Wigmore live on Easter Monday
"The five-movement piece Al Asr by Benjamin Attahir, a French composer in his mid-thirties, is a fine work, very exciting and obeying Ravel’s recipe for good form: ‘continuity of interest’. The balance between long ostinatos and freewheeling melodic lines, using patterns from the music of the Middle East, is kept with a masterly hand. Roger Nichols"
from a record review of a CD recorded by the AROD quartet which also includes the quartets by Debussy and Ravel as well as Al'Asr.
Excellent programming by R.3 to follow the first b.p. of ATTAHIR'S Stabat Mater a couple of weeks ago by the second broadcast of the composer's acknowledged masterpiece his Al"Asr quartet.
The work derives indirectly from the Muslim Afternoon Prayers liturgy. That may put readers in mind of Kancheli's works on similar texts but his rapt, prayerful pieces cannot hold a candle to Benjamin Attahir's tour de force., which is visionary and packed to the gunnels with heightened intensity. The virtuosity, both individual and corporate, needed to master this astonishing piece was shown fully in this live performance by the work's dedicatees. I was bowled over by the work's cumulative power and I rushed on-line to buy a copy of the CD recommended by Roger Nichols.
Please give this lunchtime concert which included Bach's Passion Chorale and Haydn"s superlative Emperor Quartet a listen on BBC SOUNDS.
from a record review of a CD recorded by the AROD quartet which also includes the quartets by Debussy and Ravel as well as Al'Asr.
Excellent programming by R.3 to follow the first b.p. of ATTAHIR'S Stabat Mater a couple of weeks ago by the second broadcast of the composer's acknowledged masterpiece his Al"Asr quartet.
The work derives indirectly from the Muslim Afternoon Prayers liturgy. That may put readers in mind of Kancheli's works on similar texts but his rapt, prayerful pieces cannot hold a candle to Benjamin Attahir's tour de force., which is visionary and packed to the gunnels with heightened intensity. The virtuosity, both individual and corporate, needed to master this astonishing piece was shown fully in this live performance by the work's dedicatees. I was bowled over by the work's cumulative power and I rushed on-line to buy a copy of the CD recommended by Roger Nichols.
Please give this lunchtime concert which included Bach's Passion Chorale and Haydn"s superlative Emperor Quartet a listen on BBC SOUNDS.
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