Alexander Ivashkin / Russian State Symphony Orchestra / Valeri Polyansky GIYA KANCHELI Simi - Mourned by the Wind

Distrustful of virtuosity for its own sake, and aware of his own technical limitations, Giya Kancheli has deliberately avoided using the term "concerto" for his works for cello and orchestra, Simi and Mourned by the Wind. It may be said, however, that these pieces are concerto-like, insofar as sustaining long pitches and controlling the instrument's tone are equally challenging to the performer, and both pieces display serene, chant-like phrases that require a light touch and a steady bow arm. Kancheli's expressions are decidedly somber and meditative -- note the words in the subtitles, "bleak reflections" and "Liturgy in memoriam" -- and it may become obvious why he chooses to score many passages in the cello's and orchestra's lowest range and seldom ventures into the brighter upper octaves, except for occasional eerie harmonics and fleeting "night music" sonorities. The cello's central role in Simi is reversed in Mourned by the Wind, where the orchestra is dominant and the cello reduced to a less active part; yet cellist Alexander Ivashkin is the musician listeners will follow, and his subdued but warm playing is always distinctly separated from the orchestral mass, even at its loudest. The Russian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Polyansky, is fully engaged in these brooding performances, and Chandos' sound quality is evenly balanced. (Blair Sanderson)

Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica HYMNS AND PRAYERS

A beautifully-recorded album from master violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata, Baltica, spanning a wide range of music, all of it broached with conviction. Hungarian composer and pianist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer from the Serbian province of Vojvodina has written eight hymns in commemoration of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, an artist he has called a homo moralis whose remarkable visions cast a small but significant light on the tragic world of the previous century. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli contributes a silent prayer for two of his most important musical associates: the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the violinist Gidon Kremer. The contemplative intensity of the hymns and the ascetic tranquillity of the prayer are offset by César Franck‘s Piano Quintet in F minor like a premonition of Beethoven’s Appassionata, whose second movement, marked Lento, molto sentimento, in turn takes up the mood of the other two works. This programmatic combination underlines an intrinsic principle Paul Klee developed in his theory of harmony in the visual arts: any compositional harmony will gain character through dissonances, with the balance being restored by counterweights. (ECM Records)