Trandafilovski Chamber Music

Strike-Flow; Six Pieces from Čekori; Crystal Threads; Quartet; Violin Concerto

Lontano Odaline de la Martinez (conductor) Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin) Mihailo Trandafilovski (violin) Caroline Balding (viola) Kreutzer Quartet

Lorelt LNT 132

Macedonian-born Mihailo Trandalfilowski says that the folk tradition of his native country pervades all his music, "rough sounding, quarter-tones, maintaining momentum, etc" (signally, with tremolando omnipresent in music of his I've heard *).

It is to be regretted, given that the total timing is modest, that room was not found to give some illustration of that folk music **, with which few of our readers are likely to be familiar.

It is austere, modernist-sounding music with no concessions towards easy listening, and the technical notes by Trandalfilowski himself are, he writws, not included as necessary for listening.

Most interesting I found to be a selection of progressive violin duos, for pupil and teacher, chosen from his cycle Cekori (Macedonian for Steps), which culminates with a two-movement violin concerto (Peter Sheppard Skaerved with soloists of Lontano) a tough nut musically and violinistically.

Peter Grahame Woolf

* q.v. Trandafilovski's new Star Factory relied for intensification upon insistent tremolando [Kreutzers & Lontano at South London Art Gallery]

** Hear a compilation of some Traditional Macedonian Music on YouTube