VIOLIN CTO VALSE-SCHERZO / SERENADE MELANCOLIQUE

Vasily Petrenko and the award-winning Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra present a program of Russian orchestral classics. Ravel's brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Khachaturian's sumptuously romantic suite from his ballet Spartacus keep company with Kabalevsky's fizzing overture to his opera Colas Breugnon, Schehedrin's 'Naughty Limericks' and a beautiful orchestral arrangement of Rachmaninov's wistful Zdes' Khorosho.

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REVIEW:

Vasily Petrenko has been among the most musically reliable of the wave of Russian performers who settled in Britain following the fall of the Soviet Union. He grasps that the Ravel version of Pictures is, first of all, an orchestral showpiece, and there's something very satisfying about hearing the Liverpudlians nail their parts one by one. Everything falls into place in the pieces by Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, and Rachmaninov. The same is true of the engineering, as the Onyx team knows the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall well. The result is a fine recording that shows there's life in the old warhorses yet.

– All Music Guide

VIOLIN CONCERTO / STRING QUARTETS NOS. 7 & 8

The works on Viktoria Mullova's new album devoted to Arvo Párt's music for violin stem from the composer's study of medieval church music and are products of what Párt describes as a 'tintinnabuli' style, developed by the composer in the 1970s. Párt said of the style, ''I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements - with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials - with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.'' Párt's works have become some of the most iconic pieces in the contemporary repertoire and have reached far beyond the usual 'classical' music world in their popularity. This album was recorded in the presence of the composer.

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REVIEW:

This is not music that hinges on sudden shifts and sharp contrasts. However, at its core lies the age-old dichotomy between freedom and control, head and heart…Mullova brilliantly manages to tease out these dichotomies on this new recording. In Fratres, she approaches each variation from a different angle. Sap and rosin fly off the bow in the coruscating arpeggio figurations of the opening chord sequence.

– Gramophone

PASTORAL SYMPHONY & SYMPHONY NO.4

James Ehnes and friends from the Seattle Chamber Music Society hit the road on a fascinating journey through chamber music by some of the giants of 20th-century American classical music. Aaron Copland's masterful Violin Sonata, Leonard Bernstein's youthful and vibrant Piano Trio, and Samuel Barber's B minor String Quartet with it's famous Adagio slow movement (known the world over as Barber's Adagio) are joined by Elliott Carter's haunting 'Elegy' from early in his long career, and the other-worldly 'Largo' by that great maverick Charles Ives.

Volume two of James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong's Beethoven Violin Sonata cycle follows their critically acclaimed performances of Sonatas Nos.6 & 9. Gramophone Magazine called it, 'a compelling addition to Ehnes and Armstrong's remarkable discography.' This new recording features the three early Op.12 Sonatas, which Beethoven dedicated to his teacher Antonio Salieri, alongside the early variations on a theme from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. James Ehnes & Andrew Armstrong

Multi award-winning violinist James Ehnes recorded this album during lockdown at his home. Recording commenced in the early hours of the morning when all was quiet in the house. The solo violin, recorded in the small hours during these troubled times makes for a powerful and intimate listening experience. Ysa�e's six sonatas for solo violin together with J.S Bach's Sonatas & Partitas and the most important extended works for the solo violin. Ysaye composed each one of them with a particular violinist in mind, capturing their personality and characteristics of their playing. These sonatas represent the stylistic bridge between the old and the new, between tradition and improvisation, offering a glimpse into a "golden" era of fast evolving traditions of playing, of which Ysa�e was one of the leading voices.

Composed in 1915, Szymanowski's Mythes is a three movement work consisting of miniature tone poems based on Greek mythology. Late romantic and impressionist in style, the composer's travels to Sicily and north Africa without a doubt influenced the exotic and sumptuous sound world he created in this work. Mythes is the opening work on this eclectic recital album from James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong that also features Handel's D major violin sonata - a once popular staple of the violin repertoire, now sadly seldom encountered. The album concludes with a selection of short and sparkly miniatures and encores. There are some old favorites here, as well as new, including James Newton Howard's "133... At least".

