMusic Review by Stephen Eddins

Tracklist:
Sofia Gubaidulina (b.1931)
1. The Lyre of Orpheus 23:52
Canticle of the Sun
2. Glorification of the Creator, and His Creations: the Sun and the Moon 10:12
3. Glorification of the Creator, the Maker of the Four Elements: Air, Water, Fire and Earth 13:19
4. Glorification of Life 14:29
5. Glorification of Death 07:23

Personnel:
Gidon Kremer: violin
Marta Sudraba: violoncello
Kremerata Baltica
Nicolas Altstaedt: violoncello
Andrei Pushkarev: percussion
Rihards Zaļupe: percussion
Rostislav Krimer: celesta
Chamber Choir “Kamēr…”
Māris Sirmais: conductor

Download:

mqs.link_Gid0nKremerNic0lasAltstaedS0fiaGubaidulina.Canticle0fTheSun2012HDT24441.rar