Rising star violinist Chloe Chua makes her recording debut on Pentatone together with the Singapore Symphony, presenting Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside Locatelli’s Harmonic Labyrinth. With the Four Seasons, Chua returns to a piece that’s very dear to her, and which she won the joint-first prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists with. Despite her young age, Chua performs regularly with several world-class ensembles and enjoys a huge following on social media thanks to her breathtaking technique and charismatic stage personality. This album, recorded as Artist-in-Residence of the Singapore Symphony, launches her international recording career.

This new double-album by pianist Lars Vogt, violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff includes some of Franz Schubert's greatest works of chamber music, including his Piano Trios and the Arpeggione Sonata in breath-taking interpretations. Pianist Lars Vogt tragically passed away on September 5, 2022 due to a serious illness before this album of Schubert’s chamber music was released. This album stands as a testament of his outstanding chamber musicianship together with his long-time chamber music partners Christian Tetzlaff and Tanja Tetzlaff. “If not much time remains, then it’s a worthy farewell. - - Incomprehensible. Such expression. Such fragility, such love.”

REVIEWS:

These are studio recordings made in separate sessions in 2021. Everything one could want in Schubert’s Piano Trios is present: rhythmic buoyancy, beautiful phrasing, united ensemble playing that still leaves room for individual voices, and inner joy in the music-making. There’s also the ineffable feeling of sympathy among three friends who feel free to be themselves without departing from the wholeness of a performance.

-- Fanfare

These 2020–2021 recordings containing the complete extant works for piano trio of Franz Schubert and featuring the well-known trio of cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, pianist Lars Vogt, and Tanja’s brother, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, are being released at this time partly in memory of Vogt’s untimely passing in September of last year. The recollections of both Tetzlaffs and their dignified expressions of sorrow for the loss of a longtime friend and collaborator who will certainly be very difficult to replace as the piano voice of the trio are most eloquent and moving.

In two well-filled CDs we are given all the music Schubert is known to have written for piano, violin and cello, including Piano Trios No. 1 in B-flat, D898 (Op. 99) and No. 2 in E-flat Major, D929 (Op. 100), the indescribably lovely Notturno in E-flat, D897, which was originally intended as the slow movement of Trio No. 1; a “Rondo brillant” in B Minor. D895; and a fine arrangement for cello and piano of the “Arpeggione” Sonata in A Minor, D821. The last-named gave new viability to a richly textured work originally written for a hybrid instrument that was soon considered strictly from Vaudeville and vanished from the musical scene.

All these works receive a stamp of excellence for the artistry Vogt and the Tetzlaffs apply here.

-- Audio Video Club of Atlanta (Phil Muse)

Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present Brahms’s complete symphonies on Pentatone. These recordings, made between 2019 and 2021, have already met with extraordinary critical acclaim. BBC Music Magazine praised the performance of the First Symphony as “splendid and inspiring”, praising Blomstedt’s “admirable attention to detail” and “wonderfully controlled performances”, while pointing out about the Second Symphony that “with glowing playing throughout from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra it’s hard not to enjoy this affectionate and superbly recorded new version”. Gramophone equally praised the Second Symphony, stating that the “Leipzig orchestra play magnificently” while lauding the “naturalness and ease” of Blomstedt’s performance. The Times pointed out about the same recording that “as soon as this symphony ambles into its opening bars we feel supremely in safe hands”, and concluded that “the special glory of Blomstedt’s thoughtful interpretation is its emotional resonance.”

The recording of the Third and Fourth Symphony was crowned with a Diapason d’or, and hailed as a “a majestic close to a complete set of Brahms symphonies that will mark a milestone.” These critical voices all acknowledge the exceptional congeniality of maestro and orchestra, as well as the unheard-of freshness of Blomstedt, who concluded this cycle at the age of 94.

