This album features folk songs from the Tajik and Russian ethnic minority groups living in the western and northwestern areas of Xinjiang, China. These folk songs have an earthy beauty that is theirs alone. Many of the Tajik songs featured here are accompanied by the Rewap – an ancient stringed instrument made from mulberry trunks. The sound is similar to that of an acoustic guitar, but the tone is brighter and more elastic. Many of the Russian songs feature the Bayan (a type of accordion) and the Balalaika.

Idil Biret’s chamber music performances are relatively rare. Most importantly, she played Beethoven’s violin Sonatas Nos. 5, 7 and 9 with Yehudi Menuhin at the Istanbul Festival in July 1973. In 1975, she played all the five Beethoven cello sonatas with Maurice Gendron. With the London String Quartet, in 1980, Biret played the Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, later at the Istanbul Festival and then recorded the Brahms Quintet as well as the Mahler Piano Quartet with the LSQ. In 2011, she played in concerts and recorded Berlioz’s Harold in Italy in Liszt’s piano transcription and Brahms’ 2nd Viola Sonata with Rusen Gu¨nes. In 2014, she played in concerts and recorded the Schumann Piano Quintet with the Borusan Quartet of Turkey. The same year, she recorded the two cello sonatas of Brahms with Roderic von Bennigsen. Finally, in 2019, Biret played and recorded Mendelssohn’s 1st Piano Trio and the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio with Irina Nikotina and Julya Krepak. These are some of the memorable chamber music performances of her career.

This is a program of great choral works, including one work from the 1500s, works from the 20th Century, and one work, Black Pierrot that was commissioned by R. Paul Crabb for the ensembles on this album. R. Paul Crabb, University of Missouri's Director of Choral Activities, earned degrees in Music Education, Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education. His ensembles have performed at state, regional and national conventions and have traveled extensively in Mexico, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria and Australia. Crabb served as assistant conductor at the Russian/American Choral Symposium for two years where his choir was invited as the resident American choir at the Moscow Conservatory. He served for one year as a visiting professor in Salzburg, Austria, where he taught and worked with the choir of the Salzburg Cathedral. He has taught conducting in Taiwan, eighteenth-century music in England, and studied sixteenth century polyphony in Italy with the renowned Peter Phillips. More recently he served as Guest Visiting Choral Professor at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary - the first American selected for that position.

With 49 tracks spanning two CDs, DISCOVER-FILM MUSIC is an informative package designed to lure the casual listener into the larger world of film music. Disc One largely consists of major Hollywood releases, including KING KONG, BEN HUR, STAR WARS, and SPIDER-MAN. Disc Two explores the more classical-centric foreign film scores, originating in Britain, Europe, and Japan. The set is accompanied by a 72-page booklet / learning guide, composed by British film music lecturer John Riley.

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

Violinist Jennifer Koh’s Limitless, based on her groundbreaking recital project of the same name, bridges the modern divide between composer and instrumentalist, celebrates artistic collaboration, and revives the grand tradition of composers performing their own music. The album features world-premiere recordings of Koh-commissioned duets by a diverse roster of highly accomplished contemporary composers, which she performs with the composers themselves. Premieres include Quasim Naqvi’s The Banquet for violin and modular synthesizer, exploring a convergence between acoustic string and electronic sound worlds; Lisa Bielawa’s Sanctuary Songs for violin and voice, three settings of texts by American women poets of the 1920s; Du Yun’s give me back my fingerprints for violin and voice, representative of what The New York Times calls her “adventurously eclectic” style; and Tyshawn Sorey’s In Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams, dedicated to Sorey’s beloved mentor, the avant-garde pianist, composer, and founding president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Limitless also offers the first recording of Nina C. Young’s Sun Propeller for violin and electronics, inspired by traditional Tuvan throat-singing; Wang Lu’s Her Latitude for violin and electronics, with a quasi-improvised piano part and electronically processed sounds of Buddhist chants and old Korean pop songs; and jazz luminary Vijay Iyer’s The Diamond for violin and piano, inspired by an early Buddhist text. The album concludes with Missy Mazzoli’s A Thousand Tongues for violin, piano, and electronics, an intense response to a line in a Stephen Crane poem; and Vespers for violin and electronics, “deliciously disorienting” (National Public Radio) with a soaring solo violin.

REVIEWS:

Koh, needless to say, is sensational throughout: responsive to each composer’s demands, and fiercely committed to making each piece sing true in collaboration with its creator. The project is a paradigm shift in thinking about composers who perform, and about representation on the concert platform; the result is a beautiful, compelling collection of intimate conversations and collective statements.

– National Sawdust

Part of Ms. Koh’s double-disc project of collaborations with composers who also perform alongside her, Du Yun: ‘Give Me Back My Fingerprints’ rises from quietly uneasy to rabid and raw, then back again. Violin lines emerge, as if from far away, to mingle with Ms. Du’s earthy, murmuring, sometimes choking voice.

