Con-Ri-Sonanza

Born in Albania in 1958, Thomas Simaku studied
composition at the State Conservatory of Music in
Tirana. He moved to England in 1991, where he was
able to immerse himself in the music that had been
banned in his native country, and especially that of
Ligeti and Kurtág. This, as well as his earlier
experience of working with Albanian folk musicians,
had a lasting effect on his own music - but as Simaku
himself puts it: 'when it comes to creativity, one
should at least try to speak with one's voice,
however small that might be.' He often composes for
specific performers and the present disc highlights
his collaborations with Quatuor Diotima and with
the pianist Joseph Houston.

Catena I, the opening work as well as the most
recent one on the programme, was written for
Houston, while the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 5
were destined for Diotima, of which Simaku has said
that 'one cannot fail to notice their individual and
sensitive approach to sound and colour, and their
huge range of expression. I have tried to embody
these idiosyncratic qualities in both quartets.'
Houston also plays two works written by Simaku as
tokens of his respect for two composer colleagues:
L'image oubliée d'après Debussy and Hommage à
Kurtág. These frame the piano quintet con-risonanza which has also given its name to the entire
disc, after the sonic qualities it embodies:
consonanza, risonanza, con risonanza …