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CLAIRE MARTIN BOX 2

Following it's successful full length opera, 'Artaxerxes', Classical Opera return with the first in an epic series of Mozart operas 'Apollo et Hyacinthus'. Classical Opera was founded in 1997 by conductor Ian Page. It specializes in the music of Mozart and his contemporaries, performing with it's own period-instrument orchestra, and is considered one of Britain's most exciting and highly regarded young arts organizations. The company features a mix of seasoned and young performers including Klara Ek (Melia), Sophie Bevan (Hyacinthus), Lawrence Zazzo (Apollo), Christopher Ainslie (Zephyrus), Andrew Kennedy (Oebalus), Marcus Farnsworth and David Shipley (Priests of Apollo). These young singers and a period-instrument orchestra deliver uniformly superb interpretations.

Dreamsville marked 25 years of Carol Kidd’s partnership with Linn and saw the long-awaited return to the studio of this unique UK jazz legend. Originally released in 2008, Dreamsville is re-issued as part of Linn’s ECHO series that offers a second chance to enjoy the best of the label’s award-winning catalog. An exquisite album of hand-picked standards and self-penned songs, it is perhaps no surprise that is was named the Best CD at the 2009 Scottish Jazz Awards and a Recommended Release on BBC Radio 2 by Russell Davies. Known for her impeccable phrasing and delivery and for her innate ability to breathe fresh life into jazz standards, Carol’s performances of Gershwin, Rogers & Hart, Irving Berlin and Henry Mancini classics sees the singer deliver a masterclass in interpretation and shows why she is considered “a singer's singer.” Carol co-wrote two new tracks with guitarist Nigel Clark, “There Goes My Heart” and “Do You Believe?”. Carol is acknowledged in jazz circles as “Britain's finest ballads singer” (Jazz Review). She was named Best Vocalist at the 2011 Scottish Jazz Awards, a title she has won four times at the British Jazz Awards.

Bach: Alto Arias

Martin Taylor’s fifth studio album 'Portraits', originally released in 1996 and now re-issued as part of Linn’s ECHO series, found the guitarist together with Nashville legend Chet Atkins in a demonstration of virtuosic guitar playing. Mr. Atkins described Martin Taylor as ‘one of the greatest and most impressive guitar players in the world’ stating ‘I just love his playing. This association has been quite an honor for me.’ Chet guested on several of the album’s tracks, including ‘My Funny Valentine’ and The Beatles’ ‘Here, There And Everywhere.’

Corelli: Opus 1 & 3: Church Sonatas is the final recording in The Avison Ensemble’s celebration of Corelli’s chamber music and the sixth album in their critically acclaimed series of recordings with Linn. Released to mark the 300th anniversary of the death of the composer, the ensemble’s greatly anticipated series explored the six opera of the eminent Italian’s chamber music: the concerti grossi, violin sonatas, chamber sonatas and church sonatas. Each of Corelli’s church sonatas is a small gem; these short sonatas are full of innovation, beauty and warmth. They demonstrate a superior level of craftsmanship: they are of the highest quality, exquisitely refined and an example of perfection in music. Corelli’s contribution to the history of violin performance was immense and these trio sonatas were instrumental in raising the musical bar to new heights. All six of his published collections of instrumental music demonstrate his exceptional skill as a violinist and composer, but it was in his church sonatas which became the pillars of this musical format.

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REVIEW:

Britain's Avison Ensemble has a homogeneous, silvery tone that serves the music well, emphasizing its classic qualities and nicely underplaying the virtuoso touches that Corelli wrote into or implied for the violin parts.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

Winner of the 2022 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, Protean Quartet makes it's Linn debut with an eclectic programme that transcends musical eras. Taking polyphony as a starting point, the versatile young quartet ventures into various epochs, ranging from Purcell's Pavan Z. 752, Chacony Z. 730 and Dance from the opera Dioclesian, to Schubert's String Quartets Nos. 4 and 13 ('Rosamunde') by way of Josquin's famed 'Mille regretz'. Although different in style, these works show an equal care in the treatment of every individual voice, each one meticulously played by Protean Quartet's outstanding musicians. A multifaceted album which will delight existing polyphony enthusiasts and create many more!

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has long been known for championing British contemporary music and, following two albums entirely dedicated to Thomas Wilson, the orchestra now turns to other leading composers of the contemporary scene. Devised by conductor Rory Macdonald, the programme includes works that share the themes of loss, love and life: Jay Capperauld's�Our Gilded Veins�takes centre-stage, alongside�Within Her Arms, Anna Clyne's 'fragile elegy' (The New Yorker), James MacMillan's legend-based�The Death of Oscarand the commemorative�For Zoe, Martin Suckling's�Meditation (after Donne)�- which features church bells from across Scotland - and Peter Maxwell Davies's�Farewell to Stromness�(in an arrangement for strings by Rosemary Furniss), which arguably features the composer's most recognisable tune.

