Grammy Award-winning, “velvet voiced” (NPR) baritone Will Liverman presents a recital program honoring women in classical music, past and present, on Show Me The Way, his second “passion project” recording for Cedille.

Praised as “nothing short of extraordinary” (Opera News), Liverman has curated a moving and poignant recital celebrating American female composers from 20th-century trailblazers Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Amy Cheney Beach to present-day composers commissioned for this program. This new album, Liverman’s second with longtime recital partner pianist Jonathan King, is inspired by and honors the singer’s mother, gospel singer Terry Liverman, and their mutual love of song. The Livermans perform together on recording for the first time in their own arrangement of Alma Bazel Androzzo’s cherished hymn If I Can Help Somebody.

Two new song cycles serve as pillars of the recording: Jasmine Barnes’ A Sable Jubilee with a newly commissioned libretto by Tesia Kwarteng that celebrates Black Joy, and Libby Larsen’s three movement Machine Head: Ted Burke Poems, depicting everyday American life. Liverman premiered the cycles in an “extraordinary recital… as meaningful in content as it was rich with his resonant voice—both elements impressive for their range” (Aspen Times). Liverman, “one of the most versatile singing artists performing today,” (Bachtrack) is joined by all-star special guests including J’Nai Bridges in a somber new work by Rene Orth and Renée Fleming in Sarah Kirkland Snider’s mysterious and affecting Everything That Ever Was. He sings a duet from Amy Beach’s rarely performed opera, Cabildo, with Nicole Cabell, featuring violinist Lady Jess and cellist Tahirah Whittington.

Also featured on the album are Jonathan King’s arrangement of Ella Fitzgerald and Chick Webb’s You Show Me The Way originally performed by the duo at New York’s Savoy Ballroom, as well as a new work, Spell to Turn the World Around,by Kamala Sankaram, with a text that calls awareness to the destruction caused by wildfires. This recording follows Liverman’s “devastatingly beautiful” (The Washington Post), Billboard chart-topping and Grammy-nominated Cedille album, Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers.

After their first successful duo album Crescent where pianist Atzko Kohashi and bassist Tony Overwater celebrated the John Coltrane album Crescent, they now recorded a new album in celebration of drummers. They selected 8 compositions by drummers and added three songs dedicated to drummers.

Introducing the latest recording with Luisa Imorde and the Bremer Philharmoniker, featuring two great romantic Piano Concertos from Clara Schumann and Carl Maria von Weber. Following the success of her previous albums dedicated to Beethoven/Wölfl, Bach/Kapustin, and Couperin/Messiaen, the pianist now presents her latest recording that explores the romantic repertoire with orchestra. This album features two Piano Concertos that beautifully capture the essence of the romantic era, complemented by solo piano pieces by Robert and Clara Schumann and C.M. von Weber. Weber's departure from the classical to the romantic era and Schumann's legacy as a female composer bear witness to the mastery of both in Luisa Imorde's outstanding interpretation.

Ever since it quietly emerged on the international scene in the late ‘60s; Scandinavian jazz carved out for itself a distinctive niche. Drawing on the influence of Miles Davis and Gil Evans; Scandinavian jazz embraced a free, spacious; experimental; and contemplative aesthetic. It has also been open to modern or contemporary classical music and collaborations with European folk and ethnic-musicians. This is not OUR Recordings first journey into Scandinavian Jazz; the critically acclaimed album Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart; with legendary trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg; has proudly taken its place with other genre-defying Scandinavian jazz classics. Composer; trumpet and flugelhorn player Jakob Buchanan writes music specifically with the musicians he is working with in mind. Joining him on this important project are regular collaborators the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen and percussionist Marilyn Mazur. Together they conjure landscapes of beauty, power and sometimes deep melancholy. Mazur’s panoply of percussion function as an emotional “basso continuo,” speaking a language built out of pure rhythm while Buchanan’s solos emerge almost like ancient cantilations from the choral/orchestral textures. The Aarhus Jazz Orchestra is carefully orchestrated; and the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir provides an aura of ethereal beauty to this soundscape song and wind. In every way; Buchanan’s Song & Wind is a worthy successor to his earlier award-winning Requiem; (also written with Marilyn Mazur and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra in mind); a major work; expressive and full of beauty; drawing equally on the music of the past while charting a further course into the future.

