Bach: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

The new album Schubert: Explorations by pianist Mathieu Gaudet is the fourth volume in his wonderful collection The Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano of the great German composer Franz Schubert. Between his early “post-Mozartean” sonatas and late masterpieces of symphonic proportions, Schubert spent the years 1817 and 1818 exploring the possibilities of the piano sonata, through unusual harmonic relationships, intensive use of trills, heightened virtuosity, lengthy chord repetitions and extreme dynamic contrasts. We find on the album two works from this early period as well as two others from 1823-24 which are true jewels that contain all the essence of his genius.

The excellent new album Intimate Impressions for Two Guitars by the duo Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan consists of music originally written for piano, harp, or two guitars by leading 20th century composers who spent the bulk of their careers working in Paris, such as Ravel, Debussy, Mompou, Tailleferre, and Jolivet. The arrangements, the majority of which are by the Cicchillitti/Cowan duo, eloquently illustrate that the tone colors, intimacy, and pure lyricism of the composers’ styles are ideally suited to the guitar, and that the harmonic language translates beautifully to a guitar duo. Simply captivating!

REVIEW:

New additions to the guitar duo repertoire: 20th Century French works arranged for two guitars, artistically performed by Canadian guitarists who clearly have command of transcription skills, and also a unified delivery of the music in all its technical complexity and musical depth. Drew Henderson and Michael Kolk’s arrangement of the `Prelude’ from Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, the only arrangement in the program not by the duo, is nothing short of stellar in concept and execution. There follows the almost obligatory contemporary work on the program, Serenade by Andre Jolivet. Even though it was written for and premiered by Presti & Lagoya, an inspiring duo from the mid-1900s not known for avante-garde musical excursions, it disrupts the flow in this otherwise delightful program of warm and uplifting music. Liner notes by Richard Turp are well written and interesting, leaving the listener with a fairly complete picture of the music.

-- American Record Guide

Classical Music

I hope that Anton Kuerti's 2003 remakes of Beethoven's last three sonatas will spur him on to re-record the other 29, for these new versions are infinitely superior to his 1974/75 recordings. The pianist remains thoroughly devoted to microscopic detail and grand clarification, but his compulsive drive and raspy surface style have considerably mellowed, while his soft playing has gained body and luminescence. To sample Kuerti's newly found serenity and flow in this music, listen to his spacious parsing of Op. 109's rhapsodic introductory movement and to his patiently unfolding trills in that sonata's third movement variations and in Op. 111's Arietta, and notice how he builds Op. 110's long-lined Adagio ma non troppo from the bottom up. His rubatos in the latter sonata's Fugue no longer seem artificially tacked on but rather are organically integrated into the music's visionary path. His basic measured tempos for Op. 111, once static and fussy, now emerge as all of one piece. It goes without saying that these works are amply served via recordings from Schnabel to Serkin and Kempff to Kempf, with Hungerford, Goode, Pollini, and Richter for good measure. To this august roster we easily can add the veteran Kuerti. [4/6/2004] --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The Azrieli Music Prizes were established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation to offer opportunities for the creation, performance and celebration of high quality new Jewish music. New works by composer Brian Current, winner of the 2016 Azrieli Commission, and composer Wlad Marhulets, winner of the 2016 Azrieli Prize, are featured on this new album. In addition to those, the album also features Song of Songs, for soprano and orchestra by Lukas Foss, an important work of Jewish music premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1947. Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2018, The Czech National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) has gained a position among Europe’s top symphonic ensembles. In the studio, the orchestra has worked on recordings for Plácido Domingo and for Ennio Morricone’s Oscar-winning score to director Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight.

Classical Music

About the Gryphon Trio, the Los Angeles Times wrote "This is a piano trio that plays with strength and unanimity... big, bold, almost orchestral performances." Winner of two Juno prizes, the trio now presents it's excellent new album, Immortal and Beloved. Two of the three works heard on this recording - the "Archduke" Trio, Op. 97 (1811) and An die ferne Geliebte ("To the distant beloved"), Op. 98 (1816) - are composed by Beethoven. The third work, Letters to the Immortal Beloved (2012) by Canadian composer James K. Wright, is inspired by three passionate love letters written by Beethoven during the summer of 1812. With the participation of the reputed baritone singer David John Pike, this is a fascinating release.

