Gubaidulina: Sieben Worte for cello, bayan and strings (Seven Words)

“A handy collection of most of Sofia Gubaidulina's important works for the accordion” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012

“Gubaidulina's religious nature, specifically Russian Orthodox, finds expression in each of these pieces. Each also makes use of her much-loved bayan, the Russian button accordion played here with great virtuosity by Inaki Alberdi...the performer's interpretation goes, with her encouragement, well beyond the composer's notation...This is a remarkable, compelling work.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012

“'Every interval,' Gubaidulina explains, 'creates a summation tone and a difference tone: an interval in the lowest register creates a difference tone which we recognise not as a tone but a pulsation.' At higher registers we 'hear the pulsation of the difference tone simultaneously with the original interval'. Gubaidulina sees this transition from pulse to tone and back (and, eventually, the loss of even the pulse) as a metaphor for hope and despair. The Deceitful Face Concerto exploits and explores this acoustical phenomenon and the emotional process of struggling against despair. As the piece unfolds, quiet passages inhabited by the flute soloist and other individual instruments are brutally invaded by outbursts from larger groupings. The flute part, impressively realised by Sharon Bezaly, finally gives way to the terrifying pulsing of the bass drum from which the piece first welled up.
Seven Last Words (1982) is a kind of companion piece to In Croce (1979), in which cello and bajan (Russian accordion) moved towards an explosive meeting from their extreme registers. Again, the crossing of lines is among the structural devices used to symbolise crucifixion. As is her custom, Gubaidulina asks her soloists to venture beyond the standard techniques of their instruments but, as ever, she does so in the service of expressiveness, not novelty. Her thorough command of instrumental colour (and, indeed, temperature) is put to brilliant use in evoking the contradictory emotions associated with Good Friday, from the pain and despair of the participants to the implicit hope of believers.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Naxos are to be congratulated for contributing to the process. There is a certain steely cool about the music-making here, a tendency to avoid the disturbing excesses of introversion and extroversion that some might see as part and parcel of Gubaidulina's idiom, but, with Maria Kliegel once again proving herself a cellist of real distinct, the disc would be worth acquiring at twice the price.” Gramophone Magazine