Dobrinka Tabakova, Maxim Rysanov, Kristina Blaumane, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra

String Paths was the first album devoted entirely to the music of Dobrinka Tabakova, a composer born in Bulgaria in 1980 and raised in London from a young age. Its five works, written between 2002 and 2008, run from string trio to chamber orchestra. They combine tonality, modality and folk-music influence with a direct melodic appeal. The album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Classical Compendium at the 56th Awards in 2014.

The project began at the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria, where Manfred Eicher heard violist Maxim Rysanov play Tabakova's Suite in Old Style. Rysanov is soloist and conductor of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra here, and cellist Kristina Blaumane, principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, plays the Cello Concerto written for her. Roman Mints is the violinist in the two trios, and Janine Jansen leads the string septet. Most of the music was recorded in March and April 2011 at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius, the septet at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin-Dahlem. It was mixed and mastered at Rainbow Studio in Oslo.

The Concerto for Cello & Strings moves through three movements marked Turbulent, tense, Longing and Radiant, from pounding chords to the glassy harmonics of its quiet passages. The Suite in Old Style, for viola, harpsichord and strings and dedicated to Rysanov, is a conversation with Rameau, with titles such as The Rose garden by moonlight. Such Different Paths, a 17-minute septet dedicated to Jansen and Spectrum Concerts Berlin, closes the disc. Its melodic material passes from the violins down to the lower strings. The string trio Insight opens the album, its three players often blending into a single voice, and Frozen River Flows sets violin against accordion and double bass, with Raimondas Sviackevičius on accordion.

Calum MacDonald gave the album five stars in BBC Music Magazine in 2013. He described the suite as "a Schnittke-style polystylistic romp with oriental cross-currents" and the whole as contemporary music that is easy on the ear. In The Strad, David Kettle called Blaumane's account of the concerto "astonishingly powerful", supported with fervour by the Lithuanian players.

CD edition of ECM New Series 2239, released on 17 May 2013, with liner notes by Bradley Bambarger.