Hybrid' is a word that has always been vital to Ceeys' vocabulary, but it's application is not limited to the manner in which cellist Sebastian Selke and his brother, pianist Daniel Selke, combine their two instruments so harmoniously. Instead, like the duo's very name - which merges the words 'violoncelle' and 'keys' - it is reflective of their overall aesthetic, one in which they integrate the many ingredients that have helped shape them as both musicians and people. Ceeys' idiosyncratic style is characterized by a rather reduced approach to composition and improvisation. In exploiting their knowledge of songwriting, textures and repetitive patterns, they create an experimental but accessible minimalism between avant-garde and pop that incorporates elements of jazz, ambient and classical chamber music. A product as much of the music with which they grew up as of that which now surrounds them, and as much indebted to their childhood environment as to that in which they now live, Concrete Fields is the first part of a planned trilogy and - certainly not by accident - it was released in the very year that marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Through this conscious process of coming to terms with the prefab estate in which they were raised - Europe's largest, located in the district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf - the brothers create music that at times feels familiar, but which remains refreshingly, invigoratingly unique, thereby mirroring the myriad sounds to which they have been exposed throughout their lives. Currently, Ceeys is presenting their third album W�NDE at the Berlin label Neue Meister. Here, they focus on the remembrance of 1989, a year which brought many changes.

With its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, the oboe has evolved from the rustic medieval shawm and the French Baroque hautbois to become the modern instrument we know today. Italian composers provided the first works befitting of its expressive nature, and ever since, great writers such as J.S. Bach, Handel and Mozart have been inspired by the instrument’s unique, emotive qualities, using it as a medium for some of their most beautiful and delicate melodies. With an equal ability to shine in a chamber setting or to rise above an orchestra, and its distinctive timbre, expressive character and versatility, the oboe continues to be an inspirational and joyful instrument.

The sensible and sophisticated pianist Rossella Spinosa faces the arduous task of performing the music of Giacinto Scelsi, a very special composer that grew within the Parisian scene influenced by Debussy, the generation of the Eighties, the Dodecafonia of the German school, and the esotericism of Skriabin, reaching (after traveling to the east in India and Tibet) his very personal idea of global spherical sound. So Scelsi became the interpreter of a new concept of sound that transcends the formal architecture almost renouncing to making music, becoming a link between the earthly world and cosmic forces. The result is music demanding great sensitivity and particular mood by both the performer and the listener, to whom is requested a total and religious immersion in the sound and vibrations of the world of Giacinto Scelsi. Rossella Spinosa holds degrees in piano, harpsichord, composition, and law. She also graduated with highest marks in Musicology. She is a winner of numerous national and international piano competitions, and has performed in the most prestigious halls in Italy and abroad.

Inactive since Il Piccolo Marat (1921), on March 23, 1932 Mascagni reproposed Pinotta, reelaborated from his cantata In Filanda. The Author’s interventions in 1932 were undoubtedly important: the little chorus of Zeffiri that after the short prelude announces the idyll shows a harmonic restlessness hardly thinkable in a twenty-year-old Mascagni; and the same goes for the unusual effect in the finale, with the two voices whispering a fading “T’amo” on the silence of the orchestra. Also, the rich instrumental ensemble is much wider than the one thought for the cantata. For the symphonic poem with voice A Giacomo Leopardi Mascagni followed the great examples of Liszt, Smetana and Strauss: the poem gets its inspiration not only from the few verses sung by the soprano; wider fragments - quoted in limine on the score - supply the expressive suggestions to the orchestra interludes acting as “bridges” among the different episodes. So we might say that this A Giacomo Leopardi is not a cantata, but a downright symphonic poem where a few singable episodes occasionally emerge. Zanetto can be considered as a “little” opera not because of its short duration, of the orchestra ensemble including no brass or its only two characters (soprano and mezzosoprano en travesti), but because of its decidedly lyrical style and basic lack of action: the act is just a long encounter-conversation in a Renaissance Florence between a young minstrel and Silvia, a rich, bored lady who reciprocates his love but, being a courtesan, cannot allow herself such a feeling and must reject the young boy.

