Prof. Erich Beurmann donated 70 instruments to the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts. Among them are a large number of harpsichords, clavichords, and fortepianos: from an Italian harpsichord dating from 1540 to a Steinway concert grand piano from 1871. A significant portion of these instruments are kept playable so that the music of various eras can be reproduced on the instruments of the time. Susanne Von Laun regularly plays instruments from this collection in concerts and on guided tours. The artist, who was awarded the Muzio Clementi Award in 2005, selected five instruments for this CD (a square piano from 1777, three fortepianos from 1795 to 1820, and a Broadwood grand piano from 1841), which can now be heard on CD for the first time.
On the occasion of the 2025 Kreisler anniversary year, the exceptional violinist Benjamin Schmid posed the question: What happens for the violin in Vienna roughly 100 years after Fritz Kreisler? The result is this phenomenal recording with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna under Lorenz Aichner, featuring orchestrated works by Kreisler and the world premiere recording of the Concerto for Beni for Solo Violin and String Orchestra (2023) by Georg Breinschmid, born in Vienna in 1973. To quote the dedicatee, it is a "magnificent violin concerto that, from my perspective, shares much with the musical understanding of Fritz Kreisler: music with unadulterated joy of playing, which devotes itself immediately and as artfully as possible to the parameters of melody, harmonic experience, and dance-like (or groovy) rhythm. There is always a close relationship to instrumental virtuosity and sonority - something very strongly pronounced in both composers." The album includes Fritz Kreisler's Preludium and Allegro "in the Style of Pugnani" and the Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta in arrangements for (string) orchestra. Kreisler's Concerto in One Movement, based on the first movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 6, is presented here in an arrangement for wind orchestra, recorded with the Salzburg Wind Philharmonic under Hansjörg Angerer.
It's not far-fetched to consider the extent to which the ideal of a soundtrack encompasses a significant portion of the finest orchestral compositions of the past century-a domain where it's difficult not to spotlight Henry Mancini. If we were to identify the artist who most effectively distilled the perfect synergy between music and cinema, it would be fair to attribute such distinction to the American maestro. The Orquesta Filarmonica de Malaga, led by Maestro Jose Maria Moreno and with Jose Carra as a crucial collaborator in arranging a notable selection of the repertoire, celebrates Mancini's centennial through this recording. It's not just a customary tribute; rather, it's based on the premise that these compositions persist in enriching and extending their impact over time. Though we may not always say the same for the films they were initially intended for. As befits a classic, Henry Mancini's artistry evolves with each passing day.
Duarte: Complete Works for Guitar Quartet / Quartetto Santórsola
Brilliant Classics
CD
$12.99$16.99Save 25%Jul 12, 2024
John W. Duarte was not only one of the most prolific composers for the solo classic guitar in the 20th century; he was also concerned with the instrument in an ensemble context. He made a lasting contribution to the concept and musical chemistry of the guitar quartet, a muchneglected feature until his innovations. This area of his creative work proved something of a goldmine for both professional quartets and educational settings where the guitar was taught as a serious instrument, worthy of deep study, and indeed for Summer Schools worldwide. In this the composer offered arrangements and original works of taste and delicacy, a hitherto unprecedented development in the expanding repertoire of the guitar. This fourth instalment in Brilliant Classics' series dedicated to the vast and precious guitar oeuvre of John W. Duarte provides a complete survey of the composer's music for four guitars. This sub-set of his guitar music is in itself greatly varied in style but of consistently superb quality. Disc one contains music he originally composed for this ensemble, and disc two features his arrangements (many of them of his own compositions) for guitar quartet. Duarte explained that his own stylistic eclecticism derived from improvisation, with composition being a slower form of improvisation benefitting from time to reconsider and to refine the product: 'What one hears becomes translatable into "playback" action and/or, given a knowledge of musical theory, comprehensible. It can provide a direct route to eclecticism - one may adopt what one chooses into one's own bloodstream and bypass what one feels foreign to one's own nature. For this reason I have never had one immediately identifiable style and have happily lived with a wide variety of idioms.'
