Julian Azkoul

United Strings of Europe, Julian Azkoul – Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48, TH 48 & Other Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:17:25 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

After two stylistically diverse anthologies – “In Motion” and “Renewal” – the United Strings of Europe and their director Julian Azkoul have chosen to devote their latest project to a single composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They open with the composer’s Serenade, a tribute to Mozart’s divertimentos, but infused with Tchaikovsky’s characteristic pathos and melancholy. It is one of his most popular works, with the especially beloved Waltz as its second movement, and a finale featuring Russian folk songs.
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United Strings of Europe, Julian Azkoul – Through the Night (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:17:47 minutes | 2,71 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

For their fourth release with BIS, the United Strings of Europe with their director Julian Azkoul present another innovative programme, dedicated this time to the night, a source of wonder and fascination, rich with metaphorical associations. The ensemble’s varied, tailor-made programme features counterpoint, aching dissonance and chromaticism from across a range of styles spanning nearly 500 years, from the Renaissance to the present day. The album is built around two post-romantic masterpieces: Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen (here in an arrangement by Éric Mouret), a work composed during the final months of the Second World War that evokes destruction, mourning, nostalgia, but also hope for progress and transformation, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, which, in a nocturnal dialogue between a man and a woman, shows the power of love that can overcome the greatest challenges. These two major works are joined by arrangements for strings of vocal pieces by Maddelena Casulana, Carlo Gesualdo and Henry Purcell, as well as a new work by Daniel Kidane, Be Still, featuring percussionist Beibei Wang, a reflection on recent years marked by lockdowns during which everyday markers, such as meeting with friends and family, travelling or attending concerts vanished.

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United Strings of Europe, Julian Azkoul – Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48, TH 48 & Other Works (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:17:25 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © BIS

After two stylistically diverse anthologies – “In Motion” and “Renewal” – the United Strings of Europe and their director Julian Azkoul have chosen to devote their latest project to a single composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They open with the composer’s Serenade, a tribute to Mozart’s divertimentos, but infused with Tchaikovsky’s characteristic pathos and melancholy. It is one of his most popular works, with the especially beloved Waltz as its second movement, and a finale featuring Russian folk songs.
(more…)