Rumi Symphony Project: Untold

Untold is a simply stupendous album – it’s got style, class, a miscible mix of diverse musical elements; what more can one ask for? Existence: Life has a chanting voice building up with fervour while the choir on Untold stage 1 deepens the intrigue sparked off by the strings. Tracks such as Wonderment and Absolute nothingness bring out the best of the Rumi Symphony choir. Hafez Nazeri has put out a gem of an album – that haunting voice, alluring trills and intervals capturing the essence of Persian music on a global stage.

This album is a fusion of traditional dastghah improvisational modal Persian music and European scored classical orchestral forms with harmony. It is a further development of two albums that featured vocalist Shahram Nazeri [Mystified: Poetry of Rumi, with music composed by Kakhosro Pournazeri; and The Passion of Rumi, with music of Hafez Nazeri]. The album is purely contemporary with tabla master Zakir Hussain, the cello of Matt Haimovitz and the viola of Paul Neubauer, Glen Velez playing frame drums, and composer Hafez Nazeri himself on his redesigned setar, a Persian lute. A large chorus backs the passionate vocals of Shahram Nazeri. Essentially an oratorio in form (vocal and instrumental) and summarizing the notes and section titles, it musically follows an arc from the creation of the cosmos and perception of our common material world to the Sufi journey and longing for a deeper divine reality, following the various stages of experiencing the falling away of ego and perceiving the unity and nonseparateness of form, hence, its no-thingness, and finally to a mystical transcendence and freedom with a new regard of the world and life. The translation of Rumi's poems in the notes is by Deepak Chopra. For comparison, consider the more traditional Persian music accompanying contemporary vocalist Zohreh Jooya (Music of the Persian Mystics). However, for a modern orchestral work on Persian themes, the Rumi Symphony Project's Untold is very worthy and has many rich musical treasures. Some of the 16 sections can stand alone, as Zakir Hussain's drumming and Shahram Nazeri's vocal in the track Life. For an East-West synthesis, this album is a success. Presence at a concert production could be a remarkable and perhaps emotive experience.

Complex music which doesn't seem to fit any particular styleAs a musician and someone who listens to both classical western and classical Persian music, I found this CD to be a strange mixture which couldn't satisfy either one of the two familiarities. There were no songs which stuck with me, even after listening to the entire CD two or three times.

It's amazing for Performance, Song writing, Recording, and choosing Zakir Hussain for playing tabla also Shahram Nazeri for singing .Thank you Hafez for this great Product.

Great music and fantastic orchestra, beautiful establish, I love the music, it's a professional classical music collection, great job Hafez and thanks to amazon, I received this package in great shape, without any scratch or break. I am very satisfied.

Brilliant, just brilliant! I have purchased this 'project' several times now. A national treasure in musical format.

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time. I also attended the concert, last night in Washington DC, which was a great experience, perhaps my most memorable concert experience so far! This is undoubtedly one of the best creations of music art ever. Keep up the great job Hafez!

This is a great music.

Even though some parts of this work was presented in different arrangements/forms over passing years, but "Untold" really delivers on all scales, enjoying every seconds and every drop of it!

By the son of the great Shahram Nazeri a unique composition of Western and Persian modalities with the theme of Moulana Rumi-Balkhi's poems.

Waited so impatiently for the album to arrive from US. However was disappointed after hearing the album. The collaboration work seems totally pointless and there is nothing special about it. I have heard a lot of collaborative experimental albums. This one is not one of them. It seems that the 'Western' and 'Indian' instruments are only chucked in to follow a type of trend! If you want to do that, you must have something to say! Look at John Mclaughlin / Shakti; so brilliantly put together... Also Zakir Hussain on this album?!!!!! He for sure is a legend and a respected percussionist but I feel his name was used as a marketing strategy! (thanks to Sony). For me Homayun Shajarian works very well. He fuses the Iranian Traditional music with others so well. Hafez Nazery did not win me!

Got it (actually them!) in two days.Had experience of broken DVD/CD packs before, but this was in absolute beauty.Very professional, both Hafez and Amazon . . . Enjoying it now!

Didn't love it. But lovely