Classical:NEXT 2016 Newsletter

MAY 2016

ICSM Records Fiammetta Tarli Ivo Varbanov Newsletter / Classical:NEXT

WHO WE ARE WHAT WE DO THE FUTURE

WHO WE ARE

Husband and wife Ivo Varbanov and Fiammetta Tarli are both experienced concert pianists and musicians with a passion for unconventional music production of the highest quality. When in 2013 they joined forces and started performing as piano duo, a chemistry of musical personalities was immediately evident beyond their bond as husband and wife. Their encounter at the house of Ilona Deckers in Milan, an eminent Hungarian teacher, explains their refined central European sound culture; yet in many aspects they seem to complement each other in rich textures of a never-ending dialogue. Despite their success as a duo, they have not ceased their performing activity as soloists and in various other chamber music formations.

In 2014, their decision to start an independent audiophile record label, ICSM Records (Independent Creative Sound and Music Records) was due to their growing exigency to “have artistic and financial control over our recordings” (Interview with Norman Lebrecht, August 2014), as well as a search for “uncompromising quality in every aspect of the recording, creating artistic statements beyond time and fashion”. Over the next period, their first recordings on the international scene were met with critical acclaim.

Ivo and Fiamma’s “slow music” credo, inspired by the “slow food” movement, aims at reproducing “the realism of the concert experience as close as possible”. ‘Slow music’ does not mean a preference for slow pieces, they explain, but the fact that “music, as every art form, needs time to develop and show its inner qualities from all sides”, performers as well as audience.

Fiammetta Tarli plays regularly in Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, both as a soloist and in different chamber music groups, including pianist Iain Ledingham, violinists Yana Burova and Ofer Falk (Allegri Quartet), and her husband Ivo Varbanov (two pianos four hands). Highlights of her recent engagements include multiple performances at Cadogan Hall, London, and in various prestigious series such as 'Brahms Unwrapped' at the Kings Place (London), 'Conciertos Temáticos' in Santander, and the Sofia Music Weeks, the main festival in Bulgaria. Her concerts have been broadcast by Italian RAI, Rete Toscana Classica, and Slovak, Bulgarian and Spanish National Radios. Together with Ivo Varbanov she recently founded Independent Creative Sound and Music (ICSM) Records, a new audiophile record label.

Fiammetta's first two recordings of piano works by Schumann were published by Gega New (Bulgaria) in 2007 and 2013. Her first two recordings for ICSM Records (ICSM 001 with Ivo, and ICSM 003 solo programme) were released in May 2014 with a launch of the label at the Kings Place, London, and received wide acclaim by the international press (International Record Review, Rivista Musica, Fanfare, Observer, Klassisk Musikkmagasin, HI-FI+). Légendes anciennes (ICSM 006, again with Ivo) was published in the Autumn-Winter 2015, and two more recordings are in course of publication: a two-piano programme (ICSM 010), and a twentieth-century programme with the Italian flutist Daniela Troiani (ICSM 012).

Her recording projects in 2016 will include another two-piano programme with the world première of a piece especially composed for the duo Tarli-Varbanov by the Argentinian composer Silvina Milstein (King's College London), and a solo recording featuring piano compositions by Ravel and Martin Georgiev (world première recording). Her next engagements include concerts in the United Kingdom, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Ivo Varbanov is a leading figure of Bulgarian music and culture abroad. He is a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularisation of Bulgarian Culture abroad, and in 2011 he was also awarded the Silver Lion Award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His performances have been broadcast on Bulgarian National Radio, BBC Radio, RAI 3, Classic FM+, Spanish National Radio, Slovak National Radio, Bulgarian National TV, BTV, and TV Bulgaria. In 2014 with his wife Fiammetta Tarli, Ivo started an independent audiophile record label, ICSM Records (Independent Creative Sound and Music Records).

Ivo has currently eleven commercial recordings for Gega New, ICSM Records, and Toccata Classics, including the première recording of Dimitar Nenov Piano Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Maestro Emil Tabakov (January 2016).

