Being of Love (The) / Ravân / Isfahan
Record Label:
Naxos
Catalog Number:
8.579150
Year Released:
2024
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, Rūmī, 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.
Esfahân: Chamber Music of Reza Vali
Record Label:
Navona Records
Catalog Number:
NV6647
Year Released:
2024
ESFAHÂN features eight cross-cultural compositions by Reza Vali. Blending Persian and Western classical traditions, the album is the first commercial recording of these works. Highlights include Hajiani, for Karnâ and electronics, as well as Sornâ (Folk Songs, Set No. 17) for Persian wind instruments and ensemble, featuring traditional Persian wind instruments. Highlights also include Four Persian Mystic Poems for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, and Esfahân for string quartet. Vali’s music is both highly innovative and deeply rooted in tradition; the unique modal system he uses borrows from the ancient Persian Dastgâh-Maqâm system, which was rediscovered through his extensive study of Iranian folk music. Despite eschewing Western approaches to counterpoint and musical form, Vali’s music is polyphonic and highly structured. The result is a compelling marriage of East and West, old and new.
https://www.parmarecordings.com/october-25-2024-new-releases/
https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6647/
https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6647/#listen
Review of the album from Textura:
https://www.textura.org/archives/v/vali_esfahan.htm
Longing: Chamber Music of Reza Vali
Record Label:
MSR Classics
Catalog Number:
MS 1738
Year Released:
2019
Reza Vali’s Longing presents the listener with a tantalizing puzzle to decode. As the title suggests, themes of love and desire are intricately threaded throughout a shifting kaleidoscope of forms and aesthetics, framed by the austerity of Vali’s ongoing investigation into the traditions of his Persian musical heritage. The assembled works on this recording create a poly-stylistic tapestry that is on the whole unabashedly honest and exhibits Vali’s commitment to expressing his native culture within a Western framework. Equally inspired by some of the great European masters whom he admires and the profound and ancient traditions and figures of his native Iran, Vali has been termed “the Iranian Bartók” due to his penchant for collecting folksongs and synthesizing as a result his own very distinct and personal musical style, built upon this foundation.
Jaipur to Cairo
Record Label:
Métier
Catalog Number:
MSV 28589
Year Released:
2019
Cuatro Puntos is a multi faceted organization based in Hartford, Connecticut, USA dedicated to intercultural dialogue and universal access through the performance, writing, and teaching of music. Cuatro Puntos oversees a resident chamber music ensemble, a concert series, arts-integration workshops in local schools, the Music Moves Hartford program for those facing homelessness, and a partnership with the Müzikhane Social Music School in Southeastern Turkey. Its recent album ‘Rosegarden of Light’ on Toccata has been widely praised and the ensemble has performed extensively in many parts of the world.
This album is a musical journey beginning in India, with a work based on traditional raag, through pieces by Iranian composer Reza Vali (Love Songs and Calligraphies (Calligraphy No. 1, Calligraphy No. 2, Calligraphy No. 3), to Afghanistan for another piece by Bishop and the area around Syria for a work by Sadie Harrison whose connection with Arabic traditional music goes back many years, through Israel to Egypt for chamber works by Cohen and Farag.
As well as being extremely entertaining the album also demonstrates the universality of music in all its different guises as the true universal language.
Kian Soltani / Aaron Pilsan: Home
Record Label:
Deutsche Grammaphon
Catalog Number:
00289 479 8100
Year Released:
2018
"A young cellist on his way to the top, but one who is finding his own way rather than following well-trodden paths" (Neue Zürcher Zeltung), Kian Soltani's debut album for DG, Home, is a homage to his Austrian and Persian roots. He presents works by his favorite composers, Schubert and Schumann, as well as the world premiere recording of Iranian composer Reza Vali's Persian Folk Songs, newly arranged for and dedicated to this young cellist.
