recording: Katarzyna Rakowiecka-Rojsza
editing and mastering: Katarzyna Rakowiecka-Rojsza
recording place: Polish Radio Studio S2 in Warsaw
recorded on September 7-11, 2017
graphic design: Beata Czerepak
texts: Iwona Glinka, Panagiotis Andriopoulos, Michail Travlos
production management: Alina Ratkowska
front cover: Digital Art by Michail Travlos
premiere: June 2017


Iwona Glinka – Flute, 
Angelos Botsis – Guitar, 
Anna Sikorzak-Olek – Harp

PROGRESSIONS includes premiere recordings of works by prominent Greek composer Michail Travlos (born 1950), written since 1983 to the present. The Polish-Greek group of renowned musicians has established both solo and chamber compositions created, among others, from the inspirations of the nature (Forest Birds Arias, Five Birds of the Wild Forest) or the history of the places (The Castle of Kwidzyn). PROGRESSIONS is not only the title of the CD, but also the title of two works for the guitar (1986) and the solo flute (2007), which also appeared on the album.

YouTube Video




In Michail Travlos's very first album dedicated solely to his own music, he proves to be one of Greece's most interesting and convincing living modern composers. This CD explores six imaginative works. He has managed to create an exciting and often challenging personal voice that is always interesting and appealing. 

In 2017 PROGRESSIONS won the GLOBAL MUSIC AWARD - AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE - GOLD Medal Triple Winner  in the three categories: Composer, Flautist and Album, SEPTEMBER 2017.

In 2018 the album won the CLOUZINE International Music Awards (Best Contemporary Music album), the Akademia Music Awards - Music Award of Excellence (Composer, Flautist and Album) and was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) (Contemporary music).

The CD features 6 world premiere recordings of compositions for solo flute(s), flute and harp, flute and guitar by award-winning composer Michail Travlos.






Product details

Forest Birds Arias
01. Cuckoos play for solo flute
02. Love birds play for solo piccolo
03. Nightingales Loneliness for solo alto flute
04. Pigeon on the roof for solo bass flute
05. Woodpeckers play for solo flute
GBR for flute (alto flute) and harp
06. Dark Green
07. Deep Blue
08. Light red
09. The Castle of Kwidzyn for solo alto flute
Five Birds of the Wild Forest for flute solo
10. Hoopoe
11. Cormorant
12. Crane
13. Owl
14. Hawk
Duetti for flute and guitar
15. Introduction 
16. Monotony (Quasi ostinato)
17. A Bit Jazzy 
18. Progressions for flute solo
Total time: 54:13


REVIEWS


http://longplayrecenzje.blox.pl/2018/02/Michail-Travlos-Progressions-2017.html

Michail Travlos - Progressions /2017/

Forest Birds Arias; GBR; The Castle of Kwidzyn; Five Birds of the Wild Forest; Duetti; Progressions.

