Ned Rorem, renowned for his vivid art songs and unapologetic diaries, also composed a vast and underappreciated body of choral works. This album, featuring St Martin's Voices, showcases selections from his impressive choral output spanning seven decades. From the playful intricacies of Festive Alleluias (1992) to the lush harmonies of Two Psalms and a Proverb (1962), Rorem's music for chorus-often imbued with religious texts despite his devout atheism-reveals his gift for blending homophony with subtle counterpoint. The album includes pieces like the lyrical Sing my soul, his wondrous love (1955), the haunting Canticle of the Lamb (1971), and the entrancing O Magnum Mysterium (1978), offering a compelling cross-section of Rorem's choral imagination. With rich emotional depth, innovative text-setting, and surprising rhythmic shifts, these works-many previously overlooked-finally receive the attention they so richly deserve.

Jan 30, 1977 a day after the sold out 3-day concerts celebrating Stan’s 50th birthday in Copenhagen Stan and his crew including Danish ace bassist Ørsted Pedersen were in studio to record. The huge success of the double live album kept us in suspense for three decades for the release of the unissued material. Well, here it is for us to enjoy. “The miracle of Getz’s style … in the coexistence of restraint and fire, of simmering emotions beneath the glassy surface of his timbre.” (Neil Tesser) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Less than a year after the release of his recording of Schubert's Impromptus (BIS-2614), Ronald Brautigam now presents two of Franz Schubert's late masterpieces, the Sonatas D 959 and D 960. They are played here on a fortepiano built by Paul McNulty after an instrument from around 1819 by the Viennese instrument maker Conrad Graf, and presumably similar to the instrument on which Schubert composed.

Although it is tempting to see Schubert's final works as the testament of a doomed artist who feels his end is nearing, the reality is quite different: the composer displayed vitality, optimism, and a prodigious capacity for work. His last two sonatas also show that he had reached a new level, having successfully emancipated himself from the Beethovenian model. These sonatas took a long time to establish themselves, not least because of their length, which was at first disconcerting for music-lovers and pianists alike. They are now considered to be among Schubert's finest works, alongside others dating from the last years of his life, such as the String Quintet in C major and the song cycle Winterreise. All these works seemed to herald considerable promise for future works; Schubert's untimely death buried a rich heritage, but even more beautiful hopes.

REVIEW:

Paul McNulty ‘s 2007 fortepiano based on a Conrad Graf model circa 1819 served Ronald Brautigam’s Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven solo recordings wonderfully well, and does so again in the fortepianist’s powerful, passionate and musically intelligent accounts of Schubert’s last two sonatas. Indeed, these are far and away the best Schubert period instrument piano recordings since those of Andreas Staier and Peter Serkin. Brautigam dives into the A Major Sonata’s opening Allegro with both assertion and flexibility, underlining Schubert’s astonishing harmonic tangents with stinging accents, subtle accelerations and full-bodied fortes that almostd detonate. To compensate for his instrument’s limited sustaining capabilities, Brautigam builds the momentum within the slow movement’s wild central climax by occasionally scaling back the long chromatic phrases so that their loudest peaks convey maximum impact. Having recently played on a similar McNulty Graf model, I can attest that the instrument’s light action makes it easier than usual to negotiate the Scherzo at a true Allegro vivace. However, Brautigam holds the tempo back and conveys more lilt and swing in the process. He also brings a patient, songful and lovingly nuanced spaciousness to the Finale that parallels Maurizio Pollini’s sublime modern instrument recording.

