One of the most gifted and prominent of all twentieth-century Lithuanian musicians, Balys Dvarionas was a musical polymath who excelled as a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He viewed his native country's folklore as a fundamental part of his artistic heritage and his aesthetic ideas were formed under the influence of nineteenth-century Romanticism. His violin works occupy a special place in his oeuvre. The Sonata-Ballade is his violin masterpiece, full of idiosyncrasies and luminous warmth, while the miniatures encompass subtle charm and effortless virtuosity.

Since adopting a new artistic profile, the Hague Philharmonic is demonstrating more than ever that symphonic music can still be meaningful to large and diverse audiences in the 21st century. At the new Zuiderstrandtheater in Scheveningen, the orchestra's home venue, prior to concerts audiences are treated to a lively RO-starter pre-program of live music and interviews. Everything on this recording fits like a glove - musicians, conductor and sound technique are at the highest of their abilities. Soprano Renate Arends and baritone Thomas Oliemans are internationally acclaimed soloists with both beautiful and strong careers in opera, oratorium and song.

“In reimagining the Bach Chaconne and Ockeghem’s Deo Gratias, I searched for meaning and connection to the greater, mysterious universe. My collaborator Spencer Topel, and I created an expansive sonic experience. It is as close to stopping time as I can imagine.” (Pauline Kim Harris)

Ambient Chaconne is an immersive exploration of the J. S. Bach Partita No. 2 in D Minor: IV. Chaconne (BWV 1004). Unfolding over 42 minutes Ambient Chaconne blends live and pre-recorded violin with electronics. Using both human and machine transcription, the Chaconne serves as the structural underpinning to the work, appearing often as small disassociated fragments, and at other times in extremes: consisting of extended passages of sounded or silent materials. As with renditions of the Chaconne by past composers such as Brahms and Busoni, Ambient Chaconne extends the notion of transcription metaphysical, framing the Chaconne both as a musical composition and as a collective-subconscious memory.

Deo is an acoustic-electronic transcription of Johannes Ockeghem’s stunning Deo Gratias devised as a complement to Ambient Chaconne. Notable as a 36-part canon, Ockeghem Ockeghem evokes singing of angels in heaven via an innovation on a traditional canon, using this ancient musical device as a kind of acoustic feedback delay. In essence, our Deo expands this idea of delays to a canon of thousands, in an ever expanding and infinite soundscape, where the melodies eventually dissolve into resonance.

REVIEW:

Pauline Kim Harris has become a major phenomenon in New York’s avant-garde milieu, and her work has taken her around the world as a virtuoso violinist and collaborator with leading artists and ensembles. These acoustic-electronic arrangements of, or inspired by, Bach and Ockeghem create a transcendent mood, expanding the original material into myriad combinations and resonances that suggest a metaphysical understanding of the potential of ambient music.

Ambient Chaconne preserves much of the sonorities and musical shapes of Bach’s original, though over its duration the music evolves and takes on a mystical, expansive feeling. Deo suggests an angelic choir in all its brightness and beauty. Both works, with their contrasting hues of darkness and light, give this album a balanced program that will fascinate and move many listeners.

– All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)

"•The present CD brings together for the first time Marian Borkowski’s entire output of a cappella choral compositions in performances by the Polish Chamber Choir Schola Cantorum Gedanensis directed by Jan Łukaszewski. • Mr. Borkowski has written choral music throughout his compositional career but recent years have witnessed his enhanced interest in the genre. Most of his choral pieces fall under the ‘sacred music’ category, being settings of religious texts, either short fragments or single words."

2017 release. A rolling juggernaut of hard-edged northeastern funk and rock, punctuated by a tight horn section, this disc highlights the full throated voice and cocky attitude of lead singer, Miss Velvet. Coming straight out of a Janis Joplin/Chi Coltrane bag, Miss Velvet and the Blue Wolf have been blowing away audiences in the Northeast US for the past few years. Recorded at Detroit's legendary United Sound studios and produced by Constance Hauman, Bad Get Some at once gives a nod to hard-driving blues and rock bands of the past while forging a red-hot sound all it's own. This is gut bucket, funky rock and roll... total body music.

