The Ancient Call REZA VALI Neal Berntsen Wendy Kallen Ismail Lumanovski Khosrow Soltani microtonal trumpet soprano clarinet persian ney Brevard Festival Slovak Radio Hoppa Project Kian Soltani Chamber Orchestra Symphony Orchestra persian kamanche WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM Erberk Eryilmaz TROY1653 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 Keith Lockhart Robert Black conductor Segâh Festival Ensemble TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 conductor conductor ALBANY RECORDS U.K. Daniel Nesta Curtis BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 conductor © 2016 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL.

Vali_1653_book.indd 1-2 10/20/16 12:50 PM camouflaged can be revealed. Since the year 2000, Vali has embraced and retrieved the essence and THE COMPOSER spirit of his Iranian heritage. Breaking away from the European music system (equal temperament Reza Vali was born in Ghazvin, Iran, in 1952. He began his music studies at the tuning, European forms), Vali began composing music based on the Iranian modal system, the Conservatory of Music in Tehran. In 1972 he went to Austria and studied music Dastgâh/Maghâm. He has composed exclusively within the demanding palette of Persian polyphony. education and composition at the Academy of Music in Vienna. After graduating from The breaking away, or turning, from the constructs of European music does not imply a rejection. After the Academy of Music, he moved to the and continued his studies at all, his bona fides include exhaustive studies at the Academy of Music in Vienna and the University of the University of Pittsburgh, receiving his Ph.D. in music theory and composition in Pittsburgh, where he became totally immersed in Western traditions. The Persian polyphony should not 1985. Mr. Vali has been a faculty member of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon perplex the listener nor imply prior knowledge. All we need to know is that these are modal intervals University since 1988. He has received numerous honors and commissions, including the honor prize not indigenous to the Western equal-temperament system. of the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Sciences, two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships, commissions from the The first work on the disc, The Ancient Call (Calligraphy No. 13) was composed for microtonal Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, trumpet and orchestra for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s outstanding trumpet virtuoso Neal Kronos Quartet, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, and the Arizona Friends of Berntsen and was completed in 2014 (for information about the microtonal trumpet please see below). Chamber Music, as well as grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pittsburgh The work exemplifies the composer’s retrieval of the ancients within the tenets of the Western Foundation, and the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Cultural symphony orchestra. It is dialogical. This is evident in passages in which the trumpet skirmishes Trust as the Outstanding Emerging Artist for which he received the Creative Achievement Award. Vali’s with forces of the Western orchestra. These tensions are evident in the latter’s disruptive passages, orchestral compositions have been performed in the United States by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the especially the snarling brass and percussion. The single-movement piece ends triumphantly. Tidal Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis eruptions are magically unveiled within the edifice of Vali’s artistic dwelling. Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra 2001. His chamber works have received performances by Cuarteto Homage to tradition takes center-stage in the next work: Persian Folk Songs (Set. No. 7) for Latinoamericano, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Carpe Diem String Quartet, Kronos Quartet, the solo voice and orchestra. The difference between this setting and the other works in this collection Seattle Chamber Players, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. His music has been performed in Europe, is immediately evident. Persian Folk Songs (Set No. 7) dates from 1988 and therefore pre-dates China, Chile, Mexico, Hong Kong, and Australia and is recorded on the Naxos, New Albion, MMC, the composer’s turning. It is embryonic in the sense that we have the essence of a cultural heritage Ambassador, Albany, and ABC Classics labels. (Persian) cast within the mold of Western European structure. The songs clearly evoke the spirit of the ancients, while the bold orchestral framework places us in the midst of 20th-century methodologies. Vali takes great care in approaching each piece with the proper emotive response. The playfulness THE MUSIC depicted in the two Children’s Songs (nos. 2 and 3), is in marked contrast to the resonant opening Return to the Origin Song from Luristan and the closing Kurdish Song, all dazzlingly rendered by vocalist Wendy Kallen. The The notes accompanying The Ancient Call attempt to capture Reza Vali’s unique and very personal formidable orchestral forces provide much more than mere accompaniment or dressing: they clearly ethos. I would define this as an approach to understand the dialogue between the ancients and the make visible the meaning and spirit of the texts. moderns. It addresses the composer’s conviction that what has been historically and artistically

