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Dark Beauty

"The quartets Nos. 21, 22, and 23 were composed by Mozart with the hope of a dedication to King William of Prussia. The king was a cellist, and Mozart lovingly favors the cello in these quartets of supreme craftsmanship." - Herbert Russcol

[Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590] "...makes an exciting culmination to them all, in Mozart's most mature handling of the style...The composer ends his adventures in the string quartet at the very top of his bent." - John Burk, Mozart and his Music

"Though CBS in its latter days of independence reissued the Juilliard Quartet’s recordings of the last Schubert String Quartets on a mid-price 2-CD set, re-reissued by Sony on SB2K89978, neither they nor their present owners Sony/BMG ever released these Mozart recordings on CD, to the best of my knowledge, perhaps because there is such strong competition in the Mozart, not least from the Quartetto Italiano and Amadeus Quartet in recordings of much the same vintage. With those stylish Italian recordings currently unavailable, however, either as part of their 8-CD collection of all the Mozart Quartets, singly, or on Philips Duo, except as downloads or from ArkivMusic, and the Amadeus as a box set only, it makes excellent sense to reissue the Juilliard recordings...If you are looking for a 2-CD set of the last four quartets, the ArkivMusik reissue of the Juilliards makes an obvious recommendation. There’s a detailed booklet with some useful analyses of the music and the recording has worn well." -- MusicWeb International

Sky Music

TRIPTYKON

After his active performing/recording period in the 80s and 90s Stanley Cowell has devoted his enormous talent in music education at the renowned Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. Cowell’s previous release SCCD 31704 “Prayer For Peace” in 2010 was his first album in over a decade which evoked Mike Shanley of JazzTimes to comment, “… his phrasing, chordal voicings and use of space are impeccable….a hard-swinging trio never goes out of fashion…” Here on his new album Stanley formed a new trio with his two former students from Rutgers University to reveal that he remains a master of his material and instrument.

“Don Friedman is probably playing better now than at any other period of his splendid career. Maturity has brought a deepening of emotional expression, a refinement of touch and the knowledge of exactly how much he wants to say within a given performance……On this beautifully conceived and executed CD, Don is in the bright company of three musicians who share his aims and ideals, and hold true to the tenets of balancing spontaneity with organisational clarity and discipline…” (Mark Gardner – linernotes)

Since his SteepleChase debut with pianist Hal Galper on an album entitled "Reach Out" (SCCD 31067) in 1976, drummer Billy Hart and label have kept a long, productive relationship. This release marks his 68th recording and his 1st leader album for SteepleChase. Billy Hart has not only been the company's most recorded drummer but also one of the most influential voices in the label’s creative decision making. “… Hart is widely regarded as one of the most capable of modern-jazz drummers…” (The New Grove Dictionary of JAZZ)

Stanley Cowell during the last five decades has not only been active on the jazz scene but also devoted himself in the musical education of younger generation. Now his well-earned retirement from teaching at the Rutgers enables him to spend more time in performing and recording. The latest album, which is his 13th release on this label, Stanley Cowell presents himself as a supreme interpreter of jazz’s standard titles. “…it's a great pleasure to hear Stanley Cowell's It's Time: a finely crafted collection of mostly originals that is at once sophisticated, both aggressive and pensive, and simply fascinating to listen to.” (Greg Simmons – AJJ on “It’s Time” SCCD 31740)

One of the greatest American jazz pianists Stanley Cowell has been more active as a dedicated educator than a recording artist in the last 10 years. Cowell now makes his recording comeback to delight us with his finest works. “ After more than a decade away from the recording studios, that fine and highly-regarded pianist/composer Stanley Cowell returns, and at the same time unveils a shining bright talent in his 20-year-old daughter Sunny, a fresh-sounding vocalist and accomplished viola player ” (Mark Gardner – from the liner notes)

Since his retirement in 2013 from the professorship at the prestigious Rutgers University, where he led its jazz department, pianist/composer/educator Stanley Cowell has been increasingly active on the scene both in concerts and recordings. This new album with a featured program of Christmas melodies (Xmas Suite) will be introduced to the audience at New York’s Smoke Jazz & Supper Club. “…it's a great pleasure to hear Stanley Cowell's It's Time: a finely crafted collection of mostly originals that is at once sophisticated, both aggressive and pensive, and simply fascinating to listen to.” (Greg Simmons – AAJ on “It’s Time” SCCD 31740)

A celebration from The Orlando Consort of the musical and literary worlds of Florence's golden age under the Medici, in a selection of works which includes a number of first recordings.