Irina Muresanu: Four Strings Around the World
Record Label:
Sono Luminus
Catalog Number:
B077ZK3XM1
Year Released:
2018
Irina Muresanu writes of this release: It all started when I tackled Mark OConnors Cricket Dance. It is a short, straightforward tune that requires the skills of an intermediate player, and yet it took me an absurdly long time to learn. To put things in context: I was capable of learning whole violin concertos in a matter of weeks, so why was the OConnor piece so hard to get under my fingers? Could it have been because it was written in a musical style completely different than my classical training? And if so, how many more different languages were there outside of the traditional/standard repertoire? With this idea, I started my exploration of works reflecting the ways the violin (including its ancestors and relatives) is employed in musical settings worldwide. What resulted is Four Strings Around the World, a celebration of diverse cultures refracted through the unifying voice of solo violin, a project which immersed me in sounds and colors I didnt even realize could be produced by my own instrument irresistiblenot just a virtuoso but an artist (The Boston Globe) Musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanus performance especially admirable (LA Times)
The Ancient Call
Record Label:
Albany Records
Catalog Number:
TROY1653
Year Released:
2016
Iranian-American composer Reza Vali has a unique and very personal ethos in that his artistic output attempts to understand the dialogue between the ancients and the moderns. It addresses his conviction that what has been historically and artistically camouflaged can be revealed. Since 2000, Vali has been composing exclusively within the demanding palette of Persian polyphony. The works on this recording include a works for microtonal trumpet and orchestra; songs using Persian folksongs as their inspiration; a work originally written for Persian wind instruments and ensemble, scored for clarinet and ensemble here; and a work for Persian Ney, Kamanche, and orchestra.
The Book of Calligraphy
Record Label:
Albany Records
Catalog Number:
TROY1603/04
Year Released:
2015
In 2001, Vali broke away from the European music system and started composing music based on the Iranian Dastgâh/Maghâm system. To explore his goals of replacing the European equal temperament tuning system; European polyphony; European musical form; and utilizing rhythmic cycles of the Dastgâh/Maghâm system, Vali started composing a series of chamber work using the title Calligraphy. This recording contains All twelve of his Calligraphies, composed between 2000 and 2011.
Toward That Endless Plain
Record Label:
BMOP/sound
Catalog Number:
1026
Year Released:
2013
Toward That Endless Plain: Concerto for Persian Ney and Orchestra was a joint commission from the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. It was written for the Persian ney master Khosrow Soltani and is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Soltani's wife Farzaneh Navai who passed away while Vali was writing this piece. The entire musical material of the concerto is derived from the Dástgâh / Mághâm system including the Western-sounding sections as well as the violent and atonal beginning of the piece.
Zia
Record Label:
Sono Luminus
Catalog Number:
B00AKJ3QE8
Year Released:
2013
The Zia Indians' symbol for the sacred sun captures the adventurous spirit and global pulse of this CD from Sono Luminus and the award winning Del Sol String Quartet. The composers represented-Gabriela Lena Frank, Lou Harrison, Jose Evangelista, Reza Vali and Elena Kats-Chernin - draw on ancient and traditional folk music from four corners of the world and make it new by incorporating techniques such as inventive intonations or heterophony. = The San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet has long made a practice of fostering contemporary music from throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. Critically acclaimed as steeped in bravery and imagination (James M. Keller, Chamber Music Magazine (February 2007), this quartet of master musicians explores new ways to interact with audiences, composers and artists across cultures and art forms.
Chant and Dance: Works for Chamber Ensemble
Record Label:
Albany Records
Catalog Number:
TROY824
Year Released:
2006
Here is a welcome companion to the acclaimed release of Reza Vali’s music for string quartet on TROY790. This time music for larger chamber ensembles is featured, with an emphasis on the Persian folk music Vali grew up with. Since 1988 he has been on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, and has received numerous awards and commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Kronos Quartet and many other ensembles. His early works indicated his interest in the avant-garde but in recent years he has composed works featuring strong influences from the music of his native Persia. The sets of Folk Songs and particularly the Calligraphy No. 4, with its use of the santoor (a Persian hammered dulcimer), derive almost entirely from Persian folk song. This is truly unique and highly original music.
