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06/06/2026
“PEACE”
Yury Revich: The First Note – The Blooming Flower of Hope [1] – Impression “Sea” for Violin and Electronics – Impression “Dona Nobis Pacem” – Impression “A Procession for Peace” – Impression “Ode to Joy” – Impression “Olive Tree” – Awakening [1, 3]
Mark John McEncroe: Echoes of Ancient Dreaming [3]
Victoria Poleva: Soul [3]
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Sea Murmurs, opus 24a (arr. J. Heifetz) [2]
Erik Satie: Gymnopédie n° 1 [2] – Gnossienne n° 1
Kareem Roustom: Tranquillamente [2, 3]
Franz Schubert: Impromptus, opus 90, D. 899: n° 3. Andante [2] – Du bist die Ruh, opus 59 n° 3, D. 776 [2]
Nimrod Borenstein: Souvenirs de Mendelssohn [3]
Jessie Montgomery: Peace (Frieden) [3]
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing, opus 11 (Suite): IV. Intermezzo “Garden Scene” [3]
Jules Massenet: “Méditation” from Thaïs [3]
Alla Pavlova: Adagio “Prayer for Peace on Earth” [3]
Adina Izarra: So That the Song Remains for Violin, Violin Player and Electronics (arr. R. Tiera)
Yury Revich (violin), Basha Slavinska [1] (accordion), David Chen [2], Volodymyr Borodin [3] (piano)
Recording: Kulturzentrum Immanuel, Wuppertal, Germany (October 13‑16, 2025) – 77’36
Ars Produktion ARS 38 698 (Distributed by Naxos of America) – Booklet in German and English
“I travel not by wing or road, but by resonance – each city a chord, each face a timber. Borders melt in overtones. Languages are melodies, the canons. Peace is not a place. It’s the echo that remains when we stop insisting on the rules dividing harmony. Music does not ask. It forgives, it breathes. In that fragile vibration, the world remembers that first note, the chord which gave the birth to all creations.”
Yury Revich
Austrian violinist and composer Yury Revich speaks those words on the first track to introduce his concept CD, “PEACE,” which he describes in the liner notes as being a “multidisciplinary space where music, poetry and sound design meet. I wanted to let the violin speaking all its forms: acoustic, with electronic and natural soundscapes, intimate and virtuous.”
“PEACE” travels across musical borders and eras, with a playlist representing an international musical diaspora by composers past and some from conflict regions now. All with the belief that classical music is a well of unity and peace. The repertory unfolds in six musically themed chapters: “Genesis,” “Soul” is Nature,” “Peaceful,” “Feeling,” “Human” and “Earth”.
Revich composed The Blooming Flower of Hope as a duet with accordionist Basha Slavinska with its somber, almost discordant bowing by Revich and soothed by Slavinska on the lullabying accordion. This musical blooming continuo soundscape is reminiscent of Glass or Pärt, but it soon gives way to the album’s quest for Peace in a troubled world.
Composer Mark John McEncroe’s Echoes of Ancient Dreaming is a haunting work that is conjured in all of its mythic charm by Revich and Volodymyr Borodin. It is the perfect prelude to composer Victoria Poleva’s violin/piano duet, Soul, which captivates with Borodin’s pulsing piano runs in contrapuntal balance and Revich’s rhythmic long‑bowing for a sporting duel between the musicians.
Composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sea Murmurs evokes the composer’s quietly nomadic sea and an homage to the calm, virtuosic legacy of Jascha Heifetz. Revich’s solo miniature, Impression “Sea”, ensues in an echoing tide.
The “Peaceful” chapter fittingly opens with Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie n° 1 that leans into its objective delicacy with David Chen’s ethereal legato and circled by Revich’s sinewy strings. Kareem Roustom’s Tranquillamente reveals Revich’s stealth precision floating through the composer’s roving piano abstracts, under the captivatingly dodgy hands of Volodymyr Borodin. Satie’s world returns with Gnossienne n° 1 which is highlighted by Revich as he crystalizes its mysteries and illuminates the piece’s harmonic edginess. Revich follows with his own miniature, Dona Nobis Pacem.
The mood shifts with Chen’s rousing performance of Schubert’s Impromptu as the opener to the “Feeling” chapter. Behind this selection is Nimrod Borenstein’s fascinating compositional mix of classical eras inside Souvenirs de Mendelssohn. This segues into Revich’s sketch, Impression: “A Procession for Peace”, filled with its stoutly heroic “march on” content. Jessie Montgomery’s Peace reveals a stream of musical consciousness by Revich and Borodin, featuring an airy stream or interplay, detailing the intricacies of the composer’s disparate sound clouds. The last track of the “Feeling” chapter is noted by Hollywood’s classic film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold and his “Garden Scene” Intermezzo. This keen study for violin and piano wends its way down a serenely cinematic musical path with vivid, harmonic colors.
“Human” begins with Jules Massenet’s “Méditation” from the comédie lyrique, Thaïs with its brimming radiant blue flame romanticism. Schubert’s tone poem Du bist die Ruh (“You are the peace”) contains a masterful articulation by Chen and Revich in this delicate adagio. Revich follows in a witty mach-speed delirium sampling of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. (Note: all of Revich’s “Impressions” were unplanned studio improvisations.) Alla Pavlova’s Adagio “Prayer for Peace on Earth” inspires and serenades the senses in a quiet force.
Revich opens the final chapter, “Earth” with Awakening, performed by Slavinska and Borodin. Revich’s blood rushing intensity breaks into a flash fiddler tango, then slides the trio into a clamorous race to the finish.
Encoring the CD is Adina Izarra’s So That the Song Remains with its accompaniment of bird calls, whispers and rushing waters. Revich summarizes with a clarion call for environmental peace for all humanity.
Indeed, Yuri Revich is a musical ambassador for the allied arts. He is the creator of raising awareness and funds for UNICEF and other non-profit organizations including raising emergency war funds. While his projects contribute to the concepts of peace, dignity and diplomacy in an era of global crisis, this makes his album one of the most relevant and moving classical recordings of the year.
Lewis J. Whittington
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