Falk and Schleiermacher once again prove to be the ideal interpreters of this multi-faceted music: from the smoky nightclub of the "Rue Chagrin" to the synagogue; past the children's playground to the cotton fields of America with hints of the blues - great art in a small form!
La contemplazione offers a glimpse into “Viennese Classicism” through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Hummel and Schubert. In the late 1820s, European music was at a fascinating crossroads: the musical style that had dominated the old continent since 1780 (commonly known as “Viennese Classicism”) was in crisis and entering its final phase. At a time when tradition and innovation coexisted, emerging expressive needs pushed composers to seek alternatives to classical canons. La contemplazione offers a glimpse into this period through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828). About the Instrument: Fortepiano Graf 1826/1827 (Edwin Beunk collection)
In an environment of fierce competition among various piano manufacturing houses, Conrad Graf emerged as the reference brand in Vienna, even being named the official constructor of the empire. Graf built the piano used in this recording in 1826 or 1827 with a range of six and a half octaves.
The hour-long emotional tour-de-force with cellist Mark Prihodko and pianist Viktoria Korolionok evokes a soul-searching journey that spans a century of romantic repertoire following the music-making traditions of Ysaye, Gershwin, and Rachmaninov. Cerdanyenca takes its title from the eponymous sonata, written by Catalan composer Marc Migo Cortes, who dedicated this masterwork to Prihodko, his great friend. Conceived at the Juilliard School in New York, where Prihodko held the prestigious Kovner Fellowship while completing his Bachelor’s Degree in the studio of Richard Aaron, and Migo Cortes was completing his Ph.D. in the studio of John Corigliano, Sonata Cerdanyenca continues the tradition of the grandiose twentieth-century masterworks for cello and piano. Cultivating the lifetime synergy between composer and cellist, Prihodko and Migo specifically drew inspiration from the artistic collaborations between Rostropovich and Britten, and Piatigorsky and Strauss. The newly commissioned and internationally premiered Sonata has won the prestigious Pau Casals Festival International Award in 2019. In this extremely demanding monumental piece, the composer portrays the legends of his home region of La Cerdanya, from the tales of La dona d’aigua (the seducing water-woman) to the echoing Sardana Dances of Catalonia. His use of folkloric elements contextualizes hundreds of years of storytelling in an engaging acoustical play, expertly guided by Korolionok and Prihodko.
On this recording, the piano quintet led by violinist and conductor Remy Ballot juxtaposes Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet with Johann Nepomuk Hummel's much less frequently heard Piano Quintet, composed almost 20 years earlier. What both quintets have in common (apart from the fact that they remained unpublished for several years after completion) is the fact that they were - according to the contemporary convention - still scored for double bass, which would usually become replaced by a second violin in the later course of music history. Yoko Urata-Fog, piano, Remy Ballot, violin, Iris Ballot, viola, Jorgen Fog, cello and Manfred Hecking, double bass, impress with their uncompromising musicality and unpretentious playing, which brings out the diverse layers of sound in a unique, almost analytical way, and prove the point that after many dozens of recordings of "The Trout" (yet far less of the Hummel quintet), there still remains something genuine to be expressed with these "Classics".
