Naxos Far East New Release Guide by naxos naxos

JUL-AUG 2012

NEW RELEASE GUIDE THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS:

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN

PR/DSD350058

Thierry PÉCOU Tremendum

Edvard GRIEG & Antonin DVOŘÁK

Nobuyuki TSUJII Live at Carnegie Hall

(DVD) 101581 / (Blu-ray) 108069

(DVD) 2059088 / (Blu-ray) 2059084

(DVD) 711508 / (Blu-ray) 711604

Leonard BERNSTEIN

BRAHMS & SCHUMANN

HMC905269

BIS-CD-1899

Italian Virtuosi of the Chitarrone

CDDCA728

TAH2011

8573031

Laureate Series

Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8

Naxos International (Far East) Limited 5B, Blue Box Factory Building, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong Tel: 2951 9557 Email: info@naxos.com.hk

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Ermanno WOLF-FERRARI (1876-1948) Idillio-concertino in A major, Op. 15 • Concertino in A flat major, Op. 34 • Suiteconcertino in F major, Op. 16 Andrea Tenaglia (oboe) William Moriconi (cor anglais) Giuseppe Ciabocchi (bassoon) Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma • Francesco La Vecchia

Although Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari is known mainly for his operatic compositions (La vedova scaltra is available on Naxos CD 8.660225-26 and DVD 2.110234-35), he wrote a number of sublimely expressive and lyrical orchestral works, devoting the majority of his time in later life to composing instrumental music. The three delightfully melodic, rhythmically buoyant and, at times elegiac works featured on this recording represent his complete wind concerto output. In 2002 Francesco La Vecchia was appointed Artistic Director and Resident Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Under his leadership the orchestra has rapidly achieved success in Europe and in highly successful tours to St Petersburg, Madrid, Belgrade, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, London, Athens, Berlin, Beijing and Shanghai. 8.572921

THE GUERRA MANUSCRIPT, Volume 2 17th Century Secular Spanish Vocal Music Juan Sancho (tenor) • Ars Atlántica

Named after an eminent scribe at the court in Madrid, the Guerra Manuscript contains over one hundred secular songs from the second half of the seventeenth century. The anthology is a valuable repository of music from anonymous sources but also from Spain’s very finest Baroque composers, such as Juan Hidalgo and José Marín. These expressive songs, largely on poetic and mythological themes, are performed by some of the world’s leading interpreters of the genre, whose first volume in this series [8.570135] received great acclaim. The tenor Juan Sancho has collaborated with conductors including William Christie, Gustav Leonhardt, Jordi Savall, Andrea Marcon, Fabio Biondi, Allan Curtis, Richard Egarr and Diego Fasolis. Founded and directed by the Galician harpist Manuel Vilas, the Ars Atlántica ensemble is focused on Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin American music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

8.572876

Wilhelm Friedemann BACH (1710-1784) Keyboard Works, Vol. 3 – Sonatas and Suite Julia Brown (harpsichord)

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was renowned as a brilliant improviser and keyboard performer. His keyboard sonatas, filled with quirky contrasts and a more adventurously chromatic and exploratory style than that of his contemporaries, attest to his individualism and virtuoso technical skill. His only Suite reworks and expands his father, J.S. Bach’s models, turning conventional dance movements into character pieces. W.F. Bach’s enthralling and unexpected twists and turns create an expressive and unique musical language, performed by the ‘wonderful’ Julia Brown. (Fanfare on 8.570530, W.F. Bach Keyboard Works Vol. 2) Julia Brown is currently Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Eugene, Oregon, while also maintaining a full schedule of teaching, performing and recording. She is also active as a harpsichordist, exploring performance practice and early music in chamber music settings.

8.572814

Music from THE ETON CHOIRBOOK TONUS PEREGRINUS Antony Pitts (director)

The Eton Choirbook is a giant 500 year-old manuscript from Eton College Chapel, and one of the greatest surviving glories of preReformation England. This recording features the earliest polyphonic Passion by a named composer, two heartrending motets for five and six voices, two thrilling settings of the Magnificat, and an extraordinary canon in 13 parts, Jesus autem transiens. The ensemble TONUS PEREGRINUS has been widely acclaimed, not least for its “richly sung and very well recorded” programme of Orlando Gibbons, L’Estrange, and Pitts. (The Penguin Guide on 8.557681) TONUS PEREGRINUS was founded by the composer Antony Pitts in 1990, and today is an established ensemble in Britain and abroad with a significant discography. At the core of TONUS PEREGRINUS are a dozen singers who combine their diverse expertise to interpret a repertoire ranging from the end of the Dark Ages to scores where the ink is still wet.

8.572840

Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868) L’occasione fa il ladro

Elizaveta Martirosyan (soprano) • Fanie Antonelou (mezzo-soprano) Gianpiero Ruggeri (baritone) • Mauro Utzeri (baritone) • Garðar Thór Cortes (tenor) • Joan Ribalta (tenor) Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra • Antonino Fogliani Composed by the young Gioachino Rossini in eleven days to comply with a contractual commitment, L’occasione fa il ladro (Opportunity Makes A Thief) is a comedy of multiple confusions. Count Alberto, travelling to be wed to a fiancée he has yet to meet, leaves an inn with the wrong suitcase. Don Parmenione audaciously adopts the Count’s identity, determined to take the bride for himself. This single-act burletta is a swift and deftly plotted moral drama, Rossini’s exuberant inspiration poured into interactions both tender and hilariously bewildering. Antonino Fogliani’s many conducting engagements have taken him to leading international opera houses and concert halls. For Rossini in Wildbad he has directed Ciro in Babilonia, L’occasione fa il ladro, Mosè in Egitto, La scala di seta, Il signor Bruschino and Otello, as well as Vaccaj’s La sposa di Messina. 8.660314-15 (2 CDs)

Kenneth FUCHS (1904-49) Atlantic Riband American Rhapsody Divinum Mysterium • Concerto Grosso • Discover the Wild Michael Ludwig (violin) Paul Silverthorne (viola) London Symphony Orchestra JoAnn Falletta World Première Recordings Kenneth Fuchs is one of America’s leading composers and his latest collaboration with award-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra – the first volume of which (8.559224) was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards – reveals the breadth of his achievement. Atlantic Riband evokes the struggle and ultimate victory of ocean-crossing immigrants to America in an orchestral showpiece of power and splendor. American Rhapsody is a lyrical romance for violin and orchestra, and Divinum Mysterium a single-movement viola concerto rich in expressive tapestry. Concerto Grosso shows Fuchs’s sheer energy, and Discover the Wild is an orchestral overture of lyricism and color. A champion of American music, JoAnn Falletta has presented nearly five hundred works by American composers including over one hundred world premières. Her Naxos recordings include the double Grammy Award winning disc of works by John Corigliano and Grammy nominated discs of works of Tyberg, Dohnányi, Fuchs, Schubert, and Respighi. 8.559723

JUL-AUG 2012

Xavier MONTSALVATGE (1912-2002) Piano Music, Vol. 3 – Music for Two Pianos

National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine • Andrew Mogrelia “Living people can dance, the dying cannot”, Prokofiev wrote to explain the problems he faced when writing music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet. His original score was rejected as ‘undanceable’ by the Bolshoy Theatre and his initial scheme for a happy ending for the lovers was, fortunately, vetoed. The revised score, however, proved a masterpiece of expressive beauty and drama, with melting love music and huge bravura, and it remains one of the most loved ballet scores of the twentieth century. Andrew Mogrelia has had a varied career of concerts, recording and work with major dance companies. He has worked with the English National, Dutch National, Finnish National, Norwegian National ballets, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet and American Ballet Theater.

