The two new choral pieces in this fifth volume of works by Elisabetta Brusa offer a revealing look at her response to her own spirituality. The Stabat Mater was written as a trial for the Requiem and is the more expressively brusque work. Both works, heard here in world premiere recordings, follow traditional models, with the Requiem evoking an archaic atmosphere with luminous elements and transcendent effects. Previous volumes of Brusa's music can be heard on 8.574263 (Vol. 4), 8.573437 (Vol. 3), 8.555267 (Vol. 2) and 8.555266 (Vol. 1).

FLORENCE B. PRICE. A composer advocates for the exchange of different traditions and cultures. Florence B. Price's works combine a fascinating spectrum of intense emotion, buoyant lightness, and playful charm, which captivated me from the very first moment. In particular, her songs, which bear witness to great sensitivity and melodic ingenuity, have made a lasting impression on me in terms of their expressiveness and complexity. However, it is not only her music that touches me; I also feel profoundly moved by her life story. Florence B. Price was a single mother of two children after separating from her husband. Tragically, she had to cope with the loss of one of her children at an early age-a fate that is sure to have shaped her life profoundly. As an African-American artist, she also had to assert herself in an era characterised by deep-seated racism, and in a world where women in classical music rarely found recognition. Astonishingly, her works have not yet been fully published or featured in the standard repertoire. Her music, culturally rich, full of history, and brimming with emotion, deserves to be elevated to it's rightful rank due to it's artistic quality. The apparent lack of widespread recognition of Price's oeuvre cannot be explained by a lack of compositional quality, but rather by socio-historical circumstances that marginalised artists like her. It is very surprising that her works have not yet been published in their entirety...(Excerpt from the liner notes by Sascha EL Mouissi)

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Fabio Luisi release a landmark live recording of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, captured over several concerts at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas in 2024. Representing a rare undertaking for an American orchestra, this historic project is released in 2026, during the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's 125th anniversary season, which falls 150 years after the first performance of the complete "Ring" cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Recorded by GRAMMY winning producer Dirk Sobotka, it launches a new partnership between Delos and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. "The Ring cycle is one of the deepest and most complex musical works ever written. Across the entirety of the story, you are transformed at the end," says Maestro Luisi. Issued worldwide by Delos both digitally and as a 13CD box set, this release marks a major addition to the recorded legacy of Wagner's epic masterpiece; a significant achievement for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the history of American orchestras.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Corelli: Concerti grossi, Op. 6

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Classical Music

REVIEW:

The various soloists are a delight to listen to, and handle both powerful and sensitive passages with considerable skill. The orchestras generally play well under their individual conductors but in certain passages the horns/trombones are insecure. The background notes are more than adequate though more could have been said about the works themselves. Something should be said about the new style slim double jewel case used by Vox. The internal leaf is poorly designed and the clips, too weak to hold the discs, break off in transit. (Why redesign when an robust version exists, one wonders?)

The analogue recordings of the 70s are clear with no background noise that usually shows up in recordings of this period. The recording of the Pierné work (from 1978) is disappointing; the acoustics are particularly dry and the higher frequencies are lost. These recordings, like all previous Vox concertos reviewed, are pleasantly balanced for piano. The recording venues are not given in the notes.

-- MusicWeb International (Raymond Walker, August 2001)

Sony Masterworks Broadway is pleased to announce the release of Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). The best reviewed show in West End history, with 56 five-star reviews!, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical is directed by 2023 Olivier Award nominee Robert Hastie. With book, music and lyrics by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts, the album is produced by Grammy Award winning and Tony, Emmy, Olivier award nominated Steve Sidwell.

Track Listing
1. Battle Cry of Freedom, for voice, chorus & keyboard, The
2. Star-Spangled Banner, The (National Anthem, USA), for orchestra & voice/chorus, ad lib
3. Uncle Sam's Farm
4. Vaillance Polka Militaire
5. Drums and Trumpets
6. Weeping, Sad and Lonely, for voice & keyboard
7. Columbian Quadrilles, The
8. Girl I Left Behind Me, folk song, The
9. Beauregard's Retreat From Shiloh, for narrator, chorus & piano
10. We Are Coming, Father Abraham for voice & piano
11. Kingdom Coming
12. Grafted into the Army
13. Picture on the Wall, The
14. Daniel Webster's Funeral March
15. Tenting On the Old Campground
16. Battle Hymn of the Republic, The ("Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," words by Julia Ward Howe; music attributed to Steffe)

D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (vocals), James H. Johnston (violin), Patrick G. Jordan (viola), Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo), Steven Jackson (clarinet), Henry Peyrebrune (acoustic bass).

Recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, New York in November and December, 1993. Includes liner notes by Kevin M'Dermott.

On UNION & LIBERTY!, D.C. Hall's New Concert & Quadrille Band performs Northern popular music of the Civil War era on period instruments.

D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band: Kevin M'Dermott (tenor); James H. Johnston (violin); Henry Peyrebrune (bass violin); Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute); Steven Jackson (clarinet).
Personnel: Patrick G. Jordan (viola); Peter H. Bloom (flute, piccolo); Kevin M'Dermott (tenor saxophone).

