Composer, educator, performer, and author Bruce Adolphe has a close affinity to the piano, and he acknowledges the transformative influence of Chopin on the way the instrument has been perceived right up to the present. Chopin Dreams places the Romantic master firmly into modern times, building on his models and imagining him as a jazz pianist or exploring what he might have played at a Bar-Mitzvah. The Chopin Puzzlers take Chopin’s style and mixes it into what Dick Hyman has called “the wittiest and funniest musical parodies imaginable.” Seven Thoughts Considered as Music vividly depicts profound and provocative statements from the past in a philosophical and sometimes explosive musical journey

Carson Cooman is many things musical- organist and Composer in Residence at the Memorial Church, Harvard University, writer, critic, and consultant, concert organist, and above all a highly prolific composer of music in a wide variety of genres, from orchestral to song. His organ compositions come in many styles, from liturgical models, to substantial secular pieces such as his organ symphonies, preludes and fugues. Here are a fine set of fantasias on well-known seasonal tunes and some new compositions, to celebrate Christmas in fine style (and suitable for listening all year round.) Erik Simmons is a superb organist, making his twelfth Cooman organ album for Divine Art. He is playing the wonderful ‘Sun Organ’ of St. Peter & Paul, Gorlitz, recorded through the Hauptwerk system.

Continuing with Harbinger Records’ acclaimed series of albums devoted to jazz pianist, composer, Broadway songwriter, and black music pioneer Eubie Blake, we proudly present the original demo to the proposed Broadway musical ‘Shuffle Along of 1950.’ Harbinger’s recording of Sissle and Blake singing the score to the original production of ‘Shuffle Along’ won the Grammy Award for its brilliant liner notes by Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom, authors of an upcoming biography of Eubie Blake to be published by Oxford University Press. They are repeating their assignment for this recording. Also included is a bonus track featuring remastering of the only surviving acetate of a historical “Salute to Ruth King.” Ruth King was a famous Cleveland DJ who celebrated black musicians. And such notables as Sissle and Blake and the legendary WC Handy, composer of St. Louis Blues, play for Ms. King. Several songs from the original ‘Shuffle Along’ are included as are new songs written especially for this production. Later, other musicians augmented the score, and these songs are also included in this rare recording.

Classical Music

John A. Carollo's fourth Navona Records release, and follow up to 2017's The Transfiguration of GIovanni Baudino, is a wondrous musical journey through the world of desire. With Music From the Ethereal Side of Paradise, Carollo makes an impassioned plea for the power of romance. From the opening tensions and mystery of "Awakenings for String Orchestra" through the surprising, amorous joy of "Romanzo!" "Splendido Affare," and "La Tortura dell' Amore," Carollo's compositions communicate what mere words cannot: the inner rapture, utter fulfillment, and yes, the torture, of being in love. Shifting slightly, and perhaps more into the ethereal, "Metamorphosis No. 3 for Solo Violin" introduces a newer, more contemplative element. With short notes and runs, the violin first cries out with unanswered questions followed by furrowed introspection. Two Guitar Etudes follow, demonstrating both intimacy and technique, while maintaining an inquisitive tone throughout. As the album continues, we arrive at a vocal suite with "Little Gems" to be discovered throughout. T.S. Eliot wrote "... The end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time." Musid From the Ethereal Side of Paradise does just that. Concluding as we began with a sumptuous string orchestra, we arrive where we started - enlightened and wise from our journey.

Bob Chilcott’s compositions are beloved with choral societies around the world, and this album represents the fruits of his recent collaborations with the US choir Choralis and their conductor Gretchen Kuhrmann. Featuring festive works for solo choir as well as choir and brass ensemble, at the centre of the programme is 'Wenceslas', inspired by the legend of the Bohemian King who braved the winter weather with his Page to save the life of a poor peasant, and incorporating the melody of the famous carol into each of its 8 movements. The release also includes the premiere recordings of Chilcott’s 'Gloria', which was premiered by the choir to great critical acclaim in 2015.

Teresa Berganza is undoubtedly one of the greatest Spanish singers of the 20th century. She enchanted the audiences in the opera houses around the world. She was also an excellent singer with a wide repertoire of songs, even though she has become famous primarily through her operatic roles. Throughout her career, she would give recitals of song - especially the songs of her homeland. This is also reflected in the current program, recorded at the Schwetzingen Festival Songs of 1985. Her versatility as a singer can be heard in a full range of repertoire - German, Russian, French, Portuguese - and finally, with Ernesto Halffter a Spaniard. Teresa Berganza's voice spreads before the listener a rich palette of colors and emotions, always classy and bright.

