Italia Mia by Ensemble Micrologus is not merely a collection of pieces but a musical journey that invites listeners to explore the vivid and diverse soundscape of Italy's past. Through their dedicated performance, Micrologus offers a window into the past, allowing modern audiences to experience the beauty and complexity of early Italian music. This live-recording stands as a testament to the enduring appeal of these works and the ensemble's commitment to preserving and celebrating the rich tapestry of Italy's musical heritage.
Selim Palmgren was one of the most celebrated pianist-composers in the years before the end of the First World War. His vast catalogue of piano music, much of it unknown, is showcased in this acclaimed series performed by Jouni Somero, the Finnish composer's greatest modern exponent. This volume features the virtuosic and demanding Fantasie, Op. 6, one of Palmgren's most compelling works, as well as examples of music irradiated by Impressionism and Nordic folklore. Miniatures including études, waltzes, and pieces that exude Chopinesque charm are also featured.
Alice Sara Ott - "Johann Johannsson: Piano Works" Johann Johannsson: Piano Works, recorded by pianist Alice Sara Ott, is a selection of the late Icelandic composer's most famous works - reimagined for solo piano. These premiere recordings of the piano scores published recently by Faber Music are hauntingly beautiful interpretations, capturing the essence of Johann Johannsson's music. The album includes some of his most iconic works from films such as The Theory of Everything, Personal Effects, and Copenhagen Dreams, as well as from his studio albums including Orphee and Englaborn. CD Mintpack.
Paques a Notre-Dame is an album of choral music for Easter, performed by members of the Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris, which offers training and performance opportunities to talented children, teenagers and adults. Spanning six centuries and the musical cultures of France, Italy and Germany, the album includes the last polyphonic work to be performed at Notre-Dame before fire devastated the great cathedral amidst preparations for Easter in 2019. The conductor is Henri Chalet, director of the Maitrise, and the organist is Yves Castagnet, who also composed three of the works on the programme, recorded in the basilica of Sainte-Clotilde, another major church in Paris. As Henri Chalet says: "We know that Notre-Dame will rise again."
The penultimate release in Angela Hewitt's cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas features the Piano Sonata in F minor Op.2 No.1. The listener's understanding is again enhanced by Angela's illuminating booklet notes, in which she sets out her approach to performing these most canonic of works in the entire piano literature.
The world is looking forward to seeing Paris's Notre-Dame restored to it's familiar physical glory. In the meantime, the musical joys of the great cathedral can be experienced with the singers of it's choir school, Maitrise Notre-Dame de Paris. Backed by more than 800 years of choral tradition, the Maitrise offers training and performance opportunities to talented children, teenagers and adults. On Cathedrale d'emotions they and the professional singers of the Ensemble vocal de Notre-Dame de Paris perform music that spans the entire history of the cathedral, including works premiered at Notre-Dame in the 21st century.
Marlow articulates the music so coherently that he neatly side-steps any impression of aimlessness.... carefully graduated dynamics, close attention to the meaning and spirit of the text and disciplined singing result in readings which sparkle with life.
The titular 'lion of nobility' was (probably) King John II of France, making the most expansive work on this album a lament for a historical event: the French defeat at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Elsewhere, Machaut's protagonist continues to scrutinize the joys and sorrows of courtly love in obsessive detail.
Angela Hewitt's notes for this important new album describe a teenager's moment of revelation when she first came to appreciate the epic masterpiece that is the Liszt Piano Sonata. Here we have a heart-felt recording where this palpable sense of wonder is manifest alongside Hewitt's enthralling technical facility at the keyboard. The program is completed by the second half of Liszt's dazzling second Annee de pelerinage collection: The three Petrarch Sonnets and the noble Dante Sonata, the latter composed as a fund-raiser for the Bonn Beethoven monument in 1839.
Vinyl LP pressing. As well as solo piano pieces, 'the skies: rarities' includes one track for choir and electronics ("Patterned Ground"), and one for string orchestra ("Breaking The Surface"), for which the instrumentalists of Scoring Berlin were asked to both play from the score and improvise. Guitarist Jon Goddard, meanwhile, appears on "Into Silence," giving the track what Eno calls "a particular flavor it would otherwise have lacked."
