Modern Solo Violin Music

In her new album "Solitude," soprano Katharina Konradi embarks on a musical journey to explore solitude. On this journey, she is accompanied by poets and composers from different time periods. The Cosmos Quartet from Barcelona joins her on her journey. Art songs by composers such as Robert and Clara Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Hugo Wolf, as well as folk songs and French chansons, are waypoints on this journey on which they explore the various facets of solitude together. Miniatures for solo soprano by the Hungarian-French composer György Kurtág serve as transitional elements, providing subtle and sophisticated coherence. Among the special rarities of the recording are the two Catalan songs by the violinist, composer, and conductor Eduard Toldrà.

The soprano, born in Kyrgyzstan, captivates audiences and critics alike with her vocal brilliance and cultivated emotional depth. The Cosmos Quartet matches her with its honest elegance and compelling expressiveness. Although the Cosmos Quartet and Katharina Konradi only met at the beginning of rehearsals for "Solitude," a very special magic immediately revealed itself, inherent in the combination of Katharina Konradi's voice and the Cosmos String Quartet. "String quartet and voice blend incredibly well together – even though the four instruments already form a perfect sonic structure on their own. I always enjoy being surrounded by so many different colors while singing," describes Katharina Konradi about the collaboration.

The result of this collaboration and shared journey is an album characterized by emotionality, a variety of moods, and the highest musicality. It invites one to linger, to listen closely, to find tranquility in the beauty of music, and to draw strength from it.

In this new recording of contemporary works for saxophone and piano, Max Goldberg and Annabel Thwaite present a programme of contemporary works by European, American and Australian composers, including the world premiere recording of Welsh composer Edward-Rhys Harry's The Ballad of Lady Barham, the philanthropist who established schools and churches in the Gower peninsula through her own funding. Max Goldberg demonstrates the lyrical and expressive qualities of the saxophone as a solo instrument throughout this recording.

The city of Petersburg has a complex history, merging diverse cultural influences into a distinct profile. The forces generated amid the constant interplay of repression and the yearning for freedom find expression in experimentation. This led the Günter-Kim duo to explore the cosmopolitan city in search of traces. In the process, the cello-piano duo has discovered various compositions related to Dmitri Shostakovich: Boris Goltz, Galina Ustvolskaya, Boris Arapov… and, as a world premiere recording, Leonid Gorokhov. The duo's arrangements of Shostakovich's Spanish and Jewish songs symbolize a thoughtful approach to foreign cultures. This stands in stark contrast to the current somber reality: Petersburg, once the gateway to Europe, is on the brink of closing itself off.

William “Count” Basie (1904 – 1984) had a long successful career over a span of six plus decades leaving an enormous legacy in the history of jazz. The existence of this live recording from Copenhagen in 1962 has never been public, not even in the most extensive bio-discography by the late journalist/author Chris Sheridan. The concert here was a part of Basie’ New Testament Orchestra’s frequent European tours in the late 50’s and early 60s, an era that’s called The Atomic Period.

The inspiration for Hugo Distler’s gem of a Christmas narrative can be found in the German-language protestant sacred music of the early baroque era, especially the music of Heinrich Schütz. Drawing on Schütz’s example, Distler composed his Christmas story exclusively for vocalists – soloists and a 4-8-voiced ensemble – in what is, in Distler’s own words, described as an “Oratorium mit kammermusikalishem Charakter." We also hear parts of the beautiful choral Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, which appears seven times during the course of the narrative. – every time in a new harmonic colour. The story of Hugo Distler’s life is a tragic one. Born in Nuremburg in 1908, he would go on to teach at the School for Church Music in Spandau before being appointed professor of church music in Stuttgart in 1940. Distler, who was a deeply religious man, has been recognized as a forerunner of the New German Church Music, an important musical movement which developed in the 1930s. The Nazis stigmatized Distler’s compositions as “degenerate art”, and when he received his conscription papers, he took his life. Sadly, Distler’s music is seldom performed outside of Germany even to this day. Hailed by Gramophone as “a choir worth listening to for their beautiful singing, which can deliver performances of pure, natural eloquence,” the 16 voices of the award-winning vocal ensemble Concert Clemens, founded by conductor Carsten Seyer-Hansen in 1997, has established itself as one of the leading vocal ensembles in Scandinavia. Their stylistic versatility has been seen in numerous collaborations exploring the connections between jazz and classical music as well as note-perfect interpretations of standard repertoire. The evangelist, tenor Adam Riis, is one of Denmark’s leading voices. Recorded in the DXD format by the Danish “Wizard of Sound”, Preben Iwan, in the resonant sonics of Skt. Markus Kirken, Århus.