L'Ebreo (the Jew) was staged at La Fenice in Venice on the 23rd of January 1855; the result was triumphant and made the 33 year-old Apolloni immediately famous. The score, bought by Ricordi, started making the rounds right away and in a few years there was no Italian theatre which had not staged at least one edition. What did the public find in this opera? A kind of melodic idea, certainly not banal and often adequate and incisive, an insistent rhythm and a logical, feverish narrative movement. There was certainly a clear subjection to Verdi's expressive form; the score is entirely entrusted to the singing: the recitatives are short and the composer rarely makes use of declamatory or arioso parts. The present recording was staged and recorded at Teatro Chiabrera di Savona in October 1989.

Classical Music

Founded in November 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and a few of his confidants, the Association for Private Musical Performances constituted perhaps the most progressive and most intensive opportunity for a select Viennese musical circle to familiarize themselves with contemporary and the latest works of the international composers’ scene in the immediate aftermath of the First World War and hence at the time of a dearth of a cultural spirit of optimism and innovation. Schoenberg had a close personal tie with many of the composers performed at the association concerts, as in the case of Zemlinsky. The association became a nursery for the entire modern music from Richard Strauss and Debussy to Webern, as far as the instrumentation of the works allowed. This release explores some of the chamber music works that came out of that association, including pieces by Bruckner, Mahler, Webern, and Schoenberg himself, among others.

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REVIEW:

The Linos Ensemble offer fastidiously prepared performances of fascinating repertoire in unusual arrangements. The quality of the music-making on offer transcends the historical importance of many of these reductions. Given the fact that these discs have been laid down over a twelve year period, recording standards are consistently excellent. Indeed it is a delight to be able to hear the sound of the harmonium so perfectly integrated into the texture in so many of these arrangements.

– MusicWeb International

Who can resist the casual, seductive, ingenious and multilayered music of Brazil? A country of continental dimensions where all of Europe could fit within her borders! But size isn't everything! From the lithesome, musical elegance of the choro to the hypnotic sensuality of the Bossa nova, and a kaleidoscope of subtle rhythms wrapped in sophisticated jazz harmonies, the sound of Brazilian music is unforgettable unmistakable, and best summed up by the Portuguese word ''saudade,'' which mingles yearning, sadness and memory. The leading recorder-player for decades, Michala Petri returns to take us on a new musical journey to Terra do Brasil through the music of Jobim, Nazareth, Gismonti, Villa-Lobos, Hermeto Pascoal and others. Joining her are two exciting musicians in their fields: the young guitarist and composer Daniel Murray and award-winning percussionist/composer Marilyn Mazur. A natural guitar prodigy, Murray has established himself at a young age as both a masterful interpreter of the music of Tom Jobim and as a leading voice in the contemporary Brazilian music scene.

Walter Braunfels is a composer whose music died twice: Once when the Nazis declared his music “degenerate art”. Then again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music; when the arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music – almost the whole pre-war aesthetic – to be tainted. This sixth release of Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition shows again his large range of colorful music and focus this time on his works for piano and orchestra from three different periods of his life: his first complete orchestral work, the Witches Sabbath, op. 8 (1906), the Concert piece for piano and orchestra op. 64 (1946) and one of his last compositions the Hebridian Dances op. 70 (1950/51). Tatjana Blome is the featured pianist on this release.

In December 2017 soprano Rodica Vica made the world premiere recording of George Enescu’s Ghosts (Strigoii) alongside the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin led by conductor Gabriel Bebe?elea. Nobody knew anything about George Enescu’s oratorium Strigoii. The script, lost together with other items in the turmoil of the First World War, was purchased back by the Director of the Enescu Museum. To make it easier to understand how Strigoii was created, it was necessary to undertake the decipherment and reconstruction of the manuscript. When Enescu approached Strigoii in 1916, it was the result of an older admiration for the poet Mihai Eminescu that was to last until the end of the composer’s life. Whilst Enescu evinces some similarities to German Romanticism in his poem (Novalis or Tieck), in Strigoii Enescu also shows stylistic affinities to some contemporaries such as Alexander von Zemlinsky or the young Alban Berg.