Darius Milhaud a 25 ans lorsqu'il debarque a Rio de Janeiro en fevrier 1917, en plein carnaval. Puis il voyagera, fin 1919, en Martinique et aux USA. Sejours nourris de decouvertes sonores qui feront qu'il deviendra un precurseur de l'intrication des musiques du monde et de l'ecriture erudite europeenne des les premieres decades du XXe siecle. Philippe LESAGE In February 1917, Darius Milhaud went to Rio de Janeiro. He was 25, and he disembarked when the Carnival was in full swing. He stayed until the end of 1919, then travelled to Martinique and the USA. During his three stays he discovered remarkable sounds that would make him a precursor, in the first two decades of the 20th century, of the intricate relationship between world music and the scholarly classical music of Europe. Philippe LESAGE CD1 : LE BOEUF SUR LE TOIT : MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, DIR MITROPOULOS - ATe EU : OITO BATUTAS - ATe A VOLTA : OITO BATUTAS - APANHEI-TE CAVAQUINHO : ERNESTO NAZARETH - SCARAMOUCHE : MARCELLE MEYER & DARIUS MILHAUD - BREJEIRO : BANDA DO CORPO DOS BOMBEIROS DE RIO DE JANEIRO - GRAÚNA : OITO BATUTAS - ESCOVADO : ERNESTO NAZARETH - SAUDADES DO BRASIL : DARIUS MILHAUD - SAUDADES DO BRASIL : JACQUES FeVRIER - SAUDADES DO BRASIL : LE TRIGENTUOR LYONNAIS - DANSES DE JACAREMIRIM : LOUIS KAUFMAN & ARTUR BALSAM. CD2 : LA CReATION DU MONDE : ORCHESTRE DU THeaTRE DES CHAMPS-ELYSeES, DIR DARIUS MILHAUD - CARNAVAL a LA NOUVELLE-ORLeANS : ARTHUR GOLD & ROBERT FIZDALE - SOUNDS OF AFRICA : EUBIE BLAKE - I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHY : WIENER & DOUCET - KING PORTER STOMP : JELLY ROLL MORTON - 3 RAG-CAPRICES : VIENNA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, DIR HENRI SWOBODA - SOUVENIR DU BOEUF SUR LE TOIT : WIENER & DOUCET - HANDFUL OF KEYS : FATS WALLER - LE BAL MARTINIQUAIS : ROBERT & GABY CASADESUS - EN L'AI MONE LA : STELLIO - CINeMA FANTAISIE : RENe BENEDETTI ET JEAN WIENER. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : PHILIPPE LESAGE ET TECA CALAZANS
Walton: Violin Concerto; Portsmouth Point; Suite from Troilu
Chandos
SACD
$21.99Apr 04, 2025
Sinfonia of London and John Wilson start a new series of recordings of works by Sir William Walton with this album featuring Charlie Lovell-Jones as soloist in the Violin Concerto. Lovell-Jones has soloed with major orchestras internationally, broadcasting on radio and television. As leader of the multi-award-winning Sinfonia of London, he has performed at the BBC Proms and recorded numerous albums, and is the winner of a number of significant international competitions. Commissioned by Jascha Heifetz, the Concerto was premiered in 1939, in America, and was enthusiastically received. Inspired by Walton's friend and lover Alice Wimborne, the work is extremely lyrical and passionate in nature, sporting a wild, virtuosic Tarantella as the second movement. Alice was also a driving force behind the inception of Walton's first grand opera, Troilus and Cressida, composed over almost a decade, largely after her untimely death. Here we hear the four-movement orchestral suite compiled in 1987 by Christopher Palmer, at the instigation of Lady Walton and his lifelong publisher OUP. Walton's overture Portsmouth Point is the earliest work on the album, premiered in 1926.
Head Space: Candlelight is the first EP in The King's Singers' Head Space series, aiming to connect choral music with calmness and reflection. Inspired by compline, the Catholic night service, it features plainchant, including "In manus tuas Domine" and "Salva nos Domine vigilantes," emphasizing breath-led pacing. The album also includes wordless Orlando Gibbons "Songs," contemporary pieces by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Judith Bingham, and Arvo Part, and the experimental "4'33" by John Cage, concluding with Robert Parsons' "Ave Maria" and Edvard Grieg's "Ave Maris Stella," all designed to create a contemplative atmosphere.
