Sakina Teyna was born into a Kurdish Alevite family in the small town of Varto in Turkey. As a teenager, she started singing with Turkish choirs and bands, but it wasn't until she entered university that she became acquainted with Kurdish musical traditions and set out to defy cultural assimilation. In 1991, she joined the Mespotamian Cultural Centre in Istanbul, a proponent of Kurdish culture, as a vocalist. Like many other Kurdish musicians, she was forced to literally go underground to practise her music, and soon she had to choose political activism over art. It wasn't until Sakîna arrived in Austria as a political refugee in 2006 that she took to singing as a full-time pursuit again. The first fruit of her concentrated creative efforts was released in the form of her first solo album ROYE MI. Suret is the story of a photograph, of a face. A story that also whispers the silent tales of the faces hanging on the walls of almost every home in Kurdistan, or hidden away in the quiet pages of photo albums. Some people visit the living world only briefly-they depart before dawn breaks, before their names are spoken widely, before their faces become etched in the memories of others. (Sakina Teyna in the booklet accompanying this CD)
Anatolijus senderovas, one of the most interesting voices in Lithuanian music, passed away in 2019. This production presents all the string trios by the composer, who was awarded the European Composer Prize in 2002. Senderovas had a lifelong friendship with cellist David Geringas, who can be heard here as cellist of the Grand Trio Vilnius. The piano trios represent the most important phases of senderovas' work: Beginning with Piano Trio No. 1, which the 26-year-old wrote while still under the influence of Dmitri Shostakovich's music, to the late works "Song and Dance" and "Pages from a forgotten book," which reveal a composer who has grappled intensively with the roots of his Jewish heritage.
The live album by Syrian clarinettist Kinan Azmeh is dedicated to the memory of his father, who died in 2024, but it also celebrates the musical friendship between the four musicians, who first played together in New York in 2006. Many of the pieces on his album were composed during the Syrian uprising in 2011 and are characterised by anger and sadness, but also by unwavering optimism and hope. Azmeh is convinced that making music is an act of freedom and has ultimately prevailed against violence and tyranny in Syria.
With Wu Wei, Ingolf Burkhardt and Florian Weber, three outstanding musical personalities have come together in the Silk Jazz trio. Their music is created freely - no agreements, no notes, just pure listening and interaction. Over 90 tracks of freely improvised music were created during the recording session. With Into the unknown, the trio succeeds in developing a musical narrative from the sheer endless material that conveys the naturalness of playing together as well as the adventurousness and enthusiasm to search for and find new colours.
Aynur, the most prominent Kurdish singer of our time, represents Kurdish music heritage as a global genre and introduced it to the international music world. Aynur's music has received the acclaim of fellow artists. She has collaborated with acclaimed artists including world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Kayhan Kalhor, Javier Limón, Kinan Azmeh, the Nederland Blazers Ensemble, the NDR Bigband, and many more. She appears in one of the most remarkable scenes of Fatih Akin’s documentary “Crossing the Bridge / The Sound of Istanbul” and is part of Morgan Neville's documentary about Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, "The Music of Strangers”. Aynur has enthusiastic audiences in sold-out Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg as well as Carnegie Hall in NYC or Southbank Centre in London. In 2017, Aynur received the "Master of Mediterranean Music" Award in the category of “Mediterranean Women in Action” from the Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute. In 2021, she was awarded the "Womex Artist Award". Aynur's new album, RABE, features Chinese-American pipa star Wu Man as well as Michael League on guitars, Chris Jennings on bass, and many more. Like only exceptional artists do, Aynur is reaching listeners in all generations, she is connecting the young generation with the roots of Kurdish music, combining treasures of the past with a musical language of today. "She is a reason to love live music for centuries.” - Javier Limón
Yamen Saadi was born in Nazareth in 1997. He started to study the violin at the Barenboim-Said Conservatory in Nazareth, and after that began to study under the guidance of the renowned Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra Concertmaster, Chaim Taub. At only 11 years old, Saadi joined the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. 6 years later he served as concertmaster of the orchestra. VOICES FROM PARIS is the debut album of this outstanding young musician. Saadi is a numerous prize winner of competitions and scholarships such as 1st prize Aviv Competition, The Prince von Hessen Award, 1st prize Paul Ben Haim competition, 2nd prize Clermont competition, AICF scholarships. Saadi is currently playing on a violin made by Antonio Stradivari 1734, the “Ex Lord Amherst of Hackney, Ex Fritz Kreisler” and a beautiful Jacob Eury bow, both generously loaned to him by Stephan Jansen on behalf a member of the Stretton society. Born in 1995 to a family of musicians, Nathalia Milstein starts the piano at the age of 4 with her father Serguei Milstein, and completes her studies with Nelson Goerner at the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique as well as with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim-Saïd Akademie in Berlin. Nathalia launches her international career in 2015 by winning 1st Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition and has been since then touring extensively around Europe, appearing in major concert halls and festivals, as well as with orchestra with, among other conductors, Mikko Franck, John Storgårds, and Arie van Beek. In 2017 she was awarded the Young Soloist Prize by the Médias Francophones Publics.
