Kanun, the new album by Didem Basar, is a beautiful blend of Turkish and Western classical music. The dialogue created between the kanun (Turkish zither) and Western classical instruments (flute, percussion, violin and cello) is enriched by Turkish makams (modes), rhythmic cycles and improvisation, in compositions that have a distinctly impressionist approach. After composing and playing with different artists and ensembles for the past 15 years, she creates here a project very much of her own. Born in Istanbul (Turkey) in 1974, Didem started her music education at I.T.U. Turkish Music State Conservatory in 1985. Having completed her kanun training, she continued at the same University’s Composition Department. Her interest in examining the effects of music on society led her to study Sufi Music at Marmara University. She got her master's degree on the musical analysis of Sufi Music in 1999. Since then, she played in many concerts, on album recordings and radio & television programs both in Turkey and abroad.

Founded at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, Switzerland, Philon Trio is a chamber ensemble consisting of David Dias da Silva on clarinet, Adam Newman on viola, and Camilla Köhnken on piano. It’s in the context of a residency at Canada’s Banff Center for Arts and Creativity in Alberta that they recorded the excellent work 8 Pieces, Op. 83 by the German composer Max Bruch. Bruch was 72 in 1910 when he composed Acht Stucke Op. 83 for his son, Max Felix, already a professional clarinetist. Written in a late but conservative Romantic style, far removed from the language of Bruch’s contemporaries Stravinsky, Bartók, and Schoenberg, this work is deep, intense, passionate and intimate.

David John Pike, one of Canada's leading baritone singers, and the great English organist David Briggs present Mahler: Orchestral Songs - The Organ Transcriptions, an astounding new album offering renditions of three cycles of lieder by Gustav Mahler. The recording of these opulent scores on the phenomenal new Eule organ at the Konstantin-Basilika in Germany, has an immediate appeal. The organ's atonal spectrum and the wondrous acoustic of the basilica give a unique and thrilling dimension to the music. About this recording, Briggs wrote: "I was delighted with David Pike asked me to work with him to record these three wonderful Mahler song cycles. There are many pre-existing recordings with piano accompaniment, but the opportunity to register these opulent scores on the phenomenal new Eule organ at the Konstantin-Basilika, taking the music back to it's very core and recasting it anew, was something that had an immediate appeal..."

This new album by the great pianist and composer Alain Lefevre unveils the results of three years of hard work by Jacques Marchand, George Nicholson and Alain Lefevre aimed at restoring Andre Mathieu’s famous Concerto No. 3. Presented as a world premiere in February 2017 in Buffalo, where it was performed by Alain Lefevre and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the renowned JoAnn Falletta, the reconstituted Concerto No. 3 was enthusiastically received by the audience. Recorded at those performances, the album Andre Mathieu: Concerto No. 3 accurately conveys the brilliance of Alain Lefevre and the enthusiasm of the musicians, aware as they were of sharing a highly emotional and one-of-a-kind moment. JoAnn Falletta had previously collaborated with Alain Lefevre in presenting works by Mathieu – in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2013, among other settings. It was in the fall of 1942, 75 years ago, that young Quebec prodigy Andre Mathieu, just 13 years old and at the peak of his glory, began writing his Concerto No. 3, which he would finish the following summer. In 2008, George Nicholson discovered the original score of Andre Mathieu’s Concerto No. 3 written in the Quebec composer’s own hand. The differences, which were noteworthy, between this original score and the Concerto de Quebec, the well-known, modified, version of the work, were the starting point for an enormous undertaking aimed at restoring this masterwork of Mathieu’s. The new album also contains George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 1928, the work translates into music the vivid impressions of an American visiting Paris, strolling the city streets and soaking up the exuberant atmosphere of the French capital.

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After languishing unnoticed for several decades, in 2008 the original autograph score for two pianos of Andre Mathieu's Concerto No. 3 was discovered in Ottawa. Since then, composer and conductor Jacques Marchand has prepared a critical edition that is faithful to the original manuscript. This is its first full recording. It has all the sweeping gestures of its period and a devilishly difficult piano part. Lefèvre’s performance at the keyboard is masterful. He and the BPO perform the work with astonishing authenticity, restoring a fascinating chapter to Canadian music history of that period.

– The Whole Note (Canada)

GALYNIN: Piano Concerto / SHOSTAKOVICH: Chamber Symphony / U

This album explores the cello’s origins and the creative process of new music fascinate Elinor Frey. Her excellent new album, Guided by Voices, consists of six commissions for baroque cello, including three for the five-string cello. Composed by Scott Godin, Linda Catlin Smith, Ken Ueno, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Maxime McKinley and Lisa Streich, these new works played on instruments built in recent years reveal the incredible versatility and remarkable colors of the instruments which have inspired these outstanding composers. Elinor Frey plays both period and modern instruments. Her recent release on the Belgian label Passacaille, Berlin Sonatas with Lorenzo Ghielmi on fortepiano, was nominated for a Juno award for Best Classical Album, Solo & Chamber Music and won the 2015 Québec Opus Prize for Early Music album of the year. Her first Baroque album, La voce del violoncello, was praised for its “careful scholarship and brilliant layering of moods and tempos” (Toronto Star) and for the “honest, reflective beauty of her music making” (Strings). Her performance of this program was the winner of the public prize at the 2013 Utrecht Early Music Festival Fringe.

