{"id":3270,"date":"2009-10-15T18:31:38","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T01:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3270"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:59:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:59:18","slug":"probing-the-psyche-of-the-oppressed-through-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/15\/probing-the-psyche-of-the-oppressed-through-music\/","title":{"rendered":"probing the psyche of the oppressed through music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"neharot-kashkashian-ecm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been living with the new Kim Kashkashian recording entitled Nehar\u00f3t<\/em> for some time now, and find its title track Nehar\u00f3t Nehar\u00f3t<\/em> (by the Israeli composer Betty Olivero, b.1954) to be one of the most affecting new pieces of music that I’ve encountered in the past decade. \u00a0I liken its first impact on me to that of Jennifer Higdon’s Blue Cathedral<\/em>, now one of the most-performed pieces of contemporary music in America – visceral, deeply touching, and subtly haunting. \u00a0Neharot stays with you for some time, not the least because it succeeds in transporting the listener to a place outside of their normal experience, and, I dare say, out of their time as well. \u00a0It’s a timeless piece of music. \u00a0Kashkashian also produces a remarkably vocal sound on her viola – an instrument which is often overlooked in favor of the cello for emulating the range of the human voice, but which I think takes the place in the register of a great mezzo – capable of stratospheric heights, but more at home in the middle-to-upper range and with subtle imperfections in the tone production that make the timbre reach more deeply into the heartstrings. \u00a0Speaking of voices, the Neharot<\/em> features recorded voices of professional singers (singing songs of Kurdish and North African origin or derivation) which interplay with the solo viola. \u00a0The added layer that the orchestral figurations which open the work evolve into quotations from Orpheus’ lament from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo<\/em> relates directly to the subtext of a people who have endured countless hardships and tragedies through years of civil war. The work, for solo viola, accordion, percussion, double string ensemble and tape, is the showpiece and emotional center of the recording, and on its merits alone justifies the purchase of the disc or download.<\/p>\n

There are other worthy works on the disc as well. \u00a0Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian (b. 1939) contributes two works to the album, Tagh for the Funeral of the Lord<\/em> for viola and percussion, and Three Arias (Sung out the window facing Mount Ararat) <\/em>for viola and chamber orchestra. \u00a0If Olivero’s musical palette might be described in visual terms as being more symbolist or abstract, then Mansurian’s contributions to the album lay more in the realist school and more traditionally Romantic in thrust. \u00a0Clearly, Mansurian, like Olivero, reveled in the opportunity to write for such an artist as Kashkashian, and the singing lines that he gives her to play are clearly aimed at her strengths in realizing vocal lines on a stringed instrument (a trait often sought, be less often found).<\/p>\n

The disc is rounded out by a Mansurian arrangement of Oror<\/em> by the Armenian composer Komitas played with quiet elegance on the piano by Mansurian, and Eitan Steinberg’s Rava Deravin<\/em> for viola and string quartet, performed by Kim Kashkashian with the Kuss Quartett. Originally written for voice, flute, clarinet, string trio and piano in 2001, it was transcribed by the composer for the present combination in 2003. \u00a0This last work is striking in the variety of sonorities that the composer is able to wring out the string quartet – an ensemble with no shortage of great works written for it, and virtually every trick in the book has been tried already – and a piece for solo viola and string quartet is a welcome addition to the repertoire, especially with orchestras less and less easy to come by to perform with. \u00a0In a way, Rava Deravin<\/em> is a cyclical return to the materials of the opening work on the disc, since it pits largely block sonorities in the quartet against flittering and singing lines in the solo viola.<\/p>\n

What a revelation this music is! \u00a0It reflects the spiritual aspirations and profound losses of several groups of dispossessed or subjugated peoples through that most intimate of musical utterances, the human voice, but at a slightly greater distance with the added layer of the stringed instrument standing in for the vocal line. \u00a0Prayers become songs, and through their transcription to the instrumental become songs without words, and achieve perhaps even greater significance.<\/p>\n

Purchase on Amazon (CD)<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Purchase at Amazon (mp3)<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been living with the new Kim Kashkashian recording entitled Nehar\u00f3t for some time now, and find its title track Nehar\u00f3t Nehar\u00f3t (by the Israeli composer Betty Olivero, b.1954) to be one of the most affecting new pieces of music that I’ve encountered in the past decade. \u00a0I liken its first impact on me to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,136,269,1027,168,135,22],"tags":[1879,576,3660],"class_list":["post-3270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-chamber-music","category-new-music","category-piano-music","category-recordings-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-viola","tag-kim-kashkashian","tag-recording","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-QK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/30\/violist-kim-kashkashian-on-npr\/","url_meta":{"origin":3270,"position":0},"title":"violist kim kashkashian on npr","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Arguably one of the great violists of the 20th\/21st century, Kim Kashkashian has made many critically-acclaimed recordings (almost all on ECM New Series) of both the standard repertoire and new works, many written especially for her. Born in Detroit, she was a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Md.,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3179,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/09\/29\/coming-up-cd-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":3270,"position":1},"title":"coming up: cd review","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm hoping that on Wednesday this weekend I'll have a full review up for a wonderful, gorgeous CD of new music for viola.\u00a0 The disc is published by ECM New Series, and is entitled Nehar\u00f3t, and it features that miraculous violist Kim Kashkashian playing music of Betty Olivero, Tigran Mansurian,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"neharot-kashkashian-ecm","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/neharot-200x198.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12981,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/15\/20-years-since-aldeburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":3270,"position":2},"title":"20 years since Aldeburgh","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was looking at my part to Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher (a concerto for viola and orchestra) when I noticed the inscription I'd written at the top of the viola part (I have this habit of writing dates\/places of performances of pieces at the top of the part). 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Some people like to name their instruments, I never got into that. Now that I've learned of the sale of my first viola, I wish I had named her (for lack of a name, I'll settle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6495,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/05\/27\/mozart-grumiaux-perfection\/","url_meta":{"origin":3270,"position":4},"title":"mozart + grumiaux = perfection","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 As I was listening to a portion of the Kairos Ensemble rehearsing for tonight's upcoming benefit concert for Portland's Phame Academy, I was struck (again) by just how great Mozarts quintets for strings (two violins, two violas, and cello) are. They are doing his great D major, K. 593\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/mozart-01.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6015,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/21\/spring-break-as-if\/","url_meta":{"origin":3270,"position":5},"title":"spring break? as if!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"While the Classical Beaver makes it seem like we in the Oregon Symphony are doing keg stands, beer bongs, wet t-shirt competitions, and slathering sunscreen all over each other's bodies during spring break, it's often quite different for some of us. Yes, there are some lucky musicians who have scraped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_7326-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}