Malek Jandali: Concertos (1) Rachel Barton Pine, Marin Alsop and Anthony McGill featuring ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

• Malek Jandali (b. 1972): Concerto for Violin and Orchestra:
• 1 Jandali: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: I. Allegro moderato (1) 17:37
• 2 Jandali: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: II. Andante (1) 09:46
• 3 Jandali: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: III. Allegretto (1) 08:35
• Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra:
• 4 Jandali: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra: I.Andante misterioso—Più mosso (1) 07:41
• 5 Jandali: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra: II. Nocturne: Andante (1) 08:16
• 6 Jandali: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra: III. Allegro moderato (1) 09:01
• Total Runtime 01:00:56

Info for Malek Jandali: Concertos (1)

Clarinetist Anthony McGill and violinist Rachel Barton Pine are featured soloists on a new recording of two concertos composed in response to societal injustices by Syrian composer Malek Jandali, performed by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and led by Marin Alsop, a champion of the composer’s work.

Malek Jandali, called “deeply enigmatic” by Gramophone, has been praised for writing “heart-rending melodies, lush orchestration, clever transitions and creative textures” (American Record Guide). His repertoire, which ranges from chamber music to large scale orchestral works, integrates Middle-Eastern modes into Western classical forms and harmony.

Rachel Barton Pine, “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” (The Washington Post), performs Jandali’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2014), a work that honors “all women who thrive with courage” according to the composer. Jandali’s concerto is in recognition of the women of Syria, continuing his aim to preserve the cultural heritage of his homeland. The Violin Concerto incorporates Syrian melodies and idioms into Jandali’s Western-inspired harmonies and forms. Jandali calls upon an array of Syrian and Arabic music forms and folk melodies including multiple samā’i and bashraf (instrumental pieces), and longa (dances), from different maqam (modes). He also makes use of the oud (Arabic lute) in his symphonic scoring to infuse the work with the authentic sound and feeling of Syria. A particularly notable samā’i inspired by traditional Syrian folk music from the area along the Silk Road Is used for a “Women’s Theme.” This theme is representative of the folk music that is a source of comfort and healing for unjustly detained, peaceful Syrian activists and other women and mothers living in fear.

Jandali’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (2021) is dedicated to its performer Anthony McGill (“the total package...stylish, passionate and limitlessly fluent on the clarinet,” Bachtrack), “in memory of all victims of injustice.” McGill says of the work, ”In the midst of the pain and the violence and injustice in the world all we are left with is the ability to pour our hearts and our souls into something more beautiful, into something more powerful, so it can communicate throughout all time and live on.” Like all of Jandali’s works, the clarinet concerto is infused with ancient themes from Jandali’s homeland as a means of preservation. Jandali explores variations on themes from old and traditional Syrian musical forms and modalities, with striking musical effects and wide ranging highs and lows in the orchestral writing.

The recording’s executive producer is Malek Jandali; music producer is Erich Hofmann; session engineer is Friedrich Trondl; with mixing and mastering by Bill Maylone. Jandali’s Violin Concerto and Clarinet Concerto were recorded May 27–29, 2022 at the Funkhaus Wien Großer Sendesaal in Vienna, Austria. Rachel Barton Pine has recorded more than 20 albums for Cedille Records, including the recently released Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries: 25th Anniversary Edition. This is Anthony McGill’s sixth recording for Cedille Records, following the 2022 release of American Stories, featuring music by living American composers performed by McGill with the Pacifica Quartet.

Notes by Jane Vial Jaffe: A concerto for a woman, played on a famous violin named for a woman, with an orchestra conducted by a woman — what better way to honor “all women who thrive with courage”? Malek Jandali began composing his Violin Concerto in New York City in 2013, completing it in January 2014, originally with violinist Gidon Kremer in mind as the dedicatee. As the project took shape, however, with its emphasis on women who have transcended great obstacles, he rededicated it “To Rachel Barton Pine and to all women who thrive with courage.” Pine recorded it on the 1742 Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” violin, previously known as the “ex-Bazzini” but now as the “ex-Soldat” after violin virtuoso Marie Soldat of Johannes Brahms’s circle. On Brahms’s recommendation she had studied with Joseph Joachim and for a time was the only woman to play the Brahms Violin Concerto. To conduct, Jandali sought out Marin Alsop, one of today’s most successful women in the field, who has recorded most of his symphonic works.

Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Anthony McGill, clarinet
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
Marin Alsop, conductor

Rachel Barton Pine
Celebrated for her extraordinary ability to connect with audiences, violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10 and was the first American and youngest-ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition.

In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Celebrated as a leading interpreter of classical works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction across an extensive repertoire. Audiences are thrilled by her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.

Pine has appeared as a soloist with many of the world’s most prestigious ensembles including the Chicago, Montreal, Vienna, and Baltimore Symphonies; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Royal Philharmonic, the Mozarteum, Scottish, and Israel Chamber Orchestras; and the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie. She has worked with such renowned conductors as Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Neeme Järvi, John Nelson, Marin Alsop, and Placido Domingo.

Her festival appearances have included Marlboro, Ravinia, and Salzburg. Her recital performances have included the complete Paganini Caprices, all six Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Beethoven’s complete works for violin and piano, and the world premiere of the last movement of Samuel Barber’s long-lost 1928 Violin Sonata. She regularly plays and records with John Mark Rozendaal and David Schrader as the period instrument ensemble Trio Settecento.

Pine writes her own cadenzas to many of the works she performs, including concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Paganini. She is the first living composer to be published as part of Carl Fischer’s “Masters Collection” with the release of The Rachel Barton Pine Collection, including original compositions, arrangements, cadenzas, and editions penned or arranged by Pine. Pine is also music advisor and editor of “Maud Powell Favorites,” the only published compilation of music dedicated to, commissioned by, or closely associated with Powell, the first native-born American violinist to achieve international recognition.

Pine won the gold medal at the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition (Leipzig, 1992) and holds prizes from several other leading competitions including the Queen Elisabeth (Brussels, 1993), Kreisler (Vienna, 1992), Szigeti (Budapest, 1992), and Montreal (1991) International Violin Competitions. She won honors for her interpretation of the Paganini Caprices at the Szigeti Competition and Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, 1993).

Her Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation assists young artists through various projects including the Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, Global HeartStrings (supporting classical musicians in developing countries), and a curricular series in development with the University of Michigan: The String Students’ Library of Music by Black Composers. She teaches chamber music, coaches youth orchestras, gives master classes, conducts workshops at universities, adjudicates music competitions, creates special programs for children and school groups, and offers spoken program notes or pre-concert conversations for audiences of all ages.

Anthony McGill
A highly sought-after soloist and chamber musician, Anthony McGill is principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, after having served for a decade as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Clarinetist Anthony McGill is one of classical music’s most recognizable and brilliantly multifaceted figures. He serves as the principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, that orchestra’s first African-American principal player. Hailed for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character” (The New York Times), as well as for his “exquisite combination of technical refinement and expressive radiance” (The Baltimore Sun), McGill also serves as an ardent advocate for helping music education reach underserved communities. McGill was honored to take part in the inauguration of President Obama, premiering a piece by John Williams alongside violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero.

McGill appears regularly as a soloist with top orchestras around North America including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Baltimore Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony, and is a favorite collaborator of the Brentano, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Miró, Pacifica, Shanghai, Takács, and Tokyo Quartets, as well as Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Yefim Bronfman, Gil Shaham, Midori, Mitsuko Uchida, and Lang Lang.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute, McGill previously served as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera and associate principal of the Cincinnati Symphony. He serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Bard College’s Conservatory of Music.

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