GREEK POLISH DREAMSCAPES
Genre : Classical
Catalogue: Phasma-Music 080
UPC: 731093480614
recording, editing: Andrei Lifenco
mastering: Grzegorz Steg
recording place: Life.N.Co Records, Chisinau, Moldova
recorded in June 2022 and September 2023
texts: © Iwona Glinka
graphic design: Michail Travlos
production management: Iwona Glinka
front cover: Digital Art by Michail Travlos
premiere: March 24, 2024.
Michail Travlos’s fifth album is dedicated solely to his own music, a follow-up to the award-winning albums PROGRESSIONS (ICMA nomination 2018, Global Music Awards, Akademia Music Award, Clouzine International Music Award etc.), NIGHT VISIONS and TWENTY ONE CONCERT STUDIES (Akademia Music Awards - Music Award of Excellence 2021, GLOBAL MUSIC AWARD, CLOUZINE International Music Awards , 2022).
The works included in GREEK POLISH DREAMSCAPES, which are flavoured nationally by two countries, Poland and Greece respectively, were written between 1986 to 2022.
In this way, they present the versatile musical options of the composer’s musical thinking derived from each different historical period.
Michail Travlos was, since his earlier searches for expressivity, interested in “recycling” some of his original music, adding new expansion elements, so as to give birth to a new musical “child” emanating from its original musical sources.
Though the pieces presented are mainly written or arranged for string orchestra, included is the work Five Polish Dreamscapes, concertante for wind quartet and strings (2017). Each of the five parts is a musical representation of a different situation, be it of optical or phycological context.
The Five Arrangements of Traditional Greek Songs is a “recycled” and widely expanded arrangement of the original work written for a Capela choir in 1994.
A Christmas Fugue written for string orchestra is a short festive composition dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach.
The longest piece included is Kwidzynska Suita, arranged and widely expanded with intros and extended middle parts, from the original work written for a Capela choir in 1993 and world performed during the Kwidzyn International Music Festival in April 2023.
Michail Travlos’ music characterizes within a modern context, tonal and melodic. It can be lyrical, aggressive, playful or stringent. His ideas are quite original and engaging on many levels; his idiomatic writing for strings is very effective.
The composer brings in an incessant coloristic development where melodic figures struggle to have a fully lyrical moment. Some movements are mercurial shifts of mood and color, ceaselessly restless, though sometimes playful, so that the performers inhabit those many moods – one senses the orchestra’s conviction and enthusiasm for this music in performing it, which is energetic, fulsome, and highly refined. In this excellent release, soloists, orchestra and conductor work hand-in-glove to produce an outstanding performance.
Michail Travlos, composer
Iwona Glinka piccolo/flute
Emil Stancu oboe
Sergiu Musat clarinet
Mihail Badiu bassoon
The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic “Serghei Lunchevici” of the Republic of Moldova
Mihail Agafita, conductor
Product details:
Five Polish Dreamscapes (2017)
“Concertante” for wind quartet and string orchestra
01. Night Dreamscape [04:27]
02. Fairies Play [04:07
03. Mystica [5:43]
04. Winterscape [04:19]
05. Waters of Wisła [05:16]
Five Arrangements of Traditional Greek Songs (1994) for string orchestra
06. Kalamatiani - Η Καλαματιανή [02:50]
07. Tourka - Τούρκα (Κάτω στου βάλτου τα χωριά) [03:15]
08. Dance of Zalongos - Ο χορός του Ζαλόγγου [04:19]
09. I had a love - Είχα μιάν αγάπη [02:58]
10. Get dancing girls - Μπάτε κορίτσια στο χορό [03:44]
11. A Christmas Fugue (1986) for string orchestra [02:11]
KWIDZYŃSKA SUITA (2022)
Seven impressions of the city of Kwidzyn for string orchestra
(transcription and arrangment of the original work for choir-1993)
12. Candles - Κεριά [05:47]
13. Marianna - Μαριάννα [03:48]
14. Old men’s souls - Οι ψυχές των γερόντων [03:11]
15. High, way high - Ψηλά, ψηλά [03:22]
16. Dream - ‘Ονειρο [03:49]
17. Black and blue sea - Μαύρη και γαλάζια νύχτα [03:20]
18. Oh, this beauty - Εχ, η ομορφιά [03:38]
Total time: [70:48]