One of the few professional string trios in existence today, the Diaz Trio has become one of the best chamber music ensembles in the United States. Comprised of three dynamic young artists, the ensemble performs regularly in recitals and at festivals around the world. In 1993, at the invitation of Isaac Stern, the trio performed at Carnegieís Weill Recital Hall to celebrate the next one hundred years of music-making at Carnegie Hall. The trio has been in residence at the Brevard Music Center since 2001. The Diaz Trio performs regularly on the series of both the Corcoran Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.

Includes work(s) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ensemble: Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Rudolf Barshai. Soloist: Sviatoslav Richter.

A triumph: the magnum opus of one of the leading Finnish composers in an excellent and committed performance.

REVIEW:

Musically, this issue is a triumph: the magnum opus of one of the leading Finnish composers in an excellent and committed performance, captured in all its intricate detail by a remarkably clear and faithful recording. The Singing Tree is Erik Bergman's only full-length opera and, as fellow-composer Jouni Kaipainen comments in the booklet, is a ''grand synthesis'' of his life's work. Often it sounds like a compendium of the vocal and instrumental techniques that Bergman has developed throughout his long career (he is now 82) melded together by his vibrant and incisive musicianship.

The fable of the princess who may not see her husband's face is common to many cultures: Bo Carpelan's libretto uses a Swedish version but incorporates elements of many other stories, ancient and more modern. Prince Hatt, imprisoned by his mother, the Witch, is set free by a Princess who first communes with him via the song of the Tree of Life, which they both hear in dreams. Unlike many fairy-tale operas, Bergman and Carpelan lay bare the nightmare that exists at the center of all fables; and as if to emphasize that this is not kids' stuff, the happy ending is marred by the blinding of the Princess through the Witch's dying curse.

My only reservation about The Singing Tree concerns dramatic pacing which, like the musical pulse, is unremittingly slow. A sequence of 22 tableaux divided into two acts (plus Prologue, Interlude and Epilogue), there is often insufficient variety between the scenes which makes the opera seem to be jogging on the spot. Individual tableaux are often effective in themselves but many take not very dissimilar routes to achieve common goals. Only two really dramatic moments alter the relief: at the climax of Act One, when the Princess is lured by the Witch to look upon the face of the sleeping Prince, and the final denouement itself when the Witch is destroyed by the power of Light.<br><br>Written in 1986-8, The Singing Tree is exactly coeval with Sallinen's Kullervo, already issued on CD by Ondine (8/92). This speaks volumes for the commitment, industry and musical culture of Finland and puts most other countries to shame. Where, for instance, are recordings of John Buller's Bakxai or Nicola LeFanu's Blood Wedding, Birtwistle's Gawain or Judith Weir's The Vanishing Bridegroom? Without doubt, Finland is the place to be for opera.

-- Gramophone [5/1993]

Czech Masses (2013) by Jan Morávek (bass), Jana Tuková (alto), Marta Fadljevicová (soprano), Ondrej Socha (tenor), Petr Cech (organ), Václav Jelínek (organ), Charles University Choir Prague (choir, chorus), Prague Youth Chamber Ensemble

What is most remarkable in his work is precisely the perfect equilibrium that is found between different tendencies within each work: audacity and boldness, but profoundly reflected thought, presented without haste and with a sure grasp. A perfect correctness of style, without coldness, on the other hand a certain lyricis, particularly in the slow movements, whose pace is grave and almost majestic. Sometimes there is tenderness but always it is contained: sometimes there is also ardour, ma non troppo. And so there is always a balance which also affects the way in which he combines the Italian tradition of writing and the manipulation of the violin with the French tradition. Philippe Beaussant, from the liner notes A shadowy, unstable and misanthropic character, died mysteriously from a knife wound inflicted by an unknown assailant, Jean-Marie Leclair is the real creator of the French violin school and one of the greatest violinists of the Eighteenth Century. His prolific output, almost exclusively devoted to the violin, consists of a series of collections of sonatas published throughout his lifetime, in which stand out 48 sonatas for violin and bass (four volumes). The First Book of Sonatas for Solo Violin with Basso Continuo dates from 1723 and represents Leclair's first publication. Four sonatas are performed here by Fabio Biondi, one of the most authoritative Baroque performers, joined by an all-star continuo group featuring Rinaldo Alessandrini, Pascal Monteilhet and Maurizio Naddeo.

