For Several Friends: Music for Recorder & Lute / John, Peuker
Musicaphon
CD
$16.99Nov 15, 2019
“For Several Friends“ - a high-baroque chamber music collection by Matthew Locke - was the inspiration for the title of this album, on which a colorful bouquet of German and English chamber music from the 18th century has been compiled. After the cultural life in England had almost come to a standstill in the years of the civil war from 1642 to 1649, it came to a new bloom by the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in the year 1660. The courtly music ensembles Chapel Royal, Royal Music, The King‘s Band and The Queen‘s Band have been reinstated, and a lively musical life has also sprung up in London. Annette John performs in Germany and abroad, among others with the ensembles Weser-Renaissance, Orlando di Lasso, Concerto Palatino, Concerto Brandenburg, Oh-Ton Oldenburg, the Hanoverian Court Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Boston Early Music Festival, the Bremen Council Music and the Hamburger Council Music. She is interested in both old and new music. She is a lecturer at the University of Oldenburg. Since 1995 Susanne Peuker has devoted herself to freelance teaching and concert activities. As a soloist and as a sought-after chamber music partner, her concert tours took her all over Germany and Europe. She is a permanent member of various ensembles: in addition to the musical Tafelkonfekt Fortunes Musicke, Musical Delight and Musical Playground, but also in ensembles such as Weser Renaissance, North German Baroque Collegium, Elbipolis, Capella Cantorum, Saxon Vocalensemble and the Philharmonic Bremen
This is already the third recording of a very unusual ensemble- a duo of guitar and harp. All works on this album have been composed directly for the two. Maximilian Mangold is regarded "... as one of the most interesting current German guitarists" (Fono Forum 10/2003). The German Guitar Magazin "Gitarre Aktuell" calls him an "exceptional guitarist". He has won numerous prizes and awards, amongst other the International Guitar Competition in Mettmann in 1991, the Competition of the Guitar Foundation of America in Quebec (Canada) in 1994 and in Northridge (USA) in 1995. In 1992 he was the prizewinner of the German Music Competition and thus was selected to perform in the 38th German "Young Musicians of the Year Concert Series". For her "harp playing full of grace and feeling" (Lippisches Kultur Journal) Mirjam Schroeder has won numerous competitions, such as the ARD International Music Competition 2004 with the Audience Award and the 3rd Prize, the Concorsi Arpista Ludovico Madrid 2002 and the International Reinl Competition Vienna / Munich with the 1st prize. She made her concert debut at the age of 15 with Mozart's double concerto for harp and flute. Since then she performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Germany and Europe.
2019- an anniversary year. For three exceptional musicians 2019 brings cause for great joy and gratitude for several reasons. Ton Koopman, internationally renowned as a harpsichordist, organist, conductor, professor and musicologist, celebrates his 75th birthday. He also looks back on 40 highly successful years with the ensemble he founded, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. His wife, Tini Mathot, an outstandingly gifted harpsichord and fortepiano virtuoso as well as a very successful producer of countless international albums, celebrates her 70th birthday. Klaus Mertens, acclaimed for over four decades as an international concert singer with an admirably wide repertoire stretching from Monteverdi to contemporary composers, also celebrates his 70th birthday. "As the ideal conveyor of Bach's cantatas and passion texts..." he also receives the Bach-Medaille of the city of Leipzig in 2019. As if this were not sufficient cause to celebrate an anniversary, these three musicians cap it all by looking back on 40 years of successful and amicable music-making together in concerts and recording studios by presenting an anniversary album as well as several chamber concerts.
Korean Women's Voices / Kyoung Cho, Won Cho, Se Ryung Woo
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Apr 19, 2019
This album features a group of contemporary art songs by Korean women composers, all commissioned by The Korean Society of Women Composers. These songs are brought to life by Korean soprano Kyoung Cho, and Korean-Canadian bass Won Cho. Internationally acclaimed Korean soprano Kyoung Cho has established a reputation in diverse regions of Asia, Europe, The Mid-East, and North America. Critics praised her performances as “Sublimely beautiful, transcendent, serene, dazzling, and heavenly” and “Refined tone color and dignified sound, which effectively expressed an appeal that penetrated the heart.” Korean-Canadian Bass Won Cho is in demand in both concert and operatic repertoire worldwide thanks to the unique range and beauty of his voice as well as his outstanding acting ability and strong stage presence, appearing with many of the opera houses and orchestras of the US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, Asia, and his native Korea. Critics hailed Cho’s performances as “expertly played whose deep tones vibrate the seats,” “one wished the score let him sing his overcoat aria twice,” “Won Cho steal(s) the show,” “deep resonant mellifluous sound," "he sang with a grave, classic beauty," “a particularly dark, melodic yet rafter-ringing bass that is worth the price of admission all by itself.”
