Search results: Search results

171 results

Products

Guarnieri: Choros, Vol. 1 - Seresta / Karabtchevsky, São Paulo Symphony

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Aug 28, 2020

Camargo Guarnieri’s catalogue of works represents a legacy of incalculable worth for Brazilian culture, as has his influence as a teacher on several generations of younger composers. His association with the poet and musicologist Mario de Andrade led to the birth of the Brazilian Nationalist School and the ideals of using traditional Brazilian music in classical forms. The series of seven Choros and the Seresta for Piano and Orchestra represent Guarnieri’s personal approach to the concerto form, with striking contrasts between potent rhythm and dense, emotionally charged soundscapes and melodies full of Brazilian inspiration. This volume forms part of the first complete recording of the Choros.

Artistic director and conductor of the Orquestra Petrobras Sinfonica, Isaac Karabtchevsky is also artistic director of the Baccarelli Institute and the Heliopolis Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the Premio da Musica Brasileira four times for his recordings of the complete symphonies of Villa-Lobos with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra on Naxos. He has served as the musical director of the Teatro La Fenice, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Tonkunstler Orchestra.

REVIEW:

Each of the four short works on this disc proves to be thoroughly entertaining. Rhythmically they bounce along in the allegros, often driven by Brazilian syncopation, while the slow movements are heartfelt and tender without being over-Romanticized. The performances are excellent. The soloists are members of the São Paulo orchestra—Davi Graton is also a renowned teacher—and Isaac Karabtchevsky boasts a long pedigree in conducting Brazilian music. (He led the same orchestra in Naxos’s first-rate series of the complete Villa-Lobos symphonies.) This initiative to record lesser-known Brazilian repertoire got off to a great start, and the new disc promises even more.

-- Fanfare

View Full Page

Sale

Guarnieri: Choros, Vol. 1 - Seresta / Karabtchevsky, São Paulo Symphony
Naxos Aug 2020
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Shankar, Takemitsu, Piazzolla: Music for Flute and Guitar / Mattick, Etschmann

Genuin

$20.99 Feb 04, 2022

The new GENUIN release by Christian Mattick (flute) and Thomas Etschmann (guitar) offers an exciting program that spans continents: the first-class duo made of two renowned Munich soloists engages America and Asia in dialogue. Tradition and modernity, meditation and spirited outbursts, delight in novelty and melancholy at the loss of tradition. The two musicians interpret works by Toru Takemitsu, Ravi Shankar, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla, and Robert Beaser with tremendous stylistic confidence and a wealth of color that makes one marvel at the possibilities of this unusual duo.

View Full Page

Shankar, Takemitsu, Piazzolla: Music for Flute and Guitar / Mattick, Etschmann
Genuin Feb 2022
CD
$20.99

Brazilian Sentiments / Roncaglio

Capriccio

$21.99 Apr 30, 2013

What name comes to mind when you are asked about the essence of the Brazilian music? I am sure that some of you will say Villa-Lobos; others will think of Jobim. In Brazil, classical and the popular music are not far apart. They are more like two cities on the same plain and the present disc travels between these two cities while visiting a few towns on the way. What will carry us along this road? Obviously, the wings of song, as Portuguese is the singing language par excellence. The disc contains a selection of Brazilian songs written over the span of fifty years.

Christiane Roncaglio has a beautiful voice. With its dark smoky notes it sounds more mezzo than soprano. There are sharp corners too and the singing is intense. For these reasons, the album is probably not for repetitive and relaxed “evening listening”, but energises and stimulates. The diction is very clear. The accompaniment is divided between guitar and piano, a solution that provides lightness and diversity.

Jobim’s “Big Four” (Corcovado, Desafinado, One Note Samba and The Girl from Ipanema) are all here and need no introduction. His other songs are also memorably melodic and infectiously swinging in his unique affable way. Roncaglio’s performance of Jobim’s standards is a long way from the classical Astrud Gilberto’s shyness and mystery; her singing is more open and glossy. I like how she colours the long notes so that they are never plain or even, which is important for tracks like Eu sei que eu vou te amar.

