Kremerata BalticaECM New Series 476 3912 ***

It’s quite a melange that Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica offer here.

Eight Hymns In Memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky

by Hungarian composer Steven Kovacs Tickmayer (whose background includes working

in jazz) offer a homage to the great film director in a dreamy and rather desultory manner. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's Silent Prayerwas written in 2007 to celebrate

two birthdays, Kremer’s 60th and the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich’s 80th. It’s quietly sweet and contemplative, and uses the singing of a hauntingly plaintive girl’s voice on tape in a way that borders on kitsch. Franck’s Piano Quintet (said to have been inspired by his infatuation with the composer August Holmès, whose parents were Irish) is given a lucid account that steers well clear of the over-pressured approach that’s so often encountered in this piece. See url.ie/7ebo