The instrument’s striking timbral distinctions between registers hit home in the B-flat Sonata’s Molto Moderato, especially when the low lying trills appear to emanate from an entirely different keyboard. Likewise, the frequent repeated notes in melodic phrases and ostinato-like accompaniments gain tension. One also should note Brautigam’s shifts of emphasis and timing as he observes the long first movement repeat. He imparts more urgency than what one often hears in the Andante sostenuto, mustering up genuine orchestral impact in the central climax. The Scherzo stands out for Brautigam’s mercurial pedal shifts and curvaceously inflected Trio section. I would have imagined a more headlong Finale in Brautigam’s hands, yet he takes Schubert’s “ma non troppo” caveat to heart by easing his way into the main theme, and allowing the dotted rhythms a welcome degree of grandeur and breathing room. The interpretation suggests an opera without words more than a piano showpiece, and that’s a compliment. Superb sonics, superb annotations, superb musicianship and superb pianism: what more could you want from this most recommendable Schubert release? Don’t miss it.

— ClassicsToday.com (10/10; Jed Distler)

This release brings together ALL of Morton Feldman’s compositions for cello and piano, including unpublished works and a first recording.

Together, these works tell the story of Feldman’s music. They span 35 years — over half his lifetime — from when he was searching for his voice as a student to when he was opening new doors in the last years of his life.

The album is bookended by two realizations of the graphic score “Durations 2” (1960), giving an opportunity to hear what the flexibility of graphic notation can bring.

The “Sonatina” (1946) is the earliest work here, and a first recording. Displaying the influence of Béla Bartók, Feldman wrote for the cello sound he loved without fully understanding the realities of playing the instrument. The resulting solo part is naively virtuosic and often even impossible to play. For this recording, Stephen Marotto keeps as close as possible to the written score, aiming to fulfill what Feldman heard in his mind’s ear.

By 1948, Feldman had been studying privately with the composer Stefan Wolpe for several years. The unpublished “Two Pieces,” from that year is a fluctuating music held together not by logic, but through its carefully poised gestures — what Wolpe called “shape.” While the emotional drama of this and other early works would soon disappear from Feldman’s music, it was above all the idea of “shape” that remained with him for the rest of his life.

In 1950, Feldman met John Cage, who shepherded him into the world of the New York avant-garde. The unpublished, compact “Composition for cello and piano” (1951) is a sudden breakthrough, yet it already contains the DNA of his very last works in its minimal material and blurred memories of sounds.

“For Stockhausen, Cage, Stravinsky, and Mary Sprinson” (1972) is an ephemeral, unpublished piece, a shard of music broken off from the main body of work Feldman was producing at the time. It consists of just two musical moments separated by silence — the same chord expressed in two different ways.

At almost 1 hour and 29 minutes, “Patterns in a Chromatic Field” (1981) is one of Feldman’s late, long-duration works, and it is perhaps the best known of the works recorded here.

Liner notes by Samuel Clay Birmaher.

Jeffrey Chappell performs three great pianos sonatas from the 20th Century, by Alberto Ginastera, Charles T. Griffes, and Samuel Barber

The emerging quartet Gaman Ensemble shows in this album the evolution and cross-influences of that strong Spanish presence in the French capital over the last century. It's four members (Jesus Reneses -soprano saxophone-, Carlos Zaragoza -alto saxophone-, Daniel Sanchez-Manjavacas -tenor saxophone- and Luis Maria Gonzalez -baritone saxophone-) have studied in Paris, allowing themselves to be nourished musically and intellectually by the cultural life of the city. So did the five composers who make up the disc: Joaquin Nin, Jesus Guridi, Enrique Granados, Eduard Toldrà and Felix Ibarrondo. Gaman Ensemble records for the first time their own versions for saxophone quartet of the pieces by Nin and Guridi, originals for piano or string quartet, as well as the arrangement of the dance by Granados and the work commissioned by themselves to Ibarrondo. From these five scores, the versatile and rigorous Gaman Ensemble aims to illustrate the fruitful and long-lived sound encounter between Spain and France without losing sight of the musical regionalisms that were forged in the final stages of Romanticism. Basque, Andalusian and Catalan popular references emerge more or less explicitly in the languages of the five composers. On the other hand, as well as showing it's commitment to contemporary creation through Ibarrondo's work, Gaman Ensemble wants to contribute to the revaluation of the production and legacy of composers not yet sufficiently recognised, such as Nin or Guridi. And all this, through the original and suggestive formation of the saxophone quartet, a mirror of contemporaneity.