Rautavaara: Complete Piano Works

Duke Jordan (1920 – 2006) was approached in NY by Marcel Romano, musical consultant of the French film Les Liaisons Dangereuse directed by Roger Vadim in 1959 to audition for the soundtracks. It laid down the groundwork for Jordan’s rise to the star composer status. All too famous “No Problem” is not included in this sketching but a few of the tunes we come to appreciate later are here in their prototypes. This recording made in a NY studio has never been heard (except maybe by Vadim). SteepleChase is proud to announce the world premier release of the album of cultural/historical significance.

Explorer Set - American Edition

SAKOBI is a new project of the Vilem Spilka Quartet. The band consists of Radek Zapadlo on saxophone, Vilem Spilka on double bass and Martin Kleibl on drums. Since they have been together for a long time in other ensembles, they are closely connected musically. Radek Zapadlo has been successfully active on the Czech jazz scene for two dozen years, most recently alongside Matej Benko, Ondrej Ruml, playing in the Cotatcha Orchestra, his own Four in Blue formation and the aforementioned Vilem Spilka Quartet. Martin Kleibl, after an eight-year stint with the Brno Philharmonic, oscillates in genre from classical to pop, plays in the OK Percussion duo with European-class marimbist Martin Oprsal, accompanies singer Petr Bende and is the driving force behind the Vilem Spilka Quartet. For the SAKOBI project, Vilem Spilka replaced his main instrument, the guitar, with the double bass, which he began to play during the pandemic of the cover band. The trio's debut recording is released by Bivak Records. All members contributed to the album not only as players but also as composers. Zapadlo contributed the melancholic dirgeCesta za modr�m sluncem (Journey to the Blue Sun), while Martin Kleibl's Na ceste (On theRoad) is typical uplifting Latin jazz. Vilem Spilka added the rest of the repertoire, his individual opuses revealing a variety of musical and non-musical inspirations-from his native Brno to Japan, to which the cryptogram in the band's name refers. In the spirit of Japanese realities, the debut album is titled Banzai!, something like a shout of Hurrra or Yeehaw! Stylistically, the album is more or less unclassifiable, drawing on the traditions of jazz and other African-American styles, as well as folk music from Moravia and beyond.

