Yuri Honig

Konstantin Vassiliev’s music synthesises several different styles including jazz, Russian folk music and contemporary Western traditions. This album contains music written over a 22-year period, with three works composed specifically for guitar soloist Yuri Liberzon. The Hommage à Tom Jobin was inspired by one of the creators of the bossa nova style, while the melancholic and lyrical contrasts of Rose in the Snow reveal Vassiliev’s gift for storytelling. Arias, romantic miniatures, variations and multi-character episodes further reveal Vassiliev to be a vibrant and exciting composer of wide-ranging gifts.

If Mieczysław Weinberg had lived for another decade or so after his death in 1996, he would have seen his status change from poorly known outlier to general acceptance as one of the major twentieth-century composers. His violin works have likewise been recognised as major additions to the repertoire. Since Yuri Kalnits and Michael Csányi-Wills began what will be a four-volume survey of Mieczysław Weinberg’s music for violin and piano, other musicians have discovered and recorded many of these masterworks, but on its completion this cycle will still be the first to record all of Weinberg’s violin works.

"Avalon is inspired by an ancient Celtic myth of an island in dense fog where the Holy Grail is said to be located, King Arthur is buried and where Excalibur is hidden. I use it as a metaphor for the present time in which we live in which it is not clear to anyone what the world will look like after the pandemic. The single Avalon is a dreamy piece of music that is also used for the exhibition in De Fundatie that will run until the spring of 2021."