Classical Music

BrIdge Records launches Anne-Marie McDermott's Mozart Piano Concerto cycle with Vol. 1 of the series offering Concerto No. 6, K. 238, and Concerto No. 13, K. 415. The Odensesymfoniorkester (Denmark) is conducted by Scott Yoo. Of Ms. McDermott's extraordinary musicianship BBC Music Magazine recently wrote: "McDermott's heart has heft and translucence, structural certainty and seasoned humanity." In a career that has spanned over 25 years, American pianist Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The breadth of her repertoire matches that of her instrument, spanning from Bach, Haydn and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokoviev and Scriabin to works by today’s most influential composers -- Aaron Jay Kernis, Steven Hartke, Joan Tower and Charles Wuorinen, among them. As an Artistic Director, Ms. McDermott leads the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida and the Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curacao.

Cellist Marcy Rosen's recent recording of Mendelssohn's Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Lydia Artymiw has received glowing reviews from the international press. The present reissue of her 1989 MHS Strauss & Grieg album presents two staples of the romantic cello repertoire in impassioned readings. Marcy Rosen has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her "one of the intimate art's abiding treasures." She has performed in recital and with orchestra throughout Canada, England, France, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and all fifty of the United States. She made her concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eighteen and has since appeared with such noted orchestras as the Dallas Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Caramoor Festival Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, the Jupiter Symphony and Concordia Chamber Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and the Tokyo Symphony at the famed Orchard Hall in Tokyo. In recital she has appeared in New York at such acclaimed venues as Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street "Y" and Merkin Concert Hall; in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center, Dumbarton Oaks, the Phillips Collection and the Corcoran Gallery, where for many years she hosted a series entitled "Marcy Rosen and Friends." In recent seasons she has given Master Classes and appeared on stage in Beijing and Shanghai, China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and in Cartagena, Colombia.

This recording presents four trios by American composers who are linked by their New England experience and studies at Harvard University. Three of the four works (the Piston trios and the Perera trio) are new additions to the currently available recorded catalog. Leonard Bernstein's 1937 trio is one of the composer's earliest works, written during his apprenticeship at Harvard. Its three movements are by turns dance-like, bluesy and jazzy. Violinist Joel Pitchon is active as a soloist, concertmaster and chamber music player. He has received acclaim for his performances with nationally and internationally renowned ensembles. He also works extensively in chamber ensembles. Marie-Volcy Pelletier, cellist, is a native of Paris. She received the Premier Prix in Cello and Chamber Music from the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, France, where she studied with Michel Strauss. Yu-Mei Wei has served as piano faculty at Taipei National University of the Arts, University of Taipei, and Chihlee University of Technology. She is the winner of numerous international piano competitions and a member of two renowned chamber groups with which she has recorded five albums.

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REVIEW:

Three of these trios are said to receive their recording premieres here, which makes this album all the more welcome. Another reason is the evident joy the present artists derive from performing them, which they really succeed in communicating to us.

– Audio Visual Club of Atlanta

Fred Lerdahl, Vol. 6 presents new work by one of today's true masters. The album features two major works, the cello concerto, "Arches" and Lerdahl's fourth string quartet, "Chaconne". Producer David Starobin writes that "Lerdahl's work is rare in today's musical world in that it seeks and achieves both complexity and intelligibility. It is indebted to the past yet committed to the exploration of new territory." Rounding out the album are three delightful smaller pieces, "There and Back Again", "Fire and Ice", and "Three Bagatelles." Fred Lerdahl studied at Lawrence University, Princeton, and Tanglewood. He has taught at UC/Berkeley, Harvard, and Michigan, and since 1991 he has been Fritz Reiner Professor of Music at Columbia University.

The superb flute, harp, viola trio, Hat Trick, returns to Bridge with a fascinating program of recent works coupled with a classic. The trio, April Clayton, flute; Kristi Shade, harp; and David Wallace, viola, perform new music by Thea Musgrave, Daniel Dorff, Jessica Meyer, David Bruce, and Angelica Negron alongside Sir Arnold Bax's 1916 "Elegiac Trio".