In the more than sixty years of his career, he has acquired the unrestricted respect of the musical world. The Gewandhausorchester Leipzig is the oldest civic orchestra in the world with a glorious history, and is still counted among the world’s leading ensembles.

REVIEW:

While not perfect, this performance of the Second has plenty of impetus and energy–at least after the first movement. After this, however, the performance is wholly gorgeous, with an Adagio non troppo of effortless nobility, a delectable Allegretto grazioso, and an uplifting finale that contains everything missing from the first movement.

-- ClassicsToday

Last August I welcomed the final CD in Herbert Blomstedt’s generally superb set of Brahms’s symphonies with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. The disc in question coupled the Third and Fourth Symphonies. I made the point then that ‘terms such as “utterly natural”, “unaffected”, “honest”, “patient”, “sensibly paced” and the like have helped weave a garland of praise that has been in place around Blomstedt’s shoulders for many years. This Brahms coupling … is typical.’ Inevitably, the cycle is now available in a handsome slimline box, taking its place alongside very different recent contenders under the brothers Iván and Adám Fischer (Channel Classics; Naxos, A/22). Blomstedt’s approach, although remarkably alert for a man in his nineties, thoughtfully explores the music’s many inner nooks and crannies. His overall handling of each work is patient, profound and more often than not blessed with an inner calm, though witness the finale of the Second Symphony and the music really takes flight. The sound is wonderful, too. The first three symphonies have their big repeats in place and all in all I’d rate it as one of the finest digital Brahms sets on the current market.

-- Gramophone

In 2019, Alexandre and Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s recording of the last three piano concertos by Camille Saint-Saëns earned the highest praise around the world, including a Diapason d’or de l’année, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and top marks and recommendations from the leading German web sites Klassik Heute and Klassik.com. The Kantorows’ orchestra of choice was the Finnish ensemble Tapiola Sinfonietta, and they have now returned to Helsinki to record not only Saint-Saëns’ first two concertos, but all of the remaining works for piano and orchestra.

Presented on this amply filled disc, the program spans 33 years, the earliest work being Concerto No. 1, regarded as the first significant French piano concerto and written by a 23-year old composer. Ten years later, in 1868, Saint-Saëns composed the Concerto in G minor, a work which at first met with consternation although Liszt – who was present at the first performance – thoroughly approved of it. The work, which begins with the soloist playing what resembles the improvisations of an organist, soon became popular however, and remains one of Saint-Saëns’ best-known works. The shorter pieces which make up the rest of the program were written between 1884 and 1891, and could be said to reveal different aspects of the composer: Wedding Cake was written as a wedding present to a close friend, in Rhapsodie d’Auvergne Saint-Saeëns explored French folk music, while Africa is a piece of pure Orientalism, reflecting his lasting affection for North Africa.

REVIEWS:

What amazed me about young Alexandre Kantorow’s performance was the intensity of the opening cadenza and the subsequent tutti passages where it’s hard to imagine that it’s a chamber orchestra we’re hearing! His treatment of the soloist’s role is always powerful but never lapses into brashness.

All the fill-ups are lovely, but for me the most gorgeous was the Wedding Cake Caprice. The performances have been brilliantly captured and are presented in SACD format.

-- Limelight

The prospect of a recording of any of Saint-Saëns’s works for piano and orchestra is always a delightful one. You know you are in for an hour or more of music that lifts the spirits with its joie de vivre and inexhaustible supply of memorable ideas. The prospect is enhanced, on this occasion, by the same soloist, orchestra and conductor who gave us Concertos Nos 3, 4 and 5 back in the long-ago pre-pandemic days...

There is a palpable exuberance and joy in the way these works come across, none more so in the four concertante works for piano and orchestra, the effervescent Wedding Cake caprice, Rhapsodie d’Auvergne (an early use of French folk song, years ahead of d’Indy and Canteloube), Allegro appassionato (not the better-known work for cello with the same title) and Africa (who else was using North African folk music at this time?).

