Rossi, S.: Songs of Solomon (The)

McFarlane, Ronn: The Scottish Lute

Classical Music

This album pays homage to the guitar. While the casual listener may recognize many of these works as favorites from the guitar canon, the majority of the repertoire wasn’t originally written for the instrument.

Only the Sor and the Brouwer were originally guitar compositions. The other works started life in a different form, and stand testament to the strength and versatility of the guitar to not only play such a diverse range of repertoire, but to truly embrace it. With its polyphonic capabilities and roots in popular music around the world, the guitar is singularly capable of such a traverse of styles. This album is not, as the title may imply, a collection of the most beloved or greatest hits from the classical guitar repertoire, but instead a demonstration of the power and ability of the guitar to perform and assume ownership of such beloved repertoire.

New York-based Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd has been described by The Washington Post as “truly evocative”, by Gramophone as a “fine guitarist”, and by Classical Guitar Magazine as “a player who deserves to be heard”. He has performed across four continents, from New York’s Carnegie Hall, to festivals in Europe, China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. Active as both a soloist and chamber musician, Rupert Boyd regularly performs throughout the world in Boyd Meets Girl, with cellist Laura Metcalf, and as part of the Australian Guitar Duo with guitarist Jacob Cordover.

REVIEWS:

The sheer versatility of this instrument comes to the fore in a really eclectic selection, which traverses centuries of music from Bach to The Beatles in a sunny 60 minutes.

– BBC Music Magazine

Boyd is a very fine musician. His sense of line is beautifully showcased in Bach’s Suite, while his rhythmic acuity enlivens from the onset of Jobim’s Felicidade, performed here in Roland Dyens’s masterly arrangement. The final item, Boyd’s own technically assured arrangement of John Lennon’s ‘Julia’, makes for a quiet, slightly downbeat encore.

– Gramophone

Vocal Recital: Baird, Julianne - JOHNSON, R. / MORLEY, T. /

Ensemble Galilei showcases their astounding playing as well as arranging talents on this release, Surrounded by Angels. Each member of Ensemble Galilei is renowned in thier own field - two winners of the All-Ireland Senior Championship, two winners of teh U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, a four-time winner of the U.S. National Scottish Harp Championship, a Fulbright Scholar - they bring uncontested talents to this release. This release is so rich, soulful and deep that it transcends the genres of Irish or Scottish or Early Music.

Includes paradetas by various composers. Ensemble: Chatham Baroque. Soloist: Becky Baxter.

Includes traditional reel(s). Ensemble: Kirkmount. Soloist: Alex Bagney.
Includes traditional strathspey(s). Ensemble: Kirkmount. Soloist: Alex Bagney.

Personnel: Custer LaRue (vocals).

The Baltimore Consort: Ronn McFarlane (lute), Mark Cudek (cittern, baroque guitar, plucked bass viol), Mary Anne Ballard (treble viol, bass viol), Larry Lipkis (bass viol, gemshorn), Chris Norman (wooden flute, cauld wind pipes, drum).

Engineers: Craig D. Dory, Douglas Brown, David H. Walters, Brian C. Peters.

Recorded at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, New York in May, 1992. Includes liner notes by Mary Anne Ballard and Custer LaRue.

CUSTER LARUE SINGS THE DAEMON LOVER contains traditional folk songs and ballads from England, Scotland and America. Also includes a 20 page booklet with an introduction by Custer Larue, biographies of both Custer Larue and The Baltimore Consort, song histories and bibliographies as well as track-by-track annotations.

Just about everything that Custer LaRue performs turns out beautifully, and that's certainly the case again with her 1993 release, The Daemon Lover. LaRue's glorious soprano is in fine form on the title song (which may be better known to some as "The House Carpenter") and, indeed, all throughout the album. From "Fare Ye Well, Lovely Nancy" to "Queen Jane" to "The Ash Grove," it's sure to please fans of folk ballads with its authentic historical sound, and is definitely recommended. ~ Murray Fisher, AllMusic

This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

In the words of Duo Odéon: “… We met during our first year as doctoral students at Arizona State University, developing a natural collaborative energy when Hannah began writing her dissertation on Antheil’s three Parisian violin sonatas. Over the course of six months, we discovered the very limits of our technical and musical skill as we worked through each piece. We thrived on the raw energy and driving aggression of Antheil’s early sonatas, finding beauty in their vivacity and quirky athleticism.

