Yury Kunets is a Russian composer, musician, and producer. Kunets began composing while studying in a public school. From the late 80's on, he wrote lots of songs for different bands and solo artists. From 2004 Yury was involved in several musical TV projects as a producer. Along with author and director Maxim Kapitanovsky, he created two music films: Blame it all on the Beatles. By 2011 Yury Kunets had accumulated a considerable repertoire of instrumental pieces. In collaboration with award-winning American conductor Lee Holdridge and British recording producer Christopher Alder, Yury began recording a series of symphonic music works. In 2011, the first pieces were recorded in Krakow with the Wroclaw Score Orchestra. After receiving positive reactions, Yury decided to continue recording with Holdridge and Alder. By the end of 2014 he had recorded several new compositions in Warsaw. Yury Kunets' music combines elements of classical music, jazz and pop music. In his symphonic compositions melody and romance work to reflect the author's inner energies. ''The music itself exhibits a very lyrical character, through which I was trying to convey my own understanding of life and my state of mind. It's the result, so to speak, of my philosophical reflections, littles tories about our being surrounded by nature, which is intimately connected in turn with our own emotional lives...'' (Yury Kunets)

Augusta read thomas : Avian Escapades (2016)For woodwind quintetDuration: c. 12 minutesFormat: 40-page A4 saddle stitched score & 5 A4 saddle stitched partsAvailable on CD, NI6355“There are no quotes or paraphrases of any music in Avian Escapades. Every note of the quintet is part of an integrated, wholly original composition. It is to be performed along with dancers when feasible” Augusta Read Thomas

Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

The Eighth Book of Madrigals, subdivided into a substantial series of vocal and instrumental partbooks, contains some of Monteverdi's greatest music. In this sumptuous collection the material is carefully arranged by category into madrigals of war, love and those for the stage, with a wide array of human passions and compositional styles. This is the first recording to present Book Eight in its original, uncut form, also incorporating instrumental sinfonias and dances by Biagio Marini to round off Monteverdi's design. In keeping with seventeenth-century practice, the madrigals are performed entirely by male voices, including a boy soprano in the role of Cupid.

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REVIEWS:

The quality of the performances is extremely high. Technical prowess is always in the service of the music, and Marco Longhini is not averse to pushing his all-male ensemble to extremes of slow or fast tempos or to special vocal effects. Another strength of this excellent interpretation is the size and scope of the instrumental forces. There are 9 players in the continuo group, a further 9 in a mostly string ensemble (including 2 recorders), and a viola da gamba quartet. This gives Marco Longhini a very wide palette to draw on for dramatic power, theatrical variety, and evocative effect.

– American Record Guide

As Longhini has pointed out in previous releases, the instruments to be used is largely left to the performers, and in the composer’s day would probably have depended on those available. In this series of discs he has opted for a ‘middle-of-the-road’ approach, so as not to become ornate, yet providing more that an obliging backdrop. In the vocal group there are, of course, no female voices in music of that period, so that much rests on the shoulders of the outstanding countertenor, Alessandro Carmignani. Yet again I will heap praise on the sonorous bass voice of Walter Testolin, his deep voice is an earthy delight. Solos permeate all of the madrigals, and when numerous voices are used, the Delitiae’s blend is pure joy. Longhini's approach throughout this series has that feel of dedication and authenticity, the music continually intriguing, immediately likeable, and, in every way, it has been a wonderful experience with this as its crowning glory. The engineers have once again played their part in the clarity of texture they have created. It is terribly sad that it is coming to an end, but there remains just one more book, the unfinished Ninth, that was published after the composers death.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

The Grammys in the US, the Gramophone Awards in Britain, the Diapason d’Or in France and the ECHO Klassik awards in Germany are among the organizations that have picked out many of Perahia’s recordings as some of the finest of their day. This set is devoted to Perahia’s award-winning discs for Sony Classical / CBS Masterworks. These also trace the story of his journey through the musical world, capturing magnificent collaborations, unforgettable partnerships and peerless solo accounts alike.

Once again, the itnrepid Zorro fights for justice! In the fourth of Naxos Audiobooks' Zorro titles, our hero's assistance is sought when the devious Pedro Morelos threatens the fortune of a wealthy heir, Vicente Canchola. Morelos hatches a plot to kidnap the Governor of California and extort profitable trade concessions from him. Zorro overhears this, but will he be able to foil the evil scheme, and stop the Canchola estate from falling into the wrong hands? This marks the final entry in the series; previous titles include The Mark of Zorro, The Further Adventures of Zorro, and Zorro Rides Again. Bill Homewood gives a lively and inimitably colorful reading as he is well accustomed to adventure stories, having previously recorded The Three Musketeers, She and the Four Just Men series.

