A 2020 GRAMMY nominee for Best Choral Performance!

GRAMMY-winning chamber choir The Crossing is back with their latest installment in a multi-album series with Navona Records. In this latest offering, artistic director Donald Nally leads the choir through six striking pieces by composer James Primosch that confront the most elemental questions of Western philosophy. CARTHAGE opens with Journey, a solemn meditation in which the men of The Crossing chant text based on the work of 13th-century monk and mystic Meister Eckhart: “There is a journey you must take./It is a journey without destination./There is no map./Your soul will lead you./And you can take nothing with you.” Next comes the title track, Carthage, on prose by Marilynne Robinson from her novel Housekeeping, which employs the devastated city of Carthage as a metaphor for desire and imagination: “For to wish for a hand on one’s hair is all but to feel it.” Composer James Primosch evokes images of once-fertile fields now salted and wasted, with Nally teasing out the dynamic subtleties of a work that is nevertheless full of hope and rebirth. Following is Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus. Here, four soloists sing the Latin Mass texts, while the main choir sings Denise Levertov’s cycle of poems which gives the work its title. In pulling together these texts, Primosch celebrates the feast of St. Thomas Didymus, plumbing the depths between unbelief and faith in which true spirituality so often resides. The ancient texts are strangely illuminated by the highs and lows of Levertov’s journey. The album closes with One with the Darkness, One with the Light, a setting of poetry by Wendell Berry. True to its title, the music employs cascading harmonic textures to explore the tension between light and dark, waking and sleeping, life and death.

While Hill' first three string quartets were reminiscent of Dvor-Ak and Tchaikovsky, these three demonstrate new directions. With the slow movement of Quartet No. 4 hinting at influences of Elgar, and Quartet No.

Composer Axel Borup-Jorgensen never held a high-profile post as an academic or performer. Rather, he chose to live a quiet life composing and teaching piano. With an intensely personal style, Borup-Jorgensen was a scrupulous modernist. His music has a concentrated language and an advancement of expression. Although Borup-Jorgensen was an adept pianist, he did not write a great deal of literature for the instrument. The works on this release are an overview of his piano output, and span almost five decades. Interpreting this demanding repertoire is pianist Erik Kaltoft. Kaltoft is a contemporary music specialist, and was also a friend, colleague, and collaborator with the composer for forty-five years.

This never-before-released-in-any-format, newly re-mastered, 1960 live performance of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman features the soprano Anja Silja (b. 1940) as Senta in her electrifying Bayreuth Festival debut. +Ms. Silja was a sensational presence on the Bayreuth stage throughout the 1960’s. + Conducted by the eminent Wolfgang Sawallisch, this recording also features tenors Franz Crass and Fritz Uhl, and bass Josef Greindl, noted Wagnerians all, in leading roles.

Expanded Edition: This album contains new tracks that were not available on the original, limited release version, released on-demand in 2015

The essence of The King’s Singers has always been live performance. On Christmas Presence, the beloved acapella group gives the listener the experience of being at a live King’s Singers concert in one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, from the comfort of their own home. The program for this special holiday concert takes the listener through various ages and styles of music, from the Renaissance to the present day. A sublime accompaniment to the holiday season, the King's Singers open with sacred music, move through modern carols, and end with festive musical favorites.

-----

REVIEWS:

This live performance catches The King’s Singers in particularly fresh, spontaneous fettle, as their 50th anniversary approaches.

– BBC Music Magazine

Recorded live at King’s College, Cambridge in 2015, the King’s Singers are as alluring as ever. All is given with that familiar, deliciously fragile refinement.

– The Sunday Times (UK)

Classical Music

Tatiana Nikolaeva's prophesy about her pupil Nikolai Lugansky - "He is the next one"- has come true. Lugansky is now regarded as one of the major pianists from the Russian Piano School, enjoying a dazzling career across all the continents, playing with the most important orchestras and conductors in world renowned concert venues. He is universally praised for his sincere interpretations, his honesty, his deep burning passion and (last but not least) his limitless and unbelievably perfected technique. This Schumann program offers two major large scale works, played with grandeur and nobility, and a dazzling performance ofsynthesize the fiendishly difficult Toccata. Splendid sonics are featured on this recording dating from the mid-nineties.