In the fall of 2016, we received an email… informing us of a newly discovered Antheil work for violin and piano, found amongst the late violinist Werner Gebauer’s papers. Marc Gebauer, his son, had unearthed a set of three short waltzes, Valses from “Specter of the Rose,” an arrangement of music from Antheil’s 1947 film score for Specter of the Rose. As we studied Gebauer’s Valses, we learned that Antheil and Gebauer’s relationship extended far beyond successful musical collaboration into friendship, mirroring our own musical relationship. Over the course of their collaboration, Antheil composed two works specifically for Gebauer, his 1945 Sonatina for Violin and Piano and his 1946 Violin Concerto… In the ink of the handwritten manuscript at the Library of Congress, we could see Antheil’s borrowed melodies and ideas from earlier works pop out of the page, transformed for Gebauer’s technical brilliance… In our recording we have attempted to remain as close to the handwritten score as possible… With these three pieces, we have come to a deeper understanding of the collaboration and friendship between two incredible musicians...”

REVIEWS:

This disc gives us a collection of Antheil’s chamber music, performed by two of Antheil’s greatest supporters, the Duo Odeon, violinist Hannah Leland and pianist Aimee Fincher. I applaud the focus on Antheil’s music, which is simply not heard widely enough. The recording is an intimate one for all three works, with a hint of room ambiance.

– Audiophile Audition

This entire disk is devoted to Antheil’s mid-40s compositions for violin and piano and it is in that capacity a major undertaking. We get a chance to hear three substantial compositions played with true verve and understanding.

The Sonatina is a major offering performed with an excellent insight into the music, which is illuminating certainly of Antheil’s brilliant inventive talents.

The Concerto is most lively, and if I sometimes notice some passages very indebted to Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto, it is with a certain joy since Antheil integrates and revivifies the motifs to make something altogether his.

The Valses are a welcome addition. Three movements at a little over six minutes do not sound at all incidental but substantial in their brevity.

And in the end I come away from this CD with a real appreciation for Duo Odeon and their beautifully communicative Modernist musicianship and virtuosity.

– Gapplegate Classical Modern Music Review

This is a disc of late period Antheil, specifically 1945-47, a good 20 years removed from his wildest and most experimental period when he was the enfant terrible of Paris and New York. That being said, late Antheil was still a very good composer, perhaps more influenced by Stravinsky than previously, and it shows in the superb structure of these works, written for violinist Werner Gebauer, concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The Valses are, in fact, a world premiere recording.

– Art Music Lounge

This set includes a Blu-ray Audio disc playable on Blu-ray players only and a standard CD playable on all CD players.

In the Light of Air is a tetralogy of works that together form a structure of a single piece. The four movements bear the titles Luminance, Serenity, Existence, and Remembrance and are connected by short transitions to form a seamless flow throughout the work.

REVIEW:

The meditative, texturally rich landscapes of 'In the Light of Air' for viola, cello, harp, piano, percussion, and electronics by this young Icelandic composer are haunting, beautiful, and unsettling by turns. The sonic possibilities of the cello are explored in the intense 'Transitions', powerfully rendered by Michael Nicolas.

-- New York Times

The Ladyes Delight is a program of "entertainment music" of Elizabethan England, performed with unserpassed musical matery and panache by the Baltimore Consort.

Shakespeare's Music

Mendelssohn, Felix: Cello Sonata No. 2 / Ben-Haim, P.: Songs

Chamber Music - BRAHMS, J. / SCHUMANN, R. / DVORAK, A. / SUK