Recording such a world-spanning œuvre as Gustav Mahler's ten symphonies is truly a Herculean task. After 15 years of intensive musical work, Gabriel Feltz is the only German conductor of his generation to present such an impressive complete recording. Two orchestras, the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Dortmund Philharmonic, are featured in this highly acclaimed album cycle. It reveals once again Feltz's flair for focusing on the essentials of Mahler's music in these exuberant works. The German magazine Fono Forum praised him for "recordings conceived with a cool head," and the Stuttgarter Nachrichten exulted over "a production of unleashed sonic contrasts." In September 2021, the project will come to a brilliant conclusion with the release of the overwhelming 9th Symphony and the original two-movement fragment of the 10th Symphony.
On this current recording you can hear a wonderful example of a magical First Encounter. Wu Man and Wu Wei, both exceptional Chinese musicians, had never performed together. Over the years they have kicked the windows and doors of their music wide open, have assimilated diverse influences and have taken their instruments and musical traditions all over the world. Their openness and the simply phenomenal mastery of their playing have brought Chinese music to millions of listeners. Wu Man’s elegant precision of attack meets Wu Wei’s Sheng, which at times has an almost transparent delicacy, and at others can pulse as forcefully as a power house.
Oliver Mascarenhas plays works by Gulda & Kapustin
Dreyer Gaido
CD
$20.99Mar 19, 2021
The very first audition brought Oliver Mascarenhas to the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover in 1997. This was followed by a busy concert schedule, radio and television productions, and successes at international competitions. On his first album production, Oliver Mascarenhas presents himself as a highly virtuoso interpreter of the cello concerto by Friedrich Gulda as well as three pieces by the Russian jazz composer Nikolai Kapustin, who died in July 2020. As grandiose bonus tracks we hear Gulda with four jazz standards, recorded in 1958 at the NDR. On bass none other than the young Hans alias James Last.
Gabriel Feltz writes: "The choral symphonic poem "The Bells" was written during Rachmaninoff's last years in Russia (first performance 1913, emigration 1917). It is, without a doubt, note- worthy that the Russian translation of a poem ("The Bells") by Edgar Allan Poe was used. I know of no other famous Russian composition of that time which is based on an American text. Rachmaninoff conducted the first performance in Saint Petersburg himself. In spite of already having a very successful career as a soloist behind him, composing was always more important to him than playing concerts. Respighi wrote to Rachmaninoff asking to be allowed to orchestrate some of the Etudes. Rachmaninoff helpfully suggested titles for some of the pieces, which provided a degree of insight with regard to their content. It is quite interesting that these titles are not included in the original piano version. In a way this somehow reveals Sergei Rachmaninoff's inner world, something which he had not been willing to divulge earlier.
Ever since its triumphal premiere on 12th September 1910 in Munich, Mahler’s 8th Symphony in E flat major has had the reputation of being, along with Arnold Schönberg’s “Gurre-Liedern”, the piece on the whole of the symphonic repertoire calling for the largest number of participants. This recording has a number of musicians much less than the average, but Gabriel Feltz sees it more like a great chance. He used flanking positions for the choir in relation to the orchestra and lager parts of the choirs were facing each other, which gives especially the first parts stereophonic effects. For Feltz these performances of Mahler’s 8th symphony on 3rd and 4th July 2018 were especially successful and fulfilling moments in his life as a musician.
The ouevre of Gustav Mahler has been a focal point of the ten year cooperation between the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and Gabriel Feltz (2003 - 2013). The last recording made during this period is Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony". The Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and Feltz are joined by the outstanding soloists Chen Reiss and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno. Feltz writes: "Gustav Mahler's symphonies have accompanied me since I was a youth of about 13. It is certainly not unusual for a youth who is interested in orchestral music to be fascinated by these works once he has discovered them. The abundance and complexity of the scores, which I was fortunately able to study in my early years, was however, somewhat overpowering. The composer's aspiration to create "whole worlds" is overwhelming, and which young person is averse to being overwhelmed?"
