Classical Music

In the late 19th and 20th centuries many British composers produced superb works for cello and piano, but few of these actually made their way into the general repertoire. Here we have works by four of thee distinct musical personalities. Exclusive Chandos artist cellist Paul Watkins, accompanied by Huw Watkins, performs Parry, Foulds, Delius and Bantock.

Classical Music

John Cage allowed for some of his works to be combined and performed simultaneously. Percussionist Bonnie Whiting has created uniquely virtuosic solo-simultaneous realizations of some of these works for "speaking percussionist." 51'15.657" for a speaking percussionist is Whiting's solo-simultaneous realization of all of 45' for a speaker and 27'10.554" for a percussionist. Cage wrote 45' for a speaker to perform himself. He wrote on thirty-two subjects and added a series of gestures (gargling, lighting a match, etc.) to be performed during the delivery. Like the percussion piece, each page is one minute long. Between 1984 and 1987 Cage composed 17 pieces called Music for ____. Any of these pieces can be performed alone or together in any combination. Here Whiting combines one of the percussion versions with the version for voice. Her recital is completed by Cage's two beautiful, classic, early pieces for voice and piano: The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs and A Flower. Here the piano is used as a percussion instrument, never played on the keys but rather knocked and slapped on by th epianist. As in the larger works, Whiting gives a tour de force performance of both parts simultaneously. As a bonus, Whiting's mentor Allen Otte performs his work for speaking pianist/percussionist which is created around works of Cage and utlizing Cage's compositional "tools" for both the music and text.

Classical Music

Classical Music

FLUTES EN VACANCES SUITE POUR

V2: DIALOGE FUR ZWEI VIOLINEN

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The angel as a symbol of the tango-dance, death, and resurrection. Without losing the romance, the violence, eroticism and devotion of the traditional tango that he saw as empty and hollowed out, Piazzolla renewed and modified it with elements of European art music, Argentine folklore and jazz, and thus tango took on a new meaning and shape. The writer Alberto Rodriguez Munoz approached Piazzolla in 1961 with a request to write music for his play Tango del angel, which is about an angel appearing in an apartment block in Buenos Aires to cleanse the souls of it's inhabitants. The titles Introduccion al angel, Milonga del angel, and Muerte del angel were created. The latter, a four-part fugue with hard, uncompromising harmonies and rhythms, impressively shows how far Piazzolla pushed the boundaries of traditional tango. When they play was performed in 1962, even the previously hostile parts of ht emusical public in Argentina had to admit how fitting and successful this music was and the titles, especially Milonga del angel, gained extraordinary popularity. The motives of Angel and Diablo appear in many of the tangos composed by Astor Piazzolla: "In my story, angels and devils mix- you have to have something in everything."

It is remarkable that listeners in later ages hardly ever share the preferences of a composer’s contemporaries. This is also true to a certain extent in the case of Antonio Vivaldi. The twelve concertos op. 8, Il Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione of which The Four Seasons are the first four, were only printed four times. The first edition, published in Amsterdam by Michel Charles le Cene, appeared in 1725, and it was reprinted three times by the Paris publisher Le Clerc. L’Estro’s popularity was equaled by Il Cimento only in France. This great success in France was undoubtedly due partly to the fact that French theoreticians often were less skeptical about the onomatopoeic potential of music than for instance their English colleagues. We do not know how Vivaldi himself regarded these theoretical questions. There are hardly any quotations extant from the Venetian master in which he airs his views on composition of aesthetics. Even the relation between the score of The Four Seasons and the four “explanatory sonnets” that Vivaldi had printed along with the first edition, is not quite clear. Did Vivaldi, in writing the Four Seasons, base himself on a specific programme? From the countless special effects the score offers it appears that this must have been the case. Yet the fact that some sonnet lines have no parallel in the music suggests the programme was not as well-defined as the sonnets would lead us to believe. One of the world’s most sought-after conductors, Jaap van Zweden has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012.

