Experience the captivating journey of Ek-stasis, presented by Divine Art Recordings. Delve into the world of myths reconstructed in music by celebrated composers from different cultures and times. This unique album features three world premiere recordings, bringing fresh and exciting music to the programme. Greek pianist and professor Zoe Samsarelou has expertly curated a selection of works that weave together an interconnected narrative, taking you on a journey through the myth of Dionysus. From the works of Couperin, Rameau, Dandrieu, and Daquin to the eminent Greek composers of the 20th and 21st centuries and the Late Romantics in between, each piece is thoughtfully selected and presented. The album is divided into themes of seduction, pathos, illusion, metamorphosis, transcendence, instinct, catharsis, mythos, paradox, and transition. This creates an immersive experience that guides the listener through the various stages of the myth and offers a musical perspective on the story. Accompanied by Zoe Samsarelou's insightful prose on the collection and notes on the Greek composers featured in the program, Ek-stasis is more than just a listening experience. It's a celebration of the Greek spirit that has influenced humanity for over 2,500 years, highlighting the creativity and ingenuity of these wonderful composers.

"Although the horn has some obstacles to overcome, [...] nature seems to have intended it by and large for singing; moreover, the horn player can draw the best lessons from the school of a good singer. There he learns the art of good phrasing and proper breathing; there he purifies his taste, shapes his style, and ultimately discovers all he needs to know to capture the listener's attention, move him, and - on many occasions - stir his enthusiasm.” (JosephÉmile Meifred: Méthode pour le Cor chromatique ou à pistons, Paris 1840) Solo horn player in the Danish Royal orchestra Claudio Flückiger is here presenting what is the art of playing the horn. He is accompanied by pianist Galya Kolarova.

A new recording of all the major works for piano by a foundational figure in French music of the early 20th century. Born in 1865, Dukas could have (and probably did) compose a good deal literally and stylistically in the 19th century, but his fastidious craftsmanship and self-criticism saw him burn far more music than he allowed to survive. All of a sudden, on the turn of the new century, he wrote two large-scale works which bring together a reverence for the recent and long-gone past with bold new thinking of how to write for the piano. Begun in 1899, the Variations take an innocent dance theme by Rameau and subject it to a dazzling sequence of treatments coloured by strict counterpoint, dreamy rhapsody and a Lisztian scale of piano writing. Even more ambitious and contrapuntal in its workings is the 40-minute Piano Sonata which has long been regarded as a summit of fin-de-siècle piano writing. The Sonata has often been compared to Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata for its colossal dimensions, its structural complexities and its tightrope virtuoso writing. Dukas himself later discussed its journey in terms of a symbolic victory over ‘the beast within’, and ‘the triumph of Apollo over the Pythian serpent’. Vincenzo Maltempo follows in the footsteps of virtuosos such as Michel Ponti and Marc-André Hamelin, and shows himself equipped for the task, having already accumulated a critically acclaimed catalogue of hyper-virtuoso repertoire on Piano Classics, including five albums of Alkan, the Hungarian Rhapsodies of Liszt and the complete Sonatas of Scriabin. He possesses the virtuosity to burn which this music demands, but also the poetic sensibility to bring the most subtle nuances of colour to bear on two miniatures from much later in Dukas’s career, a Prélude in memory of Haydn and a deeply felt tribute to the memory of Debussy which makes haunting reference to the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

Les Ballets Russes was founded by director Sergei Diaghilev in 1909. The company never actually performed in Russia – it made its debut in Paris, and the world was to be its home during its 20 years of existence. With his concepts and commissions, Diaghilev fostered collaborations between the most exciting artists of the time, working with composers such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev, Debussy and Satie, artists like Picasso, Kandinsky and Matisse, choreographers including Fokine, Nijinsky and Balanchine, and costume designers such as Coco Chanel. He set in motion a groundbreaking artistic revolution, the echoes of which still reverberate even today. The company’s productions were hugely successful, and Diaghilev most certainly elevated the careers of the artists he commissioned, in the process introducing an international audience to myths and legends and music and design motifs that would otherwise have remained unknown. The significance of music within all this cannot be overestimated – Diaghilev, in fact, came to ballet through his love of music.

