Mozart: Clarinet Quintet, K. 581; "kegelstatt" Trio, K. 498
Musica Omnia
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$14.99
$11.99
Jun 09, 2015
A large measure of Mozart's increasing fascination with the clarinet from the later 1780s was due to his interaction with one of the cutting-edge virtuosi of the day, Anton Stadler, for whom both of the works on this CD were composed as well as the Clarinet Concerto, K. 662. Both works are played here by Australian virtuoso, Owen Watkins on reproductions of period clarinets, including a basset instrument, with extended lower range, for the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581. Jaap Schr�der, an expert in the violin repertoire of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, founded the Sk�lholt Quartet and lead the Quartetto Esterhazy and Smithson String Quartet, performing and recording classical quartet repertoire for the first time on period instruments. Oboist Owen Watkins has performed and recorded with many premier ensembles in the USA, Europe and Australia, including Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Camerata, Washington Bach Consort, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera and Orchestra of the Antipodes, Orchestra 1788 and the Cambini Quintet. A faculty member of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute for twenty-five years, Penelope Crawford is internationally acclaimed as one of America's master performers on historical keyboard instruments. From 1975 to 1990, she was harpsichordist and fortepianist with the Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra, one of the first period instrument ensembles in North America.
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Mozart: Clarinet Quintet, K. 581; "kegelstatt" Trio, K. 498
$14.99
$11.99
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Musica Omnia
Jun 09, 2015
MO0412
Rudolf Serkin Live, Vol. 3: Mozart Piano Concertos nos. 7, 8, 12, 20, 21 & 24
Doremi
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$40.99
$30.99
May 20, 2022
A New Yorker review about Rudolf Serkin from 2017 states: “his performances… reflect his sense of titanic struggle to realize the ideas and emotions that he found in the words that he played. He bypassed the surface sheen of ingratiating sounds to render the beauty of that struggle; his piano tone is itself the sound of struggle filled with the meeting of metal and wood and evoking spiritual exaltation through physical and intellectual exertion.”
Rudolf Serkin was born in 1903 in Bohemia. His musical gifts emerged early, and he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at 12. His European career extended throughout the 20s and 30s. He first played in the United States in 1933, and three years later appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, eventually performing with them over 100 times. Rudolf Serkin became one of the most admired pianists of the 20th century. He performed and recorded extensively with the top international orchestras and conductors. This release contains first releases of live performances of Four Mozart’s piano concertos.
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Rudolf Serkin Live, Vol. 3: Mozart Piano Concertos nos. 7, 8, 12, 20, 21 & 24
$40.99
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Doremi
May 20, 2022
DHR-8168/9
Crean: The Great God Pan
Navona
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CD
$16.99
Aug 11, 2017
Chicago-based composer Ross Crean’s opera The Great God Pan soars in this new release, the first collaboration between the composer and PARMA recordings. The Great God Pan takes its story from an eponymous 1890 novella by Welsh author Arthur Machen, which explores themes of scientific hubris, transcendental medicine, and unexplainable supernatural behavior. Impressively, Crean adapted Machen’s narrative into the work’s libretto himself, an ambitious and rare undertaking for a composer. Crean’s familiarity with the story shows through in the emotional resonance of his music, which matches and communicates the character’s concerns and feelings with unflinching precision. The key to Crean’s musical portrayal of the story is twofold. First, beginning with the overture, much of the opera’s accompanimental music is defined by pulsing ostinato ideas. This characteristic is inviting to the listener and draws us into the musical world of Crean’s opera. More importantly, the relentless quality of these rhythms wordlessly establishes the ominous mixture of tension and mystery at the heart of The Great God Pan’s narrative. Second, Crean’s text setting is extremely clear, so the story is conveyed with crystal clarity in this recording. Without giving too much away, the tale at the heart of The Great God Pan begins with a surgery gone wrong. The first character we meet, Dr. Raymond, has invited the opera’s protagonist, Clarke, to witness an important experiment based in elements of non-traditional, ancient rituals. Dr. Raymond sacrifices his wife Mary as the subject of his attempt to access a higher spiritual plane – referred to as, “seeing the Great God Pan” – and unwittingly initiates a serious of mysterious supernatural occurrences that Clarke encounters over the next few decades. This recording represents a chamber version of Crean’s opera that includes a full cast of ten superb vocalists and a pair accompanying pianos. The piano parts yearn to be orchestrated, and, in many moments, the listener can easily imagine the lush mixture of brass, strings, woodwinds, and percussion Crean will employ once he has the opportunity to fully orchestrate the piece. With this said, the performance on this album never neither feels incomplete, nor does it ever lack any intensity it might enjoy in a full production. This owes to the excellent quality of the album’s vocal performances, and to Crean’s ingenuity in composing the accompanying piano parts with the sounds of strumming and plucking, which combine to make the music that much more vibrant. Ross Crean is a multifaceted artist, composing and active in many genres of music. As a vocalist, he has studied rock, opera, and many disparate vocal styles. He received his degree from Illinois State University in Music Theory/Composition and has worked with or received commissions from Oberlin College, Opera on Tap Chicago, and Loyola University Museum of Art. Crean’s song cycle, A Passive-Aggressive’s Guide to Mother Goose, was a 2016 winner of One Ounce Opera’s inaugural Fresh Squeezed Ounce of Art Song competition.
