Kancheli: Chiaroscuro Gidon Kremer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Kremerata Baltica

• Giya Kancheli (1935-): Chiaroscuro - For violin and chamber orchestra (2010)
• 1Chiaroscuro22:35
• Twilight - For two violins and chamber orchestra (2004)
• 2Twilight24:59
• Total Runtime47:34

Info for Kancheli: Chiaroscuro

The great Georgian composer’s twelfth ECM New Series album features first recordings of two major works: Chiaroscuro for violin and chamber orchestra, and Twilight for two violins and chamber orchestra. Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica have had a long and close association with Giya Kancheli.

On Twilight, the coming together of Kremer and Patricia Kopatchinskaya, two of the most powerfully expressive violinists of our era, makes for fascinating listening. The piece is a touching meditation on mortality, written at a time when Giya Kancheli was recovering from illness and seeing in the leaves and branches of poplar trees outside his window a metaphor for change and transformation.

Chiaroscuro, meanwhile, borrows its title from the painting technique of the renaissance and baroque whose concern with dramatic contrasts of light and shade corresponds quite directly to the stark dynamics of the composer’s writing, vigorously conveyed by Kremerata Baltica. Recorded in Vilnius, Lithuania, in December 2014, and produced by Manfred Eicher, this album is an important addition to Kancheli’s ECM catalogue. It is issued in the composer’s 80th year.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Gidon Kremer, violin, direction
Kremerata Baltica

Patricia Kopatchinskaja
repertoire ranges from baroque and classical (often played on gut strings) to new commissions or re-interpretations of modern masterworks.

2014/15 sees Kopatchinskaja make her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker performing Peter Eötvös’ DoReMi under the baton of the composer as part of Musikfest Berlin. She also performs the concerto at the Dialoge Festival of Salzburg’s Mozarteum. Other highlights this season include her debut with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR/Sir Roger Norrington and the Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy. She is also Artist-in-Residence with the hr-sinfonieorchester, in concerts conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, Roland Kluttig and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

In spring 2015 Kopatchinskaja tours Switzerland with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo and the Netherlands and France with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Philippe Herreweghe. She also performs Gubaidulina’s Offertorium on a major European tour with NDR Sinfonieorchester and Thomas Hengelbrock. Kopatchinskaja was recently named as Artistic Partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and her first performance in this role in November 2014 combined traditional folk music with classical works.

Last season’s highlights included debut performances with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at Munich’s Musica Viva Festival, with Akademie für alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs and Musica Aeterna ensemble with Teodor Currentzis. She also performed at the closing concerts of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Vladimir Jurowski at the Edinburgh International and Santander festivals.

Chamber music is of immense importance to Kopatchinskaja and she performs regularly with artists such as Sol Gabetta, Markus Hinterhäuser and Polina Leschenko as well as members of her own family. She is also a founding member of the highly acclaimed quartet-lab, a string quartet with Pekka Kuusisto, Lilli Maijala and Pieter Wispelwey. In autumn 2014 the quartet undertook their second major tour with performances at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Konzerthaus Dortmund.

A prolific recording artist, Kopatchinskaja’s recent releases for Naïve Classique include violin concerti by Prokofiev and Stravinsky with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski, and concerti by Bartók, Ligeti and Peter Eötvös with hr-Sinfonieorchester/Ensemble Modern. The latter recording won Gramophone’s Recording of the Year Award in 2013, as well as an ICMA Award, ECHO Klassik Award and a 2014 Grammy nomination. She also received an ECHO Klassik Award in the chamber music category for her 2009 recording of sonatas by Beethoven Ravel, Bártok & Fazil Say. She has recorded works by Tigran Mansurian and Ustvolskaya for ECM Records.

The winner of numerous prizes during her career, Kopatchinskaja was recently named by the Royal Philharmonic Society as their Instrumentalist of the Year in 2014 for ourstanding live performances in the UK.

Gidon Kremer
Of all the world’s leading violinists, Gidon Kremer has perhaps had the most unconventional career. Born in Riga, Latvia, he began studying at the age of four with his father and grandfather, both distinguished string players. Later success in numerous international competitions launched Gidon Kremer’s distinguished career, in the course of which he has established a worldwide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation.

Gidon Kremer’s repertoire is unusually extensive, encompassing all of the standard classical and romantic violin works, as well as music by twentieth- and twenty-first century masters such as Henze, Berg and Stockhausen. He also championed the works of living Russian and Eastern European composers and has performed many important new compositions; several of them dedicated to him. He has become associated with such diverse composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Aribert Reimann, Peteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philipp Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov and Astor Piazzolla, bringing their music to audiences in a way that respects tradition yet remains contemporary. It would be fair to say that no other soloist of his international stature has done as much for contemporary composers in the past 30 years.