With these songs from seventeenth-century Europe (Monteverdi and Purcell) and modern Latin America (Rodriguez, Jara, and others), two golden ages of song are juxtaposed on de Pasion Mortal. This is a vivid album that invites listeners into this wonderful, evocative music and to reflect on eternal human themes: love, loss, fear, ecstasy, and much more besides. Nicholas Mulroy, Elizabeth Kenny and Toby Carr offer performances of songs that are separated by time and space, but united by much else, and find expression in music full of beauty and unflinching truth. This pairing of old and new conveys a sense that, while the world turns and changes, people do not.

As champion of music from Ireland, Peter Whelan and his Irish Baroque Orchestra give a rare glimpse into a fascinating figure of the eighteenth-century Dublin music scene. Who was Rachel Baptist? Not much is known of the ‘Celebrated Black Syren’, other than she was a soprano of African descent and born in Ireland, sang regularly in Dublin, London, Liverpool, and other cities, and performed alongside famed castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. The program includes works that Baptist might have performed at the ‘Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick’ held in 1752, including arias by Handel, Pasquali (a couple of premiere recordings), Purcell, and some additional instrumental pieces. The ‘resplendent’ Rachel Redmond (The New York Times) is the soprano.

Following the tremendous success of her 2011 album Kuniko Plays Reich, and subsequent recordings of works by the pioneering composer, percussionist Kuniko has established a reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of Steve Reich. Here she has recorded Kuniko Plays Reich II, a bold programme of innovative works which span Reich’s artistic career and showcase some of his groundbreaking techniques. Composed in his early thirties, Piano Phase is performed in Kuniko’s own mesmerising arrangement for two vibraphones; characteristically Kuniko plays both parts. While Nagoya Marimbas uses some composition tools which Reich popularised in Piano Phase, Four Organs draws its inspiration from the Middle Ages. Closing this riveting recital, Mallet Quartet sees Reich in a more melodically expansive mood, albeit with his trademark tight rhythmic drive and canonic textures.

REVIEWS:

Before Steve Reich's minimalist structures come to life and become a sensual listening pleasure and adventure, there is a lot of intellectual hard work to do, because the constant rhythmic shifts and overlays are challengingly complex—especially in the American's percussion works. The minimal music guru has primarily written pieces for at least two instrumentalists or percussionists, which doesn't make the task any easier if you want to do everything alone, as a soloist. However, the Japanese drummer Kunino has already shown that she has mastered the art of reacting precisely to her own pre-recorded parts in 2018, with her recording of Reich's cult piece “Drumming”. Now she is following up with Episode II and – under the composer’s supervision – has selected four works, some of them arranged and all of them masterfully recorded. The program ranges from “Four Organs” from 1970, in which a simple interaction between maracas and organ develops an incredible pulling power, to “Mallet Quartet” (2009) for two vibraphones and two marimbas. And in the vibraphone version of “Piano Phase” as well as in the Asian-inspired “Nagoya Marimbas” (1994), the fine motorist Kuniko succeeds in generating a colorful flow of particularly attractive beauty from Reich's sophisticated, repetition constructions.

-- Rondo Magazine

Ensemble Molière presents a luxuriant and varied selection of French Baroque music to accompany Louis XIV, the Sun King, in his daily life. What better way to wake up than to be serenaded by the Overture from Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants? The King’s day continues with extracts from Lully’s Phaëton as the sun rises, a little Couperin as the royal household’s day unfolds, a Symphonie pour les soupers du Roy by Delalande to accompany supper, dance music from the Ballet Royal de la Nuit and a suite to accompany the setting sun from Marais’ Trios pour le coucher du Roy. Louis XIV chose to portray himself as the Sun, the manifestation of the god Apollo on earth and the ultimate power which gives life to all things. This album reimagines a day in the life of one of the most magnificent royals of the Baroque era.

For her first solo album on Linn – she has appeared with her Duo Pleyel partner Richard Egarr on three occasions, and more will come! – Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya has taken the bold route of recording the little-known Gottlieb Muffat. Son of Georg Muffat, who most Baroque aficionados will know, Gottlieb attained far greater success in his working life, ultimately being promoted to first organist of the Austrian Habsburg court. In this double album, Alexandra has recorded the lavish Componimenti musicali per il cembalo, a collection of seven ‘suites’ that are rich in texture, emotional range and flamboyant decoration. Carefully notated in the magnificent score, the breathtaking ornamentation is there to add expressiveness to the performance. These works represent one of the pinnacles of keyboard music from the mid-eighteenth century, and deserve their place in the repertoire.

Violinist Michael Barenboim makes his second appearance on Linn, this time with pianist and partner Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim. Together they have recorded some of Mendelssohn’s beloved Songs without Words. Beginning their life as a musical game between Mendelssohn and his older sister Fanny Hensel, these songs were arranged into piano pieces to pass the time during their childhood. The album showcases a selection arranged for violin by violinist and composer Ferdinand David. Hardly known today, David was to become a close friend of Felix and the dedicatee of his famous Violin Concerto Op. 64. These arrangements always remain true to Mendelssohn’s musical aesthetic, and their intimate character calls for a closely shared musicianship, undoubtedly a distinctive quality which the duo has aplenty.