Dobrinka Tabakova - String Paths (2013) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

ECM New Series presents the first full album devoted to the composer Dobrinka Tabakova, who was born in Bulgaria in 1980, raised from a young age in London, and is now a British citizen. This remarkable recording of her orchestral and chamber compositions for strings is richly melodic, texturally sensuous, and often emotionally radiant.

The disc features Tabakova's Concerto for Cello & Strings and the Rameau-channeling Suite in Old Style for viola and chamber orchestra - both performed by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra - as well as three chamber works: the string trio Insight, the string septet Such Different Paths and a trio for violin, accordion and double-bass, Frozen River Flows.

The performers include star violinist Janine Jansen, leading the septet heard in Such Different Paths, and several of Tabakova's former conservatory colleagues from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama: violinist Roman Mints, violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov, and Kristina Blaumane, principal cellist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tabakova's music has a particularly 21st-century feel for its broad palette - its free mix of tonality and modality, of folk-music influence and the example of past masters. In it there resides the new and the familiar, or rather the familiar within the new, and vice versa; there are the spirits of East and West coursing through the pieces, usually hand in hand; and just as the composer's technical virtuosity is apparent, she displays a gift for direct communication that can be heard in virtually every measure.

'Tabakova writes with disarming naturalness and enthusiasm…Contemporary music, in short, that's amazingly easy on the ear.' – BBC Music Magazine * * * * *


'The performances are as formidably assured as the roster of musicians would suggest, while ECM's spaciously atmospheric sound suits the music-making ideally…Tabakova is a thoughtful and approachable new voice which ought to secure an enthusiastic following.' – Grammophone


'It is strange a CD dedicated to Tabakova's music has taken so long to appear. It was worth the wait: this one is outstanding in every aspect - hugely enjoyable from start to finish and at times extraordinarily lovely.' – International Record Review


'Tabakova's glowing tonal harmonies and grand, sweeping gestures convey a huge emotional depth that gives the pieces here immediate appeal. And it would be hard to better the passionately committed performances of her music given by the starry line-up of players on this remarkable disc.' – The Strad


'The richly melodic and sensuous music of Dobrinka Tabakova brings together the spirit of east and west with a contemporary twist. The Concerto for Cello and Strings, written for the cellist Kristina Blaumane, features ravishing playing…A deeply-rewarding album.'

–The Northern Echo

TRACKLIST

Insight - For string trio
1. Insight 09:35

Concerto for Cello and Strings
2. I. Turbulent, Tense 07:19
3. II. Longing 08:42
4. III. Radiant 04:53
5. Frozen River Flows 06:13

Suite in Old Style for solo viola, harpsichord and strings
6. Prelude. Fanfare from the Balconies, Back from Hunting -… 06:01
7. II. The Rose Garden By Moonlight 07:30
8. III. Riddle of the Barrel-Organ Player - Postlude…. 05:04

Such different paths for string septet
9. Such Different Paths 16:56

PERSONNEL
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Rysanov (viola, conductor)
Kristina Blaumane, Torleif Thedéen, Boris Andrianov (cello)
Roman Mints, Janine Jansen, Julia-Maria Kretz (violin),
Amihai Grosz (viola)
Raimondas Sviackevicius (accordion)
Donatas Bagurskas, Stacey Watton (double bass)
Vaiva Eidukaityte-Storastiene (harpsichord)