Villa-Lobos’ songs from Floresta de Amazonas are all very beautiful and melodic. Roncaglio’s performance of them is alluringly mystical, like the singing of sea sirens. Songs from Santoro’s cycle Canções de Amor are sensual and expressive, and all distinctly Puccinian, especially the gloomy and intense Amor que partiu.

There are tender lullabies like Henrique’s Tamba-Tajá and sad cinematic ballads like Miranda’s Retrato. Some numbers, like Minha Terra, resemble operetta. Others, like Uirapuru, are more cabaret-style. Several tracks glorify Brazil and everything Brazilian. Roncaglio shows good control, plays with her voice and enjoys the process, yet never turns it into vulgar “cabaret singing”.

The two accompanying musicians play with sense and sensibility. Sometimes extra-musical squeaks are noticeable when the guitarist moves his fingers along the strings.

Overall, this is a very fine album with solid performances of beautiful songs. It is full of the colourful, carefree spirit of Brazil.

– M usicWeb International (Oleg Ledeniov)

View Full Page

Brazilian Sentiments / Roncaglio
Capriccio Apr 2013
CD
$21.99

The Power of the Keyboard

Yarlung Records

$21.99 May 19, 2023

Nathan Ben-Yehuda pursues a fulltime solo concert career as a classical pianist but also plays with Astral Mixtape, an innovative crossover quartet writing new works and reimagining classics from Monteverdi to Rimsky-Korsakov, and playing with ideas and thematic material from Sigur Ros to Radiohead and Four Tet. We end this album with two tracks by Astral Mixtape. Track 6 offers Goddess Gardens, including intoxicating “mixtape” snippets from Scheherazade and Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending, as well as more recent fare. Seven Hellos closes the album on track 7, an original composition by the four members of the quartet. Astral Mixtape is clearly close to Nathan’s heart: “I am part of this wonderful band of fellow classical musicians who are seeking to reimagine the conventional roles of our instruments, and applying non-classical approaches to arrangement and composition in our works. Astral Mixtape is the collaborative project most personal to me.” Before we get to Astral Mixtape, however, Nathan’s solo piano repertoire makes a powerful statement. Not only can Nathan handle the thorny Knussen Variations, but he plays Haydn beautifully, and he recorded my favorite performances to date of both Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Villa-Lobos’ Rudepoêma. Nathan kindly agreed to play Gaspard for this project, but also Peter Sculthorpe’s Nocturnal. –Bob Attiyeh, producer

View Full Page

The Power of the Keyboard
Yarlung Records May 2023
CD
$21.99

From Home with Love - Slovene, Brazilian & German Cello Music / Zakotnik, Lahmann

Genuin

$20.99 Jan 05, 2024

Two female musicians leave their home countries to establish themselves in foreign lands and take a musical retrospect. Katja Zakotnik and Naila Alvarenga Lahmann present music from Slovenia, Brazil and Germany on their new GENUIN CD. We embark with them on a highly emotional journey, traversing all the mountains and valleys that the multifaceted concept of"home" entails. We encounter well-known composers such as Johannes Brahms and Heitor Villa-Lobos and new names such as Blaž Pucihar and André Mehmari. The compositions of the young Slovenian Urška Orešic (world premiere recording of her"Little Diamonds") and the Brazilian Chiquinha Gonzaga add variety to the CD and tempt us to look with interest at the feminine side of these countries' musical creations.

View Full Page

From Home with Love - Slovene, Brazilian & German Cello Music / Zakotnik, Lahmann
Genuin Jan 2024
CD
$20.99

Folk Songs of the World / Berberian, Lester

SWR

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Apr 08, 2016

This new release is an eclectic collection of 22 folk songs from all over the world. Cathy Berberian performs these works exceptionally well, performing in 17 different languages. Pianist Harold Lester accompanies Berberian on this recording.

