In recent years the choral music of America has become increasingly popular. 'The Road Home' presents a small survey of some of the lesser-known gems of the repertoire. Founded in 2014, The Willow Consort is an exciting new chamber choir based at The University of York directed by Danny Purtell. They perform a wide range of repertoire, from Renaissance to contemporary works. All of their singers have been hand-picked and sing with some of the top amateur and professional choirs in the country, including I Fagiolini, Genesis Sixteen, The Carice Singers, Renaissance, The National Youth Choir of Great Britain and many more. The ensemble is are looking forward to bringing many exciting programmes of choral music to audiences in York, the rest of the United Kingdom and further afield.

Philip Glass has become an iconic figure in American music. His works are often inspired by collaborations with other leading musicians, and the proposal of an “American Four Seasons” by the violinist Robert McDuffie to reflect Vivaldi’s famous masterpiece resulted in a concerto which evokes the Baroque spirit of early 18th-century violin tradition. With the Concerto’s range of moods, listeners are invited to decide for themselves which season the music evokes. The Violin Sonata sees Glass’s melodic and harmonic language haunted by the ghosts of Brahms, Faure and Franck, “the meditative-ness of this piece bringing a unique energy” for award-winning violinist Piotr Plawner.

An American Song Album is a fine collection of songs by American composers, presented by soprano Melody Moore. The repertoire includes Samuel Barber’s introspective Hermit Songs, Jake Heggie’s engaged cycles These Strangers and How Well I Knew the Light, Carlisle Floyd’s exploration of motherhood in The Mystery, Copland’s impressionist and oriental Four Early Songs, as well as a varied selection from Gordon Getty’s vocal works. Set to Irish, Welsh, Chilean, German, Arabic and Afro-American poetry, these pieces constitute a panorama of the US as a melting pot of cultures, while simultaneously being bound together by an unmistakably American sound. Melody Moore manages to lift out the poetry of these works with her warm, lyrical voice and impeccable vocal technique. She is accompanied on the piano by Bradley Moore, one of the most eminent conductors and song accompanists of today’s American musical scene. With her first solo album, Melody Moore continues her PENTATONE discography that already features recordings of leading roles in Gordon Getty’s Plump Jack (2012) and The Little Match Girl (2015), as well as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello (2017).

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REVIEWS:

Melody Moore’s ‘An American Song Album’ feels personal and custom-made for her ample lirico spinto instrument. And that’s always a good place to start. She can thunder darkly, she can float, she can spin – she has the full expressive armoury. But, more importantly, the choices here plainly mean something to her and there’s no mistaking the high level of engagement that sets the best of them apart.

– Gramophone

The highlight of the disc for me is Carlisle Floyd’s The Mystery, subtitled “Five Songs of Motherhood.” Moore’s voice soars through this quite demanding cycle. Her clear high notes are produced without any sense of strain, and there are lovely floated pianissimos as well. She conveys the full breadth of feelings contained in The Mystery—passion, tenderness, elation, and love. Floyd’s 18-minute cycle is, in my view, a significant work that should have found a place of greater prominence in recitals by American singers. It might be seen as a modern American successor to Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben, and it would be interesting to pair the two on a program. Perhaps this exquisite recording will help rectify the situation.

– Fanfare

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the release of Elgar from America, Volume I featuring historic recordings by a legendary cellist, two American orchestras and a trio of the 20th century’s greatest conductors. The results offer a fascinating transatlantic perspective on a titan of British music and includes two masterpieces and a symphonic study which Elgar considered his best orchestral piece.

Elgar visited America annually from 1905-07 and again in 1911 where his music found articulate champions and a place in the country’s affections, the trio of his Pomp and Circumstance March in D an essential, long-established part of ceremonies accompanying America’s graduation tradition. The featured recordings date from the 1940s and have been restored and remastered by the multi-award-winning audio restoration engineer Lani Spahr, who also provides informative booklet notes.

