Modern Era
33 products
Ligeti: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Bartok: String Quartet N
Aho: String Quartets Nos. 1 - 3
The Songs of Kazuno
Lachenmann: My Melodies
To mark the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is now making previously unreleased recordings of concerts available on CD and as a stream. The six-part composition My Melodies for eight horns and orchestra was composed between 2016 and 2018, revised for the first time in 2019, and then again in 2023 as the musica viva Munich version. It was commissioned by Bavarian Radio’s musica viva with the support of the Friends of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra e.V. This is a live recording of the premiere of the Munich 2023 version on June 23, 2023, from the Herkulessaal, again as part of BR's musica viva concert series, with the horn section and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Hermann.
Helmut Lachenmann, born in Stuttgart in 1935, is one of the most renowned German composers of contemporary music. He studied piano, music theory, and counterpoint in Stuttgart and composition with Luigi Nono in Venice. The first public performances of his works took place in 1962 at the Venice Biennale and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He taught composition in Hanover (1976-1981) and in Stuttgart (1981-1999), and gave numerous master classes in Germany and abroad. His works are performed by internationally renowned players and orchestras all over the world. Helmut Lachenmann has received numerous awards, most recently the GEMA German Music Authors' Prize for his life's work (2015).
The phenomenon of melody has long preoccupied Helmut Lachenmann. He went to study in Venice at the end of the 1950s with Luigi Nono, a teacher who strictly insisted on a critically reflective approach to musical material. Nono had objected to any trace of linear progression in Lachenmann's compositional sketches as a "tonal cell" – a melodic object that was seen as a recourse to a romanticizing tonal language that had to be overcome. The impetus for the scoring of My Melodies came from a rehearsal of Lachenmann's opera The Little Match Girl in Madrid in 2008: eight horns forming a homogeneous yet at the same time complex instrument. The premiere took place ten years later. In 2023, My Melodies was extended by 77 additional bars since that first performance, with Lachenmann drawing on further sketch material. It is rare for the composer to alter his own works after their premiere - but the sound ideas for the eight horns seem to have retained a special fascination for him. The bonus tracks offer short excerpts from this concert recording of My Melodies. They present characteristic passages of the work, inviting listeners to detect specific noises or sequences and to familiarize themselves with Lachenmann's world of sound.
Connolly: Phaethon, Becalmed / Echo Collective
Introducing the debut solo album, "Phaethon, Becalmed," by Ben J. Connolly - a member of Berlin's alternative pop band, ALL THE LUCK IN THE WORLD. This project draws inspiration from the Greek myth of Phaethon, who sought to prove his parentage by driving his father's Sun Chariot across the sky, inadvertently causing ecological chaos and meeting a tragic end.
Collaborating with Echo Collective on strings, Ramon Lormans on tuned percussion (Stargaze), and Andrew Dickinson on vocals (Dt. Oper), the album comprises 17 pieces that intricately weave together to narrate Phaethon's tale. The instrumentation includes piano, strings, synths, and electronics, creating a calm and relaxed musical atmosphere.
The album unfolds like a story, with interwoven themes marking each chapter of Phaethon's journey. The diverse musical palette captures the essence of the myth, offering a tranquil and immersive listening experience. "Phaethon, Becalmed" invites listeners to explore the narrative through a blend of classical and contemporary elements.
This project goes beyond a mere musical release, offering a thoughtful exploration of myth and storytelling through sound. It's a unique opportunity to engage with a rich tapestry of emotions and experiences.
Catranis, Elgar, Kuwan & Vera: Metamorphosis
Metamorphoses: this is what Duo Amabile is in search of. In their concept album, Paula Breland, clarinet, and Anna-Katharina Schau, accordion, zoom into the processes of upheaval and new beginnings to offer their listeners transgressive listening experiences and to immerse themselves in a common"liminal moment". Featuring top-notch musical performances, this album combines works composed especially for the duo by René Kuwan, Michaela Rea Catranis and Marín Donoso Vera together with thematically appropriate movements from Edward Elgar's famous Enigma Variations. All the new works are presented here in world premiere recordings!
R. Schumann, Ravel, Liszt, Bartók et al: Im Freien / Zlata Chochieva
For her second album with naïve, Zlata Chochieva has chosen a magnificent, audacious program, associating Schumann, Ravel, Liszt and Bartók with the lesser known Draeseke and Schulz-Evler. Sensitive to nature and to the emotions it inspires, the Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva has conceived this very personal album as a patchwork, sometimes inward-looking, landscape with changing skies. “A recorded program is not a concert program, but I also wanted to tell a story, propose a whole tapestry of emotions, open different perspectives,” she confides.
Debussy / Jean-Paul Gasparian
The French pianist Jean-Paul Gasparian has chosen Debussy for his first album with naïve, an album full of sensitivity and colour, including the first ever recording of the transcription of the Rondes de printemps. With this album devoted solely to Debussy, Jean-Paul Gasparian invites listeners to integrate the atmospheres, colours and timbres that make up Debussy’s world. ‘The piano, here,’ he says, ‘is a tool that lets your imagination wander, a machine that creates perceptions. Like a sort of stationary journey.’ It is also an opportunity for Jean-Paul Gasparian to show us another facet of his temperament, already seen in Rachmaninoff and the Romantic repertoire, and return to his beginnings.
