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ALBUM REVIEW December 20, 2015

Kim Kashkashian Sarah Rothenberg Steven Schick Houston Chamber Choir Robert Simpson.: Rothko Chapel

Read "Rothko Chapel" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

On ECM's superb and captivating Rothko Chapel an elite group of musicians interprets Morton Feldman's sublime title piece and several others by John Cage and, the father of western musical modernism, Erik Satie. The disc explores the common conceptual and stylistic threads between the Feldman and Cage's works and their origins in Satie's oeuvre. Although Feldman's composition is not recorded in the Chapel itself the ambience is evocative of the physical building itself. The spiritual sanctuary and painter ...

ALBUM REVIEW December 3, 2012

Kim Kashkashian: Kurtag/Ligeti: Music for Viola

By Hrayr Attarian

There are more jokes about the viola, perhaps, than any other member of the violin family, but there are also exquisitely written pieces of music that in the hands of virtuosos come alive with vivid emotion and erudite articulation. Boston-based Kim Kashkashian is one of the premier violists in the world and has recorded many fine, edgy and stimulating albums. With Kurtág/Ligeti: Music for Viola, she tackles two of the more challenging composers of the last half ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 30, 2007

Kim Kashkashian / Robert Levin: Asturiana: Songs from Spain and Argentina

By John Kelman

It's curious that, of the instruments in the classical string quartet, the viola is the least often heard as a leading voice. Richer and deeper-toned than the violin, but higher in range than the cello, it's the ideal instrument to interpret material written for voice. Violist Kim Kashkashian has, since the mid-1980s, been a fixture on ECM's New Series which, parallel to its regular series, focuses on music that is composed rather than improvised. Her relationship with pianist Robert Levin ...