Previously unreleased broadcast recordings capture Thomas Jensen in Baroque and Classical-era repertoire new to his discography. Jensen makes a stylish Mozartian in these rhythmically sprung and cultivated concert performances, given by the DRSO in Copenhagen and on tour. They are joined by the Danish violinist Tutter Givskov for one of Mozart’s earliest masterpieces, the Violin Concerto No. 3 K216.

A unique and imaginative collection newly recorded by a recent star of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition. Anna Geniushene’s fresh; layered; and powerful interpretations won her a worldwide following at the 2022 edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; where she took Silver Medal with a stunning account of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto which the critic for Gramophone compared in its power and nuance to Van Cliburn himself.

Born in Moscow; Anna Geniushene pursued graduate studies in London and now lives in Lithuania with her husband; the pianist Lukas Geniusas. In her own booklet introduction; she explains the inspiration for this quirky collection of instrumental lullabies. The Berceuse is ‘associated with tenderness; care; purest love; and the most sensitive moments in our lives.’ She dedicates the album to her two young sons. Perhaps the most celebrated Berceuse of all; by Chopin; is missing; because it was Anna Geniushene’s particular wish to find and share neglected examples of the genre; even by well-known composers. Debussy composed the Berceuse heroique during the First World War as a tribute to the soldiers on the Western Front. The Berceuse Elegiaque of Busoni is better known in its orchestral guise. The brief Berceuse by Hindemith; unpublished in his lifetime; ‘draws listeners’ attention by its utterly eloquent and typically sarcastic character; which has nothing in common with traditional lullabies.’ The sheer diversity of composers makes for a continually varied sequence. George Crumb evokes a magical night-time stillness with a minimum of notes. Mompou’s Berceuse is likewise remarkable for its distilled serenity; whereas the examples by Granados; John Field and Liszt bring comfort with more Romantically moulded melodies in the tradition of Chopin. Anna Geniushene closes the album with two Russian Berceuses; by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; lyrical; simple and utterly beguiling in her hands.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s 26th recording for Cedille Records, Dependent Arising, reveals surprising confluences between classical and heavy metal music by pairing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 with Earl Maneein’s “Dependent Arising” — Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Tito Muñoz.

Known for her virtuosity, expressive playing, and extensive repertoire, Pine discovered her love for heavy metal as a teenager, and later performed at rock radio stations where she would intersperse covers of songs by Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Metallica with works by Paganini and Ysaÿe. The album explores connections between modern classical music and heavy metal and showcases Pine’s unique journey with these two seemingly disparate genres.

Now a staple of the classical concerto repertory, Shostakovich’s emotionally charged Violin Concerto No. 1 also holds a special place among metal enthusiasts, with its diverse movements ranging from haunting Nocturne to relentless Burlesque. Earl Maneein’s “Dependent Arising” pushes the boundaries of traditional concerto composition and draws inspiration from the Western European classical music tradition, the world of “Extreme Metal,” and the composer’s practice as a Buddhist. Maneein ia also an acclaimed violinist and composer known for his unique and innovative fusion of western classical music, heavy metal, and hardcore punk,

The album was produced by the Grammy-winning team of James Ginsburg and engineer Bill Maylone, with session engineering by the RSNO’s Hedd Morfett-Jones. It was recorded January 7–8, 2022 at Scotland’s Studio, Glasgow.

Celebrated Mexican-born pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, “one of the most elegant and accomplished pianists on the planet” (Los Angeles Times) performs Romantic-era concertos and solo pieces by Mexican composers Ricardo Castro and Manuel María Ponce. A recipient of the prestigious Medalla Bellas Artes, the highest honor granted by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts, Osorio is joined for the concertos by Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería.