The album also includes the woefully neglected Piano Concerto No 1, with its opening horn call reminding us of the end of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. If the rousing finale doesn’t hook you, then try the haunting slow movement with its prescient passages not only of its successor but of the kind of impressionistic writing that anticipates Ravel by half a century.

It’s a terrific programme – unique for a single disc, so far as I know – clocking in at 85 minutes, and another feather in the cap of the gifted soloist and his partners. The recording offers an exemplary balance between piano and orchestra in a realistic acoustic[.]

-- Gramophone

One of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, Twelfth Night was ‘blissfully reborn’ (The Daily Telegraph) for the 2012/13 season at London’s Globe Theatre, under the direction of Tim Carroll. The hilarious tale of misdirection and deception is performed here by an all-male cast, as it would have been in Shakespeare’s day, with Mark Rylance playing Olivia and Roger Lloyd Pack as the hapless Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The production also marks Stephen Fry’s triumphant return to the stage as the pompous Malvolio, ridiculous in his yellow stockings. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound. Spoken in Shakespeare’s English with English and German subtitles.

REVIEWS:

"…no single actor dominates this radical yet perfectly balanced production at the Globe" (The Guardian)

"The irony is that Fry's performance – intelligently pondered, generous to the other actors, and almost studiedly not a "star turn" by a celebrity guest artiste – is exactly the opposite in tendency" (The Idependent)

"Although this is ensemble theatre at its finest, it’s Rylance’s contribution that puts the production among all-time Shakespeare greats. Frankly unmissable." (The Daily Telegraph ★★★★★)

In 2019, when Alexandre Kantorow, at the age of 22, became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky competition, his program included no less than three works by Johannes Brahms. Two of these, Piano Sonata No. 2 and the Rhapsody in B minor, he went on to record for release on his previous, highly praised recital disc, which was awarded distinctions such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’Or, and Choc de Classica. The Brahms interpretations won Kantorow particular praise – the Guardian (UK) described them as ‘magisterial’ while the website ResMusica placed his sonata ‘among the great reference recordings of the piece – if not the modern one.’ There is much to look forward to, then, when Kantorow releases an all-Brahms album with a playing time of no less than 85 minutes.

He opens with music by a composer of a similar age as himself: Brahms wrote the Four Ballades in 1854 while only 21 years old, taking up a fashionable genre introduced by Chopin as late as 1840. The set is followed by the even earlier Sonata No. 3 in E minor which forms the center of the program. The sonata is of almost symphonic dimensions and it was indeed, along with its predecessors, famously described as a disguised symphony by no one less than Robert Schumann. To bring this stormy, impassioned album to a close, Kantorow has chosen a later, and contrasting work: With a lifelong admiration for Bach, Brahms in 1879 made a piano arrangement, for the left hand alone, of the iconic Chaconne from Partita No. 2 for solo violin – a composition that Brahms himself described as ‘a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful impressions’.

REVIEW:

When he made this recording in 2020, Kantorow was just a couple years older than the 20-year-old Brahms who composed the Piano Sonata No. 3. He finds a youthful quality in the sonata and the Ballades that nobody else has quite touched on. Kantorow's Ballades are mysterious, with ghostly quiet passages and mighty climaxes -- again, not what one thinks of usually for Brahms, but again carefully constructed. Only in the Bach arrangement does Kantorow falter a bit. However, he takes chances, and this is all to the good. If one needed any more evidence that Kantorow is a young pianist to watch, it is here in abundance.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Leroy Anderson occupies a unique place in American music. Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, Anderson wrote tunes that topped the pop charts, making compositions such as Sleigh Ride and The Typewriter world famous. Anderson was a meticulous craftsman who could seemingly compose marvelous tunes at will, and he has been praised by composer John Williams as 'one of the great American masters of light orchestral music.' This first set of Anderson's orchestral music includes several previously unpublished pieces made available by the Anderson family, with world premiere recordings included among many familiar and not so familiar titles.

