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Track Listings
| 1. Chant From A Holy Book |
| 2. Bayaty |
| 3. Prayer |
| 4. Duduki |
| 5. Interlude I |
| 6. Trois Morceaux Apres Hymnes Byzantins I |
| 7. Trois Morceaux Apres Hymnes Byzantins II |
| 8. Trois Morceaux Apres Hymnes Byzantins III |
| 9. Dance |
| 10. Chant |
| 11. Interlude II |
| 12. Assyrian Women Mourners |
| 13. Aremenian Song |
| 14. (No. 11) |
| 15. Woman's Prayer |
| 16. Chant From A Holy Book, Var. 1 |
Product Description
Album Description
'Chants, Hymns and Dances' could be subtitled "Music from the Crossroads of the World". It is a project that blurs the dividing lines between East and West, between composition and arrangement and improvisation, and between contemporary and traditional music.
This magical musical journey has a highly attractive simplicity, restraint and purity that can speak to any listener who likes Erik Satie, or, on the other hand, Anouar Brahem. At its centre are compositions by Tsabropoulos, which take as their inspirational starting point ancient Byzantine hymns, and music by the Armenian-born philosopher-composer Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (c.1877-1949) which draws upon melodies and rhythms, both sacred and secular, of the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Largely as a result of ECM's advocacy, Gurdjieff's music found a larger audience from the 1980s onwards. Keith Jarrett's Sacred Hymns of G.I. Gurdjieff sold thousands and launched a "boom" for Gurdjieff - further boosted by Peter Brook's film 'Meetings with Remarkable Men'.
The Byzantine hymns which Vassilis Tsabropoulos has set for the duo - some of them 2000 years old - are irreducible masterpieces of proportion, their sense of balance, as well as their interweaving of modes and melodic lines, informing the history of composition.
Both musicians are well-known to ECM listeners: Lechner through recordings with the Rosamunde Quartet (including the popular post-Tango Nuevo Kultrum collaboration with Dino Saluzzi) and Ukrainian pianist Misha Alperin; and Tsabropoulos with his acclaimed solo album 'Akroasis' and on jazz albums with bassist Arild Andersen and drummer John Marshall, most recently 'The Triangle.'
Recorded 2003
Personnel:
Anja Lechner - (cello), Vassilis Tsabropoulos - (piano)
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Customer Reviews
The CD has arrangements of Gurdjieff's spiritual music for cello and piano, as well as five pieces by pianist Tsabropoulos. The music often has an Armenian, Ukranian and Greek Orthodox tone and is played in a subdued and almost introvert manner. Piano and cello match each other perfectly sounding warm, dark and achingly beautiful.
Even at full price you will not be disappointed by this CD. Put it on when you are alone and need to think stuff through - or share it intimately with someone you love. Be warned. This is not background music. It will cast its spell upon you and draw you into its serene and yearning atmosphere.
What an absolute and unexpected treasure! My best classical discovery on CD in a long time.
Gurdjieff ran the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Fountainebleu and is described as “philosopher, reconciler of science and esoteric lore” in the informative liner notes. Despite Gurdjieff’s shamanistic side, pianist Tsabropoulos and cellist Lechner have been at pains to stress that their interest was musical and not philosophical
In any event, in arranging Gurdjieff’s piano compositions for piano and cello, they have created a magnificent album which, in revealing an inner content hitherto not apparent, stands as a document of a confluence in musical styles and sensibilities, where east meets west. Gurdjieff’s compositions have intriguing and exotic titles such as “Chant from a Holy Book”, “Duduki” (an Armenian wind instrument) and best of all in every sense “Assyrian Woman Mourners” whose name is reminiscent of titles such as “Song from the Thracian Plain” from the 4AD album of Bulgarian choral music entitled “le Mystere dex Voix Bulgares.”
There is a richness and fullness in the sound despite the presence of only two instruments. I was familiar with Tsabropoulos from his performance on Arild Andersen’s “The Triangle” and his solo album “Akroasis”. Good though those are, Tsabropoulos’s performance reaches another level here. His piano has an extraordinary sound, full of religious purity and assured yet ethereal and hypnotic and there are echoes of much late nineteenth century and twentieth century piano music such as Debussy, Ravel and Satie. However, for all the plaudits deservedly directed towards Tsabropolous, Lechner’s cello is the revelation providing a weight, dissonance and contrast to the piano meaning that the closest comparison to this recording is the wonderful “Music for Egon Schiele” by the American genre-jumping group, Rachel’s, which I would recommend unreservedly.
Book-ended by variations of “Chant From a Holy Woman” this is an album in which very few moments are less than spellbinding. Paradoxically, two of the highlights for me are both Tsabropoulos compositions, the second and third of the “trios morceaux après des hymnes byzantins” which form the centrepiece of the album. One review I have read was rather dismissive of Tsabropoulos’s compositional skills, likening his pieces to lightweight new age music. Such claims are wholly misplaced and morceaux II and III are utterly magnificent in their beauty.
Perhaps even better than these however is the afore-mentioned “Assyrian Woman Mourners.” There are a few moments in music which rise above the many thousands of hours of recorded beauty in all its forms and this twelfth tracks rivals the 18th to 24th minutes of the second movement of Jarrett’s “la Scala” in this regard. For that reason alone, this is an album to cherish.
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