Mariachi is the name of a traditional Mexican street music with a style that has developed continuously throughout its history. While in earlier times only the vihuela and the gitarron were used, and sometimes also the harp, one finds today that many different instruments are involved. The trumpet, which gives Mariachi its characteristic sound, is a relatively new addition, coming along at the end of the 1950s. Mariachi music is lively, full of joy and can be very romantic. It is therefore very well suited to public festivals and weddings, and to the serenading of young women by potential suitors. This is a great introductory album to the genre, presented by the well-established Mariachi band, Mariachi Sol.
The folk music tradition in Wales is among the richest in the world; centuries old, it is as vibrant today as it has ever been. This collection highlights the best of the current folk scene from ‘the land of song.’ The artists featured on this release are renowned for their folk performances. Lleuwen is known to combine acoustic, folk and jazz influences to create her own unique sound. Now living in Brittany, she performs in both Welsh and Breton. Welsh singer-songwriter Ryland Teifi has made a name for himself as a singer in his native tongue, as well as in English. Ar Log was formed in August 1976 specifically to represent Wales at the Celtic Festival in Lorient, Brittany. Following the festival, the band decided to continue to perform and earn their living through touring. Calan bring together the remarkable talents of five young musicians giving a fresh and vibrant sound to traditional Welsh music. With a contemporary approach, they breathe new life into old traditions. Other equally notable artists on the release include Lleuwen, Bob Delyn, a’r Ebillion, Gwenan Gibbard, Gwyneth Glyn, and more.
KOHASHI-OVERWATER-VERPLOEGEN trio is a collective jazz group that creates a unique sound, standing on an equal footing with each other. Kohashi from Japan, Overwater and Verploegen from the Netherlands, beyond ethnicity and nationality, they seek and discover their own sound sharing the passion for music. Japanese pianist Atzko Kohashi had something special in mind when she invited Dutch bass player Tony Overwater to join her for a musical encounter. She longed to create a unique unit of bass harmony and melody with each voice being equal and contributing selflessly to the music. Her vision is connected to Japanese Zen aesthetics that generate simplicity and spontaneity. With trumpet player Angelo Verploegen they found their match- a soloist who can blend in, shine and support the music all at the same time. On a cold winter day, they met in an empty church in Amsterdam and started playing. For hours. Instantly the delicate sound of these three instruments blended into gentle and generous music that warmed their hearts. A few months later, they recorded the debut album Virgo in the only way possible for such a collaboration: in a beautiful radio studio from the 1930s, with a great sounding Steinway, only a few microphones but of the utmost quality and recorded directly to a two-track analogue tape recorder before a live audience.
For more than a century, from the last Valois kings to the early years of the reign of Louis XIV, the air de cour was truly the emblematic genre of French secular music. The term bears witness to the influence on and transformation by worldly and literate circles of vocal genres of popular origin such as the vaudeville, combined with Italian influences (the villanella), based on the principles of a simple strophic musical setting that facilitated understanding of the poetic text. Three composers dominated the production of airs de cour in the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII, bringing the genre to it's peak: Pierre Guédron (1565-1620), Antoine Boesset (1587-1643) and Étienne Moulinié (1599-1676). To mark the twentieth anniversary of his ensemble, Vincent Dumestre has chosen to celebrate the air de cour by bringing together excerpts from his five recordings devoted to the genre. A book accompanies this double album, including an article written by Thomas Leconte of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, a rich array of illustrations and an article on the historical context by Alexandre Maral, Curator General at the Musée National du Château de Versailles.
