Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart's debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks' Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J. Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles - a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene - plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist's vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band "gripping... relies on subtlety and insinuation to register it's uncanny power." The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music's intent and purpose.

ROD STEWART / MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY Double vinyl LP pressing of this holiday release. This fall for the first time ever, Grammy Award-winning, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee artist Rod Stewart, releases his 2012 debut Christmas album, Merry Christmas, Baby on vinyl. Showcasing well-loved duets with Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo Green and Chris Botti, as well as production by David Foster, Kevin Savigar and Sir Stewart himself, the perennial Christmas favorite is sure to be a big hit this holiday season. 2 LP set.

Apollo’s Fire conjures early 19th-century rural Americana with an evocative journey through traditional folk songs, fiddle tunes, barn dances, and the indispensable Old Time revivalist meetings. This is music as old as the hills themselves, a melting pot of Irish, English, and Scottish tunes that permeated Appalachian culture and rural America, based on field recordings of old-time and Appalachian singers.

“Dazzling fiddle playing and delicious swing … all done with great spirit and brio.” — Fanfare

Schubert: Piano Trio no 2 in E flat major recorded 10/1951 in monophonic.
Busch: Divertimento for 13 Instruments, recorded 08/1982 in stereo.

HARMONIEMUSIK - CASTIL-BLAZE,

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

It's well known that the vast majority of what have come down to us as Bach's Harpsichord Concertos were originally written for violin, oboe, oboe d'amore, or some combination of the two. The originals have all disappeared, but reconstructions are possible within a very small margin of error, particularly in the case of the Double Concerto BWV 1060, which has been performed and enjoyed in its original form for violin and oboe (or oboe d'amore) for more than half a century. Naxos' complete edition of Bach's orchestral music properly includes the most famous of all the reconstructions, the violin version of the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, in the violin concerto volume of this series, leaving this disc to the double concerto noted above, as well as four oboe/oboe d'amore works. Soloists Christian Hummel and Lisa Stewart offer attractive, tastefully ornamented, sweet-toned performances on modern instruments that take into account period performance practice. For anyone who enjoys Bach's orchestral music or the more familiar harpsichord versions of these works, this disc is self-recommending. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Considered one of Broadway’s most important composers in the post 1950s era, and still active today nearing 90 years old, John Kander is responsible for the music to such acclaimed shows as Cabaret, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman to name just a few. This extraordinary 2-CD set spans 55 years of his compositions along with rare demos included featuring Kander with his longtime lyricist Fred Ebb and new recordings of some of his classic songs. Including a deluxe lavishly illustrated 64 page booklet with extensive notes and comments on the songs by Kander. A milestone in musical theatre music releases

The Emory Symphonic Winds, comprised of members of the Emory Wind Ensemble and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, are American leaders in the commissioning of new music. Bruce Broughton’s In the World of Spirits was dedicated to the ensemble and is a work of action, dynamism and electric physicality. Christmas carols and hymns are explored by Gustav Holst while Jennifer Higdon charts the intangible beauty of music itself. Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas Music is a classic of symphonic band writing: rich, colorful and sonorous.

Bach's three surviving violin concertos--the A minor, E major, and D minor ("double")--have long enjoyed standard repertoire status, and their continued popularity with audiences has made them fair game for almost every violinist of note with a recording contract. Fortunately for listeners, these works generally have been treated extremely well and the catalog consistently offers numerous fine performances, on both period and modern instruments. These new performances, featuring three outstanding young violinists, are part of Naxos' ongoing traversal of the "complete orchestral works of Bach", and they easily hold their own among the far more illustrious competition. Kolja Blacher, who performs the solo concertos, is a brilliant and commanding presence who makes Bach's not-to-be-taken-lightly lines really sing and dance and occasionally spark. His colleagues, Christine Pichlmeier and Lisa Stewart, deliver a D minor "double concerto" that's both agile and lyrical. The interplay is a real dialogue, especially rich through the second movement suspensions and dissonances, and especially exciting in the stretto-filled third movement.


Most Bach violin recordings fill out the program with one of the harpsichord concerto reconstructions--that is, a piece that modern scholarship suggests originally was a violin concerto but that Bach later reworked and for which the violin original is now lost. Here we get the D minor concerto BWV 1052, a famous harpsichord piece that is rarely performed in this version, and that in the hands of Blacher and his Cologne partners sounds every bit like it belongs with the rest of Bach's violin masterpieces.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Nikolai Medtner's fortunes have risen on disc insofar as his solo piano works are concerned, while his substantial violin output remains relatively obscure. One explanation for this has to do with the fact that the Second and Third Violin Sonatas each take nearly 45 minutes to perform and require the utmost in technique, musicality, and concentration from both players.

