Anájikon, the second ECM album after Music for piano and string quartet (ECM New Series 2309) by Athens-born and Munich-based Konstantia Gourzi, incorporates her chamber and orchestral music of the past decade. The composer also conducts the Lucerne Academy Orchestra here: "I see composing and conducting as a whole, as an inseparable relationship," she says. Gourzi is particularly concerned with making connections between the arts, which also relates to the question of her own artistic identity and the influence of her origins. In Gourzi's sound language, elements of different musical traditions repeatedly merge, and East and West enter into a dialogue. This album presents three of her compositions: her Third String Quartet Anájikon, her orchestral piece Ny-él (commissioned by the Lucerne Festival, in August 2016 with the orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy) as well as Hommage à Mozart, three Dialogues.
KONSTANTIA GOURZI - HOMMAGE À MOZART, OP. 56
1. I con eleganza, intense, tanzend 05:28
2. II singing, sostenuto, dreamish 03:49
3. III scherzoso, ma calmo 05:41
KONSTANTIA GOURZI - NY-ÉL - TWO ANGELS IN THE WHITE GARDEN, OP. 65
4. Eviction 03:16
5. Exodus 04:34
6. Longing 02:45
7. The White Garden 06:06
KONSTANTIA GOURZI - ANÁJIKON - THE ANGEL IN THE BLUE GARDEN, OP. 61
8. The Blue Rose 04:37
9. The Blue Bird 05:13
10. The Blue Moon - The Bright Side 04:24
11. The Blue Moon - Turning 00:48
12. The Blue Moon - The Dark Side 03:57
Konstantia Gourzi Composer and Conductor
Nils Mönkemeyer Viola
William Youn Piano
Lucerne Academy Orchestra
Minguet Quartett
