Reza Vali Flute Concerto Deylaman

Award-winning composer Reza Vali is a native of Iran but is now based in the United States after studies in Europe. Vali’s distinctive cross-cultural style is founded in a quiet rebellion that saw him return to his Persian musical heritage. Following the dazzling concert opener Ravân, Vali has taken a text by 13th-century poet and mystic, Rumi, two traditional texts, and words by Vali himself, to create the moving cycle The Being of Love, with each song evoking a different aspect of love. Isfahan uses Persian modes and forms, and is among Vali’s most striking microtonal works, pushing the orchestra beyond its usual twelve-note sound-world in an exciting way.

Mozart's flute concertos are of course a Holy Grail for flautist François Lazarevitch, one that he has decided to tackle together with his ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien in connection with their work on sources of interpretation. He has recorded the two concertos for flute and orchestra on a one-keyed flute, a copy of an instrument made in Mozart’s time, and the concerto in C for flute and harp on an eight-keyed flute — a flute with a C foot — with Sandrine Chatron playing a period harp by François-Joseph Naderman. As Mozart left no original cadenzas for the flute concertos, François Lazarevitch has created his own, drawing inspiration from the cadenzas Mozart composed for his piano concertos. The Menuets and Gavottes in the final movements are particularly highlighted by the ensemble’s expertise in music for dancing: "after a first movement that is a little solemn and a second that is more lyrical, the final movements are often a moment for release in dance," concludes Lazarevitch.

The music of contemporary Lithuanian composer Peteris Vasks has a reputation for depicting nature, a grand tradition in the northern countries, and for creating structure that examine the relationship between nature and human culture. One might also add that from the evidence of the music here, which dates from between 1972 and 2011, Vasks is one of the few composers, in the Baltics or anywhere else, to succeed in gradually moving in the direction of tonal music without a sharp shift in direction. That's a testament to the strength of his musical personality.

Pour le flûtiste François Lazarevitch, les concertos de Mozart sont bien sûr un graal qu’il a décidé d’aborder avec son ensemble les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, dans la continuité de leur travail sur les sources interprétatives… Sur une flûte à une clé, copie d’un instrument de l’époque mozartienne, il a enregistré les deux concertos pour flûte et orchestre et sur une flûte à huit clés, flûte avec une patte d’ut, le concerto (en ut) pour flûte et harpe, avec Sandrine Chatron qui joue une harpe ancienne de François-Joseph Naderman.

Watkins is one of today’s leading composer-pianists and this album (his second for NMC Recordings) showcases his vibrant, lyrical and impeccably crafted orchestral writing. Both the Flute and Violin Concertos were composed for soloists with whom he already had a close working relationship. Adam Walker is the principal fl autist for the London Symphony Orchestra, who Watkins' describes as having an 'amazing sound and control of his instrument'. The delicate orchestration in the Flute Concerto allows the solo fl ute to take fl ight as it weaves in and out with skittish motifs. Alina Ibragimova is the soloist in the Violin Concerto, premiered at the BBC Proms in 2010. The piece harnesses Ibragimova’s dynamic and intense, fi ercely intelligent playing, switching from attacking virtuosity and molten lyricism, often in an instant. The result is dramatic and utterly compelling.In this album's liner notes, Steph Power writes that Watkins has 'long seemed a symphonist in waiting, with a natural affi nity for big-boned yet fi nely-wrought drama'.