Vinyl Version – The only LIVE recording of this colossal piece of the German composer Max Reger. The Piano Concerto is a fairly special pieces: very heavy, very long, very difficult, it requires a permanent and nonstop action of the soloist

Burak Çebi, an outstanding pianist and composer of his generation, captivates audiences with his poetic, introspective approach to music making. His playing is marked by tonal perfection, subtly structured voicing and a range of moods and colours, allowing meditative moments to unfold, for example, in the late piano sonatas of Beethoven and in Chopin’s nocturnes. Since his recent successes in competitions in Italy, Spain, and Turkey, the Germany-based artist has made guest appearances in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Leipzig and practically all of Turkey’s major concert halls. Çebi hails from a Turkish family of musicians with deep and extensive roots in the Western classical tradition.

Although he received his first music lessons at the age of five, it was not until age 12 that he began to train as a pianist at the state conservatory in Izmir. He completed his musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Nuremberg, earning a soloist diploma. He attended the master classes of Stephen Kovacevich, Jean-François Antonioli, Hüseyin Sermet, Abdel Rahman El-Bacha, Filippo Gamba, Bernd Glemser and Jura Margulis. He was awarded first prize in the Orchestra Sion International Piano Competition in 2013 in İstanbul, second prize in Forum Orihuela 2016 in Spain and second prize at IMA Inharmonia 2016 in Rimini, Italy.

His hometown Izmir also provided the setting for his solo and orchestra debuts, the latter with the Izmir Symphony Orchestra, playing Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto under the direction of Ibrahim Yazici in 2007. He has given recitals and chamber music concerts in Berlin (Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, Haus des Rundfunks), Leipzig (Gewandhaus), Hamburg (Laeiszhalle), Bremen (Die Glocke), Dresden (Piano Salon), München (Steinway-Haus), Ankara (Bilkent Concert Hall, Staatsphilarmonie), Istanbul (Notre Dame de Sion, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall), Izmir (Saygun Concert Hall, Hikmet Simsek Hall), Bayreuth (Steingräber-Haus), Bourges, Rostock, Hannover, Ingolstadt, Trier, Ludwigshafen, Bamberg and many other cities. He participated in events such as the Klavier Akademie Freiburg 2011, Géza Anda-Klaviertage 2011, Heidelberger Frühling 2010, International Chamber Music Courses in Schaffhausen (Switzerland), Chance 2009 Piano Festival in Tegernsee among others. In his recital at the world-renowned Reitstadel concert hall in Neumarkt-Oberpfalz on the occasion of the bicentennial of Schumann’s birth in 2010, Çebi played a full Schumann programme and gained critical acclaim.

Burak Çebi, who also won prizes in the context of the international piano competition held in Steinway-Haus Munich in 2008 and the Mozart Chamber Music Competition in Nuremberg, has also been awarded scholarships from DAAD, Sparda Bank Nuremberg, Berlin Gotthard-Schierse Fund, Deutscher Musikrat, Deutsche Orchesterstiftung and the Richard Wagner Assocciation.

Iroko launches Avishai Cohen’s longtime dream “to do a Latin project with his favorite Latin musician in New York”. Israel based bassist - singer and master conguero-vocalist Abraham Rodriguez Jr., brim with tunefulness, grooves, warmth, indelible melodies and the bonds of brotherhood to summon Yoruba gods. In Yoruba lore, Iroko is a complicated symbol—a troll inhabiting the top branches of a tree called “the throne of god,” guarded against lest he come to earth, be seen and drive men mad.

But Iroko, the French naïve label’s unique release by singer-bassist Avishai Cohen and conguero-vocalist Abraham Rodriguez Jr., brims with tunefulness, grooves and warmth. It has deep roots in esoteric religion and popular song, and comes naturally from these 30-year cross-cultural collaborators who ward off trouble, united in musical spirit. The album is the 20th for prodigious Israel-based composer-performer Cohen, but just the third project out-front for Rodriguez, a self-described Nuyorican, Santeria-adept and doowop-batarumba king, though he’s added his secret sauce for decades to the best Latin New York recordings. It’s as soulful as a streetcorner serenade in Spanish Harlem.

Appeals to the Yoruba orishas flow among reappraising versions of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World,” the 1960 Academy Award-winner “Theme to Exodus,” and Sinatra-associated “Fly Me To the Moon.” Everything’s grounded in the propulsive clavé rhythm that underlies virtually all Afro-Caribbean-derived music (jazz included), as Rodriguez’s hand-drumming locks in syncopation with Cohen’s irresistible bass patterns, and their voices blend like those of true friends. Iroko launches Cohen’s longtime dream “to do a Latin project with my favorite Latin musicians in New York. It starts with this concept record, just me and Abi,” he says, “followed by the premiere in March in Paris of our band [with drummer Hernacio “El Negro” Hernandez, trumpeter Diego Urcola, saxophonist Yosvany Terry, and Spanish singer Virginia Garcia Alves], then a week at the Blue Note in New York, and dates at the summer’s festivals.” While Cohen, who earned his initial acclaim in the piano trios of Chick Corea and Danilo Perez, has previously convened world-spanning ensembles such as the International Vamp Band, and Abi (as he’s called, not by Avishai alone) has led the bands Cachimba Inolvidable and Okonkolo, Iroko is unprecedented as a synthesis of influences the duo reveres. They first met in 1993, working with pianist Ray Santiago’s band out of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. “It was a collaboration of Cuban and Puerto Rican music, with a little jazz,” Abi says. “A Nuyorican thing.” Avishai recalls, “As I got to where they were rehearsing, I heard the piano and conga doing some montuno [a repeating ostinato figure], slipped the cover off my bass and just joined in. We didn’t know each other yet, but the rest is a history of many gigs together.”

