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Richard Danielpour

Darkness in the Ancient Valley w/Nashville Symph.

Naxos
Release Date: September 8, 2011

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1 Darkness in the Ancient Valley I. Lamentation  
2 II. Desecration  
3 III. Benediction  
4 IV. Profanation  
5 V. Finale_Consecration  
6 Lacrimae Beati  
7 A Woman's Life I. Little Girl Speakings  
8 II. Life Doesn't Frighten Me  
9 III. They Went Home  
10 IV. Come and Be My Baby  
11 V. Let's Majeste  
12 VI. My Life Has Turned to Blue  
13 VII. Many and More  
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Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour, one of the most gifted and sought-after composers of his generation, has attracted an impressive array of champions; his commissioners include such celebrated artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, Fredericka von Stade, Thomas Hampson, the Kalichstein-Laredo- Robinson Trio, Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, Philippe Entremont, the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets, the New York City and Pacific Northwest Ballets, the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Vienna Chamber and Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and National Symphonies, Orchestre National de France, Chamber Music society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and many more. 

Darkness in the Ancient Valley is a symphony in five movements, commissioned by the Nashville and Pittsburgh Symphonies. The fifth movement, which includes a soprano voice, was written for Hila Plitmann. The text comes from an English translation of a Rumi poem (Divan 1559), and involves a woman who refuses to retaliate against her husband, or lover, in spite of his abusive and cruel behavior.  Lacrimae Beati means “Tears of the Blessed One,” the blessed one in this instance being Mozart. The title also refers to the source material for this ten minute work – the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem. It is generally assumed that the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa are among the last that Mozart wrote.  A Woman’s Life was composed in the summer of 2007 for Angela Brown who premièred the rôle of Cilla in Margaret Garner (2005). While I was consistently impressed by her artistry and power onstage (she sang the rôle in Philadelphia and Cincinnati), I was especially taken with her graciousness and deep compassion for all of her colleagues.

  • Richard Danielpour is our next Classical Californian / KDFC-KUSC
    Posted At: September 24, 2024
    Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour has established himself as one of the most gifted and sought-after composers of his generation. His music has attracted an international and illustrious array of champions, and, as a devoted mentor and educator, he has also had a significant impact on the younger generation of composers. His list of commissions includes celebrated artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye No...

  • Composer Richard Danielpour and Soprano Hila Plitmann chat about 'Songs in Three Languages' with 107.5WRUU
    Posted At: June 20, 2024
    Composer Richard Danielpour and Soprano Hila Plitmann have released a new recording: ‘Songs in Three Languages’ Danielpour writes…..I have known Hila Plitmann since 2010; since that time, we have collaborated on seven different works together. She has sung my music on five different Naxos recordings over the years (Ancient Voices, 8.578311-12; Darkness in the Ancient Valley, 8.559707; The Passion of Yeshua,...

  • Richard Danielpour joins FM91: WGTE - Toledo to discuss new opera: 'Grand Hotel' and 'Songs in Three Languages' recording
    Posted At: June 6, 2024
    Richard Danielpour writes…..I have known Hila Plitmann since 2010; since that time, we have collaborated on seven different works together. She has sung my music on five different Naxos recordings over the years (Ancient Voices, 8.578311-12; Darkness in the Ancient Valley, 8.559707; The Passion of Yeshua, 8.559885-86; Toward a Season of Peace, 8.559772; String Quartet No. 7 ‘Psalms of Solace’, 8.559845). We...

  • Composing is not something that you decide to do, it chooses you - Richard Danielpour chats with Planet Hugill
    Posted At: September 4, 2021

    Planet Hugill - Robert Hugill writes.....Like many creative artists, last year's events affected composer Richard Danielpour both personally and artistically. One of the results of this has been the creation of a striking sequence of piano pieces, An American Mosaic, which he wrote for pianist Simone Dinnerstein and which she premiered (online) last year and the recording of which came out earlier th...

  • Richard Danielpour chats with 89.3WQED
    Posted At: May 20, 2021

    On March 26, 2021, approximately one year after the first COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns in the U.S., pianist Simone Dinnerstein's recording of An American Mosaic by composer Richard Danielpour was released on Supertrain Records. An American Mosaic is a set of fifteen miniatures, each commemorating a segment of the American population that has been affected by the pandemic – doctors, parents, chil...

  • Richard Danielpour and Simone Dinnerstein collaborate from separate coasts on 'An American Mosaic' / textura
    Posted At: April 29, 2021

    Richard Danielpour's An American Mosaic emerged, quite literally, in response to earlier recordings by Simone Dinnerstein. In May 2020, the Grammy Award-winning composer called her from Los Angeles-"out of the blue," in her words-to say how much her Bach recordings had sustained him through the initial period of the pandemic and, even more significantly, to tell the pianist about a new piec...

  • Stitched together with reflective interludes, Simone Dinnerstein's premiere of Richard Danielpour's 'An American Mosaic' coheres as a scrapbook recounting a shared experience / The New Yorker
    Posted At: April 23, 2021

    The New Yorker's Oussama Zahr writes.....Composer Richard Danielpour has said that Simone Dinnerstein's Bach recordings got him through the early months of the pandemic. It's easy to hear why: the pianist's care and equanimity in playing such solidly constructed pieces feels reassuring-proof of an organized world. When Danielpour decided to write "An American Mosaic"-a series of miniatures that depic...

  • Richard Danielpour's 'An American Mosaic' honors frontline workers / WOSU Public Media
    Posted At: April 22, 2021

    Classical 101's Jennifer Hambrick writes......Composer Richard Danielpour says he barely slept during the month of April 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic forced the U.S. into lockdown and the death toll skyrocketed. "The only thing that was able to relax me enough to sleep," Danielpour later wrote, "was listening to (pianist) Simone Dinnerstein's Bach recordings." Those acclaimed recordings also...

  • Richard Danielpour finds his voice in 'The Passion of Yeshua' / San Francisco Classical Voice
    Posted At: January 11, 2021

    San Francisco Classical Voice, RICHARD S. GINELL writes.....Lots of composers, filmmakers, painters, and writers have had their say on the last days of Jesus  - some, like J.S. Bach, multiple times. To this long, long line we can add the name Richard Danielpour, a Jewish-American composer with Iranian-born parents who has written his own evening-length The Passion of Yeshua - first heard at the Oreg...

  • Richard Danielpour Interview with Harmonious World Podcast
    Posted At: January 4, 2021

    Richard Danielpour has had a productive lockdown, composing prolifically and working hard on a new opera, which he hopes to finish in 2021. This interview focuses particularly on 'The Passion of Yeshua', which is a stunning oratorio. The recording has been nominated for three Grammys - Best engineered album - classical; Best choral performance; and Best contemporary classical composition. Ric...

  • BPO Chorus & UCLA Chamber Singers revel in GRAMMY nominations for Richard Danielpour's dramatic oratorio - The Passion of Yeshua / San Francisco Classical Voice
    Posted At: December 8, 2020

    While this holiday season is unlike any other because of the COVID-19 crisis, the need for human compassion and forgiveness is even greater. With composer Richard Danielpour's dramatic oratorio, The Passion of Yeshua, an intensely personal telling of the final hours of Christ on Earth, such solace can be found. The work received its world premiere at the Oregon Bach Festival in 2018, with a second perfor...
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