The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

Traditional folk music elevated to high art: that theme binds the unique coupling of Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s latest release of the Violin Concertos by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. The multi-faceted young American Teddy Abrams conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, making for a truly international collaboration. “There are few more interesting violinists on the worldwide scene than Rachel Barton Pine; she is continuously giving us interesting and well-researched and thought-out concept albums that stimulate the imagination, reinvigorate the ears, and put wrinkles in the brain with their intellectual depth.” (Audiophile Audition)

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REVIEW:

Barton Pine's fusion of rock-solid yet scintillating technique is allied to brilliant musicianship as well as intelligent and stimulating programming. The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

– MusicWeb International

In the spring of 2019, Christoph Croisé scored a breakthrough with his critically acclaimed recording of Haydn’s Cello Concertos. With The Russian Album, he turns his attention to two towering 20th century masterpieces, Sergei Rachmaninov’s early, eloquent and emotional Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 19, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s D minor Sonata for Cello and Piano Op. 40. The latter work’s finale featured what would become the composer’s signature style of caricature and irony that proved too provocative to the Stalinist regime. Croise also offers two “encores”- his own transcriptions of the March from Sergei Prokofiev’s propulsive opera The Love for Three Oranges, and Rodion Shchedrin’s flamboyant In the Style of Albeniz- and a bonus track by his compatriot, the Swiss cellist and composer Thomas Demenga, New York Honk, a humorous homage to the Big Apple’s cacophonous traffic noises. “a recording teeming with sparkle and relentless in fizz.” (Gramophone)

REVIEW:

They perform the two sonatas with great expression and high, energetic commitment, without any exaggeration. Croisé proves a sensitive musician who casually abandons technique to boast the musical expression. The small compositions, Shchedrin's In the style of Albeniz and the March of Love for the Three Oranges by Prokofiev are given the same careful interpretation as the two main works on this recording.

– Pizzicato

Internationally acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman brings his new conductorial skills to the impeccable release of two Mozart concertos, the joyful and lithe No. 17 in G major, and the dark and explosive No. 24 in C minor. Directing from the keyboard, Benjamin leads the finest Mozartian orchestra in the world, the English Chamber Orchestra.

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REVIEW:

His rendition of the G major concerto is captivating: fluent and subtly shaded throughout, Hochman directs the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard with aplomb. Avie’s sound, as always, is clean and natural, allowing the music to bloom.

– International Piano

Following their acclaimed collaboration in Percy Grainger’s Folk Music, soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn turn to the Lyric Music of Edvard Grieg, an apt sequel as the elder composer befriended Grainger- who idolized the Norwegian’s folkloric idiom- immediately on their first encounter in London in 1906. Interspersing intimate vocal miniatures with lyrical solo piano pieces, Claire and Christopher mirror many of the programmes that Grieg and his wife Nina performed on their many recital tours together. Each of the works on Lyric Music tells a story as does the album as a whole ranging in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight. Sung in the original Norwegian, Claire’s and Christopher’s performances are as evocative as Norway’s varied landscape.



REVIEW:

The placing of the cycle Haugtussa in the middle of the programme is inspired. Booth here goes all out, capturing the yearnings and frustrations of the shepherd girl with a truly contemporary lack of inhibition. Such a performance and balance helps to push the still undervalued dramatic status of Haugtussa across any language barrier – and Booth also enjoys detail like the spiky sounds in the comic, and often cheeky, names of the girl’s goats in ‘The Kid’s Dance’.

This new recital, strongly recommended, contributes greatly to the catalogues as a kind of heightened guide both to Grieg’s song-writing and the still unsuspected range of his Lyric Pieces.

– Gramophone

Pianist Sarah Bob is a passionate and trailblazing advocate of the music of our time who has introduced the music of dozens of living composers to the world. ‘…nobody move…’ is a collection of works by six award-winning composers whom Sarah commissioned for the Boston-based New Gallery Concert Series which she founded 20 years ago. Her exuberance and exactitude are common threads tying together the album’s diverse musical dialects, from Jonathan Bailey Holland’s evocative chord clusters in The Intimacy of Harmony to Curtis K. Hughes’ electro-acoustic Avoidance Tactics #1 and his varied suite of miniatures, vestibulations; from the late Lee Hyla’s energetic Solo Cadenzas from his large-scale orchestral work My Life on the Plains, lovingly arranged by Sarah Bob, to David Rakowski’s cheeky ‘Mind the Gap #18,’ tender ‘Wayo’ and edgy ‘Ghepardo;’ from Shaw Pong Liu’s powerful ‘Never Has Been Yet,’ which sets Langston Hughes’ poem ‘Let America Be America Again;’ to Randall Woolf’s fearlessly virtuosic title track. ‘…nobody move…’ is a striking album that ranges from in your face to contemplative moods, entertaining the ears of contemporary music lovers and novices alike.
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REVIEW:

Randall Woolf’s high-powered toccata is redolent of the encores with which Yvar Mikhashoff closed his recitals, while Jonathan Bailey Holland favours a more introspective and latterly hieratic expression. David Rakowski’s insinuating trio of preludes recalls Gershwin in its rhythmic verve if not melodic fecundity, whereas a suite of études drawn from Curtis K Hughes’s compendium Vestibulations focuses on miniatures at once pithy and tangible. As arranged by the pianist, Lee Hyla’s piece deftly elides between keening virtuosity and an affecting emotional poise. For the most part, though, this proves a stimulating overview of an enterprising project, with Sarah Bob a dextrous and charismatic exponent.

– Gramophone

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

Susan Narucki has worked closely with Kurtág on the interpretation of these songs, and her readings may be regarded as definitive.

American soprano and Latin Grammy-nominee Susan Narucki, one of today’s most committed advocates of the music of our time, has a deep and lasting working relationship with Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag which dates back to 1986. Susan’s luminous tone and distinctive artistry and Kurtag’s idiosyncratic fusion of poetry and music come together in this quintessential recorded collection of some of the composer’s most iconoclastic vocal works. In Susan’s words, “I have spent much of my life immersed in this repertoire, and it has become essential to the way I understand music; it is the heart of my practice as a musician.” Equally appreciative, Kurtag acknowledges Susan, “who sang so warmly, purely, so ‘integer’ these songs- with thanks and love.”

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REVIEWS:

Susan Narucki has worked closely with Kurtág, in Hungary, on the interpretation of these songs, and her readings may be regarded as definitive. She puts across how Kurtág's songs, more than embodying a relationship between text and music, constitute a heroic attempt to weld the two, through the use of extremely detailed instructions in the score, into a single unit. Small though they are, they may be regarded as virtuoso works. Recommended, although not to everyone's taste.

– All Music Guide (James Mannheim)

These seven songs, a highlight in this album of Kurtag’s vocal works, pass in just over nine minutes: dark little pools of fervor, articulated by Ms. Narucki with precision and tenderness and accompanied by just the percussive cimbalom, played here with richly pianistic resonance by Nicholas Tolle.

– New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)

Myrtle and Rose- the title taken from the Heinrich Heine poem which Robert Schumann set as the final song of his Liederkreis, Op. 24- features two of Robert Schumann’s most beloved song cycles (the other being Liederkreis, Op. 39) along with several rarely-recorded songs by his wife Clara. The album beautifully captures the artistic partnership of tenor Kyle Stegall and fortepianist Eric Zivian, who first collaborated at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma, California. Stegall’s “lovely tone and ardent expression” (The New York Times) and Eric Zivian’s original 1841 Rausch fortepiano from Vienna- built exactly when the songs were written- combine in these inspired and illuminating interpretations. “a gentle tone that melted the hearts of all” (OperaWire) “the last word in low key virtuosity” (San Francisco Classical Voice)

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REVIEW:

This little recording has a great deal worth recommending. The gentle singing of tenor Kyle Stegall and the circumspect but active accompaniment by Eric Zivian are strong points. The program is elegant. The real star of the show, however, is not Stegall or Zivian, but Zivian's period piano, an 1841 instrument by the Viennese builder Franz Rausch. Many historical performances featuring pianos from this period use French or English models, and the name of Rausch is not much known. However, it fits this music admirably, producing a subtle, silvery tone that brings out the poetry without retreating into the background. Continuing credit to the Avie label for uncovering distinctive little-known performers.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

For his solo debut recording, acclaimed American cellist Matthew Zalkind has chosen three works which, he explains, “have an especially strong sense of kinship, each of which explores the vast expressive and technical possibilities of the solo cello.” Johann Sebastian Bach’s cello suites represented such a high level of achievement that until Kodaly composed his Sonata nearly 200 years later, barely a single significant work was written for solo cello. The Suite of 2012 by Michael Brown, a close friend and colleague of Zalkind’s, was influenced by both the earlier pieces and provides a perfect bridge between them. “impressive refinement… eloquent phrasing… singing tone… fine technique…” (The New York Times) “darts around the instrument fearlessly… The sharply etched passagework in the Bach was startling, surpassing that of many world-class cellists.” (Washington Post)

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REVIEW:

There’s an epic quality to Zalkind’s reading of Kodály’s sprawling Sonata, and his plaintive tone in highlying lyrical passages has an almost keening quality that carries an unexpected whiff of tragedy. The Adagio, too, is conceived on a grand scale, starting with a fearsome, slow crescendo. He seems to think of phrasing in terms of gestures that make both rhetorical and dramatic sense, and in the finale this thoughtfulness is evident in the way he picks up and carries melodic threads through the music’s intricate fabric. Michael Brown’s Bach-inspired Suite sounds a little flimsy placed between these two masterworks but works well enough as an interlude. All in all, this is a most auspicious debut.

