Lamenting Earth, the latest release from GRAMMY® Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan, in collaboration with The Jasper Quartet and his long-time performing partner pianist Myra Huang, explores humanity's interaction with nature as expressed through composers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Franz Schubert's songs evoke images of water, stillness, and solitude as mirrors of human emotion. Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge, drawing on A. E. Housman's poetry, places the individual within vast cycles of time and landscape - hills, wind, and earth - which persist beyond human joy and grief alike. Ives's Housatonic at Stockbridge memories, hymns, and the river blend together into a shimmering meditation on transcendence, where nature becomes a spiritual threshold rather than a backdrop. 21st century responses include Patrick Castillo's Skyline Palimpsest, an homage to New York City, once his hometown, that reflects on how nature's effects may shape the future of the metropolis. The title track by Canadian-born composer Vivian Fung, pairs American writer Claire Wahmanholm's poem "O" - which has been described as a lament, an elegy, and a clarion call to action - with Gen Z-ers urgent written responses to climate change. Nicholas Phan's burnished tone and passion for vocal chamber music bring vivid beauty to the range of repertoire that shares a central theme. Lamenting Earth is released to coincide with World Earth Day (22 April 2026).
This was something I'd had in mind for a long time..." says pianist Alexandre Tharaud, "to put together an album for the sheer pleasure of it, in collaboration with dear friends and paying tribute to the wonders of the piano duet repertoire." The aptly named 4 Hands offers 18 tracks, each just a few minutes in length, each featuring Tharaud sharing a piano keyboard with a different partner. The repertoire ranges wide - from Bach to Glass by way of such composers as Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Fauré, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Piazzolla. 15 of Tharaud's fellow performers are celebrated pianists - among them the late Nicholas Angelich, Mariam Batsashvili, Bertrand Chamayou, David Fray, Víkingur Ólafsson, and Beatrice Rana. The other three, all stars in their musical fields, are shown in a new, pianistic light: cellist Gautier Capuçon, countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and singer-songwriter Juliette. "The piano duet is one of life's miracles," continues Tharaud. "First and foremost, it is the most intimate way of playing chamber music... It was a joy to record this album... If hearing these pieces prompts people to buy some sheet music and enjoy playing duets together - just as we did in the recording studio - then I will have achieved my aim.
Lars Vogt (1970-2022) early recordings collected here provide a document of an artist who always remained authentic, both to himself and to music. Lars Vogt never sought absolute truth, but truthfulness instead meant all the more to him. The man and the artist were always very close, never currying favour and never detached from the world. He was, instead, open and natural. "It's incredibly gratifying when you notice that you can perhaps light a little spark, a little flame for music in people, and when music helps you to find the path to your own soul."
Schubert: String Quartets No 13-15 / Artemis Quartet. Composer: Franz Schubert, Orchestra/Ensemble: Artemis String Quartet. The Artemis Quartet is one of an elite group of string quartets on the world stage today. After having been awarded with Germany's prestigious Klassik ECHO award and France s Grand Prix de I Academie Charles Cros in 2011 for their Virgin Classics Beethoven cycle, the members of Artemis Quartet now release an all-Schubert CD. It presents the composer s final three string quartets: No. 13 in A minor, Rosamude; No. 14 in D minor, Death and the Maiden and No. 15 in G major. This new Schubert album joints the Artemis Quartet s 2008 release of the composer s String Quintet (for which cellist Truls Mork complemented the ensemble) and Quartettsatz in C minor.
Wolfgang Sawallisch: Complete Symphonic, Lieder & Choral Recordings - Warner Classics Edition, Vol. 1
WARNER CLASSICS
CD
$200.17Aug 09, 2024
For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvorak - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).
A veritable musical metaphor for the suicide of Europe that was the Great War, both apotheosis and apocalypse. We also hear evocations of Schubert, Liszt, Mahler and Kreisler, all imbued with a kind of nostalgia that belongs only to this mythical city. - Aurélien Pontier
Dedicated to the last years of Imperial Vienna, which gave rise to an artistic effervescence unique in European history. The program opens with a piano transcription of Strauss's Die Fledermaus and ends with Ravel's La Valse.
Artemis Quartett - The Complete Recordings 1996-2018
WARNER CLASSICS
CD
$100.08Aug 09, 2024
Intense, passionate, and impeccable in its musical disciplines, the Berlin-based Artemis Quartet "consistently finds a balance between projecting musical structure and conveying immediacy." Confirming that verdict from the New York Times is this 23CD collection, encompassing all the recordings the ensemble made between 1996 and 2018.
The Artemis Quartet began life in 1989 and developed a particular reputation in the central Austro-German repertoire. If Beethoven justly asserts a powerful presence, the scope of this collection extends as far as Eastern Europe and South America and well into the 20th century. Over the period of nearly a quarter of a century documented in this box, there were changes in the Artemis Quartet's lineup, but as founding cellist Eckart Runge explains, this "brought new inspiration - an opportunity to broaden horizons and introduce fresh ideas."
