Safaian: Überbach

Release Date: 7th Oct 2016
Catalogue No: 0300825NM
Label: Neue Meister
Length: 57 minutes

ECHO Klassik Awards

2017

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Safaian: Concerto No. 1, "Infinite Games"

Work length18:03

$5.00

$6.00

Sebastian Knauer (piano), Pascal Schumacher (vibraphone), Arash Safaian (synthesizer)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann
Recorded: 8-9 June 2016
Recording Venue: ZKO-Haus, Zürich, Switzerland

I. Halleluja (after J.S. Bach's Uns ist ein Kind geboren, BWV 142: Alleluia)

Track length3:47

$1.00

$1.20

II. Canon in C (after J.S. Bach's Kanon zu acht Stimmen, BWV 1072)

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.20

III. Empty Set (after J.S. Bach's Widerstehe doch der Sunde, BWV 54: Aria)

Track length6:09

$1.00

$1.20

IV. Prelude in C (after J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major, BWV 924)

Track length1:28

$1.00

$1.20

V. In Midair (after J.S. Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245, Part II: Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen)

Track length3:48

$1.00

$1.20

Safaian: Concerto No. 2, "As Above so Below"

Work length8:31

$3.00

$3.60

Sebastian Knauer (piano), Pascal Schumacher (vibraphone)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann
Recorded: 8-9 June 2016
Recording Venue: ZKO-Haus, Zürich, Switzerland

I. Folia (after J.S. Bach's BWV 21, 847 and 245)

Track length2:46

$1.00

$1.20

II. Sinfonia (after J.S. Bach's Ich hatte viel Bekummernis, BWV 21)

Track length3:01

$1.00

$1.20

III. Prelude in C Minor (after J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 847)

Track length2:44

$1.00

$1.20

Safaian: Modulation: Looping Bach

Work length3:11

$1.00

$1.20

Sebastian Knauer (piano), Pascal Schumacher (vibraphone), Arash Safaian (synthesizer)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann

Safaian: Concerto No. 3, "Fuge Like a Passion"

Work length7:47

$2.00

$2.40

Sebastian Knauer (piano), Pascal Schumacher (vibraphone), Arash Safaian (synthesizer)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann
Recorded: 8-9 June 2016
Recording Venue: ZKO-Haus, Zürich, Switzerland

I. Canon in G (after J.S. Bach's Kanon zu seiben Stimmen und Basso ostinato, BWV 1078)

Track length1:58

$1.00

$1.20

II. Little G (after J.S. Bach's Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578)

Track length5:49

$1.00

$1.20

Safaian: Concerto No. 4, "Newton's Law"

Work length7:08

$2.00

$2.40

Sebastian Knauer (piano), Pascal Schumacher (vibraphone)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann
Recorded: 8-9 June 2016
Recording Venue: ZKO-Haus, Zürich, Switzerland

I. Choral Prelude (after J.S. Bach's Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf, BWV 617)

Track length4:54

$1.00

$1.20

II. Fuga XX (after J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, BWV 870-893: Fugue No. 20 in A Minor, BWV 889)

Track length2:14

$1.00

$1.20

Safaian: Concerto No. 5, "Dorian"

Work length12:53

$3.00

$3.60

Sebastian Knauer (piano)
Zürcher Kammerorchester
Willi Zimmermann
Recorded: 8-9 June 2016
Recording Venue: ZKO-Haus, Zürich, Switzerland

I. Aria (after J.S. Bach's Vergnugte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170: Aria: Vergnugte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust)

Track length5:58

$1.00

$1.20

II. Toccata (after J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 538, "Dorian": Toccata)

Track length6:55

$2.00

$2.40

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ÜberBach – TO HEAR BACH WITHOUT LISTENING TO BACH

Music composed by Arash Safaian

The ÜberBach album is a collection of compositions by the Munich-based composer Arash Safaian on themes by Johann Sebastian Bach. Safaian starts off with various pieces by Bach – chorales, orchestral works, organ and clavier music – and works with them to create five concertos for piano, vibraphone and chamber orchestra. Arash Safaian’s musical partner is the internationally acclaimed pianist Sebastian Knauer: “When I heard the first example of ÜberBach, I was enthusiastic about the project at once. The virtuosity of the piano part, the melodiousness of the compositions and the closely woven sound made a deep impression on me. I imagined I was listening to Bach and yet it sounded too modern for the original.”

Sebastian Knauer called his long-time musical partner, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the very next day. He organized the recording and further developed the project with Safaian. For the shimmering crystalline sound, the duo recruited the Luxembourg-born multi-percussionist Pascal Schumacher. He plays the vibraphone, which blends with the piano. There is also a synthesizer to enrich the sound of the basso continuo – for which Bach used the organ. The project centres on the idea of creating a form of music in which one hears Bach without Bach being heard. Arash Safaian develops the music ideas already contained in the compositions of Bach and interprets them anew: “For me, Bach’s works are music in its purest form. They require no deconstruction, no historical classification. What I always think is that I am hearing the grammar of music. That is why I have decided to compose music about Bach’s music. That makes it like a view into a landscape that your own eye interprets in a certain way.”

Arash Safaian is artist, composer and producer. He is the son of artist Ali Akbar Safaian, an important representative of Iranian modernism. Born in Teheran, he grew up in Bayreuth, where he was exposed to Richard Wagner’s operas at an early age. Alongside his interest in music, painting and sculpture shaped his childhood and youth. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nürnberg and showed his series of pictures in solo and group exhibitions, before moving to the Munich College of Music and Drama to study composition. He has made his mark as a composer with orchestral works, ensemble pieces, film music and operas – in New York (“on the beach”) directed by Robert Wilson at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, in Berlin (“Exit Paradise”) at Oper Neukölln and in Munich (“At Stake”) at the Opera Biennale. Safaian has won the Composition Prize of the Reinl Foundation in Vienna, the Günther Bialas Prize and Bavaria’s e-on Arts Prize. He has held scholarships from the Villa Concordia Bamberg, the City of Munich and Cité des artes Paris. Arash Safaian lives and works in Munich.

Safaian: Überbach

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