Maisenberg

Eagerly anticipated album by Georgia’s Giya Kancheli (“the most important composer to have emerged from the former Soviet Union since the death of Shostakovich.” – Time Magazine), released in the year of his 70th birthday. This disc features one of Kancheli’s most ardent champions, the great violinist Gidon Kremer., who plays in duo with his old comrade, Russian pianist Oleg Maisenberg on the 26 minute 'Time… and again”, and leads the Kremerata Baltica on “V & V” for violin, taped voice, and string orchestra.

These pieces are remembrances of some Gidon Kremer’s passings in Prague, during Soviet time… Kremer was then at the dawn of his career, one among the most brilliant for a violinist in our time! As an ‘ambassador’ of the Soviet Ministry for Culture in the ‘brother countries’, he owed to his mentor, David Oistrakh, a sort of freedom, demonstrated here in this recording. His absolutely perfect touch and his freedom of expression were the delight of his patrons in the welcoming communist countries… The short piece by Alfred Schnittke, then still hand written only, was an example of his wish to play scores out of the ‘classics’ from Bach to Stravinsky and to help other musicians through chamber music sessions. This record allows to hear the faked G.B. Guadagnini inherited from his grandfather.

Gidon Kremer's technical brilliance, inward but passionate playing, and commitment to both new works and new interpretations of old works have made him one of the most respected violinists in the world today.

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili was signed to the Sony Classical label in her early 20s after a series of major competition prizes and began a top-level international career. She has said that some of her interpretations are influenced by Georgian folk music. Buniatishvili's international renown comes in large part from her recordings. She was signed to the Sony Classical label and released her debut album, Khatia Buniatishvili Plays Franz Liszt, in 2011. Her 2012 release, Chopin, won the Echo Klassik Young Artists' Award. Buniatishvili has remained on Sony's roster, recording mostly core virtuoso 19th and early 20th century repertory. In 2020, she released the recital Labyrinth, featuring an eclectic program ranging from Bach to Philip Glass and Serge Gainsbourg. Buniatishvili lives in Paris.

This is a stupendous record by one of the small handful of incontestably great living classical composers – a disc where tremendous, idiomatic performances by violinist Gidon Kremer and musical fellow travellers meets ECM’s fabled acoustics, which are perfect for music of such sparsely adorned silence. … A magnificent disc.