Bridge Records
315 products
Mozart Piano Concertos, Vol. 4: Nos. 12 & 23
Bach: Sonatas For Flute And Fortepiano, Etc /Rotholz, Cooper
Includes son(s) for fl and bc by Johann Sebastian Bach. Soloists: Susan Rotholz, Kenneth Cooper.
So-low
This fascinating release is performed by low horn virtuoso, Denise Tryon, the fourth hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a player of fourth horn, Ms. Tryon is an expert in the lowest regions of the French Horn's range, and her disc features newly commissioned compositions that feature this area of the horn's register. Played alongside older works for both solo horn and horn with piano, this recording makes for a most enjoyable sonic journey in colors rarely encountered on the horn. Ms. Tryon's musicality and virtuosity is a pleasure to hear throughout. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra writes that “Denise Tryon’s command of the lower register provides the strongest foundation of sound for a horn section, and yet, her sound is supple and flexible.”
Liszt: Fantaisie Und Fuge; Sonata In B Minor
On October 22, 2011, the musical world will celebrate the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt. Garrick Ohlsson, one of the great piano virtuosi of the current era, contributes to the celebration with recordings of two of Liszt's towering achievements: the infrequently recorded Busoni transcription of Liszt's organ piece, 'Fantasie und Fuge über den choral Ad nos, ad Salutarem Undam", (To us, to the healing waters, come again) S. 259 and, the most beloved of all of Liszt's piano compositions, the Sonata in B Minor, S. 178. Those who revel in great pianism need look no further than this spectacular program.
Feldman: for Philip Guston
Feldman: Crippled Symmetry / California Ear Unit
In some respects, CRIPPLED SYMMETRY is "minimalist" in that the melodic fragments are brief and repeeated, yet it sounds nothing like Philip Glass or Steve Reich. Feldman's approach recalls the spare, spacious sound of Anton Webern and the piano music of Erik Satie, with the subtle repetition forming symmetry an almost imperceptible asymmetry. This 87-minute piece, for a trio of flute, piano and percussion, is gentle though not lulling or ambient (though it may certainly achieve that effect)--there is an elemental sense of tension to it. It's as if Feldman were trying to capture the sight AND sound of a snowflake melting in slow motion. CRIPPLED SYMMETRY is powerful and demanding music, but is so quiet and unassuming you may not notice.
REVIEWS:
International Record Review (4/00, p.52) - "...Feldman deals with sound, slowing the listener's attention-span until the merest gnat's crotchet of variation registers as a...seismic shift. His figures oscillate like the visual fields created by the giant canvases of Rothko or Newman..."
Billboard (11/27/99) - Recommended
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 2
Music of Ursula Mamlok, Vol. 2
Music of John Harbison, Vol. 1
GEORGE CRUMB: ?BAD DOG!?
Wolf: Spanisches Liederbuch & Italienisches Liederbuch
Wagner: Concerto for Flute, Strings & Percussion - Ruders: C
American Flute Quintets
Beethoven: Piano Sonata Nos. 9, 10, 17, 24 & 27
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 20 & Moments musicaux
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
A Wind Blows from the East
Chihara: Viola Concerto & Music For Viola
Ruders: Symphony No. 5 / Elts, Danish National Symphony Orchestra
This disc presents the world premiere recording of Poul Ruders's latest symphony, completed in 2013. The symphony, composed in three movements is, in some ways, the great Danish composer's most traditional symphony- an explosive, quick-paced first movement followed by an hypnotically inward-looking slow movement, followed by a bristling dance finale. Aside from its outer-trappings, Ruders 5 inhabits a sound world all its own. The first movement's opening brass fanfare is followed immediately by startling police whistles and pounding drums- music of volcanic power and intensity. The slow movement employs a huge registral span, and the third movement's funky dance rhythms collide with dense harmonic underpinnings. The work is given a brilliant reading by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, led by the Estonian maestro, Olari Elts. The recording was made in the Danish Radio's new concert hall, named by Gramophone, as one of the "10 best concert halls in the world".
From Hungary To Taiwan / Formosa Quartet
This imaginative recording project offers virtuoso treatment of folk music from Hungary and Taiwan, illuminating many aspects of the respective cultures. Winners of both the First Prize and Amadeus Prize at the London International String Competition, the Formosa Quartet was hailed as "spellbinding" by BBC Music Magazine. They have given critically acclaimed performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Caramoor Festival, and many other esteemed venues. Formed in 2002 when the four founding members came together for a concert tour of Taiwan, Formosa Quartet is deeply committed to championing Taiwanese music and promoting the arts in the land of its heritage, as well as exploring diverse and adventurous mediums for string quartet. In 2013 the members of Formosa Quartet founded the annual Formosa Chamber Music Festival, where they continue to serve as artist faculty.
