Reza Vali: The Darkness of Fury Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen & Fawzi Haimor

• Reza Vali (b. 1952): The Darkness Of Fury:
• 1 Vali: The Darkness Of Fury 05:25
• Châhârsegâh, Concerto For Kamancheh, Percussion, Harp, Piano, and Strings:
• 2 Vali: Châhârsegâh, Concerto For Kamancheh, Percussion, Harp, Piano, and Strings 16:52
• Funèbre for solo violin and string orchestra:
• 3 Vali: Funèbre for solo violin and string orchestra 09:52
• Châhârgâh (Calligraphy No. 19) for 10 solo strings:
• 4 Vali: Châhârgâh (Calligraphy No. 19) for 10 solo strings 06:57
• The Dervish and the Magus:
• 5 Vali: The Dervish and the Magus 29:19
• Total Runtime 01:08:25

Info zu Reza Vali: The Darkness of Fury

Nach „ESFAHÂN“ aus dem Jahr 2024 ist „THE DARKNESS OF FURY“ das zweite Album von Navona Records mit interkulturellen Kompositionen des iranisch-amerikanischen Komponisten Reza Vali. Die fünf Stücke für großes Ensemble sind ein beeindruckendes Beispiel für makellose Studien, die den Weg für etwas Neues ebnen, da Valis wissenschaftliche Kenntnisse der iranischen Volksmusik und persischen Formen mit westlichen Temperamenten kombiniert werden, um Musik mit epischen, immersiven und erzählerischen Qualitäten zu schaffen. Während sich traditionelle persische Klänge mit orchestralen Klängen vermischen, werden die Zuhörer zwischen verschiedenen Welten hin- und hergeführt, die sich letztendlich in einer Verbindung musikalischer Kulturen vereinen.

Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen
Fawzi Haimor, Dirigent
Sohrab Pournazeri, kamancheh
Timo de Leo, Violine
Carol Ou,Cello

Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen
Founded by the inhabitants of the devastated city of Reutlingen after the Second World War, today’s Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen (WPR) has been a professional musical ensemble since 1945. It has long since become an orchestra of international renown, featuring nearly 15 different nationalities. The WPR is the orchestra of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

The WPR’s fundamental concept of promoting social cohesion through music and its potency is still alive today. Openness to the world and an appetite for discovery are the key characteristics of this ensemble: the orchestra deliberately targets a wide range of audiences through the diversity of its programing. In its “Experience World Orchestra,” it continually invents new formats and collaborates with other regional cultural partners. Rewarded for its creativity, the WPR became part of the “Germany’s Orchestra Landscape Excellence” program in 2022 and received federal support as a result.

In the concerts it is invited to perform in Germany and abroad, the WPR acts as an ambassador for its city and region worldwide. It collaborates as much with internationally renowned and established artists as with young rising stars of the musical world. This cooperation is not limited to the classical-romantic orchestral repertoire. One example is his kaleidoscope series, successfully dedicated to other musical genres for several decades. The orchestra performs with artists from jazz, world music, musical comedy, Latin music, hip-hop, chanson, and pop.

The WPR is intensely committed to its future audiences and reaches over 8,000 young listeners by giving around 25 children and family concerts in Reutlingen annually. The orchestra was awarded the “Innovative Orchestra 2019” prize by the “Deutsche Orchestra-Stiftung” for its interactive live-streaming format, “The Orchestra Quiz.” This was followed in 2023 by the “German Prize for Online Communication” in the “Digital Event” category for the same project.

In 2009, the WPR received the “Federal Prize for Cultural Education” for a project featuring performers with cognitive disabilities. In 2015, as the first orchestra in Baden-Württemberg, it organized a series of concerts for people with dementia. In 2016 and 2017, this was followed by an intercultural musical theater project involving refugees, which was extended until 2018 due to popular demand.

Various CD and radio productions have documented the WPR’s artistic work, including several world premiere recordings.

Since the beginning of the 2022–2023 season, the WPR has been led by French principal conductor Ariane Matiakh.

Fawzi Haimor
“Haimor showed a gracious, idiomatic touch with fine transparency and dynamics surely marked. The slow introduction to the opening movement had ample breadth and weight, dovetailing neatly into a vital, amiable Allegro. In the vivacious finale Haimor and the players delivered Haydn’s music with a winning blend of musical wit and infectious energy.” – Chicago Classical Review

Fawzi Haimor was Music Director of the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen from 2017–2020. He was elected and appointed to the position immediately following his impressive debut with the orchestra in December 2016. Following a critically acclaimed first season together, in 2018–2019 Haimor conducted the WPR in their home at the Stadthalle Reutlingen, in such German centres as Baden-Baden, Ludwigsburg, Heidelberg and Munich, and on tour in Italy.

