Darragh Morgan - In Absentia (2019)

This album is important musically and culturally, presenting chamber works for strings by two leading Iranian composers. Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour specializes in music that reaches across time and place and is truly international, and he has worked with orchestras and artists in the UK, Denmark and Turkey as well as his home country. Presented here are his Broken Times for string quartet and Pendar for solo violin. Fozié (or Fozieh) Majd is a remarkable composer who also writes for an international audience, having had success all around Europe in concert and with music for film. As a female living under the Iranian regime since the 1979 revolution she has spent much time teaching and collecting folk tunes from the provinces as well as promoting her works in the USA and Europe. The album includes her wonderful Dreamland Quartet and Farãghi (In Absentia) for violin and cello. The quartet of performers is made up of four leading string players from the UK including Darragh Morgan who is also leader of the Fidelio Trio; Patrick Savage, former first violin of the Royal Philharmonic (also an acclaimed composer of film music); Fiona Winning, formerly principal viola of the RPO and in-demand freelancer; and Deirdre Cooper, currently principal cellist with lOrchestre des jardins musicaux in Switzerland.