Duarte’s Partita was completed in 1974. It’s a substantial work in four movements, using all original material. As in the Variations on a Theme of Štepan Rak he adopts a four-note motif, which may be heard forwards, backwards, inverted and stretched. Variations on an Italian Folk Song Op. 139 was written in 2000. It draws on the second movement, “Canzona”, of Duarte’s prior Suite piemontese, which was based on a combination of two tunes: Il testamento dell’avvelenato and Re Gilardin. This gentle theme is characterised by simple movements of a step or a fourth. The six variations all begin with this stepwise movement but they quickly gain individual characters. Valse lyrique (2000) is one of the three short dances Duarte wrote late in his career. The second theme, clearly derived from the first, includes some hemiolas as well as combined harmonics and natural notes. The central section features the melody in the bass. Valse en rondeau was written in 1997 for the American guitarist David Starobin. Duarte stated: “I decided to make reference to my origin as a jazz musician and to my interest in early music (the Rondeau form) and to exercise my unshakeable belief in melody.” The origin of the Variations on a Theme of Štepan Rak Op. 100 is unique. In 1984, Rak was staying with Duarte when Vladimir Mikulka performed a lunchtime concert in London. At the end of the concert, Mikulka announced that he was going to perform an unusual encore – a theme, but without variations that had yet to be written. Afterwards he announced that Rak, Koshkin and Duarte should exchange themes with each other to create six new variation works, and he presented Duarte with Rak’s theme on a piece of manuscript paper. Andres Segovia, a supreme Anglophile, married his third wife in Gibraltar (“under the British flag, on Spanish soil”), and their son was born in London. Duarte’s 3 Songs without Words for Carlos Andres were a present to the happy couple. Danza eccentrica (2000) was dedicated to the Italian guitarist Domenico Lafasciano with the note, “Here is your dance. It may not be what you expected, but it’s what I’ve written – not another ‘cloned’ rumba, tango, waltz or whatever, but something with more individual character.” The unexpected aspects include dissonant harmonies, bass notes which move in ¾ against the treble in 6/8 and sections more reminiscent of a hurdy-gurdy. The Italian guitarist Angelo Gilardino wrote to Duarte about his Fantasia and Fugue on Torre Bermeja Op. 30: “…the melodic and rhythmic feeling is of the sort to easily produce the fascination of the public”. The Torre Bermeja in question is the piano piece by Isaac Albeniz, Op. 92 No. 12. Although it carries Op. 62 (1974) on its cover, the little Prelude en arpèges was written in 1954/5 and intended as the first movement of a Harp Suite Op. 18 that was never completed.

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) approached the piano with a sense of expressive freedom, avoiding the conventions of pure virtuosity and preferring a more intimate and reflective language. His piano pieces range from lyrical miniatures to more complex works, in which influences can be recognized from Italian early music to the modernity of Debussy, Casella, Stravinsky and Scriabin. Alessandro Riccardi has programmed a sequence of pieces written during the 1900s and 1910s. They evoke a creative laboratory, where harmonic experimentation and the search for new expressive forms intertwine with a deep respect for the past. From 1905, the 6 Morceaux represent the first expression of Malipiero's compositional personality, where modal influences intersect with late 19th-century trends. Published in 1910, the Tre danze antiche represent Malipiero the assiduous antiquarian, the reviver and transcriber of his 17th-century forebears such as Monteverdi and Gabrieli. The quartet of Preludi autunnali were composed in Venice in September 1914 and foreshadow a period of 'perpetual tragedy' in the composer's music caused by the outbreak of World War I. As Malipiero wrote in 1952: "Their melancholy is perhaps the effect of the war just begun and not yet felt." Those effects are further amplified in Maschere che passano from 1918, a 10-minute quintet of oblique sketches, presenting high contrasts: mysterious, violent, distant, Malipiero at his most late-Debussyan. In 1920 he then wrote a heartfelt homage to Debussy, followed by 'Three Homages', which undercut the solemnity of their title by being dedicated successively to a parrot, an elephant and 'an idiot'. Throughout the album, marking Alessandro Riccardi's debut on Piano Classics, the piano becomes an instrument for personal introspection and sonic exploration, while maintaining a strong connection to Italian tradition and, at the same time, looking into the future. - Gian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer whose piano works reflect his unique approach to musical expression, blending tradition and modernity. Known for rejecting the rigid structures of classical forms, Malipiero sought to evoke pure emotion and a sense of mystery in his music, often drawing on Italian folk traditions and Renaissance polyphony. His piano compositions are characterized by their lyrical qualities, rich textures, and distinctive harmonic language. - Malipiero's piano output includes several collections, each showing his innovative yet deeply Italian aesthetic. Among his notable works are the Preludi autunnali (Autumnal Preludes), a series of poetic and introspective pieces imbued with melancholic beauty. These works often feature modal harmonies and unexpected shifts in tonality, reflecting his quest to free music from the constraints of conventional Romanticism. - Other works on this new recording are the Maschere que passano, Omaggi, Six Morceaux, and 3 Danze Antiche. These pieces are deeply atmospheric, blending delicate, impressionistic passages with moments of stark drama. Malipiero's piano music often eschews virtuosic display in favor of expressive depth, demanding a nuanced and sensitive touch from the performer. - Alessandro Riccardi is one of the most remarkable young pianists of his generation. His CDs with works by Scriabin and Liszt received several 5-star reviews in the international press.

