dealer information service: no. 351 april 2021 highlights

APRIL 2021 HIGHLIGHTS

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DEALER INFORMATION SERVICE: NO. 351

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Complete Multipiano Concertos

MultiPiano Ensemble, English Chamber Orchestra

CDA68367 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 HYPERION RECORDS

The Larghetto and Allegro in E flat major is mature Mozart—contemporary with ‘Idomeneo’ and ‘Die Entführung’—but remains incomplete. Tomer Lev has finished the job brilliantly, making it the perfect companion for Mozart’s official multipiano concertos.

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Highlight of the Month

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About this Release


Cecilia McDowall Sacred Choral Music

Trinity College Choir Cambridge, Stephen Layton


McDowall’s keen sensitivity to text and her flair for writing vocal lines that are grateful to sing are just two of the virtues which justify the success of her choral music. Her original and distinctive voice is well served by Stephen Layton and his Trinity College forces.

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About this Release


Anonymous

Music for the King of Scots - Inside the Pleasure Palace of James IV

The Binchois Consort, Andrew Kirkman


A re-creation of the music combined with a technological reconstruction of the acoustic in Linlithgow Chapel: this is a project which offers a fascinating perspective on how such repertoire might originally have been heard.

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About this Release


Alfred Bachelet, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Joseph Canteloube, Olivier Messiaen, Cécile Chaminade, Léo Delibes, Francis Poulec, Erik Satie, Maurice Yvain, Pauline Viardot

Chère Nuit: French Songs

Louise Alder, Joseph Middleton

CHAN 20222 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CHANDOS RECORDS

The acclaimed British soprano Louise Alder returns for her second recital on Chandos, joined once again by star pianist Joseph Middleton. Enthusiastic praise was widespread for her Chandos début, Lines Written during a Sleepless Night: The Russian Connection, which earned significant accolades in the USA and continental Europe in addition to the UK. For this recording the pair explore a rich and varied selection of French songs from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Louse Alder writes: ‘I have always held French song very dear to my heart and when we settled on this wildly varied programme, I quickly grew excited at the prospect of exploring the art form in virtually all its styles. From Ravel to Yvain, I hope we paint pictures of a French evening, of mystery, intrigue, discovery, seduction, love, and blissful night.’

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About this Release


Albert Roussel, Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, Cécile Chaminade, André Caplet, Charles Koechlin

Belle Époque: French Music for Wind

Orsino Ensemble, Pavel Kolesnikov

CHSA 5282 £9.00 1 HYBRID SACD 02/04/21 CHANDOS RECORDS

Under the leadership of its Artistic Director, Adam Walker, the Orsino Ensemble is a chamber group of flexible formation with five outstanding wind players at its core. Each is a leader in his or her field, the group’s members committed to showcasing the depth and versatility of the wind chamber repertoire. They expand and reduce the Ensemble’s format as needed across their different programmes. This flexible approach is clearly demonstrated on this their début recording for Chandos, programming works for solo instrument through to the full wind quintet and piano needed for Albert Roussel’s Divertissement. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries bore witness to significant advances in the design and manufacture of wind instruments, much of the development driven by French makers. At the same time, the rapidly expanding Paris Conservatoire supported not only performance study, but also a vast output of original compositions by their teaching staff for the student body. The varied programme on this album captures the spirit of the age – a Belle Époque indeed!

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About this Release


Cesar Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles-Marie Widor, Maurice Duruflé

French Works for Flute (Franck, Saint-Saëns, Widor, Duruflé)

Adam Walker, James Baillieu, Timothy Ridout

CHAN 20229 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CHANDOS RECORDS

French Works for Flute is the Chandos début of Adam Walker, ably accompanied by James Baillieu. The pair are joined by the violist Timothy Ridout in Duruflé’s Prélude, récitatif et variations. At the forefront of a new generation of wind soloists, Adam Walker was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2009 at the age of twenty-one. In 2010 he won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Outstanding Young Artist Award. He is visiting professor at the Royal College of Music. Judged by The Daily Telegraph to be ‘in a class of his own’, James Baillieu is one of the leading chamber pianists and accompanists of his generation. Built around three major works (Widor’s Suite, Jean-Pierre Rampal’s edition of Franck’s Violin Sonata, and Duruflé’s flute trio), the programme proves an excellent showcase for Walker’s prodigious talent – effortless virtuosity, ethereal sound, and above all outstanding musical expression.

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Ludwig van Beethoven The Last Three SonatasPiano Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, op. 110Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, op. 111

Sunwook Kim

ACC30527 £11.00 1 CD 16/04/21 ACCENTUS MUSIC

Large industrial complexes, built of solid brick tell the story of industrialization of 19th century Leipzig. Where spinning wheels once rattled, chimneys smoked and thousands of workers carried out their daily work, new life has moved in over the past few years. Today, former factories are home to artists’ studios, galleries and manufactories. The term ‘industrial culture’ is taken literally here. The Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig is one of these buildings that tell the story of time and was now the chosen location for a very special audio and video production: the exceptional Korean pianist Sunwook Kim played Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas op. 109-111 in an industrial setting framed by light projections that filled the brick hall. Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas occupy a very special place within his oeuvre. Completely deaf by then, the composer puts three of his most intimate and personal works on paper, which at the same time radiate optimism and point musically into the future like hardly any other works. This recording is being released simultaneously on CD, DVD, & Blu-ray. Recorded at Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, Germany, July 2020

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Clarinet Quintet; Horn Quintet

Klenke Quartett, Nicola Jürgensen, Stephan Katte

ACC30540 £11.00 1 CD 23/04/21 ACCENTUS MUSIC

In June 2021, the Klenke Quartet celebrate their 30th anniversary and have been inspiring international concert life with an unchanged line-up since their foundation in 1991. Consisting of four female musicians, the ensemble has established itself as one of the most important German string quartets and is considered ‘one of the most distinguished European formations’ (GewandhausMagazin). Deepness, vocal quality, intimate music-making paired with a strong program dramaturgy as well as a sound intensity down to the softest note characterize the Klenke Quartet. After the successful recording of the string quintets by W. A. Mozart together with Harald Schoneweg, this recording again features quintets by Mozart, this time with natural horn player Stephan Katte and the clarinettist Nicola Jürgensen as guest musicians. Recorded at Hans Rosbaud Studio, Baden-Baden 2019/2020

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Arvo Pärt Lamentate

Onute Grazinyte, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Modestas Pitrenas

ACC40512 £22.50 1 LP (VINYL) 16/04/21 ACCENTUS MUSIC

Onute Grazinyte and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under Modestas Pitrenas play Pärt’s music – especially the main work Lamentate – very expressively and communicatively. It is a pure distillate of music that echoes and has an effect long after the last sounds have been heard’ wrote pizzicato about the CD that was released in September 2020 in honor of Arvo Pärt_s 85th birthday and awarded it the ‘Supersonic’. The Gramophone Magazine stated ‘This is a wondrously thought-provoking anthology of Pärt’s work. […] You cannot buy that kind of innocent beauty but you can, and should, buy this disc.’ The acclaimed recording of Pärt’s ‘Lamentate’ with which Onute Grazinyte marked her recording debut will now be released on vinyl in a limited and numbered 180g edition of 1.000 copies. It will supplemented with Grazinyte’s wonderful interpretation of Pärt’s piano works ‘Pari intervallo’ and ‘Für Anna Maria - Nachdenklich’. About her playing, pizzicato added in their review: ‘The longer you listen to the pianist, the more you feel how well and safely she moves in Pärt’s musical universe.’ Recorded at Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall, May 2020, and Lithuanian National Culture Centre Recording Studio, April 2019 (Lamentate). Produced by Accentus Music.

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Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann

Album für die Frau: scenes from the Schumanns’ Lieder

Carolyn Sampson, Joseph Middleton

BIS2473 £9.00 1 HYBRID SACD 09/04/21 BIS

For the first four years of their marriage, Robert and Clara Schumann kept a joint diary, a project which Robert described as ‘a record of our wishes and our hopes, and the means whereby we may convey to one another any requests we may have to make, for which words may not suffice...’ In the imaginative recital Album für die Frau, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton combine songs by both composers into something similar – the depiction of a relationship seen through the eyes of both parties. Using the eight songs from Robert’s song cycle Frauenliebe und –leben to poems by Adalbert von Chamisso as the framework, they add songs as well as some piano solos in order to create a fuller and more complex picture. The result seems to suggest that the experiences of our ‘Frau’ are richer than Chamisso and Robert Schumann imagined: while love, marriage and motherhood dominated much of Clara Schumann’s life, Robert’s death in 1856 signalled the start of a four-decade widowhood during which she resumed her stellar career as a pianist. As a team, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have released a number of acclaimed discs, including ‘Fleurs’, featuring flower-themed songs by composers from Purcell to Richard Strauss and Britten, ‘A Verlaine Songbook’, exploring settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and ‘A Soprano’s Schubertiade’, a Schubert anthology.

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Béla Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle

Mika Kares, Szilvia Vörös, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki


Composed in 1911, Bluebeard’s Castle is Béla Bartók’s only opera – a radical masterpiece which has secured a place alongside the other innovative music dramas of the same period, from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande to Berg’s Wozzeck. Planning to write a one-act opera, Bartók settled on a libretto by Béla Balázs with the kind of surreal and/or macabre themes that would soon feature in his two ballets, The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin. The main source for the libretto text was a play by Maeterlinck, a retelling of Perrault’s gruesome tale of Barbe-Bleue, the sinister yet strangely seductive wife-killer. Balázs turned the drama into what he called a ‘mystery play’, however, and his stylisation of the story throws the weight of the drama onto stage-setting and music. Susanna Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra have already proved their Bartók credentials with a disc of his ballet scores which was chosen as Record of the Week in BBC Radio 3 Record Review and earned top marks in Diapason and on the website Klassik-Heute. Joined by Mika Kares as Duke Bluebeard and his Judit, the Hungarian mezzo-soprano Szilvia Vörös, the team here performs Bartók’s darkly glittering, shimmering and threatening score in a live recording from 2020.

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About this Release


Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez, Andrew Smith, Adrian Willaert, Cyrillus Kreek, Pierre de la Rue

And the sun darkened: Music for Passiontide

New York Polyphony


Resonating across more than five centuries, expressions of personal piety and prayer fill these works by a quartet of Franco-Flemish composers, all born in the 15th century, and their modern-day colleagues, Estonian Cyrillus Kreek (1889—1962) and British-Norwegian Andrew Smith (b. 1970). For those familiar with the vocal ensemble New York Polyphony and its previous, acclaimed releases on BIS, this exploration of the intersection of ancient and modern music is far from surprising: the group is known for its innovative programming. On And the sun darkened the four members follow Josquin’s celebrated motet Tu pauperum refugium with Andrew Smith’s setting of Psalm 55 – composed for NYP, it is a lament which nevertheless closes with an expression of confidence in God’s justice. Sung in Estonian another biblical psalm is heard in Kreek’s Taaveti laul 22 (‘David’s 22nd Song’), the text ‘My God, why have you forsaken me’ preparing the listener for the work that has given the disc its title. Officium de Cruce by Loyset Compère is a setting of a 14th-century hymn which follows the episodes of the Passion in a continuously flowing musical narrative: from the betrayal of Christ to his death – when the sun darkened – and entombment.

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About this Release


Carl Maria von WeberComplete Works for Piano and Orchestra

Ronald Brautigam, Kölner Akademie, Michael Alexander Willens


Carl Maria von Weber wrote music that has been admired by composers as diverse as Schumann, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. But in his lifetime he was also recognised as one of the finest pianists of the period, with an exceptional technique and a brilliant gift for improvisation. Especially during the 1810s he toured extensively, and like other composer-pianists he wrote works to use as his personal calling cards, among them the two piano concertos recorded here. They were both composed in 1811-12, but while the First Concerto takes Mozart’s concertos as its model, Piano Concerto No. 2 looks towards Beethoven. This change of direction was probably influenced by the fact that Weber had acquired a score of Beethoven’s recently published Emperor Concerto. In any case there are some striking similarities between his concerto and Beethoven’s: the use of identical keys, and the inclusion of a slow, subtly orchestrated Adagio and a closing playful rondo in 6/8. Following highly acclaimed recordings of the complete concertos by Mozart and Beethoven as well as Mendelssohn, this disc brings the team of Ronald Brautigam and Kölner Akademie to the very crossroads of Classicism and Romanticism.