This 2009 recording includes mezzosoprano Marilyn Schmiege, and violinist Ingrid Seifert, alongside the Cappella Coloniensis orchestra. (Phoenix)

Includes work(s) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Classical 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

We have now reached Volume 5 in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s project to record the complete piano sonatas of Haydn. This series has been going from strength to strength, every volume receiving consistently excellent reviews.

Haydn composed his solo keyboard sonatas between c. 1750 and 1795, during the period in which the piano was gradually taking the place of the harpsichord. The early sonatas are mostly short, light, and ‘easy’, tailored for amateur musicians and students. After 1765 Haydn composed several sonatas the scope and depth of which are completely new. Over a six- or seven-year period Haydn produced a sequence of ambitious sonatas of a difficulty that resulted in their being poorly circulated. In this latest volume of Haydn’s piano sonatas, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet again chooses a range of sonatas, planned to provide a balanced program characterised by different moods and temperaments.

He explains: ‘This is a long-term endeavour, in which, as the years go by, each album will be like a postcard sent from my journey. Although this journey does not greatly respect chronological considerations, it is being undertaken with the greatest passion so as to try and bring the limitless treasures of this sublime music to life as vividly as possible in our twenty-first-century ears.’ The previous volumes have elicited such comments as ‘A recording worth rushing to the shops for. Bavouzet plays these inventive masterpieces with real love’ (Classic FM on Volume 3) and ‘This series is turning into a real classic: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has an infectious sense of witty fun that underlies so many of Haydn’s inventions’ (The Observer on Volume 4).

REVIEWS

This is the fifth volume of Haydn Piano Sonatas by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. I’ve collected all the volumes so far, and with each successive one, Bavouzet goes from strength to strength. All the elements are present - elegance, wit, stylish phrasing and crisp and incisive playing. Formidable technique and musicianship enable him to realize his vision. Chandos’ sound quality is enhanced by a sympathetic acoustic, enabling the listener to discern every nuance and detail.

--MusicWeb International (Stephen Greenbank)

Bavouzet singles out the first movement of Sonata No. 12 for its purity and simplicity, and it is exquisite—and exquisitely played. He became so fascinated with the minor-key trio of the minuet that he included his own musings on it, at much slower tempo, as a bonus track. This isn’t a gimmick. It is fascinating to see an artist become so deeply engaged with the music, particularly music usually so taken for granted or ignored.

The first three sonatas here, Nos. 12, 15, and 37 have three movements, but not necessarily in the obvious fast-slow-fast form, as the opening Andante of No. 12 reveals. The remaining three, Nos. 54-56 (Hob. 41-43) have two movements each...The largest movement here is the opening Andante con espressione of the D major Sonata (No. 56), which lasts more than eight minutes and contains a world of feeling.

In short, these are lovely works, and Bavouzet’s thoughtfulness, dedication to the cause, and immaculate technique are everywhere in evidence, just as they have been on previous releases in this series. Try this disc. It will make you feel young, or keep you that way if you already are.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

The first volume (8.551400) with Vinzenz Lachner‘s arrangements of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concertos for piano and string quintet already showed that this would be quite a special complete recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos – and not just because it is the first recording to present this version for the first time ever. For the second volume, Hanna Shybayeva chose the piano trio version of the second symphony in D major Op. 36 to be added in the arrangement by the master himself. After all, this chamber music arrangement from Beethoven's pen fits perfectly with those of the piano concertos of later times. Having begun her international career at the age of eleven, Hanna Shybayeva has transformed from a child prodigy to a mature and exciting musician. She won many international prizes and performed at many festivals, as well as giving solo recitals and concert-performances with orchestras around the world. Shybayeva was awarded grants from UNESCO/New Names (Moscow), the George Soros Foundation, the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, the Youri Egorov Foundation, Yamaha Music Europe and the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. Her many recordings include a collection of Tango pieces on the Grand Piano label (GP794).