Vali_1653_book.indd 3-4 10/20/16 12:50 PM Sornâ (Folk Song, Set No. 17) Version for Solo Clarinet and Ensemble, much like The Ancient Kian Soltani. Much like The Ancient Call, the impossibility of rapprochement seems evident. What we Call (Calligraphy No. 13), is both respect and homage to tradition as well as an affirmation of a are witnessing is the full blooming of the ancient-modern dichotomy. But the point is, it is not so much brilliant soloist’s intuitive understanding of the composer’s intent. The original score of the work was a dichotomy as a shift that must be understood within the context of resolution. The composer bestows composed for Persian wind instruments and ensemble. A version for solo clarinet and ensemble was on us an offering that is radiant and illuminating. It is a powerful bonding—not a rejection. Segâh finalized in April 2015. unveils the very essence of the composer’s turning. The turning away from something into something Scored for solo clarinet, with flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin and cello, the composition other is neither renunciation nor denial: it is a belief in the urgency of dialogue. clearly evokes the full scope of Vali’s lexicon. There is an oceanic sense of discovery that permeates this —Mark Yacovone © 2016 formidable undertaking. What emerges is soloist Ismail Lumanovski’s immersion in the demanding requisites of Persian microtonal intervals remarkably capturing this spirit within Western constructs. It is a work that evokes the past within the boundaries of the present. THE INSTRUMENTS The final work in this collection, Segâh, Double Concerto for Persian Ney, Kamanche, and Orchestra, The microtonal trumpet was developed in 2014 in Boston by Jim Becker at Osmun Music. A fourth valve is astounding in its full embracement of the composer’s convictions. Vali declares, “the piece consists has been added to the trumpet’s three valves. This additional valve lowers the note for a quarter tone of two traditional Persian instruments, the Ney (Persian bamboo flute), and Kamanche (Persian spike allowing the instrument to perform 24 quarter tones per octave. fiddle), as the musical representatives of Persian culture, set against the Western orchestra.” The Persian Ney is an end-blown flute performed by placing the instrument in the mouth The composer explains that the work is based on the Persian mode of Segâh, which is made at a 10 to 20 degree angle to the chin and using the mouth cavity, the tongue, and the teeth for of the succession of intervals of three quarter-tones and natural whole tones. Because of its interval sound production. structure, Segâh has no interval in common with the European/ Western equal-temperament tuning. The Kamanche is a Persian bowed instrument related to the rebab, the historical ancestor of This lack of common intervals between the Segâh mode and the equal-temperament tuning will lead the Kamanche. to cognitive dissonance if this mode is set against the equal-temperament system. What emerges is conflict. Is it cultural, artistic or both? The ultimate aim is Vali’s conviction that dialogue resolves whatever dilemmas are pending. The opening Prelude foreshadows the emerging friction. The second and final “Main Movement” brings everyone to the table. The composer states: “From the very first bars of the second movement of the piece, confusion and misunderstandings arise. The orchestra, being unable to play in the Persian mode of Segâh, or understand the mode, becomes more and more agitated. Musical tensions between the soloists and the orchestra lead to musical confrontations and finally to musical explosiveness.” A sizable orchestra, pitted against the Persian Ney and Kamanche, lays bare an extraordinary display of cultural and artistic tensions. Orchestral disruptive bursts predominate- colliding with the sensitive ornamentations of Ney and Kamanche in the hands of two remarkable soloists, Khosrow Soltani and

