Moderato Cantabile: Komitas, Gurdjieff & Mompou

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relaxed, vaguely ethnic, New Age background music in which one piece segues imperceptibly into the next and rough edges are smoothed away...listeners in search of a mood of limpid repose could... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2014 More…

Release Date: 8th Sep 2014
Catalogue No: 4810992
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 57 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

George Gurdjieff: Sayyid Chant / Hymn No. 7 / Dance No. 3

Work length6:42

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Couturier: Voyage

Work length5:27

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Komitas: Chinar Es

Work length6:29

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Mompou: Canción y danza

Work length5:12

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Mompou: Musica callada XXVIII / Impresiones intimas I

Work length5:59

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Couturier: Soleil rouge

Work length3:36

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Couturier: Papillons

Work length7:27

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

George Gurdjieff: Hymn No. 8 / Night Procession

Work length6:44

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

George Gurdjieff, Federico Mompou: No. 11 / Fêtes lointaines No. 3

Work length4:47

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

Mompou: Secreto

Work length5:04

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Anja Lechner (cello), François Couturier (piano)
Recorded: 2013-11-17
Recording Venue: Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera, Lugano

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About

After a decade of shared work in the Tarkovsky Quartet and an ongoing alliance in the Pergolesi Project, German cellist Anja Lechner and French pianist Francois Couturier unveil their new duo. The players approach the music from different vantage points: Lechner is a classical soloist with an uncommon interest in improvisation, Couturier a jazz musician travelling ever further from jazz. On ‘Moderato cantabile’ they present their own arrangements of works by three fascinating outsiders from the margins of music history - G.I. Gurdjieff, Komitas and Federico Mompou.

To differing degrees their music reveals influences from the east, both in terms of relationship to folk traditions and religious music, and philosophically. A contemplative air pervades the session. The programme has connections to Anja Lechner's acclaimed account of Gurdjieff's music on the earlier Chants, Hymns and Dances (9819613, with Vassilis Tsabropoulos), but the new duo has its own identity, and time spent in Armenia has deepened Lechner's understanding of the contexts from which the music emerged: her cello assumes almost a singer's role in these pieces, exploring the strong melodies.

François Couturier's compositions function as both contrasting and complementary elements. As a player, François has a long history of working with Mompou's music. He has been influenced, furthermore, by his association with Anouar Brahem, and the sonorities of the Middle East are part of his palette. ‘Moderato cantabile’, a striking and unusual album, was recorded in the rich acoustics of the Lugano studio in November 2013 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Reviews

November 2014

relaxed, vaguely ethnic, New Age background music in which one piece segues imperceptibly into the next and rough edges are smoothed away...listeners in search of a mood of limpid repose could do a great deal worse. Lechner and her partner are seriously accomplished and sensitive players.

Moderato Cantabile: Komitas, Gurdjieff & Mompou

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