Cellists are fortunate indeed to have their two Brahms sonatas, both masterpieces in their genre. So one can, and certainly will, ask why we need or indeed dare to 'borrow' the G major violin sonata and the two clarinet sonatas and thereby make our two into five. Questions that arise: Are we just attempting to reproduce the original work with the necessary pitch and register changes? Can this be an opportunity to give another significance, even a second parallel existence, to a beloved work of art? The answer to the first question must be 'no', because such a treatment would simply be arrogant and pointless. To the second, I hope, listeners can agree that the two clarinet sonatas and the G major violin sonata lose nothing in these 'translations' and even gain a great deal of new and perhaps unexpected depth and character.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) is now celebrated as one of the most important figures in Polish cultural life after Chopin. Celebrated British pianist Martin Jones has recorded the complete piano music on 4 albums. This recital, drawn mainly from the shorter works - Preludes, Etudes and Mazurkas - is highly Romantic, and technically challenging. Martin Jones has been one of Britain's most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a prolific recording artist and his many major projects include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Grainger, Stravinsky, Korngold, Szymanowski, Granados, Guastavino, Mompou, Ernesto Halffter, Joaquin Nin, Has Gal, and others.

Classical Music

The present release from Nimbus Music Publishing is Augusta Read Thomas's Rings of Light for nine saxophones or saxophone ensemble. "Although my music is highly notated, precise, carefully structured, thoughtfully proportioned, and although you may many musicians elegantly working together, from the very specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled - on the spot - as if we listeners, the audience, are overhearing a captured improvisation. When the "inner-life" of the music is kept ultra-alive, such that the music sounds spontaneous, I am always thrilled and grateful to the musicians. For their sublime, precision and technical mastery, I deeply thank the saxophone players who play my notations in this way." (Augusta Read Thomas)

The London Symphony Orchestra, led by formidable conductor Yondani Butt, presents this outstanding recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathetique,’ and The Voyevoda- Symphonic Ballad. The programme was recorded in 2012 at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London. Yondani Butt was born in Macau. He studied conducting with Wolfgang Vacano (1906-1985) at Indiana University, majoring in chemistry. He continued to study conducting with Josef Blatt (1906-1999) at the University of Michigan while pursuing his chemistry degree. Hailed by Robert Marsh of the Chicago Sun Times as “an outstanding talent,” Yondani Butt has received acclamation from critics and audiences for his many album recordings and concert performances. He died on August 28th, 2014.

As William Boughton celebrates his 70th birthday, we have put together this selection from his recordings for Nimbus and Lyrita. 'Every recording contains a story but, sadly, there is not the space to tell them all here so I've selected certain memorable, hopefully correct(!), experiences. Revisiting my early recordings reminded me of the joys and struggles that we encountered whilst developing the English String Orchestra (ESO), the development of our sound, our thinking and musicianship. Every recording is testament to a moment in time, to our responses and emotions during it's preparation and in the brief moment when the performance is created. Having been given this opportunity for a celebratory box-set I hope to avoid being too self conscious and remain objective in my comments and in the music I have chosen.' [William Boughton]

Given the 'romantic' nature of these two sonatas, Saint-Sa�ns could have been forgiven for producing two-piano versions that treated the originals as bases for his own imaginings. In fact, as far as a fourth party can judge, he has been scrupulous in respecting the composers' intentions. Wherever either piano is playing on it's own, it plays the original text. Beyond that, of course, are the host of more complex textures where Saint-Sa�ns has felt free to add notes for extra emphasis. Perhaps the most satisfying admixture of color comes in the Chopin Funeral March, where extra low octaves in the bass boom like the beating of a bass drum. But throughout, the relative, new-found simplicity of each piano part allows performers to phrase more subtly. No doubt Liszt had these points in mind when he considered making such a transcription of his sonata, alas never realized. But he greatly admired Saint-Sa�ns as both composer and pianist, and one cannot but imagine he would have approved his fine arrangement. (Roger Nichols)

The songs included on this album are all settings of words by either Elizabethan or Jacobean poets: a period of literature that has been a prime source for song composers since its creation. The Shakespeare texts – all ‘songs’ from the plays – contain the works that made Quilter’s name, and have largely been responsible for his enduring reputation. Nathan Vale studied with Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music and Benjamin Britten International Opera School. He was awarded an Independent Opera Vocal Scholarship to the National Opera Studio, where he was further supported by the Elmley Foundation, ENO, the Nicholas John Trust and The Seary Trust. He is a former winner of the London Handel Singing Competition where he was also awarded the Audience Prize. He continues his studies with David Pollard.