Just in time for the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II on 25 October 2025, cpo is releasing the complete recording of a comedy that will itself celebrate it's 130th anniversary on 4 December. In Waldmeister, the undisputed king of the waltz once again pulls out all the stops and delivers a delightful comedy whose scandalous mix-ups ultimately dissolve in a high-proof punch. It's distinctive taste features a hero with a botanical title (Galium odoratum) and a series of evergreens - above all, the leitmotif and proverbial "Trau schau wem" ("Trust, but check"), which is enthusiastically taken up by friend and foe alike. This live recording was made during the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz's guest performance in Vienna and whose new production contributed to this year's Austrian Strauss celebrations.
Claude-Benigne Balbastre (1727-1799) published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1759, nine years after a decisive move from his home city of Dijon to the metropolis of Paris. France had been inundated with Italian music and musicians for more than 50 years, and Balbastre's style is inflected by the latest Italian trends, while remaining unmistakably and deliciously French. The titles of the individual works refer to the surnames of distinguished and influential figures in the Parisian world of the mid- to late18th century. They are not necessarily portraits; the point here is rather the dedication, although this music indubitably represents a wonderful picture of the world surrounding Balbastre. One of the composer's biographers has remarked that 'More than portraits without words supposed to musically evoke a personality, the harpsichord pieces constitute a tribute or a sign of gratitude with regard to said personality. The portrait thus painted is only allusive and mysterious.' For example, one of Balbastre's most famous and spectacular works, the Italian-style gigue La Lugeac (F major), is probably a portrait of Louis XV's close companion, the Marquis Charles-Antoine de Guerin (1720-82), who had been born at the Chateau de Lugeac and was described by his contemporaries as 'Le beau Lugeac'. In his own booklet introduction to Balbastre's life and work, Marek Toporowski extols the First Book as 'a true masterpiece', combining French elegance of Classical style; imagery alluding to the operas of Rameau; virtuosity reminiscent of Scarlatti, Mozart and Rameau; mastery of form and textural richness. Compared to other surviving music by Balbastre, Toporowski finds these pieces 'less simple in the sense of Classical economy of texture, more sophisticated and Baroque.' The Polish harpsichordist, organist, chamber musician, and conductor Marek Toporowski was a pupil of both Bob van Asperen and Daniel Roth, He has made this new recording on a copy of a French harpsichord, completed in 1984 for harpsichordist, pianist and painter Julitta Slendzinska by Zygmunt Kaczmarski. 'It is a fascinating, exceptional instrument,' he says, 'in terms of timbral class, with a full, juicy sound and enchanting dynamic capabilities.' - Claude Balbastre was a prominent French composer, organist, and harpsichordist of the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He studied under Claude Rameau, the brother of Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose influence is evident in his music. - Among his most notable works are his Pieces de clavecin, published in 1759. These pieces exemplify the refined and expressive style of the French harpsichord tradition, combining lyrical melodies with intricate ornamentation and lively rhythms. Like those of Francois Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Balbastre's harpsichord works often feature evocative titles, such as La d'Hericourt, La de Caze, and La Lugeac, referring to prominent figures of the time. His Pieces de clavecin display a wide range of textures and moods, from playful and lighthearted dances to deeply expressive movements. He incorporated elements of the galant style, characterized by clarity and grace, alongside more dramatic and virtuosic passages, sometimes even adapting orchestral effects to the harpsichord. - Marek Toporowski is a harpsichordist, organist, pianist and conductor, one of Poland's foremost performers in the Historical Performance movement. He is a scholar and a well-known collector of historical instruments. Also available by Marek Toporowski are the Complete Piano Music by Pinto, keyboard sonatas by Hyacinthe Jadin, and violin sonatas by Ferdinand Ries.
Five of the best brass players in the world united in a chamber music ensemble: The Reinhold Friedrich Brass Quintett was founded in 2022 and presents here its first CD, UNITY.
