Boieldieu, Debussy, Mozart & Saint-Saëns: La Harpe a Paris / Süss, Berlin SO
Campanella Musica
CD
$20.99Oct 07, 2022
Paris - the city of so many dreams and promises - has its own special ring in the ears of harpists. In hardly any other place in the world has the harp been played so much, had so many compositions written for it and been so popular. It is no coincidence that all the great works for harp on this album were written in Paris - for that is its home town.
Margit-Anna Süss has a busy international career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Karl-Heinz Schütz is Solo Flute of Wiener Philharmoniker and therefor in the same position at the Wiener Staatsoper, having held the same position with the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker or four years, and with the Wiener Symphoniker from 2005 to 2011. For more than five decades, the Berliner Symphoniker have been an integral part of Berlin’s musical and cultural life and enrich the German orchestra landscape. Alongside his career as a soloist he has also, for many years, been much in demand all over the world as a conductor. From 2012 to 2022 he was chief conductor of the Okayama Philharmonic Orchestra and is currently chief conductor of the Berlin Symphonic. He is also a guest conductor with the Camerata Salzburg, the Spanish national orchestra, the Deutsche Radio-Philharmonie Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern and other world-class orchestras. In May 2022 he was on the podium with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at its truly historic concert in Dubai. In 2018 Professor Hansjörg Schellenberger received the prestigious Verdienstkreuz am Bande der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Philip Chiu - "Voyages" / Pianist Philip Chiu presents Voyages, "a deeply personal album that represents a humble attempt to capture something elusive to me: a sense of belonging. Where do we belong? To whom do we belong? What belongs to us, what is ours simply because it was handed to us, and what is ours because we chose it?
On Darknesse Visible, Inon Barnatan brings together French and British composers with works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy Thomas Ades and Ronald Stevenson. The album title is derived from Ades's piece of the same name and conveys some of the aspects that Barnatan finds most fascinating about the music on this album: all the pieces are inspired by stories or poems, and in all of them dark and light are intertwined. Ades and Stevenson both take their inspiration from existing pieces, by Dowland and Britten respectively. Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and La Valse showcase the evocative power and colour of his music, while Debussy's Suite Bergamasque contains the world-famous Clair de lune.
For their third recording for label Stradivarius, the duo Singer & Fischer have chosen to devote themselves to four Hispanic-flavored works. With little original repertoire despite the opuses that various composers have written for them in recent years, transcriptions, arrangements, and other adaptations are usual in the ensemble’s work. However, not all works are easy to adapt, and the choice of pieces from among the ‘possibilities’ is often a difficult one. The transcriptions on this recording are the result of a process of reflection that goes back to the duo’s genesis. Their first attempts at De Falla or Granados took place in the 90s, a time when the youthfulness of the performers certainly contributed to the enthusiasm essential to any musical interpretation, but when a lack of experience was a brake on any idea of immortalizing their concert attempts.
Since then, the Singer & Fischer duo have taken the time to mature, and this latest recording is the result of over thirty years of playing together. Whether in terms of sound timbre, phrasing or balance, the ensemble has achieved a musical union made possible by its longevity, proof that despite all the acceleration and frenzy in today’s world, some goals take time.
Around Gershwin is star accordionist Richard Galliano's tribute to George Gershwin, in-terweaving his music with works by early twentieth-century composers such as Debus-sy, Rachmaninoff, Satie, Ravel and Faure, as well as new compositions of his own. Seen through the lense of Galliano's masterful musicianship, these pieces create the sensa-tion of a sonic odyssey.
This is the new recording we have been waiting for. Three years after Brahms (ALPHA792), the Belcea Quartet returns in a new formation: Suyeon Kang, their new second violin, joined the quartet in 2023. Today the Belcea Quartet presents a new recording of the Debussy Quartet - which they had previously recorded on their very first album 25 years ago - and two quartets by Karol Szymanowski, a composer they are particularly fond of and who possesses a unique and immediately identifiable musical language. The first quartet was composed in 1917 but the Russian Revolution intervened; it's premiere finally took place in 1924. Szymanowski - then a world-renowned composer and a leading figure in the reconstruction of musical life in the young Polish Republic - wrote his second quartet ten years after the first in 1927; it was premiered in Warsaw two years later.