His performances include concertos, recitals and chamber music in Bulgaria, Italy, the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany, Holland, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and the USA. Career highlights include multiple performances at the South Bank Centre, Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Cadogan Hall and St. John’s Smith Square in London, Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, Bulgaria Concert Hall in Sofia, and Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg.

After a forced stop from performing from 2009 to 2012 due to Leukaemia he has returned to the stage with impressive performances at Royal Festival Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, King’s Place, and Cadogan Hall. In the last two seasons he has been partnering in chamber music concerts with his wife Fiammetta Tarli and Konstantin Lifschitz (two pianos/four hands), as well as with the cello players Làszlò Fenyö and Jozef Luptak, and the Allegri Quartet. During the last two seasons, Ivo has performances in England, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

WHAT WE DO ICSM: In the first 18 months of our existence we have released 9 recordings.

Despite being new in the recording industry, we were lucky to receive great reviews in the most reputable magazines, blogs, and online press. We made many new like-minded musical friends.

FIAMMETTA & IVO: We have increased our musical activity already by 30% in the last two seasons. In June 2016, we have an 8-date UK tour, and we are going to perform in venues such as St. John’s Smith Square, London, St George’s Bristol, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, and West Road in Cambridge.

Meanwhile, Ivo has dedicated several months of his life to support the memory of Dimitar Nenov, a great Bulgarian composer and pianist, unjustly forgotten, who died in 1953. Ivo restored the manuscript of Nenov’s Piano Concerto and subsequently performed it for the first time in history in the capital, Sofia, at the opening of the season with the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Emil Tabakov. Finally, a few months later he recorded it with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra again with Maestro Tabakov.

THE FUTURE

Concert Activity Our 2016-2017 calendar is busy with exciting projects and concerts across Europe performing solo, chamber music and with orchestras in Italy, the UK, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Austria. Fiammetta’s highlights include the performance and recording of her beloved Schumann Piano Concerto coupled with the Piano Quintet. Ivo, with several recording in the making (including his first for LINN Records) will be performing Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 and Dimitar Nenov Piano Concerto. Despite not being an “official” piano duo, will will play also for the first time Mozart Double Concerto K 365 in Italy and the UK.

Concert Season at The Museum of the Order of St John We are honoured to organise the very first concert series at the Priory of the Museum of the Order of St John in London in the 2016-17 season.

ICSM’s planned new releases over the next 12 months ICSM010 Brahms on the piano, Vol. 4 (Sonata op. 34b and Variations on a Theme by Haydn Op. 56 for two pianos, Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov, two pianos) ICSM011 Marco Ciampi plays Rachmaninov ICSM012 20th-Century Works for flute and piano (Daniela Troiani, flute, Fiammetta Tarli, piano) ICSM013 Viv McLean plays Gershwin ICSM014 Brahms on the piano, Vol. 5 (Sonatas for Viola and Piano Op. 120, Ofer Falk, viola, and Ivo Varbanov, piano) ICSM015 Helsinki Chamber Choir sings Rautaavara ICSM016 20th-Century Works for two pianos (Debussy, Stravinsky, S. Milstein and R. Keeley, Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov, pianos) ICSM017 Debussy Piano Works, Vol. 2, Dennis Lee, piano.

ICSM018 Brahms on the piano, Vol. 5, Klavierstücke Op. 116-119 (Ivo Varbanov, piano)

A dizzying experience. ★★★★ — Stephen Pritchard, The Observer (UK)

An absolute delight to hear.

— Jerry Dubins, Fanfare (USA)

Here you have an hour of sheer delight. ★★★★★ — Klassisk Musikkmagasin (Norway)

This is how piano music should be recorded. 10/10 — Hi-Fi + (UK)

It is a splendid IRR debut from the new ICSM label.

— International Record Review (UK)

The recording quality is exceptional… – a lovely disc.

— The Arts Desk (Web)

Contacts: ivo@ivo-varbanov.com fiammetta@fiammetta-tarli.com info@icsmrecords.com www.ivo-varbanov.com www.fiammetta-tarli.com www.icsmrecords.com https://www.facebook.com/pianoivovarbanov/ https://www.facebook.com/pianofiammettatarli/ https://www.facebook.com/ICSMRecords/