This is a wonderful program of works for cello and piano by composers such as Libby Larsen, Samuel Barber, and George Walker.

An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a chance encounter with the past. Propelled by coincidence and imagination, and guided by love's gentle current, acclaimed director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Happy Hour, Asako I & II) returns with an enchanting triptych that spins mundane encounters into a world of infinite possibilities. 850021115579 FLMV5579BR 42305576 27.41 39.95 .17 FILM MOVEMENT BLU-RAY MOVIE DRAMA FOREIGN FILM [DUB OR SUBTITLE] 01/11/2022 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/85/4037185-2773174.jpg 2 1 N WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHOIR & O'DONNELL CHORAL WORKS A diverse selection of works, many written to commemorate state occasions in Westminster Abbey itself, by three composers who demonstrate a particular affinity for choral music. 034571283500 HYP68350.2 42305507 13.58 19.98 .22 HYPERION COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/04/2022 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/88/4037188-2785774.jpg 196 1 N STOKOWSKI,LEOPOLD / ABRAVANEL,MAURICE AMERICAN MASTERPIECES: GROFE - THOMSON - GOULD Abravanel's account highly recommendable.. played with great conviction" [Thomson] "colours glowing, resonantly atmospheric.most enjoyable" [Gould] "so vivid and atmospheric.. astonishing recorded sound. Guaracha irresistibly catchy" [Copland] "orchestral vitality and rhythmic power" (all 3 stars Penguin Guide)

Engage, Exchange, Connect. That is what this young American piano trio is all about, on stage as well as on this album, it's very first. Experience the group at it's revelatory best in these idiomatic and fresh interpretations of early-twentieth-century American piano trios, by Foote, Korngold and Bernstein. As reported by WXQR radio, "Neave is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." Praised for their "heart-on-sleeve performances" (Classical New Jersey), the Neave Trio has been described as "A consummate ensemble" (Palm Beach Daily News), "A revelation" (San Diego Story), and "A brilliant trio..." (MusicWeb International), one that has "exceeded the gold standard and moved on to platinum" (Fanfare).

The American Muscle Car series relives that incredible time when Detroit produced the most outrageous cars ever to hit the street. From the car that started it all, the 1964 Pontiac GTO, experience the glory days of power and speed through the stories of those who lived and breathed it. Includes Seasons 1-3 on 6 discs.

Anger produces menacing sounds. But the voice of tenderness is softer,' wrote French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and much the same could be said of the diverse music on this second volume of American percussion music. It ranges from Elliott Carter'

Scored for as few as three marimbas or as many as a hundred percussion instruments plus celesta, harp and piano, these five striking works by contemporary American composers abound in fascinating rhythms, ingenious combinations and juxtapositions.

“American Music for Violin and Horn” presents 19 tracks of world-premiere recordings with music by 12 American composers. A varied program which includes original and transcribed works for violin and horn by David Amram, Vernon Duke, José Serebrier, Duke Ellington, Sean Hickey, Rebecca Clarke, Phillip Ramey, Francine Trester and several others, this album also features poetry by Emily Dickinson and Francine Trester, recited by the performers Elmira Darvarova (violin) and Howard Wall (horn). Several of the original works for violin and horn were written for these two performers (new compositions by David Amram, José Serebrier, Sean Hickey, Phillip Ramey, Francine Trester), while other works were transcribed by the performers as duets for their two instruments (“Black Beauty” by Duke Ellington, “Two Pieces” by Rebecca Clarke, “Etude” by Vernon Duke, “Calliope” & “Gramophone” by Jan Bach, two Bop-Duets by Bugs Bower, and other arrangements). Of note is Scott Dunn’s arrangement of Vernon Duke’s iconic standard “April in Paris”, in a version for violin and horn. All 19 tracks on this album are offered in their world-premiere recordings. Violinist Elmira Darvarova (first and only woman-concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and hornist Howard Wall (a New York Philharmonic member, formerly with The Philadelphia Orchestra) offer splendid interpretations.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Karl Krueger.

