SOME NOTES ON THE AUDIO/RECORDING PROCESS WE USED The singular sound of "Dreamspace" comes from fusing two sonic goals. By using a number of different microphones in various positions and distances, we create a comprehensive perspective on the piano and Michael Mizrahi's dynamic approach to performance, as well as a� realistic and life-like final "image" of the piano and Mizrahi's playing. The listener is situated in a specific place in the performance space while simultaneously experiencing sounds that could be heard from a number of listener positions. Bringing those two goals into harmony, aiming for both a multi-perspective and realistic soundworld, is what leads to the sounds you are hearing.� NOTES ON DREAMSPACE Dreamspace is a destination and state of mind.� Give dreams space. This record gives space for dreaming. Keep dreaming.

Delicious and subtle, atmospheric and communicative.

I have learned a great deal about the ud in recent years since becoming a member of an ensemble which plays traditional music from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. One of the ensemble members actually makes his own ud, and remarkably beautiful instruments they are indeed. He’s also a former primary school teacher, so each concert we do includes a brief and informative lecture on the history of the ud, and how easy it is to ruin a soundboard just when it’s nearly finished; after hours and hours of painstaking paring and planning.

If you look at the cover picture for this CD, you’ll see the ud in front and the lute behind. The ud is a forerunner of the lute, and, having no frets and more frequently played with a plectrum, is suited to playing expressive melody as well as strumming chords. On the CD this can be heard in the right channel, with the ud taking most of the melodic material, the lute providing harmony or the second voice in places with two-part counterpoint, such as the Estampie Fragment on track three. The roles can be reversed however, and the distinctive contrast in colour of sound is heard clearly where the lute takes on the melody in Diego Ortiz’s Recercada I. The CD booklet notes succinctly summarise the historical path by which it is thought that the lute emerged from the ud. Moorish musicians brought the ud to Spain where it would have become familiar in the royal courts as well as in popular culture, and it is also possible that Europeans may have heard it on the Crusades of the 13th century. Lute players began by using the plectrum with its emphasis on single melodic lines in a similar way to the ud, and then moved away from it as music developed in polyphonic complexity in the later medieval period, creating the multi-fingered renaissance effects we are familiar with today. Münir Nurettin Beken and August Denhard explore both aspects of these performance traditions, showing where they meet and diverge during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in a programme which has plenty of variety.

As you can imagine, this music is relatively simple on first impression, with open harmonies, and gently undulating melodies which reflect the vocal style of the era. Each piece shows different nuances and possibilities from the instruments, and the programme has been well chosen. Estampie IV for instance, has both instruments playing a single melody in unison, something which creates a fascinatingly timeless and universal effect. The ear is led into these sonorities gently, opening with the famously familiar Greensleeves; given contrast of texture in pieces like da Bologna’s Aspire refus contre doulce priere with its atmospheric tremolo effects, and introduced lively to dances such as the Saltarello as well as more frequent lyrical pieces. The programme is brought right up to date with a contemporary finale, Buselik Saz Semaisi by Mutlo Torun, which combines lyric charm with a gently Turkish frisson of mildly non-Western but attractive tonality and rhythm.

There are too many genuinely beautiful works to name on this CD, each played with sensitivity and improvisatory freshness by both players, and recorded with intimate clarity in a pleasant acoustic. This is the kind of recording which will create atmosphere for your candle-lit dinner and pour balm on your fevered high-tech 21 ^st century soul, but is far more than just consumer-fodder. The sense of falling backwards into a lost era of human communication through music is very strong here, and these musicians have indeed created a genuine ‘meeting place’ for two delicious sounding instruments and us, the meltingly appreciative audience.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Steal a Pencil for Me, by composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort, is an opera in two acts about one of the Holocaust's most unusual love stories-between Jaap Polak, a Dutch accountant, and Ina Soep, the daughter of a wealthy diamond manufacturer-who fell in love while imprisoned in the Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Based on their love letters, which were published in a book of the same title, Steal a Pencil for Me is about the indestructibility of the life spirit and the power of humankind to survive adversity. The opera dramatizes intimate concerns and private dramas alongside the epic horrors of the Holocaust. The action of Steal a Pencil for Me takes place in Amsterdam, at Westerbork transit camp, and at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp between the years of 1943-1945. Thirty-year old Jaap Polak is unhappily married to Manja, a capricious woman with a sharp tongue. He falls in love with 20-year old Ina Soep, whose boyfriend, Rudi Acohen, has been seized and deported to Poland by the Nazis. When Jaap, Manja, and Ina are deported to Westerbork, they actually find themselves living in the same barracks. Jaap's wife objects to the relationship, and Jaap and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Rudi appears onstage in the opera in Ina's mind, as she gradually reconciles herself to her grief over losing him. Gerald Cohen knew Jaap and Ina for over 25 years, and was inspired to write the opera after hearing their story and reading their letters. He and Deborah Brevoort met with them many times in the process of writing the libretto, and Jaap and Ina were present at the first workshop of the opera in celebration of Jaap's 100th and Ina's 90th birthdays. Steal a Pencil for Me was given it's premiere production in 2018 by Opera Colorado. The album, recorded in Denver in 2022, features most of the central performers of the Opera Colorado production, with Ari Pelto as conductor, and (in the principal vocal roles) Gideon Dabi as Jaap, Inna Dukach as Ina, and Adriana Zabala as Manja. Further information on Steal A Pencil For Me, including the full libretto, can be found at: https://www. Geraldcohenmusic. com/compositions/opera/steal-a-pencil-for-me/