This very special release includes the legendary concert of the Original Three Tenors - José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, conducted by Zubin Mehta at the Terme di Caracalla, Rome 1990 on the eve of the Football World Cup in Italy, watched by 1.6 billion spectators worldwide. For the first time available on Blu-ray, digitally remastered! This edition includes the new documentary The Three Tenors - From Caracalla to the World featuring recent interviews with José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Pavarotti‘s widow Nicoletta Mantovani, Lalo Shifrin, Brian Large, Mario Dradi, Paul Potts, Sir Bryn Terfel, Norman Lebrecht, Didier de Cottignies and many more. Previously unpublished backstage material shows the tenors unadorned and offers a fascinating insight into what takes place beyond the spotlight in Rome, 1990 and the sequel in Los Angeles, 1994. The film takes a completely new look at the concert legends. For the first time, they talk about José Carreras‘ struggles with leukemia, their rivalries and friendships, their spectacular contract poker and life as an opera star.

Boris Giltburg is lauded worldwide as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter, with critics praising his impassioned approach to performance. This project to record all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas is a personal exploration for Giltburg, driven by curiosity and his profound respect for the composer. These exceptional performances received widespread critical acclaim upon their original digital release and this premiere release includes extended personal and informative booklet notes written by the pianist. From the vivid energy of the early sonatas, through the dark passions and enchanted lyricism of Beethoven’s middle period, to the awe-inspiring transcendence of the final sonatas – this cycle runs the full gamut of human emotion.

At home in repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Shostakovich, in recent years he has been increasingly recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninoff. He is recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos for Naxos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (RLPO) and Vasily Petrenko. In 2018 he won Best Soloist Recording (20th/21st century) at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards for his Naxos recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto, coupled with the Études-Tableaux.

Past praise for previously released performances included in this set (digital video format only):

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3, Nos. 8-11

In keeping with the character of both the Op 14 Sonatas, Giltburg’s approach is prevailingly lyrical. For me, the two standouts of the series thus far are Opp 13 and 22. I can think of no other performance of the Pathétique that imbues the Grave introduction with a greater sense of melancholy desolation. The bright, ingratiating Op 22 is also brimful of character, its narrative unfolding with a charming urgency.

– Gramophone

Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas, Vol. 8, Nos 27-29

These interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory. Always clean and never showy, Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven, and his touch throughout is light and flexible. His Hammerklavier lacks fury at the outset but magnificently makes up for that in the closing fugue, where his easy control of the tumult of voices is impressive.

– BBC Music Magazine

Signum proudly presents Lapwood’s debut solo organ recording following her critically-acclaimed debut choral recording, All things are quite silent, with The Choirs of Pembroke College, Cambridge. This luxurious programme, including some of Lapwood’s world-premiere arrangements, showcases the softer, more subtle side of an instrument more generally regarded for its bombastic nature. “One of my favorite things about being an organist is the exquisite feeling of practicing in a church or cathedral late at night. The door is locked, the lights are often out, and time seems to flow differently. It’s at night that one really gains a sense of the history of the building, getting to know the creaking noises and clicks that make it seem as if the space is breathing. Sound seems to travel differently too, piercing the warm cushion of dark silence like a beam of light. On this disc I’ve tried to capture some of that magic, recording in a chilly Ely Cathedral after hours in January 2021.” (Anna Lapwood) Anna Lapwood is an organist, conductor, and broadcaster, and holds the position of Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Lapwood recently presented the 2020 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and is due to perfom at the BBC Proms on 7th September 2021.

In 2019, at the age of 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. Before then he had released three acclaimed albums, awarded distinctions such as Diapason d'or de l'Année and Gramophone's Editor's Choice and earning Kantorow descriptions ranging from 'Liszt reincarnated' to 'a firebreathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery'. The present recital, his first release since the Tchaikovsky Competition, offers plenty of scope for virtuosity, poetry and charm, always filtered through an acute stylistic consciousness. The programme is constructed around three rhapsodies, a genre whose improvisatory character corresponds perfectly with the spirit of Romanticism but here interpreted by three highly distinct artistic temperaments: Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Béla Bartók.