Saskia Giorgini presents Images, containing some of Claude Debussy's most colourful piano works. Starting with tuneful early works such as the Danse (Tarantelle styrienne) and Deux arabesques, Giorgini gradually works towards later, more ambitious pieces such as the Estampes and the two sets of Images, from which the album derives it's name. Debussy's music has always held an enormous attraction to Giorgini, and this album is the result of a years-long search to bring these mesmerising musical pictures to life. With her solo Liszt recordings, Giorgini has demonstrated a masterful touche and unique sense of colour, which makes Debussy's music an obvious next step.
Having recorded the 'great' French quartets of Debussy and Ravel (ALPHA295), the Van Kuijk Quartet now takes another path and explores treasures by Faure, Debussy, Satie, Ravel and Poulenc that were originally composed for piano or voice. The mark of the string quartet is secretly apparent in this programme, which includes Debussy's Petite Suite pour piano à quatre mains, Ravel's famous Pavane pour une infante defunte and well-known songs by Poulenc, Faure and Satie in transcriptions made especially for this recording by Emmanuel Francois, the Quartet's violist, and by Jean-Christophe Masson and Gildas Guillon. The Quartet also asked the jazz pianist and composer Baptiste Trotignon to create a work that would freely resonate alongside the styles of the composers whose works had been transcribed. An entire universe has now been re-created without any nostalgia or pastiche behind the first names of these composers, Ces Messieurs. The Van Kuijks have woven their instruments in and around these miniatures and here unfold a programme that is all lightness and delight.
Cellist Louise Dubin's new collection of French cello works include pieces by masters Debussy, Faure and Koechlin, side by side with rarities by the lesser known Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884), and contemporary composer Philippe Hersant (b. 1948). Ms. Dubin's last award-winning album was devoted to the compositions of Franchomme. This new recording features both Franchomme's arrangements and original compositions.
Each of the works on this recording was either composed by or inspired by a woman. We meet Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) and her Concertino - 'a piece that has accompanied me for years and encapsulates her immense talent', says Mathilde Calderini; Claude Arrieu (1903-90), a pupil of Marguerite Long and Paul Dukas; Mel Bonis (1858-1937); and the young composer Lise Borel (b. 1993), whom Mathilde Calderini commissioned to write a piece entitled Miroir, which she premiered in 2023 with Aurele Marthan, the pianist on this recording and a longstanding artistic partner of hers. Debussy's famous nymph Syrinx and a transcription of his prelude La Fille aux cheveux de lin are also on the programme, as are his Six epigraphes antiques, inspired by the Chansons de Bilitis, named after an (entirely fictional) ancient poetess. Francis Poulenc's Sonata of 1957 is 'probably one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for flute and piano', according to the French flautist. The work was commissioned by the American pianist and philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who also did a great deal for such composers as Ravel, Stravinsky and Barber.
Guitarist from Rome, Marina Tomei is among all the most active young Italian guitarists in the world music scene. She began to study guitar with Bruno Battisti D'Amario, the historical guitarist of Ennio Morricone. She continued her academic studies in Florence, as a fellow at the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, where she studied with Maestro Francesco Cuoghi. She received her degree in guitar under the guidance of Maestro Arturo Tallini at the Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia in Rome. She worked in Masterclass with Dusan Bogdanovich, Magnus Andersson and Ricardo Gallen among others. She was selected to attend the Aspen Music Festival and School, under the instrumental direction of Sharon Isbin, and the famous Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Oscar Ghiglia. The CD offers, with personal lyrical strength and colorful language, a fascinating musical journey into the compositions of twentieth-century authors.
With mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena and pianist Mitsuko Uchida, two world stars join hands on L'extase, a collection of songs by Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. Debussy was Messiaen's life-long idol, and their songs are equally colourful, sumptuous, sensual, and occasionally exotic. The album derives it's name from the sultry song 'C'est l'extase langoureuse' from Debussy's Ariettes oubliees, and this song cycle is combined with his Chansons de Bilitis and Cinq poemes des Baudelaires, while Messiaen is represented by the second book of his Poemes pour Mi, a declaration of love for his first wife Claire Delbos. This recording demonstrates the profound affinity of both performers with French music, as well as their congeniality as musical partners. With L'extase, star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena presents the seventh album of her exclusive collaboration with Pentatone, after having presented Il giardino dei sospiri, Soiree (both 2019), Nostalgia (2021), Folk Songs (2023), the title role in Handel's Alcina and Czech Songs (both 2024). One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Gyorgy Kurtag. She makes her PENTATONE debut.
Jean Fournier (1911-2003) was a French violinist and professor of classical music. Fournier’s intonation, while lean, was gentle on the ear. He made an impressive career for himself. He was a soloist with some of the great French orchestras as well as with celebrated international ones. Concert tours took him to many of Europe’s centres of culture (Belgium, Germany, England, Italy, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Spain), as well as to North and South Africa, India and the Far East. In addition to his solo work, Fournier was above all an excellent chamber musician. Together with his wife, the French pianist Ginette Doyen (1921-2002), he performed duets for violin and piano. In the 1950s he founded a brilliant piano trio together with the Italian cellist Antonio Janigro (1918-1989) and the Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda (1927-2019). In addition to his active concert activities Jean Fournier also made many recordings. This 10-album compilation is testament to the violinist’s diversity. It includes recordings such as the Sonatina No. 5 op. 32/1 for solo violin by Jean Martinon (1910-1976), and of course numerous duet works (many of them with his wife Ginette Doyen), piano trios (usually together with his trio partners Antonio Janigro and Paul Badura-Skoda) and violin concertos by Mozart or the Double Concerto op. 102 by Johannes Brahms with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra under Milan Horvat (Mozart) and Hermann Scherchen (Brahms).
The original semantic value of re-ligio, therefore considered as a restoration of contacts, as a meeting point of distant but related cultures. Referring to the genesis of the work, the composer herself states: Reading these works has significant inner similarities: contemplation and sophistication. The lines from the work of IV Oganov - "the pain of a flower's test", "... The roar of the singing garden grew", "... The revelation of the rose... ", "... The lotus was set on fire by the music", "... The white garden began to resound again with diamond borders... " - encouraged me to a concrete sound perception of this garden. On the other hand, however, all this ecstatic flowering was expressed naturally in Tanzer's reflections on the world in it's entirety. At the basis of the musical rendering of this piece there is in fact the opposition of the bright and diaphanous timbre of the natural harmonics with the sad coloratura of the intervals of minor second and minor third.
Grieg, Debussy, Kirchner, & Maurice: Mon amie la lune - Songs & Piano Pieces
Prospero Classical
CD
$24.99Mar 17, 2023
Kathrin Hottiger is a Swiss soprano. She studied with Liliane Zürcher at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Since graduating, she has continued her studies with Malin Hartelius. Kathrin Hottiger won third prize at the 2018 "Pietro Antonio Cesti" international competition for baroque opera in Innsbruck, Austria, and was a semi-finalist at the "New Voices" competition in 2019. She received a scholarship from Migros Kulturprozent in 2017 and 2018 In various master classes, Kathrin Hottiger has worked with Bernarda Fink, Edith Mathis, Ton Koopman, and Evelyn Tubb. In the summer of 2022, Kathrin Hottiger performed the role of Zelmira in Joseph Haydn's opera "Armida" at the Bregenz Festival. Further highlights of her career have included engagements in Moscow, Washington DC and Jerusalem. She has worked with ensembles such as the Thomanerchor and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the musica viva orchestra Moscow, Camerata Bern, the Orchester de chambre de Lausanne, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and the argovia philharmonic under the baton of Rune Bergmann and Jan Willem de Vriend. In 2019, she sang the role of Eurydice in Gluck's opera "Orphée et Eurydice" at the Tchaikovsky concert hall in Moscow and in the Opera of Komi. In 2020, she gave her debut as Adele ("Die Fledermaus") at the Neues Theater in Dornach and in 2021 she sang Fortuna, Pallade and Damigella in Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea" at Waldegg Castle. The CD produced during this production was released by Rondeau Production in Leipzig and is listed in the longlist 1/2023 of the German Record Critics in two categories. Further engagements include the roles of Amore ("Orfeo ed Euridice"), Venus ("Venus and Adonis"), and Gretel ("Hänsel und Gretel") at the Luzerner Theater, Switzerland. Kathrin Hottiger also enjoys singing in a chamber music setting. She regularly performs with the ensemble I Pizzicanti, based in Basel, which specializes in early music. In addition, she has a special love of the song, in particular of French and Scandinavian repertoire. Since spring 2022 she has been making music with the American-French pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat. Since 2017 she has given regular recitals as a duo with Edward Rushton.