Avishai had studied jazz at the New School and Mannes School of Music, choosing as a teacher Andy Gonzalez, the busiest bass player on the Latin scene. Abi, a Santeria priest validated in his mixture of the sacred and secular by his godfather, the bata great Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, knew bassist Gonzalez and his trumpet/conguero brother Jerry Gonzalez, from the drum circles he sat in with while growing up. They were principals of Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino, in which Abi played, and the Fort Apache Band, best known for Latin-izing the compositions of Thelonious Monk.

Iroko is dedicated to the Gonzalez brothers, now both deceased, as a gesture to the salsa-meets-jazz movement that counts Machito and Dizzy Gillespie, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto and Eddie Palmieri among its stars. “What attracted me at first to Abi and Ray Santiago’s music was its New York edge, Latin music swinging a little differently, which Abi embodies as a melting-pot musician. He’s created a language for himself out of r&b, blues, doowop, jazz, Motown—a world of his own that I wanted to play bass in. From beginning to end, just conga, bass and vocals, and profoundly beautiful songs we could take apart and make our own. Now when I listen to the groove of it, I want to dance. The essence is there.” “As Mongo Santamaria said, ‘Drum and chant,’” Abi adds. “That’s what we have here. It’s universal, and for everyone, young and old. Even those who are bitter, when they hear these songs, will be touched and smile. Those who are angry? We’ll kill them with kindness.”

On Iroko, Avishai Cohen and Abraham Rodriguez Jr. summon Yoruba gods, indelible melodies and the bonds of brotherhood as a stand against the insanity that threatens us if we forget that our ultimate strength comes from creating beauty together.

This 4CD box set includes mostly unreleased performances of the First Prizes and winners of the audience prizes from the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in 2013 and 2016. You will find: Boris Giltburg (First Prize and Canvas-Klaraprijs 2013); Mateusz Borowiak (3rd Prize and Musiq3 Prize 2013); Lukáš Vondrácek (First Prize and Canvas-Klaraprijs 2016); and Alberto Ferro (6th Prize and Musiq3 Prize 2016). Four pianists with very different artistic personalities, each nonetheless having left his mark on two memorable piano sessions of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and provided some magnificent musical moments to be found in this box set.

This is an album meticulously pulled together into a dense fabric of diverse musical threads. It merits repeated listening; with each fresh listen, the richness of Reijonen’s intercultural vocabulary becomes more apparent.” London Jazz News - Even in our present jazz moment, when the art form is worldwide and vital, albums that come as complete surprises are relatively rare. Three seconds Kolme Toista is a stunner." Jazz Times - " Three seconds Kolme Toista is spellbinding from beginning to end, and full of virtuoso performances." AllAboutJazz

Jim McNeely: The Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (JOC) is one of the world’s great jazz ensembles. I’ve known some of these musicians since the late ‘90’s. But I’d never worked with the whole JOC until January 2020. Then Juan Martinez, JOC artistic director (and baritone saxophonist), emailed me. He proposed that I write a CD’s worth of music for the band, featuring all their soloists. After many more months of Zoom rehearsals (ugh!), scheduling delays, and even more Zoom (ugh!) we got into the studio in Hilversum for three intense days last November.

In celebration of the diversity and the mission statement of the Royal Albert Hall on the occasion of the venue’s 150th anniversary, the BBC Radio 3 commissioned Dance Foldings for orchestra, for which the commission prompt was to reflect the arts and sciences as they are now. Composers were free to choose their own subject, so long as there was a clear link to the sciences or to other art forms. The musical materials of Dance Foldings for orchestra take as their starting point the metaphors, pairings, counterpoints, foldings, forms and images inspired by the biological "ballet" of proteins being assembled and folded in our bodies.

"Letters to Bach" is a clever, original and beautiful musical project created by Noa and Gil Dor. In "Letters to Bach", Noa and Gil Dor perform 12 short instrumental pieces by Bach that Noa has written lyrics to and performs with incredible agility and brilliance, supported only by Gil's guitar. Noa and Gil have already "wowed" audiences around the world with these "McGuiver" performances of complicated Bach pieces that were not written for voice and rarely ever performed vocally. The synergy between Noa and Gil is mesmerizing, the lyrics full of humor, depth, romance, technology, political and social statements and plain fun.