Vali_1653_book.indd 5-6 10/20/16 12:50 PM premiered over 80 compositions by CMU students and faculty members. From 2011-2013, Curtis THE PERFORMERS was the Assistant Conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic where he worked alongside Alan Pierson Neal Berntsen joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra trumpet section in March 1997, to produce outside-the-box concert events. Curtis previously served as the Associate Conductor of having been appointed at the invitation of Music Director Lorin Maazel in 1996. He began the Bleecker Street Opera Company and Assistant Conductor of the Amor Artis Chorale and period his musical studies at age five playing the violin under the tutelage of his mother. By instrument orchestra in New York. Curtis received his BA from Amherst College (2008) and his MM in age eight he advanced to the trumpet and ultimately received a B.M. from the University conducting from Carnegie Mellon University (2012). of Puget Sound and a M.M. from Northwestern University. A former member of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Neal has also Turkish composer, pianist, and conductor Erberk Eryilmaz received his education performed as principal trumpet for the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the at Samsun Conservatory, Ankara State Conservatory, the Hartt School, Carnegie Bamberg Sinfoniker in Germany. As a soloist, Mr. Berntsen has performed with The Pittsburgh Symphony Mellon University, and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at Rice University. Orchestra as well as the Brevard Music Center, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Sedona Chamber He has collaborated with ensembles including the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Music Festival in Sedona, Arizona. Mr. Berntsen’s solo recording Trumpet Voices was released in Nov. 2005. of Turkey, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, Hartt Mr. Berntsen is Chair of the Brass Division in the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University Symphony, Apollo Chamber Players, and Carpe Diem, Tesla and Del Sol String and is on the faculty of Roosevelt University in Chicago as well as the Brevard Music Center. Quartets. His compositions, performances and recordings have received praise by The Washington Post, Fanfare Magazine, CNN Turk, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, and have been featured on Turkish State Radio and Born in , , the late Robert Black (1950-1993) began his piano studies at age five and American Public Media’s Performance Today. presented his first piano recital at age 13 in Louisiana and Texas. He was a graduate of the Oberlin In 2015, Erberk Eryılmaz and Laura Krentzman established Hoppa Project with with the aim Conservatory and of Music, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Among of promoting music from Eastern Europe and the Middle East by performing the music of the region many prestigious positions that Mr. Black attained as a conductor were Principal Conductor of the encompassing a wide range of styles from folk to newly commissioned contemporary music. Kuopio Orchestra in , and Music Director of the PRISM Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony, and the American Opera Projects. In addition, he made numerous guest appearances as Wendy Kallen, a native of Pennsylvania, enjoys a career as a singer, accompanist, featured conductor with national and international orchestras. director, teacher, and innovator. Ms. Kallen has sung with the Pittsburgh Opera, the Slovak Radio Television Orchestra, the University of Southern California Orchestra, Conductor Daniel Nesta Curtis (b.1986) joined the faculty of the School of Music and in the Aspen music festivals. Now residing in San Diego, she continues to at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2012 as the depart- perform, train singers, and direct multiple choirs as a director of music ministries. ment’s Resident Conductor and Artistic Director of the CMU Contemporary Music She has created a concert series that draws artists, choirs, and composers from Ensemble. Curtis has conducted performances with the CMU Philharmonic, around the United States to come and share their talents. Chamber Orchestra, Baroque Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, as well as several fully staged opera productions. With the CMU Contemporary Ensemble, Curtis has

Vali_1653_book.indd 7-8 10/20/16 12:50 PM Keith Lockhart has been the Conductor of The Boston Pops for more than two Khosrow Soltani was born in Tehran and has been living in Austria since decades, and has led more than 1,700 concerts, 75 television programs and 40 1974. He studied at the Tehran Conservatory and finished his degree as a national and international tours with that orchestra. In 2010, he was also appoint- bassoonist in 1971. From 1971 to 1974, he played bassoon as a regular ed Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, and in 2012 conducted Queen member of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. In October 1974, he began his Elizabeth II’s gala Diamond Jubilee Concert, which was broadcast around the world. bassoon studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, He continues to serve as the Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Austria. He finished his degree with honors three years later. He has been a member Carolina and was previously the Music Director of the Utah Symphony and Associate Conductor of both of Les Menestrels, a Viennese ensemble of early music, since 1976. He has also recorded and toured the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. the United States and Canada with the Clemencic Consort and Musica Antiqua Wien. He studied Maestro Lockhart has conducted nearly every major orchestra in North America, as well as the recorder with Hans Maria Kneihs. Soltani began performing the Persian ney in 1979 and has performed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony in the ney in many different ensembles. In 1984, he founded Shiraz, an ensemble for Persian music, with Tokyo, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Keith Lockhart began his musical studies on piano at which he has played many concerts at various European festivals. Also a composer, Soltani’s Ancient the age of 7, and holds degrees from Furman University and Carnegie Mellon University. Call A New, Great Mahur, and Salut del amore are available on commercial CDs.

The extraordinary clarinetist Ismail Lumanovski is a musical force of passion and Kian Soltani is a leading young cello soloist as well as an accomplished performer dynamic virtuosity. Lumanovski’s performances throughout the United States, of the Persian spike fiddle, the Kamanche. By the time he won first prize at the Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Brazil, Korea and China have received critical International Paulo Cello Competition 2013 in Helsinki, 23-year-old Kian Soltani acclaim. He is proud to have been the soloist in his New York début performing had joined the top rank of today’s new generation of cello soloists. His earlier ’s Clarinet Concerto with musicians from New Juilliard Ensemble and first prizes include the Karl Davidoff International Cello Competition in Latvia as the Lucerne Festival Academy with Maestro Pierre Boulez. well as the International Antonio Janigro Competition in Croatia. Kian Soltani is Lumanovski has performed with innumerable orchestras including Die Deutsche Kammer- a member of the renowned Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. As a soloist, Soltani has appeared with philharmonie, The Berklee Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble, New Juilliard Ensemble, World Youth such ensembles as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists, the Georgian Chamber Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra. A performer of Macedonian, Turkish, and Gypsy music, he is a member of the New York Gypsy Liechtenstein Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jyväskylä All-Stars, with whom he has recorded Secret Trio, Fall of the Moon, Liquid Clarinets and Love is the Way. Sinfonia and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.