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Songs of Solitude Hiyoli Togowa


Songs of Solitude was conceived by the violist Hiyoli Togawa at a time when a virus was forcing people across the world into isolation and she herself needed to find a new rhythm of life as concert after concert was being cancelled. As she relates in the booklet to the disc, playing Bach – music that combines powerful emotions with a crystal-clear structure – became part of her daily routine, along with walks along the empty streets of Berlin. During these, the importance of remaining creative became even clearer to her, along with the idea to offer people the opportunity through music to reflect upon the difficulties of living through a pandemic. Having recently collaborated with the composer Kalevi Aho, she came upon the idea of asking him and a number of other composers to write for her – pieces that would ‘reflect life and work in the time of the coronavirus and that distil isolation in music’. The result is Songs of Solitude – works for solo viola commissioned from 11 different composers and interwoven with sarabandes from Bach’s cello suites. The individual pieces range from the meditative (Toshio Hosokawa reminiscing in his version of the traditional Sakura) to the defiant (Johanna Doderer’s Shadows). Some of them even provided Hiyoli with musical company - Aho’s Am Horizont requires her to play two parts on the viola while singing a third, and the piece by John Powell is written for nine voices, recorded in multitrack.

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Michael Jarrell Émergences-Résurgences; 4 Eindrücke; … Le ciel, tout à l’heure encore si limpide …

Tabea Zimmermann, Renaud Capuçon, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Pascal Rophé


The music of Michael Jarrell has been said to ‘examine states of dream and unreality, searching for a moment of truth’ – a truth which is often found in the lowest sonorities and slowest tempi, a place where time stands still. His works are often interrelated, not only by a certain sensitivity or a distinctive tone, but also by the recurrence of particular features that he reworks in different contexts. The present disc combines two recent concertos, each of them performed by its dedicatee. In July 2019, three years after they gave the first performance of Émergences-Résurgences, Tabea Zimmermann rejoined l’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé in order to record the work. In the liner notes Jarrell describes his method in the concerto in visual terms: ‘Curves, colours, chiaroscuro or strong lines; I tried to integrate a pictorial dimension into the scheme of this piece…’ Jarrell’s fourth violin concerto, 4 Eindrücke, is even more recent, and was first performed in 2019 in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall by Renaud Capuçon and Pascal Rophé conducting. As suggested by its title, the work is in four contrasting movements, of which the second stands out in that the soloist plays only pizzicato throughout. Framed by the two concertos is an orchestral work from 2009 which takes its title from Lucretius: ‘the sky, recently so clear, suddenly becomes horribly murky’.

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César Franck Trois pièces; Trois Chorals

Pétur Sakari


Still in his twenties, Pétur Sakari studied in his native Finland and in Paris and made his recording début at the age of 18. On his previous disc for BIS, he performed works by five French composers, receiving international acclaim with top marks in Diapason as well as on the Klassik-Heute website. For the present disc, Pétur has chosen to focus on César Franck, performing the composer’s Three Pieces and Three Chorales ‘pour grand orgue’ on an instrument perfectly suited to the repertoire. Completed in 1880, the great organ in the Sainte-Croix cathedral of Orléans is a major – and well-preserved – example of the art of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the same maker who had previously built Franck’s beloved organ in Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. (‘My new organ? It’s an orchestra!’ was Franck’s verdict.) Together the two gave the French organ tradition a new impetus with Franck laying the groundwork for a French symphonic organ style while Cavaillé-Coll constructed hundreds of organs capable of producing a sound that was full, homogeneous and modern. The Trois Pièces, which closes with the famous Pièce héroïque, were written for a Cavaillé-Coll instrument built for the 1878 World Fair in Paris. Twelve years later, and only weeks before his untimely death, Franck completed the Trois Chorals.

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Pēteris Vasks Musica dolorosa; Musica serena; Musica Appassionata; Klātbūtne

Uladzimir Sinkevich, Anna-Maria Palii, Muenchner Rundfunkorchester, Ivan Repušić

900336 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 BR KLASSIK

All the works of the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks on this CD are written for string orchestra: the three connected compositions ‘Musica serena’ (2015, dedicated to the Finnish conductor Juhga Kangas), ‘Musica dolorosa’ (1983) and ‘Musica appassionata’ (2002), and also Vasks’ Concerto No 2 for Violoncello and Strings, also known as ‘Klētbētne’ (‘Presence’, 2011/12). Vasks’ three instrumental pieces here are light-hearted, tragic (dealing with the death of his sister as well as the political situation in Latvia at the time), and passionate, providing an overview of the diversity of his work across a timespan of almost three decades. His deeply spiritual Cello Concerto, which was premiered by Sol Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and conducted by Candida Thompson in Ghent, refers in its title to the pure being of his music - which is present, without distance, in every movement of the bow. Today, alongside Arvo Pärt and Erkki Sven-Tüür, Pēteris Vasks is one of the most famous composers from the Baltic states of the former Soviet Union. – On April 16, 2021, the music world will celebrate his 75th birthday.

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The Children’s Hour: Fairy Tales, Adventures, Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies

Gareth Brynmor John, William Vann

CHRCD156 £7.29 1 CD 16/04/21 CHAMPS HILL RECORDS

Acclaimed baritone Gareth Brynmor John and prize-winning pianist William Vann celebrate the wonder of childhood with a new recording of Fairy Tales, Adventures, Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies. Dedicated to their respective children, the recording takes its name from Charles Ives’s charming setting of Henry Longfellow’s poem, The Children’s Hour. Gareth Brynmor John comments: ‘Each of us has two young children, and the patter (or, perhaps, stomping) of tiny feet is now part of the soundscape (cacophony) of our everyday lives. Our programme weaves a tapestry of childhood experience: some tales stray towards the dark and nightmarish, even going as far as death, many are deeply comic, and others are charming or immensely profound. All of them, though, contemplate the wonder of childhood that continues to nourish us as adults, either through direct experience or via our memories.’ This release marks William Vann’s second disc for Champs Hill, and he is delighted to return to a label of which he is very fond.

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Good night, beloved The Sixteen, Harry Christophers

COR16184 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CORO

What could be more welcome than a little repose and respite from the demands of daily life? The works on this album tell stories of life and love, of tranquillity and stillness, some naïve and simple, others infused with complex imagery. This beautiful album features a stunning selection of music spanning over 500 years. From exuberant early works such as Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin and I am a jolly foster to Will Todd’s sublime Whisper Him my name, Maxwell Davies’ Lullabye for Lucy, Stanford’s glorious The Blue Bird, and a new commission from Roderick Williams, this is truly music to escape to.

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About this Release


Joseph Wölfl 3 Piano Concertos

Natasa Veljkovic, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Johannes Moesus

555149-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

Our previous release of three piano concertos by Joseph Wölfl featured the recording premieres of ‘mirthful pieces in the style of Mozart and Early Viennese Classicism’. And our second new release with more concertos by Wölfl – this time congenially interpreted by Nastaša Veljkoviē – shows just what magnificent music this composer working in Beethoven’s immediate musical environment was writing. As in Wölfl’s second piano concerto, so too in his third such work: he follows the tradition shaped by Mozart in matters of form. However, here a tendency toward formal trimming is already in evidence, a tendency that Wölfl pursued in his later London concertos and very decidedly so in the Concerto da camera WoO 97 for piano, flute, and strings. What we have in this work, which was published in London in 1810, is in every respect a reduced concerto, not only in the dimensions of the orchestral ensemble but also in length, though the overall formal scheme is retained. The solos in particular are more tightly constructed and more strongly integrated into the orchestral part – with the small ensemble size contributing its share here.

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Johann Rosenmüller Magnificat and Sacred Concertos Ensemble 1684, Gregor Meyer

555174-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

Following our first CD with sacred concertos by Johann Rosenmüller, we are now releasing another CD with concertos for larger ensembles by this genial composer and musician who quite soon attracted attention with his perfect musical blend and tireless creative drive as well as with his persistent striving for innovation. In his works Rosenmüller succeeded in blending the new Italian colorfulness and tonal sensitivity with the gravity of Central German music into a unique, sublime style. The more than one hundred works by Rosenmüller that have come down to us, most of them dimensioned on the large scale, reveal a composer who gave everything he had to bring to perfection the mixing of Central German and Italian stylistics begun in Leipzig and ultimately to lend the sacred concerto a personal signature. ‘The music speaks for itself, for it is filled with enthralling moments. Such a discovery would not be possible without such an impressive interpretation as that of the Ensemble 1684. The soloists shine in their outstanding textual articulation and flawless vocal technique; the instrumentalists always provide for optimally balanced dialogues’. klassik-heute.de of Vol. 1, in January 2018.

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Philipp Fahrbach, Junior, Philipp Fahrbach, Senior Polkas, Waltzes & Marches

Nürnberger Symphoniker, Christian Simonis

555179-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

Following marches, polkas, and waltzes by Benjamin Bilse, Richard Eilenberg, Josef Gung’l, and Carl Millöcker, this new release is now the fifth cpo CD with the conductor Christian Simonis. This time he turns to two members of the Fahrbach family of musicians. Like the Strausses, the Fahrbachs also composed superb dances and marches. Moreover, in the Vienna and Austria of those times the Fahrbach dynasty of musicians contributed enormously to the music culture and development of popular music not only in the capital city’s region but also beyond it. The titles of the works, the occasions of their composition and performance, and not least the music itself with all its allusions are in the oeuvre of the Fahrbachs just as much ‘history in music’ as they are in the compositions by the Strauss family. The Fahrbachs are no longer so famous today simply because of the poor state of the surviving source documentation. Like his father, Philipp Fahrbach the Younger was a conductor of military and private orchestras and in this capacity of course also a composer. The waltzes of father and son in particular enjoyed great favor among the public and music critics. The musical oeuvre of Philipp Fahrbach the Younger comprises more than five hundred compositions, most of which can be assigned to the genres of Viennese dance and march music. His most successful and most famous work is also heard on this CD: the brilliant polka française ‘Im Kahlenbergerdörfel’ op. 340.

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Max Bruch Piano Works

Christof Keymer

555258-2 £6.90 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

Over the course of his life Max Bruch often made uncomplimentary remarks about the piano as an instrument – even though he himself was an outstanding and successful pianist. On the whole it was not until his later years that increasing occupation with the piano could be observed in his compositions. His late chamber music with the piano and the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra may be understood as a return to this instrument. The selection of piano works recorded here by the pianist Christof Keymer demonstrates beyond any doubt Bruch’s mastery in the compositional treatment of the piano and its special resources. Here we find a cosmos of romantic emotional worlds that in Bruch’s hands produce original, unique tones. This very personal treatment of piano sound, melodic invention, and melodic leading shows us Bruch as a great composer personality. The transcriptions almost incidentally reveal his great command of the tonal transformation of the originals, while many virtuoso elements in turn have a signature that is very much Bruch’s own. All the piano works have in common Bruch’s love of melody, which was his creed as a composer.

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Niccolò Paganini String Quartet No. 3, Three Duetti Concertanti

Gabriele Pieranunzi, Fabrizio Falasca, Francesco Fiore,Paolo Carlini

555310-2 £6.90 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

One aspect in the life and work of the great Genoese virtuoso Nicolò Paganini that may be lesser known but in no way should be underestimated is the pronounced interest with which he dedicated himself to chamber music both as an interpreter and as a composer. He was drawn in particular to the genre of the string quartet – and here we are presenting his energetic String Quartet No. 3, a work revealing his brilliant mastery in the field of chamber music. In his Tre Duetti for violin and bassoon Paganini also proves to be a very sophisticated composer of chamber music who succeeds in lending each of the three duets an individual, independent character. Among other things, these works have in common the beautiful cantability of their themes and a writing style radiating obvious joy in the shared musical experience, in »jouer,« as the French so fittingly term it. The influence of song is in constant evidence when we speak of the Italian instrumental music of the nineteenth century in general and in particular of Paganini’s chamber music or that of composers such as Rossini and Donizetti who distinguished themselves mainly in the field of the opera. In the three duets this vocal influence is naturally combined with the clear requirements of instrumental part writing.

