Tajcevic: Seven Balkan Dances

The fascinating, and mystifying sounds and colours of Levant, the “region of the rising Sun”, are the focus of Amici Ensemble’s latest recording project. With music from the Balkans, Israel, the Arabian Peninsula and the Caucasus mountains, it features an eclectic selection of works by Prokofiev, Gurdjieff, Golijov, and others. Amici’s recordings have placed them firmly among the world’s best chamber ensembles.

Marko Tajcevic was born in Osijek (in what is today Croatia) on 29 January 1900.

He studied in Prague and Vienna.

In Zagreb & later at the Belgrade Academy of Music, he was active as teacher, conductor, composer, writer and reviewer.

His harmonic and tonal language is modern but rooted in traditional harmony. Artur Rubinstein, Kendall Taylor and Nikolay Orlov are only a few of the prominent pianists to perform his suite, Seven Balkan Dances, considered to be on a par with such fine east European piano music as Stravinsky’s Petrouchka suite, Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances and Martinu’s Esquisses de Dance.

Many of his shorter pieces make use of the intricate and irregular rhythms of Balkan folk music, whilst the large-scale pieces show the influence of Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev and Kabalevsky.