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Release Date: April 10, 2020
Catalog #: NV6277
Format: Digital & Physical
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Violin Concerto

Alicia Terzian composer

Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande conductor
Rafael Gintoli violin

The creation of VIOLIN CONCERTO by Alicia Terzian marked the beginning of her 65-year (and counting) compositional career. Originally composed in 1954/55, this important piece of her repertoire was brought to life thanks to a collaboration between Navona Records and the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra. This album also features Terzian's Three Pieces, which listeners can remember from their previous Navona release, OFF THE EDGE.

Like Three Pieces, Violin Concerto is a work of three movements. The first, "Allegro," establishes two contrasting themes: one that is very rhythmic, the other more lyrical in nature. The work is heard through the virtuous skill of the violin soloist, Rafael Gintoli, combines elements of the two themes, and includes Terzian’s skills with microtonalism.

The second movement is based on an ancient Armenian folk melody entitled "Daughter, your mother has died." This melancholic symphonic meditation, through variations, becomes a frantic passion, concluding in an acceptant peace. The third movement, "Andante-Allegro," bursts forth with a crash of the brass section and thunder of the timpani. The movement proceeds to an allegro vivace, which drives another agile violin solo.

Three Pieces, the album's second work, was composed in 1954 and is arranged for a string orchestra and inspired by different Armenian folk melodies. It has been performed on countless European stages since its creation. Both Three Pieces and Violin Concerto are included in the repertoire of important European, Asian and American orchestras.

VIOLIN CONCERTO is a daring work that is at last available for listeners around the world to enjoy thanks to this new release by Navona Records. Terzian’s music is truly timeless; this is made evident by the fact that her compositions—including those performed on VIOLIN CONCERTO—move audiences as much today as they first did half a century ago.

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"This is an outstanding release which I heartily endorse, a real gem!"

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Violin Concerto: I. Allegro Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 14:04
02 Violin Concerto: II. Theme & Variations Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 9:15
03 Violin Concerto: III. Andante - Allegro Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 8:14
04 3 Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5 (Arr. for String Orchestra): No. 1, Canción del atardecer Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 4:45
05 3 Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5 (Arr. for String Orchestra): No. 2, Pastoral con variaciones Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 4:50
06 3 Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5 (Arr. for String Orchestra): No. 3, Danza rústica Alicia Terzian Siberian State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Lande, conductor; Rafael Gintoli, violin 2:15

CONCERTO PARA VIOLIN Y ORQUESTA
Recorded August 22 - 27, 2019 at Krasnoyarsk Regional Philharmonic in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia

Session Producer & Engineer Alexei Barashkin

Assistant Engineers Regina Ablyazina, Roman Dergachev

TRES PIEZAS PARA CUERDAS
Recorded September 5 - 8, 2016 at Krasnoyarsk Regional Philharmonic in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia

Session Producer & Engineer Alexei Barashkin

Cover photograph by Studio Heinrich-Sanguinetti

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil

VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Recording Sessions Director Levi Brown
International Recording Sessions Manager, Editing & Mixing (tracks 1-3), Mastering Jan Košulič

Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner

Artist Information

Alicia Terzian

Composer

Alicia Terzian is an internationally renowned contemporary music figure who is known for her accomplishments as a composer, conductor, and musicologist. In musicology, she specialized in Latin American and 4th thru 10th-century ancient religious Armenian music.

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Vladimir Lande

Conductor

In 2008, Lande was appointed principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg State Symphony, and in 2011 he led the orchestra on a 24-concert "Tour of the Americas” including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Philadelphia’s KimmelCenter, Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall, and the Society of the Performing Arts in Houston, as well as the most prestigious venues in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay.

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Rafael Gintoli

Rafael Gintoli

Violin

RAFAEL GINTOLI graduated from the Municipal Conservatory of Music "Manuel de Falla," studying violin with professors Humberto Carfi and Szymsia Bajour. In 1968 he won the Municipal Prize of Buenos Aires, and in 1972 he received a scholarship from the Mozarteum and the Ministry of Science and Education of The Hague.

Since the age of 16, he has performed as a soloist with the most important orchestras in Argentina and throughout Europe, Armenia, and Asia. He was invited to perform as a soloist with the Saò Paulo Symphony Orchestra; Ensemble Das Neue Werk in Hamburg; Radio and Television in Krakow; Chamber Orchestra of Ferrara; Teatro Massimo in Palermo; La Fenice Theater in Venice; Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento; I Giovani Cameristi di Roma; Luxembourg Philharmonic; National Orchestra of Turkey; Philharmonic of Bogotá; National Symphony of Reykjavik; Bremen Philharmonic; National Symphony of Ireland; Symphonic Orchestra of Bilbao; Orchestra of the Comunale Theater of Cagliari (Italy); the Simón Bolívar Symphony of Venezuela; the National Orchestras of El Salvador and of Santiago de Chile; the Kaohsiung Orchestra in Taiwan; the Konzertsaal de Lucerna (Switzerland); the State Orchestra of Mexico; the Symphonic Orchestra of the National Theater of the Opera of Yerevan (Armenia); the Sinfonietta of the Lirico Theater of Cagliari; the Symphony of Thessaloniki (Greece); Accademia I Filarmonici di Verona; the Symphony of Bari; and the Morelia Festival (Mexico).

