This new collection of contemporary works for flute and piccolo, performed by Leonard Garrison, features works by Robert Dick, Ian Clarke, Gergely Ittzes, Kaija Saariaho, Robert Aitken, Harvey Sollberger, Betsy Jolas, Salvatore Sciarrino, Stockhausen and Takemitsu. Mr. Garrison is Assoc. Prof. of Flute and Assoc. Dir. of the Lionel Hampton School of Music. “(He) combines great virtuosity, superb control of musical expression, and high energy with lyricism. He makes the most difficult technical passage seem easy and extreme dynamics and wide leaps appear effortless.” - The Flute Network

This is Volume 5 in Paul Kim's traversal of the complete Beethoven Symphonies, arranged for piano in his own arrangements. Kim began his musical training in southern California and continued his studies at The Juilliard School. At the Manhattan School of Music he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from New York University. Among his teachers include Paul Jacobs, Gary Graffman, Solomon Mikowsky and Jerome Lowenthal. Besides his solo performing career as a concert pianist, Kim has also received attention for his performances with his musical family. With his wife Judith Jeon, a soprano, Kim has performed widely in lieder recitals. In 1995, he and his son Matthew Kim made their debut as a father-and-son piano duo with a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. The duo has expanded with the addition of Kim's younger son, James. The trio of pianists, Paul Kim & Sons, has since performed throughout the world, often in benefit concerts for various social and charitable causes.

Writing in an idiom characterized by it's immediate accessibility, Boyd Prof. Of Composition at LSU Dinos a, recipient of many grants, commissions and awards, has had his music performed throughout the world, with his orchestral music in particular receiving rave reviews. This latest Centaur release of music by Mr. Constantinides once again puts the focus on orchestral work, with particular emphasis on productions featuring spotlighted soloists in concerted forms. All but one of the works also features the composer in the role of conductor, making these recordings de facto definitive.

The child prodigy Charles Harold Bernstein performed as piano soloist with orchestras by age nine. + A serious health problem put a halt to a promising career a decade later. + Following a business career, he began to compose in 1970, and remains an active composer at age 96. + He has produced an impressive range of music - from extended solos for violin, cello, oboe, clarinet and flute to quintets and eight works for orchestra. + Violinist Adam Korniszewski, the works’ dedicatee, performs Bernstein’s Introduction and 24 Variations, cellist Boris Andrianov the Outline and Drawings for solo cello.

Deems Taylor (1885-1966) was one of America's truly original 20th Century composers, his works crossing between serious classical and a somewhat more popular vein. An ASCAP Board of Directors member for over thirty years, he also served as ASCAP President from 1942-48. Of the 24 songs featured on this Centaur release, sung by soprano Elizabeth Tryon accompanied by George Small, virtually all, if not all are receiving their first recordings. Ms. Tryon, often referred to as "two voices in one artist" sings both classical music and Top 40 pop, making her a perfect candidate for this literature.

A recital of Edvard Grieg's lovely Lyric Pieces for piano, transcribed for solo guitar. Guitarist Peter Fletcher wrote the transcriptions for this recording. Mr. Fletcher is in demand as a performer in cultural venues throughout the United States. '... strong technique, a consistent tone, and a bold interpretive imagination... ' - American Record Guide.

THÉRACHE Missa Comment peult avoir joye. Missa Fortuna desperate : excerpts . Missa O vos omnes : excerpts . Gaude Maria. Verbum bonum. JOSQUIN DES PREZ Comment peult avoir joye. ISAAC Missa Comment peult avoir joye —excerpt • Peter Urquhart, dir; Capella Alamire; Alamire Consort • CENTAUR 3282 (50:39 Text and Translation)


Pierrequin de Thérache (c.1470–1528) spent his career at the court of Lorraine in Nancy from 1492, serving from 1500 to 1527 as master of the choirboys. One motet heard here, Verbum bonum , is his most well-known work, not least because Mouton used it as the cantus firmus of a Mass. Peter Urquhart’s plan to present more of his work embraces an entire Mass, excerpts from two more Masses, a second motet, and related works by two contemporaries. The Josquin chanson provides the cantus firmus for the main work on this program, and Isaac’s Mass (of which we hear only a single Agnus Dei) is also based on Josquin’s chanson. All that might have been used to fill up the disc would be a sample of Mouton’s Mass, mentioned in the notes.


I knew just where to find the only previous recording of Thérache’s music in my collection, for the estimable Dominique Vellard recorded a disc for the K617 label devoted to the chapel of the dukes of Lorraine ( Fanfare 19:6). That disc included the entire Missa O vos omnes (on a motet by Loyset Compere) and the same motet Verbum bonum. Pascal Desaux, who wrote the notes and provided the research for that disc, estimated Thérache’s birth a little earlier, at c.1460. The connection between the court of Lorraine and the cathedral of Cambrai, where the unique manuscript of the Mass is found (a source as well for works of Josquin des Prez), is the brothers Loyset and Pierrequin de Thérache. They spent their early days in Cambrai, but Loyset eventually became music copyist at the cathedral, while his brother went off to Lorraine. Little wonder that the latter’s Mass found its way into the Cambrai manuscript. That Mass is heard here with the shorter pieces inserted to break up the sequence of movements (without separating the Kyrie-Gloria pair), exemplifying the familiar style of the Josquin era. The performance is of high quality, sung by a homogeneous vocal ensemble of fine tonal sheen and precise execution.