Robert Ratajczak

Twórczość urodzonego w 1950 roku wybitnego greckiego kompozytora Michaila Travlosa przybliża album "Progressions". Płyta zawiera 6 solowych i kameralnych utworów powstałych na przestrzeni kilkunastu lat. Nagrania dokonane zostały w studio S2 Polskiego Radia w Warszawie przez międzynarodowy skład tworzony przez trójkę znakomitych artystów: od 1995 roku zamieszkałą w Atenach flecistkę Iwonę Glinkę (prywatnie: małżonkę kompozytora), wyśmienitą harfistkę Annę Sikorzak-Olek i gitarzystę Angelosa Botsisa.
Słyszana na płycie zarówno w utworach wykonywanych na rozmaitych rodzajach fletu solo, oraz w duetach z harfą i gitarą Iwona Glinka to artystka  specjalizująca się w nowych formach muzycznych oraz wykonawstwie muzyki współczesnej. Jest założycielką powstałego w 2016 roku zespołu Phasma-Music Ensemble i ma za sobą gorąco przyjmowane koncerty z orkiestrami i zespołami kameralnymi w obu Amerykach, Europie i Azji.
Harfistka Anna Sikorzak-Olek prowadzi bardzo aktywną działalność koncertową, występując zarówno jako solistka jak i kameralistka łącząc dźwięki harfy m.in. z fletem, obojem, sopranem czy perkusją. Artystka współtworzy też ceniony w środowisku muzyki klasycznej Warszawski Kwartet Harfowy oraz współpracuje z Polską Orkiestrą Radiową oraz Sinfonią Varsovią. Także miłośnicy muzyki rozrywkowej i jazzu mogli niejednokrotnie usłyszeć jej grę dzięki współpracy wszechstronnej artystki m.in. z Krzysztofem Herdzinem, Krzesimirem Dębskim, Henrykiem Miśkiewiczem czy Andrzejem Jagodzińskim. Na początku 2018 roku ukazała się znakomita płyta artystki "Princess Czartoryska's Harp Treasures", nagrana wraz z wybitnym wirtuozem skrzypiec, Konstantym Andrzejem Kulką.
Z kolei grecki gitarzysta Angelos Botsis to jeden z najlepszych uczniów Michaela Travlosa, mający za sobą współpracę z najbardziej prestiżowymi greckimi orkiestrami, oraz zespołami kameralnymi, oraz szczycący się wieloma nagrodami i wyróżnieniami zdobytymi w ramach międzynarodowych konkursów gitarowych.
Tym właśnie artystom Michael Travlos powierzył wykonanie sześciu utworów wypełniających tę urozmaiconą zarówno brzmieniowo jak stylistycznie płytę. 
W kunsztownie opracowanych i znakomicie wykonanych kompozycjach dostrzeżemy fascynację kompozytora zarówno naturą, jak urokiem odwiedzanych przez niego miejsc. Ten drugi aspekt dostrzeżemy m.in. w utworze "The Castle of Kwidzyn"odnoszącym się do zabytkowego zamku w Kwidzynie.
Aż w dwóch przypadkach kompozytor odwołuje się do fascynacji śpiewem ptaków. Cykle "Forest Birds Arias" i "Five Birds of the Wild Forest", to efekt badań Travlosa nad potencjałem zaklętym w ptasich trelach i świergotach, stanowiących rodzaj muzyki w swej najbardziej naturalnej postaci. Oba cykle stanowią wyjątkowy popis, chwilami wręcz ekwilibrystycznej wirtuozerii grającej na rozmaitych rodzajach fletu, Iwony Glinki.
Inny aspekt twórczości Michaila Travlosa dostrzeżemy w "Duetti" na flet i gitarę, gdzie kompozytor w formie 3-częściowej fantazji eksponuje starcie się z sobą różnych technik gry na obu instrumentach, tworząc spójną, choć mieniącą się rozmaitymi barwami dźwiękowymi całość.
Wszystkie nagrania zgromadzone w tym monograficznym zbiorze to fonograficzne premiery. 
Album ukazał się 15 września 2017 roku.



Fanfare Magazine

This article originally appeared in Issue 41:2 (Nov/Dec 2017) 