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Eduard Franck Piano Concerto No.1 and No.2

Georg Michael Grau, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Fawzi Haimor

555320-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

The composer and pianist Eduard Franck was from an art-loving Breslau banker’s family and revealed his musical gifts at an early age. Later Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy became his teacher and even performed together with him. His friendly acquaintance with Mendelssohn and kindred musical spirits like Robert Schumann and William Sterndale Bennett showed Eduard Franck the way. However, he increasingly emerged from the shadow of his models, and today he is honored less as a follower and more as a mediator between the generations who in his time anticipated many a new development by great masters such as Brahms and Bruckner. Franck’s Piano Concerto in D minor op. 13, his first broadly dimensioned orchestral work, generates its appeal above with its imposing and stormy main themes and brilliantly virtuosic broken chords in the piano part. The second concerto recorded here was previously available only in a manuscript of the score and a piano reduction from 1879. The virtuosic interplay between the orchestra and the piano, as heard on the present recording premiere, in particular makes us sit up and take notice.

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Anton Rubinstein Piano Concertos No.2 and No.4

Schaghajegh Nosrati, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Róbert Farkas

555352-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CPO

During his lifetime Anton Rubinstein was regarded as the greatest pianist among composers and as the greatest composer among pianists. He himself assigned clear functions to his two fields of activity: he concertized to live, and he lived to compose. Such a plan of action finds its greatest fulfillment when the two spheres overlap: in Anton Rubinstein’s piano concertos, which were products of his compositional calling for his concert profession and works by the composer for the pianist. Thirteen years, stylistic nuances, and a decisive step on the career ladder came between his Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 4. The twenty-one-year-old’s early second concerto met with a very favorable response in its time because of its marvelously beautiful tonal effects. It was then above all his fourth concerto that from the very beginning was enthusiastically received by fans of symphonic orchestral music and friends of virtuoso solo performance. Here Schaghajegh Nosrati, who is regarded as an extremely versatile musician and owing to her outstanding reputation as a Bach interpreter very early was able to establish herself as a concert pianist, interprets these works for us.

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William Byrd Byrd 1588: Psalmes, Sonets & songs of sadnes and pietie

Grace Davidson, Martha McLorinan, Nicholas Todd, Alamire, Fretwork, David Skinner

INV1006 £11.10 2 CD 02/04/21 INVENTA

Following Tallis and Byrd’s first publishing venture of Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, Byrd waited some 13 years to again wake the AT52presses with his compositions. His 1588 Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie was his first solo publication, for which Elizabeth’s Lord Chancellor (and notable favourite), Sir Christopher Hatton, acted as patron. This is the first complete offering of the collection and was recorded on the grounds of Holdenby House, once the largest Elizabethan country house in all of England. Written at the height of Byrd’s creativity, it contains a treasure trove of musical delights. More famous among the collection includes two funeral elegies for Sir Philip Sidney (Come to me grief forever and O that most rare breast), Why do I use my ink, paper and pen? which is thought to allude to the martyrdom of the Jesuit Edmund Campion in 1580, as well as lighter secular songs from joyful madrigals to pained laments. Byrd here represents practically all levels of human emotion, with works performed by a variety of ‘voyces or Instruments’ as the composer himself directs.

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Robert Simpson Symphony No. 5 & Symphony No. 6 (A Centenary Release)

London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Davis, Charles Groves

SRCD389 £8.70 1 CD 02/04/21 LYRITA

Robert Simpson wrote his Fifth Symphony in 1972 in response to a commission by the London Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the symphony took place on 3 May 1973 at the Royal Festival Hall, under the direction of Andrew Davis. Another London performance took place on 29 March 1984, again in the Royal Festival Hall, with the Philharmonia, the conductor again being Andrew Davis. In both cases audience and press reception was unanimously enthusiastic. Simpson’s Sixth Symphony, of 1977, was commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with funds provided by the Arts Council, who later sponsored the recording of the Sixth and Seventh, and also contributed to a number of later Commissions. It received its premiere performance on 8 April 1980 at the Royal Festival Hall with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves. Edward Greenfield wrote in his Guardian review: ‘Happily Dr Simpson’s metaphors are incidental to his genuinely musical imagination. So after the fragmentary germinal motives at the start, he turns very quickly to a bold tonal melody such as Nielsen might have written.

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Johann Sebastian Bach, David Juritz Goldberg Variations - arranged by Juritz for Violin, Guitar & Cello

David Juritz, Craig Ogden, Tim Hugh

NI6414 £8.70 1 CD 02/04/21 NIMBUS ALLIANCE

The dilemma faced by any arranger of Bach is to stay true to the character of his music while knowing he would have been far bolder and more imaginative. For this version, I have attempted to remain within a sound-world that he would have found familiar. I did, however, have two factors on my side: Bach’s sublime and rigorous counterpoint and, in Craig Ogden, a virtuoso guitarist whose technical accomplishment is matched only by his Aussie ability to remain unruffled in the face of any challenge. - David Juritz

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Thomas de Hartmann The Piano Music of Thomas de Hartmann

Elan Sicroff


The series of CD releases of the music of Thomas de Hartmann is largely the work of The Thomas de Hartmann Project, a group of dedicated volunteers and individuals joined by the common goal of bringing Thomas de Hartmann’s music to public attention. The primary aim of The Thomas de Hartmann Project is to make publicly available the compositions of Thomas de Hartmann; today a music as strangely inaudible as the composer is invisible, outside small groups familiar with de Hartmann’s musical collaborations with G.I. Gurdjieff. - Robert Fripp

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Thomas de Hartmann The Chamber Music of Thomas de Hartmann

Elan Sicroff



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Thomas de Hartmann The Songs of Thomas de Hartmann

Elan Sicroff, Nina Lejderman, Claron McFadden, Judith Petra, Anjolet Rotteveel, Alan Belk, Daniel Herman Mostert



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Mieczysław Weinberg Piano Quintet Op. 18; Children’s Notebook No. 3; Op. 23

Elisaveta Blumina, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Shanshan Yao, Máté Szücs, Bruno Delepelaire

OC487 £7.95 1 CD 16/04/21 OEHMS CLASSICS

This programme comprises a selection of Weinberg’s early works, the piano quintet and some of the Children’s Notebooks which he wrote during the last two years of the Second World War. Born in Warsaw in 1919, Weinberg fled to Moscow in 1939. There he made friends with Shostakovich, who provided continuous support. Weinberg’s output includes 22 symphonies, 17 string quartets and numerous chamber pieces, in addition to his operas Wir gratulieren! (OC990) and Die Passagierin. Weinberg died in Moscow in 1996. This recording features pianist Elisaveta Blumina, with Noah Bendix-Balgley (violin), Shanshan Yao (violin), Máté Szücs (viola) and Bruno Delepelaire (cello).

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Franz Schreker Der ferne Klang

Choir of the Oper Frankfurt, Frankfurter Opern-und Museumorchester, Sebastian Weigle

OC980 £20.00 3 CD 16/04/21 OEHMS CLASSICS

Der ferne Klang by Austrian composer Franz Schreker (1878–1934) premiered on 18 August 1912 at the Frankfurt Opera House. Schreker began composing his first full-length opera in 1901, after completing the libretto he had written in just a few weeks. Initially considered impossible to perform, the work brought Schreker instant fame. It now returns to the location of its premiere for the first time since 1945. With one exception, Schreker was both composer and librettist for all of his stage works, almost half of which were performed or premiered in Frankfurt. The Choir of the Oper Frankfurt and Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester perform under the direction of Sebastian Weigle.

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Eduardas Balsys Violin Concerto No. 1; Dramatic Frescoes; Reflections of the Sea

Džeraldas Bidva, Indre Baikštyte, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Modestas Pitrėnas

ODE 1358-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 ONDINE

This new album introduces to international audience the music of Eduardas Balsys (1919–1984), a key figure in Lithuania’s music from the 1950s until his death in 1984. This album release by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Modestas Pitrēnas includes three works from this award-winning composer, including his early breakthrough work, Violin Concerto No. 1, alongside two other orchestral scores. In these works, Balsys reveals himself as a master of rich, colourful orchestral scores.

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Maurice Ravel Bolero; La Valse; Rapsodie espagnole; Alborada del gracioso; Pavane

Basque National Orchestra, Robert Trevino

ODE 1385-2 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 ONDINE

Conductor Robert Trevino’s new album release on Ondine – after a successful debut with a complete Beethoven symphony cycle – features six orchestral pieces by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), one of the most famous Basque composers, played by the Basque National Orchestra. Born in a small town in France very close to the Spanish border, Ravel spent most of his life in Paris. However, he was extremely proud of his Basque background having absorbed himself to the culture already as a child, and many elements of Basque music can be found in his compositions. In this historic release, we can finally hear Ravel’s orchestral music being interpreted by Basque musicians in the form of the Basque National Orchestra. These performances on some of the most fantastic orchestral scores of the 20th Century also shed light to the Basque influences in Ravel’s music.

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Alma Mahler-Werfel, Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot-García, Vítězslava Kaprálová

Charmes

Olena Tokar, Igor Gryshyn

ORC100154 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 ORCHID CLASSICS

Soprano Olena Tokar and pianist Igor Gryshyn present an exquisite recital of songs by Alma Mahler-Werfel, Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot-García and Vítězslava Kaprálová . Alma Mahler-Werfel wrote over 50 songs relatively early in her life, and the selection performed on this album reveals her talent for expressive word-setting in a rich, atmospheric style. Clara Schumann was recognised as a child prodigy for her abilities both as a pianist and as a composer, and her songs, including the Op.12 songs heard here, were co-published alongside those of her husband, Robert. Pauline Viardot-García was a polymath whose three-octave singing range inspired many composers. She wrote over 100 songs of her own in an array of styles; those chosen for this recital demonstrate the quality and variety of her output. Vítēzslava Kaprálová produced a remarkable amount of music, much of it published during her short life, including songs that exude a perfumed impressionism.

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Giuseppe Verdi Un ballo in mascheraPiotr Beczała, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Krassimira Stoyanova, Nadia Krasteva, Hila Fahima, Alexandru Moisiuc, Sorin Coliban, Igor Onishchenko, Thomas Ebenstein, Chor der Wiener Staatsoper, Orchester und Bühnenorchester Der Wiener Staatsoper, Jesús López Cobos

C210062 £18.57 2 CD 02/04/21 ORFEO WIENER STAATSOPER

Like most modern performances, this recording is based on the Swedish version of the opera. Its first performance at the Vienna Opera House on the Ring was given in 1870 (exactly one year after the building’s opening) and has since enjoyed well over 500 performances in this house. The star-studded cast includes Pjotr Beczala (Gustav III), Dmitry Hvorostovky (Renato), Krassimira Stoyanova (Emilia), Nadja Krasteva, Hila Fahima, Alexandru Moisiuc, Sorin Coliban, Igor Onishchenko and Thomas Ebenstein. The conductor is Jesús López Cobos. Live recording April 2016.

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Hector Berlioz Lélio, ou Le Retour à la vie

Joachim Bissmeier, Herbert Lippert, Geert Smits, Wiener Singakademie, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michael Gielen

C210071 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 ORFEO

Hector Berlioz’s Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie was a sequel to his Symphonie fantastique, which premiered in 1830 at the Paris Conservatory. Comprising six sections, it was composed during his travels to and around Italy, and made use of material that he had already composed for the prestigious Prix de Rome. Michael Gielen conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Singakademie with Joachim Bissmeier as narrator and highly acclaimed soloists Herbert Lippert and Geert Smits in an absorbing live recording that took place on 7 December 2000 at the Vienna Concert Hall.

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Jean Sibelius, Nors S. Josephson Sibelius: Violin Concerto & Humoresques Fenella Humphreys, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, George Vass

RES10277 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 RESONUS CLASSICS

Already hailed as his country’s foremost AT51composer, Sibelius completed what was to be his only concerto in early 1904, and its spellbinding and instantly recognisable opening can surely be counted amongst the most iconic of any. A virtuosic violinist himself, Sibelius beautifully evokes Finland’s natural landscape and ancient folklore, which continues through Sibelius’s 1917 work for violin and orchestra – the Six Humoresques – demanding a considerable level of technique. Violinist Fenella Humphreys joins with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor George Vass to present these formidable works with a world premiere recording of a new work for violin and orchestra by the American composer Nors S. Josephson – Celestial Voyage.

