Martin GEORGIEV (b.1983)
Violin Concerto (2020) [20:40]
Vasko Vassilev (violin), Andriy Viytovoch (viola), Alberto Ferres Torres (cello), Tony Hougham (double bass)
Covent Garden Soloists
rec. June-September 2020 Valencia, Spain; London, England
TRITTICO RECORDINGS no number [20:40]
Georgiev was born in Varna and educated at the Royal Academy of Music, London and the National Academy of Music 'Pancho Vladigerov’ in Sofia. He has a PhD in Composition from the University of London and Masters' degrees in both composition and conducting. Based in London since 2005, he holds both Bulgarian and British citizenship. He has composed operas, orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works. His conducting studies were with Colin Davis and George Hurst. In the case of the present single-work item, we have Georgiev in what I take to be the advantage of also being the conductor. Martin Georgiev’s name has appeared here so his music is not a completely unknown quantity. He also appeared in the composer roster for volume 3 of the Martin Anderson’s Toccata series Music for My Love.
Georgiev calls his compositional technique ‘Morphing Modality’ and he directs that the twelve movements of his Violin Concerto - an emotional construct reacting to Covid-19 - can be heard singly or collectively in any number or sequence. “Touched by the heroics of medical doctors, health workers and researchers, [Georgiev] wrote and dedicated this concerto to them.” I listened to the twelve segments in the order that they appear on the CD that the composer was good enough to send me:
1. Offering [1:59]
2. Frozen path [2:04]
3. Breathe... [2:17]
4. Remember? [2:24]
5. Recollections from a dance [1:39]
6. Missing you [2:13]
7. Almost like a seascape [1:58]
8. Time elapsing [1:56]
9. Gales and souls [1:39]
10. Plainchant in the memory [1:58]
11. Earth, soil and ratios [1:19]
12. Memorial [1:57]
As background Georgiev writes: “The common thread of hope which connected members of the medical profession with each one or any number of us who depend on them, is symbolised by the musical inner coherence which takes precedence over imposed continuity or entirety”. The Concerto was written for Vasko Vassilev, who balances a solo career with being Concertmaster at the Royal Opera House and Founder/Artistic Director of Covent Garden Soloists.
The progress of the music is earnest and unrushed. The sound is as clear as the proverbial bell and Vassilev shoulders his role as if he was a priestly supplicant presiding over a concerto of inwardness. Rather than raising conflict to an artform - the usual pattern for a concerto which places drama between soloist against orchestra - Georgiev masters a meditative approach. Spirituality, Stasis and Concentration appear to be unifying themes, which is strange in a work that moves across (or between) twelve separately tracked panels.
The score evokes a sense of airy spiralling ascension and put me in mind of Helen Macdonald’s book Vesper Flights where she describes swifts’ “precipitous ascents … every dawn and dusk. Twice daily they fly thousands of feet above their usual airspace in order to orient themselves using the patterns of stars and polarized light, wind direction and distance vision.” This music is not avant-garde in any intimidating sense. It’s a short but very real step outwards from Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending.
Rob Barnett
