On this new and interesting release, the works of two Italian Renaissance masters are performed on the accordion. The accordion is slowly emancipating, shedding its “light entertainment” image and claiming its right as a serious and valuable musical instrument. Its possibilities are enormous, its sounds and sonorities as varied as a church organ. This new recording presents keyboard works by Frescobaldi and Gesualdo, works which were intended for either harpsichord or organ, and therefore may be played on any keyboard instrument. The realization on accordion is fascinating in its fusion of both the harpsichord (its tactile precision) and the organ (its sustained polyphony.) Italian Francesco Gesualdi is one of the world’s foremost accordionists. He commissioned works for his instrument with many contemporary composers, and is well connected with composers such as Marucio Kagel, Sofia Gubaidulina and Wolfgang Rihm.

"Over the years, the pianist Jorge Federico Osorio has garnered extraordinary praise. Osorio’s interest in wrongly neglected repertoire continues on [this] recording, which explores salon music written around the beginning of the last century by four Mexican composers: Manuel Ponce, Ricardo Castro, Felipe Villanueva, and José Rolón.

"I suspect that even the purists will be impressed and moved by many of these gentle and quirky works—the four Ponce works, the Castro Mazurka and Barcarolle, and the half-dozen or so Villanueva and Castro waltzes deserve to be singled out.

"I have never heard a Çedille recording that deserved less than a perfect score in the sound engineering department, and this one is no exception. In sum, a delightful recording that confirms Osorio’s outstanding artistry."

--FANFARE (Radu A. Lelutiu)

This release presents the first books of both the Preludes and the Images, works in which Debussy found his mature piano style, full of unheard colors, atmospheres and perfumes, each with a descriptive title, but even without the title pure creations of imagination and craftmanship. Alessandra Ammara is one of the finest Italian pianists of today. Her affinity with the French impressionist music is confirmed by her extraordinary recording of Ravel's piano works.

"• The AAM celebrates its 40thanniversary year with this landmark new recording of Bach's St. John Passion. • The second release on the newly launched AAM label. • Features a cast of superb soloists. • Rare recording of the work's first version, dating from 1724. • Further content available online. • “No better team could be assembled anywhere...Pity, terror, consolation...joy” - The Ark Desk (March 2013) reviewing a concert performance of this work with this same cast. "

AVE MARIA 3 POLISH MASSES 4

Missouri-based choir Kantorei of Kansas City and their director Chris Munce return to Resonus Classics with a sparkling recording of carols and motets for Christmas. With a compelling programme of Renaissance and contemporary works for the festive season that presents the Christmas story and the journey to Bethlehem, including a number of world premiere recording. Kantorei explores rarely heard works by Renaissance composers such as Giovanni Bassano, Melchior Vulpius, Jakob Reiner and Blasius Amon combined with contemporary composers including Matthew Culloton, Ivo Antognini, R. Douglas Helvering and Kim André Arnesen among others.

BACH, J.S.: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (Highlights)

With vol. 8, pianist Florian Uhlig reaches the midway point of his widely acclaimed, much admired first truly integral Schumann recording project. - This new CD deals with the dual nature of the composer and writer, finding it's finest expression in the David's b�ndlert�nze (1st version, op. 6). - The typical romantic play of rubrics, musical ciphers and pseudonyms can also be found in the Carnival, op. 9. - Additionally, Mr. Uhlig has collected some related miniatures that Schumann either rejected or were never included in subsequent printed editions, at least three being world premiere recordings.

Rolf Riehm is... an unconventional artist. Before him, nobody has ever sensualized in music such a complex cosmos of philosophical reflections, historical facts, myths, fairytales, memories, scientific arguments, the sublime and the trivial, current sociopolitical findings, very personal ingredients and contributions.' - Bernd Leukert. In a letter to Guy Braunstein, soloist at the world premiere, Riehm describes “Shifting” for violin and orchestra as 'a huge, sweeping melody. For me, it is like a river that continually gains new strength from the downhill slope of its landscape – the landscape here is the expressivity which gives impetus to the "melody" and drives it forward, "…moltissimo appassionato…". The third section is nothing other than a single suspension extended to almost five minutes. And then shortly before the end: no more restrictions, no excessive pressures, only free movement. This is the true beginning of the piece!' Riehm sees his composition “Archipel Remix” for orchestra with electronic playbacks as an 'archipelago, a complex of islands, consisting of differently sized islands. The piece starts at the beginning and ends at the end, unsurprisingly, but I want to avoid [the natural passage of time]. Hence the metaphor of the archipelago and the type of designation.' - Marion Saxer & Rolf Riehm)

