Prophets of the New is a series from Sony focusing on classic recordings of the 20th century's most revolutionary works. Le Sacre du Printemps serves as a point of reference to all who seek to establish the birth certificate of what is still called “contemporary” music.

R E V I E W S

There is a controlled intensity about Boulez's 1971 New York performance of Petrushka... In The Rite of Spring...Boulez is less lyrical than the composer but compensates with relentless rhythmic urgency. The massive vividness of sound matches the monolithic quality of the interpretation.

-- Penguin Guide
reviewing Le Sacre du Printemps previously reissued on Sony 64109

The great Yevgeny Svetlanov frequently conducted Debussy. His interpretation of Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune in the Philharmonia concert recorded here in 2001 has an almost operatically vocal style, coupled with spacious tempo. He achieves a most remarkable response from the Philharmonia both in this piece and La Mer, in which the dramatically assertive style of brass playing contributes to a particularly powerful approach to the French composer's music. Svetlanov's conducting of Respighi's orchestration of two of Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in October 1999, is typically atmospheric in the first tableaux - La Mer et les Mouettes (The Sea and the Gulls) following Debussy's La Mer, while the second, La Foire (The Fair) demonstrates the conductor's wonderful ear for colour. Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was composed for sextet in 1919 while in the USA, but was re-scored for orchestra in 1934. Svetlanov's concert with the LSO from October 1979 is a rarity since his only recording dates back to an early Melodiya account.

For his fourth CD recording on SWR, pianist Michael Korstick turns his focus and attention toward Claude Debussy and his journey toward artistic maturity, from the French composer's earliest piano pieces, the Deux Arabesques, the Mazurka, ca. 1890/91, and perhaps most conspicuously the Suite Bergamasque (1890, rev. 1905), it's third movement being the famous "Clair de Lune", to the birth of what become known as musical "impressionism", most notably foreshadowed with the Estampes of 1903. Numerous award winning CDs have won Michael Korstick a reputation as one of Germany's leading pianists.

Two well-known and two less-familiar orchestral works by Debussy • A new recording from the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and Heinz Holliger, following up on their globally acclaimed Koechlin series • A continuation of the orchestra’s exploration of the French orchestral repertoire that began with their CDs of the music of Koechlin • May 21st 2014: Heinz Holliger’s 75th birthday The "Afternoon of a Faun“ together with the orchestral "Images" are among Claude Debussy’s best known and most popular compositions. Both works show different side of the composer: "Afternoon of a Faun" is a textbook example of musical impressionism, while about the "Images", the composer himself said that his goal was to “try to achieve something different – an effect of reality”. The scores contrast well with the two Rhapsodies: the one for clarinet, called the "first" Rhapsody, was sketched out within a few weeks at the end of 1909, while the "second" Rhapsody for saxophone was only completed and orchestrated after the death of its author. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and conductor Heinz Holliger manage to bring out the evocative, dynamic colors and peculiarities to be found in all of these works with precision.

Frensh Music For Flute And Har

Poème

Entr'acte

Wind Chamber Music 1

Works For Two Pianos

When Matthias Kessler (*1997), Luca Staffelbach (*1996), and Fabian Ziegler (*1995) play the works of French composers, they use up to two marimbas, three vibraphones, and two glockenspiels, sometimes more, sometimes less. The three musicians, all of whom hail from Switzerland and Austria, have dedicated five years of development work to their debut CD. The ensemble's common denominator is a great desire to explore the infinite potential of percussion instruments. Their bachelor's degree courses at the University of the Arts in Zurich paved the way for the three young musicians to explore the entire spectrum of instrumental possibilities from the outset, and their mutual interest in their subject matter extended far beyond the huge variety of drums and other percussion instruments they had to hand, right up to the so-called "mallet instruments". Mallets are occasionally called beaters, and one usually plays marimbas and vibraphones with two of these implements in each hand. In the process of playing in this way, the percussion transcends it's role as a pure rhythm instrument and emancipates itself as a fully-fledged, melodic, and tone-embellishing tool. Mallet ensembles have now established themselves as an extremely popular genre in competitions and in the world of concert performances. Matthias Kessler, Luca Staffelbach, and Fabian Ziegler invariably receive an enthusiastic response at their concerts, where the audience is always impressed by the variety of these instruments they have at their disposal. In addition to the wealth of musical effects they utilise, the high level of synchronisation achieved by this young trio is astonishing, and it often appears to the untrained eye that everything one hears is being played by a single instrument. These three young musicians would like this line-up to be taken ever more seriously in the future. The trio is planning that the musical focus should be less and less on a spectacular exotic status while concentrating more on the development of their musical quality and depth: "We hope that perhaps in five or ten years' time, people will come away from a marimba and vibraphone concert just as they would from a piano recital and not just say that was a sensational show," is how Matthias puts into words the group's aim for the future, something that, in turn, should also be reinforced by their current CD debut.

