Contemporary (1970–present)
Living composers and the new music being written today.
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Berio: Sinfonia - Boulez: Notations I-IV - Ravel: La valse / Morlot, Seattle Symphony
One of the popularly cherished notions about musical genius is that its products spring sui generis from the minds of composers. Originality is, to be sure, an important quality in nearly any compositional masterpiece. But as the accumulated trove of Western art music has grown over time, its substance and traditions have provided rich stimulus to composers’ imaginations. Each of the three compositions recorded here entails, among other things, an ingenious transformation of pre-existing musical material or styles. The eight-voice, Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth joins the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot in an exhilarating live performance of Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia. Morlot paired Berio’s Sinfonia with Boulez’s Notations and Ravel’s La valse, creating a sonic spectrum unlike any other. Hear every stunning detail of this recording in an immaculate 5.1 digital surround sound version engineered by 2017 Grammy winner for Best Surround Sound, Dmitriy Lipay.
Richard Blackford: Kalon
Glass – Glassworlds, Vol 2 / Horvath
"Nicolas Horvath, with precise playing and imaginative interpretation has made Glassworlds 2 an indispensable reference for the serious enthusiast as well as marking an important milestone in the evolution of the music of Philip Glass." -- Sequenza 21
Piazzolla: Time of Life
Takemitsu: Complete Works for Piano
Macmillan: Quickening, 3 Interludes from "The Sacrifice"
As James MacMillan celebrates his 50th birthday he here conducts his large-scale, complex work, The Quickening coupled with the symphonic suite The Sacrifice: Three Interludes, taken from his opera, The Sacrifice, a work based on a medieval Welsh tale and focusing on issues of love and conflict. Co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Quickening sets poetry by MacMillan's frequent collaborator Michael Symmons Roberts. Hailed as some of the most distinguished writing since that of Benjamin Britten, the powerfully imaginative score explores the themes of birth, new life and new impulses, but as MacMillan says, it also has its dark side out of which hope is glimpsed. Joining the BBC Philharmonic is the Hilliard Ensemble, who premiered the work at the BBC Proms, accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus. MacMillan was awarded the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Opera and Music Theatre Award The Sacrifice following its premiere in September 2007 by Welsh National Opera. As did Britten in the now famous Four Sea Interludes from his opera Peter Grimes, MacMillan uses the Interludes as opportunities to withdraw from and reflect on the action, and he says, 'the orchestra provides another dimension to the narrative and to the drama, which allows the imagination to travel deeper or in a different direction.' James MacMillan is one of the UK's leading contemporary composers, and several of his earlier compositions are available on Chandos under his direction, including The Confessions of Isobel Gowdie (Classic FM Award winner), and The Berserking. Also available: CHAN 10092, 10275, 10377, 9997.
Loeb: Remembrances / Various
Centaur is pleased to release another album by prolific composer David Loeb. The works are Setsune, Five Reveries, Kiri, Fantasia sobre “Como la rosa en el guerto,” Three Friends of Winter, Suite No. 4, Cycle for the Lunar New Year, and Canon. Composer David Loeb was born in 1939 to a family which took music and the arts very seriously. He studied first with Peter Pindar Stearns at the Mannes College of Music, and then received his master’s degree from Yale. His catalog of compositions is quite remarkably extensive and diverse. In addition to the typical assortment of works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and voice, he has also composed extensively for Asian instruments and for early music instruments.
Brouwer: Guitar Music, Vol. 5 / Gonzalez
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REVIEW:
Much of the disc does not call for extended periods of virtuosity, but the music requires an inner feeling for the composer so as to provide a shape to movements that are frequently slow moving and sparing in notes. The distinguished Spanish guitarist, Pedro Mateo Gonzalez, has an affinity to Brouwer.
– David's Review Corner (David Denton)
Sciarrino, Tartini, Berio & Paganini: Violin Works
Part: Lamentate / Gražinyte, Pitrėnas, Lithuanian National Symphony
He was "tremendously" impressed, Arvo Pärt recalls of the moment he stood in front of Anish Kapoor's "Marsyas" for the first time at London's Tate Modern. "Suddenly I found myself in a position from where I saw my life in a different light. At that moment, I had the strong feeling that I wasn't ready to die yet," said then-67-year-old Arvo Pärt. This was the creative impulse for "Lamentate". Arvo Pärt, who celebrates his 85th birthday on September 11, 2020, seems to have often been inspired to compose by external circumstances. This is demonstrated in the selection of works for or with piano, which Onute Gražinyte chose for her first recording. "Für Alina" is particularly important to the Lithuanian pianist. In 1976, Pärt dedicated it to a young woman who had decided to leave the Soviet Union for England. "I know Alina's mother personally and can sympathize with her indescribable pain", says Onute Gražinyte. The pianist was baffled by Pärt's simple musical notation. "First you ask yourself: What is this?" Her playing reveals: She understands. "Arvo Pärt has reached the core. It's no coincidence that he dedicated many piano pieces to children and that he intended the 'Vater Unser' (Our Father) to be sung by a boy soprano. It's the ideal, the purity that children are born with and the composer has found it again."
Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway, American Gothic & Once upon a Castle / Giancarlo, Guerrero, Jacobs, Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Danielpour: The Passion of Yeshua / Falletta, UCLA Chamber Singers, Buffalo Philharmonic
Winner of the 2020 GRAMMY award for Best Choral Performance and a nominee for Best Contemporary Classical Composition!
Richard Danielpour’s dramatic oratorio The Passion of Yeshua- a work which has evolved over the last 25 years- is an intensely personal telling of the final hours of Christ on Earth. It incorporates texts from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian gospels inspiring extraordinarily beautiful music that stresses the need for human compassion and forgiveness. Danielpour returns to the scale and majesty of Bach in the oratorio, creating choruses that are intense and powerful, and giving both Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene a central place in a work of glowing spirituality. Conductor JoAnn Falletta considers The Passion of Yeshua to be “a classic for all time.”
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REVIEW:
Naxos’ world première recording of The Passion of Yeshua (2017) does full justice to Danielpour’s vision, thanks to the strong involvement and fine vocal talents of half a dozen soloists and the highly committed, knowing and knowledgeable conducting with which JoAnn Falletta shapes the performances of the UCLA Chamber Singers and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra.
– Infodad.com
Dutilleux: Metaboles; L'arbre Des Songes; Symphony No. 2, Le Double
Schnittke: Variations On One Chord, Piano Concerto / Lyubitskaya, Gorenstein
SCHNITTKE Piano Concerto. 1 Improvisation and Fugue. Variations on a Chord • Victoria Lyubitskaya (pn); Mark Gorenstein, cond; 1 Russian St Academy O 1 • FUGA LIBERA 532 (44:11)
Alfred Schnittke (1943–1998) remains one of the seminal composers of the late 20th century, and any new recording of his music is welcome. His Piano Concerto was completed in 1979 and exemplifies his polystylism, bringing in echoes of Baroque and Classical music while undermining them with kaleidoscopic shifts of emphasis and cluster-filled interruptions. The composer himself described the result as musical “sleepwalking,” although the Concerto lacks the rambling quality of his austere late works.
Lyubitskaya’s playing is exceptionally clear, and she is ably supported by Gorenstein and the Russian State Academy Orchestra. The orchestra has a distinguished recording history, while Gorenstein was responsible for excellent Schnittke performances on the short-lived Popemusic label (albeit with a different band). As recorded here, the orchestral strings have that “glassy” sound we used to hear in early digital releases, despite this being a 2005 recording. The piano sound and balance are fine.
Lyubitskaya shines in the solo piano works, both written as student test pieces earlier in the composer’s career. She is more incisive than is Boris Berman on Chandos, underlining a stylistic link between early Schnittke and Shostakovich.
So this disc is recommended, but with the proviso that 44 minutes is unacceptably short timing for a full-priced CD, especially when other versions of the Piano Concerto are available. On the cheap Apex label you will find one by Viktoria Postnikova, conducted by her husband Gennady Rozhdestvensky (both close friends of the composer), which is the favorite in several online reviews. I find Postnikova heavy-handed and her approach unvaryingly monumental, preferring a more rounded performance by Ralf Gothoni on Ondine, if you can find it. The latter’s strings are better recorded, Gothoni’s pianism is subtler and at times genuinely dreamlike (cf. sleepwalking), while the couplings are substantial: the Third Violin Concerto and Third Violin Sonata with Mark Lubotsky.
However, if you don’t want much more than the concerto, Lyubitskaya will do you proud.
FANFARE: Phillip Scott
Nørgard & Ruders: Works for Solo Cello / Wilhelmina Smith
Cellist Wilhelmina Smith’s second album release on Ondine continues exploring contemporary Nordic repertoire for solo cello. In her new album Smith has focus on Danish contemporary composers, Per Nørgård (b. 1932) and Poul Ruders (b. 1949). Both Nørgård and Ruders are known for their large-scale orchestral works. Nørgård, in particular, is known for his eight symphonies and has been hailed by many as one of the greatest living symphonists. It is therefore intriguing to look closer to his two very early lyrical solo cello sonatas, early masterpieces written just before completing his 1st Symphony. In 1980, the composer revised his second sonata by adding an extensive second movement, almost an entirely new sonata, to the existing work. Nørgård’s 3rd sonata “What – Is the Word!” from 1999 is a short “Sonata breve” that takes its title from a quote by Irish playwriter Samuel Beckett. Another major Danish composer of our times, Poul Ruders (b. 1949), has also written 5 symphonies alongside several concertos and three operas. Ruders wrote his 10-movement Bravourstudien in 1976, just at the brink of a major stylistic change. This work is a set of variations on a Medieval folk tune “L’homme armé”. In this work, however, the original theme is heard at the very end of the work.
