Ilan Chouraki

A tribute to Gershwin — not through imitation, but through spiritual kinship. Chouraki imagines the American composer’s wanderings through 1920s Paris, his encounters, his freedom. The first movement is deeply rooted in the blues of Porgy and Bess; the others open up, take flight, hesitate. Four movements — Andante · Allegro · Adagio · Presto — carrying in their very form something of the genius they celebrate.

Four movements built around the theme of forgiveness: The Others — the detached gaze of those untouched by suffering; Solitude — the victim’s inner revolt; a third movement drawn from Spanish musical traditions, a metaphorical bullfight in which the bull embodies the resilience of the Jewish people; and The March of the Living, a hymn to survival and hope. A work both deeply personal and universal, rich with musical cross-references and emotional rigor.

The piece traces the arc of joy as it moves through us and recedes. From its restless Allegro opening — driven by pizzicato impulses and sudden sul ponticello timbres — through cascading fortissimo climaxes to fragile, harmonics-laced silences, the four voices circle, interrupt and echo one another, chasing a sensation the others have already released. The final pages, where all four instruments converge in a long trembling unison before dissolving into silence, feel less like an ending than a return — to stillness, to the soil from which the next moment of wonder will quietly grow.

A retelling of the fairy tale for solo flute. The prince is there, the sleeping beauty too — but Chouraki weaves in contemporary irresolution and quiet humor, leaving the performer to decide how the story ends. Written for Rita D’Arcangelo — an international prizewinner trained under Sir James Galway, Carnegie Hall soloist, and former principal flute of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra — and recorded on Inspired by Rita D’Arcangelo 2.

Three women at a Parisian café terrace. Each movement is a portrait: one elegant and refined, another sharp and irreverent, the third — to be discovered. Light on the surface, genuinely subtle in the writing.

A musical meditation on the beauty of the natural world. The historic Parisian botanical garden as a setting for a gentle, contemplative soundscape — the clarinet weaving its melodic line through the strings like a visitor strolling through flowering paths.

In the tradition of Francis Poulenc — rich harmonies, clear tonality, the piano a full partner rather than mere accompaniment. Three women, three solitudes, three forms of resistance. Yuval Oren, soprano · Anna Kavalerova, piano.

Written at the request of maestro Massimiliano Valenti during his visit to Israel. A jazz-inflected classical ballad, intimate and virtuosic — a declaration of love not quite ready to speak its name.