10 years after Seong-Jin Cho's first prize victory in the 2015 Warsaw Chopin Competition, during which the young Korean pianist ascended into stardom with a Deutsche Grammophon discography that includes Liszt, Brahms and Debussy, he prepares a monumental body of work for the 150th birthday anniversary of Maurice Ravel. 2 CD Digipak set.

Violinist Esther Abrami’s eponymous Sony Classical debut album is a creative melting pot of different styles of classical music – full of new and inspiring compositions. Collaborating with a great variety of contemporary composers and musicians as well as the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Esther Abrami has set a creative and inspiring musical landmark representing a new generation of classical musicians.

British composer and pianist Alexis Ffrench, Dutch neo-classical pianist Annelie, French pianist and composer Alban Claudin, Oscar-winning British composer Rachel Portman, British Cellist and composer Julian Llyod Webber and American film-composer Jacob Shea all contributed new compositions to Esther Abrami. Next to this, the album features original compositions by Clara Schumann and Amy Beach as well as several unique new arrangements of some of the most famous classical melodies by Pjotr Tchaikovsky, Eric Satie or Frédéric Chopin. Composer and pianist Florian Christl has written a new arrangement based on Bach’s famous violin concerto and producer and composer Wide Eyed created an atmospheric new variation over Mozart’s legendary “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”. A special highlight on the album is “Sainte Victoire en sol mineur” – a great orchestral composition Esther wrote together with French producer Worakls.

“I've decided to perform different styles to connect with all my audience. People who get to know me via TikTok aren’t the same as those who found me on YouTube or on the radio. I wanted to link all of them together. I don’t think we should just be put in a box with only one music style. In classical music, musicians have a tendency to fade behind the music, but with this album people can discover who I really am as I’ve satisfied all my musical tastes and been able to be myself” says Esther.

She adds: “I’ve worked directly with Rachel Portman, who was one of my idols when I was younger. It was very important for me, as it’s going in the same direction as with Tomorrow by Annelie or Romance by Clara Schumann. I want to inspire young women to become a classical composer or musician, as we are still too few. It’s time to change things!’’

REVIEW:

Abrami’s self-titled debut album is a pleasing patchwork of pieces, from familiar items in new arrangements to works by high-profile newcomers. Radio airplay is surely guaranteed for this playlist, the gloss of which is almost blinding. Some lovely moments.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Tracklisting

1. Pjotr Iljitsch Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Variation
2. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Paganini Variation
3. Julian Lloyd Webber: Jackie's Song (Romanza)*
4. Annelie: Tomorrow
5. Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach Variation feat. Florian Christl*
6. Alexis Ffrench: Hope, Ascending
7. Jacob Shea: Mozart Variation
8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mozart Variation feat. Wide Eyed
9. Maurice Ravel: Ravel Variation
10. Frédéric Chopin: Chopin Raindrop Variation
11. Clara Schumann: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22: I. Andante molto
12. Worakls, Esther Abrami: Sainte Victoire en sol mineur*
13. Rachel Portman: Themes from "Chocolat"*
14. Alban Claudin: Sunken Dreams
15. Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman: Scales and Arpeggios (from "Aristocats")*
16. Eric Satie: Satie Variation (after Gymnopédie No. 3)
17. Amy Beach: Romance for Violin and Piano

*feat. Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Günther Herbig knew the Berlin Symphony Orchestra well, even before being made Principal Conductor in 1977 of what is now the Konzerthaus orchestra. He had deputized in that post from 1966 to 1972. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom. You could offer more as an individual. I liked that a lot.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. “This was the mathematical impulse” characteristic, he judged, of Herbig’s way of working. This architectural, formally structured approach to the music fitted well with the recording technique of those days, which did not allow breakdown into such small steps as today. Arches of tension thus sound more plausible, because there are fewer pieces to put together. “When you have long takes, of course that makes it all more organic,” concludes Richard Waage. It will surely have been these working conditions and the conductor’s specific style that made it possible, even in such an unpretentious piece as the Pavane, “to bring out the character of mourning”, which so moved Jürgen Kögel and other participants. This recording contains Ravel’s symphonic works La Valse, Ma Mère l'Oye, Pavane pour une infante défunte and last but not least the famous Bolero.