An extraordinary constellation of artists is one the major attributes of the new recording – a Czech conductor and a Czech soloist, and a German orchestra, who have a Czech sound in their DNA. All three of them enjoy great renown in both the European and global contexts. Symbolical is the selection of the album’s repertoire – the same world war that deprived the players of the German Philharmonic in Prague of their home and that in 1946 gave rise to the Bamberger Symphoniker in Germany, made Bohuslav Martinu leave his country and Europe itself. The composer wrote his Piano Concerto No. 4, “Incantation”, in New York in the twilight of his life, when it was evident that he would never return to his homeland. The connection between Ivo Kahánek and Martinu is profound indeed, with the pianist having played the Incantation at concert halls all over the world. The performance of the Incantation in Bamberg, captured on the present album, was lauded by the critics as revelatory. The studio recording of Antonín Dvorák’s Piano Concerto (based on Sviatoslav Richter’s account) ranks among the most remarkable returns to the composer’s original version of the work, forbearing the “effective and virtuoso improvements” carried out by its later arrangers. It showcases the tender and melodious music of Dvorák, who always strove to emphasise cordial expression, giving it preference to instrumental impression.

Traugott Maximilian Eberwein (1775-1831) was a member of the exquisite circle of artists, which was called the "Weimarer Musenhof“. Goethe was also a member and they worked under the patronage of the art-loving Duchess Anna Amalia. As an extremely productive composer, Eberwein composed numerous operas, songs, and also orchestral music, which can be heard on this recording played by the Thüringisches Kammerorchester Weimar under Max Pommer. The Thuringian Chamber Orchestra, founded in 1962 by members of the Staatskapelle Weimar, is one of the world’s oldest chamber orchestras. It is located in historic Weimar, the city of poets and phillsophers, but also of great musicians such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss. The ensemble peforms regularly at concert venues across Germany and in many European countries as well as in the Far East and Mexico. The orchestra’s repertoire ranges from the 18th to the 21st century, with a focus on composers from Weimar and its surroundings. Their extensive discography includes over 250 recordings for radio broadcast, and illustrates the ensemble’s stylistic confidence and its consistently high levels of musicianship.

The Bach recordings on this double album with Boris Bloch were made over a period of fifteen years. They document the pianist's engagement with the timelessness of this music. "My engagement with Bach grants me the happiest moments on the piano today and leads me on a road where there are no walls and no final destinations." (Boris Bloch) Born in Odessa, the pianist and conductor Boris Bloch has long been regarded as one of the most important interpreters of classical and romantic piano music. After studying at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the world-renowned pianist and pedagogue Dmitri Bashkirov he soon built up a large and ever expanding repertoire extending from Scarlatti and Bach, the Viennese Classicists, Chopin and Liszt and covering the German and Russian Romantics to the most important composers of the 20th century. Bloch's detailed knowledge of the piano literature of the last three centuries, his familiarity with the entire history of music and it's protagonists along with his stupendous pianism and above all things his strong artistic personality form the basis for the much vaunted depth of expression, the abundance of color, the amazing stylistic originality and the incomparable "singing tone" of his playing, manifesting themselves equally in the careful composition of his recitals.

PÍSNE A TANCE BAROKNÍ: SONGS AND DANCES OF THE BOHEMIAN BAROQUE • Jaroslav Krcek, cond; Musica Bohemica • SUPRAPHON SU 4098-2 (2 CDs: 138:54)


The pieces assembled on these two discs are drawn from several collections: Pet baroknich tancu (Five Baroque Dances) by Kristian Hirschmentzel (1638–1703); Trí Hanácké tance (Three Dances from Haná), a collection dating from c.1700; Písne a tance ze Zlatokorunské sbírky Ond?eje H?lky (Songs and Dances from the Collection of Ond?ej H?lky from Zlatá Koruna); and Nejstar?í sbírky ?eských lidových písní a tanc? (The Oldest Collections of Czech Folk Songs and Dances). The last-named source, a critical edition of which was published by Supraphon in 1987, in turn comprises materials from various sources. These include (if I am not misreading the somewhat confusing booklet notes) the 400 ?eské národní písne (Czech Folk Songs) published by Jan Ritter von Ritterberg in 1825; the 87 Staré svetské písne (Old Secular Songs) from the region around the central Bohemian village of Sadská, published at about the same time; manuscripts compiled by Jirí Hartl (1781–1849), a schoolmaster from Stara Paka; and the Bon Repos Book, compiled beginning in 1720 at the behest of Count Frantisek Antonin Spork (1662–1738). Many of these songs and dances were first preserved in written and published form due to “governorate gatherings,” official projects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to collect folk materials of its indigenous peoples that were initiated in 1818. Some of these sources exist only in second-hand form; for example, of the 160 pieces originally collected by the famed fiddler Ondrej Hulky (1752–1806) from the region around the Zlatá Koruna monastery in the Ceské Budejovice region of southern Bohemia, only 50 have survived due to their inclusion in the final 1864 edition of an anthology published by the Czech historian and poet Karel Jaromir Erben (1811–70), Prostonárodní ceské písne a ?íkadla (Czech Folk Songs and Nursery Rhymes), as Hulky’s original manuscript has not survived.