8.572928

Jordi Masó (piano I) • Miquel Villalba (piano II & celeste) • Pia Freund (soprano) • Ferran Carceller and Miquel Àngel Martínez (percussion) Ensemble Barcelona 216 • Ernest Martínez Izquierdo Xavier Montsalvatge was a major contributor to Catalonian culture in the 20th century. His works for two pianos collect most of his musical preoccupations into a single programme. The jazz-tinted Barcelona Blues reflects his “passion for the ballet”, and the Tres divertimentos his fascination with ‘Les Six’. Borrowing the sonorities of Bartók, Sum Vermis expresses the “tortured symbolism” of Jacint Verdaguer’s poetry. One of Montsalvatge’s own favourites, the rarely performed 5 Invocaciones al Crucificado evokes biblical dramatic intensity, and the selfparaphrasing Calidoscopio looks back over the composer’s own creative past. Jordi Masó’s complete recording of Montsalvatge’s solo piano music can be found on 8.570744 and 8.570756. 8.572636

Max REGER (1873-1916) Organ Works, Volume 12 Suite No. 1 in E minor, Op. 16 Suite No. 2 in G minor, Op. 92

Laureate Series: Srdjan Bulat Guitar Recital

In both volume and artistic distinction there is little doubt that Reger was the greatest German composer for the organ since Bach. He relished Lutheran chorales and employed them freely, a sense of grandeur and gravity permeating his music for the instrument. The Suite No. 1 in E minor was completed in 1895, and admired by Brahms. Its four movements offer a compendium of Reger’s genius for both complexity and transparency. His later Suite No. 2 in G minor, cast in seven taut movements, similarly employs contrast, imitation and variety whilst ending in a glorious and triumphant Fugue.

This selection ranges from the romanticism of Francisco Tárrega, the Spanish impressionism of Albéniz’s Mallorca and the neoromanticism of the contemporary Croatian composer, Stjepan Šulek, to Rodrigo’s masterly evocation of the gardens of the Alhambra Palace in Granada and Britten’s revolutionary Nocturnal after John Dowland. Croatian guitarist Srdjan Bulat has won numerous prestigious awards, and was winner of the Certamen Tárrega 2011 which included a special award for his performance of the work of Francisco Tárrega.

First Prize • 2011 Tárrega International Guitar Competition • Benecasim

Kirsten Sturm (organ)

8.572821

8.573026

Laureate Series: Marianna Prjevalskaya Piano Recital

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES

2011 Winner, Jaén Prize International Piano Competition

Haydn’s Andante con variazioni is a masterpiece of fantasy and expression in which the alternation of themes provides ever-changing variety. Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonatas revel in colour and rhythmic vivacity with the G minor, K.450 luxuriating in a ‘Spanish Tango’ of great originality. Robert Schumann told his wifeto-be, Clara, that the Sonata in F sharp minor, so rich in poetry and passion, was ‘a cry from my heart to yours’. Marianna Prjevalskaya is a laureate of numerous international piano competitions, including the Paderewski (2007), Seoul (2008), José Iturbi (2008), Sendai (2010) and Maria Canals (2011).

8.573031

Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble & Dana Chamber Winds Stephen L. Gage The wind ensemble repertory has a rich history and a vibrant contemporary presence. Donald Grantham, for example, evokes gospel music of the 1920s and ’30s in Starry Crown, which draws on the earthy vitality of call-and-response sermons. Steven Bryant’s Ecstatic Waters reaches forward to present a pulsating narrative of exuberance, contradiction and subtle dialogue. Gordon Jacob wrote two series of settings of Old Wine In New Bottles in which he took old English settings and clothed them in his zesty and witty colours. To end, we have the songful lyricism of Carter Penn’s Hold This Boy and Listen. 8.572762

Deems TAYLOR (1885-1966) Through the Looking Glass, Op. 12 Charles Tomlinson GRIFFES (1884-1920) Poem • The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, Op. 8 The White Peacock • Three Tone Pictures • Bacchanale Scott Goff (flute) • Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz

The opulent and sensual expressiveness in these composers’ works has long been obscured by more turbulent developments in music of the 20th century. One of Deems Taylor’s most successful compositions, Through the Looking Glass celebrates Alice in Wonderland, each of its five sections corresponding to passages or episodes from this enchanting tale. Influenced by the German Romantics and French Impressionists, Charles Tomlinson Griffes’ rich harmonic palette and orchestral colors can be heard in the Poem written for flutist Georges Barrère, the landscapes of the Three Tone Pictures and poetry of The White Peacock, while Kubla Khan and the Bacchanale share exotic oriental inspiration.

8.559724

JUL-AUG 2012

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Sergey PROKOFIEV (1891-1953) Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Highlights)

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883) Orchestral Excerpts, Vol. 1

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883) Orchestral Excerpts, Vol. 2

This selection of some of Wagner’s finest orchestral excerpts opens with the ‘storm-swept ballad’ of Der fliegende Holländer, the opera which launched his epoch-defining later masterpieces. The entire span of Der Ring des Nibelungen is represented in this programme, from the luminous rainbow bridge which leads the gods to Valhalla in Das Rheingold, the urgent drama of Die Walküre, and the atmospheric repose of the Forest Murmurs in Siegfried, to the tragic depths of Siegfried’s Funeral March. This recording has been praised for its ‘radiant sensuousness’. (Gramophone) Volumes 2 and 3 in this series are available on 8.572768 and 8.572769.

Under the dual influences of Goethe and Berlioz, Wagner wrote A Faust Overture in Paris. Years later, in 1855, he returned to the work, revising it to create an even greater sense of drama and narrative conviction. In the excerpts from his romantic opera Lohengrin we hear the visionary Prelude to Act I and the Act III Prelude, which includes the well-known Wedding March. Elsa’s Dream is sung by the internationally acclaimed soprano, Alessandra Marc. The orchestral music from Parsifal contains some of the most transcendent music Wagner ever wrote. Volumes 1 and 3 in this series are available on 8.572767 and 8.572769.

Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz

8.572767

Alessandra Marc (soprano) • Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz

8.572768

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38, ‘Spring’ Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97, ‘Rhenish’ Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz

Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz Faced with the challenge of following in Beethoven’s giant symphonic footsteps, Robert Schumann acknowledged this musical predecessor, but expanded his forms and structures into new and impassioned utterances. Inspired “by the spirit of spring”, the Symphony No. 1 was swiftly composed and was a huge success at its première in 1841. The Symphony No. 2 had a longer gestation, but for many has become a symphonic song of praise and rejoicing for which “Gerard Schwarz and his Seattle Symphony Orchestra serve as excellent guides”.(Gramophone)

8.571212

The last of Schumann’s Symphonies to be composed, Symphony No. 3 ‘Rhenish’ was most likely inspired by a cruise taken by the composer and his wife down the river Rhine. Alternating between austere splendour, great rhythmic suppleness and soaring lines, the work is an aural depiction of rural life by the river and the majestic cathedral in Cologne, and one that dares to reflect tensions between Classical form and Romantic innovation. So too does Symphony No. 4, cast in four seamless movements that show Schumann’s masterly command of interrelated material and of symphonic unity. 8.571213

Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Manfred, Op. 115: Overture Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52

Bella Davidovich (piano) • Seattle Symphony • Gerard Schwarz Robert Schumann drew inspiration from other leading Romantic voices of his day, and Manfred is the dramatic overture to a work based on verses by Lord Byron. Schumann’s wife Clara was an extremely accomplished musician, and the Piano Concerto in A minor is one of the most eloquent and highly regarded legacies of their relationship. Lacking only a slow movement, the Overture, Scherzo and Finale is a symphony in all but name. Gramophone described these performances as “extremely fine”.

8.571214

Johann Sebastian BACH H-Moll Messe

Orchestre de l’Opéra d’Etat de Vienne Wiener Akademie Kammerchor Hermann Scherchen (conductor) Pierrette Alarie (soprano I) Nan Merriman (soprano II & contralto) Leopold Simoneau (tenor) Gustav Neidlinger (bass) Franz Holetscheck (harpsichord) With his B minor Mass, Bach confided to humanity a work of universal artistic and spiritual greatness and one of the most important examples of human creation. It reaches well beyond Bach’s religious spirituality that he, a true believer, transmitted using his ingenious harmonic and contrapuntal skill. It guides us towards another form of spirituality in which spirit tries to transcend matter and in which hope becomes infused into a spiritual experience that goes far beyond the human condition. This work induced man to develop his intellectual and emotional skills and to rise towards a superior state of consciousness. Bach never heard this work in its entirety; and it took Romanticism to renew interest in this work, so the entire Mass was performed in concert in 1835 in Frankfurt. Ever since, the resulting fame and recognition helped to give the B minor Mass the place it deserves. TAH737.38 (2 CDs)

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Symphony n°3 - Eroica Wilhelm Furtwängler Wiener Philharmoniker

Whilst rehearsing at the Salzburg Festival, Furtwängler again caught pneumonia and didn’t put foot into a concert hall for five months. He was to conduct Nozze di Figaro, Zauberflöte and Othello. He started the 1952-1953 season with a great recording session in Vienna for “His master’s voice” that lasted from 24 November to 3 December: the Vienna Philarmonic recorded in the “Muiskvereinssaal” four Beethoven symphonies (Pastorale, the Fourth, the First, and Eroica), as well as the “Tannhaüser” overture. During this recording session, Furtwängler gave two concertson 29 and 30 November, the second one’s being recorded by ORF in excellent sound conditions and released by Tahra in 2003 (Furt 1076-1077, deleted). The program included Beethoven’s First, Malher’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” with Alfred Poell, and “Eroica”. Thanks to the analogic tapes, we are releasing it again on SACD.