The works on this recording exemplify the highest point of the romantic musical language in vogue in Mexico at the end of the 19th century, which later initiated the musical Nationalist movement brought on by the Mexican Revolution. Both Castro and Ponce made significant contributions to the development of classical music in Mexico, and their music reflects a synthesis of Mexican and European traditions, with influences from Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy. Castro’s Piano Concerto in A minor exemplifies true romanticism with lavish and spectacular orchestral lines. Serving as companion pieces to the concerto, Osorio performs three of Castro’s charming and expressive solo works: Berceuse, Canto de amor, and Plainte. Ponce’s Piano Concerto No. 1 "Romantico" simultaneously exhibits themes of great brilliance for the soloist, lyricism, introspection, virtuosity and beauty. Osorio also performs four of Ponce’s short solo piano pieces including one of his most popular works, Gavota, which captures the romantic nostalgia of Mexican society before the Revolution.

REVIEW:

The recording is fine, and the piano is well balanced against the orchestra, who play with unanimity and commitment. Pianist Jorge Federico Osorio gives a performance of sustained virtuosity that certainly makes the case for both concertos.

-- MusicWeb International

Is there any music more instantly recognisable and beautifully scored than Tchaikovsky’s wildly popular ballet Swan Lake? These and other works have become enduring classics, yet they were not uncontroversial in Tchaikovsky’s day, and there are those that still wonder if his style is fundamentally European or ardently Russian. Find out more about Tchaikovsky’s childhood obsession with music, his turbulent relationships with friends and colleagues, and how he overcame the deepest of personal crises to transcend all with a creative ambition that has left us with some of the greatest music ever written. The narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, the 1812 Overture,The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, among others.

This latest release in the Great Composers in Words and Music series portrays Antonín  Dvořák as a complex and wide-ranging composer, and explores the creation and performance of his music as well as its reception on both sides of the Atlantic, tracing his art in all its richness and variety. Musical excerpts include the Cello Concerto, the ‘New World’ Symphony and the Slavonic Dances, as well as selected chamber pieces, songs, opera excerpts and more.

Difficult Grace, based on GRAMMY Award-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods’ multimedia concert tour de force, conceived by and featuring Woods in the triple role of cellist, narrator/guide, and movement artist, is Woods’ debut album for Cedille Records.

Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Woods has established a reputation as a versatile performer straddling several genres. He is the recipient of the 2022 Chamber Music America Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.

Difficult Grace is a semi-autobiographical exploration of identity; past/present histories and personal growth that draws inspiration from the Great Migration; the historic newspaper, The Chicago Defender; immigration; and poetry by Kemi Alabi and Dudley Randall. The album features music written for and with Woods including the world premiere recording of the title work, Difficult Grace, by Fredrick Gifford (b. 1972) that layers solo cello, electronics, and spoken text (delivered by Woods) derived from Dudley Randall’s poem, “Primitives.” Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s (1932–2004) “Calvary Ostinato,” the all-plucked third movement from Lamentations Black/Folk Song Suite, references traditional African American music. Additional world premiere recordings include Monty Adkins’ (b. 1972) Winter Tendrils and Nathalie Joachim’s (b. 1983) The Race: 1915. Alvin Singleton’s (b. 1940) Argoru II and Joachim’s Dam Mwen Yo, featuring Joachim as vocalist, follow.

The program ends with a final world premiere: Ted Hearne’s (b. 1982) multi-movement, Freefucked, a suite of songs set to poems by Kemi Alabi, featuring Hearne on vocals and electronics on the final track, “After We Ruin." In its review of the live performance of Difficult Grace, The New York Times described Woods as “a cellist of prodigious technical gifts and sharp intellect... Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys.”

Giuseppe Mazzini, the greatest revolutionary of the 19th century in Europe, was very passionate about music, he attended theaters and organized an annual concert to support the Italian School he founded in London. He published a very interesting “Philosophy of music” in Paris in 1836 and, as we know from the letters to his mother written in periods of exile from Italy, he loved to play the guitar.