The ARC Ensemble (Artists of The Royal Conservatory) is among Canada’s most distinguished cultural ambassadors. It focuses on researching and recovering music suppressed under the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century and marginalized thereafter. Exile is generally associated with geographical displacement, but the idea of ‘internal exile’ has long had currency. There was a protracted variety of this exile in the Soviet Union: State oversight of musical style and substance began in the 1920s and persisted until well after Stalin’s death, in 1953. Unlike the Central European composers who were murdered or exiled under National Socialism, and whose music is now being assessed and revived, a great number of the musical casualties of the Soviet era still await serious attention. The Ukrainian-Jewish composer Dmitri Klebanov was something of a prodigy but fell foul of the authorities with his first symphony, of 1945 (based, like Shostakovich’s Thirteenth, on the slaughter of Jews at Babi Yar). His professional rehabilitation began during the Khrushchev era when, in 1960, the Kharkiv Institute appointed him associate professor. In addition to the works recorded here, Klebanov’s legacy includes nine symphonies, two concertos each for violin and for cello, various works for violin and piano, several operas and ballets, around a hundred songs (most of which remain in manuscript), and nearly two dozen film scores.

Elliott Carter makes his Naxos début with an ear-catching programme

It’s very good news that Naxos has added Elliott Carter to its American Classics series, beginning with a strong programme of rarely heard pieces, and juxtaposing Carter in early populist vein with Carter the 1960s’ avant-gardist in full cry.

The wartime muscularity of the Symphony No 1 (completed in 1942 but heard here in its 1954 revision) is clearest in passages which echo, or anticipate, Copland’s more extrovert orchestral scores of the same period. But that triumphalist spirit is most productively on show in Carter’s splendidly brash Holiday Overture (1944). The Symphony as a whole is less straightforward, more varied in style and character, and the slow movement in particular moves from hymnic meditation into more ambiguous regions of expression in a manner that might not be completely convincing. It is certainly distinctive, however, and fits well with the balance between restraint and exuberance that typifies the work as a whole.

By the mid-1960s, when the Piano Concerto was composed, Carter’s language had shed its tonal roots, and his forms were far more distant from those traditions that are still traceable in the Symphony. Textures are immensely elaborate, yet the music is uninhibitedly dramatic, depicting all kinds of conflicts and attempted reconciliations while subjecting the basic concept of the concerto to penetrating critical scrutiny.

The power of the drama emerging from the constantly fluctuating confrontations between soloist, main orchestra, and a mediating concertino-group of seven players is rather muted in this recording, which (I suspect) is not the result of a preparatory series of public performances. Ursula Oppens, with Michael Gielen, managed to convey rather more of the music’s inherent fire and tumult. But Mark Wait shows a finely gauged technical command, and although Kenneth Schermerhorn and his Nashville players are occasionally underpowered and inclined to play safe, the jubilant conclusion of the Holiday Overture sweeps any interpretative reservations aside. With the symphony not otherwise available, this disc is a thoroughly recommendable addition to the Naxos American canon.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone [3/2004]

Classical Music

With her Navona debut I Close My Eyes In Order To See, accomplished Canadian flutist Sara Hahn demonstrates her exceptional sensitivity for emotional nuance coupled with great virtuosic capability, but most of all: the healing power of music itself. Hahn, currently the Principal Flutist for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, is rightly known for her refined and beautiful tone, and I Close My Eyes In Order To See indubitably attests to this. But extraordinarily, there is even more to Hahn's musicianship: An exquisite ability to get right into the heart of a composition. No doubt this is in part due to the highly personal selection of pieces: The album's eponymous opening track, I Close My Eyes To See, was dedicated to Hahn by composer Arthur Bachmann, written to commemorate her mother's hard (but eventually successful) battle with cancer. Indeed, the compositions of this album center around perhaps the greatest, and most universal, challenge of the human condition: overcoming Fate's hardships. In this spirit, the individual musical pieces represent emotions such as fear, sadness, the desire to bargain, and depression and anger are reached with the help of mental fortitude and spirituality – all culminating, inspiringly, in acceptance and optimism. Sara Hahn's interpretation of these wildly diverse sentiments is nothing short of riveting and, towards the album's cheerful conclusion, supremely uplifting. In this sublime feat, pianist Laura Loewen and alto flutist Sarah Gieck, who both accompany with fitting delicacy, add great musical depth. I Close My Eyes In Order To See is an aesthetic feast for the ears, no doubt; but its true strength lies in having encapsulated not only a timeless constant of the human experience – suffering – but also a viable, feasible way to overcome it.