Mezzo-soprano Hermine May and pianist Manuel Lange invite you into Wagner's world of Tristan and Isolde where insatiable yearnings are awakened, passions heightened and where the fervent desire to transcend reality finds supreme love beyond death in Liebestod.

To mark the 120th anniversary of Estonia's national composer Eduard Tubin, this exuberant chamber music programme, including two world premiere recordings, traces Tubin's life, which is clearly marked by the dramatic upheavals of the 20th century. Early works side by side with late compositions show deep insights into the artist's soul - we hear his inner struggles, his development and his joys in top-class interpretations by pianist Kart Ruubel and her twin sister Triin, violin, as well as Xandi van Dijk, viola and Theodor Sink, cello.

Part of the British Music Society series, this work presents Grace Williams’ songs and folk-song arrangements in world premiere recordings. The acclaimed Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams is accompanied by the Australian pianist and composer Wendy Hiscocks.

Although he had famous students (i.e. Szymanowski) and teachers (Moniuszko), few listeners know much, if anything, about Zygmunt Noskowski. And yet, for most of the 19th century, he was the primary exponent of modern symphonic music in Poland. His Third Symphony and his symphonic poem Steppe, Op. 66 blend sweeping Romanticism with Polish folk spirit. The symphony's seasonal journey is lush and lyrical, starting with spring and ending with the optimistic outlook to the next. Steppe evokes Poland's vast landscapes with Borodinesque colors. Under Antoni Wit, these overlooked gems shine anew and make for intriguing listening for lovers of melodic symphonic music.

Engelbert Humperdinck's music for the pantomime of Karl Gustav Vollmoeller's arguably most important stage work impresses with it's deeply Romantic sound and large-scale choral scenes and had so far led an unforgivable shadowy existence in the composer's oeuvre. Premiered in London in 1911, none other than Max Reinhardt adapted this work for film (1912) and staged numerous performances with hundreds of actors, singers, and dancers - finally also at the Salzburg Festival in 1925. This recording represents the first complete recording of this deeply Romantic masterpiece.

After many acclaimed releases on BIS, most recently ‘Sounds and Sweet Airs – A Shakespeare Songbook’ (BIS-2653), Carolyn Sampson’s latest recital with Joseph Middleton lives up to its name: it is an eloquent testimony to the English soprano’s love of her art. This programme artfully blends well-known and lesser-known lieder by German and Austrian masters such as Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf with French songs by Gounod, Poulenc and Franck, as well as works by Anglo-Saxon composers such as Hubert Parry, Samuel Barber and Ivor Gurney. Female composers are not forgotten, with rarely-performed songs by Rita Strohl based on slightly risqué poems by Pierre Louÿs, music by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Kaija Saariaho – who has recently passed away – and Deborah Pritchard, whose song presented here was composed especially for Sampson. And while Leonard Bernstein’s comically cheeky song ‘I hate music’, appears to be a call not to let music take itself too seriously, Errollyn Wallen’s ‘Peace on Earth’, which concludes the album, invokes calm and encourages us to find peace, a message that seems more relevant today than ever.