REVIEW:

Kantorow is obviously an outstanding pianist and musician with an agile technique that allows him perfect clarity in the most complex textures, abundant sensitivity and refinement, and maturity well beyond his years. Arrival finally at the 11th Liszt Rhapsody feels like the achievement of an oasis of purest classicism and succinct expression, and provides a showcase for Kantorow’s ability to maintain clarity and poise at breakneck speed.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, Novembere 2020)

In celebration of the great Israeli-American violinist’s 75th birthday, Sony Classical is proud to present the first-ever collection of Itzhak Perlman’s complete recordings for RCA and CBS/Sony in a single box set: 18 CDs spanning the years 1965 to 2012.

Itzhak Perlman has dominated the world of violin virtuosos for half a century. His TV appearances had already made him a household name in the US by the time he was 13. A few years later came his Carnegie Hall debut, then the prestigious Leventritt Award, followed by triumphant tours of Israel, North America and Europe between 1965 and 1968. By then he was an international celebrity and recognized “not just as the finest violinist of his generation but as one of the greatest musical talents to emerge since World War II” (leading string authority Tully Potter writing in the NEW GROVE).

And it was then that Perlman began his illustrious, virtually unparalleled career as a recording artist. His first sessions for RCA, accompanied by pianist David Garvey – with works ranging from sonatas by Handel, Leclair and Hindemith to showpieces by Paganini, Bazzini, Sarasate and Falla – took place in New York in 1965 but were not issued for nearly 40 years because the label felt concertos would make a more suitable commercial debut for the rising star. When an album of these pieces was finally released – as “Perlman Rediscovered”, in 2004 – it was hailed “an outstanding tribute to one of the great names among violinists of any age, as well as a remarkably varied and interesting recital in its own right” (ClassicsToday). These tracks are, of course, included in the new collection.

Perlman’s first concerto efforts for RCA – the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Prokofiev Second, with Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony – were set down in 1966/1967 and released the following years as his recording debut. ClassicsToday acclaimed them in a recent reissue as “offering playing that is gutsy and shamelessly virtuosic, and with a sharper rhythmic focus than Perlman often achieved subsequently. The finale of the Sibelius remains a potent example of the playing’s youthful fire.” In 1969, Perlman recorded what was arguably one of the finest albums of his career, the two Prokofiev Sonatas (which he never remade), partnered by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy at the beginning of their long and distinguished collaboration: “Delicate where needs be … and yet with a Heifetzian resilience that both sonatas willingly respond to … Perlman and Ashkenazy play with astonishing virtuosity” (Gramophone).

Itzhak Perlman’s work for American Columbia began in the mid-1970s and – apart from Bach and Vivaldi multi-violin concertos with Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta – cover a wide swath of chamber music with special partners: pianists Daniel Barenboim and Emanuel Ax, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell and guitarist John Williams. The Mendelssohn Piano Trios with Ax and Ma, first released in 2010, appear here for the first time in a Perlman collection (“…ensemble balance, clarity of inner part-writing, drama, lyricism, and phrase shaping of the highest order … I find these performances not just outstanding; I find them astounding” (Fanfare).

That other John Williams, the legendary composer for the silver screen, was Perlman’s collaborator in another medium, the movies: his two best-selling “Cinema Serenade” albums arranged and conducted by Williams, with Perlman featured in selections from such classic films as Modern Times, Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Out of Africa, Cinema Paradiso, The Color Purple and, of course, the theme that Perlman memorably performed on the soundtrack of Williams’s Oscar-winning score for the Spielberg masterpiece Schindler’s List.

