Classical Music

Pianist Ekaterina Livintseva writes of this new release of Rachmaninov works: “Sometimes we are afraid to grasp something that exists deep within ourselves. Human beings are afraid of revealing their emotions, they are scared of hurting themselves and becoming defenseless. That is how the unspoken emerges: a secret, a depth which accompanies us throughout our lives. The most important thing about Rachmaninov’s music for me is the fact that is exposes the soul. The emotions in his oeuvre are so clear and true- there is no way of disguising oneself there. When you play Rachmaninov you have to answer questions that you would not normally have dared to pose. In that situation a musician needs to be brave and, in a way, “pure of heart.” Only then does the music make sense. A depth emerges. The depth of the unspoken.” Ekaterina Livintseva is called “The Pianist of The Arctic Circle.” She began playing piano when she was four years old, and began her education at the Children’s Music School in Anadyr. She later studied at the Maimonides Classical Piano Academy, the College of Music and Dance in Cologne, and the College of Music in Wurzburg. She performs across the globe, and her prior recordings have received gleaming reviews.

Lorin Maazel (1930–2014) was perhaps the most interesting musician of his time. The very number of his engagements as Principal Conductor made him exceptional. After studying piano, violin, harmony, counterpoint and composition, and making his first appearances as a youthful conductor in the USA, where his family had moved from France in 1932, he played the violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and studied philosophy, economics, literature, French and Russian in his spare time. He went to Italy on a scholarship in the early 1950s, was repeatedly engaged – often by broadcasting stations – as a conductor, was the first American and at the same time the youngest conductor at the Bayreuth Festival when he conducted Lohengrin there in 1960, made his BBC concert debut with Mahler’s Second Symphony in London and directed the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin as its Principal Conductor (1964-75), was appointed General Music Director of the city’s Deutsche Oper (1965-71), then headed the Cleveland Orchestra (1972-82), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988-96), Orchestre National de France (1988-90) and finally from 1993 the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio. He made his New York Met debut with Don Giovanni (1962) and debuted at the Salzburg Festival with The Marriage of Figaro (1963). He made a memorable appearance in London in 1988 when in a single day he performed all nine Beethoven symphonies with three different orchestras in aid of charity.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new release from Timo Handschuh and the Sudwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim features music by New Rosauro. The Brasilanian Ney Rosauro is recognized as one of the most original and active percussionists and composers of our time. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1952, he started studying percussion in 1977 in Rio. Then he studied Composition and Conducting at the Universidade de Brasilia. He then received his Master Degree in Percussion at the 'Wurzburger Musikhochschule' and completed his Doctorate at the University of Miami/USA. From 1975 to 1987 he was percussion instructor the 'Escola de Musica de Brasilia' and timpanist with the Orchestra do Teatro Nacional de Brasilia. Later he ran the department of percussion at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Southern Brasil, where he also conducted the drum ensemble. From 2000-2009 he was Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Miami. Since then he has been working as a free artist to have more time for his concerts and new compositions. As a composer he has published more than 100 pieces for percussion as well as several method books. His compositions are very popular worldwide and have been recorded by internationally acclaimed artists such as Evelyn Glennie and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Classical Music

Classical Music

A mournful, melancholic influence became characteristic of the Russian piano trio. Alexander Alyabyev had displayed considerable musical talent as a young man. While still a serving officer in the Hussars, he began composing chamber music, writing string quartets, piano trios and many other chamber works, and soon turned his hand to music for orchestra (symphonies, overtures) and vocal works (operas, sacred and secular choral works and some 150 songs). He occupied much of his time in exile by collecting folk melodies. Sergey Rakhmaninov a truly phenomenal Russian piano virtuoso, composer and conductor (notably at the Bolshoi Theatre), was pre-eminently a composer for piano, whether in solo piano compositions, piano works for four hands or six hands, or pieces for two pianos. His chamber music too is dominated by works featuring the piano (piano trios and duo compositions). He also wrote major works for piano and orchestra: his Piano Concertos nos. 1-4 and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Arno Babadjanyan's compositional output, showing the clear influence of Khachaturian, extended to an impressive variety of genres. Apart from works for solo piano and two pianos, he composed chamber music, music for orchestra, ballet music, film music, a nocturne for piano and symphonic jazz ensemble, and over 200 songs. His oeuvre upholds the tradition of the greatest composers of his day: Khachaturian, Rakhmaninov, Shostakovich and Prokofiev.

The appointment of a Principal Guest Conductor with effect from the 2012/2013 season was a novelty in the long history of the Dresden Staatskapelle and bears testimony to the close relationship between Myung-Whun Chung and the orchestra. Since November 2001 the South Korean maestro has repeatedly stood at the head of the Staatskapelle during symphony concerts at the Semperoper; in the orchestra pit he has directed a premiere series of Verdi’s Don Carlos and he has joined the Staatskapelle on tours of Europa, the USA and Asia. Furthermore, he has frequently performed together with members of the Staatskapelle on the chamber music podium. At the 2013 Salzburg Easter Festival, for instance, he assumed the dual role of conductor and pianist. During the course of his Dresden Mahler cycle Chung has so far directed the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Symphonies, to be followed by the Fifth in the 2016/2017 season. Born in Seoul, Myung-Whun Chung began his career as a pianist. He started conducting as an assistant to Carlo Maria Giulini in Los Angeles. He has served as principal conductor at the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; he was music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France for 15 years. He continues to hold various offices in his native South Korea, including artistic director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, which brings together Asian musicians from the world’s major orchestras for concert projects. In addition to his artistic activities Myung-Whun Chung is highly committed to humanitarian and environmental causes. He has been an ambassador of the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and was nominated UNESCO’s “Man of the Year” in 1995.

Acclaimed by the international music press as a “virtuoso of astonishing brilliance,” and a “thoroughly poetic artist,” Luiza Borac has established herself as one of the most charismatic artists of her generation. Based in Germany, the Romanian pianist has won over 30 prizes and accolades, including First Prize in the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin and the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition in Italy. She performs regularly in Europe and the USA. She has given concerts in all of the major concert houses across these two continents. In 2014 Borac attained her doctorate following research into the piano works of George Enescu and she graduated in musicology from the National University of Music in Bucharest with the highest distinction. This release features works by Enescu, as well as Ravel, Debussy, Mihalovici, and Schumann.