On Wings of Peace
iPalpiti Orchestral Ensemble of International Laureates
Eduard Schmieder, conductor
On Wings of Peace is available on all major streaming platforms. Physical CDs are available via bandcamp.
iPalpiti’s mission, to unite people through the spiritual affirmation of music, has never been more resonant than in the performances on this remarkable disc. In a time when the call of despair is loud, On Wings of Peace offers hope and heart.
This album embraces the world. It brings the united voices of more than 25 musicians from 20 different countries, from Korea to Ecuador to Turkmenistan, performing music by an array of composers from across the globe.
Mendelssohn’s youthful String Symphony ushers in the festival, with its boundless expression of hope and joy. iPalpiti’s musicians play it as with a single voice.
Next, iPalpiti pairs two very different pieces from the Middle East. In Kaddish, the Israeli composer Mark Kopytman gives musical voice to the profound ancient prayer that conveys love of life, even in the darkest of times, performed in a deeply felt solo by the Czech cellist Vilém Vlček. In Klezmer Dances, the American-Syrian composer Kareem Roustom and the Italian violin virtuoso Davide De Ascaniis display the universality of joy and dance, through music whose roots lie in the Jewish diaspora.
From Ukraine comes the third movement of Quiet Music, by the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. The piece is gentle beyond words, “a symbol of something that cannot be expressed” as Silvestrov wrote.
Joaquín Turina Pérez studied and worked with the likes of Moszkowski, Ravel, and Debussy, and is commonly known as a composer of Spanish themed music. His dazzling Rapsodia Sinfonica, played here, weaves the particularity of Catalan and Roma themes into a rich romantic landscape of universal appeal, led by the rising American pianist Michael Davidman. Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody, featuring the brilliant Czech violinist Pavel Šporcl, comes from a revered composer whose musical scope is as wide as iPalpiti’s. Indeed, it was Enescu who introduced iPalpiti’s founding advisor, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, to Javanese Gamelan music. Like iPalpiti, Enescu deeply understood that great music surpassed nationality, and that it can be a messenger of peace and understanding.
Mahler’s arrangement of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden quartet closes the program and is a kind of bookend to Mendelssohn’s youthful String Symphony. In the Schubert song that gives the piece its name, the young Maiden sings of her love of life, while Death intones its universal power. Youthful joy struggles with a profound awareness of the fragility of our human lives.
It is iPalpiti’s fervent belief that great music speaks to the deepest part of the human spirit. That it can heal. That it can inspire. That it can awaken and strengthen the bonds between us, regardless of nation or creed. It is to this belief that this album is lovingly dedicated.