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Barney Kessel & The Poll Winners (Their 37 finest 1957-1960)

Barney Kessel, The Poll Winners, Ray Brown, Shelly Manne

RTS4318 £6.40 2 CD 10/11/17 RETROSPECTIVE

For many jazz lovers, Barney Kessel (1923-2004) remains the most complete master of the electric guitar in jazz history. In the late 50s he dominated the jazz polls, as did bassist Ray Brown (1926-2002) and drummer Shelly Manne (1920-1984), and the three joined forces as ‘The Poll Winners’, firmly establishing the form of the jazz guitar trio. All four of their classic LPs of the period are now presented in their entirety on Retrospective’s new double album. The 37 tracks spotlight not only Kessel’s phenomenal artistry, but the endlessly subtle interplay between three supremely talented jazz musicians. Enjoy once more this generous helping of West Coast Jazz at its very finest.

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George Gershwin, arr. Iain Farrington Gershwinicity

Art Deco Trio

SOMMCD 0631 £7.29 1 CD 16/04/21 SOMM RECORDINGS

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the debut recording of composer-pianist Iain Farrington’s Art Deco Trio, featuring 15 new instrumental arrangements blending classical and jazz influences of songs by George Gershwin. In 2012, Farrington played piano in the London Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in a comic performance of Chariots of Fire with Rowan Atkinson (as Mr. Bean) and the LSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. His Beethoveniana – a thrilling distillation of Beethoven’s nine symphonies into a seven-minute piece for 323 BBC orchestra musicians, the BBC Singers and two dancers – was a highlight of the locked-down 2020 BBC Proms. Taking its name from the defining style of the Gershwin era, the Art Deco Trio – Peter Sparks (clarinet), Kyle Horch (alto and soprano saxophones) and Farrington (piano) – ‘mixes elegance and clean lines with the exuberance and bold colours’ of its distinctive signature. The disc takes its title from Farrington’s ‘fantasia’ on five Gershwin standards stamped through with infectious rhythmic energy and the most memorable of melodies. First heard in shorter form at the 2018 BBC Proms, Gershwinicity is a dazzling celebration of one the 20th century’s most popular songwriters.

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Henrique Oswald, Francisco Mignone, Leopoldo Américo Miguez, Marlos Nobre, Alexandre Levy

Treasures from the New World, Vol.2: Duos by Miguez and Oswald

Anthony Flint, Clélia Iruzun

SOMMCD 0632 £7.29 1 CD 16/04/21 SOMM RECORDINGS

SOMM RECORDINGS is pleased to announce the return of pianist Clélia Iruzun and the label debut of violinist Anthony Flint with Treasures from the New World, Volume 2, a revelatory compendium of sonatas and duets by five Brazilian composers who defined the sound and soul of modern Latin American music. A champion of music from her homeland on earlier recordings for SOMM, Rio de Janeiro-born Iruzun returns to Henrique Oswald (also Rio-born) with his four-movement Violin Sonata in E major of 1908. Lightly laced with late-Brahmsian accents, it’s a work of striking contrasts, a brief Intermezzo and extended slow interlude framed by an opening movement of vivacious lyricism and an energetic, optimistic, fiery finale. Leopoldo Miguez’s Violin Sonata in A major (1885) boasts similar lyrical richness while balancing evocative, nocturnal beauty, brisk confidence and a bracing sense of instrumental ensemble. Completing the disc are the melodious Poema (2002) by Marlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s most exciting contemporary composers, Souza Lima’s duet arrangement of Alexandre Levy’s Tango Brasileiro, and the haunting early miniature Romanza (1917) that prepared the ground for a later trio of substantial sonatas by Francisco Mignone, a mentor and close friend of Iruzun’s since her childhood.

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Pál Hermann Complete Surviving Music, Vol. 1

Sofia Soloviy, Kateryna Poteriaieva, Clive Greensmith, Alina Shevchenko, Roman Machenko, Lviv International Symphony Orchestra, Theodore Kuchar

TOCC 0443 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 TOCCATA CLASSICS

Pál Hermann, born in Budapest in 1902, was not only one of the leading cellists of his day: he was also an important composer, one of the major figures in Hungarian music in the generation after his main teachers, Bartók and Kodály. But since only two of his works were published before his early death, in 1944, at the hands of the Nazis, and many more of them were lost, he has not had the esteem that he deserves. This series will present all his surviving compositions, most of them in first recordings. The major work on this first album, Hermann’s Cello Concerto of 1925, in a reconstruction by the Italian composer Fabio Conti (b. 1967), sits somewhere between Bartók and Korngold and bids fair to become a staple of the cello repertoire.

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Douglas Munn Complete Music for Solo Piano

Arta Arnicane


The man who as W. D. Munn published papers on that branch of mathematics known as semigroup theory had another side to his personality: Douglas Munn (1929–2008), professor of mathematics at the University of Stirling, was also a fine pianist and a gifted composer. His piano music has its origins in Chopin, Brahms and Bartók but is clearly also inflected by Scottish folksong – much of it has a sense of the hills and the open spaces – and is written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the instrument. The Latvian pianist Arta Arnicane knew Douglas Munn and this album is the fulfilment of an unspoken promise to record his piano music. Supported by numerous scholarship awards and eminent artists such as John Lill and Homero Francesch, Arta Arnicane studied in several countries and graduated with distinction from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (2004), the Latvian Academy of Music (2008), and Zurich University of the Arts (2010 and 2012). She has an extensive solo repertoire and her interpretations of the Mozart piano concertos as well as impressionistic music have always won special appreciation. She is also an enthusiastic chamber musician and performs regularly in a duo with her husband, the German cellist Florian Arnicans. https://www.artaarnicane.com

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Emil Tabakov Complete Symphonies, Vol. 6

Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio, Emil Tabakov


The music of the Bulgarian composer-conductor Emil Tabakov (b. 1947) explores the darker side of the human spirit in epic scores as austere as they are powerful. His mighty Seventh Symphony, almost an hour in length, is conceived on a massive scale. The monumental opening Allegro moderato passes through islands of calm during its desperate ride through hell and is followed by a heaven-rattling funeral march and a wild, swirling dance. The finale opens by stoking up the tension in an extensive slow introduction before the music is once again whipped into a maelstrom of dark, driven energy, piling forward to its inexorable conclusion.

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Joseph Woelfl Piano Music, Vol.2

Adalberto Maria Riva


Joseph Woelfl (1773–1812), a friend of the Mozart family from childhood, was one of the best-known musicians of his day: he was regarded as a rival of Beethoven in Vienna and a worthy successor to Haydn in the musical life of London. His late-Classical piano music sits between Mozart, Haydn and Clementi and looks forward to Schubert and Mendelssohn. This first-ever project to examine it in any detail hopes to rescue Woelfl’s once starry reputation from the folds of history. The three sonatas which open this second volume are dedicated ‘a Mr L. van Beethoven’.

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Erwin Schulhoff Flammen (Flames)

Arnold Schoenberg Chor, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Raymond Very, Iris Vermillion, Stephanie Friede, Bertrand de Billy

C5382 £15.00 2 CD 02/04/21 CAPRICCIO

In the 1920s and 30s, Czechoslovakia was flourishing culturally and boasted a multi-faceted musical scene. In considering the works of composers such as Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann and Erwin Schulhoff, we can see how they develop along similar stylistic lines, as measured against the established ‘Prague School’, which was a counter-movement to the ‘Viennese School’. Schulhoff’s early works feature a Reger-influenced late Romantic approach that later developed, through an emphasis on rhythm, towards expressionism and neo-classicism, while also including elements of jazz. The starting point for Flammen is the Don Juan story, but the aim of Beneš and Schulhoff’s work is not to present the colourful seducer, but the fate of a man driven by his desires and needs who cannot even remotely find happiness and peace in constancy. In his opera, Schulhoff brilliantly manages to reconcile this different dramaturgical approach with a kind of distanced homage to Mozart’s work.

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Pancho Vladigerov Orchestral Works Vol. 2

Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Vladigerov

C8053 £9.00 2 CD 02/04/21 CAPRICCIO

In Bulgaria, both folk and art music reveal an ancient tradition that strikes awe even in some of today’s great musical nations. The way Pancho Vladigerov incorporated these folk music themes into his concert pieces shows not only his affinity for them, but also suggests that he felt something of a calling to promulgate and champion the folk traditions of his central European homeland. The most frequently performed of Pancho Vladigerov’s works is undoubtedly his Bulgarian Rhapsody, Op. 16 ‘Vardar’, written in 1922. The most outstanding must be his Seven Symphonic Bulgarian Dances, Op. 23 (1931), with which he might have wanted to create a counterpart to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, Grieg’s Norwegian Dances and other popular, nationalistic musical postcards.

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Eugen Werner Velte, Wolfgang Rihm 50 Years of the University of Music Karlsruhe

Reinhold Friedrich, Frank Dupree, Benedict Kloeckner, Sontraud Speidel, Martin Ostertag, Laurent Breuninger, Julius Kircher, Clara-Schumann-Quartett, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Roland Kluttig

C7367 £18.00 3 CD 02/04/21 CAPRICCIO

The essence of a school of music is represented here both by the composers and educators Eugen Werner Velte and Wolfgang Rihm and the institution’s alumni. The principal function of the University of Music Karlsruhe is as a centre for studies; secondly, a place for individual composition and pedagogy. The Karlsruhe School in no way represents a forced stylistic expression. For 50 years, the University of Music Karlsruhe has radiated a far-reaching artistic liberty. Ideals of musical freedom and openness continue to resound In the music of Wolfgang Rihm’s students. Jörg Widmann, Rebecca Saunders and Markus Hechtle, among others, contribute to the further development of the unique Karlsruhe School from their professional bases.

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Pérez Prado Prado… Vive!

Raul Guttierez and his Cuban Big Band

CLL006 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 CUGATE CLASICOS LATINOS

On this album, saxophonist and bandleader Raul Guttierrez (IRAZU, AFRO CUBAN ALL STARS ORCHESTRA) - who has a strong interest in a variety of Cuban styles - pays homage to the king of mambo, Pérez Prado, backed by a line-up of highly skilled musicians namely his Cuban Big Band. They recreate some of the immortal masterpieces, presented here in the versions by the arrangers Tolly Ramirez and Horacio González (director of the orchestra of the famous night club Tropicana in Havana). This is a recording that should be listened and danced to experience the full musical virtuosity and richness in details and nuances.

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Steingrimur Rohloff Medea and Lysistrata

Tuva Semmingsen, Peter Laugesen, Esbjerg Ensemble, Henrik Vagn Christensen

8.226129 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 DACAPO

The classical figures of Medea and Lysistrata have captivated creative artists for centuries. The latest of them is Steingrímur Rohloff, an Icelandic-German composer who found his sensual, crystal-clear musical voice while studying with Gerard Griséy in Paris. The specially configured music recorded here benefits from Tuva Semmingsen’s ravishing voice and Rohloff’s decade of collaboration with Esbjerg Ensemble – to beautiful, resonant and dramatic effect.

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Lars Hegaard Octagonal Room, Solo and Chamber Works for Guitar Jesper Sivebæk, Signe Asmussen, Cæcilie Balling, Michal Haring, Ana Angelovska, Eduardo Sanchez, Hsiao-Tung Yuan, Filip Strauch, Max Artved, Morten Zeuthen, Tim Frederiksen, Alba String Quartet

8.226594 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 DACAPO

The prize-winning Lars Hegaard (b. 1950) has, over more than 40 years, been an important voice in Danish musical life. Centred on the composer’s own instrument, the guitar, we present six of his most important works for small groups. With their refined modernist expressivity, they offer a fascinating picture of the guitar’s possibilities as a solo instrument, as accompanist and as the first amongst equals in chamber music.

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J.P.E. Hartmann Piano Works

Thomas Trondhjem

DACOCD877 £8.40 1 CD 09/04/21 DANACORD

Danish composer J.P.E. Hartmann was the leading romantic Danish composer who influenced generations of Danish composers, not least Niels W. Gade and the son Emil Hartmann. He was a prolific composer and composed in all genres. His extensive music for piano is sadly too little known outside Denmark, but with its romantic tone, melodic charme and harmonies known from Schumann and Mendelssohn it will come as a pleasant surprise to all lovers of romantic music for piano. Danish pianist Thomas Trondhjem is here presenting the second CD of a complete recording of all the works for solo piano by J.P.E. Hartmann. The first volume received very positive comments from many critics.