TAH2011

JUL-AUG 2012

Music for Oboe and Piano between 1935 and 1941 Birgit Schmieder (oboe & English horn) Akiko Yamashita (piano) This collection of duos for oboe (specifically cor anglais) and piano by Benjamin Britten, Pavel Haas, Paul Hindemith and Nikos Skalkottas are not only interrelated by the period in which they arose – the years 1935-1941 – but also as haunting documents of musical paths through an increasingly gloomy time.

Audite 92.539

Songs of Smaller Creatures and other American choral works Grant Park Chorus Christopher Bell (conductor)

Conducted by Christopher Bell, Chicago’s Grant Park Chorus is “as fine a symphony chorus as any to be found anywhere in the nation” (Chicago Tribune). Celebrating its 50th season, the chorus makes its a cappella CD debut with an all-American program of eight imaginative, moving, and sometimes whimsical works written between 1975 and 2005, including four world premieres. CDR 90000 131

Stainless Staining Lisa MOORE Commissioned by Lisa Moore with funds provided by the Arts Council of Ireland, the title track, Stainless Staining was written for piano and soundtrack. The soundtrack is made up of samples of a piano retuned to provide a massive harmonic spectrum of 100 overtones based on a fundamental low G#. Explains the composer, “This reflects an increasing recent concern of mine with a kind of pulsating, rhythmic use of the overtone series. That concern can range from a rather extreme concentration in this piece and Bulb ( a piano trio where pulsing glissandos connect nodes in the harmonic series) to a more integrated approach in the large scale vocal and instrumental pieces, where that approach is used often in a looser fashion only in particular areas.”

CA21062

OCKEGHEM Missa Caput

OCKEGHEM Missa Cuiusvis Toni

The Clerks’ Group Edward Wickham

CDGAU186 SMETANA String Quartets

BIBER The Mystery Sonatas (Vol.1)

Lindsay String Quartet

Monica Huggett Sonnerie

CDDCA777 BRAHMS & SCHUMANN Piano Quintets Peter Frankl Lindsay String Quartet

CDDCA728

JUL-AUG 2012

CDGAU189

CDGAU350 WEBER Clarinet Concerto No.1 Emma Johnson English Chamber Orchestra Yan Pascal Tortelier

CDDCA585

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Temporal Variations

CLASSICAL MUSIC

KOSHKIN Megaron Concerto

Elena Papandreou (guitar) Singapore Symphony Orchestra Lan Shui New Hellenic Quartet Angelos Liakakis (cello) For some fifteen years, the Russian composer Nikita Koshkin and the Greek guitarist Elena Papandreou have enjoyed a rewarding collaboration, with solo pieces such as the Guitar Sonata and Kyparissous, both from 1998, among the earliest fruits. Dedicated to Elena Papandreou, these works formed part of a solo recital released by her in 2003, along with what probably remains the composer’s most famous piece: Usher Waltz. Koshkin’s music typically combines drama with humour and parody, and regularly includes references to legends and fairy-tales, as well as to music of other periods or genres. He often uses extended playing techniques achieving avant-garde effects, but is also inspired by popular music. On the present disc, all four works are world première recordings, and three of them were written with Elena Papandreou in mind.

BIS-CD-1846

GRUBER & SCHWERTSIK: Works for trumpet and orchestra Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet) Swedish Chamber Orchestra HK Gruber Mats Bergström (banjo) Claudia Buder (accordion)

The common denominator of the three works presented here is the soloist Håkan Hardenberger. In 1999, the celebrated trumpet player asked HK Gruber to arrange his 3 MOB Pieces for trumpet and orchestra, and eight years later Gruber wrote the concerto Busking while his long-time collaborator Kurt Schwertsik wrote Divertimento Macchiato, both on Hardenberger’s initiative. In the 1960s Schwertsik and Gruber became known as ambassadors of the ‘Third Viennese School’ – a grouping which originated as a reaction against the total serialism of Darmstadt-centred avant-garde. One of the first manifestations of this was the ‘MOB art & tone ART’ Ensemble, in which the two composers and their friends performed new music of a deliberately informal, un-solemn sort. With influences as diverse as the neo-classicism of Stravinsky, the Beatles and the cabaret music by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill, the MOB Pieces, composed in 1968, are a perfect illustration of this. Gruber’s work has always shown a strong connection with various kinds of popular music, and his concerto Busking is another example. In each of its three movements the soloist plays a trumpet in a different key, with the accompaniment of an accordion, a banjo and strings.

BIS-CD-1884 DVOŘÁK Symphony No.8

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra Claus Peter Flor With his Seventh Symphony, Dvořák had proved that he could compose a ‘respectable’ symphony (as he himself termed it), and had done so to both critical and public acclaim. Four years later, when he began to work on its successor, he apparently felt free to return to a more familiar idiom, and after the serious Seventh – which Dvořák at one stage had considered giving the nickname ‘Tragic’ – Symphony No.8 was a lighter work, with its roots firmly planted in the composer’s beloved Czech folklore. It is probably the freest of his mature symphonies from a formal point of view, and has interesting parallels with Mahler’s First Symphony, which was premièred shortly after Dvořák had completed his own work. Imitations of the sounds of nature, pastoral subjects and fanfares feature in both symphonies, and both evoke a funeral march and a chorale. The work is here coupled with the symphonic poem The Golden Spinning Wheel, based on an epic poem by the Czech poet Karel Erben. Complete with a wicked stepmother, a dismembering and a magic spinning wheel of gold, this rather cruel fairy-tale is followed by the shorter Scherzo capriccioso.

BIS-SACD-1976

The Trio Sonata in 18th-Century France London Baroque

With the previous instalment of their survey of the trio sonata during the 17th and 18th centuries, the four members of London Baroque offered up what the website klassik-heute.de described as ‘a delightful palette full of grace and esprit’, presenting music by composers active in 18th-century England. Crossing the Channel, they have now arrived in France, and a musical environment undergoing rapid changes following the death of Louis XIV in 1715. The rigours of the Grand Siècle were relaxing and the stiff resistance against the Italian influences of Corelli was weakening. In 1725 François Couperin published his famous Apothéose de Lulli, in which he advocated a fusion of the Italian and French styles, and the following year saw the collection Les Nations, which included L’Impériale recorded here. In it Couperin continued his mission, combining an Italian-style sonata with a sequence of dances in the French manner.

BIS-CD-1855

Italian Virtuosi of the Chitarrone

Jakob Lindberg (chitarrone) Its overall length (upwards of 160 cm) and great number of strings (up to 16 courses) makes the chitarrone one of the more spectacular instruments of the early baroque. The name probably means ‘large kithara’, after the instrument played by the Classical Greek poets, and it was first developed as a bass lute in order to accompany singing and recitative – indeed it appears to have become the favourite instrument in Italy for accompanying the voice by 1600. It also enjoyed a shortlived but rich flowering as a solo instrument, however, to which the three virtuosi of the album title all contributed greatly, as performers as well as composers. Between 1604 and 1640, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger (also known as Johann Hieronymus Kapsberger), Alessandro Piccinini and Bellerofonte Castaldi published a number of collections of chitarrone music, from which Jakob Lindberg has chosen some favourite dances, arias, toccatas and passacaglias. Combined into seven suites, they provide rich opportunity to enjoy the particular timbre and the special playing techniques of this splendid instrument, the chitarrone. Highly regarded both for his live performances and his many recordings, Jakob Lindberg has a long-standing interest in the many varieties of lutes, including lute mandorée, orpharion and archlute, and has now dedicated himself to researching their relative – research which informs both the performances and Lindberg’s own liner notes.