Echoes of birds, water, and wind: on her refreshingly unconventional debut album with GENUIN, the young musician Sophia Schambeck presents flute compositions spanning nine centuries. New works stand alongside ancient ones, solo pieces are interwoven with ensemble music, Irish melodies contrast with Japanese ones, and original works are placed beside arrangements. Listeners are drawn into fascinating sonic worlds ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to the present day - performed on no fewer than thirteen different recorders. This acoustic universe, shaped by a musician devoted to connecting styles and cultures, fills us with wonder and deep emotion.
Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart & Scarlatti: Piano Recital
Prospero Classical
CD
$21.99Jun 03, 2022
French pianist Kim Barbier does not see herself to be a person or an artist who is restricted by borders, be they linguistic, cultural or geographical. On the contrary, despite training at the Paris Conservatoire, which gave her a special familiarity with French composers such as Debussy, Dutilleux, Fauré and Poulenc, her career has been marked by a variety of emphases without being limited to specific preferences. Within the framework of classical music, she feels no commitment to any particular style, epoch or work, and would find it difficult to name any out-standing composers who did not interest her. This is one reason given as to why she has lived in Berlin for a many years. She appreciates the quality, internationality and openness of it's musical world, where she has found so many opportunities for creative expression and further development. This is particularly true of a long- standing collaboration with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. She remains closely connected to the local music scene through these colleagues, especially in the field of chamber music, while at the same time pursuing wide- ranging international concert activities beyond Berlin. The present selection of piano pieces represents the versatility of Kim Barbier's skills, experience and interests across a broad musical spectrum. In some cases, these have shaped her biography and are associated with key experiences in her life and career. At the same time, the sequence of compositions represents stations in the development of European music history from the Baroque to the Classical Modern periods. The juxtaposition creates a dialogue that reveals both connections and influences, while resulting in a sovereign musical narrative that is neither strictly nor formally bound.
Debussy, Mahler, Baadsvik et al: Storytellers - Music for Tuba & Ensemble / Benavidez
Bridge Records
CD
$18.99Sep 16, 2022
Tuba virtuoso Justin Benavidez is heard in three new tuba concertos, two recent solos, and stunning transcriptions of works by Gustav Mahler and Claude Debussy. Benavidez is currently Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Florida State University and performs as principal tuba of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. In the summer he is on the faculty at the Round Top Music Festival in Texas. With his playing noted for its "tremendous virtuosity and stylistic versatility," Benavidez has performed in venues throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He has been featured numerous times on APM's Performance Today radio program. His debut solo album, Emblems, won Silver Medals in the Classical Album and Instrumental Solo Album categories of the Global Music Awards. The International Tuba Euphonium Association Journal described it as "an impressive and highly entertaining record" on which Benavidez "shreds with enthusiasm, exuberance, and precision."
The album Musical Landscapes contains a carefully thought over and set together group of eight compositions. The latter are formative of a specific music journey that spreads out from north to south and from west to east. This journey integrates diversity and beauty of art experience: from musical subtleties through grandeur of sounds, up to Spanish guitar temperament, from raindrops to storms with hailstones, from corta figure to sonorism. The selected compositions are, on one part, the most prominent works of world music in new arrangements and, on the other, the rarely performed pieces that were originally composed for the four-guitar ensemble. The presented transcriptions, full of the four musicians’ creative solutions and conceptions make up a new repertoire characteristic of fairly individual and authorial traits. The keynote of the project is the landscape conceived of in variety of manners.