This disc deserves notice for the obscurity of the composer and the excellence of the performances, which should not have been neglected when it was issued over a year ago. The capella consists of nine singers, the consort five players. The Josquin and Isaac fillers, the only tracks that combine vocal and instrumental, are intelligent supplements to the main collection. Get acquainted with one more unfamiliar composer.


FANFARE: J. F. Weber

Wanchi Huang performs some of the greatest literature for unaccompanied violin with great sensitivity and depth.

These works by Johannes Brahms certainly need no introduction, as they are recognized as being among the greatest of all clarinet works. These are superb performances on historical instruments. Marie Ross is one of the most innovative leaders of the next generation of early music performers. She frequently performs with superstars like Cecilia Bartoli and Lawrence Brownlee in the world's most famous theaters, Th��tre des Champs-�lys�es and Th��tre du Ch�telet in Paris, Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and the Berliner Philharmonie, to name a few. She is the Associate Principal Clarinetist with the French orchestra, Ensemble Matheus (Jean-Christophe Spinosi) where she performs everything from Mozart on the 5-key classical clarinet to premieres of contemporary works by composers like Guillaume Connesson on the modern clarinet. She can be heard chatting about her performing experiences, with colleagues and artists of various disciplines, and about other topics like her historical clarinet collection on her podcast, Fidelio.

Johann Ludwig Krebs was a highly accomplished organist, harpsichordist and composer of the 1700s, and was highly respected by Bach. The Exercises sur le Clavecin make up the fourth and final part of Krebs' Clavier Ubung. Brad Benighted is a highly sought-after soloist, and he performs these works with great insight.

This album features some of finest works for solo Viola da Gamba of the 17th-18th centuries, including Georg Philipp Telemann's Suite in D. +San Francisco-based John Dornenburg teaches music history and literature at Cal State, Sacremento and is also a member of the music faculty at Stanford University. +As a viola da gamba soloist, he has performed widely in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and across the U.S. +His discography includes more than two-dozen recordings.

Iberia is probably the greatest masterpiece by Isaac Albniz. There are surprisingly few recordings of the complete Iberia. Paul Verona has devoted years of study to Iberia, and his performances show his abiding commitment for the work.

• A varied collection of contemporary works for violin. • Violinst Jacob Murphy and pianist Jameson Cooper are supported by a group of superb additional musicians.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Canadian Soprano Shannon Mercer sings a stunning account of Les Nuits. Norbert Pelej is a contemporary composer who writes works of unusual depth. Group of 27 is a first-rate Canadian chamber orchestra.

This album features great contemporary American works for piano.

Julianne Baird and her frequent collaborator, the period-instrument group The Aulos Ensemble, offer some of the fruits of their many Christmas concerts together in a pleasingly varied, Baroque-focused program of vocal and instrumental works. Most of the 16 selections feature Baird's bright, clear, and very agreeable soprano, supported by some combination of flute, recorder, baroque oboe, violin, and cello, and harpsichord or organ. Most familiar are the title tune, plus such mainstays of today's Christmas repertoire as "Remember O thou Man", "Gently the Fragrance" (better known as Whence is that goodly fragrance, or by its French title, Quelle est cette odeur), and "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day". Another favorite is a beautiful Advent cantata aria by Bach (from BWV 36), usually heard as "Auch mit gedämpften..." but for some reason performed here in the version from the decidedly non-Christmas secular cantata Die Freude reget sich (BWV 36b). Regardless, the music is still just as lovely, although you can hear the BWV 36 setting sublimely rendered by Sibylla Rubens, Philippe Herreweghe, and Collegium Vocale on an excellent 1996 Harmonia Mundi recording.


The instrumental playing is first-rate, and the accompaniments to Baird's singing are smartly arranged and well-balanced with the voice. My only reservation concerns a couple of the longer selections--Böddecker's Veni Salvator hominum and the instrumental "Symphonie" by Corrette--whose musical material isn't substantial enough to fully command our interest for six or eight minutes. On the other hand, Corrette's Noël Provençal, an instrumental number that closes the disc, is a wild, wonderful, colorful rustic dance that leaves you smiling and uplifted, a perfect complement to the opening "In dulci jubilo". The sound, from Princeton Theological Seminary's Miller Chapel, is suitably vibrant, clear, and natural. [10/26/2006]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Brazilian Music for Viola and PianoHeitor Villa-Lobos, Ernst Mahle, Osvaldo Lacerda, Edino Krieger Barbara Westphal - ViolaChristian Ruvolo - Piano Brazilian Music for Viola and PianoKrieger: Braxiliana, Francisco Mignone, 3 Brazilian WaltzesLacerda: Appasionato, Cantilena & ToccataMahle: Sonatina, Mozart Carmago Guarnieri, Cancao Sertaneja, EncantamentoVilla-Lobos: O canto do cisne negro, Brenno Blauth, Sonata

Classical Music