JoAnn Falletta conducts the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic in works by four extraordinary mid-20th-century American composers who helped shape the country’s musical destiny: Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Paul Creston and Ulysses Kay. Includes two world premiere recordings – Paul Creston's Saxophone Concerto and Ulysses Kay’s poignant and elegiac Pietà.

REVIEW:

As I have noted in connection with other collections of contemporary music, the problem with programs such as this is that they tend to consist of hits and misses--that is, works of unequal quality or composed in styles that won't appeal similarly to most listeners. This release is an exception, in that each piece is well worth getting to know, and even if you don't like everything, chances are you'll come away satisfied. Barbara Kolb's All in Good Time is a rhythmic study almost devoid of melody, but it's harmonically interesting and brilliantly scored. It makes a fun, bubbly curtain-raiser. Aaron Jay Kernis' Sarabande in Memoriam began life as a string quartet and was enlarged for string orchestra as yet another post-9/11 tribute. Happily, however, the work predates that tragic day by several years, and so neither Kernis' sincerity nor his taste are in question. It's a beautiful work given a grave, intense performance under Carlos Kalmar's sympathetic baton.

Michael Hersch's Ashes of Memory is my favorite work on the disc. It has memorable tunes (its two movements are related), really solid symphonic scoring with impressive, powerful climaxes that at the same time never sound as if they're straining for effect, and an impressively dark, quietly gripping conclusion. The title doesn't exactly help in any meaningful way, but hey, who cares? It's terrific stuff. John Corigliano's Midsummer Fanfare, composed for the Grant Park Orchestra in 2004, presents all of its composer's sonic brilliance and skillful use of avant-garde effects in a way that beguiles rather than offends the ear. Once again, the performance is first rate, no doubt helped by the players' familiarity with the work. So many modern music collections are simply sight-reading exercises, and it shows.

Many listeners will consider John Harbison's Partita for Orchestra to be the program's major work. I have to confess, I don't especially like Harbison's music. I find its dissonant, quasi-tonal style monochromatic, like a study in grey. He often reminds me of an updated William Schuman: a composer with a strong sense of gesture but lacking in thematic memorability. That said, I enjoyed the Partita much more than previous experience suggested I would. It has great variety among its movements, some genuinely memorable ideas, and that rarest of qualities, a discernible sense of humor. I think it's one of the finest things Harbison has done, though only here does the orchestra, especially the strings in the rhythmically tricky final Courante-Gigue, sound a touch stressed. In sum, this collection (as so often with this label) works very well as a diverse program very well-suited to continuous listening, and the engineering is about as good as it gets. Terrific! [7/25/2006]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

American Originals: 1918 is the newest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers, Americana artist Pokey LaFarge, and tap dancer Robyn Watson. The follow-up to the Pops’ innovative American Originals album, American Originals: 1918 reimagines songs first brought to life in the first third of the 20th century as well as American popular standards from World War I and some of the first well-known tunes from the advent of jazz. The 95th Cincinnati Pops album includes fresh new renditions of “Over There,” “God Bless America,” “Swing Along,” “Memphis Blues,” “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm,” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” among many other classic tunes. In addition, the collection includes the world premiere of Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer’s “In the Cause of the Free,” commissioned by the Pops to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I.

American Originals is the latest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including Rosanne Cash, Dom Flemons, Over the Rhine, Joe Henry, Aoife O'Donovan and the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. The first-ever Cincinnati Pops album to be recorded live in concert, American Originals breathes new life into the first chapter of the Great American Songbook and the music of Stephen Foster. The 94th Cincinnati Pops album includes inspiring new renditions of My Old Kentucky Home, O Susannah, Camptown Races, Aura Lee, Slumber My Darling, Hard Times, and Beautiful Dreamer, among other classic tunes. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, The fresh arrangements and unique talents who performed them set each in a new light.

Howlin' Wolf once said of Tail Dragger, "One day this boy gonna take my place" - and this is quite evident on this smokin' album feat. Johnny B. Moore, Rockin' Johnny, Billy Branch, Eddie Shaw & Jimmy Dawkins.

