Iradj Sahbai
Iranian composer and conductor, was born in 1945 in Tehran. At the age of ten he entered the Conservatory and began to study with Samin Baghchehban, Hossein Nasehi, Shifteh Sedqi and Mostafa-Kamal Purtorab. He ranked first among his colleagues and was awarded the scholarship to study in France. He followed on his studies in Paris and Strasbourg Conservatoires. From master classes of Olivier Messian (composition) and J.S. Berau (conducting) he managed to graduate with highest degrees. Afterwards he went to master classes of Pierre Dervau held in Nice, and Milan Horvat in Salzburg.
After residence in Strasbourg, he founded the Schiltigheim Orchestra, with which he has performed and recorded music of 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, among them a highly-acclaimed recording of Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat.
For several years, Sahbai has been headed Schiltigheim-Strasbourg conservatoire, and has taught musicology in Strasbourg and in a branch in Celesta. He has been the guest conductor of numerous orchestras, among them Strasbourg Philharmonic, Sherbrook Youth Orchestra in Canada, Orchestre de l'harmonie de Paris, Percussion Instruments of Strasbourg, Tehran Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic (London). He has contracted with Iran Music Society to conduct Tehran Symphony Orchestra begun from 2003. Sahbai's own compositions have received their premieres in Germany, France, England and Iran.
The piano pieces in this compact disc display a totally different view over Iranian folk songs. The aim was to leave melodic lines as they originally are, while creating a contrapuntal atmosphere (in Fifteen Iranian Folk Songs); in his other works he was inspired by the folk tradition of his native country to compose original pieces (as in Four Piano Pieces).
Many of Sahbai's pieces have deep roots in folk and regional music of Iran. But again like a tree the root is invisible but it enlives the trunk and branches, so it is the function of root music in Sahbai's oeuvres.
The derived motives and melodies have undergone modern compositional techniques, and adopting new tones for enriching the melodic line. Together the folk lines and additive lines create tonal-compositional phenomena. In this very phase the inspiration takes the role and makes the intermingling of these phenomena possible. The harmonic atmosphere manifests itself whether in a pre-formed or in an original configuration. The instrumentation represents these phenomena in a kaleidoscopic medium. The result of the process is a form of musical idiom which is going to find its place in contemporary style of composition. ...