The ensemble suffered a tragic loss with the untimely death of violist Friedemann Weigle in 2015. Just days earlier, the Artemis had completed a recording of Dvořák's lyrical and poignant 'American' Quartet; it is now released for the very first time. This landmark box is completed by a comprehensive booklet which includes reminiscences from members of the Artemis Quartet and from sound engineers who collaborated with them.
His exceptional touch and sense of phrasing, his deep and personal understanding of the most varied repertoires, or even the legendary trio he formed together with Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals, made Alfred Cortot the greatest pianist of his time. Master of many disciples, notably the brilliant Dinu Lipatti, Samson François and Clara Haskil, Cortot also had a lasting influence on the Russian piano school through Samuil Feinberg and Heinrich Neuhaus, the latter himself being the revered teacher of Sviatoslav Richter.
All of the recordings in this set had undergone careful sound restoration in 2012, in order to respect as closely as possible the original sound. The remastering was carried out under the expert control of Mr. Guthrie Luke, a former disciple of Alfred Cortot who attended many recording sessions by Cortot. These recordings do not represent a "complete" edition: the many rolls engraved by the artist for Duo-Art, Aeolian and Pleyela labels have not been reproduced here, most of them doubling the 78-RPM repertoire. The first recordings are acoustic; and the ones with an electric microphone appeared as early as 1926.
The great Italian legend of the piano Maurizio Pollini sadly passed away on 23rd March 2024. This album recorded together with his son Daniele, is dedicated to three different aspects of Schubert's piano oeuvre covering: the sonatas, the collections of short pieces, and music for four hands. The first time that both musicians performed a piano work for four hands: Schubert's great F minor Fantasy. The release is accompanied by a 16-page booklet with an essay by Maurizio Pollini's long-time companion Paolo Petazzi. “Schubert was certainly one of my father’s most beloved composers. As a boy, listening to his beautiful performances of the Sonatas D 960 and D 894 made me understand the greatness of Schubert’s music.” - Daniele Pollini
For this box, ALTO has compiled ten albums by as many outstanding pianists of the 20th century. These include both exemplary recordings and new compilations by ALTO as well as live recordings from the catalogs of the great labels. The entire 20th century is covered from Artur Schnabel and Artur Rubinstein to Marta Argerich with works by composers they were highly celbrated for. The interested enthusiast doesn't get a random grab bag here, but rather a well-thought-out program that also impresses connoisseurs. 10 Giants of the Keyboard: Marta Argerich; Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Ravel, Prokofiev Vladimir Ashkenazy; Chopin Alfred Brendel; Schubert including complete Impromptus Emil Gilels; Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky GLenn Gould; Bach 1955 Goldbergs, Partitas, Fugues Vladimir Horowitz; Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin, othrs Wilhelm Kempff; Mozart concerti Sviatoslav Richter; Iconic Schubert Artur Rubinstein; Chopin Favourites Artur Schnabel; Beethoven collection
SCHUBERT: PIANO SONATAS NOS. 16 & 17 IMPROMPTU N 2
ALTO
CD
$11.49Mar 06, 2020
Richter's interpretations in these years had an elemental power, unselfconscious abandon that was refined and tempered in later life. These entirely unedited performances, given over more than three decades from the mid 1950s to late 1980s, feel not only live but somehow extraordinarily real. Not that Richter ever gives the impression of playing for the microphone, and his vision of musical structures remains constant whether in the studio or concert-hall.... The Schubert D major Sonata (studio recording 1956) is a tower of inner strength
In response to a commission from Count Troyer, who wanted a work closely modelled on Beethoven’s famous Septet op.20, Schubert – despite his fervent admiration for the older composer – resolutely struck out on his own by delivering an . . . Octet. While the enlarged forces opened his path towards symphonic writing, examination of the form and expression reveals a much more accomplished and personal composition than has generally been recognised by commentators. Isabelle Faust and her partners, enthralled by what is an exceptional work in every respect, offer us a new interpretation of it on period instruments.
-----
REVIEW:
Faust is very much the guiding light in this period-instrument Octet. Yet her creative inventiveness is matched by her considerateness as a chamber colleague. In a performance notable for its intimacy, Faust never seeks to hog the limelight. While alive to the Octet’s Viennese hedonism, Faust and her colleagues are unusually responsive to its mysterious shadows.
2020 release. "An outstanding album", was Gramophone magazine's verdict on the Arod Quartet's last release, a programme of Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Webern. Remaining in Vienna, the young French quartet goes back to the time of Schubert. "We wanted to explore several stylistic phases in Schubert's life," they explain. The centrepiece is his gripping Quartet No 14 ('Der Tod und das Madchen'/'Death and the Maiden'), written in the final years of his short life and complemented here by the Quartets No 4 and No 12 ('Quartettsatz').
What musicianship! What an intense poetic aura in their playing!... this andante is a veritable dream, the height of pure poetry, and this disc is an enchanting ceremony... (Repertoire) Just when you get complacent and think you've heard it all before, a new group comes to town and blows you away. The Auryn Quartet did it Sunday... (The Washington Post) the young Stuttgart label TACET set a new standard with it's very first chamber music release. This CD has benchmark value.(HiFiVision)
