TANIA STAVREVA: RHYTHMIC MOVEMENT

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Bulgarian pianist Tania Stavreva is not to be pigeonholed.

In her CD, Rhythmic Movement available directly from her at http://www.taniastavreva.com the gifted young artist plays an eclectically mixed sampling of her own compositions in three of the tracks, gives over six tracks to the music of the Argentine Alberto Ginastera that features dances culled from his ballet, Estancia and from his Piano Sonata, No. 1, and further occupies the remaining tracks with compositions by her compatriots Pancho and Alexander Vladigerov, by the Russian Nikolai Kapustin and by the American Mason Bates.

The Vladigerovs – father Pancho and son Alexander – along with Kapustin and Bates – are all 20th and 21st century composers that have at different times straddled the worlds of folk music, music for the theatre, jazz, blues and concert music. So has Stavreva, a formidable musician who unfailingly negotiates the breakneck tempi of her composition Rhythmic Movement, later elicits from her instrument the eerie beyond-the-keyboard sounds of her brooding The Dark Side of the Sun, finds inspiration along the way in the music of her homeland, and passionately injects into her performances of all of the music in this intriguing album a cool contemporary sensibility, a knowing musicality, and an impressive pianistic technique.

Straveva subtly caresses the melancholy strains of Ginastera’s Danza del Viejo Boyero, lightly bounces off the keyboard to the bee-bop gestures of Mason Bates’ White Lies for Lomax, and finally dives-in heart and soul and sinews into the demanding eleven-minute set of variations on the Bulgarian song Dilbero Dilbero, by Alexander Vladigerov.

The production by Ron Saint Germain, the nice liner notes, and the uncluttered engineering of this engaging CD, along with its fascinating sampling of mostly unfamiliar music and Stravreva’s powerful playing, make it a top contender for a place in the library of any collector interested in music off the beaten path.

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”