Albums
Layla Ramezan Plays 100 Years of Iranian Piano Music
Vol1: Composers of the 1950s
Iran is a nation with an ancient musical tradition. Traditional music still plays an extremely important role in it today, alongside the various regional folk variants. Western classical music made its entrance there around 1850, especially through France, and despite its young age, Iranian classical music fascinates by its incredible richness and diversity and its ability to mix the multiple elements that cross it.
The composers on this record are a perfect example of this very particular variety. Born between 1929 and 1958, most studied in Europe, mainly in Austria and France, but also in the United States. And while musical styles are sometimes radically opposed, all are in one way or another the carriers of a musical tradition that is constantly reinventing itself.
- Mohammad Reza Darvishi - (1955)
- Behzad Ranjabaran - (1955)
- Hormoz Farhat - (1929)
- Iradj Sahbai - (1945)
- Fuzieh Majd - (1938)
- Nader Mashayekhi - (1958)
- Reza Vali - (1952)”
Layla Ramezan Plays 100 Years of Iranian Piano Music
Vol 2: Sheherazade by Alireza Mashayekhi
Alireza Mashayekhi's Sheherazade cycle (1939) is truly the masterpiece of Iranian classical piano music. Composed in 1992, it is based on the story of the Persian king Shahryar and Sheherazad, from the Arabian Nights Accounts, but transposes it on a psychological level, expressing the inner duality of being and the heartbreaking struggle it causes in him.
Organized in 9 parts around a short story originally written by the composer, using the elements of the original tale, Mashayekhi's piano pieces are arranged around the reading of the story and improvisations on Zarb and Santur. Layla Ramezan is thus accompanied by Djamchid and Keyvan Chemirani, both members of the brilliant Chemirani family trio that is internationally renowned on the world music and Persian music stages.”