BIS-CD-1899

Curse upon Iron

Orphei Drängar male-voice choir Cecilia Rydinger Alin A modern shaman is how Veljo Tormis (b.1930) has been described. In his large production, chiefly composed for a cappella choir, he utilizes ancient chants and magic charms, as well as the typically Estonian runic songs, regilaulud. Indeed Curse upon Iron, his bestknown score, even includes a shaman drum. Much of the music of Tormis, who began composing during the 1950s, mirrors his steadfast devotion to an Estonian identity in the face of Soviet occupation, with traditional ways of life, such as farming and fishing, resonating in pieces such as Helletused – based on ancient herding calls – Spell upon Flax (from the three Shrovetide songs) and Songs of the Ancient Sea. But there are also works, such as the two Hamlet’s Songs, that seem to echo the bleak mood of Soviet Estonia, while The Viru Oath is one of Tormis’s most overtly political compositions, written in 1980 during the so-called ‘stagnation period’ in which the thaw following Stalin’s death was halted. With Stars, from Kaksikpühendus (Double Dedication), the disc closes on a more lyrical and personal note – another strand in the composer’s rich repertoire.

BIS-SACD-1993

JUL-AUG 2012

Composed and conducted by Carl Davis

The freshly polished silver sparkles in the light of the chandelier; the fragrance of fresh flowers fills the air. Set in the year preceding the Second World War, 165 Eaton Place reopens its doors and welcomes you back into the enrapturing lives of its inhabitants, both upstairs and down. There may be two families living in 165 - one upstairs and one down - but their fates are intimately linked. With both upstairs and down harbouring life changing secrets and the menace of war creeping ever closer, the smooth running of Eaton Place threatens to come crashing to shattering halt.

CDC018

Mieczyslaw WEINBERG (1919-1996) String Quartets Vol. 6 Quatuor Danel

Vol. 6 marks the completion of the Mieczyslaw Weinberg String Quartet series on cpo. The interpretation of the Belgian Danel Quartet can only be described as a true windfall. This volume featuring the early Quartet No. 2 of 1939 and the last Quartet No. 17 from 1986 offers an overview of Weinberg’s entire oeuvre. 777587-2

Anton ARENSKY (1861-1902) Five Suites for Two Pianos Piano Duo Genova & Dimitrov

Claudio Abbado has termed Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov “The piano duo of the young generation”, and the two have indeed come to be regarded as one of today’s most sought-after piano duos worldwide. On their latest CD they interpret suites by Anton Arensky.

777651-2

Carl REINTHALER (1822-1896) Das Käthchen von Heilbronn

Richard Carlucci, Ilia Papandreou, Peter Schöne, Máté Sólyom-Nagy; Marisca Mulder, Opernchor des Theaters Erfurt, Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt Samuel Bächli Cpo are proud to present the rediscovery of the opera Das Käthchen von Heilbronn by Carl Reinthaler, a work based on the drama of the same name by Heinrich von Kleist. Samuel Baechli, the music director of the stage production and the CD recording, is convinced that this production will inspire the renaissance of the almost entirely forgotten Reinthaler.

777474-2 (2 CDs)

Per NØRGÅRD (b. 1932) Libra

Danish National Vocal Ensemble Fredrik Malmberg (conductor) Per Nørgård Stefan Östersjö (guitar) Adam Riis (tenor) This CD features three of the composer Per Nørgård’s (b. 1932) most captivating vocal works in new recordings with the Danish National Vocal Ensemble conducted by Fredrik Malmberg. In marvelous musical landscapes, we encounter the composer in his most cosmic and prophetic vein, with the human voice as a catalyst of new awareness in both the musical and universal sense.

6.220622 Per NØRGÅRD (b. 1932) The Will-o’-the-Wisps in Town Helene Gjerris (mezzo soprano) Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen

The Will-o’-the-Wisps in Town is an extraordinary fairy tale cantata created by the Danish composer Per Nørgård and his close friend, author Suzanne Brøgger, on the basis of a little known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. This world première recording of the chamber version focuses on the charismatic “Marsh Witch”, sung by mezzo-soprano Helene Gjerris who also premiered the work in Birmingham at 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen’s birth.

8.226085

JUL-AUG 2012

Per NØRGÅRD (b. 1932) Sceneries for percussion and ensemble

Esbjerg Ensemble Christian Martínez (percussion) Petter Sundkvist (conductor)

The Danish composer Per Nørgård (b. 1932) finds inspiration for his outstanding percussion music in the forces of nature, eastern mysticism and exotic rhythms. In the four works on this CD we encounter a melodic side to percussion, when for instance the soloist uses a violin bow to play the vibraphone and the musical saw. Two of the works were written especially for the Colombian-born percussionist Christian Martínez, who plays here with the Esbjerg Ensemble conducted by Petter Sundkvist. 8.226092

Vagn HOLMBOE (1909-96) Chamber Symphonies Lapland Chamber Orchestra John Storgårds

These are World premiere recordings of Vagn Holmboe’s 3 masterly chamber symphonies, performed by an expert Finnish team. The Finnish conductor John Storgårds really stands out. In 2008 John Storgårds was appointed chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic, one of Scandinavia’s best and most traditionrich orchestras. He is also artistic director of the magical Lapland Chamber Orchestra and since 2012 Principal Guest Conductor of BBC Philharmonic.

6.220621

CLASSICAL MUSIC

The Music of ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ Series Two

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Alexandre DANILEVSKI The Uncertainty Principle Larissa Groeneveld Ensemble Syntagma

The Uncertainty Principle is a journey into the mystical musical world of Russian composer Alexandre Danilevski, where music and instruments from the middle ages to modern day meet and create an unexpectedly beautiful soundscape. Danilevskis’ compositions are at the same time refering to ancient sources and to modern art and science, moving through centuries of musical and aesthetic developments with ease and free of conventional restrictions regarding musical styles and paradigmas. On this recording, Danilvski’s own ensemble Syntagma interprets two of his works for mixed ensemble and voice, while the Flanders Recorder Quartet plays his Antiphones and cellist Larissa Groeneveld presents Revelation, a concerto for cello solo.

CD-16291

François COUPERIN Works for Harpsichord

Blandine Verlet (harpsichord) Blandine Verlet is now one of the last living legends of the harpsichord. After a few years of absence, she has joined the label Aparté with a programme dedicated to Francois Couperin’s harpsichord music, recorded on a sumptuous Hemsch of 1751 upon which she already performed Goldberg Variations in 1993. Throughout these pieces with evocative titles (Les Amusements, the Raphaèle, the Delights, the Poppies, the Wandering Shadows ..) she reveals an artist with a voice more than inspired, powerful and constantly renewed. The cover of the disc is a portrait of Blandine Verlet by Craig Hanna. A real event!

AP036 (2 CDs)

Karl WOLFRUM (1856-1937) Organ Sonatas Halgeir Schiager Sauer Organ of the Luther Church Chemnitz

Karl Wolfrum’s three organ sonatas were written before the turn of the twentieth century. In all three sonatas, the composer tried a heterogeneous approach: technically, his works followed Bach, dramatically, the narrative concepts of the New German School and in terms of sound and aesthetics, a subtle use of the instrument’s solo voices and dynamic differentiation. OehmsClassics now presents a recording with Norwegian organist Halgeir Schiager that was made in June 2011 in the Lutheran Church in Chemnitz in co-production with the Bavarian Radio Broadcasting Corporation.

Giovanni Benedetto PLATTI (1697-1763) Sonatas for violoncello, violin and harpsichord Sebastian Hess (cello) Rüdiger Lotter (violin) Florian Birsak (basso continou)

Giovanni Benedetto Platti, a previously lesser known musician from the first half of the eighteenth century, was an “oboista”, an oboe virtuoso at the Court of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg. He came from Northern Italy, lived in Venice during his youth, and in 1722 – together with a number of his fellow Italians – responded to the call of the Würzburg regent, who wished to lend his royal chapel the brilliance that only Italian music could provide. Platti came to the city on the Main River; after his employer’s death only two years later, he continued to remain under his successors.

