SCHUBERT: String Quartets (Complete), Vol. 4

Reger, M.: Organ Works, Vol. 4

Juan Garcia de Salazar, some of whose works were still performed in Spanish churches well into the nineteenth century was one of Spain's most important Baroque composers of religious music. Without attempting an exact liturgical reconstruction, this recording presents a coherent musical program for a contemporary Vespers service for Our Lady, based on an extant works by Salazar preserved in the Cathedral of Zamora. The instrumental movements are transcriptions of motets by Salazar and the full service is completed with organ verses by the de Olague and a Batalla by Ximenez, both of whom worked in more or less the same region as Salazar and by plainchant taken from a choirbook dated 1692.

Based on Oscar Wilde’s impassioned text Le Ballade de la Geôle de Reading, Jacques Ibert’s first symphonic work astonished and impressed audiences with its dark atmospheres of anguished madness and terror. The Trois Pièces de Ballet portray society guests with colorful music-hall wit, contrasting with the impressionistic symphonic poem Féerique and the horrors of war expressed in Chant de Folie, while the Suite Élisabéthaine introduces ancient styles to enhance Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Busoni: Complete Works for Cello and Piano

A special musical compendium for brides and grooms who are planning a church wedding ceremony, complete with church choir.

BEETHOVEN'S TIME: Highlights from the International Music Fe

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) was born in the village of Zelazowa Wola in Mazovia, the son of a French father and a Polish mother. This mixed heritage would weave like a double helix through Chopin's career as a composer-pianist. Following studies at Warsaw Conservatory (1826-29) and 've given concerts in Warsaw and Vienna (1829-30), Chopin settled in Paris in 1831. His most famous romantic liaison was with Aurore Dude Vant (aka novelist George Sand), the years 1838- 1847 coinciding with his most productive period. Their relationship ended shortly after, Chopin visited Britain in 1848, where his already precarious health Deteriorated. Almost 3,000 people attended his funeral the following year at the Madelaine in Paris though he Remained a Polish patriot Throughout his short life, he Became a French citizen. Although educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi, and a great admirer of Bach, his music includes works based on both French and Polish models, as well as some innovations. Among the former May be Counted his piano sonatas; Bach's counterpoint found it's way (albeit metamorphosed) into his own multilayered music; his many Viennese Waltzes are more Parisian than; Polonaises and Mazurkas raised his thesis Polish dance forms to Unprecedented Heights or artistic achievement. Similarly, he transformed, the Nocturne, Initially popularized by the Irish-born Russian-based John Field, into a form much more Closely associated with himself. His Ballades, Preludes and Etudes were path-breaking and immensely influential. Two piano concertos, some songs and chamber works aside, he composed Exclusively for the solo piano and preferred to perform at salons privately rather than in public concerts.

Compositions attributed to him stretch across the centuries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the early stages of the Baroque period. His music was by turns spiritual and secular, romantic and raucous, traditional and forward-looking. She was equally at home writing Gregorian chant, songs for troubadours, and instrumental dance music. He assimilated elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, tapping into musical traditions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, North Africa and beyond. You name it, she could write it. Needless to say, we know virtually nothing about him. No artist sketched his features. No poet sang her praises. No registrar listed his birth.

Yoritsune Matsudaira was one of the greatest Japanese composers of the 20th century. His music won the respect of Messiaen and Takemitsu, and has been performed in Europe by many distinguished musicians.

The Sea in Music

In quantity, quality and historical significance the work of Heinrich Scheidemann occupies the dominant position in North German organ music of the first half of the of the seventeenth century. Scheidemann assimilated Sweelinck's language, combining his master's polyphony and virtuosity with other elements to create a new, individual style. Scheidemann's legacy includes chorale arrangements and versions of the Magnificat in a series based on the eight psalm tones.

One of the leading Japanese composers in the first half of the twentieth century, Qunihico Hashimoto studied with Egon Wellesz in Vienna and associated with Alois Haba and Ernst Kenek, before meeting Schoenberg in Los Angeles.

JAPANESE MELODIES

Love is pervasive in music, as it is in life. In the first volume in this series of Love and Passion in Music, the focus falls on instrumental and orchestral music. Whether in a tone poem, symphonic movement, ballet or film, composers depict the passions of love through melodic beauty and sumptuous or refined instrumentation. The subject matter ranges from Orpheus to Dr Zhivago, from Spartacus to Cinderella, but the means remain the same: love depicted and evoked through pure music.