– Gramophone

Clarinet legend Richard Stoltzman and virtuoso marimbist Mika Stoltzman present a stunning collection of arrangements evoking the past and new works of the present, including music by J.S. Bach, William Thomas McKinley, Astor Piazzolla, Maurice Ravel and John Zorn. Two-time Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman is known as a captivating recitalist, chamber musician, and jazz performer, as well as a prolific recording artist. He gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. In 1986, Stoltzman became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. Recently he was awarded the prestigious Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music. Mika Stoltzman has been described by The Los Angeles Times as a "high-wire jazz marimbist... an amazing, energetic performer ready for major exposure," and a "Japanese Marimba Maestro," by Time Out New York. All About Jazz raves, "Mika Stoltzman is beyond category, to use Duke Ellington's signature compliment." Mika has toured to 19 countries and 65 cities around the world. She has performed nine times at Carnegie Hall (Zankel and Weill Hall), as well as at PASIC 2005 and 2007, the Blue Note in New York, the Tokyo and Cairo Jazz Festivals, and the Rockport Jazz Festival.

The 18th century experienced a mass migration of musicians from Italy – hitherto regarded as “the home of music” – seeking better fortunes in nations to the north. Giacobbe Basevi Cervetto, Giambatista Cirri and Francesco Geminiani went to London, Luigi Boccherini to Madrid. Antonio Vivaldi aimed for Dresden though never arrived, having died en route in Vienna. These Italian instrumentalists / composers and others are the focus of Out of Italy, a survey of sonatas and duos for two cellos and continuo by eminent baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai and her protégé Beiliang Zhu, many of them quite rare. “full-bodied… distinguished performances that offer a genuine point of view” (Classics Today on Phoebe Carrai’s Bach Cello Suites) “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild” (The New Yorker on Beiliang Zhu)

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REVIEW:

Most composers in the programme are anything but familiar to most music lovers. This disc should contribute to making them better known. Phoebe Carrai and Beiliang Zhu are ideal advocates of their instrument and of its music from the 18th century. They deliver technically brilliant and musically compelling performances, and receive excellent support from Charles Weaver and Avi Stein.

– MusicWeb International

The Horszowiski Trio debuts on Avie with the complete piano trios by Robert Schumann, music that the ensemble is as passionate about as the composer's Romantic works exude. Schumann's works for piano trio were written within a decade of each other yet represent three distinct periods in the composer's life, the emotional span of the four works reflected in Schumann's all-too-short 46-year life span. Years of friendship have sealed a deep bond between the members of the Horszowski Trio, which in turn has led to performances of exhilarating expressive freedom. Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills first performed with Raman Ramakrishnan, founding cellist of the award-winning Daedalus Quartet, when they were children at the Vermont-based Kinhaven Music School. Years later they met pianist Rieko Aizawa who was the last student of the trio's namesake, the late, legendary pianist, Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Since their debut in 2011 at New York City's Rockefeller University, the Horszowski Trio has performed throughout North America, Asia, and India. The programmes on the trio's extensive 2019 touring schedule, which include a Wigmore Hall debut, feature Schumann's expansive works. Based in New York City, the Horszowski Trio is Artists-in Residence at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Winner of the Berliner International Music Competition, the Prix Jeune Soliste des Medias Francophones Publics, and the International Manhattan Music Competition, young cellist Christoph Croise debuts on AVIE performing the two Cello Concertos by Franz Joseph Haydn. His fresh and fervent approach is matched by his collaborators, the Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra, as they recreate the original set up of the works’ first performances in the Esterhazy Castle when the composer directed from the harpsichord alongside the first violinist and the soloist. Christoph concludes the album with Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Violin and Cello, RV 547, joined by the orchestra’s founder and director, Kazakh violinist Sherniyaz Mussakhan. “a magical performance… delicate yet virtuosic” (BBC Music Magazine) “Croise plays with considerable ardency and style” (MusicWeb International)

REVIEW:

This conductor-less release manages to capture something too often lost in recordings of the early cello concerto repertoire: fun. With the brilliance of steel strings – no sheep were harmed in its making – the Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra encapsulate the phrase, ‘a band that plays together, plays together’. This delightful sense of the social and chamber music-making infuses producer Joël Cormier’s mix.