This is one of the few recordings of Josef Suk's rarely performed Symphony, with which the composer came to terms with personal blows of fate, captured in this recording with sensitivity and meticulous detail. This production marks the beginning of a highly promising collaboration between the Essen Philharmonic and OehmsClassics. Meyerbeer's Le prophete has already been planned for 2018.

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REVIEW:

This is as sober as vivid a performance of Suk’s Asrael Symphony. Tomas Netopil’s account of this work is eloquent in every respect and a worthy alternative to existing recordings.

– Pizzicato

GESUALDO VARIATIONS

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new release features favorite flute masterpieces which are staples in the flutist’s repertoire. New and old works are featured, including pieces from Hamilty Harty, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Franz Doppler, Carl Reinecke, and Cecile Chaminade. Margaret Cornils Luke began studying piano at five, then flute two years later. She was awarded multiple educational awards to study flute, and received her master’s degree in Flute Performance from Northern Illinois University. She is an active composer, and her recorded works are widely published. She continues to teach privately, perform master classes all over the country, and perform alongside the greatest ensembles and soloists in the nation.

Classical Music

The reign of the Catholic Monarchs - corresponding to the last decades of the 15th and the first decades of the 16th century - laid the foundation for Spain's power and prosperity in Early Modern Europe. Those were the days of Christopher Columbus's expeditions, but also the days of the War of Granada and the expulsion of Jews from Spain... This stormy period in Spanish history has left a rich musical legacy. An essential part of it is the vast repertoire of Spanish secular art song written to amatory, political propaganda, philosophical and devotional texts. Most of this repertoire was written down the manuscript widely known as Cancionero Musical de Palacio. With more than 450 pieces composed over several decades by several generations of both identified and anonymous composers, Cancionero Musical de Palacio 'towers above every other secular monument of Spanish Renaissance musical history' (Robert Stevenson). Arianna Savall, Petter Johansen, Corina Marti, Michal Gondko and Tore Eketorp join forces to bring their public the gems of this madly beautiful music, which - according to the contemporary witness - was once 'all the rage' among members of the aristocratic society of the Early Renaissance Spain. An extremely 'easy-o-the ear-going' programme, with Arianna Savall's touching singing coming straight from the heart.

From experience, I have learned to have high expectations whenever I am dealing with a CD released by Alpha. In every single disc I have gotten from them so far, I note extreme care in all the aspects of production: exquisite art design, a beautiful detail of an excellent painting on the cover, informative liner notes (always including a lengthy explanation of the aforementioned painting itself, which never ceases to delight me!), exciting repertoire, marvelously performed and equally well recorded.

The present CD is no exception to the rule, and it has an extra bonus: it presents a very curious and almost unknown version of three Beethoven sonatas, skillfully transcribed by Pierre-Auguste-Louis Blondeau, who published them in 1808–09, for the benefit of the refined amateur. I would tell you more about this forgotten master, but you know what? You should really get this CD, and read the text: it will not only give you a very good idea about the composer and his artistic milieu, as well as a step-by-step commentary on the movements of each sonata (Michelle Garnier-Panafieu wrote the liner notes), but will also provide you with a knowledgeable article (by Denis Grenier) on the painting by Marie Éléonore Godefroid which graces the cover. To hear Beethoven in this new guise is fascinating and fun. At the same time, a surprise and an experience in déjà vu. No matter how much Beethoven himself used to condemn such transcriptions, somehow the music fits very well for the string quartet, and engages our interest right away. Evidently, a large part of the merit belongs to the musicians of Quatuor ad Fontes, who play with real zest and just the right touch of grittiness. After hearing the CD, I wondered whether I would not find the original version of these works a little bit subdued, from now on.

This is a very good recording, which should be valuable to anyone who loves Beethoven, as well as for those who hate him (maybe they will enjoy Blondeau more than they do the Viennese master). It is a must for all who are interested in the early Romantic period, or in transposition, or in string quartet repertoire, or who simply want to acquire a beautifully presented CD as a gift to someone special. In short: for practically everybody!

Laura Rónai, FANFARE

Classical Music