I have been honored to be a part of Penka Kouneva’s orchestration team for many years now, and the quality of her work is always inspiring. Her most recent venture is a full-length orchestral album released today by Varèse Sarabande. It contains four tone poems of four movements, each telling its own story in a different genre. It is a pure art project intended to display the full extent of her considerable depth as a composer and orchestrator, and it does not disappoint. The compositions are evocative, the orchestra is exquisitely controlled, and the album is emotionally sophisticated and deeply moving. The music is entirely hers from top to bottom, but I had the honor of helping her with orchestrations on two of the tracks.
