Centaur Records
625 products
FANTASIAS FOR VIOLA DA GAMBA
Messiaen, O.: Piano Music
The Bells & Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Buch: Shifting Spheres
Humanity Is An Ocean - Flute Soundscapes / Yael Acher Modiano
Time Flies / Elaine Funaro
American Classic Widor, Vol. 3
Couperin: The Complete Pièces de Clavecin, Vol. 7
American Classic Widor, Vol. 1
Loeb: The Lyric Trombone / Avitsur, Locker, Yajima
All Brahms: The Violin Sonatas / Tiu, Zhang
Dvorák: Requiem Mass, Op. 89
Songs Of Wintter Watts / John Carlo Pierce, Joel Bacon
Born in 1884 in Cincinnati, Wintter Watts, a prolific yet largely forgotten early twentieth-century composer, wrote music filled with beauty, warmth, and depth. This recording of his songs shows just what has been missed through performances of his music being so rare. American tenor John Carlo Pierce enjoys an international reputation for beautiful sound and incisive acting. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Connecticut. He was recently assistant professor of voice at New Mexico State University, and director of the Doña Ana Lyric Opera, the university’s educational opera program. He has directed productions of Dido and Aeneas, Serse, Orphée aux enfers, and Suor Angelica. In his current position as associate professor of voice at Colorado State University, he teaches lyric diction, opera history and literature, and has directed Serse and Die Zauberflöte. He is joined by fellow Colorado State professor, Joel Bacon.
Heinrich Marschner: Songs For Baritone / Jeffrey Williams, Jennifer Mcguire
If German Romantic composer, Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861) is remembered today, it is for his dark, supernatural operas. Each of these operas happens to feature a baritone in the title role, which was quite unusual for the time. He also composer 420 songs, and a shockingly large number of them were composed specifically for baritone. This recording demonstrates how masterful Marschner truly was in composing for baritone. Jeffrey Williams has been hailed by Baltimore Sun, as “very likable, a winning performance sung with much confidence, phrasing everything stylishly,” by Miami Herald as possessing a “commanding, sizeable, effortless, manly baritone” and by Opera News as a “versatile, fearless performer.” Williams has received numerous awards including an Arleen Auger Memorial Fund Study Grant, the Cynthia Vernardakis Award at the Orpheus National Voice Competition, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Mid-South Regional Finalist, the Baltimore Music Club Prize in Performance, and the George Castelle Award in Voice. He is currently the Mid-South Regional Governor of National Opera Association (NOA), on the Executive Board of the Tennessee Chapter of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA).
Schubert's 1817 Sonatas / Sookkyung Cho
Schubert moved to Vienna in early 1817, which was the center of musical activities in Europe at that time. Schubert focused strongly upon composing piano sonatas, and the result was these four superb works. Korean-born pianist Sookkyung Cho brings these sonatas truly to life. Noted for her sensitive and imaginative (New York Concert Review) playing, Sookkyung Cho has been captivating worldwide audiences with her personal, thoughtful expressionist style. She has appeared in venues such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Sarasota Opera House, Baltimore Museum of Art, Montreal Conservatory, Beaux concerts de la releve in Quebec, Château de Fontainebleau in France, and Zijingang Theater at Zhejiang University in China, among others, and was recently heard on Chicagos WFMT.
Fantasia / Golan
Lawrence Golan's Fantasia for Solo Violin, written in 1993, was inspired by Ysaye's sonatas of 1924, which, in turn, were inspired by the unaccompanied violin works of J.S. Bach, dated 1720. Hence this recording represents the inspirational lineage of a composition spanning almost three centuries. Acclaimed for his vibrant, inspired performances, imaginative programming and evocative command of different styles and composers, American conductor Lawrence Golan has developed a reputation as a dynamic, charismatic communicator. He has conducted throughout the United States and in Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and continues to develop relationships with orchestras nationally and abroad.
Solo Piano Works 1 / Frank Huang
Russian composer Nikolai Medtner left behind an amazing body of works for solo piano. This is the first volume in what will be an integral recorded edition of Medtner's solo piano works, performed by Frank Huang. Frank Huang is a Steinway Artist and currently serves as an Associate Professor of Piano at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Previously, he was a faculty member at The College of Wooster and The Cleveland Institute of Music. Described by New York Concert Review as a "thoughtful and accomplished performer" and that his playing was "impressive for it's maturity and refinement," Mr. Huang has gained international recognition for his artistry and technical command.
Varèse, Lutoslawski, Ligeti & Baldini: Orchestral Works
This is an album featuring path-breaking works for orchestra and for violin and orchestra. Lutoslawski, Verese, and Ligeti certainly need no introduction. Conductor Christian Baldini is also a first-rate composer. Two superb violinists, Miranda Cuckson and Maximilian Haft are featured performers. "Christian Baldini brings symphonic revival" commented the Buenos Aires Herald on Baldini's recent concerts at the Teatro Argentino featuring Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Varèse's Amériques. Based in California, Baldini conducts regularly several international orchestras including the Munich Radio Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (of Argentina and the US), Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto (Portugal), San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and Ensemble Dal Niente. Baldini recently made his debut conducting Verdi's Aida in London for English National Opera, and has conducted new productions at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, where he received the National Critics Association Award for best operatic performance.
Early Songs of Alban Berg / Steven Kimbrough, Margaret Jackson, Mary K. Jackson
Alban Berg left behind a wonderful group of songs. These early songs were unpublished during Berg's lifetime. They deserve a serious listening. This album presents these songs in the excellent performances they so richly deserve. Steven Kimbrough is an internationally known operatic, concert, and musical theater singer (baritone), and recording artist, who has performed on the professional stages of North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. He has been described as a remarkable singer, with a cultivated, easily flowing baritone of fine quality and a rare command of words and rhythms. (The New Yorker) Margaret Jackson is a professionally trained opera singer who has traveled all over the world. She is also an expert in musicology and Western music history.