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REVIEW:

Both works here are world premiere recordings. Strigoii was designated by Enescu as an oratorio, although it would seem better to fit the description of secular cantata. It was composed in 1916 for full orchestra, choir and soloists in three parts, to a text which is a poem by Mihai Eminescu (1850–1889); the score was presumed lost during the First World War but eventually re-discovered and purchased by the director of the Enescu Museum, who gave a photocopy of the manuscript to Cornel ??ranu, the arranger here. Dramatically, thematically, textually and musically, it has much in common with two works both written five years earlier: Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, also in three parts and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, all with elements that can ultimately be traced back to the post-Romantic trope of “Love in Death” epitomised in the “Liebestod” of Tristan und Isolde, but stylistically the influences of Zemlinsky and Berg can be detected in the score. Interestingly, the German translation of what is rendered in English as “Ghosts” is “Geister” on the cover but the translation of the poem in the booklet is entitled “Vampyre”, which puts a rather different and darker complexion upon the tale.

??ranu’s reconstruction has been richly orchestrated by composer Sabin Pautza. It purportedly sets the entire text of Eminescu’s poem, although in track 5, Part II, the action omits six stanzas of the original present in the libretto, thereby leaping from King Arald’s plea to the Seer to bring his beloved back from the dead to his spell, excising the narrative description of the preparation and build-up to its incantation. Insofar as I can tell, not speaking Romanian but being familiar with other Romance languages and having the English translation to follow, the poetry is beautiful and it certainly adds interest to hear the language sung so idiomatically by native speakers.

“Free declamation” or “Sprechgesang” is sometimes employed by the tenor and bass, and the music is highly chromatic in approach, giving it a nebulous and free-floating character and making it hard for the amateur ear to pin down its shape. The through-composed music does not so much accompany the vocal lines as provide a kind of eerie, atmospheric backdrop to them. I certainly find myself frequently reminded of the atmosphere of Bluebeard while listening, especially as so much of the music is for the bass, but especially striking is the tenor Arald’s searing, soaring narration of how his passionate, all-consuming love for his Queen was stirred into being. All four singers here are first-rate, especially the incisive baritone who sings the Magus. My experience of Romanian opera hitherto has been limited to Enescu’s life’s work and masterpiece, the beautiful, refined and densely orchestrated Oedipe, and the operas of Nicolae Bretan, whose own libretto for his Arald was based on the same poem as Enescu sets here; likewise, the text for Luceaf?rul, was again derived from an Eminescu poem. Both were first recorded by Nimbus and well worth exploring, while the best recording of Oedipe remains that from EMI with José Van Dam, but I certainly also welcome this new addition to the canon, even though I find Enescu’s idiom here quite challenging.

Pastorale fantaisie is a youthful work, written in 1899, when the composer was only eighteen. For a number of reasons, it was not given an opus number or published, and was re-discovered only in 2017 by the conductor here, Gabriel Bebe?elea, who transcribed it from the manuscript and directed its second performance 118 years after its premiere. Its structure is tripartite and employs two fugues as its main musical ideas, culminating in a grand coda; it is evidently indebted to Baroque models. The gentle, undulating, then descending, opening theme gives it an airy, pastoral quality, contrasting strongly with the ensuing stormy sections, reinforcing any association we might have with the Beethovenian allusion contained within the work’s title; despite its formal, archaic structure, it emerges as sounding more modern, perhaps more like an attractive tone poem.