View Full Page

Sale

Folk Songs of the World / Berberian, Lester
SWR Apr 2016
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Gnattali: 4 Concertinos for Guitar & Orchestra / Salcito

Brilliant Classics

$13.99 Jul 21, 2017

Radames Gnattali, son of Italian immigrants, is one of the most popular and famous composers of his native Brazil, where he is mentioned in the same breath as Villa-Lobos. His music is the perfect fusion of the high and the low, of formally structured classical music and the vibrant multi-colored folk culture of Brazil. The 4 Concertinos for guitar and orchestra are medium-sized, 3-movement works, highly entertaining and brimming with good tunes, groovy rhythms and brilliant instrumentation: a real discovery! Played with infectious enthusiams by guitarist Marco Salcito and the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese conducted by Marcello Bufalini.

View Full Page

Gnattali: 4 Concertinos for Guitar & Orchestra / Salcito
Brilliant Classics Jul 2017
CD
$13.99

Latin Winds / Rundell, Heron / RNCM Wind Orchestra

Chandos

$21.99 Apr 06, 2018

From Spain to Mexico and Brazil, the RNCM Wind Orchestra, under the conductors Clark Rundell and Mark Heron, here celebrates the strong Latin tradition of wind bands in an exhilarating programme. The album prominently features works by one of the most iconic composers for winds, the Brazilian Villa-Lobos. Their liveliness, freely changing modalities, ease of flow, and likeable sonorities are a striking compositional signature, the unusual Concerto Grosso exploring a unique sound world with concertante discussion among the four wind soloists and the wind band. Also heard are the tender wind Adagio by Rodrigo and his arrangement for band of his first major symphonic work, Per la flor del lliri blau, which in dreamily evoking the age of mediaeval tales inspired his Concierto de Aranjuez. We are brought to Mexico with a stunning work by one of the country’s most popular composers, Carlos Chávez, celebrating a range of popular national genres: the march, waltz, and song.

View Full Page

Latin Winds / Rundell, Heron / RNCM Wind Orchestra
Chandos Apr 2018
CD
$21.99

Louis Lane conducts the Cleveland Orchestra

Sony Masterworks

$59.98 Jul 12, 2024

He went on to head major orchestras in Dallas and Atlanta and to guest conduct leading ensembles all over the world. But before that, Louis Lane honed his craft while working in the shadow of one of the great masters: in 1947, legendary maestro George Szell chose the young, inexperienced Texan to assist him in Cleveland - "I think you will do" was the gruff maestro's verdict, exceptional praise indeed from that notorious perfectionist.

Between 1959 and 1972 - with the full Cleveland Orchestra, the somewhat smaller Cleveland Pops and the chamber-sized Cleveland Sinfonietta - Louis Lane made a series of critically acclaimed recordings for Columbia. They display the "exceptional breadth and impeccable taste" for which this gifted but perennially undervalued conductor was lauded in a tribute by the orchestra's executive director. Sony Classical is pleased to present them now - many for the first time on CD - in a new 14-disc set.

Reviewers were effusive in their praise when these albums were originally released on LP. Here is a sampling: Pop Concert U.S.A. (1959) - music by Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein and other American composers: "If only all the pops (or, for that matter, all the classics) were as good as this!. The orchestra plays splendidly" (Gramophone). On the Town with the Cleveland Pops (1960) - selections from On the Town, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The King and I and other Broadway musicals: "Scintillating. Under Lane's enthusiastic direction, the Clevelanders play these familiar musical comedy excerpts with such precision and virtuosity that they emerge with glistening freshness" (High Fidelity). Music from the Films (1961) - Henry V, Louisiana Story, Bridge on the River Kwai, Gigi, Exodus and other motion pictures: "This concert of music from the movies is so superior to most issues of it's kind that it calls for special commendation. Lane has coaxed some beautiful playing from the Cleveland orchestra, and the engineers have provided him with rich and glorious sound" (High Fidelity).