The final volume in the historically important collection of rare recordings with the Danish versatile conductor Launy Grøndahl features the opera The Black Spider, an unknown masterpiece by the Swiss conductor Heinrich Sutermeister. In addition to never-before-released broadcast recordings, this volume collects the very first 78RPM recordings made by Grøndahl with his Olympia Orchestra in 1923. All previous volumes, from Volume 1 to this final release, are available.

October 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the death of composer Viktor Ullmann - an occasion to focus on his artistic legacy and his unshakeable belief in the power of art. As early as 1918, while stationed at the Italian front, Ullmann was intensively occupied with Rainer M. Rilke's "Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke" (The Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke). This work accompanied him all the way to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he created an impressive melodrama from it in 1944. The Austrian pianist Senka Brankovic and the actor Helmut Mooshammer present Cornet Rilke's experiences in the war against the Turks, in which he finally meets his death, as a complete original narrative with Ullmann's music, including the passages omitted from Rilke's text by Ullmann. Today, in a time of fragile social conditions, his work reminds us once again of the everlasting importance of art and humanity.

Praised for it's versatility and keen interest in new music, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and it's chief conductor Fredrik Malmberg present a programme devoted to a cappella works in a modern yet accessible style by American or American-born composers. The album opens with a triptych based of adaptations of ancient Gaelic poems, Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, known for his opulent, post-romantic language as expressed in his famous Adagio for Strings. Jeff Beal, one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected composers, wrote The Salvage Men, based on texts by Oscar Wilde and contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan. This cycle, according to Beal, offers 'a wholly fresh, contemporary view on the themes of transformation and our chosen response to pain'. Daniel Nelson's The New Colossus, based on a text by the 19th-century writer Emma Lazarus inspired by the Statue of Liberty, aims to convey musically the majesty and beauty inherent in the idea of inclusion. Finally, two works by Eric Whitacre, a composer whose works have become popular with vocal ensembles across America: A Boy and a Girl, a delicate piece based on a poem by Octavio Paz, and Three Songs of Faith, on texts by E.E. Cummings, a cycle that presents Whitacre's personal faith and his reflections on the spiritual and the unknowable.

Spanish percussionist Noè Rodrigo is one of the most talented musicians of his generation. Having performed all over Europe and the US at most major concert halls and festivals, he has premiered more than 50 pieces by composers of over 20 nationalities. His interpretations of the percussion “classics” have been described by critics and audiences as highly virtuosic, technically impeccable and musically complex while featuring a large palette of colours. With PARAULES, (Words) Rodrigo brings to life seven works by essential composers of the XXth Century: Xenakis, Sciarrino, Mantovani, Denisov, Spanish music never before recorded (Torres and Vallejo) alongside more recent pieces (Borzelli). Seventy minutes where the young artist is able to show a stunning versatility, embracing every aesthetic with intelligence and accuracy, aiming for unique interpretations. If in the beginning music was a verb, like singing, shortly after it became percussion: initially, doubling the prosody of the voice; later, introducing a growing range of rhythms and colours that have made it the most heterogeneous, surprising and multicultural of all the instrumental families. In Sciarrino’s words (PARAULES): 'a wooden percussion instrument can hardly sing, but at the same time I wonder if it cannot speak, shout, moan or murmur’.

This is a wonderful program of Latin American piano works, performed by Israeli pianist Gila Goldstein.

Bittersweet - Sophie Pacini's own collection of encouraging masterpieces that feels like a gentle embrace in the midst of crises and challenges. In a world often dominated by uncertainty and stress, the music on this album offers a powerful solace - a reminder that beauty, pain and hope are mysteriously intertwined. Inspired by an intimate, moving concert in a women's shelter in Munich, the ECHOKlassik Award winner was passionate about giving hope and light to many otherpeople in dark hours with a compilation of her personal heartfelt pieces. It is probably the most personal album project to date by the Munich-born artist, who -unintentionally dubbed a "wunderkind" - had to fight against discrimination, exclusion and resentment from an early age and always drew all her strength from her music. Each piece on "bittersweet" is a little encouragement, a reminder that even in themost bittersweet moments of life, the beauty of music can lead to new strength. Sophie Pacini's interpretation, between virtuosity and sensitivity, opens doors to aworld that provides encouragement in difficult times - and shows that true strengthlies especially in fragility.

