The project entitled In the Sphere of Sound as Crossroad of Cultures wants to draw a semantic and aesthetic musical path based on the investigation of timbres carried out by the Italian comporary composers from Giacinto Scelsi to Biagio Putignano. The program on this recording shows the interweaving of different musical perspectives in order to interpret the idea of sound as "a crossroad of cultures".

"...intelligently scored and very well played, from the solo flute Partita in A minor BWV 1013 to the keyboard Preludes in E and C and the solo violin sonata in G minor BWV 1001 (here transposed to A minor). Equally ambitious is guitarist Enno Voorhorst's transcription of the harpsichord concerto BWV 974, which originally was an oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello... Voorhorst is unquestionably a fine musician whose mastery of the guitar in this repertoire is beyond doubt; perhaps he will offer some performances of original guitar works on his next recording. The sound is fully supportive of the solo instrumental setting and affords a natural, intimate acoustic." - David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

"The playing is technically sound, stylishly embellished, and in general a model of refinement, taste, and restraint. Voorhorst's tone is consistently round and full." - American Record Guide

"Composer" Emily Howell is actually a computer program by David Cope. Emily writes first-rate classical music………written by a computer program!

Narciso Yepes became a star at the beginning of the 1950s with the soundtrack of the movie Jeux Interdits; he could be easily considered as the only guitar soloist comparable to Andrés Segovia. Shy and reserved, Yepes took little advantage of his fame at the time, realizing few recordings, with most quickly deleted from the catalog. This faithfully re-mastered IDIS CD collects a set of recordings performed by Yepes during the years 1960-63, consisting of repertoire from the Renaissance to the 20th c.

Includes work(s) by Erik Satie.

With this release, distinguished Korean pianist Klara Min brings her special touch a seventeen-piece survey of her favorite Mazurkas - a unique “composer genre” from Frédéric Chopin. Widely regarded as the most intimate, heartfelt, emotional, and personal music that the “poet of the piano” composed, the mazurkas fairly shine under Min’s fingers. Her tone has been called “ravishing” and “out of this world” (American Record Guide), and her rare interpretive acumen, technical wizardry, and intuitive musicianship make Chopin’s music a perfect fit.

Dan Laurin has released around thirty albums on BIS since the beginning of his collaboration in 1987. Laurin’s recorder music spans the globe and across the years, from England to Japan, and from the Renaissance to today. This latest release journeys to early 18th century France, and features composers such as Nicolas Chedeville, Anne Danican Philidor, Charles Dieupart, Marin Marais, and more.

Nikolay Medtner’s 14 piano sonatas are considered the most significant achievement in this genre by any composer since Beethoven. After the success of his First Piano Sonata (GP617) he turned to Goethe for inspiration, and the life and love-affirming Sonata-Triad Op. 11 translates the poet’s words of passion, suffering and redemption into sound. The capricious, mysterious and beautiful Sonata-Skazka is a masterpiece in miniature and was once Medtner’s most performed work. Dating from his years of exile, the eloquent themes of the fourteenth and final Sonata-Idyll linger long in the memory.

Christian Gottlob Neefe flourished as the Baroque was giving way to the Classical period. These Twelve Sonatas represent important steps in this transition, each having a uniquely individual character and showing a mixture of styles. Neefe is remembered today as Beethoven's first main teacher in Bonn, the Dressler Variations being young Ludwig's first published composition. Susan Kagan, a pianist, author, and educator, has explored the music of composers associated with Beethoven and his Milieu.

The music of the Prague-born prodigy Erwin Schulhoff has become increasingly popular in recent decades. He moved through successive creative phases and, on this recording, Spectrum Concerts Berlin focuses on music written between 1924 and 1927. The Cinq Études de jazz explore the “rhythmic intoxication” he described in a letter to Alban Berg, while the Duo for violin and cello and the Violin Sonata No. 2 offer striking parallels to similar works by Bartók, Kodály, and Debussy. The String Sextet contains violent contrasts and almost Cubist montage and was a key work in Schulhoff’s artistic development.

Gerhard Frommel rejected vapid pre-war Nationalism and Schoenberg’s dodecaphony, finding his voice in individuality and tradition. His highly contrasting Piano Sonatas are rooted in a blend of romanticism and the rhythmic propulsion of Stravinsky, articulated with tenderness in No 1, clownish grotesquerie in No 2, and sensual impressionism in No 3.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes son(s) for fl by Carl Philipp Emman. Bach. Ensemble: Toronto Camerata. Conductor: Kevin Mallon. Soloist: Patrick Gallois.

Classical Music

French Music for Harp & Strings

Classical Music

His parents, Italian immigrants to Brazil, named Radamés Gnattali after the male lead in Verdi’s Aida, and his mother began to teach him the piano at the age of six. But even though he did become a highly skilled pianist, performing Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto in B flat at Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal at the age of 23, it was as a composer (and arranger) of music of a distinctly Brazilian cast that he would make his name. Gnattali developed an individual style, which today might be called cross-over, by infusing inflexions of popular music into a classical framework, over a fluid harmonic technique. Jaunty rhythms and striking melodic lines appear in a wholly uncontrived manner: they formed his everyday working material, as an arranger of popular music for record companies and radio stations. When composing concert music Gnattali usually did so for musicians that he collaborated with in popular music, such as the guitarist Laurindo Almeida, as well as for himself. A large production includes works for a great variety of scorings, but for this disc Franz and Débora Halász have chosen to present chamber and solo works for guitar and piano, inviting the cellist Wen-Sinn Yang to join in for the composer's Sonata for guitar and cello. As reflected in some of the titles, Brazilian dance forms (samba, batuque, choro) play an important role in this music, which for a long time was disregarded by a musical establishment suspicious of its great fluency and popular appeal; music which in every bar expresses the soul of Brazil – Alma brasileira.

Classical Music

A highly decorated composer in Soviet Russia, Reinhold Gli�re maintained a low political profile and a conservative but astonishingly inventive melodic style. His interest in national harmonies and folk-music emerges in the Twelve Album Leaves, and his remarkably important contribution to cello repertoire is demonstrated both in his mastery of small forms in the Duets Op 39, and a unique ability to create orchestral sonorities in the Duets Op 53, a rare example of an original cycle for the delightful combination of two cellos.

Classical Music

•Malcolm Williamson (1931–2003), Master of the Queen’s Music from 1975-2003, was the first non-Britain to hold the post since its creation in the 17th century. A gifted pianist, organist and prolific composer, his music naturally includes a substantial number of organ works. His writing for organ is strikingly powerful in its originality and its eclectic mix of styles, ranging from lyrical introspection to fiery virtuosity. Two of the works on this CD are receiving their first recordings.

Brahms: Four-Hand Piano Music, Vol. 15

Classical Music

In the latest volume of this critically admired series, a number of rarely heard pieces from Albéniz’s first compositional phase can be savored. They were composed between 1881 and 1892 and reveal the variety and flair of which he was capable, even in the smallest of musical forms, such as the delightful mazurkas. The Siete estudios (Seven Studies) are no mere exercises – rather they fuse the color of Iberian music with the rigor of Central European traditions. Les Saisons is an evocative portrait of the seasons and can be seen as a forerunner of the impressionistic writing that would soon appear in French music.