Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Producer(s) Igor Veprintsev Sound Engineer(s) Elena Buneeva Vladimir Kisselev Recorded in: Mosfilm Studio, Moscow May 1996 Recorded in: Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory June 1996

"...a good mixture of Grainger's compositions, recompositions and arrangements of folk-melodies is presented. Most rewarding, perhaps, are those in which strong folk material is made the basis of works that go far beyond the score of the initial tune.
A fine instance is Green Bushes. Butterworth used a variant of this in his The Banks of Green Willow, but with Grainger it serves quite different ends in a well-organized passacaglia. The two movements from his Youthful Suite are remarkable for a teenager without formal training in composition, although it is inevitably the later scores which show the inventiveness of his orchestral writing. Blithe Bells, which takes ''Sheep may safey graze'' as its starting point, is gently iconoclastic, My Robin is beautiful in an individual way and here played with the sort of ''drowsy lilt'' Grainger indicated. And there is excellent work from Moray Welsh in the quietly rhapsodic Youthful Rapture."

-- GRAMOPHONE

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 18-23 & 25-29 August 1997 Sound Engineer(s) Jørn Jacobsen Producer(s) Brian Couzens Executive Claus Due

Classical Music

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 2, 3 March 1990 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Peter Newble (assistant)

Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 15-16 March 1993 Producer(s) Trygg Tryggvason Sound Engineer(s) Trygg Tryggvason

Classical Music

The second CD with Paul Hindemith’s string quartets - superbly interpreted by the renowned Juilliard String Quartet - has just been released. Samuel Rhodes writes in the liner notes of the CD: "My group, the Juilliard String Quartet, has been fascinated by the Hindemith quartets for some time. We are challenged by the depth of the musical content, the overflowing vitality, and the sophistication of compositional technique that exist in these works." German Record Critics' Award for the complete recording of Hindemith's string quartets by the Juilliard String Quartet! The CD was awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics' Award!

Recorded in: Orchestra Hall, Detroit 19-20 January 1991 and 29-31 January 1993 Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Executive) Charles Greenwell Ralph Couzens Leslie B. Dunner (Associate) Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens (Consultant) Dan Dene Robert Shafer

Classical Music

John Cage’s occupation with the sound possibilities of the prepared piano became the dominant tonal feature of his music after he moved to New York in 1942, and for many years it remained his preferred form of expression. Works for Piano and Prepared Piano, Vol. II, is an exquisite collection of dynamic pieces that John Cage wrote before he developed an interest in the I Ching, the ancient Chinese “book of changes,” or in atonality.

Classical Music

Recorded in: Spanish Hall, Prague Castle 22 November 1990 Recorded in: Dvorák Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague 18-19 September 1992 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant) Richard Lee (Assistant)

Recorded in: Blackheath Halls, London 26 May & 22-23 July 1992 (Idyll & Suite for Strings) Recorded in: Smetana Hall, Prague 3-6 June 1990 (Sinfonietta) Recorded in: Spanish Hall, Prague Castle 22 June 1991 (Overture: Jealousy) & 10-11 March 1992 (The Fiddler's Child); 3-4 February 1991 (Suite: The Cunning Little Vixen & Taras Bulba) Producer(s) Nicholas Parker (Idyll & Suite for Strings) Brian Couzens (Sinfonietta & The Fiddler's Child) Ralph Couzens (other works) Sound Engineer(s) Tim Handley & Adrian Hunter (Idyll & Suite for Strings) Ralph Couzens (Sinfonietta) Richard Lee (Sinfonietta) Ben Connellan (other works) Philip Couzens (Assistant) Richard Smoker (Assistant)

With a score derived from star maps - the "Atlas Australis", a book of maps of stars as they can be seen from Australia - and the "I Ching" (64-choice Old-Chinese chance manual) "Etudes Australes" is a quintessentially Cageian work. Grete Sultan is an active recitalist who has performed music both classic and contemporary around the world. "When I wrote the 'Sonatas and Interludes', it was with Maro Amian in mind", Cage said. "David Tudor was in my mind when I wrote the 'Music of Changes'. Without Grete Sultan in mind, her quiet, indomitable strength, her devotion to the piano (which I also love), her discipline, her determination to transform music from the paper into life, I would not have embarked on this project. Now of course I am delighted that I did." Grete Sultan: piano.

Siegfried Mauser, who has already recorded Hindemith's complete works for cello and piano for WERGO with Julius Berger, inaugurates with this CD a complete recording of Hindemith's piano music on five CDs. The booklet reprints an extensive, essential essay by Friederike Becker that provides an introduction to the young Hindemith's aesthetic world and a detailed commentary on the piano works included here. Siegfried Mauser: piano.

"I possess an uncanny passion for popular dance and have times when I dance night after night with bar dames (I only dance modern dances like the foxtrot, Boston, slingan, passo doppio, etc.), purely out of rhythmic enthusiasm and a subconscious sensual drive. Because of myunbelievably earthy, almost even animalistic consciousness, dancing infuses me with a phenomenal creative impulse." (Erwin Schulhoff in a letter to Alban Berg)