SOLO GUITAR WORKS BY Anders Miolin. COMPOSITIONS BY HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This disc celebrates the centenary of Jean Francaix, (1912-1997), as well as his music, written with the stated aim to 'give pleasure;. A precocious talent, praised by Ravel for his great gifts and curiosity, and astonishing Nadia Boulanger with his ability, Francaix wrote his first chamber work for winds, the Quartet, in 1933 at the age of 21, and completed his Quintet No.2 more than 50 years later - with a remarkably consistent style marked by lightness and wit. Francaix' works are favourites not only with audiences but also with the musicians themselves, enjoying the challenges of his virtuosic writing, his fleet way with rhythms and timbres and the conversational character of the interplay between individual parts. The highly regarded Bergen Woodwind Quintet, consisting of solo players from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, here perform four chamber works for winds which all share these characteristics - and do so with obvious pleasure. The versatile ensemble released its first disc on BIS in 1985, and has recorded chamber music by Carl Nielsen as well as by David Maslanka, to critical acclaim.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Triple Feature.

Classical Music

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Classical Music

Hybrid SACD: This SACD will play on standard CD players as well as SACD players.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s appearance on 7th May 1747 at the court of Frederick the Great is the best documented event in the composer’s otherwise unglamorous career. During the proceedings, Frederick provided Bach with an exceptionally difficult theme on which to improvise a fugue. The King is said to have been impressed with the improvisation, but Bach himself was less so, and announced that he intended to set the theme to paper "in a regular fugue". Several months later, the Musical Offering appeared in print – a collection of 13 pieces in diverse genres: fugues, canons and a trio sonata, all exploiting the "Royal Theme" in various intricate ways. Bach’s published score gives no firm idea about a playing order for the pieces, and in most cases no instrumentation is specified. Furthermore, some of the canons – the so-called "riddle canons" – are very sketchily notated, with just a few notes and some enigmatic clues in Latin. The performers are thus left with an unusual degree of freedom when it comes to the interpretation of the work – a freedom which Masaaki Suzuki, with his colleagues from Bach Collegium Japan, is singularly well-placed to explore. Following the Offering on this disc is another collection of riddle canons by Bach: the 14 Canons on the Goldberg Ground, which were discovered as late as 1974, in the form of a hand-written addendum to the composer’s own printed copy of the Goldberg Variations. The canons are all based on the first eight bass notes of the celebrated Aria from the Goldberg Variations, and are performed here as harpsichord solos, along with the Aria. The disc closes with another chamber work – the Sonata in G Major for Flute, Violin and Continuo, BWV 1038.



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REVIEW:

Suzuki’s readings of the ricercars find a workable balance between forward momentum and textural lucidity, the trio sonata is tasteful if cool, and the canons are played with exemplary clarity. BIS’s recorded acoustic is perhaps a little ‘big’ for such intimate music, though at no cost to transparency or attractiveness.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Classical Music