When introduced to the audience in Liverpool by Domingo Hindoyan, Roberto Sierra's music was greeted with standing ovations. His name may be new to many, but his music is vibrant, appealing, accessible, and extremely well crafted. "The works included on this album span 25 years of creative activity. While current projects are always my focus, looking back is not something I often do; however, this recording confronted me with compositions representing a good part of my creative life. Most interesting was to notice that, although my music has changed through the years, there are traits common to all these pieces. These are elements that encompass aspects ranging from the expressive to the technical. A penchant for certain types of melodic constructions, harmonies, and orchestration choices is always present in these works. Another common element is the use of idioms that stem out of Afro-Caribbean and, more specifically, from the folk and popular music of Puerto Rico." This album is a wonderful introduction to this important contemporary composer from Latin America.

James Ehnes picks up the viola for his first recording of the two Brahms sonatas Op.120 of 1894, in the composer's arrangement for viola and piano. Originally written for clarinettist Richard M�hlfeld, Brahms made subtle changes for the viola versions, and in so doing he greatly enriched the meagre viola sonata repertoire with these two late masterpieces. Schumann composed his M�rchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures) in a few days in March 1851. They are imbued with a potent sense of fantasy - imagination runs riot, from melancholy to drama. James Ehnes plays on the 1696 'Achinto' Stradivari viola for this recording, courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music.

Italy, Florence - nothing gives me the slightest pleasure so far wrote Tchaikovsky to his brother. "I cannot live outside Russia." In the depth of depression, the composer commenced work on his sextet, Souvenir de Florence, which he completed upon his return to Russia in June 1890. Melancholy Russian folk melodies mingle with Tchaikovsky's Florentine theme rising in the Adagio. In 1892, with more creative struggles - a symphony in E flat was abandoned (much of it becoming the 3rd piano concerto and the Andante & Finale), and a new symphony in B minor was started. If the melancholy of Souvenir de Florence is never far from the surface, it threatens to overwhelm the 6th symphony. "I am very proud of the symphony, and I think it's the best of my compositions." Tchaikovsky died 9 days after conducting it's first performance, a victim of the cholera pandemic raging over the Russian Empire.

In this vibrant and colorful orchestral program from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan, Chabrier's Espa�a opens proceedings. The composer's interest in Spain was most likely the result of his friendship with the artist Edouard Manet, whose paintings depicted Spanish themes. The conductor of the premiere was Charles Lamoureux who persuaded Chabrier to visit Spain in the summer of 1882. This work was the catalyst for French composers who followed to explore Spanish influences. Manual de Falla commented on Debussy's Iberia "Without knowing Spain, or without having set foot on Spanish ground," he noted, "Debussy has written Spanish music. He came to know Spain through books and paintings, through songs and dances performed by native Spaniards."

George Butterworth, one of the pre 1914 generation lost in the Great War, left a small but enduring body of work. He was introduced to folk music by Vaughan Williams, but he was also a dancer and collector of folk songs and dances - especially those from Sussex. It is however his A.E Houseman inspired orchestral rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad, that has become his most famous composition and seems to conjure up a powerful sense of the countryside of that county, and melancholy at the waste and futility of war. Holst, like Butterworth was a friend of Vaughan Williams, and together the two of them collected folk songs from around England. Holst also taught at the school for girls in Hammersmith, London and the St Paul Suite is a personal thank you to the school. Folk songs imbue the two Songs without Words. Holst became friendly with Thomas Hardy, and it was on a night walk (at the urging of Hardy) that the inspiration for Egdon Heath came to Holst. The 15-minute-long work capture the 'singularly colossal and mysterious in it's swarthy monotony' as Hardy described the area of moorland in his novel The Return of the Native. The high trumpet at the close of the work is surely sounding from post war sad shires.