His three guitars, appearing for the first time together in a single recording, are preserved in his birthplace in Genoa, today Museo del Risorgimento – Istituto Mazziniano, at the Istituto Storico Nazionale Domus Mazziniana in Pisa, where he died, and in the private collection preserved in Milan by Marco Battaglia. The album includes a varied and fascinating repertoire of original music by Niccolò Paganini, Luigi Moretti, Giulio Regondi and Luigi Legnani, a song specifically mentioned in a letter from Mazzini, a theme by Giovanni Pacini varied by Mauro Giuliani, also author of a potpourri that includes parts of works by Gioachino Rossini, and a fantasy on Verdi's Traviata, elaborated by Caspar Joseph Mertz.

Encouraged by Camille Saint-Saëns, violist/composer Henri Casadesus founded the Société des Instruments Anciens in 1901. Casadesus played viola d'amore, his brother Marius played quinton, and additional Casadesus family members and friends played viols, keyboards, and plucked strings. Unlike other early period-instrument revivals, the Casadesus ensemble performed not only baroque pastiche, but also new works which they commissioned and composed for their rediscovered instruments. This disc presents the premiere recordings of music written in the first decades of the twentieth century by Henri Casadesus and Ottorino Respighi for a "quartet of viols."

Ekaterina Litvintseva began playing the piano at the age of four; and studied music from 1994 to 2001 at the Children's Music School in the remote Russian town of Anadyr; on the Bering Straits. At 15; her family moved to Moscow; and she attended the State Chopin Music School. Having since moved to Europe; she has become much admired for her performances and recordings of Romantic classics by Chopin; Brahms and Rachmaninoff; though she has also explored the work of lesser-known composers from the period such as the Croatian pioneer Dora Pejacevic (PCL10226). The present release marks her second recording of the Chopin concertos; made in the Czech town of Pardubice in October 2022; and it completes her recorded survey of the composer’s works for piano and orchestra after the Piano Classics album of the lesser-known Variations on Mozart; Fantasia; Krakowiak and Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise.

Litvintseva has extensive experience of working with conductor Vahan Mardirossian: ‘We are a perfect team,’ she says. ‘For me; if you want to express your feelings in the deepest way as a pianist; you have to learn the music of Chopin. This is a unique opportunity for me; being able to re-record the concertos six years later; and I have re-thought many aspects of my interpretations. I think I have something to say in this music. It flows so naturally; and it’s written in a brilliant style shared by many other composers of Chopin’s day; but only he could also bring such poetic expression to the brilliance. My job is not to destroy the music with artificial intervention; but to let it flow through my mind and through my hands. I simply want listeners to be touched by this music.’

Atrium, Danish cellist and composer Josefine Opsahl's (b. 1992) debut for Dacapo Records, is a strikingly original statement, focusing on her own music. The title has two definitions: one biological, one architectural. Out of their collision, Opsahl draws a reverberating series of dualities: soft/hard, organic/manufactured, natural/cultural. These are expressed most fundamentally in her distinctive instrumental set-up of cello and live electronics, which allows her to build entire orchestras of electronically modified and duplicated cellos live and in response to her acoustic playing.

On the Shoulders of Giants is the latest album from the renowned cellist Claudio Bohórquez, with works ranging from Schumann to Webern, from Schubert to Messiaen, this album is a journey on the shoulders of musical giants, both in the compositions and in the interpretations. Accompanied by the legendary conductor and pianist Christoph Eschenbach, Bohórquez delivers an extraordinary performance that is a treat for the ears and soul. With his exceptional skill and technique, he explores the depths of the cello's sound, bringing out the unique beauty and emotion of each piece. The album features Schumann's Adagio & Allegro op. 70, a powerful and expressive work that showcases Bohórquez's impeccable bowing and phrasing. The 2 Pieces for Cello and Piano by A. v. Webern are a masterclass in modernist composition, with Bohórquez and Eschenbach expertly navigating the intricate and complex melodies. Schubert's Sonata (Arpeggione) is a true gem of the cello repertoire. Finally, O. Messiaen's Louange à l‘Éternité de Jésus is a beautiful and moving work that showcases the cello's ability to convey deep spiritual emotions.