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Marius Constant Orchestral Works

Riverside Symphony, Olivier Charlier, George Rothman

DDA25216£7.95 1 CD 09/04/21 DIVINE ART

Marius Constant (1925-2004) was born in Romania and began formal music education at the Royal Bucharest Conservatory at the age of 11, also being enrolled in the Lycée Français: he later moved to France where he developed his remarkable career. Best known in musical circles for his ballets, and by the general public for the Twilight Zone theme, he is truly one of the 20th century’s most gifted and inspired composers, and one of the most cruelly neglected. His orchestral works here are inspired by nature and art and encompass beauty and emotional power in a unique contemporary style. The Riverside Symphony was founded in 1981 and comprises many of the best of New York’s finest musicians. Acclaimed for its devoted championing of unfamiliar and new works, its annual concert series at Lincoln Center have brought much praise for their innovative programming. Olivier Charlier, soloist in 103 Regards dans l’eau, has been recognised internationally for his superlative playing; he has played with over 50 French orchestras as well as orchestras from around the world. This album was originally released by Riverside in 2014 but in the USA only. It includes a video with archival clips of the composer and discussions with the orchestra directors (formatted for computer playback).

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Brian Ferneyhough Complete Piano Music, 1965-2018

Ian Pace, Ben Smith

MSV28615 £7.95 2 CD 09/04/21 DIVINE ART METIER

Brian Ferneyhough is well established as one of the leading figures in the avant-garde ‘new complexity’ school. His works, fiercely complex and requiring virtuoso performers, are nevertheless among the most successful in the Métier new music catalog. This album contains all of Ferneyhough’s music for piano from 1965 to 2018 including the Two-Piano Sonata where Ian Pace is joined by Ben Smith. Ian Pace is renowned as a leading interpreter of new piano music and is a virtuoso of the highest order. Also a music philosopher, author and academic researcher, and head of department at City University London, his extremely impressive intellect informs his performances. This album includes a comprehensive and detailed essay on his approach to the music of Ferneyhough of interest to all musicologists. He has given world premieres of over 300 works and recorded 34 albums to date. Ben Smith is a London-based performer and composer specialising in contemporary music. Ben graduated from City, University of London in 2015, and is currently a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks. He recently appeared on the new Métier recording of Alastair White’s opera ROBE (MSV 28609).

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Alessandro Stradella La Circe (1st and 2nd versions)

Alessandro Stradella Consort, Estévan Velardi

CDS7910 £15.00 2 CD 16/04/21 DYNAMIC

Alessandro Stradella was a highly influential composer in his day, producing an abundance of masterpieces despite his dissolute and dramatically brief life. Written for the lavish celebrations marking Leopoldo de’ Medici being made a cardinal, La Circe is set near a fountain on the leafy slopes of Parnassus. It evokes the spirit of the sorceress Circe who, while searching for the grave of her son, is dazzled by a bright light – the presence of a Medici. Complete with echo effects and deliciously lyrical and expressive music, La Circe is both a fascinating enigma and a perfect example of aristocratic tastes in Baroque Rome. This double-CD set contains the unabridged version of La Circe I and the world première recording of La Circe II, and the booklet provides detailed notes. Played on period instruments.

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Senza Basso - Auf dem Weg zu Bach; Werke von Baltzar, Matteis, Westhoff, Torelli, Corelli, Vilsmayr, Pisendel, Purcell und Biber

Nadja Zwiener

GEN21728 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 GENUIN CLASSICS

Johann Sebastian Bach is commonly understood as the starting point of the violin repertoire. But there was unaccompanied violin music before him, too — and it is truly exciting! The renowned baroque violinist Nadja Zwiener presents this music with her solo debut album on GENUIN. Her inspired recording shows that Bach was able to build his repertoire on a great foundation: Composers such as Johann Georg Pisendel, Johann Westhoff, and even Arcangelo Corelli and Giuseppe Tartini wrote highly challenging works for the incredibly versatile instrument. The concertmistress of the English Concert and the Gaechinger Cantorey takes us on a fascinating journey.

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Claude Debussy, Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky, Max Reger, Camille Saint-Saëns

Fin de Siècle; Works by C. Debussy, A. Berg, M. Reger, I. Stravinsky and C. Saint-Saëns

Bettina Aust, Robert Aust


What doesn’t resonate with the expression ‘Fin de Siècle’! It encompasses the rich cultural diversity of the period around 1900, the breadth of which still amazes us today. It is best approached in individual works, for example, in the music from different European spheres, which Duo Aust presents in its new GENUIN CD. Bettina Aust, clarinet, and Robert Aust, piano, have won international awards and have been sponsored by Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now and the German Academic Exchange Service. They have complied musical works ranging from the throwback approach of Camille Saint-Saëns to the virtuosic and visionary sounds of Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.

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Johannes Brahms, Dimitri Shostakovich, Ernst Krenek, Miha Ferk Brahms – Shostakovich – Krenek: for Violin, Alto Saxophone and Piano

Trio Klavis, Jenny Lippl, Miha Ferk, Sabina Hasanova


The Trio Klavis (Jenny Lippl, violin / Miha Ferk, alto saxophone / Sabina Hasanova, piano) presents three distinctive arrangements on its new GENUIN CD. In their arrangements for piano trio with alto saxophone, the award-winning musicians achieve an astonishing tonal unity in the works of Johannes Brahms (originally with horn), Dmitri Shostakovich (originally with cello), and Ernst Krenek (originally with clarinet). Keyboard, wind, and string instruments join forces to create a true unity, dedicating themselves with tremendous verve to the tonal languages from Romanticism to Modernism in the extremely diverse masterpieces.

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Christian Ridil Chamber Music NoPhilBrass, Martin Angerer, Herbert Zimmermann, Carsten Duffin, Uwe Schrodi, Stefan Tischler, Ivanna Ternay, Felix Kolb, Oliver Klenk, Rainer Seidel, Andreas Frese, Monja Heuler, Alfred Böhm, Hannes Läubin, Hansjörg Profanter, Michael Friedrich, Alexander Weiskopf


World premiere recordings are brought together on this new GENUIN CD featuring works by the composer Christian Ridil: Renowned musicians from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others, play in formations ranging from brass quintet to flute and percussion to the exquisite combination of (chromatic) harmonica and harpsichord. The works of the Goethe University Frankfurt’s former university music director are characterized by stylistic diversity, wit, charm, and virtuosity and yet bear Ridil’s clear signature.

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Rudi Berger featuring Toninho Horta Rudi Berger, Toninho Horta

99240 £9.00 1 CD 16/04/21 GRAMOLA

The combination of violin and guitar as well as classical playing styles and jazz has been on everyone’s lips since the inimitable duo Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhard. An equally deep musical friendship exists between the Viennese violinist Rudi Berger and the Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, whose new album Belo Horizonte received the Latin Grammy Award for ‘Best Brazilian Album of the Year’ in 2020. Their first collaborations started in 1988 in the United States, since then the two extraordinary musicians have played over 500 joint appearances to date. This album by the title ‘Rudi Berger featuring Toninho Horta’ presents a cross-section of these years of musical life together, with recordings from Austria, New York City and Rio de Janeiro, from duo to 9-member formation. The compositions by Berger and Horta always transcend genre boundaries and incorporate influences from bossa nova, jazz, but also classical and folk music.

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Selim Palmgren Complete Piano Works Vol. 1

Jouni Somero

GP867 £9.00 1 CD 09/04/21 GRAND PIANO

Selim Palmgren, a native of Finland and a student of Busoni, was one of the most prominent and prolific Nordic composer-pianists since Edvard Grieg, with works that were widely performed by some of the most notable concert pianists of his day. From early pieces influenced by Chopin via the tour de force of his only surviving Piano Sonata, to the darker Autumn Prologue – this is the first volume of a complete edition that includes première recordings of unpublished works, showcasing every side of Palmgren’s varied character.

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Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy The Piano Sonatas - Rediscovered

Nicolas Horvath

GP872-73 £13.87 2 CD 09/04/21 GRAND PIANO

The thirteen sonatas on this première recording represent the complete music for solo piano by the Parisian keyboardist and composer ANNE-LOUISE BRILLON DE JOUY, a musician much celebrated in her day and greatly admired by Boccherini. Introducing technical innovations more usually associated with Czerny and Liszt, these sonatas reflect a gloriously rich musical environment, incorporating and transforming elements from music of the time with great imagination and wit, and showing us that Madame Brillon’s glittering salon, though private, was by no means isolated.

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Manuel Narro, Mariana Martinez, José Palomino Spanish Piano Concertos

Melani Mestre, Natalia Borysiuk, Orquestra Filarmonía Ibérica, Melani Mestre

HC20016 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 HANSSLER CLASSIC

Unknown’ would be the best adjective at the present time to define the musical Iandscape embracing the concertos for piano (harpsichord) and orchestra from Spain throughout almost the whole of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, as Spanish Classicism was emerging. It is the case that the survival of the Concertos which we present here for the first time, in a thorough revision and reconstruction, was most likely due to the specific location of each one of them: that by Manuel Narro, in a manuscript held in the monastery library at the Colegiata de Roncesvalles; that by Mariana Martinez, also known as Marienne von Martinez, in the musical archive of the Vienna Musikverein; and finally the concertos of Jose Palomino, in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal in Lisbon. We have opted for performance on the piano in all three cases, given the early arrival of the first Cristofori piano-forte on the lberian peninsula with the Iegendary castrato FarinelIi at the court of Fernando VI. Successfully combining the role of both pianist and conductor, Melani Mestre’s collaborations are a catalogue of over 80 of the world leading orchestras. Melani directly inherited the cherished Catalan Piano Tradition of Enrique Granados, while commanding a vast repertoire of more than 100 concertos for piano and orchestra by Spanish composers.

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Igor Stravinsky, Edvard Grieg, Danish String Quartet, Vlastimir Pavlović, Tomasz Skweres, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Chick Corea, Darius Milhaud

East West

Michal Knot, Bogdan Laketic


Duo Aliada is known for their creative approach to adapting classical repertoire for their own instruments. Polish saxophonist Michat Knot and Serbian accordionist Bogdan Laketic formed the duo in 2013 in Vienna, a city whose rich musical tradition reflects its history as a crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe. The following years brought Michat and Bogdan to performances around the world, and into contact with various cultures and musical traditions. This wide range of experiences, beginning all the way back with their childhoods in Eastern Europe, is a major source of inspiration for their music making and for this album. East West explores musical l andscapes from the European and American parts of the globe, resulting in a kind of travel journal that begins in Eastern Europe and then travels westward. At the center of the album is Coffin Ship, a new composition dedicated to all of the migrants who paid the ultimate price in search of a better life.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frédéric Chopin, Leoš Janáček, Joseph Haydn

Ivan Moravec Edition

Ivan Moravec, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner


Long recognized as one of this century’s great pianists, Ivan Moravec was born in Prague in 1930. He I ater studied piano at the Prague Conservatory and the Prague Academy, performing during his student years in Pol and and Hungary. In 1957, pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli heard Mr. Moravec perform in Prague and invited him to Italy for further study. In 1959 he made his London debut. Ivan Moravec made his American debut in January 1964 with the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell at Severance Hal I; the following month, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall during Cleveland’s annual week of appearances there. Since then, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras. As one of the world’s most acclaimed recitalists, Mr. Moravec has appeared in recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and on the major recital series in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland and Philadelp hia. In Europe, Mr. Moravec was welcomed regularely as recitalist and concerto s oloist in the major music capitals, including London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Rome, Milan, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

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La Muse Oubliée - Piano pieces by women composers

Antonio Oyarzabal

IBS52021 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 IBS CLASSICAL

Pianist Antonio Oyarzabal takes us on a journey through the work of thirteen different female composers, most of them pianists. Their pieces have been a real source of motivation and inspiration for him. Here he pays tribute to the names and work of these women, unfairly and sadly neglected, in the shadow of compositions written by men. It is a musical journey that takes us on different paths: from Jacquet de la Guerre’s French Baroque style to the avant garde proposals of Ruth Crawford Seeger in the beginning of the XXth century; from Lili Boulanger’s languor to Germaine Tailleferre’s constant joviality; or from the more popular Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn to the almost completely unknown Mana Zucca or Lēcija Garēta. All of this is expressed by the extraordinary sensitivity of a performer who, through long and intense research, has dived deep into the life and historical context of these thirteen unique artistic voices, in order to provide them with the relevance they deserve.