Haimor has worked with Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Orquesta Sinfónica do Porto da Música, Oulu Sinfonia, and Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In the United States, Haimor has conducted orchestras such as The Florida Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, and New Mexico Philharmonic. He also made an acclaimed debut with the Grant Park Symphony in July 2017. Further afield, he has collaborated with Qatar Philharmonic, Kyoto Symphony, and touring with New Zealand Symphony, and in May 2018 he made his debut at London’s Barbican Hall, conducting the Chineke! Orchestra, who reinvited him to their European tour.

Haimor’s broad repertoire includes a focus on works of the late German Romantic period and by 19th and 20th century Russian and American composers, plus he is a committed advocate of contemporary music and has performed premieres by composers such as Mason Bates and Kareem Roustom. In his last season with the WPR, he explored works by Mahler, Zimmermann, Tchaikovsky, Gubaidulina, Ives, Brahms, and is working with soloists like Dejan Lazic, Isabelle van Keulen, and Noah Bendix-Bagley.

Upcoming debut appearances in this season include The Utah Symphony and the University Symphony Orchestra at Indiana University, as well as a return engagement with The Florida Orchestra.

Haimor was born in Chicago in 1983 and educated in the Middle East and in San Francisco. He completed his violin training at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University, and studied conducting under David Effron and Arthur Fagen. He earned Bachelor’s degrees in both Music and Neurobiology, a Master’s degree in Conducting from the University of California-Davis, and second Master’s in Instrumental Conducting at Indiana University. Until 2015, he was Assistant Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he led a variety of concerts including classical, pops, and outreach. Whilst in Pittsburgh, he also served as a cover to esteemed conductors including Manfred Honeck, Leonard Slatkin, Gianandrea Noseda, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Sohrab Pournazeri
a virtuoso of Tanbour, Kamancheh, and Setar, stands as one of the pioneers in performing Iranian contemporary music. His father, Kaykhosro Pournazeri, who founded the Shams Ensemble in 1980, is a respected composer and tanbur player in Iran. Pournazeri joined the Shams Ensemble at the age of 12, and since then, he has been captivating audiences through performances, recordings, and collaborations with world-class musicians globally. Pournazeri has followed in the footsteps of his musical family, yet has achieved distinct and idiosyncratic techniques that have rendered his method of playing into something entirely unprecedented. He also pursues vocalizing and composing with the same unique approach, and has been able to steer the distinct Pournazeri musical form (with its emphasis on passion, emotion, and inventiveness) towards new horizons.

Pournazeri is also well versed in the regional music of his native Iran, as well as western classical music, and holds a degree in Music Performance. As a soloist and vocalist, Pournazeri has collaborated with artists and ensembles worldwide — including Homayoun Shajarian, Shujaat Hussain Khan, the Beyond Borders Project, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, Pournazeri was featured as a soloist in the inaugural concert of the Iranshahr Orchestra in Los Angeles, sharing the stage with Hila Plitman.

Timo de Leo
Since 2011, Timo de Leo has been the concertmaster of the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen. Born in Sindelfingen, he began violin lessons at the age of 6. He completed his violin studies with the highest honors at the Stuttgart University of Music under Christian Sikorski. As a recipient of a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), he continued his training in the United States, studying for two years with Lucy Chapman at Boston’s New England Conservatory. His artistic development was further shaped by an exchange semester with Levon Chilingirian at the Royal College of Music in London. He also benefited from masterclasses with Donald Weilerstein, Christian Tetzlaff, and Kolja Blacher, as well as intensive quartet studies with the Artemis Quartet, the Leipzig String Quartet, Peter Buck, Paul Katz, and the Vogler Quartet.

During his studies, he gained valuable professional experience as a temporary member of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg.

As a student, he was annually awarded fine violins from the Baden-Württemberg State Collection of String Instruments and the German Musical Instrument Fund of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. Today, he performs on a violin crafted by Stuttgart luthier Patrick Müller.

Carol Ou
An award-winning recording artist, cellist Carol Ou has garnered accolades with her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique” (The Strad). A founder of Trio Flamecrest, a former member of Carpe Diem String Quartet, Ou was also a longtime duo partner of legendary violinist James Buswell. She has performed on five continents and at prestigious festivals and venues such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Carnegie Weill Hall, Jordan Hall, National Gallery of Art, National Concert Halls of Ukraine and Taiwan, and Teatro Argentino of La Plata. Her creative programming regularly combines traditional European masterworks with fun contemporary ones. She has championed works by Taiwanese composer Hsiao Tyzen, Iranian composer Reza Vali, and female composers past and present. Her numerous recordings include solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, and Albany Records.

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