The latest instalment in this popular series focuses on the life and music of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Illustrated with some of Mussorgsky’s finest works the biographical narrative includes excerpts from Songs and Dances of Death; Boris Godunov; Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition.

Previous albums on Piano Classics by Leonardo Pierdomenico have won enthusiastic praise from the international critics. Of his debut Liszt recital including the Csardas macabre (PCL10151), Fanfare noted: 'scrupulous performances, featuring exceptional textural clarity and rhythmic resilience, coupled with an often striking attention to harmonic nuance.' Gramophone awarded it Editor's Choice: 'His highly developed technique and cultivated sound, both adaptable to a variety of effects, are wedded to those twin essentials for artistic Liszt playing: imagination combined with thoroughgoing, scrupulous musicality.' Such qualities illuminate his new recording of the Piano Concerto by Dvor�k, made in the Czech Republic with an orchestra who live and breathe the composer's music. One of his most neglected works, the Piano Concerto requires particularly devoted advocacy as well as formidable virtuosity to overcome the technical shortcomings of Dvor�k's piano writing, but the effort is rewarded with episodes of no less ardent lyricism than the high points of his concertos for violin and cello. The Piano Concerto, however, burns with a ferocity all it's own, more similar in that regard to Schumann's impassioned writing for soloist and orchestra. The unusual pairings draw on the talents of the Pardubice orchestra's front desks, with two equally unfamiliar concertante miniatures by Dvor�k, the Mazurek for violin and orchestra (dedicated to Pablo de Sarasate) and the Rondo for cello and orchestra intended for Hanus Wihan, who would in time inspire Dvor�k to compose the Cello Concerto. Thus the album will complete a Dvor�k concerto collection on CD as well as offering a further demonstration of Leonardo Pierdomenico's artistry.

Operatic, early-Romantic fantasias for solo flute by one of the great names of Italian opera. Laura Trapani’s previous album for Brilliant Classics brought wider renown for the sparkling flute-writing of Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries (96132). Now the Ferrara-based flautist turns her attention south to another overlooked figure of the early 19th century, Saverio Mercadante.

Mercadante learnt the flute as a child and became a virtuoso on the instrument during his training in Naples while learning the craft of an opera composer which would bring him fame across Europe. One of his earliest successes for the stage was a ballet based on the legend of a magic flute - unrelated to Mozart’s masonic tale - and from the 1820s onwards, audiences flocked to Mercadante’s lyric dramas for their pacy drama, memorable tunes and arias that displayed the great singers of the age to best advantage. His Capricci also date from this early stage of his career. Comparable to the more celebrated caprices for violin by his elder contemporary Paganini, they are technical studies which stretch the technique of the most accomplished flautists, and they dazzle the ear with their lightning runs, filigree figurations and flourishes. The Capricci have received recordings from celebrated flautists, whereas the later Arie Variate have been relatively overlooked, and this release marks only their second recording, and the first to be made for CD. They are fantasies on popular operatic arias in the style of the piano potpourris and paraphrases which would be raised to an art-form by Franz Liszt a generation later. The chosen themes are mostly drawn from operas of the late 1810s such as Rossini’s Armida and Elisabetta, Regina d’Inghilterra, but they range from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Mercadante’s own Gabriella di Vergy of 1828. Laura Trapani thus restores to the catalogue a shining example of early Romantic instrumental virtuosity.

The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. Since nearly 20 years it has celebrated the traditional New Year‘s concert every year, which became immediately vast popularity in Italy and abroad making it one of the best-known and desired New Year's events. The orchestra of Teatro La Fenice, conducted by Daniel Harding, presents a colourful array of arias and orchestral pieces. As soloists soprano Federica Lombardi and tenor Freddie De Tommaso sing famous arias as Casta Diva and Nessun dorma among others from the operas Carmen, La traviata, La bohème, Turandot, William Tell and La clemenza di Tito. On top Jacopo Tissi, now principal of the Dutch National Ballet, is dancing a scene from Tchaikovsky´s ballet The Sleeping Beauty in this thrilling and exhilarating concert.