'It is not you who are under my influence, but I who am under yours,' wrote Shostakovich to Ustvolskaya. Certainly, though their music shares sorrow, grotesquerie and violence, Ustvolskaya has a vision all her own. The Octet appears to be an obsessive rite; violins worry over the same narrow range of notes, and cower before the relentless timpanic beating. Leiferkus’s speaking voice provides the only real music in the arid Symphony. Welcome to the Gulag. Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, spare as it is, arrives like a shower of delightful opulence.

-- Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine

The penultimate release in the Naxos Seattle Collection, featuring internationally renowned soprano Susan Graham.

Initially regarded as a master composer of art songs, Jake Heggie has since become known as perhaps America’s leading contemporary composer of internationally acclaimed operas. Winning examples of both genres appear on this release: the world premiere recording of a short, one-act opera, The Radio Hour – as well as four shorter vocal pieces. The Radio Hour – the world’s first-ever “choral opera” – is a compact work for silent actress, with running narrative and commentary from a choir. The program is rounded out with four mostly art song-based works in varied arrangements, several with choral elements, sung by the vaunted John Alexander Singers. Susan Graham, one of America’s most beloved mezzo-sopranos, is heard in three of the shorter pieces; Pacific Symphony members provide the instrumentals. “A masterpiece of clarity and intensity, with a score that is at once thematically compact and richly inventive.” San Francisco Chronicle (review of Jake Heggie’s opera “Moby Dick”)

Classical Music

It's time for Beethoven to be recognized as an important part of the young-of-age or -spirit's musical curriculum. Baby Needs Beethoven is an excellent place to start! This release explores all aspects of Beethoven's more introspective work, with music from his symphonies and chamber works to the solo performances for piano. The pieces chosen may be familiar to many, but there are a few lesser-known gems that will be of interest even to the Beethoven connoisseur.

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.

From the mythological setting of Idomeneo via the sparkling wit of Le nozze di Figaro and powerful tragicomedy of Don Giovanni to the fantastical workings of the late Singspiel Die Zauberflöte, Mozart’s mature operas stand among the greatest achievements of Western art, dramas that illuminate the composer’s creativity as a whole and which stood out in their own time for the new level of characterisation, wit and lessons on life and humanity they brought to the musical stage. Featuring recordings made during the last ten years from some of the world’s leading opera houses, this collection offers an acclaimed series of productions that present consummate interpretations of Mozart’s scores through striking set designs and peerless singing, paying homage to a group of masterpieces which are just as relevant today as when they were first performed.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
THE GREAT OPERAS
(13-DVD Box Set)

Idomeneo


Idomeneo - Ramón Vargas
Idamante - Magdalena Kožená
Ilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Elettra - Anja Harteros
Arbace - Jeffrey Francis


Salzburg Bach Chor
(chorus master: Alois Glassner)
Camerata Salzburg
Roger Norrington, conductor


Karl-Ernst Hermann, stage director, set and costume designer
Ursel Herman, stage director


Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2006


  Die Entführung aus dem Serail


Konstanze - Laura Aikin
Belmonte - Edgaras Montvidas
Osmin - Kurt Rydl
Blonde - Mojca Erdmann
Pedrillo - Michael Smallwood
Bassa Selim - Steven Van Watermeulen


Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra
Constantinos Carydis, conductor


Johan Simons, stage director


Recorded live at Het Musiektheater, Amsterdam on 2, 7 and 19 February 2008

Le nozze di Figaro


Il Conte di Almaviva - Peter Mattei
La Contessa di Alamviva - Christiane Oelze
Susanna - Heidi Grant Murphy
Figaro - Lorenzo Regazzo
Cherubino - Christine Schäfer
Marcellina - Helene Schneiderman
Bartolo - Roland Bracht
Don Basilio - Burkhard Ulrich
Don Curzio - Eberhard Francesco Lorenz
Barbarina - Cassandre Berthon
Antonio - Frederic Caton


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Christoph Marthaler, stage director
Anna Viebrock, set and costume designer
Olaf Winter, lighting designer
Thomas Stache, choreographer


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, 2006

Don Giovanni


Don Giovanni - Carlos Álvarez
Commendatore - Alfred Reiter
Donna Anna - María Bayo
Don Ottavio - José Bros
Donna Elvira - Sonia Ganassi
Leporello - Lorenzo Regazzo
Masetto - José Antonio López
Zerlina - María José Moreno


Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Jordi Casas Bayer)
Victor Pablo Pérez, conductor


Lluis Pasqual, stage director
Ezio Frigerio, set designer
Franca Squarciapino, costume designer
Wolfgang von Zoubek, lighting designer
Nuria Castejón, choreographer


Recorded live at the Teatro Real de Madrid, 8, 10 and 12 October 2005

Cosi fan tutte


Ferrando - Topi Lehtipuu
Guglielmo - Luca Pisaroni
Don Alfonso - Nicolas Rivenq
Fiordiligi - Miah Persson
Dorabella - Anke Vondung
Despina - Ainhoa Garmendia


The Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Iván Fischer , Conductor


Nicholas Hytner, Stage Director


Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in June and July 2006

La Clemenza di Tito


Sesto - Susan Graham
Annio - Hannah Esther Minutillo
Vitellia - Catherine Naglestad
Servilia - Ekaterina Siurina
Publio - Roland Bracht
Tito - Christoph Prégardien


Paris National Opera Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Peter Burian)
Sylvain Cambreling, conductor


