Classical Music

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

Susan Narucki has worked closely with Kurtág on the interpretation of these songs, and her readings may be regarded as definitive.

American soprano and Latin Grammy-nominee Susan Narucki, one of today’s most committed advocates of the music of our time, has a deep and lasting working relationship with Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag which dates back to 1986. Susan’s luminous tone and distinctive artistry and Kurtag’s idiosyncratic fusion of poetry and music come together in this quintessential recorded collection of some of the composer’s most iconoclastic vocal works. In Susan’s words, “I have spent much of my life immersed in this repertoire, and it has become essential to the way I understand music; it is the heart of my practice as a musician.” Equally appreciative, Kurtag acknowledges Susan, “who sang so warmly, purely, so ‘integer’ these songs- with thanks and love.”

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REVIEWS:

Susan Narucki has worked closely with Kurtág, in Hungary, on the interpretation of these songs, and her readings may be regarded as definitive. She puts across how Kurtág's songs, more than embodying a relationship between text and music, constitute a heroic attempt to weld the two, through the use of extremely detailed instructions in the score, into a single unit. Small though they are, they may be regarded as virtuoso works. Recommended, although not to everyone's taste.

– All Music Guide (James Mannheim)

These seven songs, a highlight in this album of Kurtag’s vocal works, pass in just over nine minutes: dark little pools of fervor, articulated by Ms. Narucki with precision and tenderness and accompanied by just the percussive cimbalom, played here with richly pianistic resonance by Nicholas Tolle.

– New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)

The singer-songwriter tradition of any country reflects the hearts and thoughts of the people, and in Russia this is no different. In quiet, often acoustic settings, the artist performs his music, making the song and it's words the focus above all else. Through vivid lyrics, metaphorical language, and soulful melody, the singer-songwriter can mask controversial and difficult topics to bring his message home, or simply convey his most personal thoughts through music. During the days of the Soviet Union, artists like Vysotsky, Vertinsky, and Okudjava pioneered the Russian singer-songwriter style. All wrote on themes central to Russian life, sang with heartfelt passion, popularized a genre for the people and about the people, and, through their individual and unique styles of performances, ensured the lasting popularity of the singer-songwriter.

Venetian musician and composer Antonio Caldara (1670-1736), unlike some of his contemporaries who today are quite famous but experienced little fame during their lifetimes, enjoyed enormous success, then faded inexplicably from music history. +Alongside a vast production of vocal music, his only significant instrumental works are two trio sonata collections published during his youth, as well as these “sonate a violoncello solo col basso”, composed in 1735, a year before his passing.

Classical Music

Following its successful run of unabridged Dickens titles, Naxos AudioBooks has turned its attention to Henry James. Further titles are planned for 2018. In the second novel of James’s celebrated late period, American Lambert Strether is sent to Paris on behalf of Mrs. Newsome, his fiance, to collect her son, Chad. When Strether finds Chad, he discovers an altered man and becomes introduced to a free and unconventional style of life that soon intoxicates him. His views begin to change; the morality of Woollett, his hometown, becomes foreign, and the ‘ambassador’ loses sight of his mission… Part tragedy, part comedy, The Ambassadors is a rewarding portrait about one man’s late awakening. John Chancer is an award-winning narrator of many audiobooks. His soft American accent lends an authenticity to James’s intercontinental tale.

Also available on Blu-ray

Giacomo Puccini’s three act opera Turandot is set in China and tells the story of Prince Calaf who falls in love with the Princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles, but any wrong answer results in death. Rebeka Lokar is a “commanding Turandot” (Bachtrack) and Jorge de León as the Princess’ suitor a “true giant” (Corriere della Sera) with his perfect rendition of “Nessun dorma”. Grammy Award nominee Gianandrea Noseda impressively conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio “as modern as you have rarely experienced it. Chapeau!” (Operalounge) Stage director Stefano Poda dedicates himself to bring Puccini’s Ancient Chinese setting to life. To achieve an aesthetic and conceptual unity, his work also encompasses set and costume design as well as lighting and choreography. “Extraordinary Turandot” (La Repubblica), “unanimous applause at the end!” (La Stampa). “The icy Turandot inflames the Teatro Regio!” (Corriere della Sera)

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REVIEW:

Noseda will be missed at Turin, as this punchy and incisive performance reveals. Overall, speeds are brisk but there is plenty of atmospheric detail. Grimaldi’s Liù is really the true heroine here, given the production’s skewed emphasis. Still, it’s a pity that the Slovenian soprano Rebeka Lokar gets so little input into Turandot, as she attacks those murderous high notes in juicy and vibrant voice.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Emmanual Pahud, principal flutist of the Berliner Philharmonic, honors the 300th birthday of Frederick the Great with a concert recorded in the historic Royal Theater of the Neues Palais Potsdam. Trevor Pinnock is one of the pioneers of the modern revival of early music performance and he appears as a guest conductor with many world-renowned symphony orchestras and works by Frederick the Great, C.P.E. Bach, F. Benda and J.J. Quantz. "A fascinating snap-shot of the mid-18th century Berlin court." - BBC Music Magazine.

