Reviews & Articles
Tchaikovsky Album
Orchestral Choice: A ravishing selection of Tchaikovsky treasures ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“So many inspired melodies, ravishingly harmonised, on a single disc, and it’s not even a ‘Tchaikovsky’s Greatest Hits’ compilation. Julian Azkoul, violinist mastermind of United Strings of Europe, has sensibly placed his full-string arrangement of the Andante Cantabilefrom the First String Quartet between two rip-roaring movements”
— BBC Music Magazine January 2023
“ … the performance and arrangements on this new release make a very attractive, wholly successful and, indeed, unique, collection.”
“The classical catalogue has many recordings of Tchaikovsky’s beguiling Serenade, but this new performance under United Strings of Europe and Julian Azkoul deserves close attention … “
Apollo Resurrected
“… the score sounded terrific, both lean and lush in a vibrant reading by six members of the innovative ensemble.”
“United Strings of Europe present music in a narrative structure, providing reference points for all audiences, however scant or prodigious their musical knowledge.”
Another Eden
A new commission by Joanna Marsh
“The piece is part of the United Strings of Europe's new work Apollo Resurrected, is a contemporary re-staging of Stravinsky’s ballet Apollo and His Muses which explores the essential role art has to play in a world recovering from tragedy and isolation. Composed in a the structure of a passacaglia, Another Eden reflects on a number of contemporary themes that revolve around a sense of the gradual erosion of the organic beauty of our world, and reflect a deeply held wish to recover it.”
Renewal Album
“Here's a superbly executed oddity that somehow manages to enthrall: Atmospherically recorded arrangements for string orchestra of works written between 1847 (Mendelssohn's final String Quartet No.6 in F minor, Op.80) and 2019 (Joanna Marsh's In Winter's House). That a string program that includes two pieces initially composed for choral voices works so superbly is due to the care and expressivity of United Strings of Europe.”
Debut Album In Motion
superbly played and vividly engineered … the performance is lithe and powerful.