Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The program for Sounds & Clouds is based on recorder player Jeremias Schwarzer's Singing Garden project, first performed in 2011, which links recorder concertos by Vivaldi with a specially written new work by Toshio Hosokawa. One of today's leading Japanese composers, Hosokawa is known for his compositions based on Japanese folk music and adaptations of composers such as Bach, Handel and Ives. Here for the first time, he has written around existing music and the Holland Baroque Society and Schwarzer seamlessly pair the modern and the baroque.

Until about 1960, Francois Devienne was one of the best-kept secrets of French music history. Celebrated in late-eighteenth-century France as a bassoonist, flautist and composer, his legacy was overshadowed by his Austrian contemporaries Haydn and Mozart. Forgotten to time were no less than seven symphonies, nineteen concertos, forty-six trios, sixty-seven sonatas, a dozen comic operas and fifty songs - all composed before the age of forty-three. On this release, the ensemble Musica Reale performs a selection of Devienne's Flute Quartets and Bassoon Quartets.

Classical Music

Since they met at a summer music camp in Switzerland in 2001, violinist Rosanne Philippens and pianist Yuri Van Nieuwkerk have been working together as a duo. They were awarded the Netherlands Programming Foundation Duo Prize at the National Violin Competition, as well as the Het Debuut at the latest Vriendenkrans/het Debuut. On this new recording, Philippens and van Nieuwkerk pay homage not just to Bartok and Ravel, but to what they call "the unbounded world of music," and their eclectic influences such as Radiohead, Brad Mehldau and Indonesian gamelan.

Classical Music

Biber's Rosary Sonatas are considered the most extensive example of scordatura - a technique whereby the strings are purposefully tuned differently from their usual arrangement. In these works, the violin's usual G-D-A-E tuning is only used for the opening sonata and the closing Passacaglia. The other fourteen sonatas each have a different configuration of tuning. Compositionally, this allowed Biber to obtain unusual chords, opening up a whole new spectrum of harmonic and textural possibilities. This fundamentally altered what a violin was and could be; it's physicality as well as it's voice was transformed. On this recording, the incomparable Rachel Podger reveals all the mysteries and glories of these amazing works.

The Ragazze Quartet has been acclaimed for their musical enthusiasm, talent, versatility and presentation. The young Dutch ensemble frequently collaborates with composers, musicians - classical or otherwise - and artists working in a variety of disciplines. In spite of it's life-affirming title, Vivere, the group's Channel Classics debut, is not exactly a cheerful disc. All three compositions refer in various ways to death. This is reflected in the key signatures of the repertoire (D minor is considered the key of death) and the programmatic content of the Schubert and Widmann quartets. The cellist actually 'dies' in the Widmann! Spectacularly well recorded, this disc presents an unusual and compelling program and introduces the world to a dynamic and exciting new ensemble.

In 2011, three world-class musicians, Italian pianist Paolo Giacometti, Scottish violinist Candida Thompson and Serbian-Russian cellist Xenia Jankovic decided to join forces and form the Hamlet Piano Trio. All three have earned their stripes, both as soloists and as chamber musicians, and their reputation as a trio continues to grow worldwide. On their d�but recording, the group performs Mendelssohn's two Piano Trios.