View Full Page

Louis Lane conducts the Cleveland Orchestra
Sony Masterworks Jul 2024
CD
$59.98

New Worlds / Vogler, Jacobsen, The Knights

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Mar 30, 2010

NEW WORLDS • Eric Jacobsen, cond; Jan Vogler (vc1); The Knights • SONY 88697599782 (58:28)

IVES The Unanswered Question. G.L. FRANK Leyendas—An Andean Walkabout. 1DVO?ÁK Silent Woods. GOLIJOV Last Round. COPLAND Appalachian Spring

"Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972) counts Peruvian among a heritage as mixed as Osvaldo Golijov’s. A student of South American myths and cultures, she incorporates local instruments in a classical chamber orchestra: percussion, panpipes, and a “heavy wooden duct flute” that is blown harshly to produce double-stopping overtones. Leyendas is as captivating as it is unique, its three highly varied movements providing a convincingly more authentic Andes atmosphere than do either Villa-Lobos or Ginastera.

Despite his always recognizable Latino and/or Jewish elements, Golijov never writes less than fascinating music and never repeats himself. Combined with the existence of major masterpieces—Ainadamar remains this century’s defining work, and the 1998 La Pasión según San Marcos just missed the cut—this makes him one of the greats. Last Round opens with typically wild, not quite tamed Golijovian energy. Its two movement titles tell the full story: I Movido, Urgente—Macho, Cool and Dangerous, and II (attacca) Lentissimo—Death of Angels.

This performance of Appalachian Spring is exacting and fine, spirited yet lucid...the disc is a must for both Frank and Golijov."

FANFARE: James H. North

View Full Page

New Worlds / Vogler, Jacobsen, The Knights
Sony Masterworks Mar 2010
CD
$11.98

Images of Brazil / Anderegg, Ribeiro

Naxos

$19.99 Dec 07, 2018

This is one of those discs you’d be tempted to overlook: seven works by seven different composers, most of them unknown (except for Villa-Lobos and Guarnieri), scored or arranged for violin and piano, and played (very well) by performers who aren’t exactly household names. I dismissed it initially, but that was a mistake. My close friend was curious and gave it a listen. He was hooked. “Play track three,” he insisted, and so I did (sound clip). I was hooked too. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a CD by its cover. You’ve got to listen. If only there were more hours in the day!

So, that delicious third track is the last of César Guerra-Peixe’s Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, and very fetching they are. The major works, though, are Guarnieri’s powerful Violin Sonata No. 4; a splendid transcription for violin and piano by these players of Léa Freire’s soulful Three Songs; Villa-Lobos’ curiously touching “The Martyrdom of Insects,” with a finale that gives The Flight of the Bumblebee a run for its money; and Ernani Aguiar’s inventive Meloritmias No. 4 for solo violin. The other pieces, Edmundo Villani-Côrtes’ “Clear Waters,” and Radamés Guattali’s “Night Flower,” would make terrific encores to any chamber music recital.

All that remains to be said is that violinist Francesca Anderegg and pianist Erika Ribeiro play all of this music with the same care and loving attention to detail that obviously went into choosing the program. You can audition the whole thing through at a sitting or take it in bits. Either way, you surely will enjoy this hour of vibrant, songful, alternately spiky and spicy music that’s consistently captivating and worth your attention. Fine sonics too. Thank you, Shawn.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

View Full Page

Images of Brazil / Anderegg, Ribeiro
Naxos Dec 2018
CD
$19.99

Russian Piano Music Series, Vol. 2 - Rebikov

Divine Art

$19.99 Jan 01, 2010

Apart from the regular use of some his works in examination syllabuses, the music of Rebikov (1866-1920) is shockingly neglected - most items on this CD are receiving their first recording - and this is the composer who was once called 'the father of Russian modernism'. One of the first proponents of the whole-tone scale, his music is in a bewildering array of styles, foreshadowing composers as diverse as Debussy, Stravinsky, Copland and Villa-Lobos. The music here, apart from the 20-minute Esclavage et liberte, consists of a number of suites of impressionist music. Modern, but bright, direct and often humorous music makes Rebikov the perfect composer for pianists and piano enthusiasts whatever their preferences in genre.