SWR CLASSIC has released many of the ballets commissioned or produced by Diaghilev, featuring music by composers from Stravinsky through to Richard Strauss. These are now being re-released as a 10 album boxed set.

The organ duo Marion Krall and Lars Schwarze take us to enchanted lands with their new GENUIN album, playing their own transcriptions of great orchestral works for organ with four hands and four feet. Since the Baroque era, orchestral works have been transcribed for the organ. Even today, the instrument's various colors make it possible to discover new, unexpected, but equally rich sounds in seemingly familiar works. The internationally awarded duo has now recorded works by Paul Dukas, Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. The contemporary contribution is the radiant tone poem Kalliope by the Austrian composer Franz Danksagmüller, which is positively overflowing with imagination. A surprising album featuring the sound of the organ in all its grandeur and moments of true intimacy.

Yvonne Lefébure (1900-1986) was one of the most important French pianists and piano teachers of the 20th century. From a very young age she demonstrated real musical talent. When she was only 6 years old she studied the piano with Marguerite Long (1874-1966), initially in a private school, known as the Conservatoire Femina-Musica, then in Marguerite Long’s preparatory classes for the Conservatory. Yvonne Lefébure gave her first recital aged 12. Her earliest concert performances contained demanding works such as the B minor Piano Sonata by Franz Liszt or Robert Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques. Ultimately this gifted pianist took lessons with Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), one of the most important and indeed most influential personalities of musical life in the 20th century. Her most important studies with Cortot took place in his conservatory classes for advanced students, a group she joined in 1911 and from which she was awarded a first prize in 1912. Yvonne Lefébure had further private lessons with Cortot particularly in the period 1919-1939, when she was one of the most important teachers at the Ecole Normale de Musique. Later she went on to lead a masterclass at the Ecole Normale de Musique. From 1952 to 1967 she was Professor at the Paris Conservatory. Yvonne Lefébure was an outstanding soloist, chamber musician and concert solo artiste: by listening to this album listeners can get an impression of her talent for themselves.

REVIEW:

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Sonatas 30-31 were recorded 1955-56 in decent monaural sound. The Diabelli is a fine, forceful reading in one long band (each variation is not tracked). The sonatas are beautifully rendered and show a pianist of discriminating taste and maturity. They also show Lefebure to possess a technical mastery that places her at the forefront among artists of her generation.

Mozart’s Violin Sonata in G with violinist Jeanne Gautier, and Beethoven’s Sonata 32 and Sonata 8 are decent enough, though no reason is given why we are left with only the first movement of the Pathetique Sonata.

The Mozart Piano Concerto 20 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwangler is a pleasant surprise, though the strings are a bit glassy. Bach’s Piano Concerto in D minor along with some organ pieces transcribed by Liszt is the heart of disc 3. The concerto is effectively conducted by Fernand Oubradous, and Lefebure performs with depth and soul. The Liszt transcription of the Fugue in A minor S 543 is especially impressive.

Music by French composers constitutes the bulk of disc 4. Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G with Jeanne Gautier is handled with delicacy and humor, and Debussy’s rarely heard ballet Box of Toys allows Lefebure to handle the subtleties of the narrative with a special joy (it is heard here with French narration). The Dukas Rameau Variations and Roussel Three Pieces, Op. 49, are treasures of French insouciance coupled with elegance.

Very non-French is the single Chopin Mazurka that closes the disc. Pierre Dervaux gets off to a somewhat clumsy start with the French Radio Orchestra in Schumann’s Piano Concerto but rapidly improves to a stunningly warm and rapturous traversal. Mozart’s Concerto 20 contrasts most positively with Furtwängler’s glassy-sounding Berlin account.

-- American Record Guide

Hélène Boschi’s repertoire was broad-based, ranging from the Baroque (François Couperin, Jean Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach) to contemporary music. Her favorite composers of the Viennese Classical era were undoubtedly Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert; strangely, it seems she left behind no Beethoven recordings. One notable fact about Boschi is that she was the first female pianist to record the works of Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783), receiving the 1952 Grand Prix du Disque in honor of her achievement. As for the nineteenth century, her passionate readings of Schumann are of the utmost importance; but Carl Maria von Weber and Muzio Clementi also captured her attention, as did Frédéric Chopin and Emmanuel Chabrier and the Impressionists Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Modern classics were also integral to her repertoire – as were the works of her immediate contemporaries. Luigi Dallapiccola dedicated his 1952 piano composition Quaderno di Annalibera to Hélène Boschi, Claude Ballif paid her that honor with his Fourth Sonata op. 31

The sound of the horn epitomized stormy emotions for composers of Romantic music. Robert Schumann is said to have spoken of the horn as being the orchestra's soul. For poets, the horn's sound was a symbol of the soul's longing. For horn players, however, what was at stake for much of the Romantic period was the soul of the horn itself, for it was an instrument that faced experiment and change occasioned by new technology, notably the invention of the valve. This recording explores and illustrates this important era in the evolution of the horn.

