Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Mathieu van Bellen and Maria Milstein write of their new album: "The setting of this album - two violins without accompaniment - is no ordinary combination, and the repertoire, though encompassing several style periods from the Baroque to the 21st century, is much smaller than that of a more standard duo such as violin and piano. When choosing a program for this album, we were adamant to present works which, rather than using virtuosic violin display as a means to an end, are masterworks in their own right, where the virtuosity of writing is a simple tool used to create breathtaking landscapes and thrilling stories. Three different countries and three different universes, though all three composed within less than half a century - the Sonatas for Two Violins by Serguei Prokofiev, Henryk G�recki and Eug�ne Ysa�e show with their incredible variety how exciting a violin duo can be."

Olivia Vermeulen: The topic: eroticism, lust, sex, power and violence, prostitution and murder, and all areas in the high-voltage field in between: set to music, complex and extremely topical. If the erotic may not be named, it slips into subtexts. With this album we want to highlight the intentions and meanings - and also the abysses - of these songs. One may turn away with a shudder or sit back and relax in the face of this achievement in sublimation. The fact that erotic abysses, desires and traumas have always been the cause of great art cannot be denied, nor the fact that art and music would not exist without "dirty minds".

Maja and Daniel: "We are overjoyed to be presenting this new recording "Pas de deux", with many new pieces by composer friends - it's a project that's very close to our hearts. The great Sonata by Ravel is in a way our kaleidoscope, a looking glass that takes us both back and forward in time, and both of those simultaneously. Our journey begins with the slightest of pieces. 'Raindrops' is a charming vignette by the 10 year old Sibelius, whose love of nature would a decade or so later of course give us some of the greatest works in the symphonic repertoire. Deeply moved by the death of Pope John Paul II Penderecki in 2005 wrote the Ciaconna in memoriam Giovanni Paulo II Ciaconna, for string orchestra. His transcription of the piece is a self-contained, independent artistic statement: subtle and virtuosic, filled with emotions of a genuinely Romantic kind. The Interior Castle by Peteris Vasks was a text written by St. Teresa of �vila, Spanish Carmelite nun and famed mystic, in 1577 as a guide for spiritual development through service and prayer. The work is conceived as a tryptich of pure, deeply felt, reverential music, interrupted my two frenetic, disturbing, dark passages. The love and belief conquers the dark forces. We asked our friend Craig White to arrange a Debussy piano prelude and he created for this disc this beautiful version of the 9th piano prelude of Book 1. Sicilian cellist/composer Giovanni Sollima is one of the most colorful, eclectic, musical personalities of his generation. Heimat Terra: the title is based on a beautiful text by the anthropologist Edgar Morin. Marcelo Nisinman is one of the great tango artists of our time, a brilliant bandoneon virtuoso and great friend as well as a uniquely personal, eclectic composer of music that is deeply infused by the world of tango but very aware of classical avant-gardistic writing. Marcelo Nisinman got to know Astor Piazzolla as a child, when Piazzolla and his quintet used to come to rehearse at his parents apartment in central Buenos Aires. From Marcelo we heard many stories about Piazzolla, his passion for boxing and shark fishing, his motto 'no risk, no life' and his larger than life personality. It seems fitting to end this record with three early 'Parisian' tangos that Piazzolla wrote while living in the city in the early 1950's.

There are some encounters in life about which one could say that they were simply destined to happen. The meeting of the two musicians in question is, without a doubt, one of them, because Michael Gees and Bella Adamova have a very rare talent: they are both exceptionally gifted improvisers. This is no quirk of a narcissistic piano virtuoso but rather the continuation of an old and venerable tradition. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was, to some measure, expected that a pianist could also perform something extemporaneously. Bella Adamova follows the same path. This is the basis from which the current album with collaborative improvisations arose. Ten poems from different authors form the starting point for the musical expedition. The choices came completely from Bella Adamova. In their collaboration, Adamova and Gees have a vast stylistic range at their disposal which expands from folklore and classical to jazz and contemporary music. This includes a conceivably wide spectrum of musical resources, where one can find sprechgesang as well as arioso lines, and the piano can grow from a rustling cantabile to a hammered martellato.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Georgy Catoire did not have a high opinion of his own First String Quartet, so he destroyed it, sparing only the Andante. On the last page of the manuscript of this movement, Tchaikovsky wrote a few words, and Catoire did not have the heart to destroy the autograph of the great composer. Georgi Lvovich composed a new quartet, which in the inventory of his works is listed as Opus 4. This piece, just like the Andante from the destroyed quartet, was never published and the manuscript seems to have been lost. After a while, Catoire reworked the quartet into a quintet. The manuscript of this quintet, and the surviving Andante, was discovered several years ago. Thus, the recordings of this quintet and the remaining Andante presented on this release are the first performances of these early works of Catoire. Catoire composed the Piano Trio Op.14 in the years 1899 to 1902. Stylistically, the Trio can be placed right in the middle of the compositional path of Catoire, which consciously ties in with the creation of this work to the already existing Russian chamber music literature. But although the Trio is so beautifully anchored in it's time by such parallels, it clearly embodies the characteristic traits that keep Catoire's music away from contemporary trends and that make his personality a special phenomenon in the history of Russian music. The two Poems Op. 34 are late works from Catoire and were composed in 1924-26. At the time Catoire, had experienced the Russian Revolution and the Civil War, the death of his beloved wife, the farewell to his son, who left Russia forever. The music acts like a free speech of the composer in an intimate circle, or even as a soliloquy - so restrained is the dynamics, so freely works the musical speech.

Mayke Rademakers writes of her third album: "The e-cello is a relatively new instrument; it has not yet conquered it's true place in the world of classical music. It presents an enormous spectrum of sound colors as well as the possibility of polyphony when played in conjunction with a loop and other effect pedals. It has inspired me significantly as a classical musician and I cannot now imagine undertaking my compositions and improvisations without it. Improvisation directly engages intuition and spontaneity which in turn enlarges perspective. Following the improvisations which I combined with the Bach suites and works by contemporary composers, I felt the need to work on a larger piece. This has resulted in 'STAGIONI.' I could not nor have I wished to ignore Vivaldi and have woven several quotes from his masterpiece into my improvisations. Inspiration has also come from the medieval mystic and first recognized feminine composer, Hildegard von Bingen. Other primal sources which have fed me along the way include early polyphony, Sephardic folk music and Afro-American blues. This was not according to any plan, rather repertoire influences which are recognizable only in hindsight."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Fanned by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the longing for pure wilderness and the cultivation of rural life, the Nordic National Romanticism arises. All three composers on this album are descendants of this Nordic Romanticism. Although they did not all have the same nationality, their lives are intertwined. In their compositions, Svendsen and Halvorsen remain in form and harmony close to the music of their good friend Edvard Grieg and the distinctive Nordic use of melody; Carl Nielsen, however, goes on a voyage of discovery towards a new idiom with a strong desire for renewal on the one hand and a great need for the revival of the pure archaic on the other. His violin concerto clearly shows this conflict. In a neo-classical 4-part form, reminiscent of the setup of the Baroque concerto grosso, with seemingly simple classical-like themes and references to both Bach and Mozart, he takes the listeners on an incredible adventure throughout Nordic landscapes of pure wilderness and takes all sorts of harmonic and rhythmic twists and turns. Lisa Jacobs writes: "Since the first time I performed the Nielsen violin concerto in 2007, I have been overwhelmed from the very first note. Such an incredible connection with the whimsical Nordic nature that is displayed in this music, such as a natural use of the violin as both a lyrical and virtuoso instrument and such an originality."