OC416

Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 6 in A Minor Philharmoniker Hamburg Simone Young (conductor)

Mahler’s Sixth Symphony was premiered by the Essen Philharmonic in Essen on May 27, 1906. The composer conducted the performance himself. Astonishingly, he only led it two subsequent times: in 1906 in Munich and in 1907 in Vienna. The common nickname “Tragic Symphony” was only officially used once (at the first performance in Vienna) and then never again; it did not make its way into published editions of the score.

OC413 (2 CDs)

OC836 Richard WAGNER Götterdämmerung

Lance Ryan • Susan Bullock Johannes Martin Kränzle • Claudia Mahnke and others Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra • Frankfurt Opera Chorus Sebastian Weigle (conductor) “Completed in Wahnfried on November 21, 1874. I say nothing further!!” With these words written at the bottom of his Götterdämmerung score, Wagner thus finished his composition of the entire Ring Cycle. The Frankfurt Opera also concluded Vera Nemirova’s highly praised production of the work in January, thus raising the bar for the coming Wagner year 2013. The Frankfurter Allgemeine even claimed in its review of the premiere of Götterdämmerung that the two Wagner sisters in Bayreuth might want to “dress warmly during the coming season”!

OC938 (4 CDs)

JUL-AUG 2012

Cuarteto Casals Vera Martínez Mehner (violin) Abel Tomàs Realp (violin) Jonathan Brown (viola) Arnau Tomàs Realp (violoncello) For their first incursion into the works of Schubert on disc, the members of the Cuarteto Casals invite us to discover two quartets situated at the two extremes of the composer’s life. Wrongly dated much later on its publication in 1830, the Quartet in E flat is in fact the work of a 16-year-old musician who had just entered teacher training college . . . whereas its companion here was to be Schubert’s very last quartet. Only thirteen years separate the two pieces! But in the meantime a whole “world” had invaded his musical consciousness, and here the naivety of G major throws a deceptive veil over inner upheavals. HMC902121

CAGE. Litany for the Whale Paul Hillier Theatre of Voices Terry Riley

“I have been performing, reading, looking at, and listening to John Cage’s work for years — I number myself amongst those who consider him to be an important composer and not simply an important influence. One of the earliest Theatre of Voices concerts, at London’s Almeida Festival in 1990, was devoted primarily to Cage’s music, and, since then, I seem to have been working toward this recording.” – Paul Hillier

HMU907279

Jean-Philippe RAMEAU Symphonies for two harpsichords Pierre Hantai (harpsichord) Skip Sempe (harpsichord)

The numerous instrumental pieces or ‘Symphonies’ found in the dramatic works of Rameau are remarkably effective on the harpsichord: the composer himself, with his transcription of ‘Les Indes Galantes’ invited other musicians to continue this tradition. Seizing on the formidable array of material available in his operas: Platée, Zoroastre, Dardanus, Les Paladins, Pygmalion... Pierre Hantai and Skip Sempé, our finest exponents of this repertoire, take obvious pleasure in revealing, through the two harpsichords, the immense richness of this music, full of surprises and imagination. MIR164

Edvard GRIEG & Antonin DVOŘÁK: Piano concertos Svjatoslav Richter (piano)

Svjatoslav Richter (1915-97) has left behind the extraordinary image of a highly sensitive, angst-ridden yet ultimately serene musician, a true “monstre sacré”, a perfectionist in search of the absolute. This duo of “nationalist” concertos by Grieg and Dvorak featured only briefly in his repertoire. The uncharacteristic liberty of his playing and the sense of exultation is astounding, illuminating this romantic composition based on imaginary song and dance national folklore. They form a unique, totally unprecedented combination.

PRD/PSD350058

JUL-AUG 2012

Thierry Pécou Tremendum

Ensemble Variances Percussions Claviers de Lyon Thierry Pécou This CD is the third harmonia mundi recording of music by Thierry Pécou, whose acclaimed Symphonie du Jaguar won a Diapason d’Or of the Year 2010. This composer of Caribbean descent has consistently extended his sources of inspiration to Latin America and notably in the direction of Mexico, of which we hear echoes in L’Arbre aux fleurs and SoleilTigre. But it is Brazil that lies at the origin of the ‘carnival concerto’ Tremendum, the main work in the programme, presented here in a new version specially made by Pécou for the Percussions Claviers de Lyon and the Ensemble Variances. HMC905269

Imogen HOLST : Choral Works Choir of Clare College Cambridge The Dmitri Ensemble Graham Ross (conductor)

Imogen Holst, the daughter of Gustav Holst, has long deserved recognition for her significant body of compositions, written throughout her life. Graham Ross conducts the choir of Clare College, Cambridge and the instrumentalists of the Dmitri Ensemble in these world première recording of a selection of Holst’s choral works ranging from 1927 to 1972, three of which have not been heard since their first performance, together with the first recording of her imaginative and skillful orchestration of Benjamin Britten’s Festival Cantata “Rejoice in the lamb”, made at Britten’s own request. HMU907576

Mily Balakirev Piano Sonata in B flat minor Etsuko Hirose (piano)

Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), founder and driving force of the celebrated “Mighty Handful”, spared no effort in his devotion to his followers, and thus left only a relatively modest number of work on his own. The piano occupies a preponderant place in his output, with the Russian style rubbing shoulders with with inluences of Chopin and Liszt. While Islamey has always figured in the virtuoso repertoire, other pieces deserve to be rediscovered, including the Toccata, the Sonata, and the Variations on themes by Glinka, the “Father of Russian music”, who saw in Balakirev a worthy successor.

MIR181

Dimitri SHOSTAKOVICH Three Concertos

David Oistrakh (violin) Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra Evgeni Mravinsky (conductor) Together for the first time, three acclaimed concertos performed by the soloists who made them famous - dedicatees and performers D. Oistrakh and M. Rostropovitch, and then Leonard Bernstein himself, pianist, conductor and composer with the less beloved Concerto Op.102. Lenny has produced a successful rendering of this curios cocktail - a tribute to Rococo style Bach, an entranced romantic andante along with a caricature of Prokofiev style virtuoso piano in the opening and closing allegros. PRD/PSD350059

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Franz SCHUBERT String Quartets

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Howard Shore & Metric Cosmopolis

Howard Shore Collector’s Edition Vol.1 Howe Records is pleased to announce the inaugural release of their new Collector’s Edition Series from the vaults of Grammy Awardwinning composer Howard Shore. Album series producer Jonathan Schultz has uncovered thousands of recordings documenting Shore’s career of composing original scores, concert pieces, chamber music and songs. Access to some of this material requires expert restoration of analog tapes in which reels are carefully baked and calibrated, splices are repaired and original balances are replicated or adjusted as needed to make this music available. Volume One launches the series with a collection of unreleased recordings, some from films and many pieces that have never been heard in any form. The first four tracks are from the score to the Martin Scorsese film After Hours and the last track is from the Diane Keaton documentary Heaven. These five tracks showcase Shore as both musician and performer. The middle tracks of the disc (tracks 5-11) have never been heard before. These compositions are unique, jazz influenced pieces with captivating solos for guitar and harmonica with orchestra. Collector’s Edition Volume 1 is just the beginning - there is much more to explore.

Metric

The soundtrack for Cosmopolis reunites composer Howard Shore and the band METRIC for another cinematic collaboration. While writing the score for David Cronenberg’s film adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel Cosmopolis, Shore conceived of a particular live sound to achieve his vision and invited METRIC to perform the score and co-write three songs. The music was recorded in November 2011 at the band’s own Giant Studios in Toronto, produced by Howard Shore and METRIC guitarist Jimmy Shaw, and mixed by John O’Mahony at Liberty Studios in Toronto and Electric Lady Studios in NYC. The result is an atmospheric, urban soundscape of analog synths and layered guitars featuring the hypnotic vocals of METRIC lead singer Emily Haines. The Cosmopolis soundtrack also features “Mecca” by Somali Singer/ Rapper K’NAAN with lyrics by the artist and Don DeLillo.The film stars Robert Pattinson (of Twilight fame), Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti.

