Zsofia Boros

Zsófia Boros – El último aliento (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 39:24 minutes | 609 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series

The guitar music on this ECM release by Zsófia Boros is all pretty contemporary; the oldest piece is the Milonga of Alberto Ginastera. The composers are an interesting group; Mathias Duplessy is a largely self-taught French guitarist who traveled in Romany circles and learned flamenco styles, which shaped his music. However, none of them is much known, at least beyond France and Argentina. It is impressive that guitarist Boros shapes the pieces into a coherent whole. The overall mood is reflective, quietly lively, suggestive of improvisation, but within her framework, Boros adds numerous shades. Sample El Abrazo (“The Embrace”), by the Quique Sinesi. The album takes its title from its finale, El último aliento (“The Last Supper”), by Carlos Moscardini, a deeply elegiac piece. Boros is a wonder, but even more spectacular is the engineering from ECM, an absolutely exemplary demonstration of how to record a solo guitar. The listener is put into a profoundly intimate space, but that space is not invaded by extraneous noises. This adds up to an absorbing 40 minutes of music for late nights, accompanied by brandy and perhaps other quiet intoxicants. An unusually fresh and fully realized release from ECM that made classical charts in the spring of 2023, despite the obscurity of its repertory. – James Manheim

(more…)

Zsófia Boros – Local Objects (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 41:23 minutes | 730 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series

The second album from Hungarian-born, Vienna-based guitarist Zsófia Boros finds her embracing a broad scope of music, broader even than on her debut En otra parte. On Local Objects the range extends from contemporary composition to jazz étude via works from Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Azerbaijan, all delivered with imagination and creative flair. Composers represented on the programme include Egberto Gismonti, Al Di Meola and Carlo Domeniconi.

(more…)

Zsófia Boros – En Otra Parte (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:38 minutes | 633 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM New Series

The evocative ECM debut of the outstanding Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros addresses a broad range of composition for her instrument, drawing on music of the Americas. “Often I think I am holding the choice of music in my own hands, but later I wonder if the music has chosen me as a medium. My approach is always very intuitive; when a piece of music grips or touches me, I want to reflect it – to become a mirror and convey it.” At the centre of “En otra parte” is music of Leo Brouwer, the Cuban composer who once declared that the guitar has “no limits”, a major reference for Boros from the beginning of her musical journey. Her sensitive solo recital also includes Ralph Towner’s “Green and Golden”, Vicente Amigo’s tribute to the spirit of flamenco (“Callejón de la luna”), a waltz by Dilermando Reis, Quique Sinesi’s “Cielo Abierto”, inspired by the rhythms of candombe and milonga, and much more. Named for the poem by Roberto Juarroz, “Todo comienza en otra parte” (“Everything begins somewhere else”), Boros’s album was recorded in Lugano in 2012 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

(more…)