What happens if the composer and the listener are the same person? This is exactly what Jo Kondo’s way of composing implies. If the composer is to be nothing but a curious listener, he must be able to surprise himself. He must rid himself of all prior knowledge or intention. Born in Tokyo in 1947, Jo Kondo was influenced throughout his entire education almost exclusively by traditional Western art music. Like so many of his Western colleagues, he feels this to be both a limitation and the greatest challenge to the creative process. “The music one grows up with is like a cage one has to break out of.” The type of improvisation that Jo Kondo employs is only loosely related to improvisation as it is commonly understood. Kondo does not improvise using an instrument, but with music paper, note by note. “I write down the first note, which can be anything, and then I try to listen to it again and again in my head until the second note appears. Then I write it down, and then I listen to these two notes again and again until the third note comes up. And then, repeating this process, I always go back to the top of the music to find the next note. That means that when I have 150 notes already in succession on my paper, I find number 151 by going back to the top of the piece and listening through from the top to the 150th note to find the next note. That’s what I mean by improvisation.” - Jo Kondo All of Jo Kondo’s pieces have been written using this method. The result is a completely linear music that avoids any kind of obvious phrasing, melody, or motivic development, permitting the individual note to retain “its own entity of life”. Since even a musical line can endanger this fragile autonomy, Kondo distributes the notes among the various instrumental parts. This “hocket” technique, which has been used since the thirteenth century, demands enormous rhythmic virtuosity from the performers to avoid disrupting the organic unity of the extremely fragmented line. Thus, there is space left for the listener to create his own phrasing out of it.

“There are countless reasons for loving Bach’s music. Certain musicians and music-lovers are fascinated by its complexity, its flawless craftmanship. Others treasure it for its emotional, spiritual significance with total absence of sentimentality. Others, still, are seduced by Bach’s appealing mixture of transparency and warmth.. When I learn that a composer of Bach’s stature published his impressive collection of partitas under the modest title Clavierübung (“Exercise for Keyboard”), and when I read his statement that music’s only purpose should be “the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit”, I see that he was manifestly excluding his own person – a gesture that stands in stark contrast with my own generation’s chronic hubris and boundless egocentricity.” (Schaghajegh Nosrati)

Founded in 1985, the Kammerata Luxembourg has established itself at the centre of the country’s musical life with new commissions, concert series and recordings, supported by its ministry of culture. One recent enterprising series was named ‘The European Union Enlarges’, focusing on the chamber music of future EU states, and others such as this album have constructed enlightening juxtapositions of modern and Romantic-era repertoire. Few composers from the 19th century have exercised so potent an influence upon composers of our time as Robert Schumann. His abrupt changes of mood and intense, passionate commitment to individual expressive states have seized the imagination of many composers as well as listeners. Not the least of them is Schumann’s fellow German AribertReimann, In arranging the Fantasiestücke Op.73, Reimann altered not a note of the clarinet part while arranging the piano accompaniment for the unusual combination of flute, a harp and two violas, which enables him to explore both the sombre timbres and the more ethereal hues of the score. The Op.107 songs are united by both a theme of unrequited love and a mood of wistful other-worldliness, which Reimann accentuates with an often-Expressionist recasting of the piano part for string quartet. The other original work here is the collection of canonic pieces originally written for a pedal piano and arranged by Schumann’s contemporary Theodor Kirchner. Meanwhile, the two contemporary responses to Schumann are undertaken in a spirit of the most sincere love and homage. Kurtág’s instrumentation for clarinet, viola and piano refers back to the Op.132 Märchenerzählungen – fairy tales – and he peppers his score with both literary allusions and references back to the object of his homage. Jörg Widmann likewise evokes Schumann’s Op.23 Nachtstücke in his own trio for clarinet, cello and piano. Anyone fearful of new music need not hesitate: Widmann insinuates himself into a world of Romantic melancholy with uncanny skill.