Following her highly acclaimed initial recordings Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12 & 13 (2014) and J. S. Bach: Inventions & Sinfonies, BWV 772-801 (2017), pianist Karin Kei Nagano now presents an inspired new album, Reincarnation: Schubert - Messiaen. “The two pieces on this album, both part of larger circular anthologies, convey the cyclical notion of end and of beginning: reincarnation. While Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat represents a bittersweet and painful negotiation with death in a moment where his life is fading, Messiaen’s Première communion de la Vierge celebrates the overwhelming joy of new life and birth. In bringing together Schubert and Messiaen, this album intends to bring to light those profound and fundamental human sentiments that I hope the listener can identify with, sentiments that we, as a society, can find solace in.” - Karin Kei Nagano

New Jewish Music, Vol. 3 - Azrieli Music Prizes features the world premiere recordings of works by composer Keiko Devaux, 2020 Laureate of The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music, and composer Yotam Haber, 2020 Laureate, The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music. The album also features works by Yitzhak Yedid, 2020 Laureate, the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music and composer Pierre Mercure. These wonderful works are performed by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne under the direction of Lorraine Vaillancourt, with soloists Sharon Azrieli and Krisztina Szab�. The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne is a chamber orchestra of 15 musicians that performs in Quebec, Canada and internationally. Lorraine Vaillancourt is it's founder and musical director and Normand Forget, artistic director.

La Grazia Delle Donne is a collection of wonderful works by female composers of the Baroque era who have been excluded and forgotten, like so many other musicians, from music history courses. The Ensemble La Cigale, under the direction of Madeleine Owen, specializes in music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras on period instruments. The group presents original programs that blend formal and popular styles. For this project, the ensemble invited soprano Myriam Leblanc, who is recognized for her warm, supple voice and pure timbre. "A voice of rare beauty." - La Presse

All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.
Includes work(s) for piano by André Mathieu. Ensemble: Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Matthias Bamert. Soloist: Alain Lefevre.

Classical Music

Camille Saint-Saëns epitomizes French music of the 19th century. Versatile and prolific, he contributed voluminously to every genre of French musical literature and influenced musical life in France as composer, teacher, pianist, organist, conductor, critic, chronicler, poet, and playwright. Saint- Saëns qualified as the most “complete” musician of his time according to his devoted friend and student Gabriel Fauré. His creative work, of astonishing range, provides a rich source of aesthetic and historical interest, crucial for an understanding of the music and culture of this era. He was so honored and acclaimed both at home and abroad that he became a legend during his lifetime. The concerto provided Saint-Saëns the opportunity to display technical virtuosity as well as to express musical ideas. He explained: “It is virtuosity itself I mean to defend. It is the source of color in music. It gives wings to the artist to help him escape from the prosaic and commonplace.

Andrew Wan is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. In 2008, he was named concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, making him one of the youngest leaders of a major symphony. His relationship with the OSM began with performances of Elgar’s Violin Concerto, which were hailed as one of the top two musical moments of 2007 by La Presse.

Themes of migration and crossing borders are as hot topics today as they ever were. This recording explores two works written in the so-called “New World” by composers from the “Old World.” Ana Sokolovic left war-torn Yugoslavia for a new home in Montréal, and her piece 'Golden slumbers kiss your eyes…' looks back to European lullabies. Antonín Dvorák wrote his famous symphony when he lived in North America, and there is still discussion about how much of the “New” and “Old” Worlds are to be found in it. It was taken to the moon, presumably because it contains some of the most recognizable and moving music ever written, and Neil Armstrong considered that the next “New World.” Inspiring!

Classical Music

Tafelmusik's recording of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth with conductor Bruno Weil a few years ago was an Earth-moving revelation, thanks to its rhythmic liveliness. The Seventh and Eighth are equally beautiful, but Tafelmusik's excellent interpretations are no longer sensibility-altering. Filled out to double its normal size, the orchestra remains agile and Weil creates a thrilling sense of underlying momentum in the music. The recording, made in George Weston Hall, glows. A DVD with rehearsal footage and interviews with Weil and Tafelmusik boss Jeanne Lamon is included.

-- Toronto Star

This album is the recording of the inaugural concert of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal. For grandeur, majesty and sheer tonal opulence, few symphonies can stand beside the Third Symphony of Saint-Saëns. The prominent contribution from the organ, the “King of Instruments,” provides an additional measure of imposing sonority to the work.