HWR1003

HWR1008

Howard Shore : Collector’s Edition 2 Soul of the Ultimate Nation

National Philharmonic of Russia • Academy of Choral Arts Irina Komarova • Ecaterina Popova • Lydia Kavina • Vera Volnukhina • Ludmila Golub I began writing the score for “Soul of the Ultimate Nation” (SUN) in the summer of 2004. I throught the game had a wonderfully detailed conception and design by Nam Joo Kim. In November 2004 I conducted a concert of “The Lord of the Rings Symphony” at the Kremlin in Moscow with Vladimir Spivakov’s orchestra the National philharmonic of Russia and Victor’s Popov’s Academy of Choral Arts. Following the Moscow concert I traveled with the orchestra and chorus to Tokyo for SUN at this time and while in Japan I decided I wanted to write the piece specifically for thisorchestra and chorus. I wanted the chorus to sing in ancient Korean as a way to express the world of SUN. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring together the western and eastern concepts of the game. The score was recorded at the Moscow Performing Arts Center so I could work with their amazing organist Ludmila Golub. I also brought in the renowned Russian thereminist Lydia Kavina. She was living in Moscow at the time and I wanted to work with her again. We have previously collaborated together on both “Ed Wood” and “eXistenZ”. Other featured soloists were Vera Volnukhina on Shakuhachi and the great vocal soloists Irina Komarova and Ecaterina Popova. The pieces were composed as tone poems to express the different characters, cultures and the world of the game.

HWR1006

Serynade

Ellen Ugelvik (piano) Ellen Ugelvik received the Norwegian Grammy Award (Spellemannprisen) in 2008 for her debut CD ‘Makrokosmos’. On ‘Serynade’, she explores further the resonance opportunities of the grand piano. The starting point is Helmut Lachenmann´s gigantic piece for piano. The work ‘Serynade’ by Helmut Lachenmann is rarely performed because of its extreme difficulty. The pianist plays two music pieces on top of each another, one piece reverberating out in the room, while the other piece is mutely pressed down into the musical keyboard. The result is that the mute music piece appears in the shadows of the work performed, as a deep, vibrating resonance in the distance or as large vibrations of the audible tones. Ellen Ugelvik performed Lachenmann’s piano concerto ‘Ausklang’ with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Christian Eggen in 2010, and her rendition of the concert was nominated for the Norwegian Critics Prize for Music.

ACD5061

JUL-AUG 2012

Francisco Fiorentino (vocal) • Astor Piazzolla (bandonéon, arrangements & direction) • Roberto Di Filippo (bandonéon) • Angel Genta (bandonéon) • Fernando Tell (bandonéon) • Hugo Baralis (violin) • Ernesto Gianni (violin) • Juan Bibiloni (violin) • Oscar Lucero (violin) • Carlos Figari (piano) • Angel Molo (cello) Pepe Diaz or Valentín Andreotta (bass) A prolific period, during which Astor Piazzolla carved out his own musical aesthetic, as personal as it is universal, and raised Tango to the ranks of classical music without causing it to lose any of its force, its character, its originality or its roots. The clear break he brought about by shaking up the musical codes of Tango felt like sacrilege to the older generation, but like a much-needed revolution to those who dreamed of modernity. The second real icon in the history of Argentinian music alongside Carlos Gardel, Astor Piazzolla, like his illustrious forefather, left his imprint on this style of music in spite of its rules, which were anchored in a set of seemingly immutable traditions. “Astor Piazzolla turned Tango into more than just the music of one nation and one people; he made it into a universal art on a par with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. Like Orpheus descending into the underworld to seek Eurydice, Piazzolla tracked Tango down to the hidden places where the Guardia Vieja were keeping it a jealously guarded secret, and brought it up into the daylight so he could share it with the world…. Except that he never turned around, so his Eurydice is still alive and well!” Juan Esteban Alvarez de Molina 5742200.07 (8 CDs)

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: Symphonie n°3 Maurice RAVEL: Valses The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Giuseppe Sinopoli (conductor)

It was Beethoven’s original intention that his third symphony should be entitled “Bonaparte”, in honour of Napoleon Bonaparte. But when Napoleon crowned himself ‘Emperor’ he became, in Beethoven’s eyes, “only another tyrannical despot”. Beethoven finally named it “Sinfonia Eroica” (Italian for Heroic Symphony) “composed in honour of a great man”. From its title, in which two Waltz cycles by Schubert are mentioned (Valses Nobles and Valses Sentimentales), it is clear that it was Ravel’s intention to compose a sequence of waltzes based on Schubert. Like many of Ravel’s works, it was first written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer. HEL029653

The Unknown Enescu, Volume One: Music for Violin Sherban Lupu, violin (conductor) • Masumi Per Rostad (viola) • Marin Cazacu (cello) • Dmitry Kouzov (cello) • Ian Hobson (piano) • Ilinca Dumitrescu (piano) • Samir Golescu (piano) • Enescu Ensemble of the University of Illinois (ensemble)

George Enescu (1881–1955) is one of the great composers, although the world has yet to realise the extent of his achievements. Enescu’s small published œuvre of 33 opus numbers belies the amount of music he produced: he composed prolifically but, as he was both a perfectionist and a busy performer, much of his music is still unknown. This CD reveals solo, chamber and concertante pieces featuring the violin, played by his fellow Romanian Sherban Lupu, who understands Enescu’s idiom like few other musicians.

TOCC0047 Leo ORNSTEIN Piano Music, Volume One Arsentiy Kharitonov (piano)

The Russian-born American composer Leo Ornstein (1893–2002) lived long enough – an astonishing 109 years – to see his music both fall into and re-emerge from obscurity. His earliest surviving work dates from around 1905; his last was composed in 1990. Not surprisingly, his music embraces a range of styles, ranging on this first CD – in the first extended series devoted to his piano works – from the atmospheric impressionism of the Four Impromptus via the fiery virtuosity of the Fourth Piano Sonata to the Rachmaninov-like Romanticism of the Cossack Impressions and In the Country.

TOCC0141

JUL-AUG 2012

David BRAID: Chamber and Instrumental Music

Grace Davidson (soprano) • Peter Cigleris (clarinet) • Yuri Kalnits (violin) • Julia Morneweg (cello) • John Paul Ekins (piano) • Sergei Podobedov (piano) • Jelena Laković (piano) • Tippett Quartet (string quartet) • Erato Piano Trio (piano trio) • Rossitza Stoycheva and Mikako Hori (piano duo) The British composer David Braid, born in North Wales in 1970, studied in London, Oxford and Kraków, and his music shows something of that double inheritance, bringing together the lyricism of such English composers as Dowland and the dynamism of the Polish school of Lutosławski. This debut CD of his music presents chamber and instrumental works written between 2006 and 2011. Steve Reich described the raga-like Morning for soprano and string quartet – the Pablo Neruda setting which opens this disc – as ‘beautifully done – very honest stuff’; the other works here encompass a divergent range of moods, from the melancholy of Infinite Reminiscence to the energetic drive of Music for Dancers.

TOCC0149

John PICKARD Chamber Music

Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin, viola) Sophie Harris (cello) Ian Mitchell (bass clarinet) Matthew Rickard (piano) Reviews of music by the English composer John Pickard (b. 1963) have stated that ‘he has the technique and the temperament to emerge as one of the great symphonists of the 21st century’, even that ‘his place among the greats is secure’. This conspectus of his chamber music traces the evolution of his style over two decades, from the Piano Trio of 1990 to Snowbound of 2010, revealing a powerful rhythmic drive, a feeling for toughly argued drama and a poetic sensitivity to atmosphere among its most prominent characteristics. TOCC0150

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Astor Piazzolla: Tanguísimo

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Two Lutes: Lute Duets from England’s Golden Age Ronn McFarlane & William Simms

As stated by Ronn McFarlane, “Elizabethan lute duets yield the most companionable and friendly kind of music-making for the players. In equal duets each lutenist plays nearly the same music, alternating playing the melody and the harmonic accompaniment. It feels like a conversation, with each lutenist posing musical questions and answers throughout. Each player is free to improvise upon the written part, so the conversation can be very individual and spontaneous! On the other hand, in the treble-ground style of lute duet, one lutenist plays a single line melodic part (usually including some virtuosic passages) while the second lutenist plays a chordal accompaniment. Sometimes the chordal accompaniment is very simple and repetitive, and it is likely that a skilled player would vary his part to make a more musically satisfying accompaniment.”

But Not Forgotten Music by African-American Composers for Clarinet & Piano Marcus Eley (clarinet) Lucerne DeSa (piano)

Past and present come together in this vibrant release from Sono Luminus, But Not Forgotten: Music by African-American Composers for Clarinet & Piano, as clarinetist Marcus Eley, and pianist Lucerne DeSa display the timeless class and musical stylings of composers whose music runs rich with the knowledge and desire of gifts to be returned through the notes on a page, and the instrument in one’s hand.