Calligraphies: Works for String Quartet
Record Label:
Albany Records
Catalog Number:
TROY790
Year Released:
2005
This recording by the renowned Cuarteto Latinoamericano presents significant contributions to the string quartet literature. The works on this disc are a departure from his earlier, experimental works of the 1980's. Here, the music reflects influences of Persian folk music. Of special interest are the three Calligraphies; the material is derived entirely from Persian traditional music. The tuning, rhythm, form, as well as polyphonic constructions relate to the Persian modal system, the Dastgah. This fascinating music, combined with the performances of the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, one of the major exponents of new music today, should have strong appeal to the modern music specialist as well as the world-music listener.
Flute Concerto ∙ Deylámân Folk Songs (Set No. 10)
Record Label:
Naxos
Catalog Number:
8.557224
Year Released:
2004
Vali’s Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, is influenced by Persian classical and folk-music. The flautist uses a technique involving simultaneous playing and singing in order to imitate the sound of the Persian bamboo flute, the ney. Folk Songs (Set No. 10), is the tenth set of an ongoing cycle of compositions based on Persian folkmusic. In Deylámân (the name of a region in northwestern Iran), two Persian instruments, the ney and the bárbát (oud) are added to the Western symphony orchestra as the music moves between Persian modes, short quotations from Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler and Wagner, African folk-song and Peruvian folk-song.
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American Interweave: New Music for Cello and Piano
Record Label:
Ambassador
Catalog Number:
ARC1022
Year Released:
2000
In the fall of 1999 the Krishnaswami-Salman Duo (Rajan Krishnaswami, cello, and Mark Salman, piano) toured the East coast with concerts in Boston, Pittsburgh, and New York City. They wound up the tour with a superb concert in their hometown of Seattle to a very appreciative audience in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall.
Concertizing together since 1991 they have earned an enthusiastic audience and have explored together a wide range of musical material. They have specialized in commissioning new works by American composers. They savor energy, melody, wide ranges of mood, tonal, musical expressiveness with evocative phrases and they have been nurturing an audience that now appreciates their vision of contemporary musical composition.
Their first CD is a wonderful collection of pieces that embody all of these characteristics. Several pieces were commissioned by Rajan Krishnaswami and were written inspired by his musical personality. Others are written by composers that he knows and admires. The music was recorded in a long weekend recording session in the chapel of Bastyr University (Saint Thomas Seminary, Bothel, WA). The site was chosen because of the excellent acoustics in the chapel. The great care that was put into the recording is immediately felt when listening to the CD. The performance is very intimate and heartfelt.
Persian Folklore
Record Label:
New Albion
Catalog Number:
NAO77CD
Year Released:
1995
Many composers of the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries used the folk music of their native countries as a source of inspiration for their compositions. For some composers, such as Stravinsky, this was a short-lived infatuation soon to be followed by neoclassicism, or, for others, one of several different forms of modernism. Among the major European composers, Bela Bartok, Manuel de Falla, and Zoltan Kodaly remained significantly committed to using folk music as primary sources for their works. In the present generation Reza Vali is a leading exponent of this practice and one of the few using Persian folk songs as a basis for composing Western classical music.
As a student at the Teheran conservatory, Vali began to collect Persian folk music, an activity he continues today. He soon began composing music based on the actual melodies he had collected as well as writing music in the style of these songs - 'imaginary' folk music, to borrow a phrase from Bartok. In 1978 Vali completed his first set of folk songs for voice and piano. The next three sets, composed in the early 1980s, were also written for voice and piano, but in 1984 Vali began to write folk songs for different combinations of instruments. This recording includes Set No. 9 for flute and cello, Set No. 11B for string quartet, and Four Movements for string quartet and string orchestra.