How refreshing to have Iran and Iranians associated with something other than negative news. (Persian is actually an exonym – a term made up by outsiders, though sometimes adopted by Iranian expats in order to distance themselves from the current regime.)

Of the two composers featuring on this album, I am more familiar with Hormoz Farhat. Apart from being the composer for some of the most important pre-Revolution Iranian art-films (mostly banned under the Shah) and authoring what is considered to be a reference book on modal system (Darstgah) in Iranian/Persian music, he was among the first composers who, thanks to the fertile economy of Pahlavi Iran and as a part of the dynasty’s modernisation schemes, was sent to study abroad. For Farhat this was in the United States, where he studied with, among others, Darius Milhaud and Lukas Foss. Now in his nineties, he is a professor emeritus from Trinity College, Dublin, living in Ireland.

The piano pieces included here all carry generic Western titles but they share the quality of East meets West; actually, perhaps, rather West meets East, for despite Farhat’s mastery of Iranian traditional music, these are effectively Western-style pieces with hints of Persian spice. The one with the strongest ethnic flavour is an early Toccata from Farhat’s student days, where in the middle section he quotes a folk song from the Gilan region of Iran (by the Caspian Sea). The song’s modes (Shur and Dashti) are adapted to fit into the Western tempered system.

The Persian influence gradually became more subtle and only remains a faint shadow in Farhat’s later works. The Sonata No 1 could pass for something that Samuel Barber might have drafted, while Hindemith comes to mind for much of the Sonata No 2, except for the à la Milhaud second movement. These are austere, no-gimmick compositions, dominated by intricate polyphonic textures and quartal harmonies. Although I missed, both in music and performance, some elements of frenzy and abundance, or some such qualities that would stake a claim to repertoire status, Farhat’s works offer at the very least convincing proof of the potential of Iranian classical and folk music for stimulating Western composers.

Now in his mid-forties and educated in Denmark and the UK, Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour retains associations with ancient Iran in his music chiefly through the subject matter, particularly Yasna and Celebration at Pasargadae, which refer to Zoroastrian themes (Pasargadae was the historic capital at the time of Cyrus the Great). His musical language suggests affinities with Boulezian and Messiaenic modernism. It’s hard to detect a strong individual voice here, though maybe a wider palette of colours and more drive from the pianist could have made a better case for these works. Still, those interested in East-West encounters in the piano repertoire owe Dullea a sizeable debt for keeping this music alive.