First new recording in a decade from Ukraine-born Misha Alperin, whose last two ECM discs, “Night” and “At Home” were both recorded in 1998. This newest album of solos, duos and trios picks up the productive association with German cellist Anja Lechner begun on “Night”, and also features Alperin’s musical partner of many years, Russian virtuoso horn player Arkady Shilkloper. The landscape keeps changing in a programme of many moods, as Alperin’s compositions reflect his quick-witted mind. Lyricism is here, and dazzling technical skills in abundance.
Her First Dance
Misha Alperin, Arkady Shilkloper, Anja Lechner
- 1Vayan
06:12 - 2Her First Dance
05:16 - 3A New Day
03:23 - 4April In February
02:39 - 5Jump
03:24 - 6Tiflis
06:00 - 7Lonely In White
04:28 - 8Frozen Tears
05:25 - 9The Russian Song
04:31 - 10Via Dolorosa
07:21
Ganz und gar genreüberschreitend und grenzenlos ist der Pianist Misha Alperin mit seinem außergewöhnlich besetzten Trio. Her First Dance mit Anja Lechner, Cello, und Arkady Shilkoper, Flügelhorn, ist traumverlorene Romantik, ist Neue Musik, ist harmonieverliebter Schwebezustand, ist komponierte Improvisation, ist Solo-, Duo- und Trio-Darbietung in einem, ist lyrische Kontemplation und melodieverliebter Klang, ist nicht Jazz und doch Teil von ihm, ist Ruhe und gemessene Bewegung, ist - mit einem Wort – einfach gute Musik in einer Kultur allgegenwärtiger akustischer Aggression im Alltag.
Heribert Ickerott, Jazzpodium
Der ukrainische Pianist, der in Oslo lebt, überschreitet alle Konventionen zwischen Kammerjazz, Improvisation und Volksweisen, führt Bartók und Jarrett und Kurtág zusammen. Seine aufblitzenden, dann wieder ausschwingenden Kompositionen bestimmen auch den meditativen Charakter seines neuen Albums. … Die zehn neuen Kompositionen sind bezwingend melancholisch und erschütternd klar.
Alexander Kluy, Rheinischer Merkur
The keyboard virtuosity is awesome: check the buzzing-bee agility over slow countermelodies on Vayan, or the alternately coquettish and frenzied Jump. But the album’s dominant quality is the power of its compositions, which are all Alperin’s except for Shilkloper’s and Lechner’s dialogue on Russian Song. The lovely title track has a gentle child’s-dance piano part, and Tiflis displays a horn sound you could warm your hands on.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Bei ihm klingt der Flügel mal metallisch, mal wie eine Spieluhr, seine Themen haben den Charme von Folk- oder Kindermelodien, ähneln Minimal-Patterns und schimmern in klarer, spröder Schönheit. Stilschubladen wie Jazz, Folk, Klassik sind bei dem aus Moldawien stammenden Pianisten obsolet, und doch treffen alle auch ein bisschen zu.
Berthold Klostermann, Stereo
Einmal mehr lässt sich auch die wundervolle Musik der vorliegenden Platte nicht in Genres kategorisieren. Die neun eigenen Kompositionen interpretiert Alperin solo, im Duo mit Cello oder Horn oder im Trio mit beiden. Die Klangfarben dieser Instrumente an sich sind faszinierend, die Dialoge fesseln und die resultierende Musik ist von einer ergreifenden Schönheit, wirkt unglaublich rein, ruhig, offen und ehrlich – manchmal schon beinahe religiös.
Silvano Luca Gerosa, Jazz’n’more
Alperin’s compositions, like his superb piano, belong fully to neither jazz nor classical music; they’re sui generis entitles, whole and unique. His motifs, his way of reconciling constant harmonic surprise with something greater than logic – inevitability – reveal a singular creativity. On this beautiful album he offers five deceptively simple solo pieces alongside a series of arresting duets and a trio with long-standing colleagues Arkady Shilkloper and Anja Lechner.
Ray Comiskey, Irish Times
It’s his compositions that stand out. Most are exercises in atmospherics, some sounding like long-forgotten folk melodies recalled from an earlier age, but each with its own charm and character. … Long-term partners Lechner and Shilkloper contribute contrasting solos of admirable understatement and reserve, most often in duo with Alperin, as the trio rarely performs together. Not quite jazz, but equally not quite like anything else either.
Simon Adams, Jazzreview
What he plays on Her First Dance is jazz of stark, minimalist melodicism supended within equally meaningful silences. … Anja Lechner is a respected classical cellist, a genuine improviser, and a uniquely expressive new voice in jazz. Arkady Shilkloper, who has worked in the Moscow Symphony, plays immaculate French horn and flugelhorn. The piano/cello and piano/horn duets here are immersions in the pure sensual epiphanies of sonority. Lechner’s flawless tone is like an embodiment of spiritual yearning. Shilkloper can be nimble or slow as lingering sorrow, but always flows like molten gold. Alperin touches the piano, and gets a ringing sound from it, like no one in jazz.
Thomas Conrad, Jazztimes
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