Crean: The Great God Pan
$16.99
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Navona
Aug 11, 2017
NV6115
Laureate Series, Guitar - Jérôme Ducharme
Naxos
Available as
CD
$19.99
$13.99
Sep 26, 2006
In 1962 Segovia is reported to have nominated the four greatest guitarists to emerge from the younger generation; three of these came from Spanish-speaking nations. During the past five decades the classical guitar has changed status from that of a predominantly Spanish instrument dominated by the Spanish-speaking world to one of true universality.
To survive, every cause needs its champions. Segovia was certainly the guitar’s international missionary and he promoted with zeal and dedication. Even in the far-flung Antipodes the influence of the maestro was felt. 1962 saw the arrival of Jose Luis Gonzalez in Australia to teach and concertise at the behest of Segovia.
Canada is fortunate to have enjoyed the influence of outstanding guitarists such as Norbert Kraft (b.1950) who migrated there as a child and was naturalised in 1954. More recently Canada has produced some very fine guitarists and luthiers. It is also in the city of Ontario that Norbert Kraft and his wife harpsichordist Bonnie Silver produce much of the excellent Naxos Laureate Series for Guitar.
The review disc featuring Canadian guitarist Jérôme Ducharme is a recent addition to that same series. It was recorded in March 2006 the year following Ducharme‘s First Prize win in the Guitar Foundation of America Competition.
Ducharme was born in 1978 and in 1990 commenced his initial musical training at the Cultural Centre of Joliette. Later at the Montréal Conservatoire he won high distinction studying there with Jean Vallières from 1994. He then went to Switzerland and continued studies with Oscar Ghiglia and Stephan Schmidt. Subsequent master-classes include those with Manuel Barrueco, Pepe Romero, Roland Dyens and Odair Assad.
Of the six composers represented on the review disc Rodrigo, Ginastera and de Falla are familiar, particularly to guitar audiences. Less familiar are Matthew Dunne, Jacques Hétu and Juan Manén.
Guitarist/composer Matthew Dunne holds a doctorate degree from the University of Texas, at Austin, in classical and jazz performance. He is head of the guitar programme at that the University of Texas, San Antonio. Appalachian Summer (1) was written for the 2005 GFA Competition held at Oberlin.
Jacques Hétu was born in Québec in 1938. His training record is impressive and he has served in various academic positions including the Université Laval and the Université de Montréal. From 1980-82 and then 1986-88 he was the head of the music department at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is a prolific composer and the recipient of numerous honours. His guitar Suite op. 41, written in 1986, comprises five relatively short movements the contrasts between which are quite striking.
Born in Barcelona in 1883, Juan Manén’s contemporary reputation was primarily that of a violinist; although self-taught as a composer he showed equal precocity. Like fellow-Catalan Miguel Llobet, he arranged Catalan and Spanish melodic material. This makes occasional appearances in some of Manén’s compositions. Written around 1930 Fantasie-Sonata is initially inspired by harmonies suggested by guitar tuning; Catalan melodic elements become more apparent as the work progresses.
Having listened to the programme several times it is not surprising to learn that Ducharme won First Prize at the 2005 GFA Competition. His musicianship and technical facility are of a high standard. The sound produced on his René Wilhelmy guitar is balanced and sonorous. Wilhelmy is a leading Canadian luthier and has been strongly influenced in his design concepts by the Madrid builder Jose Ramirez III and Robert Bouchet of Paris; certainly the sound produced on this occasion is more evocative of the former.
