Search - George Barati, Laslzo Kovaks, Vladimir Valek :: Barati: Symphony No. 1

What a find!!

P. SIMPSON | North Yorkshire, United Kingdom | 08/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a marvellous disc in every way.Judging on this disc Barati's music can at times sound like W. Schuman, as "An Amazon customer" notes, as well as like Shostakovich, Bartok, Nielsen and Schoenberg, but manages to be original and distinctive at the same time: reminiscent without being at all derivative.Its also gut-wrenchingly, ear and cheek-burningly powerful, - not just the almost unbearably grief-racked "Into the Dark" but the Symphony and "Light" too. Barati's murder when he had turned to composing with renewed energy is a tragedy which adds resonance to both tone poems.The performances are committed and disciplined and the sound suits the music well. It is multi-miked and spotlights instruments and groupings and that would normally irritate me, but there's a lot going on, some of it episodic, and the techniques are beneficial rather than irritating. The recordings date from 1995 and 1999 and the more recent are slightly better but the sound throughout is in the demonstration class, the best I've heard from a Naxos orchestral disc.Recommended unreservedly on musical, performing and recording grounds. Now I'm off to explore some more Barati."