Here is an EP that enriches our vision, and our listening, of today’s music for piano four hands. The Duo BoMi was formed during the pandemic by Michel-Alexandre Broekaert and Boran Zaza, a couple both on stage and in private. The journey of Ms. Zaza, of Kurdish origin and settled in Quebec for several years, is particularly interesting. To that end, I encourage you to watch the interview conducted with the two artists:
Duo BoMi: The classical music of Lebanon and Kurdistan takes root in Quebec
After having had the idea to spend their confinement time playing music, particularly works by composers unknown in the West, the two pianists had the opportunity to showcase the result of their work in a first concert in Prévost, on the north shore of Montreal. Great things came out of it, as the adventure continues under the title Les rêves de Maurice (and PanM says thank you to Diffusions Amal’Gamme who participated in this initiative!).
In short, the duo has put together a program centred on Maurice Ghanem, a Lebanese composer and friend of Boran Zaza, Brahim Shexo, a Kurdish composer, as well as Maurice Ravel and others whose music logically and aesthetically complements theirs (Khachaturian the Armenian, Fazil Say the Turk, Massenet the Frenchman, etc.).
This short album of about thirty minutes offers a selection of pieces by Ghanem and Shexo, the most “exotic” of the composers visited by the duo and the least known to the local audience. A way to perpetuate the discovery of their musical universes.
In general, what one hears through the eleven short pieces of the program is music that recalls the soothing reflections of the mystical composer Georges Gurdjieff (1872-1949), to which one must obviously add Satie-esque touches (one thinks of the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes) and West Asian accents (commonly referred to as the Middle East). In these pre-minimalist sounds, others will see echoes of the current neoclassical trend.
Which is not false, but the inspirations of Ghanem and Shexo are quite different from the floating genre propelled by Andréa Stréliski, Chilly Gonzales, or Ludovico Einaudi. These start from a principle of individual introspection and its sonic realisation through a language derived from film music and a scripted expressiveness. Here, we find ourselves in a typical approach inherited from the various nationalist movements of the late Romantic period. Melodies drawn from (as they are or inspired by) national/ethnic folklore.
In the end, it remains very consonant. Occasionally, some dissonant, modernist passages spice up the recipe (Gulek Ji Guleke Re, by Brahim Shexo), reminding us that these composers are alive and rooted in the 21st century.
Ey Reqib, by Shexo, begins the listening experience with a melody of great simplicity, like a children’s refrain, and it doesn’t even last 50 seconds. It is, I am being told, the National anthem of the Kurdish People. Such a hopeful sound for an anthem, which is telling us something about this nation. Dance From the Highlands by Ghanem uses the typical progressions of “oriental” music (from the Arab, Persian, Kurdish worlds…) and is the first piece that made me think of Gurdjieff’s sound aesthetics and Satie’s Gnossiennes. Simple but touching. Sairan, a slightly more energetic Kurdish melody, and Stargazing, dressed in tender melancholy, are two other pieces by Ghanem, followed by Gulek Ji Guleke Re by Shexo, mentioned above. The contrast of the more jarring chords here adds a dose of surprise to the otherwise very comforting journey.
Four compositions by Ghanem continue the program: Day at the Museum with its nocturnal, mysterious atmosphere, Spirit of the Valley, whose contemplative character is interspersed with occasional bursts of intensity, Into the Book, which one could have heard from Fauré or Chopin, and then Dance From the Levant Lands, the most lively piece of the lot with its folk dance rhythms, which one could almost imagine coming from a travel diary of Schumann.
Brahim Shexo closes the march with the last two pieces, a lullaby tinged with worry (Lullaby-Lorik) and a reprise, in the form of a final thought, of the very first piece, Ey Reqib.
Nice discoveries to savour slowly, while waiting for the BoMi duo to come to your area.
The couple will also be in concert on June 12, 2026, at the Joseph-Rouleau Hall of the Maison des Jeunesses Musicales (Maison André-Bourbeau) in Montreal.
Other concerts by Duo BoMi: LINK HERE
Album program From Lebanon to Kurdistan:
1- Ey Reqib (Brahim Shexo)
2- Dance From the Highlands (Maurice Ghanem)
3- Kurdish Melodies : Sairan (Maurice Ghanem)
4- Stargazing (Maurice Ghanem)
5- Gulek Ji Guleke Re (Brahim Shexo)
6- Day at the Museum (Maurice Ghanem)
7- Spirit of the Valley (Maurice Ghanem)
8- Into the Book (Maurice Ghanem)
9- Dance From the Levant Lands (Maurice Ghanem)
10- Lullaby – Lorik (Brahim Shexo)
11- Postlude – Ey Reqib (Brahim Shexo)