Prokofiev first became fascinated by the violin upon hearing the playing of his private teacher, Reinhold Glière. A dozen years later Prokofiev wrote his Violin Concerto No. 1 – a work of contrasting open-hearted lyricism and whimsical playfulness that features a wild central Scherzo with dazzling technical gymnastics. By contrast, the Violin Concerto No. 2 is emotionally reserved and sardonic with an inspired plaintive and long-arching slow movement. Composed to an official Soviet commission for an ensemble piece to be played by talented child violinists in unison, the witty and upbeat Sonata for Solo Violin can also be played by a single performer.

REVIEW:

Tianwa Yang is currently on a roll with single-composer collections for Naxos (look up her Sarasate and Rihm), and this elegantly captured all-Prokofiev effort is especially strong.

First up is the Violin Concerto no. 1. Yang’s silvery legato sweetness is a perfect match for this intensely lyrical work, and the orchestra is equally alive to the score’s brightness, pace and array of translucently scored colors. The fairy-like recapitulation of the first movement’s opening theme is a delicately luminous knockout from everyone. Equally effective is Yang’s sharp-edged clout when the Scherzo takes an acerbic turn.

The Second Concerto offers an opportunity to appreciate Yang’s darker warmth, and the luxurious, heady vibrato and romance she brings to its central movement’s soaring lines. Then the buoyant playfulness and folk pep of her Solo Sonata is a reminder of the qualities that won her a 2015 ECHO Klassik Award for her solo Ysaÿe album. If you want to cover both Prokofiev concertos in a single album, no need to hesitate here.

-- The Strad

Beethoven's three most famous sonatas have received hundreds of recordings. Why another, especially from a company like Divine Art which usually avoids duplicating repertoire? Because we believe that each piece of music demands a performance tailored to the composition, and that recently, every recording of a major work seems to sound the same. Beethoven's sonatas are fiery, storm-filled works which require playing not only of consummate skill but also total passion and commitment. They receive that here, together with a piano of individual character, with a "visceral" quality (to quote Goldstone), and ideal for this music. But this CD contains two special tracks: We offer the world premiere recording of Moscheles' arrangement of the Overture to "Fidelio". And also, two alternative versions of the first movement of the "Pathetique" Sonata, one incorporating Goldstone's belief regarding the correct execution of the exposition repeat. We could not pack any more onto a disc!

Classical Music

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Music Track Selection for 2018 - Loom

Titled H e (a) r, this album features 7 world premiere recordings, including a soundscape which lends its title to the album by the group’s artistic director; composer and violinist Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir. The work H e (a) r connects to ecology, acoustics and embodiment; drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection. Many of the instrumental works are a continuation of Nordic Affect’s longstanding collaboration with some of the exciting talent to emerge out of Iceland in recent years, many of which were featured on the 2015, release Clockworking. The title track was chosen for NPR's Songs We Love series and featured in various best-of-the-year lists, including Steve Smith’s for Night After Night, The Chicago Reader, and The New Yorker.

In addition to composing her own music, Ms. Markan Sigfúsdóttir has toured the world with indie band amiina and recorded and collaborated with a range of other bands and artists. Her compositions have been performed in Iceland, Australia, Europe and the US. A continuation of the solo work 2 Circles, found on the Clockworking album, is Point of Departure by composer, cello player, and singer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Hildur has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music. Her output has encompassed four solo albums, and numerous works for theatre, dance performances and films. H e (a) r also features Reflections and Impressions by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Emerging Artist Award and 2018 Martin E. Segal Award. Anna Thorvaldsdottir frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. A new collaboration is presented through Warm life at the foot of the iceberg by the Estonian Mirjam Tally. Sound is central to the Estonian MirjamTally’s creations. Her music is a flow of playful contrasts where a sense of humour and poetic use of sound are blended to mix. Her music has been performed in over 20 countries and earned her various accolades, including the 2018 Swedish Manifest prize.

REVIEWS:

“Loom” begins with a thin thread of sound that is patiently roughed up and smoothed out in ways that seem both generous and brittle, with the light seeming to enter right where the texture appears most broken.

-- New York Times

The music is exceedingly beautiful and engaging. Not everything is new-lyric and that is good, just like a meal is best if it is not about one taste in unrelenting sameness. The space for the extended technique sort of Modernity is used creatively and wisely and it frames and brackets the tonal washes properly and bracingly.