Music without remembrance is not possible, affirms pianist Sophie Pacini, and "Rimembranza" is the title she has chosen for her 6th solo album. Here, the music deals with hope and doubt, pain and deliverance, bitter loss and - most of all - memory. At the album's core she has placed two works she finds strongly connected with pain, transience, and death: Mozart's Sonata in A minor K.310 and Schubert's Sonata in A minor D 784. Mozart's mother died in Paris shortly before he wrote his sonata. His twelve variations on the French folk song "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman!" thus already bear the seed of the Sonata in A minor in themselves. "They are Mozart's rimembranza addressed to himself", she suggests. With their plaintive title harking back to the past, these variations open the curtain on Sophie Pacini's album. Before it falls again, we hear Schubert's two Impromptus Op. 90: sounding like excerpts from his sonatas, they "brush against our memory like two bittersweet rimembranzas from the past", she muses. The last act is introduced by Schubert's "Standchen" on a love poem by Ludwig Rellstab. The subject of love likewise closes the album; from the film "Cinema Paradiso", we hear the love theme composed by the recently departed Ennio Morricone and his son Andrea - a tribute track to Sophie Pacini's second homeland, Italy.

Franco Alfano was a major musician and teacher who enjoyed considerable success with his operas during his lifetime, but who has been overlooked for decades. Generally regarded as the regenerator of the Italian art song, the works featured in this album offer a generous overview of Alfano’s vocal output, from his Opus 1 Cinq mélodies, written in 1896 when he was a twenty-one-year-old student at Leipzig, to Due liriche per canto, violoncello e pianoforte from 1949, five years before his death. Anna Pirozzi has established herself as the leading Italian dramatic soprano of today, performing on the most prestigious international opera stages. She is joined here by the acclaimed pianist Emma Abbate and renowned cellist Bozidar Vukotic.

Pianist Mira Gill is of East-Indian descent. Born in Salt Lake City, she is now based in New York City. The piano works of Samuel Barber are a specialty of hers, and it shows in these superb performances.

This is a wonderful program of works for cello and piano by composers such as Libby Larsen, Samuel Barber, and George Walker.

Stuttgart-born mezzo-soprano Christina Baader has been a much sought-after musician for many years, not only as an opera singer and soloist, but is also an internationally successful visual artist. To mark the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Faure's death, Christina Baader and Gert Hecher, piano, are presenting an album by the title MONDE ET MYSTeRE with a selection of his songs as well as those by Henri Duparc, who also played a significant role in establishing an independent French art of song. The expressive songs are based on poems by famous French poets such as Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, Armand Silvestre, Theophile Gautier, Rene-François Sully-Prudhomme and Jean Lahor. Together with Gert Hecher, a specialist in the restoration of historical keyboard instruments, two grand pianos from 1868 and 1879, respectively, from the famous erard piano manufactory in Paris, which at the time had a similar status to Steinway & Sons today, were chosen to best emphasize the different tonal and stylistic elements of the works of the two composers.

The Crown of Life continues the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford's exploration of overlooked treasures in twentieth-century English choral music under Owen Rees. At it's centre is the first recording of Kenneth Leighton's Missa Christi (1988), the composer's final large-scale sacred work, commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis. Alongside it are world premiere recordings of Harold Darke's Blessed Is the Man That Endureth Temptation and Imogen Holst's Out of Your Sleep Arise and Wake. Works by Rebecca Clarke and Gustav Holst complete the programme, offering a richly varied portrait of composers linked by study with Stanford and united in sacred expression.