Schubert: Piano Sonatas D664 769a & 894 - Stephen Hough - The late G major sonata followed such landmarks as the 'Great' C major symphony and Schubert's last string quartet, and explores similarly expansive terrain; the A major is an earlier, genial work. These frame the brief D769a fragment, which adds to the uniqueness of Stephen Hough's marvellous recital.

The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs awarded a rosette to Stephen Hough’s earlier Gramophone Award-winning Hyperion recording of Mompou, and this successor is equally fine. Música callada comprises twenty-eight exquisite miniatures, brief in duration yet rich in allusion: music which makes its mark with subtlety, understatement and a unique economy of means.

REVIEW:

Hough is the ideal guide to the music of Mompou. He wholly inhabits the music’s mystical atmosphere, its holy simplicity. Exquisite sensitivity is matched by a steely strength. Sounds coalesce and insist on their presence, before disappearing into the ether. Austerity blends with warmth.

— BBC Music Magazine

Distinguished pianist/composer Stanley Cowell (b. 1941 Toledo, Ohio) embarked on his jazz career in the mid-60s. Ensuing his rapid raise to the prominence Stanley Cowell made indelible contribution to jazz over the next 60 years. Even though he’s been dedicating more time in educating younger generation and composing for classically oriented larger ensembles since the 80’s, he stayed close to jazz releasing 15 albums for SteepleChase. His latest album here from October 2019 finds this stately Professor Emeritus cutting loose at the famed Keystone Korner in Baltimore with his handpicked two-horn quintet plus a guest vocalist Sunny Cowell. “The Cowell album portrays a fascinating piano stylist with many ingredients under his fingers. The programming, like Cowell’s lines and contrary motion, flows beautifully…The set confirms Cowell as a melodic and harmonic delight and a clever dealer of rhythmic wild cards. It’s good to have this update.” (Kirk Silsbee – DownBeat **** SCCD 31809 Reminiscent)

The 'fount of grace' of the title is the Virgin Mary, to whom Machaut addresses his appeals for mercy during a turbulent period in France's history.

The decade long collaboration between pianist Stanley Cowell and guitarist Vic Juris as fellow faculty members at the renowned Rutgers-Mason Gross School of the Arts produced here a fantastic “new world” of sounds of contemporary jazz. The latest and most powerful version of sound design soft wear called KYMA in the hand of creative artists dazzles us with the unique real-time music with no after-production touch-ups but expanded horizon of improvisation. The rhythm section of the quartet is two enormously talented former students of Cowell: bassist Tom DiCarlo and drummer Chris Brown.

PERPETULUM

The 11th and final release in The Orlando Consort's comprehensive Machaut survey easily maintains the standards of it's predecessors. The closing couplet of the final track - "Their singing will be sublime / Harmoniously will they render him praise" - might well serve as a motto for The Orlando Consort's achievement, not only in this album but throughout an illustrious career.

Polymath Sir Stephen Hough has a growing reputation as a composer of chamber, choral and above all solo piano music with four sonatas and a constellation of dazzling arrangements to his name. This album presents the premiere recording of his first piano concerto, recorded by the pianist with The Hall� under Sir Mark Elder. It's subtitle 'The world of yesterday' deliberately places the work in a broader context of the pianist-virtuosi of yesteryear who composed and performed their own piano concertos as they toured the world.