J AZZ HIGH LIGHTS

DSL-92155

Cecilia Bertolini Gotta Do It Right

Cecilia BERTOLINI (vocals) Armel DUPAS (claves, piano) Olivier LOUVEL (guitar) Manuel MARCHES (bass) Karl JANNUSKA (drums) Sylvain GONTARD (trumpet) Gotta Do It Right is the first album of the new French Jazz revelation Cecila Bertolini. She already won several prices and her talent has been critically acclaimed.

BON120502

The Metaphysical Poets

AUDIO BOOKS

DSL-92156

John Donne, Andrew Marvell et al. (Unabridged) Read by Nicholas Boulton, Jonathan Keeble and others John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert, Thomas Carew and Henry Vaughan: these were some of the 17th-century writers who devised a new form of poetry full of wit, intellect and grace, which we now call Metaphysical poetry. They wrote about their deepest religious feelings and their carnal pleasures in a way that was radically new and challenging to their readers. Their work was largely misunderstood or ignored for two centuries, until 20th-century critics rediscovered it, finding in it a deep originality and a willingness to experiment that made much conventional poetry look merely decorative. This collection provides the perfect introduction to this diverse group of fascinating poets.

NA0089

The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides (Abridged) Read by Neville Jason

Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War is one of the most famous, influential, and moving works of genuine history in our traditions. His brilliant account of the civil war among the Greeks redefined how we should analyse the past, driving a permanent wedge between accounts based on myth and folk traditions and those based on empirical investigation and a rational enquiry into human motives. The work is also a profoundly tragic illumination, not merely of the self-destructive events of the civil war, but also of the future course of human history.

NA0069 (6 CDs)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom T.E. Lawrence (Unabridged) Read by Roy McMillan

Although T.E. Lawrence, commonly known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, died in 1935, the story of his life has captured the imagination of succeeding generations. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a monumental work in which he chronicles his role in leading the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War. A reluctant leader, and wracked by guilt at the duplicity of the British, Lawrence nevertheless threw himself into his role, suffering the blistering desert conditions and masterminding military campaigns which culminated in the triumphant march of the Arabs into Damascus.

NA0070 (20 CDs)

JUL-AUG 2012

A Musical Journey: CZECH REPUBLIC A Musical Visit to Prague and Lednice Castle

Music by Chabrier • Massenet • Glinka • Rimsky-Korsakov The Places • The musical tour of Spain starts at the present capital, Madrid, the principal city of Castile. From Madrid it is not too far to the plains of La Mancha, a region always remembered for its association with the great hero of Miguel Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, whose windmills, mistaken by him for giants, form a characteristic element in the landscape. The varied history of Spain is seen in the city of Córdoba, once capital of a Moorish kingdom, and the gardens of the Alcázar of the Christian Kings. The Music • The music chosen for the tour of Spain may be characteristically Spanish in its rhythms and turns of melody, but is all the work of foreigners, two of the composers, Chabrier and Massenet, French, and two of them, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian. For France, geographically adjacent to Spain, there was an obvious connection with Spain, which continued to exercise a certain fascination over its neighbour. Russian composers in the 19th century embarked on the creation of a new national music, but at the same time drew on remoter countries for inspiration, whether on the different regions of the vast Russian Empire or still further afield. 2.110308

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Places • The churches and palaces of Prague are seen, with the great River Vltava (the Moldau), which flows through the city, the outline of city buildings reflected in its waters. The Strahov Monastery and the Villa Bertramka are practical examples of Mozart’s contact with Prague. On a visit to the monastery he improvised on the organ, and at the Villa Bertramka he and his wife Constanze were guests of the Czech composer Dušek. There is also a visit to Southern Moravia and Lednice, with its Neo-Gothic castle, its folly, a slender minaret, in its English gardens, with its trees and artificial lakes. The Music • Mozart had happy memories of Prague. When, during the last ten years of his life, circumstances in Vienna proved increasingly difficult, he was always welcome in the Bohemian capital. It was for Prague that he wrote his opera Don Giovanni in 1787 and for Prague that he wrote one of his last operas, La clemenza di Tito, commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia, and for his unappreciative wife, who described the work as ‘porchería tedesca’, German porkery. Prague continues to honour Mozart in various festivals, concerts and memorabilia. 2.110309

A Musical Journey: AUSTRIA / BELGIUM A Musical Visit to Salzburg and Vienna, Brussels and Tournai ‘Requiem’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Places • The tour relates to the life of Mozart, from his native Salzburg to his final precarious independence in Vienna. There are glimpses of the Salzburg Church of St Peter and of the Cathedral, with which Mozart and his father, members of the musical establishment of the ruling Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, were closely concerned. Memorials of Mozart and other composers are seen in Vienna, while a brief detour to Belgium to the idiosyncratic Musée Wiertz and to the Tournai Musée des Beaux Arts, brings another aspect to the journey. The Music • Mozart’s Requiem Mass was commissioned anonymously in July 1791 by Count Franz Walsegg zu Stuppach, who sought to commemorate the recent death of his wife by the performance of a work of this kind that he might, at least by implication, claim as his own. An initial fee of sixty ducats was paid, with promise of a further sum when the Requiem was completed. But in November Mozart was taken ill and within a fortnight he was dead. His widow, Constanze, who needed the rest of the fee for the work, asked Joseph Eybler, who had assisted Mozart in rehearsals for Così fan tutte, to finish the composition and the scoring. He later gave up the task and the unfinished score finally came into the hands of Franz Xaver Süssmayr, so that the best known form of the Requiem is that started by Mozart, continued briefly by Eybler and completed by Süssmayr. 2.110333

RENZO PIANO PIECE BY PIECE

Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8

Christopher Tuckfield

It is often said of the world famous architect Renzo Piano that he has never developed a recognisable style. But Piano’s style is to grapple primarily with the sites and to tease from them uniquely aesthetic and technical solutions. His buildings are meticulous, individual visions that serve the needs of the surrounding environments and the people that inhabit them. This film gives Piano a platform to talk about his architecture and to present works that are as disparate as they are individual.

The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst With its majestic themes soaring upwards like gothic pillars and its brilliant chorales and fanfares glowing like stained – glass windows, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is the most monumental of his orchestral works, a cathedral in sound that grows out of pianissimo murmurs. Coming after the triumphs celebrated by the composer’s Seventh Symphony and Te Deum, the Eight was considered by Bruckner as the artistic climax of his career. BONUS: Pre-concert talk with Dee Perry and Franz Welser-Möst

106068

101581 (DVD) /108069 (Blu-ray)

Maki ISHII: Kaguyahime

Nederlands Dans Theater • Circle Percussion • Choreography by Jirí Kylián Kaguyahime is one of Japan’s oldest fairy-tales – the story of the moon princess who descends to Earth and is cared for by the family of an old bamboo cutter. Her luminous beauty is meant to spread peace and happiness, but instead the rivalry her heavenly presence provokes results in war. Jiří Kylián one of Europe’s most highly-acclaimed choreographers, has created a highly-charged fusion of dance, music and theatrical images. The music, composed by Maki Ishii, fuses Western and Eastern sound elements,with Western percussion and Japanese drums, augmented by wind instruments closely associated with traditional Japanese court music. The visual impact of the piece is heightened by Michael Simon’s stunning design and lighting. Nederlands Dans Theater’s performances of Kaguyahime have received universal acclaim and it has been hailed as a visual, dance and musical masterpiece of rare quality, a creation that will leave no one unmoved.

100163 (DVD) /108055 (Blu-ray)

Jul-AUG 2012

DVD / BLU-RAY

A Musical Journey: SPAIN A Musical Visit to Madrid, La Mancha and Córdoba

DVD / BLU-RAY

HANDEL Rinaldo

CAVALLI LA DIDONE

Sonia Prina • Varduhi Abrahamyan • Tim Mead • Anett Fritsch • Brenda Rae • Luca Pisaroni Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Ottavio Dantone • Robert Carsen Skin-tight rubber and lacrosse sticks bring contemporary chic to this timeless fantasy of warriors and witches in Robert Carsen’s fun-filled transformation of Handel’s first London triumph. Conducting from the keyboard just as Handel himself did, Ottavio Dantone leads a youthful cast of today’s luminaries in the dramatic art of Baroque opera, the ‘affecting’ Sonia Prina, the ‘unadorned intensity’ of Anett Fritsch and ‘fire-breathing flair’ (The Observer) of Brenda Rae.