This release further explores the rarely performed or recorded concert music of Miklos Rozsa (of Ben Hur fame), coupling his Rhapsody for Cello in which the young composer truly found his style, his Notturno Ungherese ("a nostalgic night piece, harking back to the memories of my childhood in Hungary"), and the late Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello, a fiendishly difficult violin-cello double concerto that is among Rozsa's finest, least film-music-like concert works - and one of his most underrated. Gregor Piatigorsky and Jascha Heifetz, who instigated it's composition, never ended up playing it, but Harriet Krijgh and Nikita Boriso-Glebsky certainly do.

Renowned Russian jazz pianist Ivan Farmakovskiy makes his highly anticipated debut on SteepleChase Records with a stunning new album. Blending his signature hard-bop style with modern jazz sensibilities, Farmakovskiy delivers a masterful performance that bridges tradition and innovation with American rhythm section of Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette. Ivan won the 1994 bi-annual Russia Jazz Competition, the biggest contest for young Russian performers and he won another prize at the 1997 Europe Jazz Contest in Belgium.

Discover the brilliance of the iconic John Neumeier in this captivating double feature. The Glass Menagerie, inspired by Tennessee Williams' poignant drama, showcases Neumeier's extraordinary talent for storytelling through movement. At the center of this production is renowned ballet dancer Alina Cojocaru, who inspired John Neumeier to create the piece. Together with the acclaimed Hamburg Ballet, she delivers a performance that dances on the heartstrings and lingers in the soul. Complementing this masterpiece is John Neumeier - A Life for Dance, Andreas Morell's intimate documentary that offers a glimpse into the passion and vision of one of the greatest choreographers of our time. This edition is a must-have for dance enthusiasts and lovers of profound artistic expression.

Discover the brilliance of the iconic John Neumeier in this captivating double feature. The Glass Menagerie, inspired by Tennessee Williams' poignant drama, showcases Neumeier's extraordinary talent for storytelling through movement. At the center of this production is renowned ballet dancer Alina Cojocaru, who inspired John Neumeier to create the piece. Together with the acclaimed Hamburg Ballet, she delivers a performance that dances on the heartstrings and lingers in the soul. Complementing this masterpiece is John Neumeier - A Life for Dance, Andreas Morell's intimate documentary that offers a glimpse into the passion and vision of one of the greatest choreographers of our time. This edition is a must-have for dance enthusiasts and lovers of profound artistic expression.

Acclaimed concert violinist Rachel Barton Pine, sought-after pianist Orion Weiss, and the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet join forces for their new album French Impressions: Chamber Music by Chausson & Tailleferre, celebrating transformational works by French composers Ernest Chausson and Germaine Tailleferre, whose chamber music deserves greater attention on recordings. Chausson's Op. 21 sextet, titled Concert, known for it's unusual orchestration of solo violin, string quartet, and piano, takes advantage of the quasi-orchestral capabilities of a chamber ensemble. The only work on the album featuring Rachel Barton Pine, Pacifica Quartet, and Orion Weiss as a collective, Concert is regarded as one of the most important French chamber music works of the late-19th-century fin-de-siecle era. Germaine Tailleferre was a prolific composer and the only female member of the group of celebrated 20th-century French composers known as Les Six. Tailleferre was a piano prodigy who enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire at age 12, defying her father's objections. Her compositions span symphonic, chamber, and film music. A winner of numerous premiere prix, she studied with revered composers including Maurice Ravel, whose work significantly influenced her versatile style. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine showcases her "astonishing and joyful" (Washington Post) artistry, alongside the "powerful technique and exceptional insight" (Washington Post) of pianist Orion Weiss for Tailleferre's Violin Sonata No. 2, Pastorale, and Berceuse for Violin and Piano - works that often express a nostalgic longing for home and display dynamic and adventurous interplay between the violin and piano. The Pacifica Quartet, known for it's "remarkable expressive range and tonal beauty" (New York Times), is featured on Tailleferre's String Quartet, a piece acclaimed for it's playful themes, fluid accompanimental figuration, and bold harmonies.