Mozart created 22 stage works in his lifetime. This 10 CD box comprises the world-famous ‘evergreens’ in historical recordings from Vienna 1955. Soloists are Christa Ludwig, Lisa Della Casa, Hilde Gülden, Alfred Poell, Cesare Siepi, Fernando Corena, Kurt Böhme and many more.

REVIEW:

Böhm's conducting creates a slim, fluid Mozart sound in which the dynamic pendulum could swing a little more impulsively here and there, but which still has an instinctive feel for theatrical and dramaturgical diction on the one hand and interaction with the singers on the other.​

-- Klassik.com

Upon Wings of Words is a setting of Emily Dickinson for soprano and string quartet. Dickinson continues to inspire composers over 130 years since her death, and here it is the tense, springy rhythms of her poems that Read Thomas responds to. Soprano Kristina Bachrach negotiates the gymnastic lines of the outer movements with technical assurance, and blends effacingly into the ensemble in the slow central panel. [Bernard Hughes]

Across Star Box’s 6-minute and 30 second duration, the ensemble unfolds a labyrinth of musical interrelationships and connections that showcase the four musicians in a virtuosic display of rhythmic agility, counterpoint, skill, energy, dynamic and articulative range, precision, and teamwork. Throughout the kaleidoscopic journey, the work passes through various lively and colorful episodes, which propel the musical discourse always amid a sense of pirouettes, fulcrum points, and effervescence.

Unreleased outside of Israel, SHAOT REGISHOT ("Sensitive Hours"), the gold album recorded in Hebrew by Avishai Cohen between GENTLY DISTURBED and AURORA, is now available everywhere on disc and vinyl. For the first time in his career, he does not make an instrumental album, but an album of beautiful songs that he writes and performs, strongly influenced by jazz, some traditional music, revealing a voice with multiple accents and an incredible charm...An essential milestone in his already rich discography.

Dunaj, the legendary band of the alternative Brno scene of the 1990s release their first album in 26 years, titled “Za vodou” (Beyond Water). The busy career of the band, studded with six albums throughout the final decade of the last century, came to a halt after the passing of the singer Jirí Kolšovský. And although the other three members of the band never disappeared from the scene and were active in other projects and formations, they only came back together as “Dunaj” in 2019. Having met on the set of a documentary about the band, “Dunaj of the Mind”, they decided it was time to start playing together again. The role of the lead vocalist has been filled by guitarist and bass guitarist Vladimír Václavek who has in the meantime released a number of solo albums and become member of Iva Bittová’s band Cikori. The trio of musicians – Vladimír Václavek, Josef Ostranský, and Pavel Koudelka – invited electronic producer Aid Kid to collaborate with them on this new recording, together with producer Petr Ostrouchov. Representatives of the next musical generation, Kid and Ostrouchov have collaborated on the highly acclaimed album “Reka” (River) by Lenka Dusilová. The new album brings ten new songs by Dunaj. Two of these had been recorded by Kolšovský, though they were never published in his lifetime, and he could thus join his colleagues on this new release. A distinguished guest on the album is Iva Bittová whose voice features in five of the songs. Bittová collaborated with the band on two previous legendary albums (“Dunaj a Iva Bittová”, 1989; “Pustit musíš”, 1995) and appeared at many joint performances.

The Federal Jazz Orchestra, abbreviated and affectionately named BuJazzO by many, pays tribute to the legendary Clarke-Boland Big Band on its new CD. The legendary international ensemble existed from 1961 to 1972 in Cologne and was led by American drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist, composer and arranger Francy Boland.

Eugenio Della Chiara got his degree in classical guitar with full marks and honors at the Conservatoire of Pesaro. Among the Maestros he studied with three are Beppe Ficara, Andrea Dieci and Oscar Ghiglia, whose course he attended at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena. In parallel with his musical studies, he completed his education in humanities at the Università Cattolica of Milan, obtaining a degree in Modern Philology. He has performed in Japan, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, Norway, Denmark and Eire. In Italy he has performed solo recitals for some of the main musical institutions of the country. Between 2018 and 2021, he recorded three albums as a soloist for DECCA. He collaborates with violinist Piercarlo Sacco, guitarist Andrea Dieci, pianist Alberto Chines, messo-soprano Teresa Iervolino, tenors Juan Francisco Gatell and Mert Süngü. Together with Alessio Boni, he has staged ''Tutto il resto è silenzio'', a reading from Shakespeare's Hamlet accompanied seventeenth-century English music. More than twenty solo and chamber works were dedicated to him by composers like Carlo Galante, Orazio Sciortino, Roberto Tagliacollo, Davide Anzaghi and others. He has several world première recordings at his credit, among which the Sonata composed by Luciano Chailly in 1976 stand out. He has been teaching in the Italian Stte Conservatoires since 2017. He plays guitars by Domingo Esteso (Madrid 1935) and Lucio Carbone (Milano 2021)