The evocative ECM debut of the outstanding Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros addresses a broad range of composition for her instrument, drawing on music of the Americas. “Often I think I am holding the choice of music in my own hands, but later I wonder if the music has chosen me as a medium. My approach is always very intuitive; when a piece of music grips or touches me, I want to reflect it – to become a mirror and convey it.” At the centre of “En otra parte” is music of Leo Brouwer, the Cuban composer who once declared that the guitar has “no limits”, a major reference for Boros from the beginning of her musical journey. Her sensitive solo recital also includes Ralph Towner’s “Green and Golden”, Vicente Amigo’s tribute to the spirit of flamenco (“Callejón de la luna”), a waltz by Dilermando Reis, Quique Sinesi’s “Cielo Abierto”, inspired by the rhythms of candombe and milonga, and much more. Named for the poem by Roberto Juarroz, “Todo comienza en otra parte” (“Everything begins somewhere else”), Boros’s album was recorded in Lugano in 2012 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
En otra parte
Zsófia Boros
Für ihr ECM-Debüt befasst sich die ungarische Gitarristin Zsófia Boros mit einem breiten Spektrum von Kompositionen für ihr Instrument, wobei sie sich auf Musik aus Nord- und Lateinamerika konzentriert. “Ich denke oft, die Auswahl der Musik für meine Projekte läge ganz in meinen Händen, nur um mich später zu fragen, ob sich die Musik nicht umgekehrt eher mich als Medium gewählt hat. Mein Ansatz ist immer sehr intuitiv: Wenn ein Stück mich fesselt oder berührt, möchte ich es reflektieren – gleichsam ein Spiegel dafür werden.” Im Zentrum von En otra parte steht die Musik von Leo Brouwer, jenem kubanischen Komponisten, der einst erklärte, die Gitarre kenne “keine Grenzen”, ein wichtiger Einfluss für Boros seit dem Beginn ihrer musikalischen Laufbahn. Ihr feinfühliges Solorezital umfasst unter anderem auch Ralph Towners “Green and Golden”, Vicente Amigos Tribut an den Geist des Flamenco (“Callejón de la luna”), einen Walzer von Dilermando Reis, und Quique Sinesis “Cielo Abierto”, das von Candombe- und Milonga-Rhythmen inspiriert ist. Seinen Titel bezieht das Album aus einem Gedicht von Roberto Juarroz, “Todo comienza en otra parte” (“Everything begins somewhere else”), produziert wurde es 2012 in Lugano von Manfred Eicher.
- 1Canción triste
05:05 - 2Callejón de la luna
07:48 - 3Eclipse
02:48 - 4Un dia de noviembre
04:26 - 5An Idea
02:38 - 6Te vas milonga
02:04 - 7Green and Golden
02:58 - 8Se ela perguntar
02:51 - 9Ecrovid
02:49 - 10Cielo abierto
04:51 - 11Un dia de noviembre, var.
04:15
A very seductive album well worth exploring. Hungarian Zsófia Boros is a natural interpreter with a gentle, slightly metallic tone – not technicolour, more a richly contrasted, crisp black and white print, like ECM’s cover-image style. The atmosphere is all closeness and intimacy: unobtrusive rustles and creaks make you feel you’re sitting right there next to her [...] you’re rewarded with intensely thoughtful and attractive playing of light but tasty miniatures.
Rob Ainsley, BBC Music Magazine
Not only is her musicianship exquisite but her soul and her ability to transmit emotion, and intuit thoughts and feelings is quite extraordinary. I listened to the CD repeatedly and as it moved through its story, was captivated by its beauty. From the first note to the last, it was a complete experience that I didn’t want to end. [...] Boros caresses each string of the guitar as if she were speaking, reciting, or singing – the notes coming off of her fingers with just the right amount of intensity; she explores her choices tastefully with perfect execution, very tempered, fluid, and with a natural rhythmic movement she dances with her instrument in synchronicity with life; without struggle in complete abandonment to the art she embraces with an innocence and inquisitiveness of a child yet with a maturity and knowing beyond her years – a fine balance of mastering and youthful curiosity.
