Mihailo TRANDAFILOVSKI (b.1974)
Chamber Music
Strike-Flow (in three phases) (2006) [11:34]
Six Pieces from Cekori for violin duo (2002-5) [12:43]
Crystal Threads for solo violin (2009-10) [7:15]
A+de+scent for violin, cello and piano (2007) [8:44]
Quartet (2007) [13:12]
Violin Concerto (2004-5) [13:13]
Peter Sheppard Skćrved (violin); Kreutzer Quartet; Caroline Balding (violin);
Mihailo Trandafilovski (violin); Lontano/Odaline de la Martinez
rec. 30 Nov 2009, St Peter and St Paul, Tring; 17-18 Aug 2009, 2 July 2010,
St Mary's Church, Walthamstow. DDD
LORELT LNT1332 [66:49] 
Trandafilovski was born in Macedonia and that country's traditional music
is said to underpin and weave in and out of these pieces. The composer studied
at Michigan State and has drawn favourable attention from the SPNM and other
luminaries of contemporary music. Recordings of his Quartet and Duet for violin
and piano have been issued by SOCOM Macedonian RTV. He has a worthy and influential
ally in the violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved who may be better known for
his recordings of Henze, Gloria Coates and Rochberg. Trandafilovski espouses
dissonance and it is within that compass that folk voices are liberated and
float free among the shining transparent tangle of shards and tessellae. Strike
Flow for a small instrumental ensemble is very much in this vein. Sheppard
and the composer play the six pieces from the Cekori cycle. The music
is more concerned now with the long line though there are salty Bartókian
dissonances both loud and whispered. We change to the solo violin of Caroline
Balding for Crystal Threads. The landscape here is in much the same
realm as the Cekori pieces - a sort of arcane music of the remote highlands.
A-de-scent takes us back to an ensemble drawn from Lontano. Stravinskian
assaults and impacts including claps from the players again create both dynamism
and clarity. There is considerable silence and only the finest scintillation
of sound and note-cells provide coherence and shape. The Quartet is
in three movements. It is played by the Kreutzer comprising Sheppard and the
composer plus Morgan Goff (viola) and Neil Heyde (cello). The music is spiky,
raw, rife with whimpers and whispers, secretive and insect-like. The 13 minute
Violin Concerto is the culmination of the Cekori cycle. The
music buzzes and hums being irate and even furious. Dissonance is there amid
the Stravinskian fusion of sweet emollient and raspy savoury. This is intricate
and raucous music. I found the experience of listening to this disc more fascinating
than ingratiating. I am held by the music but do not find it specially likeable.
I hope that you might. In any event I sense that the composer will take considerable
pride in being represented by such dedicated music-making and informative
advocacy.
Rob Barnett
Fascinating rather than ingratiating.