Also available on Blu-ray

Acclaimed dancer-choreographer Akram Khan ‘speaks tremendously of tremendous things’ (Financial Times) and this new Giselle reimagines the classic narrative ballet for the 21st Century. Giselle had become a former garment factory migrant worker, Albrecht, a member of the wealthy factory-owning class. An abandoned ‘ghost factory’ haunted by the memory of female migrant workers, many of them victims of industrial accidents, replaces the traditional glade of Act II. There, Giselle’s desire to break the cycle of violence will lead her to reconciliation with Albrecht and his release from the retributive justice of the Wilis. “Giselle has been transformed for the ENB by Akram Khan into the ballet event of the year. Staggeringly beautiful and utterly devastating, it is an electrifying triumph which any dance or theatre fan must not miss.” (The Daily Express)

Following the release of the award-winning Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering, which was a Top 5 Billboard Classical Crossover hit, Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire present Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain. In this celebration of the American immigrant experience, fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, bagpipes and singers join with children’s voices to evoke the Celtic roots of an Appalachian Christmas. From Christmas Eve in medieval Scotland to folk carols and shape-note hymns at a toe-tapping Christmas gathering in Virginia, Apollo’s Fire follows the journeys of the Irish and Scottish settlers who bravely crossed the Atlantic, settled in the mountains and welcomed Christmas with love, singing, dancing and prayer. Acclaim for the premiere performances of this program was widespread: “The lightning strike of genius can happen, sometimes even repeatedly to those willing to earn it. Jeannette Sorrell is one such person. This show was intense, interesting, spectacularly performed, and deeply moving. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is.” (Seen & Heard International)

REVIEWS:

Apollo’s Fire is a celebrated baroque orchestra, but their ventures into folk music are just as celebrated. This is music of and by amateurs, here arranged and performed with professional skill, but without sacrificing its vibrant folk quality to the glitz of showbiz. This recording is a must have for anyone susceptible to the allure of this tradition.

– American Record Guide

There are other ways to reveal fresh musical truths in the context of Christmas, and the determination of another early music group to do so has produced my vote for festive disc of the year. Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain from Apollo’s Fire charts the passage of Scottish and Irish immigrants to the Appalachian Mountains in the 1830s. The Baroque music group gives us sounds we don’t often associate with Bethlehem but are probably far closer to what was heard there: zingy harps, reedy winds and plenteous modality.

– Gramophone

Following her passion for seeking out rare musical gems, Angèle Dubeau presents Portrait: Alex Baranowski, the 6th opus in her series of albums dedicated to contemporary composers, which began in 2008 with Portrait: Philip Glass. A successful young composer based in London, multiple award winner and graduate of Paul McCartney's LIPA, Alex Baranowski offers beautiful and generous music, rich in sound atmospheres. Under the breathtaking interpretations of Angèle Dubeau and her remarkable ensemble, La Pietà, these works reveals wonderfully expressive and sensitive writing for the violin. The album includes several key works from Baranowski's repertoire as well as three previously unreleased pieces, including Wiosna, a commission that the composer describes as one of his most intimate works.

The music of Grazyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) has been enjoying a revival during the past two decades. Bacewicz was an outstanding figure in 20th-century music, a major Polish composer and a versatile musician. This album by the award-winning pianist Peter Jablonski, pianist Elisabeth Brauß, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon includes some rarely recorded gems: the composer’s Piano Concerto together with the late Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in its first digital recording. Also included is the composer’s homage to Bartók, Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, as well as the composer’s early exuberant Overture, written during the German occupation of Poland.

The Korean pianist Su Yeon Kim achieved international acclaim when she won the first prize at the Concours musical international de Montréal 2021 and the second prize at the International Mozart Competition 2020 in Salzburg. For her debut album on the Steinway & Sons label Kim displays her passion and gift for performing the music of Mozart with some of his most beloved piano works as well as a few rarities.

“Mozart’s music is full of life and power, encompassing the full spectrum of human emotions and transcending all eras and cultural boundaries. Compiling this album brought me waves of joy, and the feeling of personal connection to Mozart's spirit.” -- Su Yeon Kim

Few are aware that Josef Weigl (1766-1846) was both an acclaimed conductor and a highly successful composer whose fame - in his day - rivaled that of Cherubini, Rossini, Haydn, and even Beethoven. Tenor Donald George and forte pianist Lucy Mauro merge their talents in support of music by this neglected, yet deserving composer in historically informed performance.