Nora McCarthy, Jazz inside Magazine
The compositions are principally from the Americas and they are well-chosen to evoke nuances and shades of sound color that she brings out in excellent fashion. But to be more specific there is a good deal of music by Cuban classic-modernist Leo Brouwer, and they are something to hear. There is a fine work by the Spaniard Calleja, another by Amigo, something very beautiful by the Brazilian Dilermando Reis, then there are intriguing works by Argentianians Sinesi, Miller, and Fleury, and, yes, very fittingly given the provenance of this recording, Ralph Towner. [...] She breathes these works, literally brings them to life with such care and devotion, such a marvelous touch, that you totally believe with her that THIS is the music she should be playing right now, and that THIS is what we should be listening to, wherever we are and wherever we came from to the here we are inside of, come what may. We should.
Grego Applegate Edards, Gapplegate Music Review
On her third recording and ECM label debut, Hungarian-born classical guitarist Zsófia Boros presents a program of largely introspective yet varied pieces. She bypasses the warhorses of the solo-guitar repertoire in favor of outliers penned by a handful of South American composers, Spaniards Vicente Amigo and Francisco Calleja, American guitarist Ralph Towner, and Sting’s longtime sideman Dominic Miller, among others. [...] Boros’ great programming and burnished tone plus producer Manfred Eicher’s touch equal an album that’s enchanting throughout.
Mark Small, Guitar
‚Todo comienza en otra parte - Alles beginnt woanders.’ Mit einem der letzten Gedichte des argentinischen Schriftstellers Roberto Juarroz zeigt die Gitarristin Zsofia Boros, wo dieses Woanders für sie beginnt - in einer mutig intimen wie anmutigen Welt. Boros nimmt sich Zeit für die fragilen Kleinode in ihren Händen. Aus ihnen formt sie sinnliche Klänge, überrascht mit strengem Pathos, dann sind nur mehr Tontupfer zu hören. [...] Virtuos gelingen ihr sensibelste Nuancierungen, die die Stücke schwere- und mühelos machen, als suchte die Gitarristin ihren interpretatorischen Kontrapunkt zum melancholischen Unterton. Die bewußt räumliche Aufnahmeakustik tut das Ihrige dazu, um auf eine schwebende Mehrstimmigkeit und Mehrdeutigkeit anzuspielen. Alles ist immer woanders: dort, wo es anfängt. ‚Todo està siempre en otra parte: allì donde comienza.’
Julia Schölzel, BR-Klassik
Mit ‘En otra parte’ (Der Titel geht zurück auf ein Gedicht von Roberto Juarroz) hat sie nun ein lupenreines Gitarrenrecital lateinamerikanischer Prägung vorgelegt, das durch seinen unprätentiösen Ton aufhorchen lässt. Es ist keine Virtuosen-Show, mit der die schon länger in Wien lebende Gitarristin hier punkten will, sondern ein ruhiges, kontemplatives Programm, das durch seine Musikalität besticht.
Dierk Wieschollek, Fono Forum
The evocative ECM debut of the highly-talented Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros (born 1980) addresses a broad range of composition for her instrument, on this recording drawing primarily on music of the Americas. At the centre of En otra parte is music of Leo Brouwer (b. 1939), the Cuban composer who viewed the guitar as an orchestra and once declared that it has “no limits”. Brouwer’s work has been a major reference for Boros from the beginning of her musical journey. “Often I think I am holding the choice of music in my own hands,” she writes, “but later I wonder if the music has chosen me as a medium. My approach is always very intuitive; when a piece of music grips or touches me, I want to reflect it – to become a mirror and convey it.”
Boros first heard Brouwer’s “Un dia de noviembre” at a concert when she was around fifteen. Playing the piece changed, she says, the nature of her relationship to music. She studied at the Bratislava Music Conservatory, the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest, and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, but gained her most important insights less through analysis than through “building up a direct relationship with every single note, every individual pitch” in a composition, through the experience of playing. “For me, pitches are like people; they have their own voices, their own durations, and yet their true character only comes to the fore in relation to other tones.”
Zsòfia Boros is the recipient of numerous awards, taking First Prizes at the North London Music Festival, the Concorso Internationale Val Tidone, the Paganini Competition in Parma, and the Premio Enrico Mercatali in Gorizia.
Boros’ choice of material uncovers affinities between music of diverse sources and intention. Her CD booklet quotes Roberto Jarroz’s “Todo comienza en otra parte” (engl.: “Everything begins somewhere else”)… From contrasts and juxtapositions a compelling album is shaped. Boros: “The stories of this album connect with one another in that they touched me with all their protagonists from the first encounter from beginning to end. I came to know them and now we are almost like old friends.”
