No Seasons Daniel del Pino, Susana Cordon Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra & Ara Malikian

• Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992): Las 4 Estaciones portenas (The Four Seasons):
• 1 Las 4 Estaciones portenas: Primavera Portena 05:28
• 2 Las 4 Estaciones portenas: Verano Porteno 06:20
• 3 Las 4 Estaciones portenas: Otono Porteno 06:54
• 4 Las 4 Estaciones portenas: Invierno Porteno 06:35
• Joan Valent (b.1964): 4 Estacions a Mallorca:
• 5 4 Estacions a Mallorca: No. 1. Primavera 06:53
• 6 4 Estacions a Mallorca: No. 2. Estiu 04:04
• 7 4 Estacions a Mallorca: No. 3. Tardor 08:15
• 8 4 Estacions a Mallorca: No. 4. Hivern 07:39
• Jorge Grundman (b.1961): 4 Sad Seasons Over Madrid:
• 9 4 Sad Seasons Over Madrid 16:20
• Total Runtime 01:08:28

Info zu No Seasons

The Lebanese-born Armenian violinist Ara Malikian is one of the younger generation of soloists who, while classically trained, are not afraid to let other musical styles influence their playing.

Malikian, currently concert-master of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, has recorded the solo works of Bach, Ysaÿe and Paganini, but is clearly very much at home in these two CDs of mostly contemporary – and mostly Spanish and Argentinian – works, where his love of gipsy and tango music in particular makes him an ideal interpreter.

The “Minds” CD is a selection of shorter works for violin and piano. Only Gerald Finzi’s lovely Elegy and an early Kodaly work, the Brahmsian Adagio, are not recent compositions. Astor Piazzolla’s Tanti Anni Prima is a beautiful opening track; Lera Auerbach’s Postlude is short but sweet.

Marjan Mozetich’s Desire at Twilight is recorded here for the first time, as is Agua y Vino by Fernando Egozcue, formerly one of Piazzolla’s arrangers.

Jorge Grundman’s sonata What Inspires Poetry, also a premiere recording, is the biggest work on the disc, but also unfortunately the least appealing for me, with too much formulaic writing and little character. Elena Kats-Chermin’s Russian Rag, in the same vein as William Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost, is a charming closer.

There are three larger works on the oddly-titled “No Seasons” CD. (An RTVE concert of the same works by the same artists was called – more logically - 12 Seasons)

Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires were originally written as separate pieces for his quintet with bandoneon between 1964 and 1970. This arrangement is by Leonid Desyatnikov, who added direct quotes from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Malikian is again clearly in his element with Piazzolla’s idiosyncratic music.

Joan Valent’s Four Seasons in Mallorca fits Malikian’s style perfectly, but Grundman’s Four Sad Seasons Over Madrid, for soprano, violin, piano and string orchestra, is a disappointment. Susana Cordon has a big voice, but really struggles with her English pronunciation. Not that it matters – despite her singing at full belt, the unsympathetic setting and heavy orchestration make her words almost inaudible.

„The idea of music based on the cycle of the four seasons is an old one (Thomas Morley's madrigal April is in my mistris face is an underappreciated example), and to judge from this Spanish release it is still attracting creative thinking. Usually Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro estaciones porteñas (Buenos Aires Four Seasons) comes last in the chronology on such recordings, but here it's the locus classicus. In the arrangement by Leonid Desyatnikov originally made for Gidon Kremer, it here receives a very fine performance, brisk and taut, from the Non Profit Chamber Orchestra (which, true to its name, gives away proceeds from its concerts and album sales) under violinist Ara Malikian. The other two works are contemporary neo-tonal pieces with a strong Iberian flavor. The Quatre estacions a mallorca of Catalonian composer Joan Valent, like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, are accompanied and inspired by a set of poems that serves as a more or less detailed program, given here in Catalan and English. Of particular interest is the placement of the static movement -- not in summer, but in the fall. Jorge Grundman's Four Sad Seasons Over Madrid is in English, the notes mysteriously assert, in order "to make a connection between the rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the lyrics," which are also given in Spanish in the booklet. The work, in a single movement with four distinct sections, opens with a vocalise, executing a nice transition on the program between the submerged text of the Valent piece and the poetic settings that follow. Soprano Susana Cordón does a lovely job with the delicate melancholy of the work, depicting a woman mourning over a breakup but rooted in the composer's loss of a childhood friend. The program holds together not only because of the seasonal theme but also through its thread unrolling the passage of time, and it exposes some works that could work on any presentation of small-scale orchestral music. Highly recommended for fans of contemporary tonal music.“ (James Manheim, AMG)