The monumental 'Archduke' Trio Op.97 represents Beethoven at the peak of his creativity in the genre. Sketches for all four movements of this 'symphony scored for a trio' are included in a sketchbook of 1810 containing also drafts for the Egmont music and the String Quartet in F minor Op.95. The manuscript score was written out between 3 and 26 March 1811. Three years elapsed before the work's public premiere, by Beethoven, Schuppanzigh and Linke, on 11 April 1814 as part of a charity concert in the hall of the 'Hotel zum R�mischen Kaiser' in Vienna. This concert sounded the death knell of Beethoven's public career as a pianist, owing to his profound deafness. The work's critical reception was understandably mixed, but the celebrated pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Praised it's originality while expressing reservations about the 'clarity and precision' of Beethoven's pianism. Significantly, a repeat performance of the work a few weeks later was Beethoven's final public appearance as a pianist. Inspired by the sinfonie concertante for two or more soloists and orchestra, Beethoven transports the piano trio into an orchestral context with his Triple Concerto in C major Op.56. His choice of this particular solo combination was unprecedented in the literature and, in his words, 'really something new'. The piece is performed with panache on this release by the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch.

Yondani Butt was born in Macau. He studied conducting with Wolfgang Vacano at Indiana University, majoring in chemistry. He continued to study conducting with Josef Blatt at the University of Michigan while pursuing his chemistry degree. Hailed by Robert Marsh of the Chicago Sun Times as “an outstanding talent,” Yondani Butt has received acclamation from critics and audiences for his many recordings and concert performances. He died on August 28, 2014. “If you’re one of those classical enthusiasts who prefer their Wagner experience to be administered in brief but nonetheless memorable doses this splendid new Nimbus collection could well have been conceived specifically with you in mind. Conductor Yondani Butt and the LSO serve up commanding performances of some of the most evocative and instantly recognizable orchestral passages in the Wagner canon, including ‘Magic Flute Music,’ Siegfried’s ‘Rhine Journey,’ and the [album’s] show stopping finale, ‘Ride of the Valkyries.’ (Halesowen News) “…The sound in these recordings is extremely vivid and realistic… Butt’s Wagner is very impressive.” (Musicweb International)

“Piano trios have often been formed by a threesome of like-minded soloists: the fabled ‘Million Dollar Trio’ of Heifetz, Rubinstein and Piatigorsky springs to mind. The present ensemble, founded in 2009, belongs decidedly to this illustrious line. The three trios were recorded in Nimbus’s hall at Wyastone Leys, a most vivid acoustic that brings the three players straight into one’s living room.” (The Strad) Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch was founded in 2009 and comprises three of the finest international instrumentalists performing today. Playing chamber music together at the Pablo Casals Prades Festival Hagai Shaham and Raphael Wallfisch recognised an immediate musical synergy. Arnon Erez joined them for trio concerts in Lucerne and the Netherlands later that year and the Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch was established. Since 2009 the Trio have performed, broadcast and recorded widely throughout Europe and Israel, giving concerts in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France, Israel and Spain. For this new release, they have chosen chamber works by Dvorak, Grieg, and Schumann.

With the development of a bourgeois music culture in Europe during the 18th century, the status of the dilettante changed as well. In courtly feudal society dilettante meant a musically educated member of the upper class. He was distinguished from the professional musician only by the fact that music was not his means of making a living. In the new society it becomes a term for the less musically competent, an amateur instrumentalist of vocalist, and quite distinct from the educated ‘connoisseur’ or professional musician. It is also evident that this type of person, who connects with music on a modest level, is the dominant part of the audiences that attend the emerging ‘concert’ entertainments. It is for this specific audience that an abundance of new compositions appeared, particularly in the area of chamber music. From the beginning of the century the flute was chief among the instruments preferred by enthusiasts, as well as the highly educated non-professional connoisseurs. The flute, in its late 17th century form, being a relatively ‘modern’ instrument – and a fashionable one - joined with the keyboards in a pivotal role. The previously dominant violin drifted more and more into the domain of professional musicians and virtuosos. And perhaps the sound of a flute, idiomatic of the human voice, was a more natural partner for the expression of bourgeois sensitivity than that of a violin. On this new release, flutists Hensgeorg Schmeiser and Jan Ostry, along with cellist Othmar Muller, present Haydn & Stamitz’s ‘London Trios.’

Founded by experienced chamber musicians, steeped in the standards and style of the classic Russian school, the Kopelman Quartet carries forward a rich inheritance of technical excellence, lyricism, grace and musical integrity. Mikhail Kopelman, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Sulyga and Mikhail Milman all graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in the 1970's, this institution's golden age, when the students regularly worked with musicians and teachers such as David Oistrakh, Yuri Yankelevich and Natalia Gutman. These strong musical influences have remained with the members of the Kopelman Quartet, even though they pursued individual careers for twenty-five years before founding the quartet in 2002.