Music For My Love, Vol. One
CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL WOMAN
100+ NEW WORKS FOR STRING ORCHESTRA, VOLUME ONE
When in late 2014 Yodit Tekle was diagnosed with stomach cancer, her partner, Martin Anderson, who runs Toccata Classics, asked a couple of composer friends to write some music to bring her comfort in her illness. As her life slipped away, he had the idea that she could be remembered in music and so he began to commission other pieces for string orchestra in her memory. To his surprise, almost everyone he asked generously accepted, and so the project snowballed: there are now over 100 composers who have written or agreed to write for it – an undertaking unique in the history of music. This first volume presents the first eleven pieces in an initiative which, in effect, transforms love into something you can hear.
Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra
Paul Mann, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
- Johannes Brahms arr. Ragnar Söderlind: ‘Von ewiger Liebe’, Op. 43, No. 1
- Robin Holloway: Music for Yodit
- Poul Ruders: Lullaby for Yodit
- Mihkel Kerem: A Farewell for Yodit
- Andrew Ford: Sleep
- Steve Elcock: Song for Yodit, Op. 23
- Brett Dean: Angels’ Wings (Music for Yodit)
- Jon Lord arr. Paul Mann: Zarabanda Solitaria
- John Pickard: …forbidding mourning…
- A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Introduction
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Tema
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var I
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var II
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var III
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var IV
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var V
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var VI
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var VII
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var VIII
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var IX
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var X
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var XI
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var XII
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var XIII
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var XIV
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Var XV
- ‘A, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120: Tema
- Maddalena Casulana arr. Colin Matthews: Il vostro dipartir
Ragnar Söderlind: ‘Å, den svalande vind…’: 15 Variations on a Norwegian Folktune, Op. 120
Patrick Waller :
This is clearly a very personal ongoing project and already quite a remarkable one. There is some very powerful music on this disc, largely slow and elegiac of course but never monotonous. Most of the composers are fairly well known but I hadn’t come across Mikhel Kerem (Estonian, born 1981) or Maddalena Casulana (16th century Venetian) before. Both their works make one want to hear more of their music and I was please to find that there are two discs of Kerem on this label to explore. Music like this needs the right setting. After Schubert’s Great C major and late in the evening with a nightcap, I found it utterly compelling.
Fanfare Magazine :
‘…These works are all sublimely performed by Paul Mann and the strings of the Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra. Martin Anderson has produced a most moving tribute to his lost beloved, one which contains music that will surely live well beyond his present purpose. Even without much variety in tempo, this well-recorded disc will provide much enjoyment to the listener, and I recommend it very highly. I also feel as though I know Yodit Tekle just a little bit through Anderson’s touching program notes, and the equally touching music written in her tribute, even though I never had the opportunity to meet her.’
—David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare Magazine, May/June 2017
MusicWeb International :
‘Along with the issues of thin tone and ensemble that so much divisi writing may engender, even more of a challenge is maintaining concentration and discipline when so much of the music is slow and often very quiet. That only rarely does any of this become overtly apparent is a tribute to the skill and dedication of Paul Mann, who clearly was able to coax these players into giving the very best they were capable of. […] It is the start of a very long journey, and I for one greatly anticipate further stages on the way.’
—David Brown, MusicWeb International
MusicWeb International :
‘The contributing composers and arrangers here are profiled in considerable detail.
Touching music with an entirely appropriate unity of mood. We must hope that the response to this disc will enable later volumes to be recorded and issued.,
—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International
International Records :
‘A very substantial beginning to what promises to be a series of great musical merit. Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra; Paul Mann.’
— International Records
Pizzicato :
‘ Musik bedeutet Leben und Musik ist seit ewigen Zeiten ein Mittel, um den Tod zu begleiten, ihn gewissermaßen wieder in Leben zu verwandeln. So gesehen macht dieses CD-Projekt durchaus Sinn und kann eigentlich jedem, der trauert, eine wertvolle Hilfe sein. […]
Paul Mann und das ungarische ‘Kodaly Philharmonic Orchestra’ bringen die einzelnen Stücke auf hohem Niveau sehr ausdrucksvoll zur Geltung.’
—Remy Franck, Pizzicato