– MusicWeb International (Ralph Moore)

With "Il tabarro" Puccini wrote the first part of his projected opera triptych, with which he ultimately intended to parody and reverse Wagner’s Ring tetralogy by stringing together three completely incoherent short stories. Once more, for Il tabarro the composer virtually emigrated to France, to which he had already made declarations of love with La Bohème and Manon Lescaut. This affinity is now mirrored more clearly than in these two operas in the music of The Cloak, which emanates French, well-nigh Impressionist perfume. Bertrand de Billy knows how to make the score come alive with a fantastic cast on his side. World famous tenor Johan Botha was on the top of his career at the making of this album, and the results of the entire ensemble together are historically beautiful.

Commissioned in 1885 by Great Britain, Anton Dvorak’s The Spectre’s Bride had huge success immediately upon its premiere. The story is of a girl whose dead lover returns to lead her from her home, forcing her to leave behind her prayer book, rosary, and cross. When she is led to his open grave, she flees and is eventually saved by some churchgoers. At the premiere, Dvorak conducted a 400-voice choir and an orchestra consisting of 150 musicians. Many performances across Europe and in the United States followed, cementing Dvorak’s prominence and popularity across the English-speaking world. Dvorak himself wrote: “I just cannot tell you how much these British honor and like me! Everywhere, they are writing and talking about me, saying I am the lion of this year’s musical season in London.” Here the work is performed by the Wiener Singakademie and the Orf Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Cornelius Meister.

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Simona Šaturová is pure and innocent as the girl but thrills when she throttles up. Pavol Breslik is smooth and eager as her ghostly spouse, Adam Plachetka sage-like as the narrator. A nice little discovery.

– Gramophone

There could be the dramatic skeleton of an opera lurking beneath the cantata veneer of The Spectre’s Bride, a work based on a poem about a young girl who is abducted by a ghost she believes to be the spirit of her lover. There are shapely solo contributions from the ORF orchestra, and certainly some very fine expressive singing from soprano Simona Šaturová as the girl and tenor Pavol Breslik as the spectre.

– Guardian (UK)

Classical Music

Trade Mark "Bad Boy" - After all the experimental episodes the audience has faced in the field of New Music in recent decades, today the oeuvre of George Antheil will be welcomed with a great deal of sympathy and many a friendly smile. The American knew full well not only how to meet the expectations of an audience "prepared to protest", but also how even to challenge them more overtly. An excellent example is the Jazz Symphony, written in 1925, shortly after George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, that bursting the limits of the customary listening experiences of teh age in a similar way to e.g. Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps of 1913.

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REVIEW:

Thanks in large part to Karl-Heinz Steffens’s interpretation, I’d argue that A Jazz Symphony, despite its blatant references to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, are woven inextricably into the music’s narrative structure. Steffens underscores the work’s unifying characteristics rather than emphasizing its incongruities.

Pianist Frank Dupree’s finely chiseled performance in the First Piano Concerto maintains a tighter grip overall than any of his rivals.

– Gramophone

Many of the today-distinguished Soviet composers in the second half of the 20th century knew how to steer a middle course, enabling them to supply what was officially desirable all the while remaining faithful to themselves, writing the music they wanted to write. Kabalevsky was a Jack of all musical trades and, as a specialist for children’s music especially, cultivated a highly personal style, keeping easily within the bounds of comprehensible tonal aesthetics. His works are characterized by some of the features typical of Kabalevsky’s overall oeuvre: a cornucopia of melodious imagination, dance rhythms, above all in the fast movements, expansive slow sections and a positive, often cheerful tone. The present release presents a selection of his orchestral works alongside his violin concerto.

'Mar�a de Buenos Aires brought me inner peace, a partial serenity that has changed my way of approaching music. I reached the zenith of my musical life at the time. (Astor Piazzolla) Piazzolla himself equated Mar�a to the tango and it's historical ups and downs; and this is probably also the primary aid to understanding the reception of the contents of the piece. Next to that, there is also a musical diction that is entirely unique in the second half of the 20th century, indeed in the New Music scene as a whole. 'I learnt something: to be patient, to be self-critical, to co-ordinate reflection with passion. Now I am told: 'That is a different Piazzolla', but that is not the case. I am the same man, but I have reached a synthesis'. (Astor Piazzolla)