The Third Sonata dates from 1938, and its basic melodic and rhythmic material draws upon Orthodox liturgical chants and gutsy folk-dances. A 1996 Erato recording with violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Boris Berezovsky has long held a reference position for its virtuoso bravura and paragraphic sweep. Laurence Kayaleh and Paul Stewart offer a different yet no less convincing point of view by way of slightly slower tempos, more lyrical rumination (their expansive, flexible parsing of the slow movement), plus thoughtful attention to detail.

You'll notice how Kayaleh projects the contrasts in the enormous first movement's themes by generously dipping into her vast portfolio of articulations and nuances, while Stewart differentiates various degrees of non-legato phrasing without ever exaggerating. While the Scherzo is more "meno" than "molto" vivace, the violin's ricocheting passagework gains melodic clarity and shape with extra breathing space, and the pizzicato chords truly speak. The players' tightly unified pacing in the finale's canonic passacaglia stands out for its easy contrapuntal repartée.

The smaller-scaled Nocturnes and the effective Heifetz arrangement of the B minor Fairy Tale also receive sensitive, poetic readings, where the timbre Kayaleh obtains from her two lowest strings has a memorable, viola-like richness. A warm ambience arises from Naxos' close microphone placement, and the pianist's booklet notes are informative and well written. Watch for the second and final volume.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Distinctly Russian, unabashedly Romantic and full-bodied, yet intellectually devised and highly disciplined, Medtner' compositions for violin and piano encompass music of rare beauty and power, gratifying for both performer and audience. Violin Sonata No.

An award-winning program created by Apollo’s Fire’s director Jeannette Sorrell, Sugarloaf Mountain follows the joys and sorrows of Celtic immigrants who settled in Appalachia. Sparkling fiddle tunes and haunting ballads of the British Isles crossed the Atlantic during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries and took root in the hills of Virginia. They mingled with American shape-note hymns and African spirituals, creating the soulful music known as Appalachian. Passing through love and loss, dancing and prayer, the music overflows in celebration as the people of the mountains raise their communal voices.

The melodrama, a genre in which a spoken text is declaimed over a musical accompaniment, was a popular form in the nineteenth century, but it failed to thrive in the twentieth. While performances of Strauss' 1897 setting of Tennyson's narrative poem "Enoch Arden" remain rare, it has aged well, and performances as fine as this are a testimony to its viability and its continuing ability to move the listener. Tennyson tells an achingly poignant story of three children, the two boys both growing to adulthood in love with the young woman, with delicacy and restraint. Strauss matches the story with a reserved but expressive piano accompaniment that supports and never overwhelms the narrative. Emanuel Ax plays with grace and deep feeling, but the focus falls on Patrick Stewart's brilliant and powerful performance. His subtle and nuanced telling is far more effective than an overtly impassioned one would have been, and the naturalness of his reading is hugely compelling and moving. Ax closes the album with two short piano pieces that Strauss wrote when he was still in his teens; they serve as a moving and cathartic epilogue to the melodrama. This extraordinary performance of Enoch Arden should be of strong interest to anyone intrigued by the mystery of the relationship between music and poetry.

-- Stephen Eddins, AllMusic.com

Seven Kings is the newest release from the Meridian Arts Ensemble. The group, which was founded in 1987, consists of a traditional brass quintet plus percussion. Music on this release is from composers David Sanford, Edward Jacobs, Robert Maggio, Dave Ballou, and the ensemble’s horn player, Daniel Grabois. All of these pieces were composed in the last twenty years. The Meridian Arts Ensemble is known for its versatility, performing music from the Renaissance until now. They have won numerous competitions in the last two decades, including the Concert Artists Guild Competition.

The Bang on a Can All-Stars have recorded their first studio album in five years; the first to include the All-Stars' current line-up: Ashley Bathgate, cello; Robert Black, bass; Vicky Chow, piano; David Cossin, percussion; Mark Stewart, electric guitar; and Evan Ziporyn, clarinets.

With Big Beautiful Dark and Scary, the Bang on a Can All-Stars show off their blazing speed, polyrhythmic virtuosity and all-world versatility in a return to the core Bang on a Can sound - an uncategorizable supermix of classical and electric instruments that is part classical ensemble, part rock band, and part jazz sextet. The album is the first in a decade that features the All-Stars exclusively, rather than as part of a collaborative project. Each of the pieces on the double-CD calls upon a different kind of virtuosity, demonstrating the range of musical abilities and experiences arguably unique to this ensemble. Recorded in New York City, all of the music on Big Beautiful Dark and Scary (including the arrangements of the works by Conlon Nancarrow) were written for and premiered by the Bang on a Can All-Stars.

