Symmetria Pario Creation (CD)

(3 customer reviews)

$19.99

Pekka Kuusisto, violin; Joonas Ahonen, piano

German Audiophile Pressing

High Resolution Virgin Polycarbonate

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Artist Pages: Pekka KuusistoJoonas Ahonen

 

SKU: YAR84165 Symmetria Pario Creation Category: Tags: , ,

Description

Executive Producer: Russell Ward

Symmetria Pario: Creation

Symmetria Pario Creation explores the “beginnings of things,” the origin of the universe as expressed in music, and various creation stories from different cultures around the world.  BUT when listening to this album one does not need to know anything about science or even the inspiration behind these works to enjoy the music.  Clarice’s work proves this instantly upon hearing the first moments of track 1.

Just as we pondered our origins 50 or 100,000 years ago, human beings continue to wonder and worry about our origins and the origin of what we think of as the universe.  Within the next few years, the James Webb telescope may redefine or expand our theories all over again.  Whether it is part of our survival instinct, or remains an entertaining puzzle for great minds, we want to know.  We want to know how it all began, whether through a magnanimous creative act of divine power or by spontaneous eruption from a single point into an ever-expanding universe bursting outward at many times the speed of light.

Executive producer Russell Ward spearheaded this recording and generously underwrote Yarlung’s six new commissions, performed and recorded so eloquently by Pekka Kuusisto on violin and Joonas Ahonen on piano.  Russell is my friend and co-conspirator in all things quantum, and he asked me and our musicians and composers to explore various stories about the moment of creation through music.

Clarice Assad investigates quantum theory and what we surmise happened in the first fractions of a second after the universe came into being, Yuko Mabuchi explores a Yoruba creation story from West Africa and incorporates Native American creation traditions. Mehmet Sanlikol’s piece takes inspiration from the mystical Islamic Sufi tradition describing the creation of the universe in seven days.  Hannah Kendall channels the Book of Psalms. Ricky Kej explores pre-Hindu Vedic narratives from Ancient India, and Adam Gilbert pokes fun at Renaissance ideas about the order of the universe.  Composers Cecilia Damstrom, Harrison Birtwistle and Missy Mazzoli join this album celebrating music for violin and piano.

Pekka Kuusisto performs not only as a violin soloist with the major orchestras on the planet, but conducts regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and Helsinki Philharmonic, where he is Principal Guest Conductor, as well as Mahler Chamber Orchestra and many elite ensembles around the world. Pekka plays the 1709 “Scotta” Stradivarius. Joonas Ahonen specializes in contemporary music from his home-base in Vienna, but also records Beethoven and Mendelssohn on fortepiano.

Heartfelt thanks to Yarlung executive producer Russell Ward for not only commissioning our six new works for Pekka and Joonas, but for underwriting this recording and album release.

Russell notes that “ancient cultures, including those alluded to in our recording, incorporated observations of the sun, moon, planets and stars, the roots of modern cosmology. According to West African mythology, creation began with a very small seed, from which the entire universe was created; the Egyptian pyramids were aligned with observation channels toward the ever-present pole star and the rising midwinter sun, and accompanied a 365-day calendar and twelve-hour divisions of day and night; the Anasazi built a slotted solar observatory; early Mesoamerican cultures, in particular the Maya, are well known for their calendars and observatories; the first star catalog is credited to Chinese astronomer Gan De; the Rig Veda describes time as a wheel with twelve sectors and 360 spokes with a remainder of five, referencing the solar calendar; the division of the circle into 360 angular degrees originated with the Sumerians; recognition of the periodic nature of celestial mechanics is credited to the Babylonians; the Greeks developed celestial models as concentric spheres; Stonehenge is aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice; similar stone circles are spread throughout England and Northern Europe. These and other such developments were at the cultural heart of early civilizations and their rituals.  They eventually grew into our contemporary observatories and the particle accelerators that accompany the current theoretical origins of the universe.”

Repertoire:

  1. Symmetries, Clarice Assad
  2. KÛN كن Seven Sufi Vignettes, Mehmet Sanlikol
  3. Evolution of the One, Yuko Mabuchi
  4. Arambhah, Ricky Kej
  5. Triptych at the Beginning of Time, Adam Knight Gilbert
  6. Cura, Cecilia Damström
  7. Oockooing Bird, Harrison Birtwistle
  8. Dissolve, O my Heart, Missy Mazzoli
  9. Weroon Weroon, Hannah Kendall

Enjoy!

–Bob Attiyeh, producer

Pekka Kuusisto/Joonas Ahonen: Symmetria Pario – Creation

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