Euro Folk Champions

Apollo Chamber Players -
impress HOWARD SMITH

'... this scantily adorned traditional music derives straight from the heartbeat of regions in Southern, Eastern, and Central Europe.'

Apollo Chamber Players - European Folkscapes. © 2014 Navona Records LLC

With ten traditional tracks and three known composers — Neopolitan Eduardo di Capua, Cuban Ernesto Lecuona and Canadian/American Karim Al-Zand — Apollo Chamber Players (ACP) steers clear of the outright Subcarpathian dances favoured by Liszt and Brahms or Zorba's Aegean sounds from Mikis Theodorakis. Similarly we hear little of Neopolitan rhythms written by Gaetano Monti or Le tricorne effects popularized by Manuel de Falla.

In other words this scantily adorned traditional music derives straight from the heartbeat of regions in Southern, Eastern, and Central Europe. The Wallachian lament (track 1) picks up its tempo in true Romanian style as does the soulful pre-modern Moravian Seremoj és Románca discovered in Hungary...