Konstantia Gourzi: Music for piano and string quartet

Lorenda Ramou, Ensemble Coriolis

Konstantia Gourzi: Music for piano and string quartet
Release date: 10.10.2014 ECM 2309
CD18,90 €add to cart
Play Sample
EN / DE

Athens-born and Munich-based composer Konstantia Gourzi makes her ECM New Series label debut. “What historical voices commingle in the current idiom of a composer whose cultural roots lie in the birthplace of rhetoric, but who emigrated to take a musical apprenticeship in European constructivism?” asks Ingrid Allwardt in the liner notes. “What wordless airs, echoes of past ages, thread their way into the present day of her instrumental songs?” Music for piano and string quartet, supplies the answers. With the exception of the early „noch fürcht’ ich”, composed in 1993, all the music is of recent vintage. It includes a number of piano miniatures, pieces dedicated to Lachenmann, Kurtág, Raue, Abbado, Barenboim and Rexroth, two string quartets, and works for string quartet and piano. Pianist Lorenda Ramou and the Ensemble Coriolis deliver committed performances. The album was recorded in Munich’s Himmelfahrtskirche in 2012, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Das ECM-Debüt für die in Athen geborene und in München lebende Komponistin Konstantia Gourzi: „Welche historischen Stimmen mischen sich in die gegenwärtige Klangsprache einer Komponistin, deren kulturelle Wurzeln im Geburtsland der Rhetorik liegen, die aber auswandert, um in die kompositorische Lehre des europäischen Konstruktivismus zu gehen?“, fragt Ingrid Allwardt im Booklet-Text. „Welche wortlosen Gesänge als Anklänge verronnener Zeit fädeln sich in die klangliche Gegenwart ihrer instrumentalen Lieder?“ Music for piano and string quartet liefert die Antworten. Mit Ausnahme des frühen „noch fürcht‘ ich“, 1993 komponiert, sind alle Werke des Albums jüngeren Datums. Es enthält einige Klavierminiaturen, Stücke, die Lachenmann, Kurtág, Raue, Abbado, Barenboim und Rexroth gewidmet sind, zwei Streichquartette sowie Werke für Streichquartett und Klavier. Die Pianistin Lorenda Ramou und das Ensemble Coriolis liefern engagierte Darbietungen. Das Album wurde 2012 in der Münchner Himmelfahrtskirche aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert.
Featured Artists
  • Lorenda RamouPiano
  • Ensemble Coriolis
  • Heather CottrellViolin
  • Susanna PietschViolin
  • Klaus-Peter WeraniViola
  • Hanno SimonsVioloncello
Recorded

July 2012, Himmelfahrtskirche Sendling, Munich

Original Release Date

10.10.2014

  • 1Eine kleine Geschichte (für Klavier solo) op. 25
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    02:59
  • 2P-ILION, neun fragmente einer ewigkeit (Streichquartett Nr. 2) op. 33/2
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    10:23
  • 3Aiolos Wind (6 Klavierstücke) op. 41
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    06:47
  • 4"Israel" (Streichquartett Nr. 1) op. 19
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    11:50
  • 5"noch fürcht' ich" (7 Miniaturen für Klavier solo) op. 8
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    06:44
  • 6Vibrato 1 (für Streichquartett plus Klavier) op. 38/1
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    03:27
  • 7Klavierstücke I-V (5 Miniaturen für Klavier solo) op. 24
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    04:20
  • 8Vibrato 2 (für Streichquartett plus Klavier) op. 38/2
    (Konstantia Gourzi)    04:27
Gourzi's elegant, spare music does so much with so little: 2005's ‘Eine kleine Geschichte’ tells its story slowly and patiently. We get two more taut suites of piano miniatures. That they're so appealing has much to do with pianist Lorenda Ramou's skill; hers is some of the softest, subtlest playing you'll hear. Equally concise is Gourzi's oddly titled ‘P-ILION’, a string quartet subtitled "nine fragments of an eternity" – the ten-minute sequence of movements capturing the sights and sounds of a Greek forest. Rushing wind and chirping crickets fill the central sections, and a haunting cello solo dominates the quartet's nocturnal close. An earlier string quartet, ‘Israel’, opens and closes in glacial stillness, the contours and quirks of folk melody giving colour to the faster music. Both quartets are effortlessly dispatched by Ensemble Coriolis, who join Ramou in two brief, sublime pieces for piano quintet. ‘Vibrato 1’ and ‘Vibrato ‘2 share an insidiously memorable ostinato, and both works leave you wanting more.
Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk
 
The performances suggest a close familiarity not just with the works in question but with Gourzi’s approach overall. Coolly spacious sound and a decent booklet essay round out this absorbing introduction an eminently worthwile composer.
Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone
 
Entrancing and compelling listening.
Gavin Engelbrecht, Northern Echo