New to Perlman CD editions are two complete soundtrack albums: John Williams’s “elegant and thoughtful score” for Memoirs of a Geisha in which the violinist is joined by Yo-Yo Ma and to which Perlman “brings a magical and peculiarly oriental sound to his violin-playing” (Gramophone), and the music for Yimou Zhang’s Hero by Tan Dun: “Few composers today write more effective melodies for bowed strings” (Gramophone). And to round off this uniquely wide-ranging survey of the violinist’s musical passions and triumphs, in its first appearance in a Perlman collection, the artist is joined by golden-voiced cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot in Eternal Echoes, a highly praised album of liturgical and traditional selections which the violinist has affectionately described as “Jewish comfort music – everything that I recognize from my childhood is in this program.”

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63   
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47

DISC 2:
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, TH 59
Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39   

DISC 3:
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 80   
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata in D Major No. 2, Op. 94bis   

DISC 4:
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21   
Ravel: Tzigane, M. 76 (Version for Violin & Orchestra)   

DISC 5:
Paganini: Centone di sonate, Op. 64, MS 112 (Sonata No. 1 in A Minor)   
Paganini: Sonata for Violin and Guitar in E Minor, Op. 3, No. 6, MS 27   
Paganini: Sonata concertata in A Major, Op. 61, MS 2   
Giuliani: Duo concertante in E Minor, Op. 25 "Grand Sonata"   
Giuliani: Cantabile in D Major, Op. 17, MS 109   

DISC 6:
Dohnányi: Serenade in C Major, Op. 10   
Beethoven: Serenade in D Major, Op. 8   

DISC 7:
Bach, J.S.: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043   
Vivaldi: Concerto for 3 Violins in F Major, RV 551   
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major, K. 364   

DISC 8:
Chausson: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet in D Major, Op. 21   

DISC 9:
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78   
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100   
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108   

DISC 10:
Mozart: Duo for Violin & Viola in G Major, K. 423   
Mozart: Duo for Violin and Viola, K. 424   
Leclair: 6 Sonatas for 2 Violins, Op. 3, No. 4   

DISC 11:
Lubbock/Rosenbaum/Jones/Temperton: The Color Purple: Main Title   
Gardel: Scent of a Woman: Tango (Por Una Cabeza)   
Legrand: Yentl: Papa, Can You Hear Me?   
Bacalov: Il Postino: Theme   
Bernstein: The Age of Innocence: Theme   
Williams: Theme (From "Far and Away")   
Legrand: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: I Will Wait for You   
Previn: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Theme   
Williams: Sabrina: Theme   
Barry: Out of Africa: Main Title   
Bonfa: Black Orpheus: Manha de Carnaval   
Williams: Main Theme (From "Schindler's List")   
Morricone: Love Theme (From "Cinema Paradiso")   

DISC 12:
Raksin: Theme from "Laura" (1944)   
Steiner: Theme from Now, Voyager (1942)
Chaplin: Smile from "Modern Times" (1936)   
Rózsa: Love Theme from Lost Weekend (1945)
Young: St. Patrick's Day from The Quiet Man (1952) (Traditional)   
Korngold: Marian & Robin Love Theme from "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938)   
Hupfeld: As Time Goes By from "Casablanca" (1942)   
Walton: Touch Her Soft Lips and Part (From "Henry V")   
Young: Stella by Starlight from The Uninvited (1944)   
Young: Theme from My Foolish Heart (1949)
Steiner: Tara's Theme (From "Gone with the Wind" 1939)   
Newman: Cathy's Theme from "Wuthering Heights" (1939)   

DISC 13:
Tan Dun: Works

DISC 14:
Paganini: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1, MS 25   
Ben-Haim: Berceuse Sfaradite   
Sarasate: Navarra, Op. 33   
Handel: Violin Sonata in E Major, Op. 1 No. 15, HWV 373   
Hindemith: Violin Sonata, Op. 11 No. 1 in E-Flat   
Leclair: Violin Sonata, Op. 9 No. 3 in D   
Bloch: Baal Shem: II. Nigun (Version for Violin & Piano)   
Falla: Spanish Dance No. 1 (from La vida breve)   
Bazzini: La ronde des lutins, Op. 25   