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Piet Swerts, Jean-Denis Michat, Cyrille Lehn, Vincent David, Joan A. Amargós

Hommage

Mariano García, Aniana Jaime


This album emerged from the idea of focusing attention on a new saxophone and piano repertoire, which, although fully contemporary and modern, has an inspiration and aesthetic side based on chamber music tradition. Aspects such as the pure sonority, the liking for colour and details, the interaction of these instruments and communication through a linear language sustained by melody and rhythm, make of these works ‘new classics’ of the repertoire. This project includes mostly first world recordings, and therefore leads to the opening of a performing path that will surely be long and varied, and may offer many and diverse approaches in the future. After all, a recording is just a photograph of an instant. The attempt to capture the volatile essence of a physically ephemeral but spiritually everlasting art. Music, like the one included in this album, like life, diverse and variable. Thus this work which is flexible, eclectic... alive.

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Alberto Ginastera, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Moisés Moleiro, Evencio Castellanos, Heráclio Fernández

Impressôes

Javier Raméix


Sonorous festival full of colors, smells and rhythms that describe that intense America, which is full of paradoxes, that one day awoke to its own magic and that of the twentieth century. Heitor Villa-Lobos, responsible for Brazil’s national awakening, was a music humanist. Ginastera always sought reconciliation between the melodic and rhythmic elements of Argentine folklore and the most advanced techniques that came from Europe. Ginastera left us a beautiful legacy for piano that covered all his artistic life, from the three Danzas argentinas Op. 2, from 1937 to the Sonata No. 3 Op. 55, written a year before his death. The burrowing Joropo (M.Moleiro) with festive air is the national dance of Venezuela and is often heard at its popular and religious festivals. Mañanita caraqueña (E.Castellanos) is evocative and perfect music: the nostalgia of Caracas when waking up and the bells of the cathedral.

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Ignaz von Biber, Igor Loboda, Johan Sebastian Bach, Eugène Ysaӱe

Trascendo

Jonathan Mesonero


Trascendo is a thrilling journey through that unknown dimension that blurs the contours of pain and then, guided by a wonderful repertoire for violin solo, heaven and earth come closer. The violinist composers who wrote the four intense, vibrant masterpieces of Trascendo give us their immense talent to show that beyond life there is music. Jonathan Mesonero gives us much more than a virtuous and masterful performance. Few musicians have the gift not to read, but to breathe the score, physically and mentally. He breathes the notes as if they were oxygen that sometimes enters lightly while some other times it is so pure it even hurts. He processes the bars in his bloodstream by sending them to each nerve ending until he becomes one with his violin to transform those notes into sounds full of magic. Listening to him means feeling. Is it not feeling, feeling intensely, what we all look for in music? In a time driven by flat images of perfect unreality, Trascendo is a tribute to our imperfect humanity, to our condition as mere mortals who sometimes are able to sublimate feelings until they become a pulse of the soul that is able to break through the barriers of this world.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, William Bolcom

Essenz

Anton & Maite Piano Duo: Anton Dolgov & Maite Leon


Anyone who enters the world of the piano four hands knows that Mozart and Schubert are the names to be reckoned with. These two Austrian geniuses are responsible for the consolidation of this unique musical genre. Mozart was the first to identify the great potential of the format, composing his first four-hand piano sonata when he was nine years old. Franz Schubert was possibly the composer who most identified with the format, writing more than 60 works for this formation. Schubert found an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the piano four hands, which is possibly his most intimate and personal facet. His passion for this genre intensified at the end of his life. Like Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn had a very talented pianist sister, who stayed by his side all his life. However, his production for piano four hands is scarce. Even so, the quantity does not detract from the great quality of these works, which are proof of the surprising level of virtuosity that can be achieved as a duo. Since the middle of the 19th century, the four-hand piano has taken many paths, transcription being one of them. With William Bolcom’s work we leave a window open to the future, exploring other ways of making music within this exciting formation.

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Eneko Vadillo Anima

Zahir Ensemble, Juan García Rodríguez


In the socio-economic and ideological shadow of the political revolt of May ‘68, a group of composers mainly trained at the Paris National Conservatory of Music made an irreversible turn in the understanding of sound and composition as early as the beginning of the seventies. With the support of two research, training, experimentation and interpretation organs, as relevant in the Central European academic music scene as could be the Ensemble L’Itinéraire and the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris, this group of creators materialized and responded to an aesthetic and technical concern for the internal sound behaviour, which we could find in other composers, such as Iannis Xenakis or Giacinto Scelsi. Once this first spectral wave has been collected and generated from a nucleus as deep-rooted and strengthened as the Parisian, the aesthetics, techniques and applications are diversified.

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Johann Sebastian Bach Cello Suites

Asier Polo


J. S. Bach’s Cello Suites are somehow hypnotic. An austere work, an instrument, a performer, a single voice and yet we begin to listen to them and are introduced into a path which inevitably leads us inwards, and makes us aware of our absolute solitude facing the universe and the unknown. When we approach a work of such dimensions, turn out to be hopelessly small, aware of the responsibility implied by being alone before a musical monument of almost unrivalled characteristics. The work places you in front of the mirror, with no frills to hide your true vulnerability as an artist. I had to be honest and consistent with my journey. I knew I could not offer something definitive, but I had to capture the photograph of a moment, an instant of my journey as a musician in the continuous search for something that, due to its greatness, is infinite. The greatness of this music is manifested through a message of profound humanism, which opens our minds to the beautiful, the intangible, and the elevated. Bach’s suites are introspective, true, but when they end, one is certain of having heard a personal and intimate message, full of emotion, intelligence, harmony and respect for Life.

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Gustav Mahler Mahler 5

Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, José María Moreno Valiente


The recording of such a complex and ambitious work as Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony by the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra (OFM in Spanish) is a demonstration of the determination and enthusiasm with which the group is facing his 30th anniversary. Highly artistic work, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is of great extension and expressive intensity; it is full of deep symbolism and evident spirituality. It is a musical and intellectual monument testing the quality of an orchestra and its conductor. It is a challenge that, in a market full of references to the Austrian composer’s masterpiece, the OFM faces with all the potential the work demands. In his first four symphonies, Mahler tried to identify with four ideas: the first, the power of will against destiny; the second, hope in the resurrection; in the third a certain ‘Nietzschean’ pantheism, and the fourth is a musical manifesto about innocence. There is in all of them that kind of youthful lyricism which its first songs have, a style that is nipped in the bud in his Fifth Symphony, completed in 1902 and premiered in Cologne by the Gürzenich Orchestra on 18 October 1904 under the direction of the author. The language he uses in his Fifth Symphony seems to be anticipating the future, in a kind of progressive tonality tending towards a certain harmonic instability and reinforcing the words of the composer himself...

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Claude Debussy Piano Works Vol. 2 (Préludes, Livres I et II)

Dennis Lee

ICSM 015 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 ICSM RECORDS

This is the Malaysian pianist Dennis Lee’s eagerly awaited second instalment of Debussy’s complete piano music: the Préludes, Books I and II. With his Préludes, Debussy had accomplished the subtlest of music revolutions. Piano music after the Préludes would never be the same again. They are almost unparalleled in their evocative potency: any child with a vivid imagination will be able to create a story by listening to them, yet their titles appear (in brackets) at the end of each prelude, an unusual practice to encourage a more personal response from the interpreter. Dennis Lee embarks on these landmarks of piano music with intensity and passion. Many musicians before him have recorded the Préludes; Dennis’s version captivates the listener with his restrained but apposite gestures, multi-layered sound finesse and rhythmic exactness. In this pianist’s hands the Préludes blossom like exquisite flowers and cannot but touch the soul. Unforgettable.

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Flor Peeters, César Franck Ave Maris Stella: Gerard Gillen plays the music of Flor Peeters & César Franck (The Organ of St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral Dublin)

Gerard Gillen LCSCD001 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 LCS HI-RES

Gerard Gillen Plays organ works by Flor Peeters and César Franck on the Great Organ of Dublin’s St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. Fabulous playing by an acknowledged Master and one time favoured student of Flor Peeters. Dublin’s Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin under the title of St Mary, was opened in 1825 and is built in classical Greek style in a copy of the Parisian Basilica of St Philippe de Roule. It is a church, though small for its cathedral function, with a warm and generous acoustic, particularly suited to organ sound and its projection. The present organ’s origins date from the 1880s when a contract was entrusted to the Dublin but French-trained organ builder, John White. The present façade of the organ dated from William Hill’s rebuild of the instrument c. 1900. Subsequent work was carried out by Henry Willis & Co in the 1930s before J.W. Walker’s major rebuilds of 1971 and 1995 when some additional stops were added. This latter work was carried out in the context of an overall redecoration of the Pro-Cathedral. Over the years the Pro-Cathedral organ has become regarded as one of the finest examples in Ireland of the late nineteenth-century grand Romantic organ, and has since its original installation featured prominently in the many national liturgical occasions, which have graced the cathedral church.

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D’Arcy Trinkwon: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Mighty Schulze Organ in Doncaster Minster

D’Arcy Trinkwon

LCSCD008 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 LCS HI-RES

Organists and lovers of music visit Doncaster Minster for the majestic sound of its historic organ, acknowledged to be Edmund Schulze’s great masterpiece and, to this day, the largest organ ever to have been built in this country by a foreign maker. This huge, five manual instrument inspires all who hear it but it challenges, too. It demands organists of the most exceptional technical mastery and imagination to realise its full potential and to do proper justice to its unique range and expressiveness. D’Arcy Trinkwon is such an organist. Internationally acclaimed for his virtuoso organ playing, he has taken up the challenge and here gives an astonishing performance, fully worthy of this great Minster church and the unique organ that is harboured within it’s hallowed walls.

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Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations arranged for violin, guitar and cello by David Juritz

NMP1074 £12.15 1 BOOK 02/04/21 NIMBUS MUSIC PUBLISHING

The dilemma facing any arranger of Bach is to stay true to the character of his music knowing, all the while, that he would have been infinitely more imaginative and far bolder than they’d dare to be. I have attempted to remain in a sound-world that Bach would have found familiar but there are some instances where I have deliberately chosen to do the wrong thing. A particularly egregious example is at the beginning of the first variation where I have divided Bach’s seven-note bass figure between guitar and cello, thereby vandalising the beautiful pattern of a 41-note right-hand figure spread over four bars of seven notes each in the bass. Using only two players at that point would have been more correct but I felt that it was important to have the complete trio involved as they embark on one of the great musical journeys. I am sure there will be other errors that I don’t even know I have made but I hope that these won’t detract from the enjoyment of performers or listeners... David Juritz

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Sunleif Rasmussen Territorial Songs, Works for Recorder

Michala Petri

6.220674 £9.00 1 HYBRID SACD 02/04/21 OUR RECORDINGS

Beginning with his expansive concerto for recorders and large orchestra, Territorial Songs (2008-09), Rasmussen sought to expand the instrument’s persona and possibilities, freeing it from its historic associations with the music of the Renaissance and Baroque, pushing it into new territories. In this mission, the composer has been exceptionally fortunate to have as muse and musical partner one of the greatest recorder players ever, Michala Petri. The current project represents an overview of works composed from 2009 to 2020. All are scores featuring the recorder: as concerto soloist with a symphony orchestra, (Territorial Songs), a string ensemble (Winter Echoes), an obbligato in a complex choral setting (‘I’ ), chamber music (Flow), and unaccompanied (Sorrow and Joy Fantasy), each work a milestone in Rasmussen’s musical development . As always, Michala Petri brings each score to life with consummate artistry and is perfectly matched by each of the ensembles performing with her. The entire package is recorded and mastered in the DXD (DigitaleXtreme Definition) state-of-the-art sound and will be made available in standard HD resolutions and SACD.

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Christos Samaras Aphorisms - Chamber Music 1

Various

PHASMA-MUSIC 027 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 PHASMA MUSIC

The extraordinary album APHORISMS is the second album in a series dedicated to one of Greece’s leading composers, Christos Samaras. This album includes seven works. The String quartet Aphorismus is an experimental proposal of absolute musical economy, as all musical elements are given in the most abstract way. Hence, everything assumes an aphoristic character creating a mosaic of many different sound cells with poles of emotional tensions.