The designation “Baroque” is potentially misleading; virtually all of these items are believed to date back at least to the early 17th century, and just as well might be termed “late Renaissance”; they are all of a style that immediately brings to mind a Czech counterpart to Michael Praetorius. The arrangements and instrumentations of all the pieces have been undertaken by conductor Jaroslav Kr?ek and his brother Josef. A total of 68 dances and songs are presented, of which about 20 are purely instrumental while the remainder have one (or occasionally more) singer. The instrumentation is extremely colorful, with the performers drawing upon fipple flutes, cimbaloms, tarogatos, hurdy-gurdies, and even some otherwise unspecified “instruments newly devised and made by their own hands.” All the performances are, as one would anticipate, utterly idiomatic and charming, even if the singers are less polished and more rustic than I personally prefer. The recorded sound is excellent. Unfortunately no texts of any sort are provided for the songs. Despite this drawback, if you love folk music or Renaissance dance music collections and are looking to expand your collection in a slightly more exotic direction, then you definitely will want to acquire this set.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Polish-born New York City-based musician Kinga Augustyn is a versatile classical concert violinist and recording artist who is gaining worldwide recognition through her performances as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has been described as "an adventurous performer valuable to New York's scene" (NY Concert Review), "stylish and vibrant... playing with verve and superb control" (The Strad Magazine), and "beyond amazing, one hell of a violinist!" (The Fanfare Magazine). Her repertoire ranges from early baroque, which she sometimes performs on a baroque violin, to modern, oftentimes written especially for her. She has won several international awards, including First Prizes at the Alexander & Buono International String Competition. On this release, she presents Georg Philipp Telemann's 12 Fantasias for Solo Violin.

The two pieces chosen for this new recording are based around a central theme: healing. Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 was written after Beethoven had recovered from a serious illness which he, at the time, worried would be fatal. He had been afflicted during the entire winter of 1824-25, and headed the third movement with the words “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode). The Mendelssohn quartet is inspired by a different kind of healing, and was composed a few months after the death of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is heavily inspired by Beethoven’s late works, and is one of the most significant examples of cyclic form in music. The DaPonte Quartet is based in Maine, and has a mission to connect audiences to composers and their influences by bringing to life the human context of each score’s creation.

For this release, the Telegraph Quartet has chosen a program of twentieth century string quartets that are among some of the finest of the era. Each work exhibits great passion. The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape" and "powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety," the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad. Currently, the group is Quartet-in-Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Zuzana Růžičková’s supreme musicality makes these recordings more than a document; her accounts allow this precious music to dazzle in fine shades of colour and light. These sublime recordings are being released on CD for the very first time.

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the 20th-century musical landscape is the stylistic pluralism, visible not only across numerous schools and movements, but also in the language of individual artists who, unrestricted by the prevailing composition rules, would reach for various means of musical expression. The most crucial issues addressed by post-Romantic composers included the sound colour, important both for pre-war impressionists and representatives of sonorism. The album presents pieces from the beginning of the 20th century, performed by an international group of musicians related to the Belgian performance school, in which the play on the sound colour takes place in the chamber space. The leading pair of instruments are flute and viola - a couple which perfectly complements each other; its sound inspired a number of composers, like Debussy, Huybrechts, Roussel, and Schulhoff.