For this brass quintet's lifelong dream, world-renowned trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich has brought together the best players in their respective fields, musicians who not only get along extremely well with one another in a musical sense but also on a personal level. In their playing, one can feel their mutual appreciation and their joy in making music together, and, coupled with their unique technical and musical skills, as well as their chamber music experience, this enables the musicians to merge into a single unit.
The players that form this top-class quintet come together from a variety of European countries: Jeroen Berwaerts hails from Belgium and as a former principal trumpeter of the NDR Symphony Orchestra is a much-sought-after soloist who now teaches at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. The Dane, Lasse Mauritzen, who was knighted to the Order of Dannebrog by Queen Margarethe II, is first principal horn of the Copenhagen-based Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra (DRSO). Although Ian Bousfield is British, he now lives in Switzerland and is accustomed to performing around the world as a former principal trombonist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as being a soloist and a conductor. Fundamental to the quintet is the Norwegian Thomas Røisland, who now lives in Sweden and is principal tuba in the DRSO, as well as playing in other renowned European orchestras.These five musicians are united by their desire to set new standards in brass chamber music for their audiences and to present premiere recordings and commission arrangements of classics that have not yet been recorded at a world-class level.
Carpathian Tales is a project of the artist's heart that has been formed over two years. It represents a musical dedication to her second home Romania - full of personal stories and compositions that capture the spirit of the country and paint a multi-faceted picture of the Carpathians. Each piece is accompanied by it's own story. All works combine the unmistakable energy of folk themes, pure emotionality and show a varied spectrum from melancholy to dancing virtuosity. These are special arrangements and first recordings that come together on this album. For this album, Lelie Cristea also went in search of works that would be equal in beauty and character to the pieces by Enescu and Porumbescu. She herself was surprised by the musical treasures she found and her expectations were far exceeded. All the works are united by their expressive character, which is characterised by folk themes and a wide spectrum of colours. Sensual ballads give way to virtuoso character pieces that joyfully invite you to dance. What always attracts one almost magically is the emotional depth of the compositions. It is up to the performer and, of course, the listener to allow this completely and to immerse themselves in the respective work. Then the pulse of the works begins to connect with your own, and the journey begins. With Carpathian Tales and further planned concept albums, Lelie Cristea fulfils her wish to record and capture special works from classical, film and salon music in exclusive arrangements.
Duarte: Americana, Original Guitar Works and Arrangements of
Brilliant Classics
CD
$16.99Nov 28, 2025
John W. Duarte (1919-2004) was educated at the Manchester University Faculty of Technology. He worked as a professional chemist until 1969, then abandoned chemistry in favor of full-time dedication to music, after having been persuaded by Len Williams, father of John Williams. His only formal musical education consisted in jazz guitar lessons with Terence "Terry" Usher, the rest he learned by self-instruction. He also worked professionally as a player of the trumpet and double bass, and regularly worked as a jazz musician, among others with Coleman Hawkins and Django Reinhardt. Duartes work shows an exceptionally wide range of styles. Some works reflect the Renaissance style of court lutenists such as John Dowland, other works alternate in style between aleatory, atonal and graphic, contained within a conventionally notated framework and allowing spontaneous reaction between the performers. In many other works he employs a tonal language, often coloured by the folk music traditions of various nations, and romantic in mood. John Duarte was a great admirer of America's musical styles. Three types of music are characteristically American: the folk music of the settlers from the British Isles, jazz, with it's African American origins and the music of the American musical theatre. All of these are exemplified in the musical programme of this recording: folk music in Variations on an American Folk Song (Colorado Trail) and Appalachian Dreams, jazz and blues in Sua Cosa and Simply Blues, and music of the theatre in the arrangements of songs by George Gershwin. Americana includes examples of each of these types of music. Included are the suite Americana, Simply Blues and Appalachian Dreams, as well as 12 arrangements of Gershwin songs. Played by Italian master guitarist Francesco Cipriani.