The programme initially impresses as one particularly suited to a committed guitar audience. All the music was written in the twentieth century with the exception of track one which was written five years after the turn of the century. Within the context of the guitar repertory aspects of the programme demand some dedicated listening, eg. Fantasie-Sonata (7) lasts for an un-interrupted 18:01. I recall Lachenmann’s Salute For Chris Caudwell, a twenty-five minute marathon, representing similar aural challenges. The addition of a lighter item or two to the programme may have broadened the musical appeal.
The last item on the programme, de Falla’s Homenaje (15), brings to mind an excited reaction by Benjamin Britten when he called backstage after a rendition of the same piece by Julian Bream: ‘Julian that de Falla piece is a most magnificent piece. You know it probably only lasts 4 or 5 minutes but there is over 20 minutes of music in it.’ My reaction to the review rendition may not have been so effusive, but it nonetheless is well done.
This performance is of the standard we have come to expect from a GFA winner. The programme will probably hold most appeal with the guitar fraternity.
-- Zane Turner, MusicWeb International
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Laureate Series, Guitar - Jérôme Ducharme
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Naxos
Sep 26, 2006
8570189
Piano Music by Still & Other Black Composers / Monica Gaylord
Music and Arts Programs of America
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CD
$19.99
Jul 08, 2013
The average birthdate of these eight composers is 1900, and the youngest of them, Oscar Peterson, is sixty-seven. So this is a nostalgic look at the music of black composers; there is no Anthony Davis here. William Grant Still's music has flowed into the cracks of our national musical heritage; I call a composer great who has created a single masterpiece, and Still's “A Black Pierrot“ from his Songs of Separation is as haunting a song as Schubert or Wolf ever composed. Three Visions are evocative miniature tone poems and the Seven Traceries are impressionist sound paintings.
Howard Swanson's The Cuckoo is a light, gay scherzo and trio, with the bird cuckooing away in one hand while the other flies all over the keyboard. Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) studied with Nadia Boulanger, earned degrees from Oberlin and Eastman, conducted choral societies, performed before presidents, and was awarded honorary doctorates from Harvard and Oberlin. His In the Bottoms depicts “black man's slave camps at the river's edge.“ The five pieces go from somber contemplation to a gay dance. Ulysses Kay's three Inventions are brief, formal pieces. John Wesley Work, Jr., studied at Columbia and Yale and became chairman of the music department at Fisk University. His Big Bunch of Roses starts with a Negro folk tune and develops in a colorful and relaxed way. Oscar Peterson's The Gentle Waltz is languorous and jazzy and sweet, Duke Ellington's Come Sunday is a soft, flowing hymn with a touch of the blues; both pieces are played in arrangements by jazz pianist Denny McErlain.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was another master composer; every work of his I have heard is at least worthy, often inspired. His suite of three waltzes—Allegro molto, Andante, Allegro assai— stands out even among all this lovely music. It has warmth, individuality, melodic charm, and a sturdy, upright dignity without a hint of pomposity that is his own special character. Monica Gaylord studied at Juilliard and Eastman and has played throughout the United States and Canada. She has a beautiful touch for these winning works, and when it comes to Coleridge-Taylor's heroic final coda, she peals forth bronze thunder; if this were a live recital, it would bring down the house. The pianist also writes the notes, in which she shows herself to be a knowledgeable historian and a fine writer. A fine recording rounds out the assets of this lovely disc.
-- James H. North, FANFARE [3/1993]
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This winsome collection of 20th-century music was warmly welcomed by James H. North on its original release in 1992 (Fanfare 16:4), and I can only second his endorsement. He called it "nostalgic," and I guess he's right—although to my mind, that's not so much because of the age of the composers (as he pointed out, their "average birthdate" is 1900), but rather because they all aim (at least, in the works here) for a soft-edged accessibility that went increasingly out of fashion as the century wore on. Indeed, even Dett's musical evocation of slave camps abstains from brutality. Fortunately, Monica Gaylord has the subtlety of touch this predominantly gentle recital requires. While she's perfectly capable of ringing out the splashy final numbers of the Coleridge-Taylor and Dett sets, she's at her most impressive extracting the delicate impressionistic colors from Still's Traceries or coaxing out the rhythms of Ellington's meditative Come Sunday. Fine sound and erudite notes by the pianist only add to the attractions. A first-rate reissue.
