The 2-CD Bach set takes the ever-popular Brandenburg Concertos, and uniquely couples them with two Harpsichord Concertos, one of which is also presented in a reconstruction for violin. Taking its name from the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo's Fire is dedicated to the performance of 17th- and 18th-century music on period instruments. Founder and Music Director Jeannette Sorrell and her ensemble of dynamic and creative early-music artists from North America and Europe have been praised internationally for stylistic freshness and buoyancy, animated spontaneity, technical excellence, and creative programming. An award-winning harpsichordist and conductor, Sorrell studied with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. Praised for its "temperament and personality" by The New York Times, the ensemble has toured throughout North America and, in November 2010 embarks on its first tour of Europe. critical acclaim "Led by a brilliant harpsichordist, Jeannette Sorrell, the ensemble exudes stylish energy . . . a blend of scholarship and visceral intensity." - Gramophone "Apollo's Fire has developed into one of America's leading Baroque orchestras, and one capable of competing with some of Europe's much-recorded bands." - The Boston Globe "The exhilaration and sense of discovery is utterly infectious." - International Record Review "These are performances of enormous drama, delicacy and zest played with keen attention to expressive and textural nuances." - The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Following five critically acclaimed and immensely popular recordings for AVIE, the Brook Street Band embarks on their most ambitious project to date: a recording with the estimable student Choir of the Queen’s College, Oxford, that pairs — for the first time ever — the two settings of the Dixit Dominus written by Alessandro Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel. On this recording the massed forces are joined by five of Britain’s brightest young singers: soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, mezzo-sopranos Esther Brazil and Sally Bruce-Payne, tenor Guy Cutting, and bass-baritone Matthew Brook.

Violinist Augustin Hadelich is one of the fastest-rising stars of his generation. With three critically acclaimed and Billboard-charting releases on AVIE to his credit, he now delivers what promises to be one of the most important concerto recordings of the year, pairing the Violin Concertos by Jean Sibelius and Thomas Adès, the latter only the second recording of the composer's work. He is superbly supported by Hannu Lintu conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Describing his decision to couple Sibelius with Adès, Augustin says, "Programmes I like most are ones where the pieces are connected, but in a subtle way. As we listen to an apparently contrasting programme, we notice similarities--we hear phrase shapes, harmonies, rhythms, and colours in one piece that remind us of something that we heard in the other. The deep, rumbling timpani and low winds in the Sibelius concerto bridge the gap to the Adès, a work which also explores the lowest depths of the sound spectrum, creating chasms over which the violinist performs a tight-rope act. The intensely emotional first and second movements of the Sibelius, and the even more extreme and heart-wrenching second movement of the Adès, create another such connection. Both composers love playing with complex rhythms: Sibelius sticks to polyrhythms, while Adès really pushes the envelope having the solo violin and orchestra play in different meters--or even at different tempi! The dances in the last movement of the Sibelius have a counterpart in the almost tribal-sounding last movement of the Adès. There are many other such comparisons, and, in my view, combining these concertos on one recording makes each one shine in a way that they wouldn't without the other." Augustin rounds out the recording with Three Humoresques by Sibelius. The release will be supported by a major publicity and marketing campaign, and a performance of the Adès with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. critical acclaim for Augustin Hadelich "Here is a young artist with no evident limitations." - The New Yorker

The fourteen works for piano and orchestra of Ferdinand Ries stand alongside those of Hummel as the finest and most important of their kind from the early decades of the 19th century. Intensely lyrical and yet displaying at times a rugged Beethovenian grandeur, Ries’s eight concertos are works of impressive musical stature. In this fifth and final recording we encounter the first and last of his published concertos and the virtuosic Rondeau brillant, Op. 144. “Sparkling performances... the recording is first rate.” (Penguin Guide on Vol. 3, 8.570440).

Includes work(s) by Moritz Moszkowski. Ensemble: Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antoni Wit.

The name Graun is not as well known in musical circles as it should be, nor even as it once was. It was the surname of three talented brothers, all born in Wahrenbrück in east-central Germany and all flourishing in the period between Bach and Beethoven. A church fire destroyed all record of their birth, hence the imprecise dates. The oldest, August Friedrich (1698/9 – 1765) achieved only local distinction, rising to the position of Kantor and organist at the cathedral school of nearby Merseberg, a position he held for the last 36 years of his life.

His two younger brothers, represented on this disc, achieved much broader fame. Johann Gottlieb, a year or so older than his brother, was engaged in 1726-27 to teach J.S. Bach’s oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann to play the violin. In 1732 he earned a position in the orchestra of the then Prussian Crown Prince Frederick, and rose to the position of director after the prince was crowned King Frederick II in 1740.

Frederick the Great built the strongest musical centre in all Europe, and the Graun brothers helped him do it. The youngest, Carl Heinrich, a professional singer in the town choir at age 10, was soon writing operas and sacred music. He studied at the University of Leipzig and became a good cellist without ever studying the instrument. But it was as a singer and opera composer that he too caught the ear of Frederick the Great. Graun wrote, and starred in, operas, sometimes to librettos written by the King.

History has not been kind to the Grauns, as most of their music seems to have been destroyed. Even what’s left is contentious: The manuscript for the third piece on this disc has only the attribution “di Grau..” leading scholars to think it more likely that Christoph Graupner (1683–1770) wrote it. All the works on this disc represent some of the best of the orchestral High Baroque, but that is not what Carl Heinrich Graun was best known for. Besides his operas, he wrote sacred music, notably Der Tod Jesu, a passion oratorio that received annual performances in Germany for 75 years until Mendelssohn conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1829. C. H. Graun’s best known composition was supplanted forever.

I like the variety of selections on this disc. It begins with a Symphony, as tuneful and brief as the symphonies of English contemporary William Boyce. Then follow four concertos for different combinations of instruments all reminiscent of contemporary Telemann. All five pieces have a fast-slow-fast pattern, all feature the gritty sound of baroque strings, and one can hear in each of the slow movements the background of a basso continuo (mislabelled in the notes as a ‘bassoon continuo’).

The five pieces here are as close as one is likely to get to what was heard at the court of Frederick the Great. The performers are all from the leading Baroque orchestras in and around Germany, notably the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Camerata Köln, and Concentus Musicus Wien, and they all teach at the Institute of Historical Interpretation Practice at the College of Music and the Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main. The work of Karl Kaiser on transverse flute is especially outstanding. The 17 musicians came together in 2006 and have made three recordings. I hope they introduce us to more of the Grauns’ music.

-- Paul Kennedy, MusicWeb International