A WQXR-FM Best Classical Recording for 2019

Twentieth-century African American composer Margaret Bonds receives long overdue recognition with the world premiere recording of her crowning achievement, The Ballad of the Brown King. With an expressly written libretto by Bonds’ friend Langston Hughes, this Christmas cantata which focuses on Balthazar, the dark-skinned king who journeyed to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Jesus Christ, is beautifully interpreted by New York City-based The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra, outstanding soloists soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford and tenor Noah Stewart, under the baton of their charismatic conductor, Malcolm J. Merriweather. Bonds authority Dr. Ashley Jackson contributes the inspired liner notes. This unique seasonal album also includes a selection of specially arranged songs, including a setting of Hughes’ seminal poem I, Too, Sing America, performed by baritone Merriweather and Jackson on solo harp.

REVIEW:

Nearly 60 years after its premiere, conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather and the phenomenal New York-based Dessoff Choirs have at last provided a way experience Margaret Bonds’ genius cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King. After luxuriating in this sumptuous setting of the Nativity story (with a libretto by Langston Hughes), be sure to listen to Bonds’ heart-rending Three Dream Portraits, sung forcefully by Merriweather himself.

–WQXR-FM (105.9 FM, NYC - Zev Kane)

For the first time ever, a glimpse behind the scenes at the birth of a new musical comedy. Before the show could begin, production money for the budget had to be raised. And here is a unique opportunity to hear an actual backers’ audition in a fashionable East Side New York apartment with the actual songwriters performing the score. And as an added bonus, several songs were subsequently cut from the score and appear here for the first time in any medium. The extensive liner notes are written by Coleman biographer Andy Propst. Cy Coleman already could boast of hit Broadway shows such as Little Me, Seesaw, I Love My Wife and On the Twentieth Century. After the great success of Barnum, he would write the scores for the Tony Award-winning Will Rogers Follies, The Life, and others. Michael Stewart is best known for his masterful work on the libretto of Hello, Dolly! He had begun his Broadway lyric-writing career along with Cy Coleman on the hit show I Love My Wife. The two writers teamed up for their greatest success as a team, Barnum. Listening to this rare, historic recording, imagine yourself sitting in a lavish apartment plied with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and entertained by this marvelous score. Would you have invested in the show? Barnum eventually ran at the St. James Theatre for over 800 performances. It spawned a successful London production and countless regional and amateur productions since its opening night on April 30, 1980.

Dr. Rebecca Stewart together with the vocal ensemble Seconda Pract!ca explores the music of Josquin Desprez and his contemporaries Brumel and Willaert, commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death. The central piece of this recording is the famous Missa Mater patris by Josquin. Founded in 2012 by international musicians gathered in The Netherlands for their studies, Seconda Prat!ca has become one of the leading ensembles of the new generation of early music performers. The ensemble’s main goal is to bridge the gaps between performers and audience, revitalizing western musical heritage by bringing it back to a shared living experience. We achieve this through a continuous mixing of media, performance, research and musical excellence. Since 2013 Seconda Prat!ca has become part of the EEEmerging project, an initiative of the European Comission to support young developing ensemble specializing in Early Music.

Tenor saxophonist with his quartet featuring Peter Bernstein-guitar, Peter Washington-bass, Billy Drummond-drums.

Grant Stewart's third Criss Cross date as a leader features the spirited interplay between the tenor saxophonist and his longtime band mate, guitarist Joe Cohn. Stewart's brawny, expressive solos contrast nicely with Cohn's fleet yet temperate lines. Supported by an active rhythm section, including star pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Paul Gill, and drummer Willie Jones III, Stewart and Cohn burn through a program of standards, plus an original composition by Cohn's father, jazz great Al Cohn.

Cornet master Rex Stewart was selected by Henri Chaix to choose the repertoire for their collaboration on this June 12th, 1966 session recorded in Baden, Switzerland, and produced by Arild Wideroe (this is the first CD issue of this music which was licensed originally for LP release in Europe on Polydor International). The second half of this CD features the Henri Chaix Orchestra's final performance (does not include an appearance by Rex Stewart) at the Montreux Festival on June 16th, 1971, and it's issued here for the first time. The orchestra performs three medleys as a tribute to Fats Wallers.

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart's debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks' Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J. Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles - a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene - plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist's vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band "gripping... relies on subtlety and insinuation to register it's uncanny power." The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music's intent and purpose.

The latest album from tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart joins him with trumpeter sensation Bruce Harris Like the vibe in New York City where Stewart lives, the music on this invigorating recording has a dynamic spirit. Along with Harris the set features an all-star quartet with Tardo Hammer on piano, David Wong on piano and Phil Stewart on drums recorded live at the renowned Rudy Van Gelder studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Includes 8 tracks including some original compositions and the band's take on classics like "I'm A Fool to Want You" originally recorded by Dexter Gordon in the same studio in 1965! Right from the first song there's an expectant anticipation about where Stewart and the musicians will go with the uniquely curated repertoire. They deliver on the promise, with ardent jazz that both honors tradition and sounds timeless.

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