The 19th century saw huge developments in the design of many musical instruments. In some cases changes were adopted more or less universally: the fortepiano that Mozart knew, a five-octave instrument constructed entirely of wood, had by around 1900 grown into the modern grand piano with over seven octaves and a castiron frame. With other instruments, progress was less streamlined. As late as 1865, the natural, valveless horn of Beethoven's time remained the instrument of choice for Brahms when he wrote his famous Horn Trio, and when valves began to be introduced, makers and musicians in Germany, France and Vienna favoured different solutions, offering different results in terms of sound and requiring different playing techniques. The present release is a unique combination of recital and history lesson, with a young British team performing music from between 1800 and 1942 on no less than eight different historic instruments: four horns and four pianos. This gives us the opportunity to hear the works on instruments that the different composers would have recognized, whether Beethoven's Sonata in F major (a natural horn from 1800 and a fortepiano from 1815) or the Villanelle by Paul Dukas from 1906 (an early 20thcentury cor à pistons and a Bechstein from 1898). Both notable performers on modern instruments, Alec FrankGemmill and Alasdair Beatson here revel in the sonic possibilities offered by the historic instruments with results that are as delighting as they are enlightening.

Some of Robert Schumann’s rarest piano music can be heard in this disc, which ranges from his precocious Titania Overture arrangement to the Ghost Variations, the theme of which, he told his wife Clara, had been sung to him by angels. His Beethoven Studies survive in three sources, whilst his admiration for his contemporaries Schubert and Chopin is shown by two works containing a series of variations. The 1836 Third Sonata is included in the pre-1853 revision and also included is the original version of what became his very popular Toccata, Op. 7.

Paul Dukas is almost entirely known for his popular tone poem 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. This work is, of course, included in this release; however, these discs also offer several larger sclae works, including his impressive Symphony in C major and the Overture Polyeucte as well as the delightful ballet La Péri. Three examples of his rarely performed but no less impressive piano music are performed powerfully by Margaret Fingerhut who received lustrous reviews on the original release. The music of Dukas is highly colourful and atmospheric, demonstrating his somewhat eclectic inspirations, which included Wagner and Franck, as well as the beauty of classical form. There have been relatively few recordings of the Symphony in C major and it is not commonly performed outside France. 'The rumbustious end to the first movement, with some superb brass and vigorous percussion, is a moment to be savoured', wrote Gramophone. The rarely recorded Polyeucte overture is a powerful work in five sections. In the work of Dukas, the Orient was the most seductive foreign influence, as demonstrated in La Péri, his last major work, written for Diaghilev in 1912. Yan Pascal Tortelier is famous for his interpretations of French music and plays this music with idiomatic flair. This bargain two-CD set, which includes the main orchestral and piano mastpieces of Dukas, is an ideal summation of the achievement of this wonderful composer.

Paul Dukas--an unfairly overlooked composer because he left for posterity a total of only 12 works--makes a significant reappearance with this sumptuous recording by Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de France. The first piece on this CD, the composer's only symphony, is a bustling work that calls to mind the music of Franck with just a hint of the propulsive dynamism of Beethoven. The "Fanfare," a grand flourish of orchestral brass, precedes the composer's last work, the ballet 'La Peri.' A work of sublime beauty, 'La Peri' combines the composer's formal, classicist tendencies with the ravishing impressionism of his contemporaries, Debussy and Ravel. 'L'Apprenti sorcier,' "a symphonic poem after a ballad of Goethe" is Dukas' most popular work. Full of wandering key signatures, swirling string sections and an array of colorful and humorous effects, this mischievous work has understandably proven itself to be the most endearing of Dukas' unfortunately scant output.