Khoury

The magnificent Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury's debut recital album. Featuring Michael Spyres with Conductor Carlo Rizzi and The Hallé. Born in Lebanon and raised in Canada, Joyce El-Khoury studied in Ottawa and Philadelphia before graduating from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Today she is one of the brightest young stars in the opera world, recently receiving universal acclaim for her landmark performance of Violetta in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Écho features music associated with the great 19th Century soprano Julie Dorus-Gras, including arias by Berlioz, Donizetti, Meyerbeer and Weber and features a duet with her co-star from Opera Rara's award-winning recording of Les Martyrs, Michael Spyres.

Robinson Khoury is a young trombone virtuoso, he is only 24 years old and multiplies the experiences within prestigious orchestras, while collaborating regularly with musicians of high flight. Of great musical maturity for his age, Robinson Khoury decided at the end of 2019 to publish his first record as a leader by writing himself almost all the repertoire (with the exception of two titles).

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist. She began her concert career in her native Ukraine before extending her activities to performances in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. A laureate of national and international piano competitions, she graduated with honors from the Kiev Lysenko Special Music School in 1991, going on to study for a Master’s degree at the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kiev in 1996. In 1998 she moved to Lebanon, and has since been committed to expanding the boundaries of her traditional repertoire, constantly searching for and adding new contemporary works by Ovchinnikov, Rautavaara, Saygun and Panufnik among many others.

Bechara El-Khoury’s work often refers to his native Lebanon, and Orages (Storms) takes us back to youthful memories of nature’s chaotic moods, from flashes of lightning via sinister darkness to surreal and luminous calm. Espaces-Fragmentations reflects on time and ‘a strange journey into night’, while Poème nocturne marks the life of renowned French flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal. The lyrical post-Romantic style of Le Chant d’amour at times evokes the spirit of Richard Strauss.

Three substantial piano sonatas stand at the heart of a recording that reflects personal and musical independence. For Anis Fuleihan, the juxtaposition of archaic and modern is both kaleidoscopic and playful, while Boghos Gelalian draws on folkloric and late-Romantic influences in his brand of ‘Orientalism.’ Houtaf Khoury’s Sonata No. 4 both questions and reflects unsettling contemporary experience in a work of audacious, pulsing intensity. Tatiana Primak-Khoury is a Ukrainian-Lebanese pianist.

Piano music has always been important to Bechara El-Khoury: it brings his compositional voice closer to the listener, allowing him to share his feelings more directly than in some of his orchestral works. These works represent different periods of El-Khoury's life, but share a conception aimed at creating atmosphere with expressive states that continually switch between violence, anger, suffering and rebellion, and inquiring explorations of peaceful or dreamlike meditation. Italian concert pianist and recording artist Giacomo Scinardo has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras including the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kiev Symphony Orchestra. He is a professor at the State Conservatory of Music Trapani, Italy.

Born in the Lebanon and brought up in Canada, Joyce El-Khoury studied in Ottawa and Philadelphia, before graduating from the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development programme. Today she is one of the brightest young stars in the opera world, recently receiving universal acclaim for her landmark performance of Violetta in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. As well as singing extensively in America, she appears widely in opera and concert throughout Europe, including the Bayerishe Staatsoper. She returns to Covent Garden in 2018, but before then will star in Glyndebourne and Madrid, as well as singing extensively in concert.

Joyce has performed in two Opera Rara recordings to date: Donizettis Belisario and the award-winning recording of Les Martyrs. Écho features music associated with the great 19th-century soprano Julie Dorus-Gras, including arias by Berlioz, Donizetti, Meyerbeer and Weber. She also duets with her co-star from Les Martyrs, Michael Spyres.