Anna Bonitatibus • Kresimir Spicer Xavier Sabata • Maria Streijffert Katherine Watson Les Arts Florissants • William Christie Clément Hervieu-Léger One of the first operas deserving of the name, Didone is our first surviving musical version of the famous episode in Virgil’s Aeneid where the Trojan hero loves and then cruelly leaves the noble Dido. Cavalli learnt at the feet of Monteverdi, and his dramatic transformation of the story is all the more expressive for its intimacy, worthy of the examples set by his master. At the centre of this bold and simple staging – the first opera production by comic actor Clément Hervieu-Léger – is the Queen of Carthage herself, sung with uncompromising intensity by Anna Bonitatibus. William Christie and his singers and players show themselves entirely attuned to the world of Cavalli, where meaning and music fuse.

OA1081D (DVD) / OABD7107D (Blu-ray)

OA1080D (DVD) / OABD7106D (Blu-ray)

András Schiff plays BACH

Nobuyuki Tsujii Live at Carnegie Hall

Directed by Bruno Monsaingeon András Schiff (piano)

Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)

These performances exemplify perfectly the thoughtful and persuasive approach that András Schiff adopts when playing Bach. Deep pathos is contrasted with witty humour, serenity is paired with fleetness of foot, and all these emotions prove that this brilliantly expressive musician is as ‘unique and unequalled’ today as he was when his first biographer, J.N. Forkel, wrote so eloquently about him more than two centuries ago

2066768

2059088 (DVD) / 2059084 (Blu-ray)

Lars Vogt live at Verbier Festival

Martin Helmchen live at Verbier Festival

The German pianist Vogt proves himself more than up to the task, with an inspiring performance of the rarely performed In the Mists, then striking the subtle balance between the delicacy required of a Brahms Intermezzo and the boisterousness of Beethoven’s last piano sonata.

Martin Helmchen, in his 2011 Verbier Festival recital, presents a program of Bach, Liszt and Beethoven.

Lars Vogt (piano)

Martin Helmchen (piano)

3079818 Richter L’Insoumis / The Enigma A film by Bruno Monsaingeon

We get to know as both musician and pianist, particularly through his reading of extracts from his “musician’s diary”. A particularly painful family history; an unconventional apprenticeship in Odessa; a very particular vantage-point of Stalin´s funeral; forbidden to perform in the West until 1961, the bitterness of a triumphant American tour; a scathing view of the musical milieu and its performing artists. In the two years preceding his death on August 1st 1997, the Great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter agreed to a no-holds-barred conversation about his life and career, which was conducted in the service of music, regardless of all conventions.

3073518 (2 DVDs)

to its feet.

His dream had come true. Arguably the most important event in the career of any performer, for “Nobu” it was a miracle. With his brilliant technique and beautiful tone, he contrasts familiar warhorses with newer pieces, including one of his own compositions, written in memory of the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Nobu brought the usually reserved Carnegie Hall audience

The adaptability of his technique is on display, as he moves with ease from the incessant rhythm of a Bach dance, through the filigree of Liszt’s virtuosic showpieces, to the dense counterpoint so typical of Beethoven’s late works.

3079808 Die 12 Cellisten der Berliner Philharmoniker They are one-of-a-kind and they are known all over the world: the 12 Cellisten der Berliner Philharmoniker (the Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic). Their concerts offer the audience the chance to experience the ensemble’s instrumental mastery, the broad spectrum of its repertoire, as well as the stunning tonal variety produced by its individual musicians. On the occasion of their 40th anniversary, the group presented highlights of its program to an enthusiastic audience at the Berlin Philharmonic, supported by world class guest artists, Annette Dasch (soprano) and Till Brönner (trumpet). This Anniversary Edition offers the viewer the chance to experience not only a superb concert but also an exciting documentary chronicling the history of this fascinating group of musicians.

2059318 (2 DVDs) / 2059314 (Blu-ray)

JUL-AUG 2012

Blegen • Fassbaender • Ahnsjö • Sotin • Wiener Philharmoniker Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Bernstein delivered a powerful and now legendary live performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 135 – transcribed for String Orchestra and performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. For the first time ever this performance is now being released on DVD and Blu-ray. Another definitive Bernstein performance debuting now on both mediums is the enigmatic maestro’s reading of Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, filmed live in concert at Ottobeuren in 1984, using to maximum effect the deeply impressive setting of the monastery’s magnificent Baroque basilica.

711508 (DVD) / 711604 (Blu-ray)

Charles Gounod Roméo et Juliette

Coro e Corpo di Ballo della Fondazione Arena di Verona (Orchestra) Fabio Mastrangelo (conductor) Nino Machaidze • Ketevan Kemoklidze • Cristina Melis • Stefano Secco • Jean-François Borras • Paolo Antognetti Artur Rucinski • Nicolo Ceriani • Giampiero Ruggeri • Manrico Signorini • Giorgio Giuseppini • Deyan Vatchkov Here from the iconic Verona arena is Charles Gounod’s masterpiece Roméo & Juliette, performed there for the first time since 1977. This new production was entrusted to Italian director Francesco Micheli, making his arena debut, who opted for a personal, highly original version: “An arena within the Arena, like a blood-red Elizabethan theatre. A senescent world that will not let its own children live.” Juliette is sung by Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, in a return to one of her early roles at the Salzburg Festival. Stefano Secco, often heard at the Opéra Bastille in Paris and other international venues, is Roméo. Artur Rucinski interprets Mercutio, Romeo’s friend and the rival of Jean-François Borras’s Tybalt. The page Stéphano is sung by soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Arena di Verona are conducted by Fabio Mastrangelo.

BAC081 (DVD) / BAC481 (Blu-ray)

TrondheimSolistene SOUVENIR - Part II

How do we listen to music? Indeed, how do we listen to anything? What we as listeners encounter here is sheer auditory bliss. TrondheimSolistene take a new step towards bridging the gap between themselves and their audience. It is not the gap between the live performance and the recording which they attempt to close. It is the gap between the recording and the living, ever open human ear. Inspired by Morten Lindberg’s extensive work with choral music, the Tchaikovsky’s SERENADE was recorded with the ensemble placed in mixed voices, meaning no one is sitting beside anyone playing the same part, creating a totally new soundscape to the music. Carl Nielsen’s SUITE opus 1 is recorded in a more “traditional” way in these sessions.

2L-090-PABD (Blu-ray) / 2L-090A-LP (CD Part 1) / 2L-090C-LP (CD Part 2)

Our Labels

Soli Deo Gloria

Jul-AUG 2012

SIMAX

classics

DVD / BLU-RAY

Leonard Bernstein BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No. 16 (Version for String Orchestra) HAYDN: Missa in tempore belli

֌පϬ ភ Ȇ ड ᚟ Н ᓴ The All Star Percussion Ensemble

Autumn in Seattle

Esther

GSLP001R / GSLP001-LE ~ 欑ύⒾグ⓫⎱䏴⎠䏃

FIMLP004R / FIMLP004-LE ~ 欑ύⒾグ⓫⎱䏴⎠䏃

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ӓ ௲ ߡ ‫ ے‬ག ፱ ‫ ڀ‬ԕ The Hot Club of San Francisco Yerba Buena Bounce

RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances; Vocalise

Dick Hyman From The Age of Swing

Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite/ The Song of the Nightingale

RM-2503 45 rpm, 200-gram (2-LP)

RM-1504 33 1/3 rpm , 200-gram

RM-2501 45 rpm, 200-gram (2-LP)

RM-1502 33 1/3 rpm , 200-gram

ߡ ‫ ៳ ࠛ ے‬ӓ ጹ ག ፱

DXD (352.8kHz/24bit)

TrondheimSolistene

SOUVENIR Part 1

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) SERENADE for Strings in C (op. 48) Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) SUITE for String Orchestra (op. 1)

Part 2

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) SOUVENIR de Florence (op. 70) Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) Ved en Ung Kunstners Baare (fs. 58) 2L090ALP

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2L090CLP