Pianist/composer Stanley Cowell at age 75 is having an on-going renaissance as a performer since his retirement from Rutgers University in 2013. The group presented here is scheduled to have a three-night stint at New York City’s renowned live jazz spot Smokes in May. This is Cowell’s 15th release from SteepleChase. “…Cowell’s recording career now spans more than thirty years….an impressive consistency of purpose and the highest level of musical thought.” (Richard Cook & Brian Morton – The Penguin Guide to Jazz)

This deluxe 4-CD box set from Sony Music brings together the seminal Columbia recordings of Terry Riley, a visionary composer whose influence on minimalist and electronic music continues to ripple through generations. Thoughtfully presented with archival materials, this collection offers an essential document of Riley's most transformative period when the pulse of innovation met the possibilities of high-fidelity sound. This box set is more than a collection of recordings it is a rare window into a time when the avant-garde found a home in major-label studios and groundbreaking artists like Riley were given space to explore uncharted sonic territory. From his mesmeric electric keyboard and saxophone improvisations to his pioneering use of analog tape delay, every track here pulses with the spirit of experimentation. Starting with the original 1968 recording of In C, captured at Columbia's legendary 30th Street Studio, by revered engineer Fred Plaut, the set includes four seminal works by Riley that helped shape not only the minimalist movement but much of the late 20th century avant-garde landscape.

Dutch pianist and composer Joep Beving is a leading neo-classical artist, garnering fans worldwide with his warm, contemplative music, which is evident on his 2017 album, Prehension. Pressed on EcoRecord, a sustainable record made from PET instead of PVC and, thanks to an innovative production process, saves up to 85% energy compared to conventional vinyl production, without compromising on sound and product quality. 2-LP set.

Solipsism is the 2015 debut album by contemporary Dutch pianist and composer, Joep Beving. Inspired by the philosophical idea that reality only exists in one's mind, Beving composed these introspective and often filmic piano pieces and recorded them at home in the still of night. Rejecting the often over-produced and layered music styles of today, Beving keeps the music of Solipsism stripped back to it's essence: simple sounds to express complex emotions. Pressed on EcoRecord, a sustainable record made from PET instead of PVC and, thanks to an innovative production process, saves up to 85% energy compared to conventional vinyl production, without compromising on sound and product quality.

Although Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) was born in Massachusetts and ended his days in Seattle, his music was profoundly coloured by his Armenian heritage, in particular through his fondness for the modal melos of the ancient Armenian church. His combination of modality and melisma, of hymn and dance, can often make him sound like an eastern cousin of Vaughan Williams. The organ is an ideal medium for his musical language, allowing it to range from timeless, questing prayer to gloriously full-bodied statements that stir the soul.

The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as 'some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartok, Britten, and Tippett'. The three works in this sixth volume of Matthews' complete string quartets cover a quarter of a century but share the same basic features, not least a mastery of counterpoint, an impassioned lyricism, a sublimated hint of folksong and occasionally a sly sense of humour, all deployed to touch something essential in the listener. Matthews begins his booklet note with this release by saluting 'my now nearly 30-year relationship with the Kreutzer Quartet, which has been as invaluable to me as Shostakovich's with the Beethoven Quartet, or Beethoven's with the Schuppanzigh Quartet'.

Romantic guitar in the hands of a virtuoso of international renown absolutely guarantees extraordinary musical experiences. Milosz Maczynski tells the history of melancholy from the Renaissance to Romanticism, masterfully using time and melodious phrases. The album is full of hidden emotions, captivating with an atmosphere of intimacy and contemplation.

French lutenist Florent Marie presents his second solo album on Carpe Diem Records: A collection of Renaissance lute music by the famous John Dowland. Recorded in a small church in the normannic countryside, this album features both melancholic and more uplifting compositions of the great English master of the lute, creating an emotional and colorful rendering of these mostly well-known and loved pieces.

The phrase 'Baltic music' is not just a label, but a key that unlocks the rich creativity of composers living around the Baltic Sea. However, it is more than a specific style, mood, or aesthetic. It is about a diverse landscape of Baltic music, each piece being a unique story of individual experience, desire, and reflection of identity. The Baltic identity manifests itself in the most diverse ways, as a cultural tapestry that is both engaging and intriguing. The album Baltic Prayer opens up part of this landscape, united by the motifs of peace, and a conversation with oneself, others, or God. Works by the Lithuanian composers Anatolijus senderovas and Jurgis Juozapaitis, by the Latvian composer P?teris Vasks, and by the Estonian composer Arvo Part, are presented. Next to them are some stylistically close compositions by the Norwegian star of choral music Ola Gjeilo, the British composer John Tavener, and the Ukrainian Myroslav Skoryk.