-- Peter J. Rabinowitz, FANFARE [3/1999]
Piano Music by Still & Other Black Composers / Monica Gaylord
$19.99
CD
Music and Arts Programs of America
Jul 08, 2013
MUA737
My Cup Runneth Over: The Complete Piano Works of R. Nathaniel Dett
Navona
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CD
$20.99
Nov 13, 2015
Composer, pianist, teacher, poet, and writer, Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) is regarded as one of the most important musicians in American history, lauded in his lifetime as the first American composer to fuse African American folk idioms with the European art music tradition in a sophisticated way. On his debut album on Navona Records, MY CUP RUNNETH OVER, pianist Clipper Erickson presents the first complete collection of Dett’s piano works, a milestone for American music discography.
From the first time Dett heard Antonín Dvo?ák’s works performed at Oberlin College, he strived to incorporate African American folk music themes in the highest forms of musical art. The piano suites embrace almost all of the composer’s creative life, from Magnolia, written soon after his graduation from Oberlin, to the Eight Bible Vignettes, written during the last two years of his life. They show a great development, variety and richness of style, and his lyrical gift; truly reflecting his struggles, triumphs, and deepening philosophical interests. Erickson’s performances on this album deliver some of the most significant music of early 20th-century America to the world, reminding us of the prominent role of African American spirituals and folk music in contemporary American art, culture, and philosophy.
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Review:
It’s surprising that no one until Clipper Erickson has essayed Dett’s complete piano output on disc. However, the wait was worth it, for this music is simply wonderful, while Erickson’s idiomatic, colorful, technically adroit, and caring interpretations do the repertoire full justice. The music’s consistent creativity always holds interest. This historically and musically important release not only fills a crucial catalog gap but sets reference standards. No serious aficionado of the history of American piano music can afford to miss it.
– Gramophone (Jed Distler)
My Cup Runneth Over: The Complete Piano Works of R. Nathaniel Dett
$20.99
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Navona
Nov 13, 2015
NV6013
Schumann: Carnaval - Papillons - Arabeske / David Hyun-su Kim
Centaur Records
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$8.99
Oct 01, 2021
This new release features three of the greatest piano works by Schumann, superbly performed on fortepiano. DAVID HYUN-SU KIM has distinguished himself as one of the most thoughtful and distinctive musicians to emerge from the newest generation of American pianists. His concerts have been praised as “emotionally expansive” and “idiomatically perfect,” his interpretations as “spectacular,” and his Schumann playing has been singled out as “splendid and moving … His Florestan was elegantly calamitous, and his melodies representing Eusebius were like a dear friend whispering arcane truths to only you.” A sought-after pedagogue and adjudicator, David has taught at Yale and Harvard Universities. His students have gone on to win prizes in international competitions and been accepted for graduate study at Eastman, Oberlin, the University of Michigan, CCM, Indiana University, and similar institutions.
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Schumann: Carnaval - Papillons - Arabeske / David Hyun-su Kim
Curtis K. Hughes: Tulpa / Sentient Robots, Boston Percussion Group
New Focus Recordings
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$9.49
Apr 16, 2021
Curtis K. Hughes' "Tulpa" is a collection of his rhythmically incisive music heard in solo, duo, and ensemble settings, and culminating in the title work for ten players and guest soprano. The Boston based Hughes writes from a deep collaborative connection with his performers, crafting pieces that balance harmonic adventure with stylistic diversity, and political subtext with sardonic humor. The music of Curtis K. Hughes (b. 1974) is characterized by its rhythmic restlessness, its harmonic adventurousness and its often volatile mix of diverse stylistic elements and political subtexts. It has been described as "fiery" in the New York Times, "well crafted" in the Phoenix, and "colorfully scored" in the Boston Globe. A professor of composition at the Boston Conservatory since 2008, Curtis was a student of composers Lee Hyla and Evan Ziporyn, and is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, and of the New England Conservatory (NEC), which honored him in 2010 with its Outstanding Alumni Award.