Classical Music

BAUER: Orchestral and Chamber Works

Matei Varga’s artistry has received standing ovations from audiences around the world and superlative reviews from prominent critics. Noting that “it is hard to find the right words to describe the beauty” of Mr. Varga’s playing, Corriere della Sera’s chief critic Paolo Isotta praised the young artist as a “true poet of the keyboard, a musician of depth, and a genuine artist.” Other critics have found his performances “impressive” (Gramophone, 2016), “magical” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2009), “colorful, vivacious [and] engaging” (Le Diapason, 2012). Discovered at age 10 by soprano Mariana Nicolesco, he went on to win top prizes at the George Enescu International Piano Competition and the International Maria Canals Piano Competition. Mr. Varga is also a recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and a runner-up at the Vendome Prize in Lisbon, where he was singled out by Elisabeth Leonskaja who awarded him a special prize. This release features rarely heard and recorded works by Dinu Lipatti and Tudor Dumitrescu, the theme throughout the album being the undercurrent of sadness that all of these pieces possess.

GUDMUNDSEN-HOLMGREEN: Chamber Music

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

This is Volume 4 in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s project to record the complete piano sonatas of Haydn. The last volume in the series was a Critic’s Choice in Gramophone, an Instrumental Choice in BBC Music, Editor’s Choice in Classic FM, and Recording of the Month in MusicWeb International.

In the words of Bavouzet himself: ‘Each volume of this ambitious, extended project will arrive over the years like a postcard, dispatched during my travels with scant respect for chronological considerations, but undertaken with the greatest passion for trying to convey as vividly as possible to twenty-first-century ears the boundless treasures of this sublime music.’

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet received a BBC Music Award in 2012 and a Gramophone Award in 2011 for his recording of works by Debussy and Ravel (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier). His recording of Bartók’s Concertos (with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic) was short-listed for a Gramophone Award, and he has won multiple awards for his recording of the complete works for solo piano by Debussy.

REVIEWS

Bavouzet doesn’t disappoint. He leans towards passion...but melancholy also surfaces through rubato, embellished repeats, control of line, pace and dynamics. This is a performance of stature with not a trace of the slick superficiality that mars matters elsewhere.

--Gramophone

These are marvelous works: every one of them has something inspired to capture your attention. In Sonata No. 38, that would have to be the central Adagio, one of those touchstone classical melodies that seem to sum up all that was most beautiful in 18th century music. Sonata No. 40 has only two movements, an intricate opening Moderato and a charming concluding Minuet.

Like No. 38, Sonata No. 30 is a substantial work in three movements[.] Bavouzet’s aptly spiky articulation of the main theme reminds us that Haydn’s early sonatas were likely composed with the harpsichord in mind, but they lose nothing (and gain much) from being played on a modern piano. This program also includes the moody Variations in F minor. Bavouzet’s interpretation is aptly pre-romantic...Haydn’s original, shorter cadenza/coda, without that astonishing tragic eruption that vaults the music forward into the 19th century...Haydn lovers are in keyboard heaven.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Rising-star period keyboardist Julian Perkins makes his solo Resonus Classics debut with a new recording of the French Suites by J.S. Bach. Seldom recorded on the clavichord, thought to be Bach's keyboard instrument of choice, the Suites' versatile, expressive, and lyrical qualities are expertly revealed by Perkins on this, the gentlest and most intimate of all keyboard instruments. Performing on two instruments by the maker Peter Bavington, the program is completed with two further suites: one earlier partita by Johann Jakob Froberger, and one more contemporary suite by Georg Philipp Telemann, previously attributed to Bach himself.

J.S. Bach composed his St John Passion during his first winter in Leipzig, in advance of the Good Friday Vespers service of 1724. It is written for an intimate ensemble (much more modest than the scoring of his later St Matthew Passion) and was originally to be performed in the Thomaskirche, being moved to the Nikolaikirche at short notice. The music is a vivid representation of Christ's Passion as told in St John's Gospel, constructed of recitatives and choruses, with commentary in reflective chorales, ariosos and arias. The music is, by nature of the story, inherently dramatic, and tells the story of Jesus' death through the words of the Evangelist (tenor), Christ (bass) and a number of smaller roles including Pilate and Peter. Few who attended the service in the Nikolaikirche can have experienced, outside of the opera house, a work on the scale of the St John Passion, one that included such a large proportion of recitative. Today it, together with the St Matthew Passion, is regarded as a masterpiece of devout Lutheran church music, but in it's day it must have sounded radical. That being said, the chorales (or "hymns") within the work were designed to involve everyone in the performance, and these would have been familiar to the congregation (Melchior Vulpius's melody, for instance) - whether or not they ended up singing them. Some of the most affective moments of the work occur in these chorales as well as in the arias, which are remarkable for their range of expression as well as their instrumentation. Take, for instance, the poignant use of the bass viol in the accompaniment of Jesus' last words on the cross in the expressive aria 'Es ist vollbracht'. A masterpiece of expression and theatricality such as the St John Passion requires a masterful interpretation; in this recording, under the baton of Ludwig Güttler - who shot to fame as a Baroque trumpeter - the Hallenser Madrigalisten and Virtuosi Saxoniae rise to the challenge, giving a "technically accomplished and expressive" performance (Gramophone). They are joined by acclaimed tenor Christoph Genz in the role of the Evangelist and Egbert Junghanns as Jesus. Bach's Johannes Passion may be on a smaller scale than the Matthäus Passion, it is by no means less monumental or dramatic. This reissue of a Berlin Classics recording achieves with it's relatively small ensemble and choir an intimate yet powerful performance in which the drama of Christ's suffering is presented in deeply moving arias and chorales. Played on modern instruments the Virtuosi Saxoniae under Ludwig Güttler adhere to the principles of Historically Informed Performance Practice. The soloists include Christoph Genz, Christiane Oelze and Egbert Junghanns.