Recorded on the same day after the quintet session (SCCD 31046 Duke’s Delight) in a New York studio in 1975 this attractive trio recording “comprises nearly 40 minutes of sheer unpretentious enjoyment.” (Mark Gardner - Jazz Journal UK) Duke Jordan’s long association with SteepleChase started with Jordan’s visit to Copenhagen in 1973. The collaboration yielded impressive hoard of highly acclaimed albums including SCCD 31011 Flight To Denmark). This session with the very best sidemen New York could offer - the veteran bassist Sam Jones and the great drummer Al Foster (who joined Miles Davis shortly after this session - enabled Jordan to display his attractive personal touch featuring Jordan’s own melodious compositions. 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Kenny Drew (August 28, 1928 / New York – August 4, 1993 / Copenhagen) spent the last three decades of his life in Copenhagen as a stalwart of vibrant European jazz scene. He left quite a number of outstanding recordings both as leader and sideman on SteepleChase. Here on his first trio recording for the label, Kenny Drew is backed by – to quote Melody Maker – Danish bass wizard Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and intelligent purveyor of rhythm Albert “Tootie” Heath. Dark Beauty whose album cover is graced by a portrait photo of his daughter Sabrina is one of the most popular albums of his recording career. “...extremely charming main stream jazz..” (Swing Journal) “...brilliant!” (Jazz Magazine) “Kenny has a relaxed, attractive style, free from embellishments or dramatic devices, but capable of generating happy swing…” (C.W. Meloday Maker on SCS 1016) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Laura van der Heijden joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth for this album of British cello concertos. Frank Bridge's Oration, composed in 1929 - 30 was intended as an outcry against the inhumanity of warfare, and a tribute to the victims of the First World War. It's arch form single continuous movement exhibits the intense chromaticism typical of Bridge's output from this era. Commissioned by the Ukrainian-born cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, Walton's Cello Concerto suffered a number of difficulties with regard to first performances (Piatigorsky suffered a mental breakdown; Walton missed the UK premiere because of a nasty road accident) but it has nevertheless become a staple of the repertoire. It was with this concerto that Laura van der Heijden won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, in 2012. The young British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and then the University of Cambridge and King's College London, and rapidly established herself as one of the most talented and prolific composers of her generation. Earth, Sea, Air was written for van der Heijden, who gave the work's premiere in Glasgow in 2023, a week before making this recording with the same forces.

In the 1950s, American composer Morton Feldman (1926-1987) developed his own unique, meditative style of music, combining open, quasi-functional sounds into a musical flow. His works generally do not follow any formal concept; they are slow, calm, sometimes very extended sound meditations, mostly moving in the finest piano-pianissimo nuances. With these recordings made at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, the participating artists present the first complete recording of all of Feldman's piano works for more than two hands. The piano duo elaeis - Jovita Zähl and Philipp Kronbichler - collaborated with other pianists and singers. The recordings include several first recordings, such as Pianos and Voices, recorded for the first time on five grand pianos with five sopranos, and the recently discovered Trio for Two Pianos and Cello with Rohan de Saram, long-time member of the Arditti Quartet, playing the violoncello. The fame of Feldman's late work temporarily overshadowed our appreciation of his earlier compositions, the importance of which is amply demonstrated in this album. - A magnificent release to mark the composer's 100th birthday!

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) wrote vocal chamber music over the whole of her career, from Wandrers Nachtlied, her first completed composition, in 1903, through her overhaul of Lethe, in the winter of 1976-77. Taken together, her songs and duets constitute one of the greatest and most distinctive contributions to the vocal repertoire of the twentieth century.

Her fifth recital album on Signum Records, celebrated soprano Mary Bevan returns with a selection of French songs, featuring works by composers including Britten, Ravel, Debussy and Faure.