During the Fifties Andres Segovia strengthened his fame as the best classical guitarist in the world with a series of wonderful recordings containing the most significant parts of his repertoire. Segovia’s 19th century music repertoire was focused almost exclusively on the Spanish composers, composers the he liked best. He did not often consider Italian composers. Among the Spanish composers Fernando Sor (Barcellona, 1778 – Paris, 1839) had been his favorite; he was a talented composer and performer who wrote Studies for Guitar which featured a great melodic originality that is even now still used in the education of classical guitarists. This album collects, for the first time, all the recordings that Segovia made of Sor works during the 1950s, which were the best moments of his musical career .

John Christopher Williams, OBE (born 24 April 1941) is an Australian virtuosic classical guitarist renowned for his ensemble playing as well as his interpretation and promotion of the modern classical guitar repertoire. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category with fellow guitarist Julian Bream for Julian and John (Works by Lawes, Carulli, Alb�niz, Granados). Guitar historian Graham Wade has said: "John is perhaps the most technically accomplished guitarist the world has seen." This third instalment in the IDIS John Williams Beginning of a Legend series includes works recorded in the studio in 1961, when John was only 20 years old. Works include compositions by Ponce and Torroba as well as traditional songs for voice and guitar.

The first release of new material from Blue Heron since winning the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, this two-album set is the world-premiere recording of Cipriano de Rore’s landmark first book of madrigals for five voices. The set includes all twenty madrigals in De Rore’s 1542 print, as well as readings of the Italian poems (many of which are by Petrarch) by Alessandro Quarta. De Rore is celebrated as an innovator who helped create the madrigal as it is known today, putting the music at the service of the text and inventing a new, dramatic, and expressive harmonic language. In this music, listeners will perceive a deep engagement with the text, an engagement matched by the singers of Blue Heron, who were led by both Scott Metcalfe and Alessandro Quarta in developing an appropriately rhetorical style of performance. Musicologist Jessie Ann Owens has shown that the book is a poetic and musical cycle that likely resulted from a collaboration between De Rore and the Venetian poet Giovanni Brevio, who wrote the opening and closing poems of the set. The narrative structure is illustrated with “the colors of the modal system,” the madrigals being sequenced in modal order. Professor Owens’ research and conclusions are presented in extensive notes in the booklet. Prof. Owens and Blue Heron won the 2015 Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, which provided stimulus funding for the project.

Robert deMaine is an American virtuoso cellist who has been hailed by The New York Times as "an artist who makes one hang on every note.” He has distinguished himself as one of the finest and most versatile instrumentalists of his generation, performing to critical acclaim as soloist, recitalist, orchestral principal, recording artist and chamber musician. He is currently Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is in demand around the world as a soloist, chamber musician and clinician. This recording is a collaboration with New York conductor Joel Eric Suben and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra recorded at Reduta Conceret Hall in Olomuc, Czech Republic. It was in this spirit of personalized composition that Haydn wrote his Cello Concerto in C major, Hob. VIIb:1, for the Esterházy family. The piece was unknown to modern audiences until 1961, when a copy of the score was uncovered. Since that time, it has become a staple of the cello repertoire, championed by many of the world’s greatest cellists. Robert deMaine adds his name to that list with this lush recording. Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major, Hob. VIIb:2 was written for the Esterházy orchestra’s principal cellist Antonín Kraft, who is said to have had a beautiful singing tone, expressive phrasing, and an explosive technique, especially in the cello’s upper register. All of this is realized once again in this fresh performance from Robert deMaine.

The compilation of works on this release is intended to provide a reasonably comprehensive view of the unaccompanied sacred choral music of the Romantic era while confining itself to German-language composers from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines. The chronological order of the composers and the consideration of a number of central works aims to show the interrelationships of the choral music scene over a period lasting more than a century. The young singers of the Jugendkonzertchor (the youth choir of the Dortmund Choral Academy) engage in intensive rehearsal work and supplementary voice training, their principal focus being the unaccompanied choral music of all periods. The ensemble’s broad repertoire also encompasses oratorio and choral symphonic works and popular music for choir. The Ruhrnachrichten newspaper praises the “perfectly homogenous overall sound and the admirably well trained soloists” of the jugendkonzertchor, who “fill the space around them with a power of their fresh young voices” to create a “luxury sound” : this is a choir of which “great things can be expected in the coming years.”