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About this unusual release Angèle Dubeau writes:

"I have never placed limits on my choice of repertoire, and for this project, I pushed my curiosity to the extreme, toward a world that was completely unknown to me. In my quest to discover the gems of modern music, I listened to many works written and revisited by composers of great talent. When I began my research, video games quickly emerged as a logical avenue of exploration. I have always strived to interest young people in classical music because I feel it has the power to touch everyone. Seeing the passion of young people for video games, I wanted to understand the secrets of their success and to evaluate their musical value. On my most recent recording, I approached movie music without consideration for the images and scenes that inspired it, and I took the same tack in reviewing the gold mine that is video game music. I have assembled here the works that spoke to me, giving no real thought to the adventures they accompany. I immersed myself in the worlds that created these excerpts, and I conveyed my new conception to the musicians of La Pietà, going into great detail to bring forth all of their beauty and power. Above all, I wanted to avoid distorting them, and my intention has been to preserve the form that initially won over video game aficionados while at the same time breathing new life into them. So it is with great pleasure that I invite you to dive into the fantastical world of video games with me." – Angèle Dubeau

As a virtuoso and composer, Vivaldi travelled widely, and it is likely that he encountered nomadic musicians during these excursions. One can also easily imagine how travellers arriving from Eastern European countries would perform their music along the Slavic Canal where Vivaldi taught for many years at an orphanage school. Telemann comments in one of his autobiographies that a skilled composer could gain enough musical inspiration to last a lifetime by listening to gypsy musicians. The obvious closeness to gypsy music of the motifs used in the opening tutti in the third movement of the late concerto RV 375 makes a link even more tempting to surmise. The ragged initial sixteenth notes, the syncopated rhythms, the abrupt dynamic contrasts and the pianissimo passages that appear are almost identical in the Uhrovska collection (1730) of gypsy music.

The Uhrovska collection (named for the town in Slovakia where it was found) is a fascinating document that provides a direct glimpse into the world of gypsy music. The approximately 350 melodies it contains were probably intended to be as comprehensive a collection of gypsy music as possible. Its multi-national character documents the extent to which the gypsies—and their music with them—travelled. Hungarian melodies stand next to Czech songs and the location of Uhrovska's discovery in Slovakia suggests further national influences.

It became obvious to us during this project that the undercurrent of kinship between these two different music styles is too insistent and that the rough and fresh gypsy music must have exerted a great fascination on a composer like Vivaldi. Although cause for speculation remains, we hope that the listener will be inclined to share our enthusiasm for this unusual musical encounter.

-- Matthias Maute

Tracks include 17 anonymous pieces from the Uhrovska collection of gypsy music as well as Vivaldi concertos RV 375, RV 533, RV 104, and P 81.

For as long as I can remember, music has been part of my life. Through music, I have expressed myself and travelled the world; it nourishes me every day. 2017 marks both the 40th year of my musical career and the 20th anniversary of La Pietà. This recording is also my 40th. With so many round and festive numbers, and after so many musical encounters with you, I owed this recording to you. I therefore thought I would listen to the many requests I get to record another album of film music – and in fact go one better and do a double album. There is so much incredible material to choose from, but I found myself drawn to music that is at once beautiful, powerful, and evocative, even when removed from its original context. Some of these melodies are rather sweet; others are more salty. Together, they cover an entire range of emotions. I personally researched this repertoire and selected a variety of fi lm score excerpts with the notion of taking a fresh look at the original versions and adding a new dimension with my violin and the wonderful musicians of La Pietà. I also worked closely with arrangers and composers of this new recording. They have my gratitude and admiration. I also wish to thank the team at Analekta for their trust over the years, their support, and their world-class expertise. But my raison d’être as a musician is my audience, and it is to you that I dedicate this 40th – though I guess since it’s a double, 41st – album. Thank you for listening all these years! Angèle Dubeau, O.C., C.Q., DFA

Two prominent Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra musicians, concertmaster Gwen Hoebig, and associate concertmaster Karl Stobbe, offer an album rich in emotion and virtuosity. Opus 3 sonatas for two violins, by French composer Jean-Marie Leclair, is an amazing work with lilting pastorals, graceful sarabandes and fiery jigs, and is played admirably by Hoebig and Stobbe. Leclair, considered the father of violin in France, lived a tumultuous life that led to his assassination in 1764. His ex-wife and nephew, each with their own motives that could make them credible suspects, did not confess and the murder was never resolved. Recognized as one of Canada’s most outstanding violinists, Gwen Hoebig is a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City. As a student she won every major Canadian music competition, and in 1981 was the top prizewinner at the Munich International Violin Competition. Karl Stobbe has made a name for himself as one of Canada’s most accomplished and diverse violinists. In addition to appearing frequently as a concertmaster in Canada and the United States, Karl regularly performs concerti, recitals, and chamber music, where his concerts have been called “a clinic in the art of violin playing” (Winnipeg Free Press, 2013).

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REVIEW:

The duo have technical mastery to spare, with a bright, clear sound and beautifully clean playing. The first and second violin parts are equally important here, with constant interplay and textural depth, and it’s virtually impossible to tell them apart. The hope that these performances go beyond the technical challenges to give a sense of the man who created them is more than fulfilled in an outstanding CD.

– The Whole Note (Canada)

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Metamorfosi - Baroque Impressions

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Haydn: Op. 33

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