The entire symphony is based on the principle of continual transformation of a “motto” theme. This theme makes its first full appearance in the restless series of short detached notes in the violins, following the slow, mysterious introduction. The attentive ear will pick out this theme in its rhythmic and coloristic metamorphoses throughout the symphony – at varying times flowing and lyrical, detached and fragmented, broad and noble, or agitated and restless.

Olivier Latry is organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and organ professor at the Paris Conservatory. His appointment to France’s premier cathedral in 1985 at the age of 23 propelled him onto the international scene: he has appeared in more than 50 countries and on all five continents, as a recitalist or with orchestra.

MATHIEU / ADDINSELL / GERSHWIN: Piano Concertos

Classical Music

For her marvelous new album, Luce e Ombra, soprano Myriam Leblanc assembled a collection of her favorite works by the Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. She chose opera excerpts, a chamber cantata, along with instrumental pieces transcribed or adapted for the Ensemble Mirabilia, consisting of Antoine Malette-Chénier on the baroque triple harp, Marie-Michel Beauparlant on the cello and Grégoire Jeay on the flute. The vocal performance, the arias’ nuances and the intimate relationship with the highly capable ensemble make for an accomplished and convincing album. A graduate of McGill University, Myriam Leblanc obtained a master's degree in choral conducting direction from the University of Sherbrooke. She was a First Prize winner and People's choice Award winner at the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières Competition, a Jeune Ambassadrice Lyrique in 2014 (Prix Québec-Bavière), Audience Choice Award winner at the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition, Third Prize winner at the Ottawa Choral Society New Discoveries contest, holder of the Excellence grant given annually by l'Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal, First Prize winner in the Mathieu-Duguay Early Music Competition at the 2017 Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. She has been working in the world of music for few years. Leblanc is recognized for the purity of her tone, a flexible and warm voice and her mastery of both technique and musical expressiveness.

Now living in Newfoundland, cellist Ofra Harnoy has been inspired by the immensely rich musical heritage of the island, so much so that she chose to devote her new album, On the Rock, to the province’s familiar and wonderful repertoire. She has invited guests such as Fergus O’Byrne, Alan Doyle, Amanda Cash, Bob Hallett and Mike Herriott to join her on classics such as Mussels in the Corner, Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s, St. John’s Waltz and Cliffs of Baccalieu. With her cello at the forefront, the result is a magnificently vibrant and unprecedented musical celebration of Newfoundland. Ofra Harnoy has established herself as one of the greatest cellists on the world’s concert stage. She has won many awards and distinctions for her recordings, including 5 JUNO Awards.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The "heavenly length" that Schumann ascribed to Schubert's Great C major Symphony could be applied to numerous other works in the latter's canon, both in temporal and qualitative terms. Schubert's sublime Octet runs more than an hour with all the repeats observed. His piano trios, Opp 99 and 100, aren't quite as expansive, yet they pack enough significant material into their respective four movements to make many symphonies of the period (and beyond) seem ill-nourished.

The Gryphon Trio's new recording of these repertoire staples confirms that Schubert had no reason to second-guess himself when it came to proportion. Both the effusively expressive B flat Trio, D898, Op 99, and hearty E flat Trio, D929,0p 100, unfold with all the inevitability the composer likely hoped to achieve. They contain some of Schubert's most stirring writing, their songful gestures rubbing shoulders with ideas of vigorous inspiration.

The key to success in the trios is lyricism, which the Gryphon musicians acknowledge to flowingly poetic effect. Even when Schubert is at his most playful, these artists maintain a sure sense of singing line, as well as interplay that is as natural as spontaneous conversation.

As played by violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys and pianist Jamie Parker, the radiance, serenity and vitality in these works come across with a keen blend of sweep and nuance. Balances, so difficult to accomplish in this instrumentation, are carefully set, and each player evidently knows his or her primary or secondary place in the evolving narratives.

Schubert lovers who are taken with his monumental piano trios will relish the single movements he composed early and late in his career for the same complement. The Gryphon players invest the invigorating movement in B flat, D28, and tranquil E flat trio movement entitled Notturno, D897, Op posth 148, with the same zest and affection they bring to the well known works.

-- Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone [2/2008]