Works for the 30th Anniversary of the Basque National Orchestra

MARIO LAVISTA (b.1943): 3 cantos a Edurne (conducted by Diego Matheuz), MICHAEL FINNISSY (b.1946): Zortziko (Andrés Orozco-Estrada), IVAN FEDELE (b.1953): Txalaparta - Folk Dance II (Andrey Boreyko), GÉRARD PESSON (b.1958): Ravel à son âme (Stefan Asbury),JAMES DILLON (b.1950): White Numbers (Gerd Albrecht), PETER EÖTVÖS (b.1944): The Gliding of the Eagle in the Skies (Orozco-Estrada), ISABEL MUNDRY (b.1963): Calles y sueños (Joana Carneiro), MAURICIO SOTELO (b.1961): Urrutiko Urdin (Ari Rasilainen).

Description: Ranging from three to eleven minutes in length, these commissions for the BNO's anniversary had the open requirement of providing one's own impression of something to do with the Basque County (although the Scott James Dillon seems to have ignored this completely). While you're not going to go home humming anything written by these composers, you will find Finnissy using Zortziko rhythms in what is for him an extremely approachable piece while Fedele uses a Basque wooden percussion instrument rather like a primitive xylophone in his equally rhythmically insistent work. But Pesson creates an impressionistic haze in his with fragments of Ravelian harmonies and birdsong in ticking, clockwork movement while the remainder deal in their own personal brands of complex textures and vivid and powerful sonorities. Live recordings made during the 2011/2012 and 2012/12013 orchestral seasons. Basque National Orchestra.