I had heard Behzad Ranjbaran’s lyrical Piano Concerto at a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra several seasons past, but it did not prepare me for the beauty and opulence of his “Persian Trilogy.” It’s rare for a contemporary composer to demonstrate such fluency in working on a large, romantic canvas. If you enjoy the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Paul Dukas or Ottorino Respighi, I think you’ll really enjoy this.
I’ll be presenting two-thirds of the “Persian Trilogy” – “Seven Passages” and “Seemorgh” – this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” alongside a work for flute and cello, “Folk Songs (Set No. 9),” by Reza Vali. That’s a lot of music for an hour, so I really had to butcher my script in the editing process. But it was worth it.
I hope you’ll join me for “Roses of Persia,” a bouquet of Persian polyphonic music. Hear it tonight at 10 p.m. EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org (where webcasts of past shows are also archived).
Pictured: The mythical bird Seemorgh, from the Persian epic, the “Shanameh.” She raises the abandoned newborn Zaal as her own. When Zaal goes out into the world, he is given one of her feathers, with which he is able to summon her in times of crisis.