Grammy Award-winning baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire and its founder-director Jeannette Sorrell have blazed trails in the world of historically informed performance with pioneering programming, presentational flair and an entrepreneurial spirit, qualities that have earned them eight Billboard chart-topping albums and more than 7 million views on YouTube. Their latest release, which launches the ensemble’s 30th anniversary season, is destined to soar to similar heights: the ensemble’s first recording of the perennial audience favourite, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, featuring the phenomenal Spanish-born fiddler Francisco Fullana. Frequently performed at Apollo’s Fire home base in Cleveland, Ohio and on their international tours, “Sorrell’s vivid approach to the pictorial elements make these familiar works seem freshly minted, full of astonishing incident”, according to Seen & Heard International. Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been dubbed a “rising star” by BBC Music Magazine, and an “amazing talent” by conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The Four Seasons is the first of five releases spread throughout the season celebrating Apollo’s Fire’s milestone 30th anniversary.

When a CD bears the title 'Fantasia' for Viol and Piano, it is perhaps surprising that no less than two of the four recorded works correspond to the clearly defined form of the sonata. However, fantasia is not the designation of a musical genre, but rather expresses a basic intellectual attitude, a program. This does not mean that it is 'program music' in the proper sense - none of the four works display clear content-related links to a given program. Yet while listening one can easily get the impression that stories are being told. Not stories with a heroine or hero, or victors and losers, but atmospheric and emotional stories. The dark, soft sound of the viol is a wonderful transport medium for this.

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Recorded live from the Teatro Regio di Parma, 8 October 2011

Bonus:
- Verdi’s Backyard – A documentary by Sergej Grguric

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese (concert) / English, Italian (documentary)
Running time: 95 mins (concert) + 52 mins (documentary)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 50)

Five works for string orchestra of composers, fellow countrymen and contemporaries Paweł Łukaszewski (b. 1968) and Mikołaj Górecki (b. 1971) are featured on this Dux release. +Mr. Łukaszewski has received numerous commissions for new works, and his discography runs to over 90 CDs. +Mr. Górecki's works have received performances in Europe, Canada and America. +The Baltic Neopolis Orchestra is a chamber string orchestra founded in 2008 by violist Emilia Goch.

Classical Music

Vocal secular music in 17th century Spain began to be studied when Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Felipe Pedrell showed interest for the issue at the end of the 19th century. Everything pointed to an exponential increase in those studies with the arrival of the 21st century, but it was not the case. Once the first years of the new millennium were over, in which the studies by Gerardo Arriaga, Lola Josa and a few others were published, the research drastically decreased. This album aims to rekindle that preservation. The works here are sung pieces, in verse and vernacular language, known in that period as human tones (or just tones) when they were profane, and divine tones when they were religious. Those composed in the first half of the 17th century were mostly polyphonic, which reveals that, in this period, polyphony was still thought to be highest. The Book of Human Tones, preserved at present at the National Library of Spain under the signature M 1262, constitutes, with its 222 works, a privileged sample of all the aspects. Who might be interested in these works has now the possibility to listen to them in a retrained performance on four voices with harp accompaniment, one of the instruments used in this repertoire. If, on the one hand, the vocal quartet shows that the “grace notes” (“quiebros”) and voice effects do not constitute an impediment for the care of tuning, on the other hand the harp adds to the score beautiful introductory and transition passages based on the features of passacaglias and 17th century dances.

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Through Puccini represents the late-Romantic apex of the Italian operatic tradition, his songs are much less well known and, in their pared simplicity and emotional restraint, could hardly be more different from his stage works. The nineteen complete songs for soprano (two in duet with a mezzo) and piano cover themes typical of lyric poetry including life, death, personal resolution, love, nature, home and religious faith. There are also rare salon pieces and examples of Puccini's secular juvenilia, written between 1875 and 1880.

PIAZZOFORTE

Massenet: Werther

The decades around 1600 bore witness to the flourishing of a remarkable musical tradition: the art of diminution, in which simple melodies were given exquisitely virtuosic embellishments, effectively creating new works. One such creation, Francesco Rognoni’s ornamentation of Palestrina’s Io son ferito, was captioned ‘con arte e maestria’ – with art and mastery – referring to the consummate craftsmanship displayed in its invention and performance. Giving new life to this tradition was the inspiration for this unique programme: alongside iconic works from the diminution canon, Monteverdi String Band members Oliver Webber and Steven Devine present newly ornamented versions of a selection of sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century works.

“Mahler, Live” is a dialogue between two outstanding ballets, the world premiere of “4” by Martin Schläpfer and Hans van Manen‘s icon of dance history “Live”. The new director of the Vienna State Ballet Martin Schläpfer not only presents his first own program at the Vienna State Opera with the premiere “Mahler, Live” but also introduce himself as choreographer with his world premiere “4” to Gustav Mahler‘s 4th Symphony. The result is a great ballet for the entire ensemble, which is preceded by an icon of dance history at the opening of the evening, with Hans van Manen‘s “Live”. Hans van Manen‘s “Live” is the first video ballet in dance history and a masterful puzzle game with the mechanisms of perception. First performed in Amsterdam in 1979, “Live” has so far been danced exclusively by Het Nationale Ballett. With this new production in Vienna, Hans van Manen entrusts his work to another company for the first time. “The ballet evening Mahler, live at the Vienna State Opera is already writing dance history” (Kurier) “A sensational start. The Viennese have undoubtedly drawn a lucky draw.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).