This work is free of any unnecessary frills and showy displays, and this understated, sincere quality is evident in the singing (in traditional Persian music, women’s singing is not frivolous or tumultuous) as well as in the attractive highs and lows of the music. Even when the melodies accelerate, this speeding up does not effect the well-proportioned and harmonious musicianship of these five masters. Parissa also aims to present her masterful and profound singing in a sweet, fathomable way.
In essence, one has to say that the economical hardships of traveling, recording and performing music abroad has not had a profound effect on Persian music as it has for example on the music from central Asia. As a result of these difficulties, the music of this latter region often seems simple and put together without rhyme or reason and it is for this reason that its beauty or relevance remains distant and out of touch to the non-native listener.
Here, however, in this double CD, we are faced with a work that has been created with the greatest attentiveness both on the part of the singer and the musicians, serving the poetry of Rumi, Hafez, Saadi and Attar. The one-hour length of each of the two CDs is sufficient to understand this uniqueness.
Bertrand Dikal
Translated from the Persian by Reza Motebassem