Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva makes her Pentatone debut with Resilience, presenting music by Szpilman, Shostakovich, Weinberg and Prokofiev, composers who – each in their own way – maintained themselves in times of great instability. The focal point of this album is Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew who survived World War II thanks to the power of his music, and is widely known as the title hero of Roman Polanski’s award-winning film The Pianist. Incited by the unique opportunity to play on Szpilman’s house piano, this recording project helped Avdeeva to cope with the challenges of our current times, and it may offer fortitude and consolation to listeners as well. A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Yulianna Avdeeva plays with power, conviction, and sensibility, having won over audiences all over the world.

Sean Shibe returns to the classical guitar on Profesión, bringing together works by Agustín Barrios, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Alberto Ginastera. The album derives its name from Barrios’s “Profesión de Fe” (profession of faith), a poem which he often used as a preface to his concerts. The poem references indigenous mythological deities, and praises the power of the guitar as the ultimate conduit to the secrets of the divine South-American destiny. Barrios’s La Catedral and Julia Florida are combined with Villa Lobos’s 12 Études, while Ginastera’s Sonata completes the program.

These works by South American composers begin with homage and pastiche in reverence of the Old World, but build towards a totally original idiom - musical magical realism. The repertoire is voluminous, indulging in excess, and narcotic, and as such creates a counterweight to the reserved and introspective nature of Shibe’s acclaimed classical predecessor album Camino.

This will be Shibe’s first-ever album focusing on repertoire that was originally written for the classical guitar, and he plays a Hauser copy built for Julian Bream. It was considered one of the best instruments of the 1930s, and fits the sound world of this program like a glove.

REVIEWS:

It’s an extraordinary account [of the Villa-Lobos], bursting with nuance and personality and easily rivaling Julian Bream’s classic, late-1970s version.

— Gramophone

This is a gleaming and brilliant album that doesn’t fail to awaken the senses to the exhilarating world of un-adulterated acoustic sound.

— BBC Music Magazine

In 1700, Corelli published his 12 violin sonatas, Opus 5, in Rome. A veritable revolution in violin technique, they won the admiration of eminent composers (Bach, Dandrieu, Couperin) and greatly influenced the French (Francoeur, Leclair, Senaillé, Quentin), who were to try their hand at this virtuoso and brilliant Italian style. At the end of the 1730s, the first six sonatas of opus 5 were"adapted to the transverse flute with the bass" by a Parisian publisher. The level of virtuosity they demanded was quite innovative at the time. This display of virtuosity is also to be found in the compositions of Jean-Baptiste Quentin, known as Le Jeune. We have very little biographical information on Quentin himself, but all his work is greatly inspired by Italian music and is heavily influenced by Corelli. Anna Besson has made the world's first recording of his sonatas, with the help of two other eminent performers of the new Baroque generation, Myriam Rignol on viola da gamba and Jean Rondeau on harpsichord…

Originally issued on the 2LP set Nativity in 1976, this classic Vox recording is a fine example of Robert Shaw’s expertise as a choral conductor. The album features a selection of carols, choral works and orchestral Christmas favourites performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Produced by the legendary Elite Recordings team of Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, and newly remastered from the original analogue tapes in high-definition.

Although Mozart composed them in his early twenties, the three symphonies presented here can in no way be regarded as early works. Written around the time of his departure from Salzburg for Vienna, these symphonies show that Mozart could deliver attractive, varied, orchestrally colourful and characterful music to suit a variety of public tastes. They also show a young and ambitious composer seeking to forge an impregnable reputation in Europe’s musical capital city. These symphonies truly opened a new chapter in Mozart’s symphonic output, as he demonstrated his absolute mastery of orchestral writing. In addition to the three symphonies as we know them, this recording also includes a minuet that may have been intended to form part of Symphony No. 34.

These three symphonies are performed here by the Philharmonia Orchestra, an ensemble that has performed them with the greatest conductors throughout its almost 80-year history. Here the conductor is the eminent Mozartian Michael Collins, whose recordings, notably that devoted to the Austrian composer’s clarinet concerto and quintet, have earned him the highest praise.

REVIEWS:

As a poetic exponent of Mozart’s music for clarinet, Michael Collins, unsurprisingly, shapes all three slow movements with a natural feeling for Mozartian line. His flowing tempos sound spot on.

There is always room in the Mozart discography for new recordings of this stature.

— BBC Music Magazine

Nominated for a GRAMMY® Award!

Karina Canellakis offers the first fruit of her exclusive Pentatone collaboration with a recording of Bartók’s 4 Orchestral Pieces and Concerto for Orchestra, together with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, of which she is the Chief Conductor. The 4 Orchestral Pieces have a strong affinity with the stage works Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and The Wooden Prince, conceived in the same period. The Concerto for Orchestra is one of Bartóks final works, full of folk tunes, and utterly colourful and virtuosic for all the instruments. As such, it’s an ideal piece to showcase the congeniality between the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and its star Chief Conductor. Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command and interpretive depth, Karina Canellakis has become one of the most in- demand conductors of her generation. She makes her Pentatone debut as Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra that returns to the label after its participation in Gordon Getty’s Beauty Comes Dancing (2018).