Classical Music

Dionysos Now! Contributes to the preservation of cultural heritage by presenting musical works that have not been widely heard or performed for centuries.�ore Tom Denys, the artistic leader of the ensemble, has done a�scholarly exploration of the compositions that pay tribute to Adriaen Willaert to creatate this collection of musical pieces.

Can a composer like Alexander Scriabin be associated with any tradition at all, given the uniqueness of his musical language? Initially focusing on piano compositions, Scriabin later expanded to larger orchestral works, crafting five symphonies between 1899 and 1910. A noticeable evolution in composition unfolds, transitioning from a late Romantic style to a more modernistic approach. Evolving from late Romanticism to modernism, Scriabin drew inspiration from symbolist poetry and philosophical figures. Envisioning himself as a musical messiah to change the world, his Second Symphony provides a glimpse of this eccentric vision.

Following their debut album, The German Album, the ensemble presents the second album of the series: The Italian Album. Featuring a repertoire of baroque compositions by Corelli, Vivaldi, Albinoni, and Galuppi, Verità invites listeners on a captivating journey through time. The tracks on this album were recorded in four different baroque castles. This baroque repertoire is played on historical instruments and recorded in halls for which is was originally composed for. Creating an authentic atmosphere.

American Record Guide: The one-on-a-part performances here are stunningly beautiful. Dionysos Now is clearly a first-class male-voice a cappella ensemble with excellent vocal blend and coherent delivery. The ensemble includes 2 basses and a bass-baritone. This combination adds a sumptuous gravity to the words of Jesus and to the 6-part crowd choruses.

BBC Music Magazine: Roth sustains his flawlessly smooth, luxurously toned sonority, so that each movement emerges in terms of its majestic formal perfection. The Strad: This is a fundamentally lyrical account, imbued with grace and beauty. Pizzicato Supersonic: The great realization of this CD by the technicians and the carefully edited booklet complete this outstanding recording. Just listen and enjoy.

Raphaël Feye and the Karski Quartet have collaborated on an exhilarating new album, paying a tribute to Luigi Boccherini's string quintets. These selected quintets showcase the composers exceptional ability to craft melodies that are both elegant and emotionally resonant while maintaining a graceful interplay between the instruments. To enhance the recording's excitement, the musicians decided to vary the distribution of the parts, ensuring each piece possesses a unique and distinct character.

“This Scordatura Album is the second In Memoriam album in honour of my son Dorian. It features two illustrious masterpieces written for cello in alternative, darker tunings: the Bach Suite with the top string lowered by a whole tone and the Kodály Sonata with the two bottom strings lowered by a semitone. Both pieces are fierce, resilient and profound and although painted in dark colours, they comfort us with their show of sheer musical power and luminous inventiveness.” Stark statement of repertoire filled with personal significance and universal beauty. Unparalleled preformance of Kodály's sonata for cello solo. Pieter combines intense energy and emotional connection in his interpretation of the pieces.

German violin virtuoso Linus Roth brings a unique project and program; SamBach. Starting with J.S. Bach’s E -Major concerto getting via Villa-Lobos to the most famous Samba melodies arranged for solo violin; string orchestra; harpsichord; guitar and percussion…

A peculiar and exciting musical journey. Together with the Brazilian orquestra Johann Sebastian Rio; whose name is a testimony of their admiration for the baroque composer; Linus Roth creates a mesmerizing musical collaboration.

Established in the middle of pandemic by flutist Taya König-Tarasevich and cellist Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi, this ensemble rapidly captured the finest of next generation baroque musicians, and together got the reputation as one of world’s premier ensembles. On this debut album, The German Album, they bring well-known work from the baroque era by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann.

On this recording, Belgian clarinettist Roeland Hendrikx intends to rehabilitate Weber by playing his best music. Weber was an animal of the theatre in all his works: the Clarinet Concertos are increasingly recognised as early highlights in Weber’s career. The introductory assertion in the Breitkopf & Hartel-edition of 1954 states that Weber’s three works for clarinet and orchestra represent “a clear creative climax...the precipitation of a completely mature personality”. Previous release by Roeland Hendrikx on Evil Penguin: Dedications (Clarinet Concertos by Finzi, Mozart and Bruch). Klassik Heute: "Hendrikx's soft, unbroken tone, perfect in all registers, blends wonderfully with the with downright heavenly euphony and sublime tonal perfection of London Philharmonic."

The first of two discs by Pieter Wispelwey that will be released in 2023 is a re-assembling of previously released recordings of works by Schubert. This short series is titled In Memoriam and is inspired by a grave loss Pieter suffered a few months ago. The disc includes Schubert’s masterpieces for violin and piano, transcribed for cello – and the most famous Trockne Blumen, originally for flute. To accompany Pieter on piano is his faithful musical companion Paolo Giacometti.

The idea of the 'Jeux de Couleurs' recording came to us when we thought of combining Frits Celis' trio with one of the greatest works of the chamber music repertoire, Ravel’s Piano Trio, and an arrangement of Debussy's 'La mer' by Sally Beamish. Combining well - and lesser- known pieces, performing vast orchestral works in the smaller context of the piano trio, and searching for nuance and colours are recurrent themes in our musical choices. The painting that we have chosen for the cover of the CD, Paul Klee’s ‘Architektur der ebene’, expresses how we feel about the music and what we would like to communicate with it. As is the case with all of Klee’s paintings, it is very musically structured and features the use of motifs and an explosion of colour.

Dionysos Now! performing Adriaen Willaert (1490-1562) - finally on CD! After three releases exclusively on LP, the group founded by tenor Tore Tom Denys, that has swiftly become a reference for Flemish polyphony performance, issues their first CD. The CD contains the world premiere recording of Adriaen Willaert’s St. John Passion, composed around 1545, followed by three Easter motets. An event in the world of Renaissance recorded music.

Adriaen Willaert must have already been a prolific composer before he assumed the position of kapellmeister at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. After all, a second Mass of his was included in a large, illuminated choral manuscript that was produced for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The title page of the Mass does not mention the name of the composition, only that of the composer, Adrianus Willart. It was cataloged as a Missa sinenomine, a Mass without a name. It is assumed that the work was composed between 1522 and 1527, at a time when Willaert was a member of the music chapel of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in Ferrara, Italy.

At first glance, what’s striking about this composition is that one of the tenor voices sings a cantus firmus (a “given, fixed, foundational voice” that provides the basis for each movement of the Mass, to which the other voices are added) that always consists of the same 13 notes. In an article about the Mass, the musicologist Joshua Rifkin claims to have discovered a sogetto cavato delle parole in this sequence of notes. This is a compositional technique common for the time in which the notes of a melody, in this case the cantus firmus, are derived from the vowels of certain words. The notes used for the tone poetry are those of the Guidonian hexachord, a series of the 6 notes ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la. For example, the word Maria (Ma-ri-a) can be "translated" into the notes la mi la.