Eugene Asti writes of this new release: "When I was trying to decide which solo pieces to record, I felt drawn to the late piano works as they seemed in some way related to his songs. Brahms's Lieder are some of his most intimate and personal compositions, and although small in scale, there is a wealth of emotional depth and poetic sensibility to be explored in them. The exact same thing can be said of the late piano works, which are likewise small in dimension and certainly not composed as virtuosic showpieces. They are also among the most beautiful and profound of all his works, possessing a truly vocal quality with which, as a song pianist, I can immediately identify (some could almost be called 'songs without words'). In the making of this recording, I was very fortunate that LAWO chose a wonderful reconditioned Steinway D dating from 1893, which is just a year after the composition of these late piano pieces." Eugene Asti is one of the foremost accompanists of his generation, and regularly tours and records as a solo musician. His many recordings have garnered him widespread critical acclaim.

La Flute Norvegienne'' is the title of flautist Tom Ottar Andreassen's first solo album on the Lawo Classics lable. Besides flute concertos by Edvard Fliflet Braein and Johan Kvandal, the recording includes Egil Hovland's ''Suite for Flute and Strings'' together with Finn Mortensen's legendary ''Sonata for Solo Flute''. All four works were composed between 1953 and 1963, a period of change in Norwegian musical life and a decade in which Norwegian composers worked in widely varied traditions, from Fliflet Braein's light-heared music to Hovland's serial style. Andreassen has selected these works precisely because they demonstrate this diversity of expression and style and explore the flute's full range. All were written for Alf Andersen and Per Oien, who like Andreassen studied with Ornulf Gulbrandsen and served in turn as Principal Flute in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Thus it is extra fitting that it is the orchestra featured on this recording, led by conductor Ingar Bergby.

Classical Music

Caroline Eidsten Dahl (b. 1980) was born and raised in Drammen. From 1999 she studied recorder with Frode Thorsen at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, graduating in spring 2003. From autumn 2001 she studied with Professor Dan Laurin at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she majored in chamber music and was awarded her diploma in autumn 2006. Caroline has played with leading ensembles in Norway and abroad, including the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, Bergen Chamber Ensemble, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, the Trondheim Soloists, Kammer Allegria, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and the Oslo Baroque Orchestra. A respected performer in her field, this recording shows Caroline performing a selection of works, both traditional and modern, written by Scandinavian composers.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Poets and composers have always found inspiration in the themes of Easter and it's many moods: from awe, festivity, and hope; to disappointment, betrayal, and anguish; to victory and boundless jubilation. Seen in relation to the Passions, there are few recordings of Easter hymns.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

LAWO Classics is proud to present the WDR Symphony Orchestra\ Cologne's first release on the label! On this CD we hear the orchestra's own soloists, Ole Kristian Dahl and Thorsten Johanns, playing Mozart's first and last wind concertos under the direction of conductors Karl Heinz Steffens and Eivind Aadland, respectively. Featured Artists Ole Kristian Dahl: bassoon Thorsten Johanns: clarinet WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Karl Heinz Steffens: conductor Eivind Aadland: conductor.

Classical Music

Ketil Hvoslef (b. 1939) is a productive, versatile and undogmatic composer who- well into his seventies- continues to write music at a furious pace. Hvoslef's style is characterized by an economy of means, the accumulation of latent energy, rhythmical ingenuity and, often, an element of humor. "Hvoslef Chamber Works No. V" is the fifth in a series of nine albums of Ketil Hvoslef's chamber music. The idea to record 38 of Hvoslef's chamber music works was initiated by violinist Ricardo Odriozola and pianist Einar Rottingen, both with backgrounds spanning many years of cooperation with the composer. The recordings daw from the vast pool of performers in Bergen, where the composer lives and works. The musicians are primarily from the Grieg Academy and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Formosa mea (My beauty), an expression taken from Song of Solomon, recurs as a theme in a number of the songs on Tone Wik's new album. The sensual texts are an homage to the Virgin Mary. Her chaste, unattainable beauty is the focus of adoration, lending a quality of innocence to the erotic content of the texts. The music is from a period when the church was in the process of accepting the musical influence of street music and folk theatre, which changed the style of church music. "Formosa mea" features two seldon-performed Christmas cantatas, written by the female composer Franscesca Caccini and her colleague, Bonifatio Gratiani. Soprano Tone Wike has specialized for years in music of the BAroque period. She is in frequent demand as soloist and performs regularly with early music musicians and ensembles.