Navona Records is proud to announce the re-release of David Tanner's 1988 album The Eloquent Saxophone. Tanner is no Stranger to Navona; his compositions and arrangements can be heard on two other Navona releases: Of Birds and Lemons (2012) and Dashing (2016). This was his first album, featuring him as a performer. It includes two unaccompanied pieces and two sax quartets recorded by multi-tracking, as well as a rich variety of works with accompaniment admirably rendered by pianist Marc Widner. The music ranges from Schumann to a stylized blues by Gene DiNovi. Tanner's musical language is enriched by classical training and a career encompassing rock'n'roll and jazz as well as symphony. Reviewer Denis Armstrong wrote in Music Magazine, "Not long into this recording, one begins to marvel at the sheer joy David Tanner's playing conveys... a dense and rich recording... at times elegant and elegiac, other times ribald and visceral. But the one constant is the joy and clarity of expression." The first track sets the tone: "Serenade comique" is a brief, frantic sax quartet composition that evokes Parisian traffic or perhaps a flock of birds. "La Blues," the other quartet selection, evokes the melancholy of New York in the depth of night. "It is a treat for the listener to hear this feat of multi-tracking done so well," said reviewer Joseph Viola in Saxophone Journal. Each track is in contrast to the one before it; each represents something different and interesting. To quote Music Magazine again, "The Eloquent Saxophone [is] a thoroughly eccentric, invigorating and generous treat."

Henri Texier (b. 1945) is a true jazz legend. The Paris-born French jazz double bassist is most known for his work with Don Cherry in the 1960s and with his band the Transatlantik Quartet in the 1980s alongside fellow musicians Joe Lovano, Steve Swallow, and Aldo Romano. What’s remarkable about Texier is that he is a self-taught bassist. He credits Wilbur Ware as his biggest influence. This release includes seven original compositions by Texier, the connecting theme being the culture and history of the Native Americans. As a special feature, the eighth and final track on the album is an interview with Texier conducted by Gotz Buhler. Texier is joined by fellow jazz heavyweights Sebastian Texier, Francois Corneloup, and Louis Moutin.

Eclogue is the name of a pastoral poem that is part of bucolic poetry. The Ancient Greek word ekloge originally signified ‘choice,’ or ‘selection.’ Both meanings are appropriate for this release. It not only contains all of the chamber music written by August De Boeck for oboe and piano, but also a selection of unpretentious gems from 19th and 20th century Flemish and Belgian chamber music. Oboist Bram Nolf studied in Ghent, Rotterdam, and Paris. He is a professor at the Lemmensinstituut and the soloist of the National Orchestra of Belgium. Pianist Hans Ryckelynch studied with Johann Duijck in Ghent and with Abdel Rahman El Bacha in Paris. He is a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Mons.

“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.” Arvo Pärt O/Modernt, Swedish for ‘Un/Modern’, is the concept devised by violinist Hugo Ticciati that explores vital connections between artistic and intellectual creations, old and new. At the heart of White Light is a dialectic between contemplation and ecstatic joy: a journey that leads within and without. The enso (Japanese for ‘circle’) drawn by Antony Gormley on the front cover invites us into the prismatic now of listening. (enso: a continuous brushstroke that expresses a moment in time when the mind is released, leaving the body free to listen and create.) Looking inwards, we embrace that which we find outside ourselves before finally returning to inner peace and silence. The sound worlds of Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Peteris Vasks, The Beatles, and the rhythms and melodies of India are woven together through improvisation to invite a two-way sense of reflection and surprise.

Iberia is probably the greatest masterpiece by Isaac Albniz. There are surprisingly few recordings of the complete Iberia. Paul Verona has devoted years of study to Iberia, and his performances show his abiding commitment for the work.

David Gompper is an award-winning composer and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. His luminously orchestrated and expressive works have attracted admiration throughout the US, Europe and beyond. Opening with relentless energy, the second movement of the Cello Concerto is spectral and dreamlike, while the Double Bass Concerto explores the light effects of a solar eclipse, using the soloist to suggest shadows, auras and glimpses of sound. A partner work to Sunburst (8.559835), the multi-layered Moonburst reflects the transformational imagery of nocturnal sounds and perceptions. David Gompperhas lived and worked professionally as a pianist, a conductor, and a composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas and Iowa. In 2002-03 Gompper was in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching, performing and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. In 2009 he received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, and a Fromm Commission in 2013. Gompper's compositions have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Merkin Halls (New York), Wigmore Hall (London), the Konzerthaus (Vienna) and the Bolshoi and Rachmaninov Halls (Moscow Conservatory).