The Enigma Variations were, by far, America’s favourite Elgar work in the first decade of the last century. The “fleet, error-free performance” by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini in New York’s Radio City Studio on November 5, 1949 appears here on album for the first time. New in any form is Artur Rodzin´ski’s never-before released October 10, 1943 Carnegie Hall account of Falstaff Symphonic Study in C minor with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Gregor Piatigorsky joined the NYP-SO under John Barbirolli for a November 10, 1940 Carnegie Hall performance of the Cello Concerto. Piatigorsky never recorded the work commercially and this is the only known existing recording of him playing the piece. Lani Spahr’s previous restorations of historic Elgar recordings for SOMM Recordings include Elgar Rediscovered and the four-disc set Elgar Remastered which featured recordings from the composer’s own collection and was hailed by Audiophilia as “a fascinating achievement which will have you wishing for more”.

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REVIEW:

Elgar enthusiasts will find it intriguing, not least because it offers performances by some performers who one does not normally associate with Elgar’s music. This particular Toscanini performance of ‘Enigma’ is new to CD and Rodzinski’s Falstaff has never been issued commercially in any format. It’s also healthy and stimulating to hear performances from outside the English performing tradition. There is some surface noise at times but in general Lani Spahr’s transfers seem to me to have been extremely successful. There is applause after each work but otherwise the audiences are commendably quiet.

– MusicWeb International

Formed in 2016, the Albion Quartet brings together four of the UK’s exceptional young string players who are establishing themselves rapidly on the international stage. This disc marks the first release in a new Dvorák cycle with Signum Records, as well as future releases of Walton and Britten plus the premiere recording of Richard Blackford’s Kalon with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra later in 2019. Having made their debuts last season at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the 2018/19 season sees the Albion Quartet’s debuts at the Wigmore Hall and at Town Hall/Symphony Hall Birmingham. They also continue their residency at London’s Kings Place, become quartet-in residence at the Stratford Festival of Words and Music and perform at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Violins Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Emma Parker | Viola Rosalind Ventris | Cello Nathaniel Boyd

The members of Bearthoven (pianist Karl Larson, double bassist Pat Swoboda, and percussionist Matt Evans) are a piano trio in the jazz sense of the term, but in practice, they're a progressive classical ensemble that has become an expressive vehicle for a growing contingent of young composers. The trio's second release on Cantaloupe Music, American Dream, focuses on the work of composer Scott Wollschleger, and includes three new pieces: the epic title work, as well as Gas Station Canon Song and We See Things That Are Not There. Larson describes American Dream as "a reflection of the contemporary American state of mind." Rather than making a direct political statement, the album reflects the contradictory nature of the "American Dream" in our current socio-economic climate. "This music expresses the strongest sense of urgency I've experienced in my entire life," Wollschleger explains, "channeling feelings of doom, optimism, hopelessness, and the sublime. Much like a dream, these pieces weave an interconnected musical fabric of contradictory worlds." In essence, it's a direct reference to a modern American paradox: how the majestic and the repellent always seem to coexist in a state of flux, no matter the medium. American Dream is laden with rich melodies and jarring dissonances that interconnect throughout, creating a sonic experience that's by turns cinematic, surreal, contemplative, provocative - and ultimately, empowering.

Somm Recordings closes the 120th anniversary year of George Gershwin's birth with the re-issue of the historic 1998 Centennial Edition recording initiated by the composer's sister, Frances Gershwin, together with first appearances of two orchestrations commissioned from Jos� Serebrier. Originally released on Dinemec Classics, the Gershwin Centennial Edition features the composer's nephew and Frances' son, pianist Leopold Godowsky III, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Jos� Serebrier. The recording followed a concert in London organized by the composer's formidable sister, Frances - 96 at the time - who invited Serebrier to conduct An American in Paris, the Concerto in F, and, in specially commissioned orchestrations by Serebrier, the Three Preludes and Lullaby. The programme shows Gershwin at his inimitable, era-defining best. Composed as an extended ballet sequence for the 1951 MGM musical starring Gene Kelly, An American in Paris is a buoyant, Technicolor-bright tribute to the French capital shot through with jazz-accented vitality. The Concerto in F is a bold, brassy, brilliantly orchestrated work with a grandstanding piano line bridging the worlds of classical music and jazz. It's animated opening movement is followed by a Blues-tinged Adagio and a finale boasting a helter-skelter orgy of rhythm and athletic pianism. Initially reluctant to orchestrate Lullaby, Serebrier says: "Now I am glad Leopold persuaded me. I have tried to keep the scoring as simple and pure as possible, so that the orchestral version of this poignantly lovely piece might take on a life of it's own in a voice that is still recognizably Gershwin's". The never before re-issued is a brilliant reminder of one of the most remarkable talents of the 20th century in performances by one of his greatest interpreters.