Classical Music

Adolfo Fumagalli (1828–56), one of four musician brothers from Inzago, near Milan, made a name for himself across Europe as ‘the Paganini of the piano’, astonishing audiences with dazzling technique and acquiring a reputation for performances using his left hand alone. Fumagalli composed a large body of piano music – over 100 opus numbers – many being operatic fantasies and virtuosic studies of the type presented in this anniversary recital given in his home town. The CD also features several virtuoso studies from the set of 24 in Fumagalli’s École du pianiste modern, published in Paris in 1854.

With this new release the Naxos catalog now includes all extant versions of Bruckner's much massaged Symphony No. 3. Georg Tintner's imposing account of the 1873 original made a powerful and seemingly irrefutable case for Bruckner's first thoughts. But Johannes Wildner is equally persuasive in his compelling rendition of the second version from 1877. Here Bruckner tamed the sometimes discursive quality of his original inspiration, giving it a tighter and more or less conventional structure--at least as defined by Brucknerian standards. Though this came at a sacrifice of some of the music's more radical passages, the symphony remains a powerful and affecting work.


Wildner's conviction is immediately apparent in the first movement: Listen as he builds the opening's two great climaxes with arresting force, then infuses the following lyrical second subject with an ingratiating warmth. Fine as the first movement is, it's actually the Adagio and Finale that benefit most from Wildner's probing conducting, as both movements sound with a rare formal coherence married to dramatic impact. As a bonus, the first disc of this double set also includes the composer's intermediate version (1876) of the Adagio.


Bruckner's 1889 revision of the symphony is controversial for its sometimes ungainly melding of his early and late styles, as well as for the cuts--reportedly influenced by Franz Schalk--that gouge out large portions of the finale. However, Wildner miraculously smooths out the symphony's rough edges by adopting swift tempos (the first movement now has lost nearly four minutes), streamlined phrasing, and light textures; he also imparts an early-romantic, almost Mendelssohnian feel that makes this last version sound paradoxically like the earliest, contemporaneous with the Second Symphony.


The Westphalia New Philharmonic members perform with the same enthusiasm and expertise they displayed in their recording of the Ninth Symphony. And though the strings still don't match the richness of their world-class competition, the brass project more boldly and surely than before, and the orchestra as a whole cultivates an authentic yet distinctive Bruckner sound. Naxos' recording offers impressive clarity and dynamic range, though the dry hall acoustic doesn't provide much warmth. No matter--the heat generated by Wildner and his players more than compensates. [2/21/2004]
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Of all Berlioz's Shakespeare-inspired works, Romeo et Juliette is unquestionably his masterpiece. It is also cast in an innovative new form, a kind of 'super-symphony' that incorporates elements of symphony, opera and oratorio. Berlioz composed no singing roles for the central characters, but allowed others to comment or narrate, giving latitude to incarnate the lovers in a musical language of extraordinary delicacy and passion. The vivid 'Ball Scene' and 'Romeo at the Capulet tomb' are intensely dramatic but the heart of the work is the 'Love Scene,' a long symphonic poem which Richard Wagner called 'the melody of the 19th century.'

The pioneering work and unconventional ideas of John Cage deeply affected Western music during the second half of the 20th century. This second of two volumes completes Katrin Zenz's review of his complete works for flute. The earlier chromatic pieces include an incredible variety of extended techniques and a perplexing rhythmic complexity. The elements of chance and experimentation in the later compositions result in music that is constantly undergoing seismic shifts in form and expression. The elegance and purpose of Cage's music rests in a tenderness and devoutness that he stated should "sober and quiet the mind, thus rendering it susceptible to divine influences."

Classical Music