THE BÁB

PIANO SONATAS AND BALLADES


Composed and Performed by AFSHIN JABERI

“Art was always the center of my life; I was always attracted to beauty and striving towards harmony; the music in this recording was a beginning of a spiritual journey, a journey of faith, sacrifice, a path of life with deep emotional affections. Composition with which I elevated to a new level of musical mind set. They were my remedy facing the hardships and calamities and challenges of my life. While composing I felt divine inspiration, which words cannot describe, only music can convey a glimpse of that realm.” – Afshin Jaberi

Listen to an extract from
Piano Sonata No. 1, ‘The Seeker’: II. Andante

GP694

TANYA EKANAYAKA

About this Recording

Tanya Ekanayaka is one of Sri Lanka’s foremost pianists and an internationally acclaimed composer. Her ‘deeply autobiographical’ piano compositions, or reinventions, introduce a novel and hybrid musical genre that takes a wide variety of Sri Lankan melodies – ancient, folk and popular – and blends them with motifs inspired by the tonal centres of established classical compositions by Bach, Beethoven, Ravel and others.

PIANO SONATA NO. 1, ‘THE SEEKER’
1 I. Allegro(06:09)
2 II. Andante (04:19)
3 III. Rondo: Allegro (07:03)

PIANO SONATA NO. 2, ‘THE PATH TO PEACE’
4 I. Agitato(03:13)
5 II. Andante (03:03)
6 III. Allegretto (05:08)

PIANO SONATA NO. 3, ‘THE BEDOUIN’
7 I. Andante - Allegro(07:05)
8 II. Adagio (05:07)
9 III. Rondo (05:03)

10 BALLADE NO. 1, ‘THE HERALD’ (05:12)

11 BALLADE NO. 2, ‘EROICA’ (12:23)

12 BALLADE NO. 3, ‘THE MARTYRDOM’ (09:38)

TOTAL TIME: 73:20

AFSHIN JABERI (b. 1973)

Iranian composer Afshin Jaberi’s powerful music combines 19th-century western piano traditions with eastern melodic influences. It is strongly connected with the message of equality and peaceful unity promoted by his religious faith. The Báb Ballades depict dramatic heroism and tragic sacrifice, while the Sonatas express the horrors of war and the fragility of remote cultures, out of which new hope and the chance for reconciliation can emerge.

Born in Bahrain and raised in Qatar, Afshin Jaberi’s formal musical education began in 1991 in Hungary, where he attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Besides the distinct progress he made in piano performance, his compositions also attracted attention, especially his First Ballade, written at the age of eighteen. Jaberi continued his studies in Kazakhstan at the Almaty Conservatoire, where he obtained his master’s degree and PhD in Pedagogical Science. During the course of his studies he gave numerous concerts in Hungary and Kazakhstan, and later in Slovakia, Russia, Bahrain and Qatar.

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