American Originals: 1918 is the newest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers, Americana artist Pokey LaFarge, and tap dancer Robyn Watson. The follow-up to the Pops’ innovative American Originals album, American Originals: 1918 reimagines songs first brought to life in the first third of the 20th century as well as American popular standards from World War I and some of the first well-known tunes from the advent of jazz. The 95th Cincinnati Pops album includes fresh new renditions of “Over There,” “God Bless America,” “Swing Along,” “Memphis Blues,” “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm,” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” among many other classic tunes. In addition, the collection includes the world premiere of Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer’s “In the Cause of the Free,” commissioned by the Pops to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I.

Originally released on the 100th anniversary of Sowerby's birth in 1995, Leo Sowerby: American Master of Sacred Song celebrates "the Dean of American Church Music" and his contributions to the choral and organ repertory. In the 1920's, Sowerby's music was regularly performed by orchestras (especially the Chicago Symphony) and it is heartening to see so much interest in his works in the 21st century. Gloriae Dei Cantores has selected ten anthems to represent Sowerby as an inspired composer for worship as well as several sacred vocal solos and four of his finest works for organ. The CD set is crowned with a rare performance of Sowerby's Festival Musick for brass and organ. Sowerby's rich harmonies and exciting vocal writing capture the listener in such texts as Great is the Lord, O God, the Protector of All, Come, Holy Ghost and Turn Thou to Thy God. His organ music shows a rare ear for color and texture and his style, attractive and accessible, is timeless. As with many of Gloriae Dei Cantores' recordings, this one contains much music not available elsewhere.

Taking a phone call, Miklós Rózsa could scarcely believe that the legendary violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz really was seriously interested in his Violin Concerto and ready to give the work its premiere – but so he did in 1956, and the first recording of the work, with its extreme technical challenges, was also made by Heifetz. And it had been just the same with the Violin Concerto by Korngold: the 1947 premiere and the brilliant first recording of this 20th-century classic again showcased Heifetz as soloist.

In the new generation of genuinely American musicians, one outstanding figure was Leonard Bernstein, an all-rounder whose early success led on to even greater heights. Bernstein rated his Violin Concerto of 1954, “Serenade,” inspired by Plato’s Symposium, as his best work ever, and this work too in its imaginatively slimmed-down scoring is now acknowledged to be an important 20th-century concerto for violin.

As an “encore,” this compilation includes the masterly Symphonic Dances from the immortal “West Side Story.”

REVIEWS:

This set of American concertos sees her widen her recorded repertoire still further and her performances of all three are highly successful. She’s very well supported by the young Finnish conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali who here appears with the two orchestras of which he’s currently Music Director. The Gothenburg Symphony does the honors on the first disc while disc two features the Tampere Philharmonic. Both orchestras make first rate contributions.

— MusicWeb International

For his debut album on Delos, the brilliant emerging virtuoso Sean Kennard has chosen a captivating program featuring solo piano music by two of America’s most iconic composers: Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. While neither composer’s body of work includes a great many pieces for solo piano, each has left a legacy of superb piano compositions to memorable effect.

Of the five works on this album, Barber’s finger-twisting Sonata for Piano and Copland’s stunning Piano Variations stand as enduring masterpieces of twentieth-century American piano music. Both pieces incorporate broad spectrums of modernist musical language and styles, as well as degrees of difficulty that only the finest and most technically accomplished artists can master. And most of the shorter pieces offer delightfully evocative treatments of musical Americana.

REVIEWS:

A triumphant debut from a brilliant young pianist.

America still produces superb pianists and one is Sean Kennard, whose first recording this is. (He studied at Juilliard with Boris Berman and Richard Goode.) Not only is Kennard’s technique flawless, his understanding of the music’s expressive requirements is second to none… This marvellous debut disc is a triumph.

-- Limelight

Sean Kennard places familiar works by Barber and Copland in a mutually illuminating dialogue. This achievement in programming is matched by very fine playing indeed. His penetrating sense of structure in Barber’s Piano Sonata and Copland’s Piano Variations is balanced by an infectious sense of fun in Copland’s 4 Piano Blues.