In Colorado based ensemble COmpass REsonance (CORE), Violinist Vadim Gluzman found a group that shared his artistic values, and they now have a close working relationship. Combining the music of J.S. Bach and Valentyn Silvestrov in one program offers another example of kindred spirits. The three works by Silvestrov presented on this album are influenced by and dedicated to Bach himself. More importantly, though separated by centuries, the music of Bach and Silvestrov is united by purity, spirituality, and clarity of expression. Together, they offer hope, solace, and a sense of balance in today's turbulent world.

Pascal Rog� has over several decades, become the greatest interpreter of the French piano repertoire. His recordings of Satie and Debussy are benchmark performances, still unrivalled in the catalog. On this album he turns to Poulenc and is joined by cellist Lidy Blijdorp in the cello sonata, and pianist Elena Font in the sonatas for two pianos, and for four hands. Font plays the solo works included in this charming album of superbly crafted, elegant and sometimes witty music by this 20th century French master.

Bach's St. John Passion is the earliest surviving Passion or Oratorio by J.S Bach and was first performed in 1724. This version consists of two sections and retains this structure in the versions and revisions that followed in 1725, 1730, 1736 and 1749. Bach added several numbers in the 1749 version, but several arias from the revisions are found only in the appendices of modern editions. So, there is no 'final' version crafted by the composer as there is for the later St. Matthew Passion, no single manuscript as there is for the Brandenburg Concertos, nor a revised printed edition as exists for the Goldberg Variations. What we do have are Bach's various attempts as he went from performance to performance, to try to grasp what he was aiming for - consciously and unconsciously. There is much that is operatic in the music, and the thought that the St. John Passion is Bach's opera is hardly an original one. This recording uses the new edition by musicologist Malcolm Bruno.

Venezuelan trumpet virtuoso Pacho Florez wowed the packed Royal Albert Hall at the BBC Proms concert given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under their chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan last year. Pacho and Domingo have a real chemistry on stage, they are old friends going back to their time in the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. This album showcases Pacho as composer as well as soloist - his own brilliant concerto Albares is vibrant, rhythmic and wonderfully written for the instrument. It, like the two other concertos on the album by Sierra and Ortiz have more than their fair share of ear worm tunes, and you won't be able to resist smiling and swaying to the infectious music.

Like many musical projects planned for 2020, the plans of the Ehnes Quartet to record Beethoven's late quartets underwent a drastic revision. Rather than cancel the project, some ingenious technology was employed. They were able to record in the USA with producer Simon Kiln monitoring the sessions in real time from London. A fortunate benefit of not traveling overseas was that the scheduled travel days became additional recording days, allowing them to record all of Beethoven's string quartets from Op.74 onwards. The four albums made during this intense two-week period will be treasured reminders for the quartet of a brief, bucolic window of artistic fulfilment during a terribly challenging period for the world.

Violinist Viktoria Mullova and son, the bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado in music they love - a very personal and affectionate collection of music ranging from traditional Brazilian folk songs to JS Bach, via Antonio Carlos Jobim and Schumann. Much of the music on this album has been played by mother and son together for many years - classical and contemporary jazz, folk songs from family music making has now made it to their concert programmes.

After the success of his album of the 2nd Concerto of Brahms, Joseph Moog follows with a superb recording of the turbulent 1st Concerto, coupled with the late Piano Pieces op.119.

Gramophone said of the 2nd concerto, “Moog’s technical aplomb is abundantly apparent... the scherzo sounds almost inhumanly easier here.” Pizzicato said “Moog plays with imagination and individuality... peerless accompaniment and brilliant, virtuoso playing.”

Description This third release in James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong's complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas has been eagerly awaited. The two previous recordings received outstanding reviews, with Gramophone praising that, "some discs, you can just tell that everything's going to go like a dream." On this recording, the popular 'Spring' sonata is framed by the strange and beguiling Sonata No.4, and the good natured Sonata No.8. An early Rondo and a set of German Dances complete the generous program.

Dejan Lazi? is joined by friends for his first recording of chamber music in a long career. Mozart’s two piano quartets are paired with Lazi?'s own arrangement of the Rondo Concertante K333. The result is the joyful, intimate music-making, that can be achieved by musicians who have a lifetime of performing together.