The CD begins with one of Friedrich Cerha’s first surviving compositions, the Hindemith-like First Violin Sonata of 1947. Two later works, from almost half a century on, complete the stylistic trajectory. One of them, the Sechs Stücke für Violine Solo, was written for the violinist on this CD, Ernst Kovacic, a friend of the composer for many years. Cerha wrote the booklet notes, available in English and German.

REVIEW:

For those who wish to explore a cross-section of the violin music of what appears to be one of the most commanding voices among recent composers, not to mention violinist-composers, Toccata’s collection, with its brilliant and, seemingly, authoritative performances and lively recorded sound, should be a natural choice. In every way, it’s another winner from Toccata that can be very warmly recommended.

-- Fanfare

Grigoriu (b. Moldavia, 1926) is one of the major Romanian composers in the period after Enescu. His vast output is little known outside his own country, although it includes oratorios, symphonies, cantatas, chamber music, film-scores, and much more. His musical roots reach back to Romanian folk-music and the modal melodies of ancient Byzantium.

Fryderyk Chopin transformed the scherzo into an autonomous, independent work, rather than a part of a symphony or sonata as it was previously part of during the Classical era. Expanding this genre gave it a newer, more romantic and dramatic expression. The composer's polonaises give us a glance into his Polish patriotism. The polonaise is the most important national dance of Poland, and Chopin composed 18 over his lifetime. Polish pianist Raphael Alexandre Lustchevsky performs these works brilliantly. He has won multiple international awards, and has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras, such as the Krakow Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Oman Philharmonic.

Jan Hugo VoriSek, the 'prodigy from Prague', arrived in Vienna at the age of twenty-two and almost immediately earned the approval and admiration of Beethoven. His earliest works foreshadow German Romanticism, but he remained so individualistic a composer that he resists easy categorization either as a Classicist or a Romantic. His works were written within a nine-year span of his sadly short life but in that time he mastered sonata form, Rhapsodies and Impromptus to become one of Vienna's leading composers. The third volume of this exploratory series charts the Rhapsodies, Op. 1 of the Czech-born Jan Hugo Vor�Sek, later to establish himself as one of Vienna's greatest composers. They were largely written in Prague and are rigorous in form and poetic in spirit. Some of the twelve embody elements of Romanticism, prefiguring the later works of Chopin and Schumann, and their ardent lyricism establishes VoriSek as one of the pioneers of the rhapsody in music.

Giorgio Koukl's survey of Alexander Tcherepnin's inventive piano music continues with two 1950s collections that reflect a synthesis of the composer's many earlier technical and expressive innovations - the virtuosic Eight Pieces, Op. 88 and the beguiling Expressions, Op. 81.

Combining elegance and virtuosity, pianist Russell Sherman returns to Avie with a traversal of Chopin’s Mazurkas, a popular 19th-century genre among Polish composers, but one that Chopin made his own. He wrote mazurkas throughout his lifetime, from his early days in his native Warsaw until 1849, the year of his death in Paris. He brought numerous innovations to the dance form, evolving its humble folk origins to more contemporary art music. Russell, who has performed the world over on the most illustrious stages and with all of the major orchestras, brings his signature grace, imagination, and poetry to Chopin’s beloved oeuvre. -----

REVIEW:

Awe-inspiring: in some of the most difficult works in the piano repertoire, he exhibits the kind of impeccable perfection that is the hallmark of players like Pollini and Michelangeli.

- All Music Guide

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.

"Over the years, the pianist Jorge Federico Osorio has garnered extraordinary praise. Osorio’s interest in wrongly neglected repertoire continues on [this] recording, which explores salon music written around the beginning of the last century by four Mexican composers: Manuel Ponce, Ricardo Castro, Felipe Villanueva, and José Rolón.

"I suspect that even the purists will be impressed and moved by many of these gentle and quirky works—the four Ponce works, the Castro Mazurka and Barcarolle, and the half-dozen or so Villanueva and Castro waltzes deserve to be singled out.

"I have never heard a Çedille recording that deserved less than a perfect score in the sound engineering department, and this one is no exception. In sum, a delightful recording that confirms Osorio’s outstanding artistry."

--FANFARE (Radu A. Lelutiu)

Norbert Duchtel plays a wonderful program of organ works for Christmas on the new Mathis Organ (2010) at the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Rieden/South Bavaria (Germany). The music is from the Baroque and Romantic eras and allows US to experience the full tonal variety of the instrument in sophisticated and sensitive interpretations, and includes a world premiere recording of Paul Geist's Weilhnachts.

William Bolcom' compositions, widely performed and recorded, include seven symphonies, various concertos, six operas and an extensive catalogue of chamber music.

Composer Arthur Lourié was born as Naum Izrailevich Lur'ya in 1892. Lourié wasw a charismatic bohemian and Soviet cultural politician who did not return from a so-called official journey to Berlin in 1922. Lourié was a pioneer of Modernism music and he enjoyed mingling among the poets and painters of the Silver Age and was greatly inspired by them. His musical oeuvre is just as multi-faceted and diverse as the writings of that time.