How come a piano trio calls themselves ‘van Beethoven’? Isn't that a little bold? Beethoven stands for independence of mind, for revolutionary ideas, for music that reaches far beyond his own time. Beethoven was a ‘lone wolf’, but at the same time the central point of departure for new traditions of composition. This fits in with the main mission of the TrioVanBeethoven: the care of the classical trio works, but also the commissioning of new compositions or crossover projects constitute the work of Verena Stourzh, violin, Clemens Zeilinger, piano, and Franz Ortner, cello. Their first grand opus which is presented now with Gramola is this timeless recording of Beethoven's complete works for piano trio in an extensive release, comprising countless hours of recording sessions, which made them ascend into the proverbial olymp of this genre.

Although fifty years have now passed since Fritz Wunderlich’s tragic death on September 17, 1966, the singer and his incomparable tenor voice have remained unforgotten. One reason for this was the meteoric success of his artistic career. Following his performance in a student production of Mozart's Magic Flute in Freiburg, the young singer was instantly engaged by the Stuttgart State Opera, then went on to Frankfurt and Munich, performed at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, and had already received an offer from the New York Metropolitan Opera. What people remember most about him was his vital, lively personality, his almost limitless ability to cope under pressure, and of course his mellifluous voice, with its great depth, radiance, and delightful timbre. His accurate and always intelligible pronunciation of the words he sang has remained quite unparalleled. He performed operetta scenes with ease and charming levity; he bestowed the grace of genuine feeling onto lieder that had fallen into sentimental discredit; and he belted out party pieces with all the effortless verve of an Italian.

The recordings of some Munich Sunday concerts and studio recordings by the Bayerischer Rundfunk show him and his tenor voice at the height of their success. Together with the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, he can be experienced singing with such renowned conductors as Kurt Eichhorn, Siegfried Köhler, Willy Mattes, Hans Moltkau and Meinhard von Zallinger. Here he focused primarily on the German repertoire, from comic opera to operetta all the way to popular hits which,to this day, more or less owe their very survival to his interpretations of them in concerts and recordings.

REVIEW

The gatefold sleeve prints, in German and English, a short appreciation of Wunderlich’s career. It was cut short by an accident in 1966 when he was not quite 36 years old. His discography reflects a very wide range of repertoire covering all the genres from solo lieder to opera to oratorio. Here he is strictly in popular mode singing tuneful extracts, mostly from operetta. Singing of this quality is always a pleasure[.] The LP has been produced with extremely quiet surfaces and was hyperclean when I opened the sleeve.

--MusicWeb International

Günther Herbig knew the Berlin Symphony Orchestra well, even before being made Principal Conductor in 1977 of what is now the Konzerthaus orchestra. He had deputized in that post from 1966 to 1972. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. Solo flautist Richard Waage, an orchestra member from 1961 to 2002, also valued the work ethic of his Principal Conductor – notably when it came to the execution of solo parts. “With Herbig things were ‘more open’, when you had worked your way into a certain context, than with other conductors. He allowed you more freedom. You could offer more as an individual. I liked that a lot.” On one occasion when he had the opportunity to see Herbig’s conducting score, he was impressed by how every harmonic step was marked, so that the score bore traces of a musicological analysis. “This was the mathematical impulse” characteristic, he judged, of Herbig’s way of working. This architectural, formally structured approach to the music fitted well with the recording technique of those days, which did not allow breakdown into such small steps as today. Arches of tension thus sound more plausible, because there are fewer pieces to put together. “When you have long takes, of course that makes it all more organic,” concludes Richard Waage. It will surely have been these working conditions and the conductor’s specific style that made it possible, even in such an unpretentious piece as the Pavane, “to bring out the character of mourning”, which so moved Jürgen Kögel and other participants. This recording contains Ravel’s symphonic works La Valse, Ma Mère l'Oye, Pavane pour une infante défunte and last but not least the famous Bolero.

This outstanding release was recorded live at The Library of Congress on January 28, 30, and February 1 1946, and this is the first time they have ever been available to the public! Beethoven’s 10 Sonatas for Violin and Piano are performed by Henri Temianka and Leonard Shure, two of the finest musicians of the first half of the twentieth century. This remastered recording has received glimmering reviews: “The performances are magnificent: bold and fresh, technically fluid and musically insightful… exciting…elegant…exceptional grace… this duo balances formidable power with magisterial command.” (The New York Times) “A great hit in the Beethoven discography… one of the most beautiful surprises to the discophile in recent years… makes you hold your breath constantly… A priceless treasure.” (Diapason)

In 1967, New York Impresario Sol Hurok presented Mstislav Rostropovich in 8 monumental evenings in Carnegie Hall from Feb. 23 to March 12, 1967. Rostropovich performed 30 cello concertos - offering standard concerto repertoire and new works, several of which were written for him and two were world premieres. From these, a selection of 22 concertos from the actual 1967 performances are presented in this set. This marathon program features works from Elgar, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Respighi, Hindemith, Honegger, Britten, Khrennikov, and more.