He has made numerous tours as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States (New Orleans, Washington, Los Angeles, and New York) and in Antwerp, Sofia, Kiev, Paris, Milan, and Rome. He has made recordings for RAI, Radio Berna, Radio Maastricht (Holland), TV Globo (Brazil) and National Broadcasting System (Iceland).

He was the concertmaster of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, at the La Fenice Theater in Venice, and performed with many European orchestras, including: the Haydn de Bolzano; the Sinfonietta Roma; the Orchestra of the Sala Verdi in Milan; the Guido Cantelli Orchestra; and in his country with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Colon Theater, the National Symphony, and all the orchestras of the different Argentine provinces.

Invited by Master Shlomo Mintz, he gave a high-perfection course in Keshet Eilon (Israel) and in the main capitals of Europe and Latin America. The Argentine Association of Musical Critics awarded him the First Prize for the best Chamber Music Interpreter, and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires distinguished him as an outstanding personality in Argentine music.

Gintoli joined the jury of the First International Violin Competition of Buenos Aires in 2010, the International Violin Competition "Luis Sigall" of Chile, and the International Competition of China in the year 2017. Along with Martha Argerich, he recently performed at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Auditorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, at the Traiano Forum, in Rome, and in Uruguay and Paraguay.

Notes

My composing style displays a continuous evolution through three periods.

The first period, from 1954 to 1964, features many orchestral, chamber, and choral works (Violin Concerto, First Symphony, Three Pieces for string, Toccata for piano, Three Madrigals for choir, Lorca’s Soongsbook, Contrasting Movements for Orchestra, etc.).

The second period is the cosmic stage, technically joined to post-serialism and atonalism, and marked by the utilization of the microtone, which would become a constant characteristic in my music up to the present day. Images Book for organ, Carmen Criaturalis for solo horn and orchestra, Voces for mezzo, chamber group, and tape, Shantiniketan for solo flute, and many other works were written as theatre and ballet music in this time.

The third period embraces space music with transformation of the sound in real time as well as personal melodic microtonal criteria. It includes the sound produced by orchestra instruments transformed by means of electronic equipment and heard by the audience through many loudspeakers that surround the concert hall as a sonorous dome. With this system, I obtained a new original sound from the orchestra, enriched and moving into the space. I applied this system in one of my orchestral works: Canto a mí misma, performed with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the Symphonia Varsovia.

To this period belong other works like: Yagua-ya yuca for percussion, Off the Edge for baritone and orchestra, Les yeux fertiles for mezzo and chamber orchestra, Ofrenda a Bach for organ, Le viol des anges for 6 percussions, Au delá des rêves for trio, and more.

— Alicia Terzian

Written in 1954-55, Concierto Para Violin Y Orquesta premiered at the Teatro Colón on November 17, 1969 with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Washington Castro. In 1970, the work was selected for its premiere at the opening concert of the 3rd Music Festival of the Americas and Spain, taking place at the Teatro Real de Madrid with the Spanish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vicente Spiteri and featuring Simón Bajour as soloist.

In 1972 the piece had its first performance in Yerevan, Armenia, with the Philharmonia Yerevan Orchestra performed by Aram Katanian and featuring Willy Mogatzian as soloist. The Violin Concerto has been interpreted several times in Europe and other Latin American and Middle Eastern countries: in Reykjavik (Iceland), Cagliari (Italy), Bremen (Germany), Zurich (Switzerland), Caracas (Venezuela), Bogotá (Colombia), Taiwan, and Yerevan, among others. These performances always featured Rafael Gintoli as soloist, and were directed by Pedro Ignacio Calderón, Francisco Rettig, Duilio Dobrin, Daniel Schweizer, Gunter Neuhold, and Keith Brown, among other leading orchestra directors.

Concierto Para Violin Y Orquesta is structured in 3 movements. The first movement — Allegro — is based on two contrasting themes: the first of rhythmic character, the second of lyrical nature. The bright symphonism is characteristic of this movement, the entire work, and the great technical skill of the soloist. The Cadenza del violin — of great virtuosity — alternates with the different themes together with microtonal elements (quarter tones).

The second movement — Theme with Variations — is based on an ancient Armenian popular song, compiled by musicologist Dr. Gomidas Vartabed. It is a sad melody with text that says: “Daughter your mother has died.” It is followed by four variations ranging from a quiet environment to a perpetual cycle of great vivacity, with the force returning at the end and the original theme wrapped in a very delicate sound.