This album is dedicated to Czech composers. The first is Antonin Dvorak, who wrote his Moravian Duets in 1875 and 1876. The original idea was to arrange folk melodies from the collection of Frantisek Susil, but Dvorak eventually decided to use just the folk texts, setting them to music by himself. The resulting work in a way marked the beginning of his worldwide recognition. Although the genre of duets for two women’s voices and piano is well known today thanks chiefly to Dvorak, in its time it was cultivated by other composers too. Among them by Dvorak’s contemporary and friend Karel Bendl, whose “Dvanact dvojzpevu” (Twelve Duets) are settings of mostly lyrical texts by Vitezslav Halek from the collection “V prirode” (In Nature) and were probably written in the second half of the 1870s. The last cycle is The Slovak Duets by one of the most important contemporary Czech composers Sylvie Bodorova. Working with the rhythmic aspect of her music and layering her polyphony are typical features of her approach. She has also found inspiration in Roma, Jewish, and contemporary approach to folk (especially East European and Balkan) music, as well as other areas of the music of our time. The works here are sung by Hana Dobesova and Michaela Rozsa Ruzickova, accompanied by pianist Ladislava Vondrackova, and were recorded live at Martinu Hall, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

One of Germany's largest and most important independent record labels, Hanssler Classic is renowned for having recorded every single piece of music written by J.S. Bach. Their 172-album set of the complete works of J.S. Bach performed by Helmuth Rilling and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart was the first complete set of Bach's works to be released together on album. It won the prestigious 2001 Cannes Classical Award for best special edition and the 2000 Echo Classical award for Editorial Achievement. The present release is an exemplary showcase of each and every one of JS Bach’s Oratorios, recorded over the last four decades.

These girls are educated at the expense of the state to distinguish themselves in music. They sing like angels and play violin, flute, harpsichord, organ, oboe, cello and bassoon; in short, no instrument can deter them, however big it may be. That is what French humanist and historian Charles de Brosses wrote in1739 about the girls who received their schooling in the Venetian orphanages which he visited. In one of these institutions, the Ospedale della Piet�, Antonio Vivaldi worked as 'maestro di violino' and 'maestro di concerti'. One of his tasks was 'to provide concertos for our girls and compositions for all types of instrument'. This release features oboe concertos that Vivaldi wrote for these girls, performed by Joris Van den Hauwe who gained highest honors for his post graduate 'higher diploma' in oboe playing at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Brussels. With this album he won the Choc de Classica.

“Miss E. Mayer is a rare phenomenon. [...] here we can see a female composer writing not merely for the pianoforte, but also solving the arduous task of orchestral composition, swarming with thousands of secrets. And how she solves it!” (Neue Berliner Musikzeitung 32, 1878) In the German-speaking area, it was Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel that towered beyond the borders and, at the turn of the 20th century, it was Amy Beach in the USA and even more so Ethel Smyth in Great Britain that became icons of the women’s movement in music. Still hardly present is the music by the German Romantic composer Emilie Mayer. At the age of five, she began receiving piano lessons, and in the early 1840s none other than Carl Loewe in Stettin was her teacher. In her music, presented here, we encounter familiar classical form patterns, yet the focus is placed on the colorfulness of her music, which constantly holds new phrases and impulses, and with which she presents herself as one of the most important female representatives of Central European music in the 19th century.

REVIEW:

This is a very satisfying collection of works, most of which wouldn’t win any prizes for originality, but which nonetheless make for very enjoyable listening. I would judge the B-Minor Symphony, however, to be, if not a masterpiece, at least an important work and a significant contribution to the German Romantic symphonic literature. Strongly recommended.

–Fanfare