"... Ara Malikian plays the piece better than Kremer did, with more guts in the hard-driving passages and sweeter tone in the lyrical episodes ..." (ClassicsToday)

"... This is a most impressive disc as regards both sound and program, and is recommended heartily ..." (Fanfare)

Best Classical Album Nominated at Spanish Independent Music Awards

Susana Cordón, soprano
Daniel del Pino, piano
Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra
Ara Malikian, violin, conductor

Ara Malikian
He started out playing the violin at an early age under his father´s guidance. His talent was quickly recognized regardless of the hard circumstances he was forced to live as a consequence of the Lebanese civil war. He performed his first important concert at the age of twelve and, at the age of fourteen ,orchestra director Hans Herbert-Jöris listened to him and got him a scholarship given by German Government to study at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. At the age of 15 he achieved to be the youngest admitted student in this well-regarded superior music center. He widened his knowledge and studies afterwards at Guildhall School of Music & Drama of London and, also received lessons by some of the greatest and more prestigious teachers in the world as Franco Gulli, Ruggiero Ricci, Ivry Gitlis, Herman Krebbers or some members of the Alban Berg Quartet.

As a performer, he possesses a wide repertoire which includes almost the whole catalogue of great works written for violin (concerts with orchestras, sonatas and works written for piano or chamber music). He released masterpieces written by contemporary composers like Franco Donatoni, Malcolm Lipkin, Luciano Chailly, Ladislav Kupkovic , Loris Tjeknavorian or Lawrence Romany Yervand Yernakian.

As a solo violinist he has been invited by great musical groups as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Zurcí Chamber Orchestra, Genoa Opera Orquesta, Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Portugal Symphony Orchestra, Tubing Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Toulouse Chamber Orchestra or the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He played under the direction of such important directors like Mariss Janssons, Peter Maag, Jesús López Cobos, Vladimir Spivakov, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, Luis Antonio García Navarro, Vassili Sinaisky, Edmond de Stoutz, Gudni Emilson, Juan José Mena, Jo Ann Falleta, pedro Halffter, Alejandro Posada, Cristóbal Halffter or Salvador Brotons. He also played in the most important concert halls of the world in more than 40 countries from the five continents. New York (Carnegie Hall), Paris (Salle Pleyel), Vienna (Musikverein), Toronto (Ford Center), Madrid (National Auditory and Royal Theatre), Zurci (Tonhalle), London (Barbican Centre) or Cádiz (Gran Teatro Falla).

His quality and level as a violinist has been recognized in numerous world-class contests, highlights included as the prizes won at international contests like Felix Mendelssohn (1987, Berlín, Alemania) or Pablo Sarasota (1995, Pamplona, Spain). He also won several awards in different contests like Niccolo Paganini (Genoa), Zino Francescatti (Marseille), Rodolfo Lipizer (Glorizia), Musical Youth (Belgrade), Rameau (Le Mans), International Artist Guild (New York) and the International Music Competition of Japan (Tokyo). In 1993, he received the Artistic Compliance and Dedication Award, given by the German Ministry of Culture. He has also been given the “Best Musical Composition in Scene Spectacle MAX Award for Performing Arts “ (La Lucha Libre Vuelve al Price,2011) and has been twice award-winning at Music Awards in the category of New Musics Best Album (De la felicidad,2006) and Best Classical Music Performer (Ínsula Poética,2007). In 2013, his own orchestra “La Orquesta en el Tejado” was premiered at the Spanish Theatre in Madrid. Ara Malikian has a wide discography. He recorded the most distinguished pieces for violin with Warner Spain: 24 Capricci per violino solo Niccolo Paganini (2003), an album with works by Sarasate (2003) accompanied by Armenian pianist Serouj Kradjian, The Six Sonata for solo violin by Ysaÿe (2003),the complete Sonatas&Partitas for violin by Johann Sebastian Bach (2003) and the Four Seasons by Vivaldi (2004). He also recorded Manantial (2002/2004) and De la felicidad(2005) accompanied by flamenco guitarist José Luis Montón. He has registered music by Fernando Egózcue which can be found in the albums Lejos (2007) and Con los ojos cerrados (2011). Among his most recent albums we can find :The concert for violin and Aram Khachaturian Orchestra (2008) accompanied by Extremadura Symphony Orchestra and directed by Jesús Amigo, Romantic Spanish Violin Concerts (2010) with the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, directed by Alejandro Posada with tracks from Bretón y Monasterio,the album No Seasons (2010)accompanied by the Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra, where the Porteño Four Seasons by Piazzolla are collected, Christmas Mood (2011) in which he performs 11 christmas set pieces or Pizzicato (2013) which includes some of his performances for the TVE show “Pizzicato”. His last album is 15 (2015), a concert recorded at the Royal Theatre of Madrid with which he celebrates his 15 years living in Spain and summarizes every single show he has been touring with for the last 15 years.