Following her acclaimed Brahms release on Signum Classics in May 2021, Leeds International Piano Competition Winner (2015), Anna Tsybuleva, releases a new album of Debussy's 24 Preludes pour solo piano. Tsybuleva has been described by as embodying "superb pianism and intelligent musicianship" (Gramophone Magazine) and "A pianist of rare gifts: not since Murray Perahia's triumph in 1972 has Leeds had a winner of this musical poise and calibre" (International Piano Magazine). Praise for Tsybuleva on Signum Classics "One is speechless. As far as their performance is concerned, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the soloist and the conductor Ruth Reinhardt are an extremely eloquent team that realizes their musical ideas together. You can hear a direct and gripping Brahms, without any airs, without frills - music that speaks to you directly" - Piano News

The biographies and the music of Debussy, Ravel, and de Falla contain multiple hidden reflections, many elements that mirror each other. These reflections are so clear-cut that it becomes difficult in many cases to make out the original image. Music inspired by Iberia and the piano as an instrument were certainly common ground, on which the three composers engaged in a lively artistic exchange. The Romantic piano repertoire has appropriated music of the most diverse origins. Considering the particular instrument that originally inspired it, we could almost call the result regeneration rather than mere transcription, as if the music were reborn in it's pure form. The works included on this CD showcase guitar, harp and piano in just such a complementary relationship. Indeed, Maurice Ravel personally noted in his score of Miroirs for the pianist Vlado Perlemuter, that he should imitate the guitar or the harp in certain passages. In his article La guitara, Manuel de Falla in his turn writes of how marvellously Debussy depicts the artistic qualities of the instrument, without ever having used the guitar at all in his works. Having grown up with the Romantic tradition, many pianists of the time had difficulties doing justice to the new musical imagery of Symbolism. Chronicles from the time reveal a certain impatience in composers, who required from interpreters a new technique and a different use of the sustaining pedal. Unlike the piano, both guitar and harp emit softer, less defined contours, in keeping with the melancholic and equivocal timbres of Debussy and Ravel. Ever since his student days, Maurizio Grandinetti's main interest has been broadening the musical horizons of his instrument. He is currently soloist, chamber musician and improviser. His career so far has taken him to the most important festivals and concert halls in numerous European countries, Brazil, the USA and China. For 14 years Consuelo Giulianelli was professor for harp at the Stella Matutina Private Music Academy in Feldkirch, Austria. Alongside studies with Mirella Vita and Ursula Holliger, that she completed with distinction, she attended courses by Marielle Nordmann and Pierre Jamet, who premiered the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp by Claude Debussy.

Wilhem Latchoumia and Vanessa Wagner are adventurous pianists whose mastery extends from the standard repertoire to contemporary music. Their duo sprang from the ephemeral quartet of pianists assembled for that project, when they discovered they shared the same open-minded approach and the same passion for contemporary music. Here Vanessa Wagner and Wilhem Latchoumia pursue their exploration of the repertory for two pianos, shedding new light on several emblematic works of early twentieth-century French music. Here they pay tribute to musical Impressionism in a programme of works by it's greatest masters, in which the artists' close rapport, energy and skilful nuances will appeal to connoisseurs and neophytes alike. The pre-eminence of colour over line, the dissolution of the subject, a tendency to dreams and the call of distant horizons, hedonism, stasis and suspension of time, evocation of images and atmospheres, a penchant for mystery and the supernatural: these are some of the key elements of Impressionist music, of which Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune is the first and most famous illustration.

Around Gershwin is star accordionist Richard Galliano's tribute to George Gershwin, in-terweaving his music with works by early twentieth-century composers such as Debus-sy, Rachmaninoff, Satie, Ravel and Faure, as well as new compositions of his own. Seen through the lense of Galliano's masterful musicianship, these pieces create the sensa-tion of a sonic odyssey.

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