An exceptionally prolific recording artist, Gidon Kremer has made more than 120 albums, many of which brought him prestigious international awards and prizes in recognition of his exceptional interpretative powers. These include the „Grand prix du Disque“, „Deutscher Schallplattenpreis“, the „Ernst-von-Siemens Musikpreis“, the „Bundesverdienstkreuz“, the „Premio dell‘ Accademia Musicale Chigiana“, the „Triumph Prize 2000” (Moscow), in 2001 the „Unesco Prize”, in 2007 the Saeculum-Glashütte Original-Musikfestspielpreis Dresden and in 2008 the Rolf-Schock Prize, Stockholm, in 2010 “life achievement” prize of the Istanbul Music festival, and in 2011 he was awarded “Una Vita Nella Musica – Artur Rubinstein” Prize (Venice) which is considered by many to be the “Nobel Prize” of music, among many others.

In February 2002 he and the Kremerata Baltica were awarded with the Grammy for the Nonesuch recording “After Mozart” in the category “Best Small Ensemble Performance.” The same recording received an ECHO prize in Germany in the fall of 2002.

In 1997, Gidon Kremer founded Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra to foster outstanding young musicians from the three Baltic States. Since then, Mo Kremer has been touring extensively with the orchestra appearing at world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls. He has also recorded almost 25 CD’s with the orchestra for Teldec, Nonesuch, DGG and ECM.

Kremerata Baltica
In 1997 Austria’s legendary Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival was witness to a small revolution when, beside many other distinguished musicians, the violinist Gidon Kremer, who at that time had been in charge of this festival as an artistic director for 30 years (1981-2011) presented a brand new orchestra: Kremerata Baltica, comprising outstanding young players from the Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia – selected by Gidon Kremer through a rigorous auditioning process. From their very first concert, Kremerata Baltica conquered the discerning audiences with their exuberance, energy and joy in playing.

The talented group of musicians soon developed into one of the best international chamber orchestras in the world, and since then it has cemented its international reputation in major concert venues around the world. During the last 18 years Kremerata Baltica has played in more than 50 countries, performing in 600 cities and giving more than 1500 concerts around the world: Asia, Australia, North and Latin Americas, as well as all over the Europe. The orchestra has played numerous times as well in UK, including repeated performances at the BBC Proms. Every year Kremerata Baltica holds its own Festival in Sigulda and Cesis, Latvia since 2003.

The orchestra received the Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists in 2009 and has released more than 25 CDs. “After Mozart” (Nonesuch, 2001), a 21st century take on the composer, won an internationally coveted Grammy Award and German ECHO prize in 2002. “Mieczysław Weinberg” (2014, ECM) recorded with Gidon Kremer and soloists at Neuhardenberg and Lockenhaus in 2012 and 2013, makes a strong case for Shostakovich’s assertion that M. Weinberg was one of the great composers of his era. The recording was highly appreciated by music professionals and was nominated for a Grammy award in “Best Classical Compendium” category. In 2015 a recording „New Seasons“ was released with Deutsche Grammophon, including P. Glass Violin Concerto No.2 „The American Four Seasons“, as well works by A. Pärt, G. Kancheli and S. Umebayashi.

Among the celebrated soloists with whom Kremerata Baltica has performed are soprano Jessye Norman, pianists Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Michail Pletnev, Oleg Maisenberg, Daniil Trifonov, violinists Thomas Zehetmair, Patricia Kopachinskaya, Vadim Repin, Didier Lockwood, cellists Mischa Maisky, Mario Brunello, Yo Yo Ma, Boris Pergamenschikov, Nicolas Altstaedt. Conductors have included Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach, Kent Nagano, Heinz Holliger, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla. Each of these musicians has contributed to shaping the unique spirit of Kremerata Baltica.

Essential to Kremerata Baltica’s artistic personality is its creative approach to programming, which often looks beyond the mainstream and has given rise to numerous world premieres of works by composers such as Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Pēteris Vasks, Leonid Desyatnikov, Victor Kissine, Sofia Gubaidulina, Dobrinka Tabakova, Raminta Serksnyte, Alexander Voustin and Alexander Raskatov and others. The orchestra’s wide-ranging and carefully chosen repertoire is also showcased in its numerous and much-praised CD recordings.

One of the most memorable recent performances was orchestra’s participation in the concert for Human rights in Russia “To Russia With Love” held in October, 2013 at Berlin Philharmonie together with the world known soloists: Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Khatia Buniatishvili, Emanuel Pahud, Sergey Nakaryakov – invited by Gidon Kremer himself.

Kremerata Baltica is also a part of “All About Gidon” project – a half-scenic concert show with music from J. Haydn to A. Piazzolla, where Gidon Kremer reflects on his career in a musical and rhetorical way. Another exciting experience for the last couple of years for Kremerata Baltica are joint performances with Gidon Kremer and the mime Slava Polunin with his group in project SNOW SYMPHONY. Original musical spectacle created by two living virtuosos of the 20th century was highly acclaimed by the audience of Israel on it’s premiere in 2011 and has been performed in Russia and several countries in Europe.

The newest, visual, project was launched in 2015 – “Masks and Faces” (based on music by M. Mussorgsky – “Pictures at an exhibition” version for string orchestra by J.Cohen/A. Pushkarev, M. Weinberg and V. Silvestrov) in collaboration with Gidon Kremer and acclaimed Russian painter and philosopher Maxim Kantor. Kremerata Baltica was recently seen and heard as well with many other actors and dancers – be it classical ballet or Flamenco.

Booklet for Kancheli: Chiaroscuro