   
Colin Clarke 
     Piraeus-born composer Michail Travlos, trained at the Athens National  Conservatory and in Berlin (with Isuang Yun), has held a variety of  teaching posts within his native Greece. Flutist Iwona Glinka, in one of a series of discs reviewed in this issues, presents Travlos’ music in superb performances. 
    The piece Forest Birds Arias (2003, revised 2015) is in five movements, each for a different type of flute (standard flute, piccolo, and alto and bass flutes, with the two movements for standard flute bookending the set). Travlos’s piece exists in a form that includes video art, electronics, and natural sounds, but is here presented shorn of all of those. Glinka plays superbly: The demands verge on the virtuoso, with Travlos working in clear avian references into his clearly well-defined Modernist language. Linked to this piece is Five Birds of the Forest (2016), a set of tiny minute-long miniatures. Each is named (“Hoopoe,” “Cormorant,” “Crane,” “Owl,” “Hawk”) and each is individually characterized to perfection by Glinka. The depiction of an owl is particularly appealing: I promise it will raise a smile as well as captivate. The swooping majesty of the hawk completes the set. 
    Scored for flute/alto flute and harp, the 2016 piece GBR is a gentle dialog between the solo instruments. The musky sound of the alto flute presents the haunting melody of the piece’s second section. Lyricism is at the very heart of this piece, and one has to acknowledge that Travlos is a natural melodist. The three sections of the work are separately tracked on the present release. Anna Sikorzak Olek is a superb harpist, and the rapport between the instrumentalists appears complete. 
    The booklet note for The Castle of Kwidzyn reveals that Glinka is actually Travlos’s wife and that this 2013 piece for alto flute alone is dedicated to her. The referenced building is in the north of Poland; the deep sound of the alto flute seems to add a layer of mystery to the implied tale of the castle. Written in 1996, Duetti for flute and guitar is a tripartite fantasy, an active Introduction leading to the rather off-puttingly titled “Monotony” movement. (The title is actually a nod to the quasi-ostinato technique used so effectively here by Travlos and the movement is actually gripping.) The central panel includes nods to the jazz that underpins the finale, explicitly indicated as “A Bit Jazzy.” Angelos Botsis is the superb guitarist. It is perhaps in this piece that one particularly notices the excellence of the recording, its sense of presence and the sheer detail; and yet it is not intrusively close. 
    Finally, Progressions for solo flute is a 2007 arrangement of the 1983 oboe original. Cast in five sections, it culminates in an unmeasured section of high pitches as high velocity, superbly realized by Glinka. Lasting just under 10 minutes, it provides ample space to admire Glinka’s way with this music: It is as if she is narrating a story, perhaps a somewhat hypnotic fairy story. The oboe version of Progressions is available on a disc entitled Millennial Masters on Ablaze Records, performed in a typically high-energy way by the excellent modern music specialist Christopher Redgate, and makes the perfect complement to Glinka’s softer, equally convincing reading. 

 

Oskar Łapeta (http://www.klasycznaplytoteka.pl/michail-travlos-progressions/)

Progressions is an album dedicated to the music of contemporary composer Michail Travlos (born 1950). Attractive position in that all the works recorded here are world phonographic premieres of compositions created between 1996 and 2016.
Travlos clearly inspires birds singing, which is reflected in two cycles of songs contained on the album - Forest Bird Arias and Five Birds of the Wild Forest. The first composition shows different variations of the solo instrument - from the "standard" flute, through piccolo, alto and bass flute. The idea is a bit similar to E. Rautavaara's Dances with the Winds, but Travlos does not use the orchestra, which forces the performer to be even more inventive in presenting the work. Five Birds of the Wild Forest for solo flute is a collection of short miniatures (one minute each). These are portraits of particular bird species. Short, charming and characteristic compositions draw attention with ingenuity and virtuoso use of a solo instrument.
Castle of Kwidzyn on the alto flute is dedicated to the wife of the composer, who is also the performer of this work. The mood of the work is mysterious and a bit melancholic.
GBR for flute (exchangeable for alto flute) and harp consists of three parts, each of which "presents" a different color - Dark Green, Deep Blue and Light Red. I must admit that the combination of both instruments is natural and gives good results. The most extensive is the second part, oscillating between lyricism and dramatism, and it is this which turned out to be the most interesting in terms of expression. The ending is playful with a lively character.
Duetti for flute and guitar is the lightest composition in the climate of those included in the album, temperamental and sometimes exotic, and in the final part - A Bit Jazzy - entertaining. The minus is that it is definitely too short.
We finally have "Progressions" for solo flute. The virtuosic composition, impressive and in an ingenious way using the sound possibilities of the solo instrument is divided into five parts, connected with each other in a fluid way.
The performances stand at a very high level, due to the great performances by Iwona Glinka - privately the composer's wife - comes to the forefront everywhere. I recommend it !