American Percussion Works is a rare collection of seldom heard works each with specific rules or themes as a basis for the compositions. In John Cage’s First Construction the principle is based on the figure 16. Alberto Ginastera’s work Cantata para America Magica, uses pre-Columbian texts based on the conditions of human life, with war, natural phenomena, daybreak, night and love. Lou Harrison mixes non-European forms which ‘follow the pattern of having a single melodic part accompanied (or enhanced) by rhythmic percussion’ in his Koncherto. Varese’s Ionisation also enters a new land being his first solely percussive work where ‘he finds a new grammar for the language of music.’

BARBER Piano Concerto. COPLAND Piano Concerto. GERSHWIN Piano Concerto • Xiayin Wang (pn); Peter Oundjian, cond; Royal Scottish Natl O • CHANDOS 5128 (SACD: 75:44)


Let’s get this out of the way: this combination of a Chinese pianist, Canadian conductor, and Scottish orchestra delivers some of the most vibrant and stylish takes on these American piano concertos you are likely to hear anywhere. The soloist, Xiayin Wang, delivers the goods with a winning combination of taste and dazzling technique. She resists the temptation to showboat; she has the chops to make the Gershwin a virtuoso blowout, but instead respects, and trusts, the integrity of the score. As someone who still believes that there is such a thing as a nationalistic style in classical music performance, I am going to risk describing Wang as a member of the contemporary Chinese school of pianism, characterized by phenomenal technique anchored by a rock-solid rhythmic control, bright tone, and a big sound that is related to the immense influence of Russian teachers on Chinese pedagogy. The obvious exponents of such a “school” include Lang Lang, Yundi Li, and Yuja Wang.


This approach is ideal for much of the music on this disc. It even brightens up the rather leaden Barber Concerto, which is usually heard in a more darkly brazen manner. Her way with the Copland (a fine early work by the American master that is inexplicably underplayed), which exhibits a delightfully jazzy bent by the composer, and the beloved Gershwin, is utterly captivating and completely idiomatic.


Peter Oundjian, who I have enjoyed hearing in live performance a number of times, seems to me to be an unappreciated conductor. He has an excellent ear for balance and color, but is not an especially flashy musician, which, in the world of high-octane orchestral performance, does not take one to the front of the public stage. This recording reminds me why I admire him; he and his soloist find natural, flowing tempos, excellent clarity of texture, and attractive highlighting of the fine soloists in this world-class ensemble. Add the usual fine engineering from Chandos and you have yourselves a winner of a release.


FANFARE: Peter Burwasser

Dick van Gasteren is the founder-conductor of the Ciconia Consort, a chamber orchestra based in The Hague since 2012. To mark 400 years since the Pilgrim Fathers left the Netherlands for America, he devised this programme of music from the first half of the 20th century, reflecting the particular character of ‘New World’ music as well as its roots in European romanticism. The result is a collection unique on album, in beautifully sprung new recordings full of vitality and sympathy. Arthur Foote (1853-1937) numbered among the first generation of classical composers to be educated primarily in the US, and in the arching phrases, transparent textures and rich harmonies of his E major can be heard the Romantic heritage of Brahms and Wagner which exercised a dominant influence over American conservatoires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before pioneers such as Ives and Antheil loosed the cultural bonds between the two continents. The Hymn is the second of ‘A Set of Three Short Pieces for String Orchestra’ written by Ives in 1904: way ahead of its time, we might now think (and composed three years before Foote’s Suite), in its probing harmony which ventures deep into and even beyond the expressionist world of Arnold Schoenberg, while retaining a solemn, devotional quality in the slow-moving textures and the passionate viola melody at its heart. In contrast to the darkness and uncertainty of Ives’s Hymn, the Shaker music quoted by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring radiates quiet content and security. The Ciconia Consort are joined here by Dutch colleagues to present the final version of Copland’s ballet, originally written in 1944 to a commission by Martha Graham for a piece with a distinctively American theme.

REVIEW:

Least known of the composers represented on this attractive anthology is probably Arthur Foote, yet he was a significant figure in the development of American classical music. His Suite is an attractive work, in three movements, the last a fugue.