Aïda Stucki's recognition as an artist is both inevitable and overdue. Her artistry is a timeless inspiration. Her interpretation incorporates bewitching sound, personal instinct coupled with great insight to the wishes of the composer. These recordings are a must for any string player and music lover. This second volume of her works shows her broad repertoire, and includes works from Brahms, Schumann, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Dvorak.

The early 20th century is a period that fascinates me. The prevalent musical aesthetic was disrupted by a new generation of composers who maintained their roots in tradition, but felt a great desire to expand music's horizions: they formed a multitude of currents and embarked on a number of different paths, all driven by the idea of transfiguring everything they had previously known. For this album I have chosen to retrace the path originally taken by Arnold Schoenberg. Born in Vienna in 1874, Schoenberg had an atypical career. Upon his father's death, he had to leave school as the eldest sibling at the age of sixteen to take up a profession. As an autodidact he learned the essentials of composition by sight-reading great repertoire and by playing chamber music on the cello and the violin. Married to the sister of Alexander Zemlinsky, Schoenberg took some counterpoint lessons from that composer and soon started teaching harmony and counterpoint himself, from 1903 on. His teaching activity remained central throughout his life, both in Europe and after having immigrated to the US. Profoundly aware of the continual evolution of Art as a historical necessity, Schoenberg introduced an important change into composiiton at hte beginning of the 20th century. He took it over the brink into the unknown by dissolving the classical functions of harmony, then by eliminating all familiar points of melodic and thematic reference. Schoenberg's Op. 11 is the first truly atonal work for piano ever written....

Following the success of the first Great Scientists title in the "Junior Classics" range, this collection features the lives of nine more remarkable scientists, with descriptions of their discoveries. From the astronomy of Copernicus and Halley to the natural science of Linnaeus and Humboldt, and from the discoveries of Pascal, Davy, Volta and Babbage to the harnessing of atomic power by Julius Oppenheimer, it explores the contrubtions made by these great scientists, and the impact on our everyday lives. This audiobook is a marvellous snapshot of nine of the world's greatest scientists, written and narrated so as to spark the interest of a junior audience in the fascinating topic of science.

Beethoven's first Sonatas for violin and piano Op. 12/1-3, composed during the years 1797 and 1798, contain unmistakable elements of his later composition style, which challenged his contemporaries’ critical taste accordingly. The violin sonatas No. 4 Op. 23 and No. 5 Op. 24 and their composition correlate, according to findings of musicologists, closely with Beethoven’s own relationships. The former one seems to portray the darker side of love, its unfulfillment, whereas the later so-called ‘spring sonata’ – as a sort of characterization of a loving heart’s feeling of spring – references the sweet, beautiful aspects of love. The three sonatas Op. 30/1-3, composed in 1802, the year when he also wrote the ‘Heiligenstädter Testament’, reflect Beethoven’s emotional state and are characterized by heavy mood swings. Maybe the most famous work is the ‘Kreutzer’ sonata No. 9 in A major Op. 47, once termed unplayable by its dedicatee, the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. By contrast, Beethoven’s final violin sonata No. 10 in G major Op. 96 seems more heartfelt in tone and was praised by critics as the ‘most poetic and musically most sensitively crafted’ of his sonatas. Thomas Albertus Irnberger and Michael Korstick furthermore present the variations ‘Se vuol ballare’ WoO 40 on a theme from the opera Le nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart. The Rondo in G major, WoO 41, and the Six German Dances, WoO 42, were written in 1794/96 and convey ease and almost juvenile cheerfulness – a trait also prevalent in the interpretation of Irnberger and Korstick.

One of the most respected violinists of the 20th century! This set contains many items not previously available on CD, and some that have never been released at all. - Allegro

Featured Artists:
Oscar Shumsky: violin/Maureen Forrester: alto/Lois Marshall: soprano/Nadia Reisenberg piano/James Melton: tenor/Mario Bernardi: piano/Primrose String Quartet.

The 3 CD set also features arrangements of unspecified arias from Cantatas No. 120 & 132 by Bach and unspecified songs by Rachmaninov.