Piano Music of the Near East

various artists compilation - Piano Music of the Near East

Amiram Rigai - piano

In the countries of the Near East, as in any other country where occidental culture is adoptive, musical composition modeled after its occidental counterpart came into being out of an intellectual necessity: that of finding a substitute for a traditional music which, under the dictate of its very essence, resisted evolution and was consequently in decay.

It was logical, as far as both the ideals and the basic methods of this process of substitution were concerned, that the fashioning be done after the examples of the national schools of the late nineteenth-century Europe. The first stream of the westernized near eastern music was therefore romantic (or post-romantic, or impressionist) in its overall gesture. Regardless of the composition date of each individual opus, all of the works recorded here fall into this category: music inspired by national traditions (musical, or other), displaying at least that intangible called "national character" whenever a national element is not evident, but employing a language and a medium belonging to western music. (liner notes)

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Manolis Kalomiri - Prelude to "Magic Herbs" {2:12}

2. Paul Ben-Haim - Sonatina, Op. 38 {11:17}

3. Ilhan Mimaroglu - Pieces Sentimentales {8:13}

Side 2

1. Andre Amine Hossein - Prelude No. 1 {5:11}

2. Andre Amine Hossein - Persian Legend {4:41}

3. Anis Fuleihan - "From the Aegean" {7:06}

4. Amiram Rigai - Israeli Rhapsody {5:23}

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