View Full Page

Russian Piano Music Series, Vol. 2 - Rebikov
Divine Art Jan 2010
CD
$19.99

Latin American Dances - Works for Saxophone and Piano / Rigó, Leeb-Grill

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% Aug 13, 2021

Virtuoso duo Sándor Rigó and Christina Leeb-Grill have taken Jean Françaix’s description of his own work, ‘musique pour faire plaisir’, as the motto for this program. Dance styles and rhythms are at the heart of this repertoire, from the spectacular Brazileira with which Milhaud concludes his theatrical Scaramouche, through Piazzolla’s refinement of tradition in his Tango-Études, to the Brazilian rhythms showcased in Villa-Lobos’s Fantasia. Paquito D’Rivera adapted his Invitaciónal Danzón especially for this recording, providing Sándor Rigó with space to demonstrate his brilliance in improvisation.

View Full Page

Sale

Latin American Dances - Works for Saxophone and Piano / Rigó, Leeb-Grill
Naxos Aug 2021
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Shining Night / Anne Akiko Meyers

Avie Records

$19.99 May 06, 2022

Anne Akiko Meyers has amassed a multitude of fans and admirers for her exquisitely curated recordings, often exploring her passion for new music, and old music in new guises. Her quest for creative collaborations has inspired countless commissions and world-premieres, with the results infusing Shining Night, an album that embraces themes of love, poetry, and nature.

Anne’s fruitful association with composer Morten Lauridsen led to the arrangement of his popular choral work Sure on this Shining Night, for violin and piano, lending its name to the album’s title. From there springs forth an album imbued with music of light and hope, spanning the history of music through Baroque, Romantic, Popular, and current genres. J.S.Bach’s beautiful Air in G and Corelli’s colorful La Folia – arranged for violin and guitar – rub shoulders with Latin-tinged Estrellita (Little Star) by Manuel Ponce, the Aria from Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. Two of the 20th century’s most iconic songs appear in intimate and tender new arrangements: Duke Ellington’s (In My) Solitude, and Can’t Help Falling in Love, famously crooned by The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Anne’s collaborators are eminent Italian pianist Fabio Bidini and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux.

REVIEW:

Few violinists would have had the idea to ask the quintessential choral composer Morton Lauridsen, as Meyers did, to arrange two of his choral works for duo with violin. Fewer would have juxtaposed Lauridsen with Elvis Presley, and fewer still would have been able to make this marvelously varied program hang together. Meyers transforms the basic violin encore type of program into something new and fresh. She has made a specialty of bold, original, and immediate programming, but has outdone herself this time.

-- AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

View Full Page

Shining Night / Anne Akiko Meyers
Avie Records May 2022
CD
$19.99

Keys to Rio / Alves

Sorel Classics

$18.99 May 19, 2017

Sorel Classics is proud to present a debut recording of Brazilian Piano Music, performed by renowned pianist Grace Alves. Rio de Janeiro: the quintessential Brazilian city, it carries in its art the expression of the national soul. The national capital for two centuries, Rio has remained the cultural center of the country, and virtually all classical music and musicians of Brazil are in some way connected to the life of the city, especially during the what could arguably be called its Golden Age, teh first half of the 20th century. The program on Keys to Rio is above all a personal presentation of works by Brazilian composers including compositions by Ernesto Nazareth, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Marlos Nobre, Oriano de Almeida and Heitor Villa-Lobos.

View Full Page

Keys to Rio / Alves
Sorel Classics May 2017
CD
$18.99

Bruk: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 / Resnis, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra

Toccata

$20.99 Jun 02, 2023

This fourth instalment of the recent symphonic output of Fridrich Bruk (born in Ukraine in 1937 but a Finnish resident since 1974) brings two earlier works – from when Bruk was merely in his late seventies. His Symphonies Nos. 15 and 16 – both predicated on Bruk’s concern for the environment – inhabit the soundworld that has become familiar from his more recent symphonies: almost a stream of consciousness expressed through wildly inventive orchestral writing in a kaleidoscope of colour and counterpoint, sitting somewhere between Villa-Lobos and Pettersson in its profligate abundance.