This further edition to Steffen Schleiermacher's Eisler anthology once again provides insights into an exciting composer's life that still receives far too little attention today. With his differentiated palette of expression and affinity for nuance, Schleiermacher is a master interpreter of Eisler's original, often surprising aesthetics encompassing an extremely wide variety of musical styles.

The development of an original classical repertoire for the accordion began with Mogens Ellegaard in his native Denmark and his student, the Scot Owen Murray, in the UK. In 1976 Ellegaard gave the first broadcast performance of Gordon Jacob's pastoral, elegant concerto, which treats the accordion almost as a chamber organ. A generation and more later, two concertos written for Owen Murray open out the possibilities of the accordion much more adventurously, exploiting it's extraordinary range of colour, it's striking range of expression and it's mercurial ability to weave through orchestral textures.

For his debut leader project on SteepleChase, Bollenback chose a bold and distinct approach, opting for a guitar and bass duo format. Teaming up with bassist Boris Kozlov, a three-time Grammy winner. Bollenback explores new musical territories with a mix of original compositions by Bollenback and Kozlov, along with jazz standards that highlight their exceptional musical connection and rhythmic synergy. Renowned for his versatility and dynamism on the guitar, Bollenback's unique approach to jazz and blues has earned him accolades from legends like George Benson, who praised him as a "versatile dynamo on guitar." Over the years, Bollenback has collaborated with numerous jazz greats, including organist Joey DeFrancesco, appearing on nineteen of his albums and earning a Grammy nomination for co-producing 2011's Never Can Say Goodbye.

This elegant, long-awaited CD by the elder statesman of cabaret is a very personal tribute to the late, great Stephen Sondheim, sampling his songs from 1954 through 1990. Ross calls this collection "a challenge and a privilege," and James Gavin, author of the definitive book on cabaret, notes that the album is "a role model for anyone who aspires to be smarter, worldlier and more stylish than the rest."

Acclaimed guitarist Craig Brann joins forces with tenor saxophone virtuoso Greg Tardy for an electrifying new release on SteepleChase. This album showcases Brann’s signature melodic storytelling and Tardy’s expressive phrasing, creating a dynamic interplay between guitar and saxophone that is both adventurous and deeply rooted in jazz tradition. “As a guitarist, Brann continually reshapes his sound… When a musician has the capacity to do just about anything, the choices he makes are critical. Here, Brann and his quintet never put a foot wrong." (Mark Corroto – All About Jazz on SCCD 31847 Lineage)

With this program spanning nearly a century, from Komitas' Dances written in the mid-1900s to pieces by my father, Gérard Gasparian, composed in the late 1980s, I aimed to highlight both the remarkable diversity of this repertoire and its profound unity. From the minimalist draft of Yerangi to the polyphonic virtuosity of the Capriccio, from the boundless lyricism of Spartacus to the percussive savagery of the Toccata, from the melodious simplicity of the Elegy to the tense chromaticism of the Sonata, one couldn't dream of more contrasting registers. The works on this program, however, all have one thing in common that expresses the true essence of Armenian music: They’re rooted in popular tradition. The very identity of this music – and the reason I feel such a deep, emotional connection to it – lies in the fact that it draws its inspiration from the folk heritage of the Armenian people: its songs, melodies, rhythms, and dances.

Miklós Rózsa feared that success as a film composer might overshadow his reputation as a composer of classical concert fare. He was right. Three Oscars and 17 Academy Award nominations tends to do that. The two worlds were strangely incompatible and forced Rózsa into what he called his “Double Life” – the title of both a film for which he won an Oscar and that of his autobiography. The three orchestral works presented here, from his early, middle and late phases, provide a charming introduction to his alternative side.

REVIEW:

Works like the ones on this album ought to appeal to lovers of any of Rosza’s many film scores; the musical language is not that far off. The orchestra, an underrated regional group, gives crisp performances under conductor Gregor Bühl on a release that should appeal to both film buffs and fans of 20th century music generally.

— AllMusic.com (James Manheim)