Magnificat / Nethsingha, Choir of St. John's College
Signum Classics
CD
$19.99Oct 25, 2019
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis was recorded to explore the breadth of imagination with which composers have approached the texts, which have been sung in Christian worship for over 1000 years. Stanford’s starting point was the Germanic symphonic tradition; Howells took his inspiration from the architecture and acoustics of the Cathedral in Gloucester; Tippett was inspired by the unique Spanish trumpet stop at St John’s. The Evening Canticles chosen for this record relate to a particular period of music making in the life of St John’s conductor, Andrew Nethsingha; his time at the Royal College of Music; at Truro and Gloucester Cathedrals, and lastly his time at St John’s. Founded in the 1670s, The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, expressive interpretations and ability to sing in a variety of styles.
Surely, no map could chart the fantastic voyage presented in this release. For while this odyssey takes us around a large part of the globe, via the music of Ireland and the British Isles, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, North Africa, Turkey, the Balkans, and Asia, it is largely an imaginary voyage, an interior journey made by the performers, inspired by their travel experiences and their passion for a geographical or temporal ‘elsewhere’. Music has the power of transporting us, in both senses; it can open the ear – and the mind – to other worlds, other cultures and customs; and it can exhilarate and transcend the senses. Here are recordings by iconic artists of the Alpha label such as le Poème Harmonique, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, and Cappella Mediterranea – all represented in this release.
Highlights include:
Traditional songs & dances of Naples, Ireland, The Balkans, The British Isles & North Africa on baroque instruments | Le poème harmonique plays music of French traditions | Cappella Mediterranea performs music from Spain, 16th-20th centuries | Doulce Mémoire performs music from the meeting points of Western and Middle Eastern cultures in the Renaissance | Andreas Staier leads performances of Bach cantatas
Past praise for previously released volumes included in this set:
Aux Marches du Palais / Le Poème Harmonique
The infectious La molièra qu’a nau escus, the rhythmic zest and mellow harmonies of the largely homophonic Le 31 du mois d’août, the pastoral delicacy of Réveillez-vous, belle endormie, are only a few of the standouts that required frequent use of the repeat button on my CD player. As for the 11 musicians who make up Le Poème Harmonique, they are vastly skilled, rhythmically disciplined, and theatrically vivid where required, as in the galvanizing a capella tarantelle, Sarremilhòque. (The music may be from France, but various patois are employed, as well.) This group is far from the “churchly” type that usually brings great delicacy and little passion to such music. One hopes we’ll hear more from them in the future.
The chansons are about human experiences, human emotions. About love, deep sadness, the fear of being abandoned, but also about the joy of relationships and love. These chansons invite us to dare to be real people. At first sight, the chansons do not seem particularly deep; they are generally not spiritual; they do not use complicated turns of phrase. They describe the ordinary events of life, the lives of ordinary people. But it is precisely this description of ordinary events and encounters that opens the shutters to reveal the greater themes of life such as selfless love, hope and thankfulness. We understand how these chansons are about our own lives and realize how they can unleash powerful human emotions.
Locus Iste celebrates two milestones for the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge: as well as 2019 marking the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the college chapel, this release is coincidentally the choir's 100th recording – 60 years on from George Guest’s iconic first recording of ‘Hear my prayer’ for Argo, released in 1959. Directed by Andrew Nethsingha, the programme makes great use of the chapel's renowned acoustic, and celebrates the choirs past, present and future – including an anthem by a former director of music, a motet by one of their recent student composers and the cello-playing of a current undergraduate. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, its expressive interpretations and its ability to sing in a variety of styles.
The Complete French Columbia Recordings (1928 - 1939)
APR
CD
$37.99Nov 01, 2019
Robert Casadesus (1899-1972) is today almost considered an American pianist - he based himself there from the Second World War onwards and he is known today through the huge number of recordings he made for US Columbia from 1940 until his death, but as a musician and pianist he was French to the core. He had studied at the Paris conservatoire with Isidor Philipp and Louis Diémer and his combination of immaculate technique, a light and brilliant touch and the refined elegance of his interpretations reveal why he was considered one of the greatest French pianists of the century. Casadesus began his recording career for French Columbia in 1928 and all his recordings for that label, until he left for the USA, are included here for the first time. Particularly noteworthy is a previously unpublished studio recording of Mozart's 'Coronation' concerto. He excelled in Mozart and Chopin and in French repertoire and all are well-represented in this collection. There are also noteworthy chamber collaborations in the Debussy cello sonata and Fauré Piano Quartet.
