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RequiemComposed and Performed by Fariborz LachiniAug 2008
Liner Notes: Redefining minimalism The one and only thing that bothers me about the music of Lachini is that I didn't find it sooner. I was first introduced to it in early 2008, and the quality and overall synthesis of the pieces blew my mind. And as I did more research about Lachini, his background and his music, the more interested I became. Put simply, these are pieces that are hard to believe are being written today. They're that ahead of their time. Comparisons to contemporaries happen-as they often do-when it comes to trying to explain Lachini's music to those who are uninitiated. But it seems like the right adjectives aren't always there. Either way, it needs to be said: Steve Reich and Thomas Newman really have nothing on Fariborz Lachini when it comes to mindful reductivism in classical music. Although both composers do what they do very well, the frequent comparisons to Lachini's compositions aren't really the most accurate ones. True, both Reich and Newman fall along the lines of creating soundscapes for a new wave world. But minimalism, a benign enough term that's often been used to describe Lachini's compositions, is also a name that doesn't go far enough when talking about his music. Lachini, who is known and revered for his film compositions (and of course, the rest of his extensive body of work) for decades like Newman, stands alone with a gift for creating compositions that are so emotionally searing that it's easy to be curious about their sources. And while Lachini's compositions are vivacious, it's also obvious that they would easily succeed in every era-their origins even seem mysterious, as though the compositions were just discovered as sheet music in a tucked-away vault somewhere and had just been given new life. Case in point: the "Requiem" album. This batch of neo-classical opuses would very easily be just at home in Europe at the turn of the century as it is in 2008, enrapturing audiences from all walks of life. This album also marks the first time he's venturing into the territory of a pure classical album. Lachini's background-he's Iranian but studied music in Paris-led to him learning how to combine aspects of music from his homeland with what he heard in Europe. The results, especially on "Requiem", are galvanic and vibrant. What he has created here is an intensity that translates across genres- which is proven by the fact that he's also managed to parlay this quiet but critical intensity into more than 100 film scores. Vitality can come in a variety of forms, and with this album, you can set your expectations well beyond the typical classical music canon. You can anticipate subtlety, suspense and longing, too-all of which are genuinely lost arts in classical music. --Stephanie R. Myers, New York City, August 2008 Requiem Reviews
Once, in a classical music course I was taking in college, the professor made a bold declaration -- "there are those who feel and connect with the music of Philip Glass," he said, leaving room for a dramatic pause, "and those who don't." Truer words never spoken. If, as a listener of instrumental music, you've ever found yourself in the former category, you're in for a treat with Lachini's "Requiem" The kind of minimalism that Glass exemplifies shines through in this piece, putting Lachini in the category of a someone who's mastered not only the genre but also the sentiment that runs behind it. Like much of Glass' canon, it's bittersweet, sure -- but it's so far down the sweet end of the spectrum that it's hard to imagine that it's much of anything close to bitter. Stephanie R. Myers 4/14/2008 Réquiem del compositor y pianista iraní Fariborz Lachini evoca en su melodía la pérdida de algo amado. Además de su nombre en el que la palabra réquiem cobra un sentido diferente al usualmente acostumbrado en las composiciones tradicionales en las que se musicalizan textos bíblicos para la misa de alguien que ha muerto, el uso de la tonalidad menor por parte de Lachini, así como el carácter nostálgico, logran que esta pieza evoque melancolía, una sensación innegable por parte de un músico que sabe transmitir las emociones a través del piano, una capacidad que consagró a los grandes compositores de la historia como el caso de F. Chopin y F. Liszt, músicos con quienes Lachini ha sido relacionado en diferentes ocasiones. El carácter afligido de Réquiem por un amor cautiva al oyente por su profundo sentimiento que de alguna manera se identifica con el sentimiento nostálgico que existe dentro de cada ser humano, un sentimiento de apropiación que quizá se puede comparar con la nostalgia que lograron transmitir los tangueros durante los primeros años del siglo XX. Por Andrea Baquero MusicBlogSpace 4/19/2008 Requiem by the Iranian composer and pianist Fariborz Lachini evoques in its melody the loss of something loved. Furthermore than its name in which the word requiem has a different meaning than the usual in the traditional compositions in which it’s a musicalization of a biblical text for the mass for a dead person, the use of minor tonality by Lachini as well as the nostalgic character of the piece, manage to evoke melancholy, an undeniable feeling from a musician that knows how to transmit feelings through the piano, a talent that consecrated the great composers of all times, like F. Chopin or F. Liszt to which Lachini has been compared in several times, had to experience. The afflict character of Requiem captivates because of the profound feeling that in a way identifies with the nostalgic feeling that exists inside every human being, a feeling of belonging that one may compare with the nostalgia that tango transmitted in the first years of the XXth century. Andrea Baquero 4/19/2008 Fariborz Lachini’s work is pregnant with the type of meaning and emotion that could only originate from the type of man who left his home country for the sake of creating music. Heavy with emotion but never burdensome, Lachini’s “Requiem” harnesses deep feelings of truth. Lachini’s approach to this track reveals the absolute power of understatement. Songs of mourning and loss have a gross tendency for excessive exaggeration but this track glides along poignantly without unnecessary ostentation. Striking and precise, the track’s climax occurs with vehemence. Rumbling piano solos give way to emptiness and stunning dramatics as the track illustrates the waves of emotion that ensue after loss. At the track’s end Lachini’s piano simply fades out like the hushed wind at a grave, or the ability to finally move on after becoming accustomed to living with loss. Perhaps most important, this piano solo is triumphant in its ability to convey the complex emotions that accompany loss. Elegiac but also seductive, Lachini demonstrates that even though loss can be painful, life moves on and we may still live to tell about our love. Lauren Proctor 4/14/2008 Prior to pressing the play button, the listener is drawn into the lush notes of the piano. The mood of the song brings to mind a romantic yet somber tone, which speaks to the heart, and teases the soul, while urging the ears to stand at attention and collect every morsel of musicality seeping from this beautiful work. While soaking in a bath tub of warm fragrant water reflecting love once loss, or seated at a bistro dining by candlelight, just feet away from your significant other, Lachini's chivalrous yet enticingly painful melody, will evoke passion, sadness, and a deep appreciation for every note being played. The tempo sets the mind at ease, yet the melody tugs at the heart strings and leaves the listener wanting for more. Lachini unflinchingly relays his message, while oozing all the complex simplicities, that are love, and for that I urge any patron of excellent taste to check this out. Ebony Moore 4/13/2008
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