The third movement — Andante-Allegro — begins with the bronzes that give way to Allegro vivace. Towards the end a virtuous cadence of the violin built with a melodic theme of memories and a microtonal treatment. The Coda of this ending is a quick — it has great rhythmic force that has its origin at the end of the Three Pieces for strings written in 1954.

— Alicia Terzian

This work was written for string quartet as well as string orchestra in 1954, when I was in the first year of my studies of composition at the National Conservatory of Music of Buenos Aires. The version you have here is for string orchestra. It is divided into three movements and the inspiration comes somewhat from Armenian folklore. The first movement, “Canción del atardecer - Sunset song,” is in 3 parts: a-b-a and coda. The two different themes are contrasting. The second, “Pastoral con variaciones - Pastoral with variations,” is based on a melody like the medieval ancient music played by the altos with different variations. The last movement, “Danza rústica - Rustic Dance” is a very rhythmical and lively rondó. This work was played in many different concerts in Europe, with different orchestras and string quartets.

— Alicia Terzian

LA NACIÓN NEWSPAPER (BUENOS AIRES)
René Vargas Vera writes: “The Zurich Symphony Orchestra conducted by Massimiliano Matesic performed on tour through our country with soloist Rafael Gintoli, who performed his ‘Violin Concerto.’ I wrote this work at age 20 and [brought it into] the world [through] the master fingers of Rafael Gintoli. Our composer developed in this work her own harmonic and contrapuntal conception, in such a way that the orchestra reached a sound balance with the solo voice of the violin. This is clearly perceived when Rafael Gintoli shows meticulously, the suggestive plot of Terzian’s concerto in 3 movements. The work is surprising, for its clarity and the elaborate contrasts, the violin and orchestra dialogues, the explosions and backwaters, the orchestral grandiosity and introspective climates, the halo of mystery, and the irruption of the dance over 50 years ago are enjoyed intensely.”

LA NACIÓN NEWSPAPER (BUENOS AIRES)
“One of the best compositions of the outstanding Argentine composer could be heard, one of the most active diffusers of contemporary music. The Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires, directed by Jorge Rotter, had a superlative performer in Rafael Gintoli, not only because of the quality of performance, but because he knew how to penetrate the aesthetics of the work. It is a generous score in the richness of the orchestration, with the use of microtonal intervals in which Gintoli provided moments of subtle phrasing, quality, and emotional intensity, especially in that wonderful 2nd movement whose theme is an ancient Armenian song in which serenity and virtuosity alternate ”

L’UNIONE SARDA NEWSPAPER (Sardinia, Italy)
Greca Piras writes: “From Buenos Aires came violinist Rafael Gintoli and director Pedro Ignacio Calderón to premiere Alicia Terzian’s Violin and Orchestra Concerto with the Cagliari Community Orchestra. Terzian’s work…[demonstrates] the creative experience that the composer has in the field of contemporary music. Rafael Gintoli was a first-rate violinist, technically perfect and of great virtuosity. This is a true piece of bravery that the interpreter [delivered] in a masterful way.”

NEW JOURNAL (Madrid)
F. Ruiz Coca writes: “He closed the afternoon of the 3rd Music Festival of America and Spain with the ‘Concerto for Violin and Orchestra’ by Alicia Terzian. Conceived as an extension of the historical expressionist constant, it is a work of great importance, a good work and in which the brilliance of soloist Simón Bajour stands out for a complete technique and sensitive musicality.”

LA NUOVA SARDEGNA NEWSPAPER (Sardinia, Italy)
Daniela Sari writes: “Alicia Terzian is an Argentine lady who has a great passion [for] contemporary music, and who has composed, directed, and explored for many years, being the voice of Latin American music. Alicia Terzian’s Violin Concerto has a particular accent for rhythmic and thematic elaboration and the composer gives ample space to the solo instrument, filling it with virtuosity in the sound discourse. Rafael Gintoli overcame it with great expertise, designing the atmosphere by highlighting the particular descriptive or dramatic contours of the work, whose orchestral exhibition is balanced and expressive

LA RAZÓN NEWSPAPER (Buenos Aires)
Ricardo Turró writes: “The Teatro Colón, within the framework of the concert of the Philharmonic of Buenos Aires directed by Washington Castro, announced in an absolute premiere the ‘Concerto for violin and orchestra’ by Alicia Terzian, a work that gave its composer unquestionable success. It is a piece filled with sincerity and depth, with sensitive musical appreciation and balance. It is written ‘for the violin’ and not ‘against the violin.’ The rich orchestration knows the nuance and combines its loudness well with that of the soloist without ever drowning it. There are in the first movement and in the last difficult and attractive cadence for the violin. The walk with variations is wide, thematically intense, with penetrating cantábile and excellent elaboration. The finale has more value in the rhythmic impulse passages. The violinist Szymsia Bajour had an outstanding performance, technically safe, played like a virtuoso. His acclamation by the public was of strict justice as was that of the author and the orchestra that Washington Castro conducted with skill and ease.”