DOUCE DAME: MUSIC OF COURTLY LOVE

LAS CANTIGAS DE SANTA MARIA

HISPANIA & JAPAN: DIALOGUES

MUSIC AROUND THE YEAR / LANGUAGES OF THE CHANT

MASTERS OF CHANT

COMPLETE DECCA RECORDINGS

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Tonus Peregrinus.

Ulrich Krieger (born 1962 in Freiburg) is a German contemporary composer, performer, improviser and experimental rock musician based in Los Angeles. Krieger's artistic work spans a broad field from contemporary classical composition and free improvisation to experimental fusion with electronic music, rock, metal and noise. His special interest lies in the exploration of the physical fringes between acoustic and electronic produced sounds. In his music and with his instrument, the saxophone, he developed an original style of playing he calls "acoustic electronics". Acoustic electronics is about using sounds that appear to be electronic but are actually produced on acoustic instruments. His probably best known experimental project with acoustic electronics is the transcription of Lou Reed's guitar feedback opus Metal Machine Music, which he rearranged for chamber orchestra. Composers: Ulrich Krieger Performers: Eric Drescher, bass flute; Christian Vogel, bass clarinet; Ulrich Krieger, tenor saxophone; Ulrich Krieger, electronics; California E.A.R. Unit; Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, cello; Vicki Ray, piano; Amy Knoles, percussion; Sonic Boom; Alex Srameck, contrabass clarinet; Chris Kallmyer, trumpet; Luke Storm, tuba; Robert Allaire, accordion; Ami Tamura, inside piano; Lydia Martin, percussion; Aniela Marie Perry, cello; Jake Rosenzweig, bass; Johannes Uhle, organ; Ulrich Krieger, sopranino saxophone; Ensemble Experimente; Dimitri Jurowski, cello; Maria Lobanowa, flute; Johanna Sponholz, recorder; Nikolaj Abramson, clarinet; Jonas Pieper, saxophone; Stephan Bienwald, electric guitar; Julia Schröder, harp; Alezander Schubert, accordion; Vinzenz Weißenburger, piano; Friedemann Werzlau, percussion; Moritz Colitti, violin; Antje Wunderlich, violin; Arthur Hornig, cello; Felix Eugen Thiemann, cello; Gerhard Scherer, Conductor

Classical Music

Selection includes a reading of the homage to Dufay and Binchois from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of the homage to the female form from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of 'Love according to the Champion' from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of 'Love according to Brief Counsel' from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of the homage to Christine de Pizan from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of Malebouche's attack from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".
Selection includes a reading of the prologue from Martin le Franc's "Le champion de dames".

COMPLETE WORKS

RENAISSANCE BALL IN WARSAW

MISSA PULCHERRIMA MOTETS

Classical Music

ISTANPITTA: Dances of 14th Century Florence

This is a repertoire that's been surprisingly well represented on disc, benefiting from the glasnost/perestroika-inspired revival of liturgical music in Russia in the early 1980s and the coincidental CD-fueled resurgence of the classical recording industry. One of the beauties of the unique, harmonized chant forms that characterize Russian church music is the attention this music received from some of the country's finest composers, some of them well known--Grechaninov, Bortnyansky, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov--and others more obscure but nevertheless highly skilled. Most of the composers represented here are among the latter category, but the music is first rate and the choir, from Moscow's historic Novospassky Monastery, is equal to the best on disc. It's also a plus that most of the selections, by Lvov, Arkhangelsky, Smolensky, Kastalsky, and others, aren't duplicated elsewhere. The program follows a service of the Divine Liturgy, which includes hymns, antiphons, the Great Litany, the Trisagion, Nicene Creed, a psalm, and the Doxology. I was pleasantly surprised by the exceptional quality of the singing, set in shimmering, vibrant sound made in a Moscow studio but with the kind of (artificial?) resonance that could just as well have come from the wood and stone environs of an ancient church. There are many excellent choices for recordings of Russian religious music, but if you want to hear what the real thing sounds like, you won't go wrong with this--and its budget price makes it especially attractive. --David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

LAWES/PURCELL/EXQUISITE CONSOR

Christoph Graupner: The Seven Words Of Christ On The Cross

Classical Music

Monteverdi: Madrigals, Book 4

Carissimi: 10 Motets

Classical Music

Steffen Schleiermacher has often fascinated his public with works by Morton Feldman. Along with Christian Giger, the solo cellist in the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra, he is now presenting Patterns in a Chromatic Field - an extensive composition showing us the minimalist master's more entertaining side. Here, highly virtuosic passages alternate with petrified soundscapes; now the instruments seem to melt, now their contrasting nature becomes the point of reference. While avoiding any sort of developmental idea, a tonal process of great suggestive power is produced over the course of some eighty minutes. -- MD&G

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REVIEW:

This is very satisfying and musically highly refined. There is a balance to be struck between enigmatic modernity and romantic affection for an abstract tradition which is in line with both Mark Rothko’s New York and Beethoven’s Vienna, and this is beautifully struck by these musicians. If you are a Feldman fan then this will be a very satisfying addition to your collection. Feldman newbies might find an 80 minute duo for cello and piano on a single CD track more than a little daunting, but, as with his other extended works, if you allow the piece its own space and inhabit it as you would an art gallery, then you will gradually sense your cells and synapses aligning themselves to something rather special.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music