Esteemed pianist James Iman releases his highly anticipated album, "Iman III," marking the third instalment in his groundbreaking series. Delving into a diverse repertoire, Iman's latest offering showcases a unique blend of piano works that resonate with the complexities of the human experience. The genesis of "Iman III" amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the resilience and creative introspection that defined it's conception. Originally planned for recording prior to the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the project encountered delays, allowing Iman ample time to refine and redefine it's thematic underpinnings. The resulting album is a testament to the profound evolution of artistic vision in the face of adversity. Iman's eclectic program transcends traditional narrative structures, inviting listeners into a labyrinth of musical abstraction where each piece engages in a nuanced dialogue with it's counterparts. From Klaus Huber's haunting exploration of silence in "Ein Hauch von Unzeit II" to Alban Berg's masterful interplay of chromaticism and counterpoint in his Piano Sonata Op. 1, "Iman III" offers a multifaceted journey through the annals of musical expression. In Morton Feldman's "Last Pieces," Iman embraces the freedom afforded by the composer's experimental notation, weaving a tapestry of sound that defies conventional constraints. Emulating the randomness inherent in Feldman's ensemble works, Iman navigates the delicate balance between structure and spontaneity, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in a realm of deliberate and enjoyable ambiguity. Betsy Jolas's enigmatic "B for Sonata" serves as a fitting conclusion to the album, epitomizing the composer's innovative approach to form and rhythm. Through meticulously crafted rhythmic freedoms and evolving tonal landscapes, Iman breathes life into Jolas's introspective exploration of musical minimalism and existential inquiry. "Iman III" attests to James Iman's unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression. With each track meticulously curated to resonate with the soulful intricacies of human experience. James Iman is a critically acclaimed pianist known for his innovative approach to repertoire and profound musical insight. With a career spanning decades, Iman has established himself as a prominent figure in the contemporary classical music scene, captivating audiences worldwide with his dynamic performances and meticulous attention to detail. "Iman III" marks the latest chapter in his ongoing quest to redefine the boundaries of artistic expression through the transformative power of music.

One of the most celebrated pianists of our time performs Schubert's posthumously published works for piano - remixed & remastered for Hybrid SACD.

With their long-awaited new album Max Richter Remixed the Trio Fibonacci invites us to rediscover the genius of Max Richter through their own completely new and original transcriptions for piano trio. Following the centuries-old tradition of adapting music for chamber ensembles, the Fibonacci's interpretations renew our listening of these contemporary masterpieces thanks to new instrumental colours, always delivered with their signature passion and elegance.

After completing his Goyescas, the pianist and composer Enrique Granados wrote that he had happily succeeded in "writing something significant". And who would want to contradict him? The six scenes, some of them very extensive, are based on drawings by the great Spanish artist Francisco Jose de Goya. They form a cycle that is glowing with inspiration from the first to the last bar, and whose technical difficulties achieve the kind of transcendence that Franz Liszt in particular had achieved in the 19th century. His technical prowess is entirely devoted to picturesque and highly emotional expression, from humorous whimsy to the most grave of tragedies. The young Dina Stojilkovic has recorded Goyescas for cpo on a Steinway B built in 1895, an instrument that Granados might well have had under his virtuoso fingers at the time.

His 17th album with Signum Classics, the Welsh pianist, Llyr Williams, brings a profound musical intelligence to his work as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. His second album of Robert Schumann works explores a selection of works that span a substantial part of Schumann's life. Llyr Williams' long and successful collaboration with Signum Records includes the 8-disc box-set 'A Schubert Journey' (2020), the 12-volume 'Beethoven Unbound' (2018), a 'Wagner Without Words' double album (2014) and highlights from Liszt's 'Annees de pelerinage' (2012).

Guy Braunstein, who was concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for nearly fifteen years, pursues an international career as soloist, conductor and composer. His lifelong passion for the music of the Beatles led him to compose this suite for violin and orchestra which includes all the greatest hits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, performed here with the Liege Royal Philharmonic under a longstanding musical partner, the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra. This large-scale rhapsody, based on a dozen Beatles songs, pays tribute to a group of musicians who were greatly influenced by Classical and Romantic composers. To accompany this first recording, two English works for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams and the rarely performed Violin Concerto of Frederick Delius, which - like so many Beatles hits - was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London!