Leonardo da Vinci - La Musique Secrete / Raisin-Dadre, Doulce Memoire
Alpha
CD
$26.99May 10, 2019
2019 will see the 500th commemoration of the death of one of the greatest geniuses humanity has produced: Leonardo da Vinci, scientist, inventor, painter – and musician. Doulce Mémoire, having devoted themselves to Renaissance music for the past 30 years, have decided to pay homage to Leonardo. Their founder-director, Denis Raisin Dadre, an eminent specialist in the music of the period and a great lover of pictorial art, has devised an original programme: ‘Rather than just make music from the time of Leonardo, I’ve taken my cue from the paintings themselves. I’ve worked on what could be the hidden music of these pictures, what musical pieces might be suggested by them….’ He chose around fifteen paintings, many of which are now in the Louvre: The Baptism of Christ, The Virgin of the Rocks, Portrait of Isabella d’Este, Portrait of an Unknown Woman (La belle ferronnière), Saint Anne, St John the Baptist… and of course La Gioconda. He then matched them with works by Jacob Obrecht (1457-1505), Josquin Desprez (1450-1521), laude for the Annunciation. There are also some frotolle, and songs to texts by Petrarch accompanied by the lira da braccio, an instrument Leonardo played himself. This recording comes with a handsome booklet, including reproductions of the pictures by Leonardo, some in detail, giving an intimate insight into them; there is also a text by Denis Raisin Dadre explaining his selection.
The history of coffee is fascinating! From the opening of the first establishments in Constantinople in the middle of the sixteenth century to the appearance and diffusion of the drink in Europe in the following century, coffee and coffee houses were highly fashionable. Two composers devoted a cantata to the topic. Gottfried Zimmermann opened his famous coffee house in Leipzig in 1715 and organised concerts there. Around 1735, Bach composed his famous cantata ‘Schweigt still, plaudert nicht’, which was probably performed there. It depicts the humorous dispute between a father and his daughter over her consumption of coffee. In Paris, Nicolas Bernier’s cantata Le Caffé (1664-1734) praised the beverage and its many virtues. The ‘Coffee Road’ Olivier Fortin has mapped out here makes a detour to London around 1660, where the composer Matthew Locke frequented the Turk’s Head Coffee House and promoted a string fantasia. Fortin has chosen to organise this album like a fasil, a ‘suite of pieces’ in traditional Ottoman music, with taqsims (improvisations) interspersed among the compositions and played on such instruments as the ney flute, the Arab violin and the yayli tanbur.
Si J'ai Aime / Piau, Chauvin, Le Concert de la Loge
Alpha
CD
$20.99May 24, 2019
Sandrine Piau’s first recital for the ALPHA Label, with Susan Manoff, proved an enormous hit (Diapason d’Or of the year, Choc of the year, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice). Her new project is a recital with orchestra celebrating French songs from the period when they moved from the private salon to the concert hall. Planned in partnership with the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this programme evokes anticipation, desire, pleasure, memory, in short all the vagaries of love experienced by a romantic heroine. To verses of the poets Hugo, Lamartine, Gautier, and Verlaine, Sandrine Piau has selected song settings by Saint-Saëns (‘L’attente’, ‘Papillons’), Massenet (‘Extase’, ‘Aimons-nous’), and Vierne, as well as by the rarely-heard Dubois, Guilmant, and Bordes. Julien Chauvin and his period instrument ensemble combine these songs with orchestral pieces (the ‘Pavane de la belle au bois dormant’ from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and Debussy’s ‘Danse profane’ for harp and orchestra). The album also presents excerpts from Nuits d’Été by Berlioz, and ends with the famous classic ‘Plaisir d’amour’ by Martini.
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REVIEW:
With her silvery tone, immaculate sense of line and telling if understated way with words, Piau is very much at home in this repertory. Chauvin and his orchestra are outstanding throughout, unearthing subtleties in music that is often quite simply but always effectively scored. It’s a most engaging disc.
This album takes the listener on a musical journey through Morocco. From the Berber traditions of the Rif and Atlas Mountains, to deeply spiritual Sufi music and the improvised street music of Marrakech, Morocco is a land of musical riches. The tracks on this release have been curated from ARC music's vast catalog of world music, and include artists like Nour Eddine, Abdesselam Damoussi, Rachid Halihal, the Altaf Gnawa Group, and many others. Julia Beyer is responsible for compiling the works on this album, and Diz Heller, once again, presents stellar mastering.