The premiere of the monumental Third Symphony Op.42 Ilya Murometz on 23rd March 1912 was a huge cultural and political event in Russia. A program symphony, the music depicts the life of Kievan Rus’ folk hero Ilya Muromets. The piece was dedicated to Alexander Glazunov, and won Reinhold Gliere his third Glinka Award. The work lasts between 70 and 80 minutes, and is divided into four sections, each of which depicts an episode from the epic. Gliere wrote a narrative in both Russian and French to accompany the score. On this recording Gabriel Feltz presents the remarkable work together with the orchestra Beogradska filharmonija and makes it clear that we should keep a closer eye on the works of this extremely interesting Russian late romantic.
For Gabriel Feltz, Sergej Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony "communicates, in a very moving way, the life-long struggle of one of Russia's greatest musicians with this genre." Because of this, it was particularly important for the conductor to show the exuberant power of imagination, the changing moods and the extremely elaborate instrumentation of Rachmaninoff's work. Passion, discipline, dedication- these virtues are not only at home in Dortmund's football stadium, but also in the Dortmund Philharmonic. Since it's foundation in 1887 the city's orchestra has consistently been at the forefront among Germany's concert and opera orchestras. The Philharmonic Concerts are just as dazzling as the performances in the Opera House and are the reason that the Dortmund Philharmonic is consistently counted among Germany's finest orchestras. The renowned orchestra has been directed by General Music Director Gabriel Feltz since the 2013/2014 season.
Since his inauguration as the new General Music Director of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker (Dortmund Philharmonic) in the 2013/14 season, Gabriel Feltz has been able to draw attention to himself and his orchestra with a series of high-caliber performances and productions that have been noticed throughout Germany. Since its foundation in 1887 the Dortmunder Philharmoniker have consistently been at the forefront of Germany’s concert and opera orchestras. The recording of the first Rachmaninoff symphony is another highlight in the highly praised Rachmaninoff cycle. This special work is the least performed of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies, partially due to the disturbing feeling one gets when listening to the work for the first time, as opposed to his other symphonies which sound more familiar. The First Symphony was written when the composer was only 22, but as this recording proves it is more than just a youthful work- it turns out to be a very singular contribution to the genus “symphony.”
The legacy of Sergei Rachmaninov encompasses a staggering plethora of musical styles and sensibilities and a fascinating bridge between the Romantic and modern musical eras. His 2nd Symphony is, at it's core, imbued with the ancestral Russian temperament, and permeated with longing is given a pitch perfect performance by the Dortmunder Philharmoniker (Dortmund Philharmonic) led by the conductor Gabriel Feltz, considered to be among the vanguard of emerging baton masters.
The Moravian-born Jewish composer Gideon Klein (1919-45) composed his final work, the String Trio (1944) while interned in Theresienstadt. + Quite a few of his works written there are based on Czech folksongs; his string trio falls into this category. + Jewish composer Josef Koffler (1896-1944) suffered a similarly tragic fate as Klein. + His Trio, op. 10 (1928) was written, however, when he was Prof. of Harmony and Atonal Composition in Lviv (Lemberg). + The Trio in D Major by Ernst Neumann (1832-1910) is a work from 1883. + The Eos Trio Frankfurt is keen to bring forgotten or unknown works back to audiences.
Yu Jung Yoon was once celebrated as a wunderkind in her childhood. She won several competitions in her homeland Korea, and at the age of 14 she was admitted as the youngest student ever at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg. She is at her best on her debut CD for Dreyer-Gaido playing works by Scriabin.
This production of Britten's most important song cycles for guitar and voice is released on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Britten wrote all these works for his longtime partner, Peter Pears, and the exceptionally talented guitarist Julian Bream. The works are heard here in a superb interpretation on this recording.
Dreyer. Gaido discovered the Uyghur band Qetiq in 2010 in a bar in Urumqi, the capital of the independent Uyghur province Xinjiang in northwest China. Some of Qetiq's songs are their own compositions, but there are also transcriptions of traditional Kazakh and Uyghur music, such as Dolan Muqam, music from the deserts of Xinjiang, which dates back centuries.
Intolleranza 1960 was Nono's first work for the opera stage, and is a flaming protest against intolerance, oppression and the violation of human dignity. Premiered in 1961, the premiere night was interrupted by neo-facists shouting "Viva la polizia!" during the torture scene.