The very first complete recording of Viktor Kalabis’s piano works, as well as the album of his three sonatas have come to fruition upon the initiative and owing to the relentless enthusiasm of the world-renowned harpsichordist Zuzana Ružicková, the composer’s wife and a keen promoter of his oeuvre. Of major importance was the selection of the pianist – one possessing superlative technical skills and having a profound understanding of the structure of Kalabis’s music. As Ivo Kahánek put it: “Kalabis was one of the composers who don’t restrict their ideas by the traditional laws of the piano technique, hence his music is now and then extremely difficult to perform.” Even though Kalabis drew inspiration from the music of other 20th-century masters, he soon arrived at his own, singular and unique musical idiom, which is already palpable in his early opuses. The album maps more than half a century of Kalabis’s work, from the post-war Sonata No. 1 to the masterful miniatures dating from the very end of the millennium. Following the critically acclaimed recordings of his symphonic and concert pieces, and of the three sonatas, the present album opens yet another window into Viktor Kalabis’s fascinating musical world.

The 100th anniversary of Mieczyslaw Wajnberg's birth in January 2019 is an excellent opportunity to bring his works closer to the Polish audience. Although in the recent years Wajnberg's works have been performed and recorded more and more often, his music in our country is well known only to a narrow group of recipients. The album of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio conducted by Anna Duczmal-Mr�z, including three pieces by Wajnberg (Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 145, Concerto for flute and strings No. 1, Op. 75 and Chamber Symphony No. 3, Op. 153) allows the recipient to get to know various facets of the composer, starting from the influences of Neoclassicism, ending with inspiration from the works by Dimitri Shostakovich.

The 100th anniversary of regaining independence is a great opportunity to familiarize music lovers with works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. This talented composer and world-famous pianist, thanks to many patriotic initiatives, often drew attention to the importance of independent Poland for Europe. This release from Radoslaw Sobaczak, who won a honorable mention at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, is entirely devoted to the profile of the Polish artist. The album’s programme consists of a series of small pieces including the famous Minuet, Op. 14 No. 1, and the monumental three-movement Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op. 21. Only a few artists can boast of recording this extremely difficult composition, and Sobaczak does it with aplomb.

Tilman Skowroneck writes: "This recording was initiated by Bengt Nassen, the owner of the harpsichord by Martin Skowroneck (1926-2014) that is featured here. Initially, I was planning to play music by Bach and Handel on this German instrument, which is based on early eighteenth-century models, but after acquainting myself with the instrument's possibilities, I was led in a different direction. It's sound is located somewhere between Italian brilliance and a more intimate vocal character. Some French builders of the seventeenth century made instruments whose characteristics were quite similar, even though they arrived at these results by different constructions. And so the idea was born to use this sound to retrace the connections between the Italian and French sound worlds of the late seventeenth century." Tilman Skowroneck was born in Bremen in 1959 and studied harpsichord in The Hague and Amsterdam. After his studies he established himself as a freelance harpsichordist in Germany and Holland. Since 1996, Tilman Skowroneck has participated at various early piano seminars at the University of Gothenburg and the Gothenburg organ centre GOArt. He is currently senior lecturer for musical performance at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg.

Studies in Nature is inspired by the captivating illustrations of biologist and naturalist Erns Haeckel (1834-1919). These are musical depictions of these illustrations, performed on acoustic instruments. The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand (b.1970) has been called “strong and startlingly lovely” (Boston Globe). His compositions are wide-ranging in influence and inspiration, encompassing solo, chamber, vocal and orchestral works. From scores for dance, to compositions for young people, to multi-disciplinary and collaborative works, Al-Zand’s music is diverse in both its subject matter and its audience. It explores connections between music and other arts, and draws inspiration from varied sources such as graphic art, myths and fables, folk music of the world, film, spoken word, jazz, and his own Middle Eastern heritage. Al-Zand’s music has enjoyed success in the US, Canada and abroad and he is the recipient of several national awards, including the Sackler Composition Prize, the ArtSong Prize, the Louisville Orchestra Competition Prize and the “Arts and Letters Award in Music” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a founding and artistic board member of Musiqa, Houston’s premier contemporary music group, which presents concerts featuring new and classic repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In his scholarly work, he has pursued several diverse areas of music theory, including topics in jazz, counterpoint, and improvisation. Al-Zand was born in Tunis, Tunisia, raised in Ottawa, Canada and educated in Montreal and Cambridge. He has taught composition and music theory at the Shepherd School since 2000.