This new release is an artistic game of interrelationships and transference. With his brilliant technique, Daniel Muller-Schott reveals two new cello concertos from the early Classical triumvirate of composers. Daniel Müller-Schott ranks among the world’s best cellists of his generation and can be heard on all of the foremost international concert stages. He has made his mark by delighting audiences for two decades “a fearless player with technique to burn” (New York Times). In addition to performances of the great cello concertos, Daniel Müller-Schott has a special interest in discovering unknown works and extending the cello repertoire, e.g. with his own adaptations and through cooperation with contemporary composers.

Over four centuries separate these two representatives of English music at it's finest. William Cornysh and Benjamin Britten were prolific in both sacred and secular music. Cornysh is actually two people, often confused with one another and quite possibly father and son. The matter of telling which man wrote which works is impossible to settle, so for the purpose of this album they are linked as one. So whether it be the Elder or the Younger, we are fortunate that they not only excelled at writing complex and adventurous antiphons for the church but also beautiful secular songs for the Tudor court. For Britten writing in the 20th-century life was very different; he is a composer who encompassed so many facets of music excelling in opera, solo song and all manners of vocal and instrumental music. This album looks at the way these composers mixed sacred with secular. Whilst Cornysh's sacred music is elaborate and rhythmically complicated, his secular music is simple yet subtly evocative. Britten makes constant demands on vocal artistry best displayed in the last work he ever wrote for unaccompanied voices, Sacred and Profane.

The real life marriage of two great concert pianists, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, has led to one of the leading piano duos of their generation. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts, "Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one." Stavinsky's Pétrouchka was originally arranged for four-hands by the composer as a rehearsal score for the Ballet Russes production of the same name, but in this stripped-down it brings Stravinsky's melodic, rhythmic and harmonic inventiveness to the fore. Brahms's 16 Waltzes Op.39 are an enchanting collection of Romantic miniatures that simultaneously nod to the musical lineage of the composer's home in Vienna whilst asserting his own flair and individuality. The final four tangos by Piazzolla are a full of Argentine flair and vigour, and were arranged especially for this recording by Bax & Chung.

Classical Music

Holzhey Organ: Rot an der Rot

Xavier Sabata has long since established himself as an exponent of the great roles for countertenor and he is a welcome guest on the stages of opera houses worldwide. His discography to date illustrates his voice-motivated focus on music from 1600 to 1800 while also presenting the portrait of an artist who engages with intellectual concepts across the world and throughout the ages. His debut album on Berlin Classics marks his departure from Baroque terrain and makes him a wanderer, in more senses than one, facing the emotional and vocal challenges of Schubert's "Winterreise". In an age in which Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition are played on the accordion, Vivaldi's Four Seasons taken apart and rearranged, and a chamber septet can perform the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach, the old idea of fidelity to the Urtext loses it's significance. It seems that these days, nothing is sacred: not even the greatest work of the Lieder repertoire, Franz Schubert's Winterreise. Catalan countertenor Xavier Sabata sings the work, written one year before the composer's death, with the support of pianist Francisco Poyato and in doing so is one of the first of his fach to have tackled the cycle. He himself sees no reason why his voice register should be an issue. "Schubert had friends who were not professional singers and still sang his Lieder. I am so grateful that women have taken it upon themselves to sing this work. Why should a counter-tenor not sing it too, if he succeeds in bringing out the deep inner conflicts, feelings and meanings of the piece?" "I am no lover of assignment to particular registers," says Xavier Sabata. "Many people are happier when they can pigeonhole a thing. That may even provide a degree of reassurance. But music and art must never have labels stuck to them! Every time something is performed, a new work of art is created."

This new release contains the Kit-Kat Band’s original LP recordings from 1979, revisited and presented as a new album for a whole new generation to enjoy. The Kit-Cat band was the house band of the Kit-Cat night club in London that first opened its doors in 1924. The 10 piece band was assembled by Britain’s best-known band leader, Jack Hylton, and was directed by Boston saxophonist, Al Starita. Producer Chris Ellis recently rediscovered this album which he produced in 1979. Upon hearing it again, he felt that it was worthy of being represented to a new audience. Ellis kept the original notes by Brian rust, and the cover art was given to Ellis by his friend Margret, Duchess of Argyll.

Classical Music