– New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)

Almara is an early music ensemble which was founded by Elisabeth Pawelke during her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The ensemble's musical focus is on the secular repertoire of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Around 1500 Hartmann Schedel (1440 - 1514) was one of the most important polymath of his time. Grown up in Nuremberg as son of a wealthy Nuremberg merchant, Schedel studied liberal arts and medicine in Leipzig and Padua from 1456 to 1566. Being a polymath and a conscientious archivist of his time Schedel collected the contemporary knowledge by compiling a vast collection of books with more than 600 volumes. One of these surviving books is the Song Book bearing Schedel's name. According to sources, Schedel showed no great interest in music. It seems that he wrote down the songs of his compendium primarily out of documentary interest and that with a lasting success as two thirds of the lyrics have been surviving for posterity until today.

Resonance Lines, a term borrowed loosely from physics, refers to the energy emitted or absorbed by an atom as it transitions between different energy states. This is a unique and innate quality for each type of atom that can only be measured and observed under the right enabling circumstances. An ideal artistic collaboration feels like the discovery and realization of deeply held potential for shared creativity—a sympathetic resonance or surge of energy in the colloquial sense—that is revealed when the right conditions are in place. It may feel lucky or it may feel destined, and in special cases, the “resonating” artists are able to nurture and develop their complementary qualities with lasting effect. This album is a collection of music grown of such pairings, collaborations between composers and cellists joined by shared experiences that lead to creative sparks, unique musical gestures, and new sound worlds.

REVIEW:

Despite featuring works created centuries apart, Resonance Lines is distinguished by a remarkable degree of uniformity. That’s attributable to three things in particular: first, Hannah Collins’ cello is the sole instrument involved; second, the cellist brings a deep level of conviction to all six pieces; and third, each of them makes distinct references to music from the past, a move that helps collapse temporal boundaries between the pieces and reveals how the composers built on their personal musical histories with the creation of something new. Collins also has personal connections to the material, which amplifies their resonance all the more.

Every performance on the sixty-five-minute release is so engrossing, one quickly loses sight of the fact that the recording is the product of a single person and instrument. No supplemental effects are used, and neither are they needed when Collins is involved. Solo recordings expose the performer most nakedly, but she in no way suffers as a result. One comes away from the release with a heightened appreciation for her as both cellist and collaborator.

-- Textura

In Great Britain Christmas carols are an integral part of Christmas just like plum pudding and turkey, paper crowns and mistletoe. They are sung in all big cathedrals and churches at Christmas, first and foremost in the time-honored chapel of King’s College. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols- a Christmas mass featuring King’s College Choir, nine short readings and, of course, carols- has been broadcast live on the radio every year since 1928 on Christmas Eve. The a cappella choir SWR Vokalensemble belongs worldwide to the best choirs, renowned mostly for its exquisite performances of modern music. This album however contains traditional, centuries old Christmas Carols, arranged by British composers like Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Byrd, to name just a few.



REVIEW:

An entire program of English music recorded by a German choir doesn’t happen all that often, and a disc of “very English” Christmas repertoire may be rarest of all. However, the top-tier Stuttgart-based SWR Vokalensemble is one group for whom this sort of thing is not so unusual. In fact they’ve not only recorded several discs that feature works by British composers such as Britten, MacMillan, and Vaughan Williams (including his rarely recorded Mass in G minor); they’ve gone where even American choirs fear to tread, recording the complete choral works of Elliott Carter(!), ten of Ives’ Psalm settings, and a disc of American works that includes pieces by Cage, Reich, and Feldman.

The program itself, chosen with obvious care by one who knows his way around the repertoire, is marked by first-rate performances that stand solidly alongside similar offerings by this ensemble’s “native” British counterparts. As good as the program and performances are, potential listeners may find the disc’s curious, cursory title misleading: “Christmas Carols” does not accurately describe the program at hand. While the music is almost exclusively Christmas-themed, only perhaps three of the 19 selections (to be generous) could be labeled as “carols” in the traditional sense. Although the liner notes do include a very brief but informed history of the true carol, our attention is quickly directed to the “carol” as it’s come to be identified via inclusion in the popular annual carol service at King’s College, Cambridge: that is, virtually any choral piece—original or arrangement—with a sacred, Christmas-centered text. The programming here all makes sense when you know that conductor Marcus Creed is not only British, but was a student and former singer at King’s College.

Just looking at the list of composers, most of whom are as English as they come—Boris Ord, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, David Willcocks—and the works at hand, each one ingrained in the very soul of every English-speaking, Christmas-music-loving listener—sets you up for what you hope will be an hour of pure pleasure, born of the special traditions of a season that is uniquely associated with its music. And, be it from Germany or Lower Slobovia, it doesn’t matter: this program does not disappoint.

Whether you choose this for the iconic repertoire—Ord’s Adam Lay Ybounden; Britten’s A Hymn to the Virgin; Howells’ A Spotless Rose; Thomas Ravenscroft’s Remember O Thou Man; David Willcocks’ Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day; Elisabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ the Apple Tree; Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter—or just for the world-class singing (hopefully both!), you can be assured of a listening experience that will endure many hearings throughout the entire season—and the next. This choir knows the music well and obviously enjoys singing it, demonstrating a mastery of both language and style.