Seven years after their triumph with quartets by Dvorák, the Pavel Haas Quartet are making a triumphant return to Dvorák’s music. For the recording of the quintets, they have invited two guests: the pianist Boris Giltburg (winner of the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition) and Pavel Nikl, a founding member of the Pavel Haas Quartet. Dvorák composed his Second Piano Quintet at his beloved summer residence Vysoká late in the summer of 1887. The famed critic Eduard Hanslick received the work’s performance in Vienna enthusiastically: “It is one of his most beautiful works. It is real Dvorák.” The String Quintet, Op. 97, although younger by just six years, represents an entirely “different Dvorák”. After the New World Symphony and the American Quartet, it is Dvorák’s third work composed while in North America. And what did Hanslick have to say this time? “It is perhaps the simplest, most natural, and happiest music composed since the days of Haydn.” The degree to which the Pavel Haas Quartet feels at home with Dvorák’s music is shown by the many awards their recordings have received (Diapason d’Or, BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month, Gramophone Award nomination). "Another Pavel Haas Quartet [album], another triumph.” (Gramophone)

Classical Music

Jean-Philippe Rameau was perhaps the greatest of all French composers of the Baroque. Sylvie Proulx presents an exceptional program of Rameau's works in transcriptions for guitar. Canadian virtuoso guitarist, Sylvie Proulx has concertized throughout Canada, the United States and England. A champion of new works for the guitar, she has presented numerous Canadian world-premieres. Acclaimed for her exceptional musicality and remarkable technique, her repertoire reflects a wide range of periods and styles. In addition to solo and orchestral work, Ms. Proulx always enjoys the collaborative aspect of chamber music, welcoming new and challenging pieces for that genre.

This collection from the legacy of Jirí Belohlávek was put together during the year after the demise of this outstanding conductor. It is intended mainly as a recollection of this extraordinary musician and person. His life can be briefly described by enumerating the greatest of his achievements (Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, appearances at the MET, Glyndebourne, etc.; holder of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire /CBE/ title). The Maestro himself may have preferred a sharing of memories to recordings; yet the set of twenty-three pieces taken from the almost three hundred pieces from Supraphon archives and recorded in the years 1971 – 2016 is a wonderful illustration of Belohlávek’s professional maturing. They capture him as a conductor of several leading Czech orchestras, beginning with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and concluding by the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonia. In the very centre of Belohlávek’s repertoire we find compositions by Dvorák (From the New World), Smetana (My Country), Suk, Janácek and, notably, Martinu, whom he introduced to the world. The collection is enriched by several side-steps into other areas of repertoire including Mozart, Ravel, Mahler and Bartók, which documents the amazing scope of the conductor’s focus.

The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962. Principal conductors over the years include the well-known names Hiroshi Wakasugi, Heinz Rogner, Gerd Albrecht, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Sylvain Cambreling joined the YNSO in April 2010 as the ninth Principal Conductor and has energetically pursued a broad range of activities. The French-born conductor is a musician with big ideas. A thought-provoking, colorful and dramatic artist, he has a flair for grabbing the attention of audiences, yet his originality is rooted in thorough knowledge of musicology. Following the initial release of this album, in March 2015, the YNSO embarked on its first European tour in 12 years, with concerts scheduled in vibrant classical music centers such as Berlin, Cologne and Brussels. The tour was met with astounding aplomb.

Leschetizky pupil Mark Hambourg, possibly recorded more than any other classical pianist in the years up to 1930, but today we find his flamboyant, often barnstorming, style very out of fashion and he has been ill served on historical reissues. This portrait focuses on more unexpected areas of his repertoire - early music, contemporary music (several of his Debussy and Ravel recordings were recorded premieres) and rare encore pieces, the latter in particular revealing the lyricism, charm and bravura of this true romantic pianist. The opening track of Scarlatti arranged by Tausig is one of Hambourg's first recordings and dates from 1910. His final recording, the Rubinstein etude, from 1935, closes the set. Of particular interest is an unpublished recording of Ravel's Menuet antique from 1925.

This release launches an important new APR series devoted to the French Piano School. For around 150 years France has nurtured a distinctive style of pianism centered on the teaching of the Paris Conservatoire. The heyday of the school was probably the first fifty years of the 20th century and this series of recordings aims to explore in depth the often-forgotten recordings made at this time. Marius-François Gaillard was the first pianist to perform the complete piano works of Debussy in concert, which he did first in 1920, and again in 1922. He subsequently made the recordings featured here, and these were by far the largest body of Debussy piano recordings until the 1930s. As such they give us the closest view of Debussy playing to the composer’s own time and reveal a clarity and objectivity which exemplifies the traditions of French pianism but is somewhat different from the ‘impressionist’ style of Gieseking which was to follow and become the accepted model. Gaillard later pursued a career as a composer and his early recordings were forgotten. To commemorate the 100th anniversary year of Debussy’s death, this is their first reissue. Carmen Guilbert also had a short active career, but as a pupil of Marguerite Long her playing, particularly of Fauré, is important. These are her complete classical recordings.