Antheil can be a forbidding composer, but in later years his work softened, as in this delightful, romantic three-movement Serenade. One senses a mellowness and a gift for melody, and, as a whole, it is thoroughly worth exploring: a little charmer.

For me, any Ives is a treat, and the three-minute Hymn is a lovely little piece in his earlier, less experimental style, warm and appealing. Beginning in the double bass, slightly grimly, it opens into broader and generous writing with a sustained nobility.

The best-known work is the Suite from Appalachian Spring, in the original form for 13 instruments. One of the advantages of this reduction, compared with the lusher suite for full orchestra, is that it brings out the angularity of much of the writing. Fine as the new recording is, Copland does give us the complete ballet, which is only 8 minutes longer than the suite, and could have been fitted on this CD.

The Ciconia Consort, resident at the Hague, are a fine ensemble, and this collection will not disappoint.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

The piano duo and twin sisters, Christina and Michelle Naughton, pay tribute to their homeland with the album 'American Postcard'. It offers music by four US composers: John Adams, Aaron Copland, Conlan Nancarrow and Paul Schoenfield. As the sisters explain, 'These pieces show the diversity and variety of American music, but one thing that ties them together is an exuberance that, to us, feels deeply American.'

Classical Music

American Psalmody of the 20th Century - This release includes 23 works from the very best American 20th century composers, including Charles Loeffler, Virgil Thomson, Kent Newbury, Samuel Adler, Charles Ives, and more. This three disc set is a rich treasury of music, which presents a varied program, making this a legacy which will no doubt preserve the heritage of American sacred choral music. Gloriae Dei Cantores is an internationally recognized choir with more than forty members who range in age from seventeen to seventy. The group, directed by Richard K. Pugsley, is devoted to preserving great choral music from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries. Their singing is startlingly superb wonderfully warm, yet clear sonorities. They consistently deliver levels of emotional intensity and aching spirituality. This is some of the finest, most inspiring American choral singing you will hear this year. (American Record Guide)

By the Rivers of Babylon - Following on the success of Make His Praise Glorious, Gloriae Dei Cantores continued a distinguished series of recordings dedicated to psalm settings by American composers. By the Rivers of Babylon shows a wide range of style and includes several works recorded for the first time. From the lush romanticism of the setting of Psalm 137 by Charles Loeffler (composed in 1901) to the adventurous setting of de Profundis by Arnold Schoenberg (composed in 1950), Gloriae Dei Cantores explores the great variety of psalm settings by American composers.

The Lord Is My Shepherd - The Lord Is My Shepherd is the third volume in the American Psalmody series, a distinguished series devoted to musical interpretations of the psalms by American composers. Of a previous recording in this series, Fanfare Magazine raved, "This interesting collection of sacred music, American style, can hardly miss: God Himself seems to have placed His seal of approval on it."

Hailed by The Times for its ‘exhilarating performances’, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. The Collective operates with a flexible roster which features many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser-known gems of the repertoire.

This ethos is clear in their repertoire selection for this their début recording. The Piano Quintet is one of Amy Beach’s better-known works, which the KCC collectively fell in love with during a residency at the Cheltenham festival. Composed in 1907, the work reflects the strong influence of the music of Brahms. Florence Price faced ‘two handicaps – those of sex and race’, and much of her music remained unpublished at the time of her death. Additionally, a significant quantity of her manuscripts had disappeared without trace. It was not until 2009 that a cache of them (including two lost symphonies) was discovered by property developers in the attic of an abandoned house in Illinois – including the score for the Piano Quintet in A minor that receives its world première recording here. Although characteristically conservative in its late-romantic idiom, the piece celebrates Price’s African American heritage with echoes of spirituals and hymns, and the popular juba stomping dance rooted in the slave plantations of the Deep South. Between these two piano quintets sits Samuel Barber’s early Dover Beach, a setting of Matthew Arnold’s famous poem that has remained one of the best-known works in the voice-and-quartet repertoire.