Notes on a few of them: The programme opens with “Canción triste”, long a favourite amongst guitarists, by Francisco Calleja (1891-1950), the Spanish guitarist and composer who spent the last part of his life in Uruguay and Argentina.
“Callejón de la luna” by Spanish guitarist-composer Vicente Amigo (b. 1967) pays tribute to the spirit of flamenco: “The organization of the musical tale is less important than the feeling of it,“ says Amigo. “I can start at the end or the beginning and explore and insert many themes upon the main theme, adding little messages along the way.”
“Se ela perguntar”, a waltz by prolific guitarist-composer Dilermando Reis (1916-1977) counts now as a Brazilian standard.
Music from Argentinean sources includes “Cielo abierto” is by Quique Sinesi (b. 1960), a guitarist who has combined tango with elements of folk music, and drawn on the rhythms of candombe and milonga. In the 1980s he played extensively with Dino Saluzzi. “Te vas milongas” is from Abel Fleury (1903-1958), the composer-guitarist who loved the regional music of Buenos Aires and helped to propagate it. “Eclipse”, meanwhile, is from Argentine-born English guitarist Dominic Miller. Initially inspired by Jimi Hendrix, his studies in classical music and jazz also inform his work.
And Ralph Towner (born 1940), the North American composer of “Green and Golden”, needs little introduction here. His unique body of work, conventionally filed under ‘jazz’ has been greatly influenced by baroque music, contemporary composition, Brazilian music.
The composers whose work has been selected by Boros have been wanderers between worlds, musically, philosophically and geographically.
En otra parte was recorded in Lugano in 2012 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Boros first heard Brouwer’s “Un dia de noviembre” at a concert when she was around fifteen. Playing the piece changed, she says, the nature of her relationship to music. She studied at the Bratislava Music Conservatory, the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Budapest, and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, but gained her most important insights less through analysis than through “building up a direct relationship with every single note, every individual pitch” in a composition, through the experience of playing. “For me, pitches are like people; they have their own voices, their own durations, and yet their true character only comes to the fore in relation to other tones.”
Zsòfia Boros is the recipient of numerous awards, taking First Prizes at the North London Music Festival, the Concorso Internationale Val Tidone, the Paganini Competition in Parma, and the Premio Enrico Mercatali in Gorizia.
Boros’ choice of material uncovers affinities between music of diverse sources and intention. Her CD booklet quotes Roberto Jarroz’s “Todo comienza en otra parte” (engl.: “Everything begins somewhere else”)… From contrasts and juxtapositions a compelling album is shaped. Boros: “The stories of this album connect with one another in that they touched me with all their protagonists from the first encounter from beginning to end. I came to know them and now we are almost like old friends.”
Notes on a few of them: The programme opens with “Canción triste”, long a favourite amongst guitarists, by Francisco Calleja (1891-1950), the Spanish guitarist and composer who spent the last part of his life in Uruguay and Argentina.
“Callejón de la luna” by Spanish guitarist-composer Vicente Amigo (b. 1967) pays tribute to the spirit of flamenco: “The organization of the musical tale is less important than the feeling of it,“ says Amigo. “I can start at the end or the beginning and explore and insert many themes upon the main theme, adding little messages along the way.”
“Se ela perguntar”, a waltz by prolific guitarist-composer Dilermando Reis (1916-1977) counts now as a Brazilian standard.
Music from Argentinean sources includes “Cielo abierto” is by Quique Sinesi (b. 1960), a guitarist who has combined tango with elements of folk music, and drawn on the rhythms of candombe and milonga. In the 1980s he played extensively with Dino Saluzzi. “Te vas milongas” is from Abel Fleury (1903-1958), the composer-guitarist who loved the regional music of Buenos Aires and helped to propagate it. “Eclipse”, meanwhile, is from Argentine-born English guitarist Dominic Miller. Initially inspired by Jimi Hendrix, his studies in classical music and jazz also inform his work.
And Ralph Towner (born 1940), the North American composer of “Green and Golden”, needs little introduction here. His unique body of work, conventionally filed under ‘jazz’ has been greatly influenced by baroque music, contemporary composition, Brazilian music.
The composers whose work has been selected by Boros have been wanderers between worlds, musically, philosophically and geographically.
En otra parte was recorded in Lugano in 2012 and produced by Manfred Eicher.
| YEAR | DATE | VENUE | LOCATION | |
| 2024 | October 27 | Triskel Christchurch | Cork, Ireland | |
| 2024 | November 22 | De Bijloke | Gent, Belgium |
