Songs of Madeleine Dring

Includes work(s) by Wadada Leo Smith.

This is the third volume in this phenomenal series devoted to Mexicoís greatest 20th century composer (volumes 1 and 2, CB8850 and CB8851 respectively won the 2003 and 2004 GRAMMYS in their categories). In this international collaboration between Southwest Chamber Music and Mexicoís Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, we hear a celebration of the composerís native culture, with such powerful works as Xochipilli (a pre-Columbian god of music) and the vocal works Cuatro Melodias and Lamentaciones. The other vocal works, with their melodic gifts, come close to revealing the operatic composer Chavez could have been. Of particular interest are the percussion works: the famous Toccata is here, along with Tambuco and one of his final works, the Partita for Solo Tympani. In between is the dramatic incidental music to a 1932 production, Antigona, apuntes para la Sinfonia. The previous volumes have been consistent best-sellers, and volume 3 should be immensely popular. Even more good news: the series, to be completed in 2006 to mark Southwest Musicís 20th anniversary, will eventually include the complete String Quartets and the complete works for piano and string ensemble. Definitely one of the most important chamber music releases this year!

This album received the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without Conductor).

This album received the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without Conductor)."

Classic Mancini

The Hollywood Flute

Includes work(s) by Morton Subotnick. Ensemble: Southwest Chamber Music Society.

From the Operas of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1949)

CHAVEZ, C.: Chamber Music (Complete), Vol. 4 (Southwest Cham

"A soprano star with one of the loveliest voices this reporter has ever heard," Henry Humphries, the late Cincinnati music critic once wrote of one of Dorothy Warenskjold's opera performances, declaring further, "she is a singer of finely grained musicianship, personality and temperament - one the Golden Age of Song would have been proud to call its own." Dorothy Warenskjold is a third generation Californian. She was born in Piedmont and received all her education and musical training in and around San Francisco. As James Schwabacher, tenor and founder of San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, recently remarked, "I have been constantly amazed at the consistency over the years of Dorothy's vocal technique which produces the pristine lyric quality uniquely hers." And nowhere is this more obviously shown than in the present choice of arias which span a period of nineteen years. These arias date from the young and budding prima donna's first major radio broadcast, through mid-career opera performances, up to the latest recorded arias. This consistency is a tribute not only to her training, but to her intelligent dedication to her art.

Cambria Master Recordings is pleased to announce Canadian Panorama, a new release of world premiere recordings by prominent, contemporary Canadian composers in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. The recording features The Winds of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Ronald Royer, with Sarah Jeffrey (oboe), Gabirel Radford (horn) and Kaye Royer (clarinet). The variety of musical styles and influences represented in the works featured on this recording reflect the rich diversity of contemporary Canadian composition and will appeal to a broad audience interested in classical music. A unifying feature of the eight compositions is the inspiration each takes from the musical influences of the past. Four works are commissions by the SPO for this project. The compositions Fundy, Saturday Night at Fort Chambly, and McIntyre Ranch Country are each inspired by different regions of Canada and their local folksong traditions: the East Coast, Quebec, and Alberta respectively. The new works Allemande and Whirligig illustrate the ways in which European classical music has inspired Canadian composers to create new, colorful works. Rhapsody and Travels with Mozart are inspired by the rich cultural diversity of Canada. And finally, Serenade pays tribute to Canada’s vibrant film industry and culture.

Cambodian composer Chinary Ung was an extreme disadvantage in terms of his musical background; the only Western instrument he was able to study in his native Cambodia was the E flat clarinet, which he learned well enough to enter the Manhattan School of Music in 1964. Since earning his doctorate in music composition at Columbia in 1974, Ung has largely made his career in the United States as a teacher and, partly owing to that, missed the genocide conducted in his home country, although most of his family was not so fortunate. After taking most of the 1980s off to retrieve what he could of Cambodia's seriously endangered traditional music, Ung returned to the United States, his music and perspective forever changed. Prior to October 2007, Ung's highest profile CD release had been the inclusion of his Inner Voices on an Argo disc conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Jeff von der Schmidt's expert group Southwest Chamber Music, which has already done so much on behalf of Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, now turn its attention to Ung on the Cambria disc Chinary Ung: Aura, Oracle, Still Life After Death.

In the three works mentioned in the front title, composed between 1995 and 2006, Ung creates a seamless merger between the capabilities of Western instruments, contemporary techniques, and the influence of the traditional music of his homeland. The pieces are highly theatrical, with Still Life After Death described as "a small theater work [...] inspired by an ancient Cambodian ritual." Such rituals are closely tied with Buddhism; Aura utilizes two sopranos, singing high-flying passages in Pali and Khmer, floating over a chamber orchestra in which nearly everyone is required to play additional percussion instruments, including bowed crotales, little cymbals common to the ancient world. Current events figure into Ung's texts and music as well; a portion of Aura is a commemoration of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, whereas the oracles consulted by the Dalai Lama before his final departure from Tibet is a significant element in the second work, Oracle.

In preparation for his work with Ung, Jeff von der Schmidt himself traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam and toured Angkor Wat; Southwest Chamber Music was the first professional ensemble to perform Ung's music in Cambodia for Cambodians. Its polished, dedicated performances here well-represent Ung's music, and as with the Chávez issues, Cambria's recording here is top quality. There is every reason to support Cambodian culture; at least 3,000 years old, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge nearly wiped it off the face of the earth. Nevertheless, that is not the only reason to listen to the music of Chinary Ung; he is an excellent, visionary composer, and his work speaks eloquently about his people and the need to rebuild.

-- Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

Miaskovsky: Cello Concerto, Op. 66 & Cello Sonatas

Cambria Master Recordings is honored to present the legendary pianist Jacob Gimpel (1906 – 1989) performing two beloved piano concerti with the Berlin Symphony – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat Minor, Op 23 (Dr. Paul Otto Matzerath, conductor) and Edvard Grieg Piano Concert in A Minor, Op 18 (Artur Rother, conductor) (Cambria 1260). These stereo performances date from 1961 and 1959, when Gimpel was at the height of his career, and are now being released for first time in America. The Polish-born pianist, known by connoisseurs the world over as “a musician’s musician” and as one of the great piano virtuosos of the Twentieth Century, brought a classical elegance (authentically born of his intimate familiarity with the Polish music ethos and the cultural and stylistic brilliance of Imperial Vienna), combined with a formidable musical intellect and a rapturous poetic and tonal imagination. This great artist, teacher, and humanitarian, once the associate and protégé of the legendary violinist Bronislaw Huberman, was all too rarely heard in his adopted homeland of America, despite his spectacular European career, universal critical acclaim, and many outstanding recordings, a few of which were even distributed in the United States.

Bland, E.: Piece for Chamber Orchestra / for Bassoon / Sketc

Kraft, W.: Concerto for 4 Percussion Soloists / Contextures

Piano Recital: Waites, Althea - PRICE, F.B. / STILL, W.G. /

Schuller, G.: Suite for Wind Quintet / Piston, W.: Wind Quin

Violin Concert: Kaufman, Louis - MARTINU, B. / KHACHATURIAN,