Arthur Lourié: Chamber and Instrumental music, Volume One: Works with Wind Instruments
The turbulent life of Arthur Lourié (1891–1966) – student of Glazunov, friend of Blok, lover of Akhmatova, commissar of the Soviet regime, an exile in Germany, France and the USA, ghost-writer for Koussevitzky – is reflected in the wide range of references in his music, from echoes of the ceremonies of ancient Greece to Neo-Baroque and Neo-Classical procedures perhaps inspired by his collaboration with Stravinsky in Paris. Some of the works in this first of two albums surveying his chamber and instrumental music have an almost ritual formality; in others a mischievous grin is not far from the surface.
Birgit Ramsl (flute)
Raphael Leone (piccolo)
Paolo Beltramini (clarinet)
Candy Grace Ho (contralto)
Gottlieb Wallisch (piano)
Egidius Streiff (viola, violin);
Musicians of the Arthur Lourié Festival, Basel:
Lucie Brotbek Prochásková (alto flute)
Hansjürgen Wäldele (oboe)
Nicolas Rihs (bassoon)
Simon Lilly (trumpet)
Nicolas Suter (percussion)
Agnès Mauri (viola)
Mateusz Paweł Kamiński (cello)
Listen To This Recording:
- Sunrise, for flute solo
- I Tempo M.M. ♩ = 96 –
- II ♩ = 84
- Regina Coeli, for contralto, oboe and trumpet
- I Allegretto
- II Adagio
- III Presto
- I Le Sacrifice du miel
- II Plainte d’Ariane
- III Labyrinthe
- No. 1 Phrases, for flute and piano
- The Mime, for clarinet solo
- The Flute of Pan, for flute solo
- Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos, for three flutes, piano and cymbals
Sunrise, for flute solo (1957)*
Pastorale de la Volga, for oboe, bassoon, two violas and cello (1916)
Regina Coeli, for contralto, oboe and trumpet (1924)*
La Flûte à travers le Violon, for flute and violin (1935)
Dithyrambes, for flute solo (1938)
Deux Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé (1945–62)*
The Mime, for clarinet solo (1956)
The Flute of Pan, for flute solo (1957)*
Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos, for three flutes, piano and cymbals (1964)
*FIRST RECORDINGS
Gramophone :
‘Arthur Lourié (1891-1966) is an endlessly fascinating composer. […]
Recordings throughout are of the highest quality, and it is very good to think that Lourié’s music, which was for so long neglected, is being revived in the hands of musicians such as these. A word, too, for the outstanding and highly detailed booklet notes by Samuel Zinsli.’
—Ivan Moody, Gramophone
MusicWeb International :
‘The personnel is spearheaded by flautist Birgit Ramsl and they all play with commendable accomplishment and verve that serve Lourié well. There are also four premiere recordings. However you sum him up, stylistically, his remains a cultured, cultivated and agreeably cosmopolitan voice, drawing on Russian and French traditions to irradiate the ritual formality of his music.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
Arcana.fm :
‘Does it all work?
Yes, notwithstanding that Lourié is a composer less occupied with any expressive or technical consistency than with imparting a ‘world view’ such as veers freely between past and present. These performances, recorded under the auspices of the Arthur Lourié Festival in Basel, are always attuned to his arresting idiom and have been recorded with the requisite spaciousness.
Is it recommended?
Indeed, and good to hear a follow-up volume from this source is forthcoming.’
—Richard Whitehouse, Arcana.fm