Album of the week: Don’t balk at the Balkans

Album of the week: Don’t balk at the Balkans

Album Of The Week

norman lebrecht

October 05, 2024

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

There’s more content in this compilation than a weary reviewer has a right to expect. Coming off the back of a pointless set of Shostakovich symphonies, this chunky bar of trios for clarinet, violin and piano just keeps delivering high energy nutrients…

Read on here.

And here.

En francais ici

Comments

  • yaron says:

    “Balagan” literally is best translated as unorderly.

  • Don Ciccio says:

    None of the artists are from the Balkans, indeed. But then, neither are any of the composers. Of course, what finally counts is the quality of music, and this may be indeed a very good album, I haven’t listened to it. Bartok’s Contrasts is certainly a masterpiece. The idea of forbidding cultural appropriations is ridiculous.

    But since we hear very little music from composers actually from Balkans, perhaps this would be a good time to discuss and seek recommendations. I believe a good starting point would be Simon Trpčeski’s album Makedonissimo, with arrangements by Pande Shahov. Fun stuff.

    On to neighboring Bulgaria. The best-known composer is perhaps Pancho Vladigerov, whose Rhapsody is less known than those of Enescu, Liszt, or Alfven, though still worth an occasional hearing. But for something creepy, one can’t do better than Simeon Pironkov’s Night Music.

    I will not insist about Enescu, or about Romanian music. Only a small portion of Romania is actually part of the Balkan peninsula, and his name (if not, unfortunately a lot of his music) is known to music lovers.

    Rather, let’s go to Serbia for Stevan’s Hrstic’s ballet The Legend of Ohrid. It contains a scary Janissary dance, which reminds one that Yeŋiçeri were cold blooded soldiers who could kill without mercy. Following to Croatia for the delightful opera Ero s onoga svijeta (Ero the Joker) by Jakov Gotovac.

    My final and last discovery comes from Greece and is a work that was premiered in New York by Dimitri Mitropoulos and then played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy: Harilaos Perpessas’ Christus Symphony. A sublime finale, as emotionally inspired as Elgar’s Nimrod. The rest of the work, written in a post-romantic style, is perhaps not quite at the same exalted level, but still worth knowing.

    Your recommendations next.

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