In the Mirror (Chamber music) (incl. Der Seiltanzer with Gidon Kremer)

***** Five Stars BBC Music Magazine (October 2002)

"In this excellent performance, its a very enjoyable, exhilarating experience in its own right." (BBC Music Magazine)

Just in time for the tenth anniversary of the first BIS recording of the music of Sofia Gubaidulina came the announcement that the composer had been chosen to receive the 2002 Polar Music Prize, the world's most valuable music award. During the last decade BIS has made a major commitment to the music of Sofia Gubaidulina and this disc is the fifth that we have devoted exclusively to her compositions. (There are also works by her on a further three discs from BIS.)

Sofia Gubaidulina comes from Tchistopol in the Tatar Republic where she was born in 1931. She studied piano and composition at the conservatory in Kazan before moving to Moscow Conservatory where she studied with Nikolai Peyko who had been a pupil of and assistant to Shostakovich. Besides composing, Sofia Gubaidulina has also made a feature of performing improvised music on folk and ritual instruments from her own and neighbouring countries with her group "Astraea". Like so many of today's most interesting and most "listenable" composers _ one thinks of the likes of Arvo Pärt, Kancheli, Soltan, Balakauskas et al. - Sofia Gubaidulina comes from one of the peripheral countries of the former Soviet Union. She also shares with these composers and interest in - perhaps a love of - the musical heritage of her own country as well as a thorough grasp of European musical developments. She can therefore work within a recognizable tradition and yet have an entirely individual voice. And this is precisely what people who are interested in music are constantly looking out for

Timed to coincide with the presentation to Sofia Gubaidulina of the Polar Music Prize by the King of Sweden, the release of this disc should generate considerable interest.