REVIEW:

So far as I know, only two pianists have recorded comprehensive Scriabin solo-piano cycles. One is Michael Ponti; the other is Maria Lettberg, a Riga-born Swedish national residing in Berlin, who lived with this repertoire for years, and even wrote a doctoral thesis on Scriabin. She recorded all of Scriabin’s solo piano works with opus numbers between 2004 and 2007 for a co-production between the Capriccio label and Deutschlandradio Kultur.

Unlike Ponti, with his horribly-engineered and ill-tuned instrument, Lettberg enjoys the advantage of a beautifully regulated concert grand and resplendent, lifelike engineering. She revels in the composer’s dynamic extremes and inner-voice labyrinths both real and implied. Her big, juicy sonority and refined articulation consistently address the sensual element that perpetually lurks underneath the surface of nearly every composition, from the early, Chopin-influenced Preludes, Etudes, Mazurkas, Waltzes, and sundry short pieces to the harmonically ambiguous, intensely mystical late sonatas and poems. Granted, you won’t encounter the ice in the fire revealed throughout the younger Richter’s incisive live Second, Fifth, or Ninth sonatas, nor the jackhammer impact of Horowitz’s repeated chords in Vers la flame or his trills in the Tenth sonata. At the same time, Lettberg can unleash enough fervent momentum to help tighten looser-knit works like the Fantasie Op. 28 and the rarely played Allegro Appassionato Op. 4.

A bonus DVD features Lettberg in excerpts from different sonatas interspersed with discussions about the music and a multi-media project called “Mysterium”, where video artist Andreas Schmidt reinterprets the music in terms of abstract manipulations of color. While Lettberg may not displace favorite versions of specific works, her overall consistency, meticulous technique, and total identification with Scriabin’s idiom deserve nothing less than our highest rating. Capriccio’s bargain price is enough to forgive the pianist’s poorly organized booklet notes, although they contain many interesting quotations from the composer.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10, Jed Distler)

After their exciting interpretations of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, the Chiaroscuro Quartet now turns to Mozart’s Prussian Quartets, his last compositions for this formation. These quartets were written for Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and amateur cellist, and offer that instrument an unusually prominent role. The first of the three was composed fairly quickly, in June 1789, but the next two were not completed until the following year, and in the end Mozart’s plan for a set of six came to nothing. The writing of quartets was never an easy matter for Mozart. However, one would hardly guess that the Prussian quartets were the product of ‘exhausting labor’ (his own words), such is their beguiling ease of workmanship. No. 21 in D major stands out as one of the most melodious chamber compositions of Mozart’s mature period, emanating something of the sensual Mediterranean warmth of the opera Così fan tutte composed shortly afterwards. No. 22 in B flat major also emphasizes the importance of melody and gives the ‘royal’ cello some beautiful solos. As for No. 23 in F major, while it is tempting to hear a melancholy, autumnal quality in Mozart’s later works, there is, however, no sense of farewell in this his final string quartet: the spirit of Haydn is everywhere, especially in the finale with its effects borrowed from Hungarian folklore.

After her acclaimed PENTATONE debut with Transfigured Night, Alisa Weilerstein returns with a complete recording of Bach’s Cello Suites. These pieces present the highest mountain to climb for any cellist, and one of the most transcendent and rewarding experiences for listeners alike. With his suites, Bach crafted — essentially without direct precedent — a body of solo cello music that forever defined the genre and brought the Baroque cello on par with its more popular cousin, the viola da gamba. Since Pablo Casals put them in the limelight again after 150 years of relative oblivion, Bach’s suites have become the alpha and omega for generations of cellists. To Weilerstein, the joy of this music — vibrant, contemporary, unquestionably alive — is the joy of discovery. Having heard and studied these pieces for years, she now entrusts her interpretation to the listener. Since signing an exclusive contract PENTATONE, Alisa Weilerstein has released Transfigured Night (2018), and featured on Inon Barnatan’s Beethoven Piano Concertos Part 1 as well as Old Souls, an album with music for flute and strings (both released in 2019).