Monique de la Bruchollerie, Vol. 2

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Juilliard Quartet, Vol. 6: Live at Library of Congress – Cla

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Peter Damm, who is one of the 20th century’s leading horn players, has built up an impressive discography in the course of the last three decades. These naturally focus upon his instrument: the horn. The present Edition brings together many of his recordings for the Eterna label. It illustrates the history of horn music through a large and varied repertoire such as is only rarely to be encountered. From chamber music to the great horn concertos, from the music of the 17th century to twentieth-century works, the spectrum is immense. Peter Damm was born in Meiningen (Thuringia) in 1937. After learning the horn at the College of Music in Weimar he began his artistic career in 1957 as solo hornist with the Gera municipal orchestra. In 1959, Damm was appointed solo horn with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, which at that time was making numerous Gramophone recordings. Damm’s first solo recording was in 1961 with the Gewandhaus horn quartet, playing Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück op. 86 for four horns under the baton of Franz Konwitschny; he first appeared on a chamber-music recording in 1964. In 1969 Damm was appointed solo hornist with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His cantabile style of playing placed Damm firmly in the Dresden tradition and became the hallmark of the Dresden wind section for almost forty years. During those years in Dresden Peter Damm was involved in more than 100 studio recordings with the Sächsische Staatskapelle. Famous international conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink and Giuseppe Sinopoli were fascinated by Damm’s horn playing at first hearing. Peter Damm would always champion new music and the rediscovery of forgotten works from all eras in his work as a soloist on record releases. This applied in particular to the works of the Dresden court composers. Peter Damm celebrates his 80th Birthday on July 27th, 2017.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Juilliard String Quartet. Soloist: Leonard Bernstein.

Mikis Theodorakis is a composer whose life and work are more closely connected with the vicissitudes of twentieth-century European political history than any other musician alive today. In calling his new album East Of The Aegean, Theodorakis harks back to his own origins – he was born on the island of Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea. In Jens Naumilkat and Henning Schmiedt, Theodorakis has found two musicians who are ideally suited for a sensitive interpretation of this work.

On this release Scott Morris plays new arrangements of Erik Satie’s music for guitar with soprano and oboe. “Morris plays with considerable elegance and charm […]” (American Record Guide). Additional musicians include Grammy-winning Andrew York from the LA Guitar Quartet.

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PARIS AND BURGUNDY



 


The Places
This musical tour of France starts in Paris with scenes that reflect the modenisation of the city in the 19th century under Baron Haussmann. From Paris the tour passes to Burgundy, with its vineyards, to Provence, with its Fête des Gardiens in Arles and Roman aqueduct, thence to the Loire, with its great castles and country-houses. The tour ends with a visit to Brittany and Normandy, the northern coasts and the great monastery of Mont Saint-Michel.


 


The Music
Music for the tour is taken from Fryderyk Chopin's two piano concertos. The son of a French émigré and a Polish mother, Chopin left his native Warsaw in 1830, settling in the following year in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. His piano concertos were written and first performed in Warsaw in 1830, and seemed a necessary part of his stock-in-trade for a planned career as a virtuoso. In the event Chopin found a more congenial role in Paris as a performer in private society salons and as a fashionable teacher.


 


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 78 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The musical tour starts in the Bernese Alps, which offer some of the finest scenery in Switzerland, with glaciers and snow-covered expanses, waterfalls, mountain lakes, and the towering Matterhorn. The Nymphenburg Palace and Park, in Munich, present a contrast, in their baroque elegance. The tour ends with glimpses of the Chiemsee, the largest of the Bavarian lakes, with it's three wooded islands, on one of which Wagner's patron, King Ludwig II, built his folly, the Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Music for the tour is taken from Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, one of the best known of all romantic concertos. This is followed by his 'Souvenir d'un lieu Cher,' three pieces originally for violin and piano, but here orchestrated by the composer Glazunov.