For Simon Rattle, Jean Sibelius is "one of the most staggeringly original composers that there is". And indeed, this music has a unique musical language whose many beauties are particularly succinctly conveyed in Sibelius's seven symphonies. There is sonorous warmth as much as there is austere Nordic folklore. Moreover, there is a conceptual boldness that takes the listener on exciting musical journeys of discovery. In 2015, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presented the cycle live, which was met with unanimous delight by audiences and critics alike. "The Philharmoniker show that with them and Simon Rattle, Sibelius is in excellent hands," wrote the Berliner Zeitung, "because the orchestra has that astringency and sheer power which is so important for this kind of music." Simon Rattle was familiar with the music of Jean Sibelius from childhood. When, as a ten-year-old, he heard the Fifth Symphony live for the first time, it struck him - to use his own words - "like a thunderbolt". The Berliner Philharmoniker can also look back on a long Sibelius tradition and the orchestra was conducted by the composer himself in 1902. However, the first complete performance of the seven symphonies was not realized until 2010 under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, with the Third Symphony being performed by the Philharmoniker for the first time. For many music lovers in Berlin, this new encounter with Sibelius was an exhilarating experience, and so it was only natural to repeat the performance of the cycle in Sibelius's anniversary year.

This release comes from one of the hardest-working and most respected pianists in the world today- Stewart Goodyear. Every album from Goodyear is released to widespread critical acclaim, and this one is sure to be no different. Goodyear writes of this release: “It was the year Glenn Gould died when I first heard his legendary name. It was his Bach that introduced me to his playing. His sound struck me immediately… a sound that was compelling and uncompromising. It was not designed to speak words of mere prettiness, but of an individual truth… My decision to record Glenn Gould’s program came right after performing it in Montreal. While playing homage to one of the great Canadian legends, I was being transported to childhood memories of growing up in Toronto, Gould’s home town, studying at the Royal Conservatory, Gould’s home alma mater, and being an artist from Canada, Gould’s country.

REVIEWS:

The Bach is brisk and crisp and the ornamentation with the Gibbons piece is tightly coiled. The Brahms selections are robustly songful. If the concept and execution of this release aren’t appealing enough, Goodyear’s program was engineered by Daniel Shores at the Sono Luminus studios in Boyce, Virginia, the source of some of the finest piano recordings on earth.

– Absolute Sound

He does have a good grasp on the way Gould played, capturing his crisp attack and emotional impact. Goodyear perfectly captures Gould’s unusual approach to Brahms, which was resolutely unsentimental. His performance of the Berg Sonata again captures Gould’s approach, albeit with a piano sound more resonant than the one Gould himself favored.

– The Arts Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

Composer and pianist Kenneth Kuhn, after finding the music he wanted to hear did not exist, strove to bring his own musical visions to life. The result, Piano Works of Kenneth Kuhn, is a cathartic journey through the memories and imagination of the composer. Romantic in quality, thematic, memorable, and deeply moving, Kuhn's latest work leaves listeners feeling enriched and enchanted. Kuhn's compositions arose from three main sources: dreams, memories, and spontaneity. In Prelude No. 3 in G-minor, the composer describes the free-flowing second section as having formed on it's own, stating "As if controlled by some external something I literally watched my hands play this without any thought in the process." 'An Alpine Song' formed from a dream of a young Bavarian woman singing and playing guitar in the Alps and what the composer could recall of her exotic melodies upon waking. In 'Ode to Memories,' the composer reminisces on his own past and it's ups and downs, from joyous school years to the sudden death of a dear friend. Sublime in nature and simultaneously tender and haunting, each memorable composition tells it's own story. Piano Works of Kenneth Kuhn bares the heart, mind, and soul of the composer in a beautiful, sentimental fashion. With it's emotional height and depth, nature-inspired melodies, and connection to the sublime, Kuhn's collection both moves and inspires listeners.

DIE RÄUBER