DISC 15: John Williams: Works

DISC 16:
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49   
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor Op. 66   
Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 19, No. 1 Sweet Remembrance" - Andante con moto"
Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Op. 38, No. 2 - Allegro non troppo

DISC 17:
Berditchever: A Dudele   
Shenker: Mizmor L'Dovid   
Goldfaden: Shoyfer Shel Moshiakh   
Schwartz: Romanian Doyne   
Rosenblatt: T'filas Tal   
Traditional: Yism'chu   
Schloßberg: R'tzay   
Traditional: Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid   
Schorr: Sheyibone Bays Hamikdosh   
Traditional: Kol Nidrei   

DISC 18:
Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, TH 56   
Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, TH 58   
Dvořák: Romance in F Minor, Op. 11, B. 39
Dvořák: 8 Humoresques, Op. 101, B. 187: No. 7, Poco lento e grazioso (Transcribed by Oscar Morawetz for Violin, Cello & Orchestra)   
Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166: "Dumky", V. Allegro   
Dvořák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, B. 147: No. 2, Dumka. Allegretto grazioso   
Halvorsen: Passacaglia and Sarabande for Violin and Viola (With Variations on a Theme by Handel)   
Walton: Canzonetta from Henry V   
Williams: Air and Simple Gifts

Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia is the first vocal album in the world to be recorded entirely in live virtual acoustics. It brings together art history, music history, performance, and technology to re-create medieval sacred sound in the cathedral of Hagia Sophia as an aural virtual reality. With a stunning reverberation time of over 11 seconds, the acoustics of Hagia Sophia were measured and analyzed, and auralized in real time on Cappella Romana’s performance by the Icons of Sound team at Stanford University (iconsofsound.stanford.edu). Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia presents more than 75 minutes of medieval Byzantine chant for the Feast of the Holy Cross in Constantinople, one of the greatest celebrations in the yearly cycle of worship at Hagia Sophia. This deluxe package contains standard- and high-resolution stereo and surround-sound formats including Dolby Atmos™, as well as a bonus track and a 24-minute documentary film. Enrich your experience of the music with in-depth essays, musical examples, and illustrations about the project in a 40-page booklet, which also presents all original Greek texts with translations in English. For a thousand years, Hagia Sophia was the largest enclosed space in the world. Let Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia transport you back in time to medieval sound and ritual in this monumental sixth-century cathedral.

-----

REVIEW:

In the winter of 2010, Ms. Bissera Pentcheva obtained permission to enter what was then the Hagia Sophia museum at dawn, capturing four balloon pops and a wealth of acoustic detail.

The balloon noises, along with maps of the interior, enabled identification of the acoustic fingerprint of the building, including the multidirectional refraction of sound as it bounces off the dome and marble colonnades. Computer simulations were then integrated into a set of microphones and speakers.

Thus the members of Cappella Romana, a vocal ensemble based in Portland, Ore., specializing in Byzantine chant, recorded “The Lost Voices” in an offsite space that persuasively mimicked the acoustics of Hagia Sophia — with its luscious reverberation, cross echoes, and amplification of particular frequencies.

In Byzantine cathedral chant, reverberation was key to invoking the divine presence. She pointed to the exuberant amount of melisma in the repertory, where a single syllable is stretched over multiple notes. In the liquid acoustics of Hagia Sophia, words sung in this way blur.

The recording provides a glimpse of that experience. Phrases chanted in unison leave a ghostly imprint. Rhythmic shudders and grace notes set off blurry squiggles of overlapping echoes. Chords unfurl in reverberant bloom.