This selection ranges from the romanticism of Francisco Tárrega, the Spanish impressionism of Albéniz’s Mallorca and the neo-romanticism of the contemporary Croatian composer, Stjepan Šulek, to Rodrigo’s masterly evocation of the gardens of the Alhambra Palace in Granada and Britten’s revolutionary Nocturnal after John Dowland. Croatian guitarist Srdjan Bulat has won numerous prestigious awards, and was winner of the Certamen Tárrega 2011 which included a special award for his performance of the work of Francisco Tárrega.

SPOHR: Violin Concertos Nos. 7 and 12

The history of Cuban music is the story of a fusion between European – largely Spanish – and African elements. Some of the finest, most stylistically diverse and exciting Cuban piano music can be heard on this album. Ernesto Lecuona is one of the greatest of all Latin American composers for the instrument, his Malagueña being the most powerful representation of Spain in Cuban music. Danzas afro-cubanas reflects the African influence on his music. Drawing on the genres of son and canción Carlos Fariñas's Cantero radiates vivid colour while the music of Andres Alen Rodríguez blends song, habanera and jazz influences.
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REVIEW:

This debut release by a young Cuban pianist makes a very good case for the compositions she includes and her skills in presenting them. A lovely disc—don’t miss it.

– American Record Guide

Always inventive and innovation-seeking, Erik Satie's earliest works show traces of Chopin as an influence but he soon came to reject virtuosity and tradition, choosing instead to remain with the quintessentially French traits of simplicity, clarity, precision, elegance and economy. Satie's hautingly beautiful floating melodies and modal tonalities are unforgettably compelling, combining bygone classical ages with Parisian sophistication. This landmark recording uses both a new and corrected edition of Satie' smusic and Cosima Wagner's own 1881 Erard piano, his instrument maker of choice. Recognized as a leading interpreter of Liszt's music, Nicola Horvath has in recen tyears become one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, sometimes over twelve hours, such as Philip Glass' complete piano music or Erik Satie's Vexations, and composers from a number of countries have written for him.

The second volum in Giorgio Koukl's complete survey of Arthur Vincent Lourie's piano music spans the years 1912 to 1938. In that time the Belarus-born composer embraced extended tonality in Deux Poemes, Op. 8, huge Scriabinesque chords in Syntheses, Op. 16 and forward-looking harmonic astringency in the Sonatina No. 3. His post-Revolutionary Paris years are represented by a sequence of characterful miniatures.

Richter Archives, Vol. 9: Moscow 1974 Recital (Live)

SCHUBERT: String Quartets (Complete), Vol. 4

When I first wrote my transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Trio, in 1984, it was both a labour of love and an obsession with the 1981 Glenn Gould recording. For two months I probably had the time of my life, musically speaking, being in the constant company of Johann Sebastian Bach and Glenn Gould.

Generally, at that time, transcriptions were out of fashion and I recall that my own colleagues and managers were sceptical about such an audacious idea.

Since then my transcriptions have been played all over the world, and moreover they have opened the floodgates of new interpretive possibilities for the piece which have included solo harp, wind instruments of all kinds, saxophone quartets, Renaissance viols and even a fascinating concoction of Uri Caine, among many others.

By the time 2009 arrived I felt that this was the right moment to re-visit and somewhat re-examine my original transcription. It was 25 years after the piece was first transcribed, I had performed it many times and heard different adaptations of it, so I felt the need to return to a simpler version with hardly any repeats at all.

I have made some changes in orchestration, probably influenced by my String Orchestra transcription of 1992, but most of all I tried to inject some fresh, youthful energy to propel the piece from the beginning to end. As a result there was still room left for my old/new friends, 15 Sinfonias, which have always been in my mind to be played and recorded, and this was a welcome bonus for me and my talented young colleagues, Yuri Zhislin and Luigi Piovano.

I hope listeners will share in my life-long journey through the Goldberg Variations and my love of the music, indeed in the very first publication of the Variations, in 1742, J. S. Bach states that the spirit of the piece is “for the enjoyment of music lovers”.

-- Dmitry Sitkovetsky

Classical Music