Lorna Windsor, Saman Samini, Divertimento Ensemble & Sandro Gorli - Mehdi Khayami: Kamanche Concerto (2018)

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Lorna Windsor, Saman Samini, Divertimento Ensemble & Sandro Gorli - Mehdi Khayami: Kamanche Concerto (2018)

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Alessandro Solbiati writes: “To discuss in chronological order the pieces on the album dedicated to the 37-year-old Iranian composer Mehdi Khayami represents for me both a thrill and an enrichment. Why a thrill? Because I have had the joy of sharing with him much of his Italian journey: he arrived in Italy in 2006, having already obtained his diploma of composition in Iran. Mehdi (as we always called him) began my composition class at the Conservatorio di Milano, doing entire bachelor course and master degree course. Five years later, he took his diploma and obtained the highest honours, and subsequently specialised at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Ivan Fedele. I want, at least, to remember the splendid way the composer leads us by the hand slowly to the appearance of an instrument that is so strange for us: a dense texture of the ensemble, which does not allow individuality to show through, starts from a rather dark region and gradually rises: the subtle sound of the Kamanche will take up the register given to it by the ensemble and will lead it still higher, much higher. From there begins a formal curve that becomes progressively dramatic, until it culminates in an extremely tense climax, which fundamentally we did not expect, given the initial climate. It opens a final chasm between the very high and very low regions, a true abyss into which the rhythmic pulsation reminds us of the climax of the Violinkonzert by Alban Berg: east and west shake hands, in the life and work of Mehdi Khayami.”