Mihailo Trandafilovski (b. 1974)
Polychromy
Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin), Mihailo Trandafilovski (violin), Linda Merrick and Roger Heaton (clarinet), Roderick Chadwick (piano), Neil Heyde (cello), Miyabi Guitar Duo
rec. 2016-2022, Hastoe Village Hall, St. John the Baptist, Aldbury, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK
Métier MSV28629 [70]

For some listeners this disc proffers a familiar mix: Trandafilovski, Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Métier.

Trandafilovski – Macedonian-born and London-based – is a contemporary composer who does not seek the adulation of the crowds. If he does (which somehow I doubt) he looks for crowds with a taste for the adventurous. He moves in circles that are at home at the wild and woolly periphery … or among those willing to be persuaded.

Uncompromisingly he dives, in this disc, into Chaconne for Skaerved’s piercingly intrepid solo violin. This piece, we are told, was inspired by Isang Yun’s Königliches Thema (1976). It’s furiously serious and dismembers the envelope rather than pushing at its physical boundaries. It ends in virtuous silence after a splenetic disquisition. Similarly uncompromising is Grain-song, the final diptych on the disc, also for solo violin.

Sandglass is for Roger Heaton’s solo clarinet. Exploring the clarinet universe was in this case an evident delight for Trandafilovski. The music expressed both in folksy accents and in abstruse strangeness. Šarenilo is the Macedonian word for colourfulness. It’s a violin duo in two episodes, separately tracked. Mosaic is virtuosic, as you will by now expect, with techniques and affects that crumpled conventional expectation. Nitki (or Threads). the second movement, is peaceful

Weakan for a trio of violin, clarinet (Linda Merrick) and piano is full of lyrical gestures supported by a discordant yet subtle piano and a flittering violin. Polychromy is for solo cello. It was written for the soloist featured here, Neil Heyde. Its world is similar to that of Chaconne. String Dune(s) is for two guitars. It seems less “out there” than the other works and is more accessible. It possesses more than its fair helping of the tropes we have come to expect from classical guitar.

The liner-notes could hardly be more authoritative and they are not drowned in inward abstrusion. The composer is very direct and avoids indulging psychological realms.

Despite the disparate venues the recorded sound has a consistently clarity: tender and punchy.

Trandafilovski has every reason to feel joy in what is heard here from his musician collaborators and champions and, of course, in Metier.

I wonder what a Trandafilovski orchestral work sound like? While we wait and ponder, this collection is deliciously balanced on the edge of the void.

Rob Barnett

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Contents
Chaconne
Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin)
Sandglass
Roger Heaton (clarinet)
Šarenilo
Peter Sheppard Skærved; Mihailo Trandafilovski (violins)
Weakan
Linda Merrick (clarinet); Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin); Roderick Chadwick (piano)
Polychromy
Neil Heyde (cello)
String Dune(s)
Miyabi Guitar Duo (Saki Kato’ Hugh Millington)
Grain – Song
Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin)