For as long as I can remember, music has been part of my life. Through music, I have expressed myself and travelled the world; it nourishes me every day. 2017 marks both the 40th year of my musical career and the 20th anniversary of La Pietà. This recording is also my 40th. With so many round and festive numbers, and after so many musical encounters with you, I owed this recording to you. I therefore thought I would listen to the many requests I get to record another album of film music – and in fact go one better and do a double album. There is so much incredible material to choose from, but I found myself drawn to music that is at once beautiful, powerful, and evocative, even when removed from its original context. Some of these melodies are rather sweet; others are more salty. Together, they cover an entire range of emotions. I personally researched this repertoire and selected a variety of fi lm score excerpts with the notion of taking a fresh look at the original versions and adding a new dimension with my violin and the wonderful musicians of La Pietà. I also worked closely with arrangers and composers of this new recording. They have my gratitude and admiration. I also wish to thank the team at Analekta for their trust over the years, their support, and their world-class expertise. But my raison d’être as a musician is my audience, and it is to you that I dedicate this 40th – though I guess since it’s a double, 41st – album. Thank you for listening all these years! Angèle Dubeau, O.C., C.Q., DFA
Leclair: Sonatas for Two Violins, Op. 3 / Hoebig, Stobbe
Analekta
CD
$20.99Mar 16, 2018
Two prominent Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra musicians, concertmaster Gwen Hoebig, and associate concertmaster Karl Stobbe, offer an album rich in emotion and virtuosity. Opus 3 sonatas for two violins, by French composer Jean-Marie Leclair, is an amazing work with lilting pastorals, graceful sarabandes and fiery jigs, and is played admirably by Hoebig and Stobbe. Leclair, considered the father of violin in France, lived a tumultuous life that led to his assassination in 1764. His ex-wife and nephew, each with their own motives that could make them credible suspects, did not confess and the murder was never resolved. Recognized as one of Canada’s most outstanding violinists, Gwen Hoebig is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City. As a student she won every major Canadian music competition, and in 1981 was the top prizewinner at the Munich International Violin Competition. Karl Stobbe has made a name for himself as one of Canada’s most accomplished and diverse violinists. In addition to appearing frequently as a concertmaster in Canada and the United States, Karl regularly performs concerti, recitals, and chamber music, where his concerts have been called “a clinic in the art of violin playing” (Winnipeg Free Press, 2013).
-----
REVIEW:
The duo have technical mastery to spare, with a bright, clear sound and beautifully clean playing. The first and second violin parts are equally important here, with constant interplay and textural depth, and it’s virtually impossible to tell them apart. The hope that these performances go beyond the technical challenges to give a sense of the man who created them is more than fulfilled in an outstanding CD.
"I have never placed limits on my choice of repertoire, and for this project, I pushed my curiosity to the extreme, toward a world that was completely unknown to me. In my quest to discover the gems of modern music, I listened to many works written and revisited by composers of great talent. When I began my research, video games quickly emerged as a logical avenue of exploration. I have always strived to interest young people in classical music because I feel it has the power to touch everyone. Seeing the passion of young people for video games, I wanted to understand the secrets of their success and to evaluate their musical value. On my most recent recording, I approached movie music without consideration for the images and scenes that inspired it, and I took the same tack in reviewing the gold mine that is video game music. I have assembled here the works that spoke to me, giving no real thought to the adventures they accompany. I immersed myself in the worlds that created these excerpts, and I conveyed my new conception to the musicians of La Pietà, going into great detail to bring forth all of their beauty and power. Above all, I wanted to avoid distorting them, and my intention has been to preserve the form that initially won over video game aficionados while at the same time breathing new life into them. So it is with great pleasure that I invite you to dive into the fantastical world of video games with me." – Angèle Dubeau
Vivaldi - The Baroque Gypsies / Maute, Ensemble Caprice
Analekta
CD
$15.99$20.99Save 25%May 15, 2007
As a virtuoso and composer, Vivaldi travelled widely, and it is likely that he encountered nomadic musicians during these excursions. One can also easily imagine how travellers arriving from Eastern European countries would perform their music along the Slavic Canal where Vivaldi taught for many years at an orphanage school. Telemann comments in one of his autobiographies that a skilled composer could gain enough musical inspiration to last a lifetime by listening to gypsy musicians. The obvious closeness to gypsy music of the motifs used in the opening tutti in the third movement of the late concerto RV 375 makes a link even more tempting to surmise. The ragged initial sixteenth notes, the syncopated rhythms, the abrupt dynamic contrasts and the pianissimo passages that appear are almost identical in the Uhrovska collection (1730) of gypsy music.
The Uhrovska collection (named for the town in Slovakia where it was found) is a fascinating document that provides a direct glimpse into the world of gypsy music. The approximately 350 melodies it contains were probably intended to be as comprehensive a collection of gypsy music as possible. Its multi-national character documents the extent to which the gypsies—and their music with them—travelled. Hungarian melodies stand next to Czech songs and the location of Uhrovska's discovery in Slovakia suggests further national influences.
It became obvious to us during this project that the undercurrent of kinship between these two different music styles is too insistent and that the rough and fresh gypsy music must have exerted a great fascination on a composer like Vivaldi. Although cause for speculation remains, we hope that the listener will be inclined to share our enthusiasm for this unusual musical encounter.
-- Matthias Maute
Tracks include 17 anonymous pieces from the Uhrovska collection of gypsy music as well as Vivaldi concertos RV 375, RV 533, RV 104, and P 81.
The new album Schubert: Explorations by pianist Mathieu Gaudet is the fourth volume in his wonderful collection The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano of the great German composer Franz Schubert. Between his early “post-Mozartean” sonatas and late masterpieces of symphonic proportions, Schubert spent the years 1817 and 1818 exploring the possibilities of the piano sonata, through unusual harmonic relationships, intensive use of trills, heightened virtuosity, lengthy chord repetitions and extreme dynamic contrasts. We find on the album two works from this early period as well as two others from 1823-24 which are true jewels that contain all the essence of his genius.
