United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Hommages (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

Together with its artistic director Julian Azkoul, the United Strings of Europe develop engaging programmes with the aims of finding threads between different works and epochs, musical cultures and backgrounds, of blending the familiar with the new and of encouraging people to listen to works in different ways and discover new repertoire.

For its new release entitled Hommages, the ensemble celebrates musical traditions, from the myth of Apollo and the muses of Greek Antiquity to legends of the 20th century, Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzolla, renewed by contemporary voices. Inspired by dreams and recollections of the past, this imaginative programme features recent works alongside the world première recording of Julian Azkoul’s arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s neo-classical ballet Apollon musagète, composed during the 1920s.

While Dobrinka Tabakova’s Organum Light, here recorded for the first time, was inspired by Einstein’s theory of quantum light, Osvaldo Golijov has returned to his Argentinian roots for Last Round, a tribute to two legendary compatriots. As for Olli Mustonen (who can be heard as a pianist on several other BIS recordings), his Second Nonet is a timeless work in which we hear echoes of the Balkans, music from the Romantic period and Nordic moods. A further work by Mustonen, Apotheosis, another world première recording, concludes this varied programme on a dramatic note, inspired by Bach’s chorale preludes.

TRACKLIST

1. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Tabakova: Organum Light
2. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Golijov: Last Round: I. Movido, urgente
3. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Golijov: Last Round: II. Muertes del Angel
4. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Premier tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Naissance d’Apollon
5. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Variation d’Apollon (Apollon et les Muses)
6. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Pas d’action (Apollon et les trois Muses: Calliope, Polymnie et Terpsichore)
7. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Variation de Calliope (l’Alexandrin)
8. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Variation de Polymnie
9. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Variation [de] Terpsichore
10. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Variation d’Apollon
11. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Pas de deux (Apollon et Terpsichore)
12. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Second tableau (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): Coda (Apollon et les Muses)
13. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Stravinsky: Apollon musagète (Arr. for Chamber Ensemble by J. Azkoul): II. Apothéose
14. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Mustonen: Nonetto II: I. Inquieto
15. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Mustonen: Nonetto II: II. Allegro impetuoso
16. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Mustonen: Nonetto II: III. Adagio
17. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Mustonen: Nonetto II: IV. Vivacissimo
18. United Strings of Europe & Julian Azkoul - Mustonen: Apotheosis - In memoriam Pablo Casals



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