Ara Malikian has always shown a very special interest in endearing music to every audience, either classical or not. From 2006, he cooperates with Non Profit Music Foundation and the composer Jorge Grundman (Madrid) in order to create the Non Profit Music Chamber Music Orchestra, dedicated to spread the work of contemporary composers within the so called New Consonant Music. As a result of this cooperation we can already find works like Tears of Beauty (2006) and Meeting with a friend (2007). He created and co-produced the show PaGAGnini (2008) along the Yllana Company, a humorous and theatrical review of top classical music pieces composed by renowned composers like Sarasota, Manuel de Falla, Luigi Boccherini, Johan Pachelbel, Shigeru Umebayashi, Mozart, Serge Gainsbourg and Paganini. He was involved in the production and creation of a concert for familiar audiences Tales of the World: The story of a happy man (2009) as well as the show My First Four Seasons, a dramatized version of the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, which currently keeps on tour. Since 2010 he is one of the hosts in the youthful Tv Show by TVE El Club del Pizzicato, dedicated to the spreading of classical music among children and teenagers. He has created several shows that have become long and successful tours, like Vivaldi´s Eight Seasons (2011), Piazzolla (2011) and Capricci for Violin and Body (2011), directed by Marisol Rozo, The Divines (2012) co-produced with José Manuel Zapata. He is currently on tour with the following shows: 15, My first four seasons, and two duet performances, one with José Luis Montón and another with Fernando Egozcue.

An inexhaustible musical and human inquisitiveness have made Ara Malikian delve into his own Armenian roots and assimilate the music created in other cultures from Middle East (Arabic and Jewish), Centre Europe (Gypsi and Klutzier), Argentina (Tango) and Spain (Flamenco), always showing a great own language with the virtuosity and expressivity of the great classic european tradition. He premiered the concert Músicas Cíngaras (2009) which brings together melodies from different countries that have been musically influenced by the travel made by the Gypsies from India to Spain. He also co-produced the show Payo Bach(2011) accompanied by the flamenco guitarist José Luis Montón. Ara Malikian has collaborated with Lebanese singer Fairud, flamenco dancers Joaquín Cortes and Belén Maya in New Tango Ensemble and with jazz pianist Horacio Icasto among others. He has taken part in several albums by Extremoduro like La Ley Innata (2008), Material Defectuoso (2011) and Para todos los publicos (2014) and in Ambrosia (2014), an album made by Juan Antonio Valderrama.

There is another side in Ara Malikian´s career, his work has been requested by different top motion pictures music composers like Alberto Iglesias, for whom he recorded the original soundtrack for Hablé con ella (2002) and La mala educación (2005) by Pedro Almodóvar or Pascal Gainge for El otro barrio (2000) by Salvador García Ruiz. And he has also taken part in the original soundtracks for the films Manolito Gafotas (1999), Los pasos perididos (2001) and Pájaros de papel (2010).

Besides, Ara Malikian is a standing world famous personality, a quality that allows him to cooperate with projects aimed to improve the life of the most disadvantaged people every single time he is able to do it, especially when it comes to kids. He is annually collaborating with NGO “Action against Hunger”

Booklet für No Seasons