The program’s one non-English-language work is Robert Parsons’ Latin-texted Ave Maria—a most welcome inclusion of one of the 16th century’s greatest masterpieces, and a highlight of the disc. Another plus: the all-too-rare inclusion of a list of publishers of each work (choral directors, take note). Highly recommended.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Vernier)

This diverse programme features eight premiere recordings of Australian music for two pianists, including seven works recently commissioned by the acclaimed Viney-Grinberg duo. Demonstrating the innovative potential of this medium, these pieces range from duets on a single piano to Mill Life in which 22 pianos are overdubbed and piled on top of each other. Other highlights include Visible Weapon, pairing virtuoso velocity with electronics, and The Art of Agony – a musical picture frame for Percy Grainger’s spoken voice.

This series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured in this recording are folk songs of four of the minority ethnic groups of Guangxi province – Zhuang, Bouyei, Mulao, Maonan. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin. It is noteworthy that the music of the Dong-Tai language speakers presents a common feature of incorporating polyphonic or heterophonic songs. Although this feature is present in the music of more than 20 minorities in China, it is rare that the speakers of a whole language family all incorporate multi-voice songs in their music. The performance forms of these multi-voice songs include nearly all the types found in folk music. The number of harmonic intervals is limited because the songs usually employ only one octave. Aside from pentatonic scales, the folk music of the Dong-Tai language speakers also incorporates the scales of three or four notes.

Lisa Friend leads this collection of original works and transcriptions for flute and guitars, joined by Craig Ogden and the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet. The wide-ranging programme includes Fauré’s Pavane and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise. Lisa Friend (Flautist) has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Prague Philharmonic, Virtuosi Pragenses Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic and has toured throughout much of Europe, Asia and the USA. Lisa has recorded as a solo/chamber artist for Silva Screen, Universal, Chandos, Champs Hill and Signum Records. Her previous album 'Essence' has been aired on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio London, WQXR Classical Radio, New York and WFMT Radio, Chicago.

A vibrant mix of creole heritage. The music of Sakili is from the island Rodrigues, a small volcanic island just east of Mauritius. The island’s European and African influences - waltzes, polka, mazurka, Scottish - all blend harmoniously with the ségadrum rhythms to intertwine the past musical traditions of African slaves with the western world. The three members of Sakili (Francis Prosper, Vallen Pierre Louis and Ricardo Legentil) had their own solo careers and were put together in 2019 by Mauritian artistic director Percy Yip Tong. The purpose of the group’s formation was for a European tour to introduce the rarely heard music of the Rodrigues island.

This collection of best-loved Christmas repertoire was recorded live at the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Festival of Carols concerts in 2015 and 2016. GRAMMY award-winning vocalist Sylvia McNair adds her own unique beauty and warmth, and as ever, the programme celebrates the joys of the season with sparkling versions of family favorites. The tranquillity and magic of Christmas eve, heartfelt messages of hope, reconciliation and peace, and thrilling new compositions all combine to capture the celebratory excitement of the holiday season.

REVIEWS:

The title refers to the practice in many churches of having a ceremony of carols and traditionals during the Christmas season, a holiday for the choir when they can really open up and let 'er rip, and, quite often, a sing-along for the congregation as well. It is, after all, the most joyous time of the Christian year.

We get all of that in a well-packed program by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra under conductor Eric Stark. The substantial choir are supported by an orchestra that plays with a lot of gusto, especially the folks in the percussion section (this genre of music encourages a lot of gongs and bells). Listen for some distinguished playing by pianist David Duncan in Rob Swenson’s Christmas Hosanna with its jaunty rhythms recalling that old chestnut, Good Christian men, rejoice.

Most welcome of all is soprano Sylvia McNair, whose warm vocal presence...adds a special quality to such songs by contemporary composers as Mary, Did You Know? (Buddy Greene) in which the choir asks Jesus’ mother a series of poignant questions (“Did you know when you kissed your baby boy, then you touched the face of God?) and Grown-Up Christmas List (David Foster/Linda Thompson Jenner) with its plea for greater understanding and peace among people).

McNair does some of her best work in the two spirituals, This Little Light of Mine and Go Tell It on the Mountain, the last-named with an accompaniment by David Duncan that partakes deliciously of the spirit of the blues and R&B. Sylvia’s intimate vocal warmth and sensitive interpretation capture the special quality of both these grand old songs.

There’s something for everyone here, including J.S. Bach’s Sinfonia from the Christmas Oratorio, its lilting melodies and swaying pastoral rhythm recalling those time-honored instruments of simple shepherds, the wooden flute and the hurdy-gurdy. We also have John Rutter’s All Bells in Paradise and his Magnificat, the lastnamed animated by use of Latin-American rhythms, Mendelssohn’s Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a recounting by composer William Goldstein of ‘Twas the Night before Chistmas with delightful spoken narration by Sherry Stark, and a rousing Jingle Bells.

-- Audio Video Club of Atlanta