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Hélène Boschi: Portrait Hélène Boschi, Irène Joachim, Christiane Castelli, Basia Retchitzka, Xavier Depraz, André Vessières, Nadine Desouches, Serge Nigg, Peter Rybar, Miloł Sádlo, Kammerorchester Berlin, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tschechische Philharmonie, Karel łejna, Alols Klima, Helmuth Koch

PH20075 £25.00 10 CD 09/04/21 PROFIL

The Francophone Swiss pianist Hélène Boschi was born in Lausanne on August 11, 1917. She studied at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Yvonne Lefébure, and with Alfred Cortot. Throughout her life, Boschi pursued a twin career as teacher and as performer. She taught from 1960 to 1965 at Paris’s École Normale de Musique, where she had studied, then went to the Strasbourg Conservatoire, where she directed advanced music classes from 1965 to 1985. She was the first pianist to record the complete piano and chamber works of Clara Schumann. Hélène Boschi’s repertoire was broad-based, ranging from the Baroque (François Couperin, Jean Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach) to contemporary music. One notable fact about Boschi is that she was the first female pianist to record the works of Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783), receiving the 1952 Grand Prix du Disque in honour of her achievement. As for the nineteenth century, her passionate readings of Schumann are of the utmost importance. Hélène Boschi was more than a solo recitalist. She played chamber music with notable artists and was an accompanist at the piano. Hélène Boschi died in Strasbourg on July 9, 1990. This 10-CD compilation presents Hélène Boschi as an acclaimed solo pianist, as a chamber musician and as a concert artist and keyboard accompanist.

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Home - SE-QuartetPCD255 £9.00 1 CD 16/04/21 PROPHONE

One of the most frequently streamed jazz-bands of Sweden, the SE- Quartet, now releases their fourth album named ‘Home’. With their music the SE-Quartet touches the hearts of music lovers all over the world -both habitual and new jazz listeners. Their third album from 2017, ‘Going North’, has been played more than six million times via Spotify. Music critics as well as radio stations and listeners from different corners of the globe have responded with praise. So there is great anticipation of ‘Home’, our new, fourth album. Here the SE-Quartet digs even deeper into the rhythmic layers of music in a search for different times and groups. A unique lyrical tone and balanced teamwork mark the compositions with its thorough use of themes and impromptu play, soft yet clear. The span of musical expressions is wide, refusing the leave the listener bewildered along the way. The theme ‘Home’ means that the group has created the basis for the compositions in their own places with everyday life as a source of inspiration. Working from home is recognized by many, not least during the pandemic that has affected us all, so also for the SE-Quartet. But each composition has been played and arranged by the group to a new joint version and after many years of playing and performing, the band has also become a second ‘home’.

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Johannes OckeghemMissa Prolationum

L’ultima parola

RK3902 £9.00 1 CD 16/04/21RAUMKLANG

The Missa Prolationum is one of the most ambitious and fascinating works in musical history, comparable, for example, with Bach’s Art of Fugue. It is performed only very seldom owing to its horrendous difficulty. Only few people know today that Johannes Ockeghem was as important for the whole of Renaissance music as were Leonardo and Michelangelo for their arts. The entire Mass is constructed entirely of canons. The listener is especially fascinated and challenged by the unprecedented and still unique part writing. Ensemble ‘L’ultima parola,’ which was founded expressly for this recording, delights with its balanced, absolutely congenial concept of the music and poetry, its tonal beauty and intonation.

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Johann Sebastian Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich, Astor Piazzolla, Alessandro Marcello

Bach Frequencies 60-90

Julius Berger, Andrei Pushkarev, Pavel Beliaev

SM362 £9.00 1 CD 09/04/21 SOLO MUSICA

All the works on this album are by Johann Sebastian Bach, or have a direct link to him. For example, he arranged the oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello for solo keyboard, and we use Bach’s ornaments in our performance of it. Piazzolla and Shostakovich make reference to The Well-Tempered Clavier. The main work presented here is Bach’s Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, which he transcribed for his own use as a harpsichord concerto. The original version no longer exists, but was for a string instrument: violin or violoncello piccolo, an instrument Bach used in his cantatas. Julius Berger and Andrei Pushkarev have made an arrangement of this piece for violoncello piccolo, a cello tuned a fifth higher. The orchestral part is played by vibraphone and marimba. The transfer to other instruments corresponds to the practice of Bach himself. A special feature of our recording is the continuous peaceful pulsation of about 60 beats per minute, a rhythm that calms and brings introspection The instrumentation used here reflects our deeper objective: vibraphone and marimba giving the heartbeat, to which the cello crafts a life-melody – keeping the spirit of the works performed but in a modern interpretation. The close relationship between rhythm in the music and human pulse creates an atmosphere in this recording that we believe and hope corresponds to what Bach noted in his Lutheran Bible: ‘Where there is devotional music, God with his grace is always present.’

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Giya Kancheli Simple Music

Jenny Lin, Guy Klucevsek

STNS 30173 £7.29 1 CD 02/04/21 STEINWAY & SONS

Simple Music for piano is a collection of inspired fragments from themes of classic Georgian plays and films for the stage and screen by Giya Kancheli (1935-2019). On this album the set is performed, improvised, arranged, even reimagined by the innovative pianist Jenny Lin and accordion virtuoso Guy Klucevsek as an engaging mixture of solos and duos.

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Daniele Venturi Lumen

Lisa Cella, Mark Menzies, Fabiana Ciampi

STR37170 £10.00 1 CD 16/04/21 STRADIVARIUS

The present recording compiles nine works for and with flutes of various sorts, six solos, one solo with optional live electronics and two duos (violin and harpsichord, respectively), and they showcase aspects of the composer’s thinking from 2006-15. Similarities and disparities are at play within these nine scores, but the overall tendency towards slowness and dynamics finely distinguished among the quieter ends of the spectrum prevails in each piece, as does a tempo that seldom if ever fluctuates. This basic, and by nature somewhat simplistic recapitulation works only as a means of placing the heritage to which Daniele Venturi clearly aligns himself, the flute as a timeless yet modern instrument, indeed a timelessly modern one, more a source of careful and thorough exploration than a harbinger of pastoral melody.

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Daniele Guaschino Trees Trunks Territories

Alfredo Mola, Fortunato D’Orio, François Merville, Quentin Biardeau, Rishab Prasanna, Sefoudi Kouyate, Szuhwa Wu


Daniele Guaschino was born in Italy in 1975 and lives in France since 1996. He studied ethnomusicology and composition, and he mainly works with musicians, directors and choreographers from the French art scene. His music follows a path where different languages and systems, as well as acoustic and electronic materials, structurally co-live, always looking for a fundamental principle and a uniform aesthetic.

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Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy Edvard Grieg: Lyryske Stikke; Claude Debussy: Six Preludes

Sviatoslav Richter


It is impossible to talk about Sviatoslav Richter and his mastery of the piano in normal terms of speech. Each time an arride on him comes out, it is liberally dotted with superlatives, reminiscent of an ecclesiastical way of speech fathered by the church and which now seems to be going out of fashion. Both critics and concert-goers associate Richter’s name with expressions of wonder and enthusiasm. It would therefore seem that Richter appeals to the soul of his listeners rather than to their intellect.

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Stefano Grondona plays Temas de Recuerdos Stefano Grondona


The Tres temas de recuerdos are inspired chapters of memory that Jaume Pahissa (1880-1969) composed for guitar in 1938 in Argentina, evoking nostalgia for his distant Catalan homeland that he was forced to leave in 1937 owing to the Spanish civil war. Besides their meditative beauty, these pieces also offer us the inspiration for the title of this CD, similarly prompted by ‘recollections’. This is expressed, in fact, through a programme that to a great extent embodies the special role played by ‘memory’, thanks to various pieces that engender emotional reference within the collective imaginary. Pieces that are deeply rooted in the conscience of those who love the guitar and its close association with its most representative historical figures. Alongside these pieces inspired by memory, their composers and their arrangers, and the symbolic reality that each of them reveals, I have added other works, perhaps less familiar to the public at large. These are instead linked - more or less openly - to my more personal references, associated with the passing of my own experience; so these too, on account of their individual peculiarity, are included as part of the Temas de recuerdos that I am proposing here, in the hope that they can also become such for the listener. - Stefano Grondona

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Ottorino Respighi Works for Flute and Orchestra

Roberto Fabbriciani, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, Nicola Paszkowski

TC 871805 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 TACTUS

This discographic work dedicated to the works for flute and orchestra by Ottorino Respighi - a leading exponent of the «Generation of the Eighties» and a very refined composer, gifted with an excellent skill in the use of instrumental timbres - includes the world premiere recording of two works for flute and strings that came back to light after a long oblivion (and now published by Roberto Fabbriciani for the editors Suvini Zerboni). Fabbriciani can also be considered the first interpreter ever, given that there is no evidence of performances in the period in which they were composed. The ‘Suite’ and the diptych ‘Melodia’ and ‘Valse caressante’ are in fact works dating back to the composer’s first prolific period, remaining until now manuscripts in custody of the Museum of Music in Bologna and the Fondazione Cini in Venice. The Serenade for small orchestra and the suite ‘Gli Uccelli’ complete the production, expanding the vision of Respighi’s compositions to the writing in his full maturity.

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Niccolò Paganini Works for violin and guitar

Roberto Noferini, Donato D’Antonio

TC 781607 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 TACTUS

From the brilliant and impetuous personality of one of the most emblematic musicians of history, Roberto Noferini [former performer of the world premiere recording of the 24 capricci on historical violin: Tactus tc.781690] on violin, and Donato D’Antonio on guitar, here present a chamber music program that highlights all the passion that bound Paganini to these two instruments. The composer’s skill in using the technical and expressive characteristics of the violin and guitar gives space for great virtuosities that reach the physical limits of the instrument and the performer, without ever betraying that operatic and theatrical feeling that will become increasingly dominant with the inexorable rise of melodrama and ‘belcanto’.

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Alessandro Borroni, Domenico Stella, Antonio Alemanno

Songs from the Sacred Convent of Assisi

Megumi Akanuma, Filippo Farinelli

TC 880002 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 TACTUS

The Cappella Musicale of the Basilica di San Francesco is several centuries old; its origin is very ancient and dates back to the first years of the thirteenth century, in direct connection with the particular stimulus given by St. Francis to singing the praise of God, an activity that was encouraged by a renovation of liturgical prayer, within the precepts of the Holy Roman Church. The main purpose of this disc is to present a retrospective view of the last two centuries of the Cappella Musicale of the Basilica Papale di San Francesco in Assisi, through the three musicians, friars of the Franciscan Order of the Convent Minorites, who are the best representatives of that period: for the nineteenth century, Father Alessandro Borroni; for the period straddling the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Father Domenico Stella; and for the most recent period, Father Antonio Alemanno. The reason for this proposal is above all the high artistic quality of the works presented, with respect to the fact they are very little known or have been almost completely forgotten. A further peculiarity of this production lies instead in the organic the three Assisi Chapel Masters [also see Tactus tc.810002, Abati nella musica] are writing for, that is the classical chamber music ensemble for voice and piano that finds its own peculiar space next to the large quantity of liturgical music production created by the composers as assigned by the ‘Basilica del Sacro Convento’.

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Enno Poppe Filz

Tabea Zimmermann, Ensemble Resonanz, Enno Poppe

WER 73992£9.00 1 CD 09/04/21 WERGO

This new WERGO album brings together first recordings in studio quality of works composed especially for Ensemble Resonanz. Composer Enno Poppe has always been drawn to string instruments because of the nearly infinite possibilities to vary their pitch, playing techniques, and sound qualities. Ensemble Resonanz, based in Hamburg, has received international acclaim for its precise intonation, its fresh interpretations of both contemporary and traditional works, and its inquisitive openness to unconventional musical formats. Poppe’s ‘Wald’ [Woods] for four string quartets (2009/10) has been a permanent feature of the ensemble’s touring repertoire for many years. With its fractal relationships between the four strings of four instruments in four string quartet groupings, ‘Wald’ gives us the impression of directly participating in the composer’s thought processes.

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Philippe Manoury Lab.Oratorium Rinnat Moriah, Tora Augestad, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Sebastian Rudolph, SWR Vokalensemble, Lab.Chor, IRCAM, Nicolas Stemann, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, François-Xavier Roth

WER 73962 £9.00 1 CD 09/04/21 WERGO

Philippe Manoury is one of the most prominent compositional voices in France today, and this WERGO recording of his ‘Lab.Oratorium’ presents one of Manoury’s most significant works. Not only is the piece a fascinating exploration of sound color with more than 250 performers, it was inspired by the innovative architecture of many new concert halls (such as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie with its evocation of ships and the sea). And perhaps most importantly, the work deals with themes that are urgently relevant in our troubled times. Working together with director Nicolas Stemann, Manoury composed the piece for Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra as a completely new kind of concert experience, a Gesamtkunstwerk combining theater, oratorio, live electronics, and spatial composition. ‘Lab.Oratorium’ was conceived as an independent work, but it also marks the high point and conclusion of a trilogy of monumental spatial works for orchestra including the prize-winning compositions ‘In Situ’ and ‘Ring’.

