On the website of the Nederlands Kamerorkest there is a quote from Greek-Albanian violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha that also managed to avoid it with regard to this new release that was given the title Suite Italienne: The danger is that when you play in a studio you go into safe mode, because it can always go wrong. You must always maintain the illusion as if there is an audience present.'
Furthermore, it can be read about this musician that he studied at the famous Kronberg Academy and that he has proven his exceptional talent not only as a prize winner but also as a soloist with various important orchestras and chamber music ensembles. He has performed with, among others, Martha Argerich, Nicolas Altstaedt and Gábor Takács-Nagy, and at numerous music festivals, including those of Verbier and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Furthermore, he is the founder of the multiple award-winning Caerus Chamber Ensemble and the Trio Gaspard. In recent years he has developed into concertmaster and artistic director of several chamber orchestras, including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Nederlands Kamerorkest. In short, a musician of stature and not only on paper ('the proof of the pudding is in the eating,' as the British rightly say).
We hear his 'roots' clearly reflected in both these pieces and these interpretations: it is all warm-blooded passion and instrumental glow that radiates from them, not only from the soloist but also from the ensemble that seems effortlessly swept along in Kadesha's particularly infectious playing. But however much joy in playing may emanate from it, no less important is the technical execution and that is piece by piece – sometimes almost breathtakingly – good, while the musical character of the music is captured equally masterfully. This sound feast also contains so much verve and humor that it exerts an irresistible magnetic effect.
The most attractive in this setting is Vivaldi's bracing Violin Concerto RV 208 (Il Grosso Mogul), in which Stravinsky's claim is certainly not disproved for the first time, when he once claimed that the Venetian was 'a dull fellow' who could compose the same form so many times over.'
By and large the least attractive is the concertante five-part Tyche (for solo violin, string orchestra, lute and percussion) by Giovanni Solima (*1962), where in the final part, Metamorphosis, Vivaldi appears around the corner (the aria 'Della tua sorte' from Giustino RV 717). The piece was written in 2021 on commission from the festival Boswiler Sommer and specifically intended for Jonian Ilias Kadesha (he was 'artist in residence' of the festival in 2018) and now recorded on cd for the first time. Boswil is also the seat of the instrumental ensemble CHAARTS Chamber Artists, which is led by Andreas Fleck and Flavia Grubenmann.
The Italian composer and cellist explains his Tyche as follows:
'When Andreas Fleck and Jonian Ilias Kadesha asked me to write a violin concerto and think about the theme of happiness, I had no doubt about the feasibility of this idea! The connection was immediately with Dea Fortuna, its equivalent in ancient Greece, Jonian's roots (Greek-Albanian), my roots (Arbereshe, an ancient Albanian ethnic minority in central and southern Italy and on the island of Sicily), history itself, popular cultures, rituals, and so on. Some musical traces also come from the past. The piece is divided into five interrelated parts, where the themes are sometimes hidden and sometimes clearly perceptible. An old work is 'Fortune my Foe', an anonymous English folk song, which was once 'adopted' by William Byrd (1539/40–1623), John Dowland (1563–1626) and other composers. I have always enjoyed these forms of appropriation, and that is why I wanted to apply this in my own way. The other work is 'Della tua sorte' from the opera Giustino (1724) by Vivaldi, where I proceeded in a similar way. In doing so, I did not use a modular form of variations, but thought of a gradual metamorphosis without interruption. The concert is called Tyche, In Greek mythology she is the goddess of fate, fortune (or evil) and chance, strictly speaking the divine counterpart of the ancient Roman Fortuna.'
It sounds promising, but unfortunately, reality turns out differently with an excess of clichés and patches, which caused my attention to wane quickly. What is interesting is the final part, in particular Rite ('Cadenza - Calmo e libero') and Metamorphosis, both imaginatively composed and not without outlandish effects which however do not jettison the neoclassical antecedents. What is furthermore imaginative is the programmatic connection with both Vivaldi and Stravinsky, although you hear his Suite italienne (of which three parts even directly point to music by Pergolesi) on this album less colorfully than the original, in this arrangement by Andreas Fleck for string orchestra, harpsichord and violin. This does not detract from the fact that in these nine neat 'chapters' a fresh and cheerful spirit prevails, spiced up accentuated by Kadesha and CHAARTS. Both Kadesha and the ensemble feel at home in this repertoire like a fish in water. Together they even manage to make it a fizzing party piece. The music simply asks for it, they must have thought. And the listener? He is swept along in it, also thanks to the demonstration quality recording.