Vali_1653_book.indd 9-10 10/20/16 12:50 PM “Uncle chain-maker THE TEXTS have you made my chain? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Persian Folk Songs (Set No. 7) Did you throw it The Ancient Call (Calligraphy No. 13) Cover Image: Archangel Gabriel blowing his to the other side of the mountain?” (Recorded on July 8, 2015, Scott Concert Hall, trumpet, tiled window frame, ceramic with I. Song From Luristan Porter Center, Brevard) — Recording Engineer: painted glaze, late 19th century, Persian, detail Father take your gun! IV. Speech Song Michael Schweppe | Editing: Michael Schweppe — Musée du Louvre Paris; Photo Credit: Gianni It’s the time of battle. Syllabic Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY Prepare my horse! Persian Folk Songs (Set No. 7) Put the saddle on his back! V. Love Song (Recorded on July 2, 1993, Bratislava, Slovakia) Photos: Rob Davidson (Neal Berntsen), Marco I’m going to fight My life has become meaningless — Recording and Editing: MMC Recordings Boggreve (Keith Lockhart), Ross Kallen (Wendy a clever enemy. since you left. Kallen), Alena Soboleva (Ismail Lumanovski), The sorrow of your absence Sornâ (Folk Songs, Set No. 17) Version for Solo Mary Scripko (Erberk Eryilmaz), Alexander Mohr II. Children’s Song has burned my soul. Clarinet and Ensemble (Khosrow Soltani), Juventino Mateo (Kian Soltani), Dorshke* go away! (Recorded on January 16, 2016, Alumni Concert Alisa Milnthrop (Daniel Nesta Curtis), Shahriar Madam please take a taxi! Hope of my dark nights Hall, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh) — Vali (Reza Vali). If the taxi is expensive hope of my heart Recording Engineer: Wei Lim | Editing, Wei Lim the bus is only one gheran** I am longing and Reza Vali Booklet Notes: Mark Yacovone When will you return? All works published by Keiser Classical (BMI) III. Children’s Song Segâh, Double Concerto for Persian Ney, “Uncle chain-maker My heart has sunk into sorrow. Kamanche, and Orchestra Many thanks to: have you made my chain? Life has become meaningless. (Recorded on January 15, 2016, Carnegie Music Denis Colwell, The School of Music of Carnegie Did you throw it My dear, tell me Hall, Pittsburgh) — Recording Engineer: Wei Lim Mellon University, The Brevard Music Center, to the other side of the mountain?” when will you return? | Editing: Wei Lim and Daniel Nesta Curtis Jason Posnock, The Pittsburgh Foundation, Riccardo Schulz, Wei Lim, Ed Thompson, Mark “Your father has come.” VI. Kurdish Song Final Editing and Mastering: Ed Thompson Yacovone, Robert Skavronski, Abby Langhorst, “What did he bring?” Syllabic Producer: Reza Vali Daniel Nesta Curtis, Erberk Eryilmaz, Laura “Peanuts and raisins, go eat and come back!” Krentzman, Lisa Hoitsma, and last, but not least, my wife Nan for all her love and support * Dorshke is a horse-drawn carriage. ** A gheran is a Persian currency Translation by Reza Vali and for editing this booklet.

Vali_1653_book.indd 11-12 10/20/16 12:50 PM Reza Vali • The Ancient Call TROY1653

Sornâ (Folk Songs, Set No. 17) The Ancient Call Version for Solo Clarinet and Ensemble* [11:52] 8 I. Molto Allegro [1:13] Reza Vali 9 II. Scherzando [2:27] 1 The Ancient Call (Calligraphy No. 13)* [13:37] 10 III. Largo [4:01] Neal Berntsen, microtonal trumpet 11 IV. Molto Vivace [4:11] Brevard Festival Chamber Orchestra Ismail Lumanovski, clarinet Keith Lockhart, conductor Hoppa Project | Erberk Eryilmaz, conductor

Persian Folk Songs (Set No. 7) [14:02] Segâh, Double Concerto for Persian Ney, 2 I. Songs from Luristan [0:52] Kamanche, and Orchestra* [29:13] 3 II. Children’s Song [2:38] 12 I. Prelude [6:18] 4 III. Children’s Song [6:48] 13 II. Main Movement [22:55] 5 IV. Speech Song [1:02] Khosrow Soltani, persian ney 6 V. Love Song [2:27] Kian Soltani, persian kamanche 7 VI. Kurdish Song [1:35] Segâh Festival Ensemble Daniel Nesta Curtis, conductor Wendy Kallen, soprano Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Robert Black, conductor Total Time = 70:20 *live performance

TROY1653

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1653 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2016 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. Reza Vali • The Ancient Call

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