Lukaszewski: Symphony No. 2 - Gaudium et Spes - Trinity Conc
José Serebrier Conducts Samuel Adler
The Deepest Desire
Passion & Polyphony / Ferris, Sonoro
Be Thou My Vision - John Rutter / Cambridge Singers, Et Al
This collection draws together many of the much-loved and most-requested shorter choral works by John Rutter. Gathered from across the Collegium catalogue, 'Be Thou My Vision' includes all of the church anthems and other sacred pieces for which Rutter is justly famous, representing for the first time a handy compendium of the best-loved Rutter works in their definitive performances by the Cambridge Singers, directed by the composer. 'The recordings of Rutter conducting his own music with the Cambridge Singers remain gleaming beacons of irrepressible music-making.' - BBC Music Magazine
LAMENTATE (LP)
Zephyr (Carson Cooman Organ Music, Vol. 8)
Piazzolla: Tango Concertante, Vol. 1 / ardeTrio
An album on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Astor Piazzolla. The arde Trio offers two world premieres on its debut release: Fresh and new arrangements by Omar Massa, which are congenially embodied by the unusual instrumentation of the arde Trio, allow not only the great "classics" of Tango Nuevo music to resound anew on this album, but also the new compositions of Omar Massa, who leads Tango Nuevo into the 21st century and is described by the press as the secret successor of the great Astor Piazzolla. Experience a fascinating journey through time!
Italian Saxophone Quartet: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Vivaldi & Piazzolla: The Four Seasons / Steinbacher, Munich Chamber Orchestra
Star violinist Arabella Steinbacher presents Antonio Vivaldi’s world-famous Four Seasons alongside Astor Piazzolla’s Cuatro estaciones porteñas, creating a lively combination of baroque and tango. The enormous popularity of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons tends to make us forget the original and ground-breaking nature of these violin concertos. Coupling them with Piazzolla’s tango-inspired Four Seasons of Buenos Aires makes both pieces sound fresher than ever before, thanks to Steinbacher’s personal engagement with the repertoire and the inspired accompaniment of the Münchener Kammerorchester. Piazzolla’s music is performed here in a new arrangement for violin and string orchestra by Peter von Wienhardt, whose Strauss song arrangements on Steinbacher’s previous album Aber der Richtige ... (2018) were extensively praised by the press.
Arabella Steinbacher, a multiple award-winner with an extensive PENTATONE discography, is accompanied by the players of the Münchener Kammerorchester, who make their PENTATONE debut.
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REVIEW:
Both soloist and ensemble approach the contrasting styles – baroque energy and bluesy Latin passion – with supple mastery, bows biting into strings, rhythms accentuated, mood at times aggressive. Vivaldi’s Summer, with its rushing storms and prickly, insect-ridden heat, sounds more than usually wild, with Steinbacher fearless in the rapid, high-flying outbursts. What a player.
– Observer (UK)
Piazzolla - Piaf
Lukaszewski & Górecki: Orchestral Works
SIXTEEN (THE): An Eternal Harmony
Henze: Complete Music for Solo Guitar / Dieci
One of the most important and prolific composers of the latter half of the 20th century, Hans Werner Henze wrote for guitar often, enjoying the evocative potential of the instrument and painting a diverse array of emotions and atmospheres in his compositions. The two Sonatas on Shakespearean Characters, featured on this album, portrays the timeless characters like Lady Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Ariel, personifying these characters with new and dramatic expression. Andrea Dieci is “a true star of the classical guitar.” (Corriere della sera). His previous recordings include Jappelli’s complete works, and guitar compositions by Piazzolla.
Crumb: Complete Edition, Vol. 19: Metamorphoses, Book 1 / Barone
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REVIEWS:
Klee, Van Gogh, Chagall, Whistler, Gauguin and Kandinsky all give inspiration for a stylistically inclusive, vigorously inventive sequence: just 37½ minutes of music, but a disc of real substance.
– Sunday Times (UK)
The pianist Marcantonio Barone places Crumb’s evocative gestures with reverent care and gives them space to make their full effect, and he’s as responsive to the music’s savage or folk-like moments as he is to its quiet poetry. The recorded sound is ideally close so the piano’s resonances sound huge and all-enveloping, as they should. Those who already know Crumb’s music well might be a tad disappointed that this piece breaks no new ground creatively. But for those who don’t it offers a wonderfully concentrated, vivid introduction to his imaginative world.
– The Telegraph (UK)