Liner Note Author: Kevin M'Dermott.

Recording information: Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, NY (11/1993-12/1993).

Editors: Kevin M'Dermott; Jonathan Marcus.

Arrangers: Kevin M'Dermott; Patrick G. Jordan; Peter H. Bloom; Moore.

This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 265.
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

Piano Sonatas 27,28,29 "Hammerklavier," 30,31,32. Alfred Brendel concludes his famous recordings of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas.

14.99

REVIEWS:
Fanfare (5-6/98, p.173) - "The Swede Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966) is one of those undemonstrative composers whose quiet sobriety might lead the inattentive to pass him by unwittingly. But in his understated way Nystroem is a master, and BIS's ongoing series of recordings with Paavo Järvi in Malmö is something that deserves enthusiastic support..."
BBC Music (3/98, p.59) - Performance: 4 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...the Malmö Symphony Orchestra reveals its greatest strength in a richness of string tone....Paavo Järvi keep[s] tight control on the music's sometimes diffuse dramatic flow..."

György Sándor Plays Bartók

Classical Music

One of the finest Christmas recordings ever made, this 1994 production by the Baltimore Consort makes a welcome return (complete with a new cover) along with the revival of the Dorian label. Glowing with the high, clear soprano of Custer LaRue and brimming with versatile, virtuoso instrumental work by Mary Anne Ballard (viols, rebec), Mark Cudek (cittern, Baroque guitar, viols, bandora), Larry Lipkis (viol, recorder, gemshorn), Ronn McFarlane (lute), Chris Norman (wooden flutes, pennywhistle), and Webb Wiggins (organ), this program literally lives up to the promise of its title.

Many of these 20 tunes/carols/dances are among the most familiar Christmas standards--Ding dong merrily on high; Greensleeves; Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen; In dulci jubilo; The Cherry Tree Carol; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day--presented in both vocal/instrumental and strictly instrumental arrangements. But whatever the tune, and however it's presented, the result is invariably engaging, artful, classy, and infinitely repeatable, which means it's perfect for multiple repetitions, whether at Christmas or any other time of year. Chris Norman's flute improvisation on "Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen" is a classic, and Custer LaRue's rendition of the beautiful "Rorate coeli desuper" is not to be missed. In fact, that last instruction applies to this entire disc. If you're a Christmas music fan (and who isn't?) and you don't already own this CD, you know what you have to do.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

SIBELIUS, J.: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 (Helsinki Philharmonic

Conductor Daniel Barenboim presents: Complete iconic life work of Wagner's Operas in a 34 CD Box set. Complete with track listing and synopsis for each opera, with web links for the libretto of each opera.

For the last four years, IGOR LEVIT’s name has been the first to be mentioned whenever there has been talk of the most exciting of the younger generation of pianists. What is so surprising about Levit is not only the maturity of his interpretations, but his boundless appetite for new repertoire of works as difficult and demanding as possible. Following his landmark recording, Beethoven – The Late Piano Sonatas, for which he has won international acclaim, Levit is again tackling another complex and difficult major work, J.S. Bach’s six partitas. Written between 1726 and 1730, the partitas BWV 825-830 are considered one of Bach’s masterpieces and are among the most difficult and challenging works for piano. Igor has studied Bach’s work extensively and has reached a deep understanding of the partitas allowing him to play them with such emotionality and musical “thirst” that this recording will be a benchmark for all other pianists.

Igor Levit has received international acclaim since he appeared as the youngest artist ever at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2005, where he won four awards. Born in Russia, Levit moved to Germany with his family at the age of eight. He is a graduate of the Hochschule fur Musik in Hannover, where he achieved the highest grades in the academy’s history.

The young Swiss violinist David Nebel recorded under the direction of Kristjan Järvi exceptional works by two of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century: The rarely recorded Violin Concerto No.1 by American minimalist composer Philip Glass and Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical Violin Concerto in D.

When Glass (*1937) was a boy, the first instrument of his own that he had was a violin. However, Glass did not write his Violin Concerto No. 1 until his fiftieth year. It was his very first large-scale orchestral work, premiered in New York City on 5 April 1987. Glass composed the work for his father Ben Glass, as a piece that he thought his father might have liked had he lived to be able to hear it. The piece quickly became very popular with its exclamatory and exciting first movement, a sumptuous and brilliantly patient second movement and a thrilling third movement with perhaps the most captivating coda that Glass has ever written.

The Violin Concerto in D with four movements instead of the usual three was composed in Stravinsky’s (1882–1971) Neoclassical period in 1931. In this work Stravinsky explored the forms of Baroque music, especially the concerto grosso principle, and gave solo passages to the orchestral musicians in many places, where individual instruments are involved in charming dialogues with the solo violin.

Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto was recorded with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, and Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Embracing the whole world, Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is a vast fresco in which nature, man and the spiritual interact on a cosmic scale. Directing the combined forces of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus and Tiffin Boys' Choir, and with the movingly expressive voice of Hanna Hipp, Vasily Petrenko reveals all the richness of this visionary peak of Post-Romanticism.