Molino: I Molinisti - Complete Works for Flute & Guitar / Álvarez, Loh
In the early 19th-century, a rivalry existed between two of Italy's greatest guitarists/composers, Francesco Molini and Ferdinando Carulli. This album features not only the complete Molino works for flute and guitar, but also the Carulli Concerto for Flute and Guitar. Both composers are wonderful, as are these performances. Diversity of styles is a hallmark of Roberto Alvarez’s concerts and recitals. As a matter of fact he feels just as comfortable performing classical, baroque or avant-garde music as well as Celtic, jazz or rock. He has received various international prizes, such as the Diploma of Honor in the Torneo Internazionale di Musica, Concurso Internacional de Música “Paper de Musica” de Capellades, the Ángel Muñíz Toca Award and the Ciutat de Manresa Prize. Born and raised in Singapore, Kevin Loh is a recipient of the Fellowship of the Royal Schools of Music, the 2018 Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award and the 2010 HSBC Youth Excellence Award for Musical Excellence. He was talent-scouted by The Yehudi Menuhin School via his YouTube channel when he was only 12 years old and was awarded a grant by The Rolling Stones to study at the prestigious music school as their first Asian guitarist.
Piazzolla: Cien Anõs / Mosalini, Ben-Dor, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston
This is a great album of works by the master of music of the Argentine tango, Astor Piazzolla, and works by Juanjo Mosalini, who is deeply steeped in the music of this tradition. If this album doesn't get you up on your feet, dancing, nothing will! Juanjo Mosalini was born into a musical family- his father and grandfather both played bandoneon, and they raised him to be deeply rooted in Argentina’s musical traditions. He began playing bandoneon at eight years old. In 1999 he founded the first bandoneon course in Europe at the Conservatory of Music in Gennevilliers.
Fuchs, Edwards, Hebel, Timmons: Bootleg / Zokaites
| Bootleg is a project from Russ Zokaites showcasing Appalachian inspired music based on fold music or elements of folk music. The six year commissioning project was premiered in February 2020 at Morehead State University, and is his debut recording. The project has received widespread critical praise. "Russ Zokaites shines in this diverse and colorful album made during one of the most trying times in modern history. From chamber music to fully orchestrated concertos, he finds a unique and warm voice that takes you on a musical journey into many different landscapes. I particularly enjoyed the lush interplay of cello, piano, and bass trombone in "Serenity" by Martin Hebel, and the funky looped beats and harmonies of "A Strange Wayfarer" by William Timmons." (John Romero Principal Trombonist Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) |
Loeb: World Winds / Various
This album brings together players, wind instruments, and associated traditions from four continents. The compositions were written over a span of more than twenty years. They illustrate very different responses to the many compositional challenges presented by trying to create a complete sound world entirely through the use of melody. David Loeb was born in 1939 in New York into a family which took music and painting very seriously. He studied composition with Peter Pindar Stearns at the Mannes College of Music in New York, and then completed a master's degree at Yale. His catalog of compositions is unusually extensive and diverse. In addition to the expected assortment of works for orchestra, various chamber combinations, soloists, and voice, he has also written many pieces for Asian instruments (in addition to Japanese, some for Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Mongol) and for early Western instruments (in addition to viols, some for lute, harpsichord, and recorder). He has often brought these instruments together in unique combinations, such as four shakuhachi and four viols; flute, guitar, koto, and shakuhachi; and khaen, flute, guitar, cello, and percussion.
Couperin: The Complete Pieces De Clavecin, Vol. 9 / Mark Kroll
This is volume 9 in Centaur's traversal of the Complete keyboard works of Couperin, performed on harpsichord by Mark Kroll. Mark Kroll has performed Couperin's works throughout his long performing life. He has performed on four continents as a harpsichordist and fortepianist, in both solo recital and as a collaborative chamber musician. Highlights include an appearance as the official guest of the city of Barcelona; featured soloist in Germany’s Regensburg Early Music Festival, France’s Festival Ambronay and the Bordeaux Hummel Festival; performances and lectures in Beijing and Shanghai; two concerts for the Czech Republic’s Prague Spring Festival; and recitals at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation, Rome’s Conservatorio Santa Caecilia and Associazione Musicale Romana, Poland’s Dni Bachowski, and Slovenija’s Radovljica Festival. Mark Kroll has been one of the few harpsichordists to devote a significant part of his career to the contemporary literature for the instrument. He has commissioned and premiered a large number of works, and released several recordings of this repertoire.
Chopin: Sonata No. 2, Op. 35; 4 Scherzi; Polonaise, Op. 53 / Sophia Agranovich
Sophia Agranovich adores the piano works of Chopin, and it shows in these deeply-felt performances. Internationally acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator, Sophia Agranovich is “a bold, daring pianist in the tradition of the Golden Age Romantics…A tigress of the keyboard” – Fanfare. Her performances are captivating audiences by the “orison of uncommon beauty” – Audiophile, “the extraordinary dramatic urgency”, “the ideal balance she achieves between the intellectual and the emotional” – Fanfare, “interpretation that dares to be different”, “magnificent shading and superior musicianship” – American Record Guide. Sophia Agranovich is an esteemed pedagogue, lecturer, master class clinician, adjudicator, and is a recipient of numerous teaching awards. Her students are consistently winning top prizes in regional, national and international competitions and are performing at prestigious venues. Ms. Agranovich is active member of various professional music organizations, listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World, a voting member of NARAS, Artistic Director of ‘Classicals at the Circle’ music series at the Watchung Arts Center, Program Chair and Board member of Music Educators Association of New Jersey.