REVIEWS:

Weilerstein’s special qualities? Her resolve to allow each movement of each suite to shine on its own terms. Hers is not an overview systematically imposed but more a way to facilitate the cycle’s immense expressive range piecemeal. Not that the best of her rivals don’t; but with Weilerstein you enjoy the sensation of being escorted through a Baroque dance hall by an all-encompassing commentator with a comprehensive understanding of what she plays.

– Gramophone

Put Weilerstein next to most of her colleagues in these suites (competitors would be the wrong word – Bach doesn’t encourage competition) and she would win for sheer resonance of tone and length of line...There are dozens of recordings of these suites to choose from, but this stands up with the best.

– Guardian (UK)

This new release features incredible choral masterworks from two of America’s foremost contemporary composers, Conrad Susa and David Conte. Grammy Award-winning director Ragnar Bohlin conducts the professional chamber choir Capella SF for these works. “I frankly was so captivated by the performances - above all, the beautiful sound and clear articulation of the parts - that I barely noticed the change from one composer to another.” (Jerry Kuderna, San Francisco Classical Voice)

While Yale Schola Cantorum is well-known for their "bright, youthful, and beautifully balanced sound" (Early Music America) in early music, this fascinating new recording mixes ancient mainstays with works by greats of contemporary choral music. In this splendid live concert recording with longtime conductor and revered master Simon Carrington the ensemble lives up to its exalted reputation in every respect - engaging their fortunate listeners with gripping spontaneity, sweet sound, uncanny balance, and unblemished technical perfection.

A gripping live concert performance, Delos presents an exemplary choral quality from one of America's finest academic choirs.

Imagining how Bach himself might have transformed the Goldberg Variations for a chamber group, Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque present a pioneering new arrangement of the Goldberg Variations by Chad Kelly. Employing a variety of instrumental combinations from a typical Bach ensemble of single strings, oboe, flute, bassoon, and harpsichord, these newly-crafted Goldbergs illuminate exquisite responses to the various historical genres inherent in Bach’s scores.

This beloved masterpiece was composed through a period of personal tumult for Bach; two unsuccessful job applications, the premature death of his son Gottfried, and criticism of his music in a prominent Hamburg publication. Bach’s outpouring of beauty in the Goldberg Variations has long captured audience’s imaginations - Chad Kelly, Rachel Podger, and her fleet Brecon Baroque preserve the work’s exquisite intricacy whilst adding breadth, texture and color to its emotional backdrop. This revisioning of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a perfect transformation of the work for the modern era.

Conductor Robert Trevino’s fourth album release on Ondine is focused on the late works of composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), one of Finland’s most celebrated composers after Sibelius and known worldwide for his Neo-Romantic, even mystic compositions. Together with violinist Simone Lamsma and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra the artists are presenting four final orchestral works by the celebrated composer.

Two of the works are world première recordings. In his late period, Rautavaara received several communications from the world’s leading violinists requesting him to write works for them. He was able to oblige them, creating several extensive works featuring solo violin. Fantasia (2015) for violin and orchestra is a work of soft Neo-Romantic harmonies and soaring melodic lines. In 2014, Rautavaara was asked to write a new Violin Concerto. This commission resulted in Deux Sérénades for violin and orchestra which remained unfinished at Rautavaara’s death: the second movement was sketched out, but only its beginning was orchestrated. Kalevi Aho, an accomplished composer of symphonies and concertos who studied composition with Rautavaara at the turn of the 1970s, fleshed out the orchestration in 2018. Lost Landscapes (2005/15) was originally written as a violin sonata, but Rautavaara began orchestrating the work in 2013. The first movement was premiered at the contemporary music festival at Tanglewood in July 2015, but the full premiere of the work took place in Malmö in March 2021, with Simone Lamsma as soloist. In the Beginning (2015) is a concise overture-type work commissioned for a concert opener. The titles of his works were important for the composer, forming part of the ‘aura’ of the work and often even constituting the initial impulse for writing the piece in the first place.