Ursel Herrmann, stage director
Karl-Ernst Herrmann, stage director


Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, May and June 2005

Die Zauberflöte


Sarastro - Günther Groissböck
Tamino - Saimir Pirgu
Queen of the Night - Albina Shagimuratova
Pamina - Genia Kühmeier
Papagena - Ailish Tynan
Papageno - Alex Esposito
Monostatos - Peter Bronder


Milan La Scala Chorus and Orchestra
Roland Böer, conductor


William Kentridge, stage director


Recorded live at La Teatro alla Scala, 20 March 2011


Bonus:
- Overview of The Magic Flute
- Illustrated synopsis

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Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian + Chinese (Idomeneo) / Dutch (Serail)
Running time: 24 hours 20 mins
No. of DVDs: 13

Between 1791 and 1804, Joseph Haydn arranged some 400 traditional songs for publishers in Scotland and England. Almost all of the songs were Scottish and the most common setting was for voice and piano trio. There have been numerous recordings and performances of the arrangements by these forces, but on this disc The Poker Club Band offer their listeners something quite different. Taking its name from one of the Edinburgh clubs at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment, the ensemble consists of four early music specialists and a traditional singer. They have retained Haydn’s violin and cello, but the keyboard part has been adapted for harp and guitar following indications that the harp was commonly used for contemporary performances of Scottish traditional repertoire. The Gaelic singer James Graham, with his idiomatic Scottish timbre, and the period instruments – of which Masako Art’s single-action pedal harp from 1809 is known to have been in Scotland around the time – brings us that much closer to what a performance in an Edinburgh salon might have sounded like around 1800. The songs themselves range from the cautionary tale of a girl who married for love and now is doomed to a life of hard and dirty work on her husband’s farm (The Mucking of Geordie’s Byer) to love songs such as Oran Gaoil, with a text by Robert Burns. Providing variety, some instrumental 18th century arrangements of Haydn originals are included while the album ends with the well-known atmospheric Lament by the Scottish fiddler Niel Gow.

Classical Music

Classical Music

When he moved away from serial techniques at the end of the 1960s, having undergone something of a spiritual and artistic transformation, Arvo Pärt turned to the choral tradition of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance for inspiration. From this period of intense study emerged the masterpieces inaugurating his now unmistakable style: the refined, timeless soundworld of "tintinnabulation." On this release Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge perform a selection of music by Pärt, James MacMillan & Peteris Vasks.

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REVIEW:

Recordings of Arvo Pärt’s music continue to flourish, and no one seems to tire of hearing (or performing) Magnificat or The Woman with the Alabaster Box, Nunc dimittis, or Da pacem, Domine–all of which are included here and stand among the most frequently represented on disc (a couple of dozen instances for Magnificat). Yet, it’s no surprise as to why these works are so popular, their uniquely appealing qualities–of sound, of melody, of harmonic architecture and movement–effecting a sense of timelessness that confers on them a remarkable immunity from wear.

Pärt and his music also benefit from the fact that most of the recordings offer excellent performances, and this one is no exception. In fact, these are among the very best in the catalog: these young, exceptionally well-trained, expert choral musicians, recorded primarily in the special ambiance, tempered by stone, glass, and light, of Ely Cathedral’s Lady Chapel, leave nothing to be desired in their expression of Pärt’s unique, sensuous realizations of sound and silence. This was the venue for so many of the acclaimed recordings by John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers–and, guess who happens to be producer, engineer, and editor of this project: yes, none other than Rutter himself, and the sonic excellence on display here is the result of someone in command who knows the strengths and foibles of that large acoustic space (stand here, place the microphone there). And so, we need not worry at all about the recorded sound of the singing.

But while Pärt may be the “draw” (he gets top billing on the disc cover), it’s actually James MacMillan who likely will leave listeners with the more lasting impression–and induce many repeated hearings–with his Miserere, for mixed a cappella choir. Every now and then a modern choral work does a rare thing: it sets the listener on a path and–voilá–takes him or her just where it promises to take them. No set-up for sudden expectation-be-damned surprise. When you get to the end of this 12-minute-plus piece, you feel you’ve been respected, as an intelligent listener, with both knowledge and feeling, one who is aware of both the conventions and perversions of musical style, who loves beauty and truth in the expression, in whatever form, language, or context it may be presented.

In this case, MacMillan exploits his available musical material with free references to Pärtian style and in his inclusion of the famous Miserere of Allegri, quoting directly and indirectly, while creating a wholly original work that sticks to the path, occasionally goes off on its own seemingly diversionary trail, but always comes back, the “diversion” now realized as an integral bridge to the very satisfying conclusion. And, I have to say that rather than hear the zillionth performance of the Allegri–endless, often vocally tedious, difficult to stage–I am happier to hear MacMillan’s canny referential episodes in this extraordinary work. The excellent performance is marred only by one brief passage of faulty intonation from a soloist.

The usual pairing of MacMillan’s Miserere on recordings is, no surprise, with Allegri’s setting–which of course isn’t just his, but also the work of subsequent elaborators. Here, besides the Pärt works, we get a 15-minute piece by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks: Plainscapes, for mixed choir, violin, and cello. While this work is undoubtedly worthy for its craft and effective use of “wordless” vocal techniques, a “tapestry of abstract sound” (as described in the liner notes) to depict a “sonic journey across [Vasks’] native country”, it’s an odd choice for inclusion on this program. The completely different style, the sound-effects, the secular context–it doesn’t fit. It’s a disruption, although a very well-performed one. Fortunately you have the choice to skip it–and even if you don’t, the rest of the music will soon convince you that you did.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Vernier)

Selections on this disc were recorded in October 1994 and January 1995.