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Classical Music

In celebration of Claude Debussy's Centenary in 2018, the French pianist Vincent Larderet presents a recording of three masterpieces: Images (Book I), Pr�ludes (Book II), and the world premiere recording of Andr� Caplet's transcription of the Symphonic Fragments from Le Martyre de saint S�bastien, revised and completed by Vincent Larderet. Following three highly acclaimed recordings that won 23 awards worldwide and were nominated for the prestigious ICMA Award, ARS Produktion presents an 80-minute album by a pianist whose interpretations have been compared to legends of the piano such as Michelangeli, Arrau and Zimerman and who was praised for his "astonishing range of pianistic colours" (PIANO News, Germany). Mr. Larderet is the Artistic Director of the Piano au Musee Wurth international festival in France, and in 2014 was appointed "Honorable International Artist-In-Residence" of the Hong Kong Music and Performing School.

Acclaimed by German and international critics as an "incredible talent" and a "true master of the piano," Alexander Koryakin has been playing it since he was nine years old and wanted to make it his career right from the start. Thus, the following year at the age of ten, he gave his first recital consisting of several solo pieces from Bach to Chopin. At eleven he won his first competition. He went on to study at the High school of music of the Republic of Sakha, and the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow. He has lived in Germany since 2014. This recording is dedicated to the international pianist Viviane Goergen, which accompanied with great empathy the idea for this program and realized it with great musical understanding and sensitivity.

Anyone who is familiar with the work of Edgar Allan Poe or has read even a few of his creepy short stories may not be able to underline these texts, which often deal with human abysses, in their inner spirit with the harp sound that is clich�dly associated with the angelic. The fact that two composers and one female composer nevertheless became involved in this connection is evidence on the one hand of their great joy in experimentation and indispensable search for new musical expression, and on the other hand of the almost infinite richness of the harp's sound spectrum. Two of the first to set works from Poe's horror literature programmatically to music were harp virtuoso Henriette Reni� (1875-1956), who in 1912 used the text "The Tell-Tale Heart" as the model for her "Ballade fantastique", and the likewise French composer Andr� Caplet (1878-1925), who 12 years later musically traced the short story "The Mask of the Red Death" with his work "Conte fantastique" for string quartet and harp. The Swiss composer Th�ring Br�m (*1944) refers to the world-famous poem "Annabel Lee" in his composition "A Wind Blew Out of a Cloud" for harp solo written in 2016.

After some successful studio recordings a live recording was overdue for Hanna Shybayeva. For the pianist, it is clear that she can only get the best out of herself in concert, adding the ''extra dimension of excitement and energy'' to her playing. On her latest recording, this can be seen in a lively, fiery performance.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Virtuoso bravura paired with elaborate detail - Vivaldi’s cantatas for soprano and basso continuo combine of the rousing effects of the operatic stage and the sophistication of intimate chamber music in a unique manner. One can rightly claim that Vivaldi went to the very limits of what can be depicted while offering a true summation of the Italian baroque cantata. The soprano Camilla de Falleiro and the basso continuo specialists of the Accademia Apollinea ensemble ignite the passions for which this magnificent music of the Italian High Baroque is so well known.

Astor Piazzolla's musical settings of the four seasons and Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons are clearly interrelated in a variety of ways. This new Ars Produktion recording combines Vivaldi's Italian seasonal tempests with Piazzolla's passionate rhythms. Making the connection here is Leonid Desyatnikov, who created the arrangement of Piazzolla's Seasons into which some of Vivaldi's melodies have been inserted. Vienna-based violinist Yuri Revich was the Int'l Classical Music Artist "Young Artist of the Year" and Beethoven Center, Vienna "Young Musician of the Year" for 2014.

Anyone wishing to engage with Johannes Brahms' piano music must first let go of any notion of virtuosic brilliance or superficial effects and subordinate themselves to the depths of the composer's emotional world. In the case of Brahms, a series of questions that form only one of several important interpretative criteria for other composers emerge as the performer's principal task: What emotions are expressed in the score? How does the musical structure hold it all together? What are the interconnections between the motives? How much interpretative freedom is required or, in some places, permitted? These questions arise almost everywhere in the score, which makes playing his music so very exciting and fulfilling. Brahms places exceptionally high demands on the performer, and yet, the greatest difficulty lies in navigating the tension between the overwhelming emotional intensity on the one hand and an ever-present clarity of form on the other. As a member of the award-winning Tecchler Trio, the Swiss pianist Benjamin Engeli has become a sought-after chamber music partner and song accompanist in all-imaginable formations worldwide. Even when he plays alone, he always plays outstandingly, which he proves on this, his first solo album.