REVIEW:

I’d be delighted to listen to more Beach and Price performed with this courage, erudition, and aplomb, and keenly anticipate the Collective’s next offering.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, July 2021)

2019 release. Sporting a truly international career, Conrad has appeared as soloist in the United States with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and the Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, and San Francisco Symphonies, among others. He has made multiple tours of Europe, giving solo recitals in Paris, London, Munich, Berlin, and Verbier, and performed with orchestras in Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Moscow, and Singapore. Conrad currently attends the Columbia University/Juilliard School joint degree program and studies piano with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Choong Mo Kang at Juilliard. He studies composition with Professor Christopher Theofanidis of Yale University, and studied violin with Ms. Catherine Cho for five years at Juilliard's Pre-College Division.

"Yolanda Kondonassis’ enthusiasm for her instrument is infectious," says Jennifer Higdon when describing working with her to create a new harp concerto. This world premiere recording by Yolanda Kondonaiss with Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is a showcase for the grandeur of the harp through this beautiful composition by Jennifer Higdon. The harp as well as the orchestra is challenged with virtuosic and beautiful moments. The recording continues with the triumphant First Symphony of Samuel Barber, and rounds out with "Rapture" by Patrick Harlin described as being similar to extreme emotional states, musical elements in this piece start subtly and are magnified to their extremes, echoing throughout as inspired by the incredible experience of ultra-caving.

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REVIEW:

On the world premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon's mercurial Harp Concerto, the crystalline precision of Yolanda Kondonassis's harp, the rhythmic buoyancy of Stare's conducting, and the cohesion of the orchestra achieve a kind of mystical alchemy. Barber's Symphony No. 1 receives a revelatory performance, uncovering a wild and unfettered side to the composer's lyrical neo-Romanticism.

– Rochester City News (Daniel J. Kushner)

The late 17th and early 18th centuries were the Golden Age of the Recorder. Played by amateurs and professionals and admire by musical connoisseurs, the recorder was everywhere. From Italy to England, the greatest composers of the day were writing hundreds of masterworks to meet the public's demand! Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, a scrappy group of colonists were carving a new nation out of the wilderness... But where were the recorders? It is one of the great ironies of the recorder's long history, that despite being ubiquitous in nearly every American public music school program, few American composers ever explored writing for it. In order to set this egregious state of affairs to right, Michala Petri, the first Lady of the Recorder, invited four American composers to make their own discovery of just what an Old World Recorder can do! For the newest installment of her ground-breaking Concerto Project, four works have been specially commissioned to showcase the sound of the modern recorder, including the late Steven Stucky's thoroughly contemporary Etudes, Roberto Sierra's Latin-tinged Prelude, Habanera and Perpetual Motion, Harpsichord virtuoso Antony Newman's Neo-Baroque Concerto for recorder, harpsichord & strings, and Sean Hickey's boldly-wrought A Pacifying Weapon.

AMERICAN RHAPSODY

This selection of works by Gottschalk, Barber, Wild and Gershwin give vivid insights into the diversity of American music written during a period spanning almost two centuries, a diversity shaped by a uniquely American musical idiom. The young Georgian-German pianist Catherine Gordeladze’s has established herself as one of the most remarkable and versatile musicians of her generation. “…phenomenal technique, perfect memory, distinctive creativity.” - Frankfurter Rundschau

Violinist Augustin Hadelich embarks on an American Road Trip, travelling the musical highways and by ways of his adoptive homeland in the company of pianist Orion Weiss. The duo perform works by a melting pot of American composers, writing in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and drawing on a diversity of idioms, influences and inspirations... from European Romanticism to revivalist hymns; from blues and jazz to bluegrass; from the banjo and ukulele to Jimi Hendrix's guitar, and from a little Mexican star to exquisite Japanese carvings. Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and John Adams take their place beside Amy Beach, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Eddie South, Howdy Forrester, Manuel M. Ponce and - flying the flag for today's composers along with Adams - Daniel Bernard Roumain and Stephen Hartke. Augustin Hadelich, born in Italy to German parents, moved to the USA at the age of 19 to study at New York's Juilliard School and became an American citizen in 2014. In the words of The Strad magazine, "Hadelich's playing brings together the best qualities of both American and European playing: passion, Polish and coherence, but also thoughtfulness, expressivity and nuance."