Gaida Ensemble - Gaida - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Details 1. Ocho Por Radio - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Revueltas, Silvestr 2. Oblivion - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Piazzolla, Astor [1 3. Caballito Nicoyano - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Traditional, Costa 4. Michelangelo Antonioni - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Veloso, Caetano [19 5. Echo-Dimensions - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Prieto, Dafnis [197 6. Aria (Cantilena) - Meridian Arts Ensemble 7. Saoko - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Leon, Tania [1943-] 8. Prelude - Meridian Arts Ensemble 9. En Par de los Levantes de la Aurora - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Lara, Ana [1959-] 10. Timbrando - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Pascoal, Hermeto [1 11. Um a Zero - Meridian Arts Ensemble, Pixinguinha

On their second album of this series, Ensemble Esperanza is looking south. Just as on their debut album, Nordic Suites, Ensemble Esperanza has selected dance-like pieces, this time from the highly variegated musical landscapes of Southern Europe. Although only one of the works is in the form of a traditional dance suite, all four move with a swaying motion. The works on this recording date from the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. All four are highly individualistic in character and share a quest for essence and for the sublime, with a formal clarity and lucidity inspired by the great model of Classical Antiquity, which first gave rise to this vast cultural landscape. The warmth of the underlying sentiment allows the pieces to align with their own luminous ideal of Mediterranean beauty. Ensemble Esperanza was founded in 2015 as part of the integral musical education programme of the International Academy of Music in Lichtenstein. With the exception of the concert master, the ensemble is made up of grantees of the International Academy of Music who are coming together for their musical projects from all over the world.

?This recording presents Kaija Saariaho's works for choir, a cappella and with electronics, and displays her virtuosity in the treatment of texts, which she endows with the full range of verbal expression. At least one of these works is also a discographic premières. Nuits, adieux, presented here both in it's a cappella version and with electronics, could be described as a lullaby, not so much for a sleeping child as for an elderly person sleeping out of our world. Funny and very serious at the same time, Horloge, tais-toi was conceived for a children choir. Écho! Deals with the myth of Echo and Narcissus, with the idea of echo being naturally extended with electronics that process and reverb the voices of the singers. Based on poems by German poet Friedrich Hölderlin, Tags des Jahrs display an archaic choral treatment expanded by sounds of the human voices, birds, wind and other natural phenomena. Überzeugung engages with medieval music and treats the contrast between light and dark as a trance-like interplay between past and present. Finally, Reconnaissance can be seen as a 'science-fiction madrigal'. Nils Schweckendiek and the Helsinki Chamber Choir initially performed this programme in concert in August 2022 as part of the celebrations surrounding Saariaho's 70th birthday. Details 7. Nuits, adieux for four singers and electronics~7. Nuit V 16. Tag des Jahrs for SATB chorus and electronics~4. Der Winter 18. Reconnaissance for SATB chorus, percussion and double bass~1. The First Martian in a Long Time