Archive for Amir Tafreshipour

Métier to Release New Recording of Piano Music from Iran

Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour
Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour © Hony Darlaine

Métier Records to release new recording of piano music from Iran by composers Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour and Hormoz Farhat, performed by Mary Dullea

Divine Art Recordings is honoured and delighted to announce a new recording of piano music by two foremost Iranian composers, of two generations, to be released in winter 2020-21 on the Métier new music imprint. The recording has been engineered and produced by top-ranked expert Adaq Khan in London.

Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour was born in 1974 and specialises in music which reaches across boundaries of geography and politics – and also time. He studied in Denmark and England and has enjoyed international success with recordings on Métier and Naxos.  He wrote the first ever Harp Concerto by an Iranian composer on a commission from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His opera The Doll Behind the Curtain – the first Iranian opera with an English libretto – was premiered in London in 2015. Some of his works for string ensemble were recorded along with works by Fozieh Majd on the album ‘In Absentia’: Metier MSV 28576 (2019)

Hormoz Farhat
Hormoz Farhat

Hormoz Farhat is perhaps the most senior of Iranian composers of ‘international’ art music. He was born in 1930, became a student of Darius Milhaud, and was the first Iranian to write a formal piano sonata.

Mary Dullea
Mary Dullea © Sophie Dennehy

The works here are performed by Irish pianist Mary Dullea, a formidable virtuoso dedicated to contemporary works whose skill and ability to realise aleatory and avant garde works is astonishing.   She is pianist with the world-acclaimed Fidelio Trio which has performed in many countries and has made recordings with several leading labels including Delphian, Atarus and NMC as well as Métier; as a soloist she has performed throughout Ireland, England, Europe, USA, Hong Kong and South Africa. She has recorded for Métier music by Michael Finnissy, Eric Craven and Paul Whitty as well as a collection of new Irish works by Benjamin Dwyer, David Fennessy, Ed Bennett, Frank Lyons, Gráinne Mulvey, Jonathan Nagle and John McLachlan. She has just completed a recording of Craven’s ‘Pieces for Pianists’ (2 CDs) which will appear early in 2021.

Piano music from Iran (working title) Métier MSV 28610

Works

Hormoz Farhat

  • Toccata
  • Piano Sonata no. 1
  • Piano Sonata No. 2

Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour

  • Yasna
  • Shabahang
  • Pendar
  • Celebration at Passargadae

Related Recordings

New chamber music album from Métier

Whilst political differences hamper relations with the government of Iran, its people, like most of us, just want to live as friends. One bridge which can span between cultures is music and so a new album of chamber music by two leading Iranian composers, coming soon from Métier (the new-music arm of Divine Art), certainly does just that. The recording includes works by Amir Tafreshipour and the legendary Fozié Majd.

Amir Tafreshipour was born in Iran but was brought up in Denmark where he studied music, before moving to London in 2001 where he obtained his PhD at Brunel University, studying with Christopher Fox. He now lives in Tehran. An album of his work for large ensembles was recently issued by Naxos.

Fozié Majd is a composer and researcher in the field of Iranian music. She is the first female Iranian composer to study in the west, studying at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Tafreshipour describes the idiom of Majd’s music as “a juxtaposition of bold Western contemporary musical ideas and Iranian music which blends very cleverly.

The new disc, ‘IN ABSENTIA’, is likely to be released in late spring of 2019 as Métier MSV 28576. Performers are Darragh Morgan (violin, and best known for his work with Mary Dullea and the Fidelio Trio); Patrick Savage (violin); Deirdre Cooper (viola) and Fiona Winning (cello). Most importantly this is not ‘world music’ to be placed in the ‘ethnic’ genre but excellent chamber music in its own right, blending elements of Iranian traditional music with western contemporary music.