Classical Music

At first glance, Gabriel Faur� seems to fit neatly into the history of French music as a pupil of Saint-Sa�ns and a teacher of Ravel. Yet he stands apart from the mainstream because of his unique musical language, and because rather than writing colorful orchestral pieces he preferred to work in the comparatively modest media of the song, solo piano, and chamber music. With the exception of the late String Quartet, all of his chamber works combine the piano - Faur�'s own instrument as a performer - with strings. Among the earlier works, written in the late 1870s and mid-1880s, are the two Quartets for piano and string trio presented here. Since their first concert in January 1983, the Schubert Ensemble has established itself as one of the world's leading exponents of music for piano and strings. Regularly giving around 50 concerts a year, the ensemble has performed in over 40 different countries, has over 80 commissions to it's name, has recorded over 30 critically acclaimed CDs, and is familiar to British audiences through regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.

Classical Music

Gabriel Fauré, a master of song, piano, and chamber music, particularly appreciated the modulation-rich sound of the Érard grand piano. Its rich overtones and clear bass tones made it the ideal instrument for the French salon. This release presents not only Fauré's musical vision but also the sound world of the Érard grand piano, which played an important role in the musical scene at the time. Marc Coppey fully embraces the fluid rhetoric of Fauré's musical language. His interpretation deliberately eschews stylistically unfamiliar permanent espressivo and instead delves deep into the nuances and facets of Fauré's compositions. "Fauré authentique" thus presents not only musical brilliance but also an authentic journey through the French composer's complete works for cello and piano, embedded in the beautiful sound of the Érard grand piano.

Mandy Fredrich's album brings together a series of art songs that create coherent arcs and longer storylines like a kind of mini-opera. The composers' songs were used to put together four stories about lovers, all of which revolve around the theme of dream happiness in all it's different facets! After her breakthrough in the role of the Queen of the Night at the Salzburg Festival under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, engagements followed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the New National Theatre in Tokyo, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the State Operas in Munich and Hamburg and at the Bregenz Festival. Matthias Samuil has been Mandy Fredrich's accompanist for many years.

With this release, the Amara Piano Quartet follows up it's successful debut album, "American Piano Quartets," with it's first foray into the standard repertoire. The Faure C minor Piano Quartet and it's less well-known cousin the G minor Quartet are among the unquestioned masterpieces for piano quartet. The Amara brings it's unique perspective as one of the world's few regularly constituted piano quartets to this important repertoire. The Amara Piano Quartet is the resident chamber music ensemble at Iowa State University. It's members include Boro Martinic, violin; Jonathan Sturm, viola; George Work, cello; and Mei-Hsuan Huang, piano. Innovation joins tradition as the Amara Piano Quartet rises anew from the brilliant history that defined it's predecessor, the Ames Piano Quartet. The ensemble chose the name "Amara" to send a message that is new yet classic, that combines a sense of mystery and timelessness with a beautiful sound. It is a name that, in the great literature and languages of the past, had associations with mythic paradise, with immortality and the eternal, and with something beloved. Like the new name suggests, the quartet will continue to perform for it's audiences the immortal, beloved music of the past while it looks also to commission new compositions to become the masterpieces of the future.

Pianist, Richard Shuster, captures “the magic that Fauré wrought into the Nocturnes across a 46 year period…stunning.”– Classical Voice of North Carolina Music is a nocturnal art, a dreamlike art. It reigns in winter at the hour when the soul is confined. – Odilon Redon (private diary, 1972) The Nocturnes spam Fauré’s youth and old age. No composer after Chopin wrote as many nocturnes as Fauré. These are complex and sometimes melancholy works. Though they embody a lifetime of work in one genre, each nocturne stands alone and commands its own emotional world.

While Faure's Requiem is a monument of French sacred music, Gounod's Messe de Clovis is much less well known. It was composed from 1891 onwards as a tribute to Clovis who, like Joan of Arc, had become an iconic figure after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. The two works share a reflective and intimate character that gives the impression of a return to the purity of Gregorian chant, although this does not detract from the jubilant character of Faure's Requiem: "this warm, luxuriant sound leads to an elevation of the spirit", says Herve Niquet. The work is recorded here in it's 1893 version, in an orchestration that uses neither violins nor woodwind; a later version with full orchestra was published in July 1900. O salutaris by Louis Aubert (1877-1968) for soprano, violin, harp, organ and choir and L'Adagio for violin and organ by Andre Caplet (1878-1925) complete this programme, a co-production with the Palazzetto Bru Zane and performed with fervour by the Concert Spirituel.

Sibelius, J.: Violin Concerto, Op. 47 / Diciedue, R.: Violin

Vocal Recital: Brister, Wanda - Chausson, E. / Fauré, G. / D

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music