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Curtis K. Hughes: Tulpa / Sentient Robots, Boston Percussion Group
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New Focus Recordings
Apr 16, 2021
FCR298
Trio a cordes Francais, Vol. 2: Beethoven
Doremi
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$60.99
Jun 05, 2020
The Trio A Cordes Français was founded in 1959 by violinist Gérard Jarry (1936-2004), violist Serge Collot (1923-2015), and cellist Michel Tournus (1922-2006). In a career lasting over thirty years, they toured the world and made many notable recordings. At the age of fourteen, Gérard Jarry gained a Premier Grand Prix at the 1951 Concours Long-Thibaud. In addition to his many years performing with the Trio, he was concertmaster of the Orchestre de Chambre Jean-François Paillard, and a noted soloist. He was also a professor of violin at the Conservatoire de Paris. Serge Collot studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Maurice Vieux, graduating with a Premier Prix in 1944, he had a long and distinguished career as a chamber musician. He was particularly influential in encouraging the composition of contemporary works for viola by such composers as Boulez and Berio. Like his colleague Jarry, he was professor of viola at Conservatoire de Paris for many years. Michel Tournus gained Premiers Prix in cello and chamber music from the Conservatoire de Paris. He was also a member of several other chamber ensembles, including the Quatuor Indig and the Octuor de Paris. He was first cello with the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris. Active as a teacher at the Conservatoire de Musique de Versailles, and was the author of a cello method. It is inarguable that Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922-2000) is not only one of the most celebrated flute players of all time but among the 20th century's most famous classical musicians. His recorded legacy is vast, comprising solo, orchestral, and chamber performances. Flutist Michel Debost (born 1934), a student of Marcel Moyse, has also won major competitions, and was first flute in the Orchestre de Paris. Replacing Rampal as flute professor at the Conservatoire de Paris, he later taught at Oberlin.
Trio a cordes Francais, Vol. 2: Beethoven
$60.99
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Doremi
Jun 05, 2020
DHR-8106-8
Gypsy Baroque / Ghielmi, Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra
Alpha
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$20.99
$15.99
Mar 16, 2018
Vittorio Ghielmi, one of today’s most admired viola da gamba soloists, comes from a family of musicians (his brother founded Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini). In parallel with his erudite and virtuoso readings of Marais or Graun, Vittorio Ghielmi is an artist who enjoys crossing borders. With his ensemble, Il Suonar Parlante, he seeks new musical languages and collaborates with leading figures of jazz (Uri Caine) and the masters of traditional music (Khaled Arman, Dhruba Ghosh). With Gypsy Baroque, he and his gypsy friends present a dazzling album bubbling over with life. He has gone to Transylvania in search of the gypsy music of the eighteenth century that was played on the frontiers of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires – music that influenced composers like Mozart and Haydn for their famous ‘Janissary’ pieces. For this recording, he places these gypsy tunes (only the melody is written) in perspective with orchestrations of the period. The Baroque specialists of his ensemble are joined by longstanding guest artists (the soprano Graciela Gibelli and the recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger) and traditional musicians like the Slovak violinist Stanislav Palúch and Marcel Comendant, a virtuoso exponent of the cimbalom and of improvisation. Going beyond the ‘documentary’ aspect, already fascinating, here is a genuine musical recreation!
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Gypsy Baroque / Ghielmi, Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra
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Alpha
Mar 16, 2018
Alpha392
Vivaldi: Concerti per Flauto e Flautino / Dorothee Oberlinger, Sonatori De La Gioisa Marca
Arcana
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$11.99
Jan 08, 2021
Dorothee Oberlinger writes: “All the recorder concertos on this release – chamber concertos or solo concertos – were written expressly for flauto or flautino and show the imagination, delicacy, freshness, virtuosity and sometimes even melancholy, which Vivaldi put into his writing for this instrument. We have intentionally chosen tuning at 440 Hz since, in Venice, in Vivaldi’s time, tuning was higher than in neighboring musical centers such as Rome, for example, where, at times, one even played at 392 Hz. With this high tuning, the sound of the gentle gut strings becomes clearer and more brilliant.”
Vivaldi: Concerti per Flauto e Flautino / Dorothee Oberlinger, Sonatori De La Gioisa Marca
$11.99
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Arcana
Jan 08, 2021
A910
Summer: Enterprises of Great Pitch / Kwon, Najmi, Kim, Owen, Guthrie, Savage
Centaur Records
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$17.99
$8.99
Feb 04, 2022
This new release features the music of composer Joseph Summer. Composer Joseph Summer began playing French horn at the age of seven. While attending the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina at age fourteen he studied composition with the eminent Czech composer Karel Husa. At age 15 he was accepted at Oberlin Conservatory, studied with Richard Hoffmann, Schönberg’s amanuensis, and graduated with a BM in Music Composition in 1976. Recruited by Robert Page, Dean of the Music Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Joseph taught music theory at CMU before leaving to pursue composition full time. For the next twenty years Joseph Summer concentrated his efforts composing a series of comic operas based on the bawdy stories of Boccaccio’s The Decameron. Summer is currently composing his ever expanding collection of settings of the bard’s ever living texts, which he titles The Oxford Songs, (titled thus due to Summer’s support of Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the likely identity of the author also known as William Shakespeare.)
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Summer: Enterprises of Great Pitch / Kwon, Najmi, Kim, Owen, Guthrie, Savage
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