Betty Olivero, Tigran Mansurian, Komitas Vardapet, Kim Kashkashian

On Neharót the violist Kim Kashkashian traces connections between three contemporary composers from Israel and Armenia. The pieces draw on laments of the Near East, Armenian chant and a Hasidic melody, so the viola is asked above all to sing. The album followed her Spanish and Argentinian songs on Asturiana, and it was named a CD of the year by BBC Radio 3. In his liner notes Paul Griffiths describes Kashkashian's viola singing "in a hybrid register that embraces male and female".

The recordings were gathered between 2006 and 2008. The title piece by Betty Olivero was made in March 2008 at the Himmelfahrtskirche in Munich with the Münchener Kammerorchester under Alexander Liebreich. Tigran Mansurian's Tagh for the Funeral of the Lord, with percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and Komitas's Oror, played by Mansurian at the piano, were taped in Poznań in October 2007. His Three Arias come from the Boston premiere in May 2008, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose. Eitan Steinberg's Rava Deravin was recorded in Boston in January 2006 with the Kuss Quartett. Manfred Eicher produced the album.

Olivero began Neharót Neharót (Hebrew for "rivers, rivers") under the impression of the 2006 war in Lebanon. It is scored for viola, accordion, percussion, two string ensembles and tape. Allusions to Kurdish and North African songs and to Monteverdi run through it, and about nine minutes in, recorded voices of women singing laments enter and wind around the viola. Mansurian's Three Arias (Sung out the window facing Mount Ararat) voice the Armenian longing for the holy mountain beyond the border. Rava Deravin rests on a melody for a poem by a traditional kabbalist; Steinberg first wrote it for voice and ensemble, then transcribed it for viola and string quartet.

Andy Gill of The Independent singled out the title piece, "where the mournful violas drift among accordion drones, Armenian vocalists, and two string ensembles." In the Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed heard Rava Deravin as "a haunting prayer in muted but glowing colors that finds common spiritual ground in Hasidic and Armenian song." Reviewing the disc for NPR in 2009, Robert Siegel said the title track left him "blown away".

CD edition, ECM New Series 2065, first released in August 2009.