Born in Moscow, the pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze first studied at the Moscow Conservatory and in the USA with the renowned piano teacher Oxana Yablonskaya. As a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, she can look back on a remarkable series of concerts (also on radio and television). With Robert Schumann, Fr�d�ric Chopin and Johannes Brahms, the pianist has united three composers for her recording with ARS PRODUKTION, whose works have had a decisive influence on the piano music of their time and are therefore indispensable for the repertoire of the so-called 'romantic piano' today.

So Jin Kim writes of her new release: “Mozart’s music led me to discover my love for music at a young age. His music has been and continues to be a source of calm, inspiration, and motivation throughout my life and career. I hope that this recording conveys my love and appreciation towards his music. Mozart composed his third violin concerto, K. 216at the age of 19, most likely for himself or his father. The concerto explores more adventurous ideas – compared to his first two violin concertos – while still staying true to the classical structure. It displays Mozart’s distinct operatic charm and serenade style that is prevalent in many of his compositions leading up to the violin concertos… As Mozart does so expertly in his serenade writing, expansive melodies and ideas succeed each other in blissful simplicity transcending time and form… The fifth violin concerto, K. 219 is the most adventurous and operatic of all his violin concertos. Widely considered as Mozart’s finest violin concerto, it brims with bold and imaginative possibilities. Following an energetic “aperto” opening of the orchestra, the solo violin enters amidst an abrupt silence of the tutti in ethereal and lyrical recitative. It returns to the original tempo and celebratory mood with arpeggiated opening idea of the movement. In the slow movement, Mozart again dis-plays his music of limitless and expansive melodic material. For a brief moment, the middle section of this movement goes through an unusually darker emotion for Mozart, nevertheless purified in his effervescent narrative that tugs eternal hope of possibilities. The finale, which is perhaps the most inventive and exciting, is a juxtaposition of a graceful rondo theme and an unexpected, exotic “Turkish” episode in the middle of the movement. After sliding delicately back into the original theme, Mozart closes the concerto by evaporating effortlessly as the last surprise.”

Even composers such as Rossini and Verdi revered and valued Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845) highly. Known for a long time only as Donizetti's teacher, his oeuvre has experienced a well-deserved renaissance in recent years. The Belgian-Israeli pianist Edna Stern and the Georgisches Kammerorchester (Chamber Orchestra) Ingolstadt under Ruben Gazarian present piano concertos nos. 1 & 2. Intellectual curiosity, a questing spirit and an uncompromising rigorousness in the service of music are the three major aspects of the personality of Edna Stern and of her conception of musical interpretation. Her repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel to Luciano Berio and contemporary composers, playing on period instruments as on modern ones. She has been invited to play recitals and chamber music at the Festivals la Roque d'Anthéron, Colmar, MDR, Ludiwigsburg Festsspiele, at the "Moments Musicaux" of Châtelet or at the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels. She has also appeared, both with an orchestra and in solo recitals, at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and at the Tonhalle of Zürich. She has also played chamber music with the quartets Ebène and Lotus, The Oxalys ensemble, as well as with Alban Gerhardt, Magali Mosnier, Alexandre Tharaud and the violinist Amandine Beyer.

Uta Weyand’s latest album is devoted to music from the year 1892, played on an instrument made that same year. It recreates a very specific historical moment where the instrument and the music can be seen and heard as contemporary. German-born pianist Uta Weyand comes from a musical family. The daughter of a choir conductor and an organist, she grew up with choral music and the organ repertoire. During childhood she expressed her extraordinary musical talent not only at the piano, but also excelled at the violin, voice, and music composition. The Post and Courier (South Carolina) predicted her success, stating, “Weyand is a pianist of genius, who should have a long career.” And the Nuremberg News confirmed, “…especially admirable is her amazing ability to make the great Steinway sing and wrest many captivating colors from it.” After her studies in Freiburg (Germany), Baltimore, and Madrid, with Elza Kolodin, Vitaly Margulis, Leon Fleisher, and Joaquín Soriano, Ms. Weyand has had great international success, giving numerous piano recitals and appearing with orchestras in most European countries, Russia, Brazil, Cuba, and the United States.