-- Gramophone

Philippe Graffin’s virtuosity combined with his skills as a sleuth have led to the world-premiere recording of a “Posthumous” solo violin sonata by Eugene Ysaye, an astonishing discovery that extends the Belgian composer’s canon of his essential six sonatas for the medium. Philippe unearthed the nearly-completed manuscript in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire, and polished off the final movement in the most Ysaye-esque manner possible. Philippe’s penchant for intuitive programming I brought to bear on Fiddler’s Blues, combining two Ysaye works - including another premiere, with a pair of folksy, Bohemian-flavored works by George Enescu, another virtuoso violinist/composer who emigrated from his native Romania and like Ysaye settled in Paris.

Enescu was a classmate of Maurice Ravel, whose Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure is an affectionate nod to their teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, whilst his azure-tinged Violin Sonata influences the album’s title. Ravel’s slightly older contemporary Claude Debussy befriended Ysaye. Whereas Ysaye soared writing works for solo violin, Debussy wrote none. Suggesting how such a work may have sounded, Philippe contributes his own arrangement for solo violin of Debussy’s enduring piece Claire de lune.

REVIEWS:

This duo’s rapport comes across in sparky performances. Premieres of pieces by Ysaÿe are a draw, but the Enescu sonata and Hora Unirii are a real treat and leave you feeling anything but blue. ★★★★

-- BBC Music Magazine

The big story here is the first recording of a previously undiscovered seventh unaccompanied violin sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe…Played with flourishing panache and easy command, it makes an electrifying opening to this deceptively titled recital: essentially a survey of the early 20th-century Parisian scene…There’s a real feeling of dialogue.

-- Gramophone

Multi-award winning pianist Sarah Beth Briggs earned multiple plaudits for her previous Avie recordings- a Gramophone Critics' Choice for her pairing of concertos by Hans Gal and Mozart, and a Gramophone Editor's Choice for her Briggs Piano Trio's pairing of works by Gal and Shostakovich. For her first solo recital recording for Avie, Sarah turns to some of the greatest collections of Romantic miniatures, largely inspired by one woman: Clara Schumann, wife of Robert Schumann and muse to Johannes Brahms. The twelve short dance movements of Schumann's early and enigmatic Papillons set the scene, giving way to autumnal, late Brahms- his Op. 117 Intermezzi and Op. 118 Klavierstucke. The album ends as it begins, with youthful Schumann and his lovingly crafted Kinderszenen, written over half a century earlier.

Steinway ambassador, Guildhall professor, and cofounder of the London Piano Festival, Charles Owen turns to the late piano works by Johannes Brahms for his latest AVIE release. Within this collection of Capriccios, Rhapsodies and Intermezzi, Charles reveals myriad moods with the composer harking back as well as facing forward- from evocations of Schubert, Schumann and Liszt in the Eight Klavierstucke, Op. 76; winter-like darkness in the two Op. 79 Rhapsodies; Hungarian foot-stomping dance forms in the seven Fantasies that comprise Op. 116; nostalgic contemplation in the Op. 117 Intermezzi; romantic inflections in Op. 118 Klavierstucke which were dedicated to Clara Schumann; and the tonally forward Klavierstucke, Op. 119. “A class above the rest… His performances are underpinned by an unwavering musicality that is enhanced by close attention to the score.” (International Piano) “Exemplary. Classic. Spellbinding. And enthusiastically recommended.” (Fanfare) “Fantastically versatile… he hits the nail on the head… very stylish, very faithful.” (BBC Radio 3 Record Review)

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REVIEW:

In the Op. 117 Owen finds an apt simplicity to its opening number, while the second has a nice gentleness. The third is filled with a tangible sadness, and is nicely inward—altogether more urgent than Jonathan Plowright, who produces one of the most touchingly withdrawn readings on record. In Op. 116 Owen is particularly telling in the A minor Intermezzo, which has a pleasing intimacy, contrasting with the turbulence of the following number and the sonorously beautiful E major Adagio that forms the set’s centrepiece.

The two Op 79 Rhapsodies are another highlight of this set, with Owen conveying the requisite sense of power, surmounting their difficulties with ease and making the much-played G minor very much his own.

– Gramophone