-- Gapplegate Modern Classical Music Review

Classical Music

The combination of flute and guitar was a feature of early tango recordings – instruments central both to the genre and to the music of Astor Piazzolla. The composer’s quintessential Histoire duTango charts the form’s evolution from its appearance in the barrios of Buenos Aires to its eventual assimilation by classical composers. The Six Études tanguistiques for solo flute is Piazzolla’s only work for a melodic unaccompanied instrument. The remainder of the program presents a sequence of arrangements by Vicente Coves and Kazunori Seo and includes some of Piazzolla’s most famous and beautiful compositions as well as preserving a historically important, previously unreleased recitation by Horacio Ferrer.

Classical Music

This CD includes the world premiere recording of Marco Enrico Bossi complete works for piano four hands. As shown and evident in the Suite de Valses op. 93 and the transcription of the magnificent Suite for Large Orchestra op. 126, while maintaining an original mark, Bossi’s compositions for four hands seem to be inspired by Brahms and by the Hamburg chamber music transplanted in Vienna. Pianists Paolo Borganti and Giulio Giurato have used original editions and manuscripts, revising and correcting them even by comparisons of the transcriptions to the orchestral scores.

The Dover Quartet, “the young American string quartet of the moment” (The New Yorker) unveils the second installment in its critically acclaimed Beethoven quartet cycle on Cedille Records. The Dover’s three-album set of Beethoven’s “Middle Quartets” includes the three Op. 59 “Razumovsky” Quartets, infused with Russian folk tunes; the graceful “Harp,” Op. 74, named for its plucked string figures; and the intense Op. 95 “Serioso,” a forward-looking experiment that Beethoven originally intended “for a small circle of connoisseurs.” The Dover Quartet’s first Beethoven release, a traversal of the Op. 18 quartets, has garnered international praise. England’s The Strad said the ensemble exhibits “a beguiling freshness and spontaneity that creates the impression of these relatively early masterworks arriving hot off the press.” Toronto’s The Whole Note cited “performances of conviction and depth. This promises to be an outstanding set.” Utah-based CD Hotlist remarked, “The Dovers stand out from the pack by playing with utterly perfect intonation, a near-telepathic sense of ensemble, and a lovely balance of passion and clarity.” New York’s WQXR proclaimed, “It’s hard to imagine a group better suited to recording these works than the Dover Quartet.” In concert, the quartet has presented three complete Beethoven cycles, including the University at Buffalo’s famous “Slee Cycle” — which has offered annual Beethoven quartet cycles since 1955 and has featured the likes of the Budapest, Guarneri, and Cleveland Quartets. The Dover Quartet serves as the inaugural Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and holds residencies with the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, among other prestigious posts.

This is an exciting release for Isotopia Records, marking its launch as an imprint of the Irish-based label Heresy Records! | Constance Hauman is an American opera star, being handpicked by Leonard Bernstein to be in the only concerts where he conducted his operetta Candide himself. She has also premiered at the Royal Opera House and is a Richard Tucker Award recipient. | This album, however, is her debut as in popular music and as a skilled and emotionally charged songwriter. | The song cycle presented here tells Hauman's journey from darkness to new beginnings with elements of popular, jazz, and musical theatre genres. | This debut of Isotopia Records and new Constance Hauman is sure to resonate and connect with a vast number of listeners around the world.

Classical Music

Romance showcases Lang Lang’s innate yet sophisticated feeling for nuance and reflection. Carefully selected from his Sony Classical discography, the selections achieve a fulfilling programmatic unity through subtle contrasts in mood and style. The slow, yearning repeated note themes of Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3 and Chopin’s “Aeolian Harp” Etude naturally lead into Hans Zimmer’s captivating main soundtrack theme from the film Gladiator. Similarly, the juxtaposition of Chopin’s C-Sharp Minor Nocturne, Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 and the Adagio from Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 2 No. 3 and Bach’s Air on the G String illuminates the common ground between four proudly individual composers. Romance casts fresh light on Lang Lang’s lyrical gifts, revealing the artist behind the phenomenon.

Founded in 1987 the annual Rarities of Piano Music Festival in the North German town of Husum is a major event. Danacord is proud to release the recording from the special 30th Anniversary Festival in 2016 featuring again rare piano music played by some of the leading pianists of today. Lovers of all Romantic piano music will appreciate this live recording featuring Johann Blanchard, Severin von Eckardstein, Ziata Chochieva, Martin Jones, Hubert Rukowski, Florian Noack, Joseph Moog, and more, including world-famous piano duos. As an additional note- Dacord releases live recordings of this spectacular festival each year, and all previous recordings are available as well.