Five Persian Miniatures

As you might expect from the title, the harmony work here is exotically coloured but also the rhythms, which are at times extremely complex. Take the first piece, Flower Promenade, the opening eight bars of which are almost entirely in harmonics, both natural and artificial, also they are written in complex groupings and then in ever-changing time Signatures. So the thing to remember about these pieces is that they are miniatures, only because they are short, it has nothing to do with how easy they are, because they most certainly are extremely difficult. The second piece, Rubab Player is in 5/4, marked “Pesante”, and has plenty of demisemiquaver runs to keep you on your toes (or fingers), whilst the third, A Page from a Sonnet, follows the same trend of very small notes in highly complex groupings amongst multiple time signatures (here only the last two bars have the same time Signature together, every other of the first 12 bars has a different time Signature), The same can be said for the remaining two pieces, The Prince and the Ascetic, and Bird and Flower. A note regarding improvisation, which is encouraged in Nos 1, 3 and 5 is included in the Preface with examples of the scales used in the pieces to help the player. Bogdanovic is a top-rate performer/composer whose music is highly in demand and as such I am sure that this latest set will do very well but beware, for they are really only worth attempting if your musical arsenal is also top-class.

Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)