Perle: Orchestral Music (1965-1987) / Morlot, Seattle Symphony
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REVIEW:
The performances by the Seattle Symphony are excellent. Ludovic Morlot displays a great understanding of this challenging music. His control of the orchestra is remarkable. The sound quality is very clear and lets all of the subtle nuances of the music be heard.
– Fanfare
Music Of Poul Ruders, Vol. 6 / Søndergard, Norwegian Radio Orchestra
RUDERS Piano Concerto No. 2 1. Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean 2. Bel Canto 3 • 1 Vassily Primakov (pn); 1 Thomas Søndergard, cond; 1 Norwegian RO; 2 Mikko Luoma (acc); 2 iO Str Qrt; 3 Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (vn) • BRIDGE 9336 (64:03)
Bridge Records, a company primarily known for its commitment to contemporary American composers like Elliott Carter, continues to promote the music of the Dane Poul Ruders (b.1949). This disc is the sixth in its Ruders series. It contains compelling performances of two recent works of considerable power.
Ruders’s music has been described as a triumph of stylistic pluralism. What that means in listener’s terms is that you can never be sure the composer is going in the direction you think he is; he retains a genuine ability to surprise. Both the larger works on this disc provide examples of this. His very recent Piano Concerto No. 2 (2009–10) begins in a relatively romantic vein, evident more in its flow than its thematic material or harmony, but as the movement evolves the piano develops an almost aggressive desperation: a determination to break the formal and harmonic boundaries with frequent attacks and note clusters. The roles are reversed in the extraordinary slow movement. This consists for the most part of a tentative, exploratory line of single notes in the piano’s treble, discreetly supported by vibraphone, harp, and a solo violin. The soft, meandering solo is confronted from time to time by orchestral onslaughts of dissonant brass, squealing piccolos, and fearsome fortissimos , which seem to have no effect on the dissociative soloist, although the first of these interruptions would probably have a visceral effect on concertgoers in a live performance! In the third and final movement, the piano takes control and ushers in a brilliant and rapid moto perpetuo that crams as many notes as possible into its four and a half minutes. Ruders uses a traditional framework but fills it with quirky episodes, unexpected colors, and—in a phrase—pushes the concerto envelope. The work is similarly formal in shape but more wide-ranging in effect than his first Piano Concerto of 1994.
Color is at the forefront of Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean , a 2004 suite in nine continuous movements for accordion and string quartet. Here Ruders displays great imagination in his exploitation of the extremes of the accordion’s range, and by blending it into the many textural devices available to the quartet. The work is inspired by literature from a variety of sources, including Shakespeare, Darwin, and Conrad; quotations or references preface each section. It begins with a cataclysmic explosion of sound (tone clusters from the accordion predominate), which gradually morphs into a passage of warm, lyrical beauty and eventually into single, long-held high notes, rather the way a composition by Silvestrov proceeds. We move through many moods, some incorporating a degree of grotesquery in galumphing ostinatos or deep growls from the lowest reaches of the solo instrument. Then in contrast the composer will lure us into pure neoromanticism—as in the sixth movement, “Threnos,” prefaced by a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and the Turtle : “Beauty, truth and rarity / Grace in all simplicity / Here enclosed in cinders lie.” At all times in this work, as is usual with Ruders, the listener has little idea what is coming next.
The accompanying Bel Canto (also 2004) is for solo violin, commissioned by the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. As the title suggests it is primarily a cantabile , although there are moments of double-stopping in minor seconds to provide the unexpected. A folk or hymn-like tune brings the lament to a quiet close.
The music on this recording is a challenge but also a pleasure to get to know. It is performed with dedication and brilliance; I can’t praise highly enough the talents of pianist Primakov, violinist Sørensen, the iO Quartet (whose personnel are violinists Christina McGann and Sarah Crocker, violist Elizabeth Weisser, and cellist Chris Gross) and the remarkable accordion virtuoso Mikko Luoma. Want List material.
FANFARE: Phillip Scott
Schubert: Winterreise / Scarlata, Kalish
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REVIEW:
As a stirring and elevating musical experience, as opposed to one that is harrowing, I find Scarlata’s Winterreise utterly compelling. This is an alternative to performances that leave your nerves jangling, and I love it. I could listen to this man serenade me all day. Gilbert Kalish is equally wonderful.
– Fanfare
Lei Liang: Bamboo Lights
Chopin: 24 Preludes - Schumann: Fantasie / Gutierrez
The Cuban-American virtuoso Horacio Gutiérrez is a legendary figure in the piano world. After taking the Silver Medal at the 1970 Tchaikovsky International Competition, Gutiérrez embarked on an international touring career that saw performances with nearly all of the world's great orchestras and conductors including Maazel, Rostropovich, Masur, Levine, Rozhdestvensky, Ormandy, Gergiev, Ozawa, Previn, Leinsdorf, Tennstedt, Ashkenazy, Barenboim and numerous others. Gutiérrez has recorded very infrequently, and these new recordings reveal a great poet-virtuoso at the height of his musical powers.