View Full Page

Bruk: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 / Resnis, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Toccata Jun 2023
CD
$20.99

Julian Bream Live Performances & Broadcasts, Vol. 2

Doremi

$40.99 Sep 17, 2021

Julian Bream, who passed away in August 2020, is the finest classical guitarist in the second half of the 20th century. DOREMi is proud to release this tribute to his wonderful artistry. The program of works for lute and guitar solo and in a variety of ensemble settings, never before released, offers a remarkable panorama of Bream's magnificent playing between 1956 and 1965, including performances from the 11th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Aldeburgh Festivals, the 18th Edinburgh International Festival, a 1956 Broadcast House recital, and two studio broadcasts. The repertoire ranges from Josquin des Pres to Dowland and other Elizabethans, to Baroque lutenists, and contemporary British composers. We hear a very early version of Britten's "Nocturnal", songs accompanying Peter Pears and Carmen Prietto, a Haydn string quartet, and the Concierto de Aranjuez.

View Full Page

Julian Bream Live Performances & Broadcasts, Vol. 2
Doremi Sep 2021
CD
$40.99

Guarnieri: Piano Concertos No 4, 5 & 6 / Barros, Conlin, Warsaw PO

Naxos

$13.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 30% May 25, 2010

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri is universally recognised as the most important Brazilian composer after Villa-Lobos. The Six Piano Concertos, composed over a period of forty years, offer a complete panorama of Guarnieri’s stylistic evolution, in particular his blend of sophisticated compositional techniques and the improvisational character of Brazilian folk-music. The Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 display a number of avant-garde features that are fundamentally different from the more nationalistic vocabulary that informs the earlier three piano concertos (Naxos 8.557666). Completed shortly after the composer’s eightieth birthday, the chamber-like, intimate Piano Concerto No. 6 returns to an earlier style.

View Full Page

Sale

Guarnieri: Piano Concertos No 4, 5 & 6 / Barros, Conlin, Warsaw PO
Naxos May 2010
CD
~~$19.99~~ $13.99

Ruiz-Pipó: Works with Guitar, Vol. 3 / Monasterium Guitar Quartet

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Aug 13, 2021

Antonio Ruiz-Pipó was a versatile musician whose compositions display both Andalusian and Parisian influences as well as reflecting his own life story of non-conformism coupled with an infinite love for humanity. This program reveals his inclination towards South American music, and in the duets Homenaje a Villa-Lobos and the quartet América she looks towards the habanera and samba (as well as a little boogie-woogie). Ancient sounds from a faraway land echo in the Homenaje a Antoniode Cabezón, while Cuatropara Cuatro and A Sevilla are pure Andalusian Ruiz-Pipó in terms of their colors, rhythms and narrative.

View Full Page

Sale

Ruiz-Pipó: Works with Guitar, Vol. 3 / Monasterium Guitar Quartet
Naxos Aug 2021
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Esperanza: A Gift of Spanish Song

Gloriae Dei Cantores

$18.99 Jun 01, 2005

Esperanza: A Gift of Spanish Song Gloriae Dei Cantores celebrates the rich contribution of Spanish music and culture to the world. This recording spans 500 years, from the golden age of the Spanish Renaissance, with works by Guerrero, Victoria, and Morales to the 20th century, with music by Rodrigo. Also included are works of Mexican composers de Zumaya (a striking setting of the Miserere) and Carlos Chavez, and Latin-American composers such as Villa-Lobos, Casals, and Joaquin Nin. Esperanza will be a revelation to those unfamiliar with the riches of Spanish literature and a great discovery for all devotees of choral music.

View Full Page

Esperanza: A Gift of Spanish Song
Gloriae Dei Cantores Jun 2005
CD
$18.99