-- Fanfare

American Canvas is a tour de force of flute cello and piano trio repertoire featuring the premiere recordings of four powerful works by some of today’s most celebrated American composers. Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Higdon and Shulamit Ran, Andrea Clearfield, and Zhou Tian embrace a variety of sources from visual art, literature, and nature, telling musical stories in a pyrotechnic display of color and brushwork, an eerie nocturne on a lake, a vivid intoxication by the moon, a thrill ride in medieval Spain. The acclaimed Dolce Suono Trio conveys the diverse sonic landscapes, nuanced timbres, and emotional experiences with inimitable virtuosity and passion. Dolce Suono Trio, “one of the most dynamic groups in the US” (The Huffington Post), includes flutist Mimi Stillman, cellist Nathan Vickery, and pianost Charles Ambramovic. Soprano Lucy Shelton and cellists Gabriel Cabezas and Alexis Pia Gerlach complete the album. The trio has enthralled audiences with its programs spanning Haydn trios to its own commissions at prestigious venues including the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Smithsonian American Art Museum, New York’s Symphony Space, Brooklyn’s Roulette, and Cornell University.

“American Romantics II” is the second volume in a project initiated by conductor Reuben Blundell after he discovered several scores for string orchestra through the Fleischer Collection. These scores were all written by American composers during the last decades of the 19th century, both native born and recently immigrated. "American Romantics" presents the premiere recordings of these pieces, some of which draw on Americana melodies while others reflect the prevailing Central European compositional style of the day. Blundell’s recent release, “American Romantics, Volume I,” with the Gowanus Arts Ensemble, received glowing reviews, including Gramophone Magazine, and American Record Guide: “I was completely mesmerized by this lovely recording, one of the best I’ve heard in some time.” The album continues to be played regularly on WQXR and other stations across the US. He is a voting member of The Recording Academy (responsible for the GRAMMY Awards).

In my new album, the sixth of my collection for Nimbus Records, you can hear throught he music of a continent the joy of the dances alongside the historical suffering product of the social struggles that have endured, today and for the last 500 years, the concentration of different cultures on the American soil. These works are born from an ancestral knowledge and a concern to understand the roots and amalgam of the many musical and cultural variety present in our societies. Composers and performers alike rejoice in the richness and beauty of the magnificent blend of three ubiquitous cultures, and Amerindian, the European and the Black African, which form our ''terrestrial rainbow'' as Eduardo Galeano calls it. This multiculturalism makes us Americans, without frontiers. All the composers here present have explored in depth the music of their countries creating their own musical languages. Each piece has a story to tell; Also local poetry has had great influence as names like those of Atahualpa Yupanqui and Alberto Arvelo Torrealba, among many others, have been invoked in different ways in them. For several years now, I have tended to create my recital programmes, playing solo piano works and others with special guests that enhance the music with their impressive knowledge of genres and styles. In this case Carlos ''Nene'' Quintero, Carlos Rodriguez, Manuel Rangel and Edwin Arellano accompany me in six of the tracks. I hope you will like this collection that encompasses so many feelings; Fromt he hoyous rhythms to remembrance, nostalgia and the tragedy of suicide passing also through childhood songs and stories plus the subtlety and smooth swing of the music of a continent.'' (Clara Rodriguez)

Continuing their ongoing series with Resonus Classics, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York, and conductor John Scott release an album of celebrated as well as more recent American choral music. Featuring music from the last seven decades, this engrossing recording celebrates the very best of American choral works with music from Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, Nico Muhly, Samuel Barber, Daniel Castellanos, Ned Rorem, and former Saint Thomas music director Gerre Hancock. World premiere recordings from Muhly (Bright Mass with Canons) and Daniel Castellanos (Eternal Light) are featured on this release. The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys is considered by many to be the leading ensemble of its kind in the Anglican choral tradition in the United States. The Choir performs regularly with Orchestra of St. Luke’s or with the period instrument ensemble, Concert Royal, as part of its own concert series. Its primary raison d’etre, however, is to provide music for five choral services each week. Live webcasts of all choral services and further information including recordings can be found at www.SaintThomasChurch.org.