Cameron Greider is a guitarist, producer and composer who has worked with Joan Baez, Chris Cornell, Natalie Merchant, Sean Lennon, Freedy Johnston, Rufus Wainwright, P.M. Dawn and many others. He started on classical guitar at age 12, but soon figured out that by putting a microphone inside the instrument and hooking it up to the family stereo, he could rattle the windows of their Washington D.C. house. In 1988 he moved to New York to study at the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music program, and soon found himself playing gigs with local singer-songwriters. In 1993 he auditioned for his first tour, with alternative hip-hop group P.M. Dawn, and the next week he was playing with them on the Tonight Show. He would go on to play and co-write on their next few records. Writing for strings led to an interest in classical music, which soon became an obsession. He went back to school at the Mannes conservatory to study music theory, piano, composition, and conducting. He enjoys writing for groups from string quartets to full orchestra and has contributed arrangements to film scores as well as pop songs. He also arranges classical pieces for his electric guitar duo with Jack Petruzzelli, High Low Duo. Jack Petruzzelli is a seasoned touring and recording musician. As a multi-instrumental performer, producer and songwriter, he has had the privilege of working with artists like Patti Smith, Ian Hunter, Joan Osborne, Rufus Wainwright and Sara Bareilles, to name a few. In the studio, Jack has collaborated with everyone from platinum artists to unknown sensations. He co-produced Joan Osborne's album Bring It On Home, which was nominated for Best Blues album of the year at the 2012 Grammy Awards.

GREENFIRE: Roof for the Rain (A)

From Whence We Came

Following the Moon

Bach: Mass in B Minor

BRAHMS, J.: Piano Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 (The Ames Piano Quar

Spain Rondinella (La): Songs of the Sephardim

LaRue, Custer: Ballads

AUSTRIA Schuler Folk Ensemble: The Sound of Austria (A Treas

Smetana, B.: The Complete Czech Dances

Music of the Sephardim & Renaissance Spain

Ispirare consists of contemporary music for viola and the pieces that inspired their creation. These works were chosen not only because they are engaging to perform and listen to, but also for their capacity to provide a creative spark for other composers.

Violist Melia Watras has distinguished herself as one of her instrument’s leading voices. A soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and composer, Watras has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous new compositions, while appearing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. Ispirare is her fourth solo CD, adding to an expanding discography that also includes 14 chamber music recordings.

Early in his career, George Rochberg was one of America’s leading proponents of serialism, but began to change course in the mid-1960s. The tragic death of his son contributed to this period of artistic change, and Rochberg broke from pure serialism in an effort to find a more personal expression through music. This album features his stunning “Sonata” for viola. 

Melia has been a long-time admirer of the amazing music of Shulamit Ran, and approached her with the idea of writing a new work influenced by an existing composition, which culminated in the beautiful “Perfect Storm.” Shulamit’s choice to pair her piece with Berio’s Black is the color… from “Folk Songs,” led Melia to Naturale. 

Luciano Berio reinvents American, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Italian folk tunes in his 1964 song cycle, “Folk Songs,” for mezzo-soprano and a small chamber group. Black is the color… has traditional lyrics with a melody written by Kentucky folk singer and composer John Jacob Niles.