Yolanda Kondonassis, Joshua Smith, Cynthia Phelps, Oberlin 21 & Bridget-Michaele Reischl - Air (2021)

Hailed by The New York Times for her “powerful playing and musicianly energy,” Yolanda Kondonassis celebrates her fourteenth recording on the Telarc label with the release of Air. One of the world’s foremost harpists, Yolanda has appeared all over the world as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. On this album, she is joined by friends and colleagues, flutist Joshua Smith, violist Cynthia Phelps, and the string orchestra, Oberlin 21 led by Bridget-Michaele Reischl.

“In selecting the music to include on this album, we were drawn to the luminous color and atmosphere that is so magical in these parallel works by Debussy and Takemitsu,” says Kondonassis. The repertoire on this recording highlights Debussy’s genius as well as his enduring inspiration and influence on Toru Takemitsu, who once said, that while he was technically self-taught, he considered his greatest teacher to be the music of Claude Debussy. In the liner notes, Richard Rodda writes, “Takemitsu, like Debussy, sought to transmute dreams, water, gardens, sky, birds, and the quiverings of the human heart into patterns of sounds and silence that would penetrate to the quiet, inner place where the spirit dwells.”