Emil Stanz (oboe)
Iwona Glinka (flute)
Iwona Glinka (piccolo)
Mihail Agafita (conductor)
Mihail Badiu (bassoon)
Sergiu Musat (clarinet)
The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Philharmonic "Serghei Lunchevici" of the Republic of Moldova(orchestra)
Michail Travlos' fifth album is dedicated solely to his own music, a follow-up to the award-winning albums Progressions (ICMA nomination 2018, Global Music Awards, Akademia Music Award, Clouzine International Music Award etc.), Night Visions and Twenty-One Concert Studies (Akademia Music Awards - Music Award of Excellence 2021, Global Music Awards, Cloudzine International Music Awards, 2022). The works included in Greek Polish Dreamscapes, which are flavoured nationally by two countries, Poland and Greece respectively, were written between 1986 to 2022. In this way, they present the versatile musical options of the composer's musical thinking derived from each different historical period. Michail Travlos was, since his earlier searches for expressivity, interested in recycling some of his original music, adding new expansion elements, so as to give birth to a new musical child emanating from its original musical sources. Though the pieces presented are mainly written or arranged for string orchestra, included is the work Five Polish Dreamscapes, concertante for wind quartet and strings (2017). Each of the five parts is a musical representation of a different situation, be it of optical or phycological context. The Five Arrangements of Traditional Greek Songs is a recycled and widely expanded arrangement of the original work written for a Capela choir in 1994. A Christmas Fugue written for string orchestra is a short festive composition dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach. The longest piece included is Kwidzynska Suita, arranged and widely expanded with intros and extended middle parts, from the original work written for a Capela choir in 1993 and world performed during the Kwidzyn International Music Festival in April 2023. Michail Travlos' music characterizes within a modern context, tonal and melodic. It can be lyrical, aggressive, playful or stringent. His ideas are quite original and engaging on many levels; his idiomatic writing for strings is very effective. The composer brings in an incessant coloristic development where melodic figures struggle to have a fully lyrical moment. Some movements are mercurial shifts of mood and color, ceaselessly restless, though sometimes playful, so that the performers inhabit those many moods - one senses the orchestra's conviction and enthusiasm for this music in performing it, which is energetic, fulsome, and highly refined. In this excellent release, soloists, orchestra and conductor work hand-in-glove to produce an outstanding performance.