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REVIEW:

This overview of Arthur Lourié’s music for solo piano tends to bear out an idea now gaining credence, namely that Lourié, at least in some instances, anticipated rather than echoed Stravinsky. Ernst’s sensitively artistic performances point up Lourié’s remarkable diversity of expression, and make a compelling case for his music.

– Gramophone

The real life marriage of two great concert pianists, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, has led to one of the leading piano duos of their generation. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts, "Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one." Stavinsky's Pétrouchka was originally arranged for four-hands by the composer as a rehearsal score for the Ballet Russes production of the same name, but in this stripped-down it brings Stravinsky's melodic, rhythmic and harmonic inventiveness to the fore. Brahms's 16 Waltzes Op.39 are an enchanting collection of Romantic miniatures that simultaneously nod to the musical lineage of the composer's home in Vienna whilst asserting his own flair and individuality. The final four tangos by Piazzolla are a full of Argentine flair and vigour, and were arranged especially for this recording by Bax & Chung.

Classical Music

Holzhey Organ: Rot an der Rot

“Cooper asserts her stylistic credentials right at the start of the disc in Robert’s Humoreske, playing with a warm, golden tone and fluidly finding that distinction between the extrovert and introvert traits that were key to Schumann’s musical personality.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Born in 1934, the Czech jazz composer Milan Dvořák, no relation to his better-known classical composer namesake, has been active since the 1960s leading big bands and swing ensembles and remains active today. This is the debut recording of his 45 Jazz Piano Etudes which combine transcriptions of popular songs with classical influences and features the pianist Milan Franěk.

Classical Music

Nikolai Peyko (1916–95) is a major Russian composer completely unknown in the west. He is another composer who wrote nine symphonies, and much other orchestral music besides, but fell foul of the Soviet regime and was sidelined. His piano music shares certain characteristics with both Shostakovich’s and Prokofiev’s, but sounds an individual tone nonetheless. This second and final CD in this complete recording of his piano music is the first time that any of this music has been heard recorded on a western label. Pianists Dmitry Korostelyov and where needed, Maria Dzhemesiuk perform.

Pianist Omri Shimron releases a virtuosic and personal account of Rzewski's iconic hour-long solo work, The People United Shall Never Be Defeated! + Shimron draws from his own family history to construct a unique cadenza based on Zionist songs and draw a parallel between the Chilean-Marxist origins of Rzewski's chosen theme and other solidarity movements across the globe. + Based in Greensboro, NC, Mr. Shimron is an associate professor at Elon University in Elon, NC.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This is the penultimate release in the Chandos series of Brahms works for solo piano, performed by Barry Douglas. | Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator with his music being rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of Baroque and Classical eras. | These recordings are being performed in the finest international venues including the Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw. | This fifth volume is the most virtuosic of the series, including the Scherzo in E flat minor, technically demanding variations, several intermezzi, and three Hungarian Dances. | Barry Douglas is gainging a reputation of one the few world-class piano virtuosi of the romantic repertoire. | Barry Douglas won the 1986 Tchaikovksy Competition in Russia.

The three pieces by New York-based composer Byron that are collected here (two for strings and keyboards and one for four pianos) are dramatic, lush, insistent, and lovely and reveal their compositional processes as they unfold. Music of Nights . . . might be likened to the sound of rainfall on a roof—delicate, resonate, active, continuously changing while seeming to remain the same. Entrances starts with intermittent bursts of notes and builds to a dense barrage of sound. Kyle Gann writing in the Village Voice called the pieces collected here, “…lovely in their cloudy string textures and abrupt piano riffs… it all breathes the air of pre-Silicon Valley California.” Fanfare magazine wrote of this album: “Cascades of swirling music… sincere, technically challenging musical art with a distinct point of view.” International Record Review commented, “The deeply engaging pieces…are rigorously about process and implications…. Music of Nights Without Moon or Pearl is a piece to savor…. David Rosenboom’s realization of Entrances is a marvel of stamina and precision.” ClassicalNet noted, “Byron creates a maximalist effect out of minimalist means.” And the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote, “One is reminded not only of the time-bound nature of sculpture (one must move around a piece to fully experience it), but the mobiles of Alexander Calder, which are both fixed and moving. And like Calder's work, Byron's music is immediately comprehensible and beautiful, while it remains experimental.”

Marilyn Nonken is without doubt one of the leading exponents of modern piano music, and also Director of Piano Studies at New York University's Steinhardt School. She has a particular affinity with the spectral school of music, as exemplified in her previous CD of the works of Tristan Murail (92097) - Metier's best seller. This sequel features a major (half-hour-long) work by another of the founding generation of spectral music, Hugues Dufourt, and awesome pieces by young American composer Joshua Fineberg.

Classical Music