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

Gramophone Award-nominated artist Martin Fröst uses every recording as an opportunity to look at repertoire and performance through fresh eyes. His latest album for Sony Classical brings the extraordinary alchemy of a specially formed ensemble to the public with highly original arrangements for the first time on record.

With acclaimed pianist Roland Pöntinen and legendary bassist Sébastien Dubé, Fröst’s new album Night Passages charts a nocturnal journey through the mystical and the melancholic, the playful and the profound.

Reimagining favorites from the Baroque, while touching on jazz and folk music the album’s atmosphere carries with it the vibe of late-night improvisation and deep conversation between friends. From Rameau to Richard Rodgers, it invites listeners to eavesdrop on a musical union.

All nineteen tracks on the album were arranged by Fröst and his fellow trio members for their own instrumental lineup of clarinet, piano and bass. Scintillating Scarlatti keyboard mingling with touching Handel, virile Purcell, aerated Bach and works by Rameau that sound with new exotic allure.

Despite the quiet intimacy in works such as Richard Rodgers It Never Entered my Mind and Bach’s Jesu, meine Freunde, there is virtuosity, stamina and athleticism on display too, not least in a strident arrangement of Vallflickans Dans by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén – a piece close to the heart of any Swede.

The album further includes the trio’s light-footed take on Chick Corea’s Armando’s Rhumba and Fröst’s own cadenza-like Prelude to the traditional Swedish polka Dorotea, which is full of his trademark improvisatory fluidity. The same qualities appear to stop time in a heart-rending take on Purcell’s Music for a While. The result is a unique fusion of music past and present, and a snapshot of a three-way musical friendship like none other.

Includes:

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in D Minor, K. 32
Chick Corea: Children’s Song: No. 15
Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesus bleibet meine Freude BWV 147
Henry Purcell: "Music for a While" Z. 583 (from Oedipus)       
Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart: "It Never Entered My Mind"
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Air pour les Sauvages
Antonio Cesti: "Intorno all'idol mio"       
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonia No. 5 in E-Flat Major, BWV 791  
Chick Corea: Armando's Rhumba
Henry Purcell: Hornpipe in E Minor, Z. 685
George Frideric Handel: Suite in B-Flat Major, HWV 434: IV. Menuet
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor Kk.1
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Musette tendre en rondeau
Hugo Alfvén: Vallflickans Dans
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonia No. 15 in B Minor, BWV 801
Martin Fröst: Prelude to Dorotea
Traditional: Polska from Dorotea
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Tambourin en rondeau
Gordon Jenkins: "Goodbye"

Martin Fröst, clarinet
Sébastien Dubé, bass
Roland Pöntinen, piano

In his ninth and tenth of a total of fourteen releases of Bach’s collected organ works, Kare Nordstoga pulls together much of what was not collected from the composer’s side- preludes and fugues. The double form prelude (or toccata) and fugue has been an established form of composition since the 1600s. The North Germans Dietrich Buxtehude and Georg Bohm made a powerful contribution to this contrastive style in which the freer first part and the more rigorous second part are united in a dynamic whole. The young Johann Sebastian harvested significant impressions from these two composers during his time in Lubeck and Luneburg, and this album was recorded in Luneburg. Kare Nordstoga (b. 1954) studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Following his debut in 1978, he continued his studies in London and he was for a time organist at Ullern Church, before coming to Oslo Cathedral in 1984. He has also been associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor in 1994.

REVIEW:

Nordstoga displays a fine architectural grasp of the works and builds them with convincing inevitability. Integrity is the hallmark of all his playing: He is careful but not cautious; deliberate and determined but not dragging and dour; sure-handed and solid but not showy or superficial. The only thing I do not find here is the uniquely electrifying excitement that Ton Koopman brings to his complete cycle. But if, unlike me, your taste in Bach organ performances runs more towards the older tradition of stately grandeur, then definitely consider investing in Nordstoga.

– Fanfare

After having already released the solo harpsichord concertos, which received several awards, Aapo Häkkinen and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra go on with the concertos for two harpsichords, together with renowned French harpsichord player Pierre Hantaï. The sonata for two harpsichords by the oldest Bach son Wilhelm Friedemann is a welcome addition. The French harpsichordist, Pierre Hantaï, became passionately attached to the music of Bach around the age of ten. Thanks to the influence of Gustav Leonhardt, he began to study the harpsichord, alone at first, then guided by the American teacher Arthur Haas. He gave his first concerts at an early age, alone or with his brothers Marc and Jérôme. He then spent two years studying in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, who subsequently invited him to perform under his direction. In 1983 Hantaï scored his first major triumph through taking first prize at the International Bach-Handel Competition of Bruges in Belgium; since then, Hantaï has collected an impressive number of honors and awards.