Album review: The Kristjan Järvi Sound Project – Balkan Fever

Balkan Fever
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Artist: Kristjan Järvi, MDR Leipzig Gewandhaus Symphony Orchestra, Theodosii Spassov, Vlatko Stefanovski, Miroslav Tadic
Genre: Classical
Label: Naïve

Estonian conductor Kristjan Järvi is seriously into fusion. And the Balkan-connected names drop big and fast in Franck Mallet's notes for this CD – Mozart, Liszt, Mahler, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Janacek, Kodály, Bartók, Ligeti, Sumera, Adams, Ellington, Mingus, Zawinul, Zappa. But Järvi seems to have come to Balkan music through Goran Bregovic, who's written the music for three of Emir Kusturica's films, and the major classical presence on Balkan Fever is Enescu's First Romanian Rhapsody, colourfully done by the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. If you like the sound of breathy flute (Theodossi Spassov on kaval) and the intermingling of folk flavours with jazz and orchestra, this may be just the thing for you. Myself, I was underwhelmed. See url.ie/8fjv

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor