Album Notes

Modern Chamber Music Vol. 3 - By Darian Stavans.

Michael Belser - Oboe / Nancy Brougel - Harp / Alina Falconi - Harp.

_______________


"This album reflects the impressionist style and modal techniques of Darian Stavans’ chamber music. Subtle, evocative and refined musical poetry..."

_______________


PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Modern Chamber Music Vol. 3 is the third recording that completes Darian Stavans’ chamber music collection. The album contains two musical works, the first of which are the "Three Poems for Oboe and Harp" played by oboist Michael Belser and Nancy Brougel at the harp. The work was originally written for contralto and piano as it is based on texts by the Mexican poet Alicia Delaval.

These three "songs" or "poems" were written as modal harmony, which was very widely used during medieval times and the Renaissance. The Poems are followed by a fantasia for two harps called "On the Unknown", a musical composition in a single movement that includes post-romantic and impressionist harmonic material.

The album is a musical adventure that takes us along the path of discovering sound as it evokes the metaphoric darkness and clarity one can encounter when traveling from the unknown into the known. This highly expressive modern work is virtuously rendered by harp players Nancy Brougel and Alina Falconi.

_______________


ABOUT THE ARTIST


Evocative is a word that has been used to describe, or better said, react to the music of Darian Stavans. Evocative? One would imagine that such a music would bring to the mind and heart shared memories, but one does not necessarily share memories with an artist; one shares feelings, reflections, dreams. These are the things one finds in the music of Darian Stavans— a passage of sorts to that special place we all have deep in our souls.

The apparent simplicity of works such as Interiors, Passion, and Poetic is powerfully touching and intensely beautiful. Captivating melodies hold our attention as their notes drop ever deeper into the soul of the listener, retrieving echoes of the human experience we all share. Our lives may be different, but our feelings are not. Stavans’ music glides us soothingly into currents of profoundly romantic reverie, pools of sunlit serenity, and occasionally into the depths of fleeting melancholy.

Stavans, the composer, imbues his music with texture: a guitar lends its sometimes earthy, sometimes airy quality to Els Segons Temps; whereas a lighter, more translucent harp is used to render Lullabies. In making his music come alive, Stavans has also become a producer (he produced all the works featured here) and a conductor. He conducted and recorded the St. Angelis Symphony Orchestra for his works Noir et Blanc and Prayer.

Nonetheless, Darian Stavans is first and foremost a gifted composer and pianist. His music speaks his soul and in so doing, speaks to our own. Perhaps listening to his works we might become acquainted with the artist, but it would be more accurate to say, we become reacquainted with ourselves.

_______________