Composer Steve Mackey's Memoir is a 75-minute work for narrator, string quartet and percussion duo based on the unpublished memoir written by his mother - Elaine Mackey. Ms. Mackey bore witness to the tumultuous 20th Century - The Great Depression, WWII, while battling social anxiety, divorce, and alcoholism. She writes with disarming candor about her experiences, which are brought to life in son Steve's propulsive, yet tender, heartfelt score. Director Mark DeChiazza writes that "The text of Elaine's memoir, provide Mackey his point of entry - a portal through which he conducts a musical conversation with his mother, and his engagement with the document she left him." The recording features stunning performances by narrator Natalie Christa Rakes, who is joined by two of today's leading ensembles, the Dover Quartet and Arx Duo.

Bridge Records is pleased to present this previously unissued performance by the Stuyvesant Quartet. The recording is the only known "in concert" recording by this stellar quartet of players associated with Toscanini's legendary NBC Symphony Orchestra, and was made at the Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium in 1946. This release is part of Bridge's ongoing series devoted to the Stuyvesant Quartet's historic recordings.

REVIEW:

It is fitting that Prokofiev’s First Quartet is performed here, as this work was first performed at the LoC itself. The inclusion of Dohnányi’s Second Quartet is certainly cause for celebration. Their Dvořák cuts deep emotionally. This disc of historic performances is a little miracle and recommended without hesitation.

— Fanfare

Winner of a 2019 Independence Foundation Grant, the 2018 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, as well as an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Anna Weesner has also received Guggenheim and Pew Fellowships. Ms. Weesner studied at Yale and Cornell, and is Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

This unique album of chamber music by Patrick Stoyanovich features performances by the composer's daughter, the violinist, Sophia Stoyanovich. Ms. Stoyanovich's intense connection with her father's music can be gleaned by a brief sample of her liner notes: "In the fall of 2019, on a visit to Paris, my father walked down the Rue de Paradis. A year later, while working on his second Sonata for violin and piano, the memory of that street inspired the closing theme of it's final movement. This theme seems to reach out it's hand, consoling the listener after a monumental journey. I find wisdom in my father's music in a moment like this, in which an intimate honesty of sentiment answers music of struggle, addressing our emotional need as listeners." Ms. Stoyanovich is partnered by pianist Derek Wang and cellist Aaron Wolff in these deeply felt recordings.

Buxtehude’s Opus 1 sits at a stylistic and formal crossroads, interweaving some of the most refined counterpoint of the 17th century with a sense of boundlessness in time and texture, creating a music in which order and fantasy coexist in perfectly imperfect balance. Composing at the dawn of the 18th century, Buxtehude demonstrates a fidelity to the caprices of earlier 17th-century works while also taking up the challenges of the more extended and developed ensemble writing then emerging in the works of Corelli and his 18th-century successors. Filament comprises a core trio of violin, viola da gamba, and keyboards. Filament's mission is to be the bright connective thread — that eponymous filament — linking the world of its audience with that of its repertoire.

This fascinating recital features three works composed during a short period of tremendous upheaval in the world of music. Szymanowski's Mythes: Trois Poèmes, op. 30 was composed in 1915, Dohnányi's Sonata, op. 21 in 1912, and Bartók's Sonata No. 1 in 1920-21. Violinist Elizabeth Chang writes that "the crosscurrents of multiculturalism and the pursuit of a national identity separate from the prevailing Germanic legacy, are topics with searing relevance to the early 21st century. Probing the connections among the densely intertwined web of musicians of this time yields insight into an inflection point in musical history that unleashed the wildly divergent paths that music composition took as the twentieth century unfolded." This recording presents beautifully detailed performances of three important pieces, performed by two leading virtuosi.

Composer Scott Wheeler writes that "Martin Boykan (1931-2021) wrote music that digs deep, and rewards the closest listening. Every phrase of the music on this recording is first of all heartfelt, carefully considered and fascinatingly intricate. It's music full of melody, often yearning, and frequently sparkling." The third volume of Bridge's Martin Boykan series presents first recordings of six works composed over 41 years, between 1975 and 2016

Renowned classical guitarist David Starobin pays homage to seven leading composer/guitarists of the past two centuries. Virtuosi presents eight previously unissued tracks, alongside remastered versions of five Starobin classics. The album opens with Starobin's torrid reading of Giuliani's popular Grand Overture, and follows with new recordings of works by the 19th century Czech composer/virtuoso, W.T. Matiegka. Included are remastered versions of Fernando Sor's masterpiece, the infectious 7th Fantaisie, and Coste's effervescent "La Cachucha". Starobin's recital concludes with a new recording of the rarely encountered Five Anecdotes, composed by 20th century guitar superstar, Andrés Segovia.

Classical Music