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Engelberg Experience (Organ of Kloster Engelberg) Markus Kühnis

WHR066 £9.00 1 CD 02/04/21 WILLOWHAYNE RECORDS

This release (the latest in Willowhayne Records’ Experience series, showcases the organ in the abbey at Engelberg, Switzerland. Built by Goll and restored by Graf, this instrument comprises 9000 pipes, spread over four manuals with 137 stops. Among Markus KÃ¼hnis’ teachers were Jean Langlais and Hans Vollenweider. This new album is a welcome departure from a traditional organ programme, being instead a collection of the artist’s own transcriptions, all of which are played with astonishing virtuosity and are guaranteed to make the listener smile. There is something here for everyone from Rossini’s William Tell Overture to Mexican dances.

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Andrés Linetzky My Choice: Andrés Linetzky’s Vale Tango

Andrés Linetzky, Vale Tango, Tangata Rea, The Linetzky Family

9102712 £9.00 1 CD 16/04/21 WINTER & WINTER

Andrés Linetzky is one of the most important musicians of the tango scene of the 21st century, who is kindling a new wave of tango and the renaissance of tango as dance music played live in milongas. With the group Tangata Rea, he marked the rebirth of tango dance music in the early 1990s. He later founded Vale Tango, with this formation he inspires audiences all over the world.

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Giacomo Puccini La bohèmeSonya Yoncheva, Charles Castronovo, Andrzej Filonczyk, Simona Mihai, Gyula Nagy, Peter Kellner, Jeremy White, Eddie Wade, Andrew Macnair, The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus, Richard Jones (Director), Dan Ettinger

OA1332D £17.01 1 DVD 23/04/21 OPUS ARTE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

Sonya Yoncheva and Charles Castronovo lead an award-winning cast in Richard Jones’s acclaimed production of Puccini’s most heartrending opera. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus in some of the composer’s most luscious and memorable music. Spectacular designs by Stewart Laing for this Royal Opera production set the passion, friendship, comedy and tragedy in late 19th-century Paris. The production evokes the vulnerability of youth amid the harshness and glamour of the big city, and contrasts the poverty of the bohemians’s attic home with the splendour of Paris’s shopping arcades on Christmas Eve.

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OABD7287D £20.41 1 BLU-RAY





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William Shakespeare The Two Noble Kinsmen Jos Vantyler (Schoolmaster), Jude Akuwudike (Theseus), Moyo Akandé (Hippolyta), Andy Cryer (Jailer), Sue Devaney (First Queen), Bryan Dick (Arcite), Matt Henry (Pirithous), Melissa James (Second Queen), Francesca Mills (Jailer’s Daughter), Kat Rose-Martin (Third Queen), Paul Stocker (Palamon), Ellora Torchia (Emilia), Barrie Rutter (Director), John Lanchbery

OA1325D £13.61 1 DVD 23/04/21 OPUS ARTE SHAKESPEARES GLOBE

This hand shall never more come near thee with such friendship.’ How long is forever? When the imprisoned Palamon and Arcite vow eternal friendship, they don’t expect that anything will come between them. But then from their cell window they see the beautiful Emilia, and their priorities take a sudden and violent turn. In this late romance, Fletcher and Shakespeare examine love in all its fluid and complex forms. Barrie Rutter, recipient of the 2003 Sam Wanamaker Award, directs his first play since stepping down as Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides. Inspired by the play’s Morris language and references, The Two Noble Kinsmen is set in pastoral ‘Merrie England’ and brought to life with original music composed by acclaimed folk musician Eliza Carthy, and dance choreographed by Ewan Wardrop.

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Ludwig van Beethoven The Last Three SonatasPiano Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, op. 110Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, op. 111 Sunwook Kim

ACC20527 £19.00 1 DVD 16/04/21 ACCENTUS MUSIC

Large industrial complexes, built of solid brick tell the story of industrialization of 19th century Leipzig. Where spinning wheels once rattled, chimneys smoked and thousands of workers carried out their daily work, new life has moved in over the past few years. Today, former factories are home to artists’ studios, galleries and manufactories. The term ‘industrial culture’ is taken literally here. The Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig is one of these buildings that tell the story of time and was now the chosen location for a very special audio and video production: the exceptional Korean pianist Sunwook Kim played Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas op. 109-111 in an industrial setting framed by light projections that filled the brick hall. Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas occupy a very special place within his oeuvre. Completely deaf by then, the composer puts three of his most intimate and personal works on paper, which at the same time radiate optimism and point musically into the future like hardly any other works. This recording is being released simultaneously on CD, DVD, & Blu-ray.

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ACC10527 £23.00 1 BLU-RAY





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Gustav Mahler Symphonies

Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Riccardo Chailly

ACC70504 £49.00 8 DVD 23/04/21 ACCENTUS MUSIC

The eight Mahler symphonies contained in this box were all recorded live as part of the Leipzig Mahler cycle that began with the acclaimed Mahler Festival in 2011. They once again confirmed the Gewandhausorchester’s reputation as a Mahler reference orchestra, which was consolidated in particular thanks to the intensive examination of Mahler’s work under the direction of former Gewandhaus Kapellmeister Riccardo Chailly, who emphasized the compositional qualities of the works, traced the origins of their interpretive history and avoided false pathos and sentimentality despite all the drama and urgency. This becomes clear especially in the more than two hours of documentation material which supplements these exceptional Mahler recordings. In addition to its musical excellence, the Leipzig Mahler cycle impresses with its graphic design. Each cover of the cycle is adorned with a work by the Leipzig painter Neo Rauch that was inspired by Mahler’s music and painted specifically for this cycle. Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Riccardo Chailly. Gustav Mahler: Symphonies 1, 2, 4-9 - with Christiane Oelze, Sarah Connolly, Erika Sunngårdh, Ricarda Merbeth, Lioba Braun, Gerhild Romberger, Stephen Gould, Dietrich Henschel, Georg ZeppenfeldMDR Rundfunkchor, Chor der Oper Leipzig, GewandhausChor, GewandhausKinderchor, Thomanerchor Leipzig, Berliner Rundfunkchor. Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 2011-2015. Directed by Ute Feudel, Michael Beyer, Henning Kasten. Produced by Paul Smaczny.

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ACC60504 £66.00 8 BLU-RAY




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Umberto Giordano Andrea Chénier

Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, Luca Salsi, Annalisa Stroppa, Mariana Pentcheva, Chorus of Teatro alla Scala, Teatro alla Scala, Mario Martone (staging), Riccardo Chailly

757308 £17.01 1 DVD 16/04/21 C MAJOR ENTERTAINMENT

Andrea Chénier, which premiered at La Scala in 1896, was last performed here 32 years ago by Riccardo Chailly. ‘By choosing to work with director Mario Martone, known for his films as well as his work in opera and theatre, Chailly has given overall coherence to his cinematic vision. This production is beautifully crafted and full of grim period detail. Riccardo Chailly conducted with vitality and drive’ (Financial Times) and in the main roles Yusif Eyvazov ‘proved to be technically very skilled’ and Anna Netrebko´s ‘beautifully timbred and perfectly tuned voice’ (theoperacritic.com) made ‘the acoustic experience of the Milanese Chénier high-class’. (BR Klassik)

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757404 £20.41 1 BLU-RAY





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Anton Bruckner The Symphonies, Nos. 1-9

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann

757504 £61.23 9 BLU-RAY 16/04/21 C MAJOR ENTERTAINMENT

This Blu-ray box contains the international acclaimed Bruckner cycle of Christian Thielemann, a ‘magician of the Bruckner sound’(Kurier on Symphony No. 5) and the Staatskapelle Dresden, whose own Bruckner tradition dates back more than a century. Outstanding reviews emphasize the exceptionally high artistic quality of the concerts: ‘Once again Thielemann proved to be the unrestricted ruler on his ancestral territory, German Romantic repertoire’ (Hamburger Abendblatt on Symphony No. 2). Christian Thielemann ‘displays the full musical maelstrom of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3’ (Münchner Merkur). ‘Another Bruckner triumph for Dresden’ (Sächsische Zeitung on Symphony No. 6). ‘… one would have to be hard-hearted not to be touched by this heartfelt music’ (Der Tagesspiegel on Symphony No. 8).

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Giuseppe Verdi Messa da Requiem

Eleonora Buratto, Anita Rachvelishvili, Giorgio Berrugi, Roberto Tagliavini, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, Roberto Abbado

37895 £17.01 1 DVD 16/04/21 DYNAMIC

Giuseppi Verdi’s Messa da Requiem arose out of the composer’s admiration for the influential poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, and as a response to the lack of appreciation shown to the writer in the press after his death in 1873. The extraordinary character of Verdi’s Requiem confronts us with unanswerable questions, from the stormy and terrifying Dies irae, to consolatory and touching lyrical oases in which Verdi communicates liturgical texts in the most profound and expressive ways possible. This Teatro Regio di Parma production, which took place open-air at the Parco Ducale of Parma, was dedicated to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the health workers engaged in the emergency. The mayor of Parma introduces the performance with a brief and touching speech and a minute’s silence. Conductor Roberto Abbado declared in an interview: ‘I think that Verdi felt the need to compose a sacred work to deal with some themes that, as he got older, he felt very strongly about. They are themes that every human being sooner or later asks themselves. Verdi is not afraid to show that he fears death, and therefore his approach is extremely humble and human, showing…some of the frailties we all have. How does the Messa da Requiem end? It ends, in my opinion, with a huge question mark. Basically, I believe, Verdi, like many of us, cannot answer these questions. I, myself, cannot answer them.’

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57895 £17.01 1 BLU-RAY




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Richard Wagner Das Rheingold Orchestra of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, Nikolay Petrov, Krastan Krastanov, Miroslav Andreev, Daniel Ostretsov, Biser Georgiev, Krasimir Dinev, Stefan Vladimirov, Petar Buchkov, Rumyana Petrova, Veselina Vasileva, Blagovesta Mekki-Tsvetkova, Irina Zhekova, Dorotea Doroteeva, Tsveta Sarambelieva, Teodora Hristova, Pavel Baleff

37897 £20.41 1 DVD 16/04/21 DYNAMIC

Wagner sourced material for his national legend Der Ring des Nibelungen in medieval German and Scandinavian sagas, though much was his own invention. Das Rheingold is the prologue to this tetralogy of music dramas. It introduces the principal events in this visionary work, the theft by the Nibelung dwarf Alberich of the ring made from Rhine gold, and its seizure by Wotan, ruler of the Gods. This production was recorded in 2010 at the Sofia Opera and Ballet theatre as the first title of the complete Ring cycle that we will be releasing entirely in separate titles within 2021. The theatre’s managing director Plamen Kartaloff succeeded in creating an amazing ‘Sofia Ring’ with local cast and crew, chiseling each detail with care: from singers’s vocal training to set design, lights and costumes, thus delivering a most modern and captivating rendition which was acclaimed by international press.

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57897 £20.41 1 BLU-RAY




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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni

Andrè Schuen, Ruben Drole, Christine Schäfer, Mauro Peter, Maite Beaumont, Mari Eriksmoen, Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

803908 £23.42 2 DVD 16/04/21 UNITEL EDITION

He was out to to create something ‘unheard-of’’, observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we ‘had never before heard like this’ (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, ‘master’ of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his ‘original-sound orchestra’ Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an ‘enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!’ (news.at). During an intensive phase of rehearsal and preparation, he was in search of a Mozart hermeneutic resting on historical sources and yet anchored in our own time, in order to stage the whole Da Ponte ‘trilogy’ – Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte – in a matter of a mere six weeks. ‘The culmination of Harnoncourt’s involvement with [Mozart’s Da Ponte operas] – A Mozart drawn from historical sources and yet anchored in our own time.’ (Die Presse) - ART II: Don Giovanni+ Documentary: Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Between Obsession and Perfection (Don Giovanni)

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804004 £20.41 1 BLU-RAY


dealer information service: no. 351 april 2021 highlights

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