REVIEWS:

There is a transcendent intensity to Rautavaara’s music which is heightened by this writing for strings. All of the music here is relatively recent, the earliest from 2005, but here rearranged for these forces. Lost Landscapes, Fantasia, In the Beginning and Deux Serenades (completed by Kalevi Aho, after the composer’s death) are the four works here. Music to be immersed in and a fitting presentation of some of Rautavaara’s last work.

-- Lark Reviews

All these violin concertante works are attractive, but they are also all rather similar, and there is a preponderance of slow music. So they are best not listened to all at the same time. In the Beginning is different: it shows another side of the composer and perhaps has the best music on the disc.

We have a cosmopolitan team here. The soloist, Simone Lamsma is Dutch, has performed widely and already made a number of recordings. Robert Trevino is American and is a rising star. The Malmö Symphony Orchestra is one of Sweden’s leading orchestras. They all provide assured performances. The recording is sympathetic and the booklet informative. The Fantasia and Deux Sérénades have each been recorded by their commissioners but coupled with different composers, so the Rautavaara fan will find this the most convenient way to collect these works.

-- MusicWeb International

With the present album, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and John Neschling bring us the sixth and last instalment in a series that has been called ‘the finest-ever survey of the composer’s orchestral output undertaken by a single conductor’ (BBC Music Magazine). The immense popularity of the Roman Trilogy has had the effect of obscuring many parts of Respighi’s oeuvre, including arrangements of pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. These arrangements, a genuine declaration of love for this music, were less an attempt at musicological reconstruction than ‘free transcriptions for orchestra’ as the composer described them.

The four suites on this album, Gli Uccelli (The Birds) and the three entitled Ancient Dances and Airs, bear witness to this art. Gli Uccelli consists of five pieces originally written for harpsichord or lute which, as the title suggests, evoke birds set in colourful soundscapes. The Ancient Dances and Airs are suites each made of four pieces for lute or guitar from the Italian and French repertoire of the late 16th and early 17th centuries adorned with new orchestral colours. The success of these suites owes much to their orchestration: subtle and sober with timbres of rare sophistication. A refined treat from the Italian master of orchestration.

REVIEWS:

The conductor must have put an extra teaspoon of baking soda in the batter, because these performances are uncommonly airy. Much of this music is suffused with an autumnal melancholy, and Neschling and his orchestra capture that very well. For example, try the Villanella from Suite No. 1 of the Ancient Airs and Dances, where several members of the orchestra take turns stepping into the spotlight, which they do most atmospherically. In the same suite’s Gagliarda, there is a sense of lively occasion, but Neschling does not allow it to become starchy or pompous.

I think this is a winner on all counts.

-- Fanfare

In more instances than I can count on this Neschling recording, I find myself sitting up straight, having heard him do something that brings the music to life in a way that I had not heard before on other recordings. He knows how to “read between the lines” and to bring out that extra “something” that separates the great conductors from the mere kapellmeisters.

-- MusicWeb International

The music in this album sings and dances, in Abel’s “colorful blend of styles that serve the emotional nature of each work to bracing and poignant effect” (Gramophone). It further clarifies why Abel is “one of the most interesting figures in American contemporary music” (Pizzicato). Composer Mark Abel has been based in California for the past three decades. Abel’s idiom eludes easy pigeon-holing. It includes chamber music and vocal works, whose contours extend from art song to larger forms with orchestra to a 103-minute chamber opera, Home Is a Harbor. This is Mark’s fifth release on Delos. The incomparable David Shifrin begins the program with Intuition’s Dance, a combination of frolic and dreamy ruminations in which he is joined by pianist Carol Rosenberger. (This is the first time Shifrin and Rosenberger have recorded together since their memorable albums in 1984!) Next comes the remarkable Hila Plitmann singing the powerfully moving Four Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva — the first-ever setting of Tsvetaeva’s poetry in English translation. She is joined by Rosenberger and English hornist Sarah Beck. Colorful and haunting, The Elastic Hours are brought to life with virtuosity by Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker and Dominic Cheli. This is Sabrina’s first Delos recording since her success with the Brahms Hungarian Dances in 2018 (DE 3558). In the richly lyrical Clarinet Trio, Shifrin and Rosenberger are joined by Fred Sherry for a musical journey beginning with “The Unfolding,” moving to “Taking Flight,” and finally ending with a peaceful and tender “In Good Time.”