– New York Times (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim)

Sunrise Mass is a magical recording that includes compelling music by Ola Gjeilo along with several complementary selections by Durufle, Mendelssohn, and Mocnik. The title was chosen to hopefully represent the journey of each listener to hear new worlds ot colors in each of the selections. At the heart of this recording is Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, a spiritual, extended work in four movements that will bring you on a metaphysical journey from the heavens to earth. This recording is expertly sung by the Westminster Williamson Voices and conducted by James Jordan. It is simply exquisite. Jordan writes: “This has been our experience living with this music and, for me, allowing this choir to resonate these sounds in the most honest way we could. Gjeilo’s music allows us to connect to a vast wordless world that speaks directly to each of us in deeply personal and meaningful ways. His music was a gift to us, and hopefully will be a gift to you. All of the music on this recording connected itself to us and tethered each piece, one to the other, inside us. And for that reason, and all the reasons above, we are excited to share the magic we felt through sounding all of these incredible scores.”

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REVIEW:

Norwegian New Yorker Aja Gjeilo's music is thoroughly tonal. He seems to specialize in church music, with quotations in this mass from Duruflé and Mendelssohn. Texts by Hildegard von Bingen are rewritten and freely orchestrated. The others are by the composer. Harmony is clean and conservative, with occasional surprises in the voiceleading. For the most part, this is lovely and very beautiful. There is nothing here that could not be sung by well-schooled amateur choir singers. In fact, choral aficionados will surely enjoy this.

– American Record Guide (Allen Gimbel)

Reference Recordings proudly presents these two iconic works in definitive interpretations from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb audiophile sound. This release was recorded in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In his fascinating and scholarly notes, Maestro Honeck gives us great insight into the history of both pieces, and describes how he conducts and interprets each. He reminds us that the “Eroica” was a bold departure from earlier symphonies, a “dance symphony with dramatic inventiveness, full of new elements that had never been heard before.” He quotes Beethoven’s student Ferdinand Ries, who wrote “Beethoven played recently for me (the Eroica) and I believe both heaven and earth must tremble when it is performed.” Honeck puts his own inimitable stamp on this interpretation, giving the listener a chance to experience the novelties of the “Eroica” as if hearing it for the very first time. This release is the eighth in the highly acclaimed Pittsburgh Live! series from Reference Recordings. The previous release Shostakovich 5/Barber Adagio won the Grammy in February 2018 for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Classical Album.

REVIEW:

In this Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh recording, it’s evident that Manfred Honeck entirely acknowledges that this progressive score is music of extensive concentration, intensity and, as the designation might suggest, heroic power. Bold and focused, naturally flowing and stimulating with an undertow of mystery in the Allegro, this performance from the Pittsburgh players seems to convey Beethoven’s sense of defiance in the face of adversity. Underpinned by the rich low strings, the angst-ridden and world-weary tread given to the renowned Marche funèbre is both resolute and entirely respectful. Impressive is Honeck’s stark underlining of the recurrent divergence of dark and light. With power and exuberance, a character of unbridled joy imbues the Scherzo, with some arresting playing from the horns. With striking immediacy in the Finale, it feels as if the spirit of life has broken free with Honeck providing swirling and dramatic power. This results in an impact that is both compelling and uplifting.

In the opening Allegro of Richard's Horn Concerto No. 1, the assured playing of Caballero seems to underline the substantial heroic character of the writing. In the enchanting Andante, written in the manner of a Romanza, the soloist’s expressive capabilities shine through, together with the most beautiful tone in the impressively long held notes and phrases. Noticeable in the Finale: Allegro a Scherzo, which requires considerable virtuosity, is Caballero’s rock-solid technique and unerring musicianship. Honeck’s gratifying orchestral accompaniment is hard to fault. William Caballero is in sterling form, giving an extremely enjoyable and stylish performance. It would be remiss not to mention how outstandingly the sound engineers have captured the rich tone of the horn. This outstanding new Caballero recording is one I will revisit again and again.

– MusicWeb International