This series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured in this recording are folk songs of four of the minority ethnic groups of Guangxi province – Zhuang, Bouyei, Mulao, Maonan. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin. It is noteworthy that the music of the Dong-Tai language speakers presents a common feature of incorporating polyphonic or heterophonic songs. Although this feature is present in the music of more than 20 minorities in China, it is rare that the speakers of a whole language family all incorporate multi-voice songs in their music. The performance forms of these multi-voice songs include nearly all the types found in folk music. The number of harmonic intervals is limited because the songs usually employ only one octave. Aside from pentatonic scales, the folk music of the Dong-Tai language speakers also incorporates the scales of three or four notes.

Lisa Friend leads this collection of original works and transcriptions for flute and guitars, joined by Craig Ogden and the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet. The wide-ranging programme includes Fauré’s Pavane and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise. Lisa Friend (Flautist) has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Prague Philharmonic, Virtuosi Pragenses Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic and has toured throughout much of Europe, Asia and the USA. Lisa has recorded as a solo/chamber artist for Silva Screen, Universal, Chandos, Champs Hill and Signum Records. Her previous album 'Essence' has been aired on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio London, WQXR Classical Radio, New York and WFMT Radio, Chicago.

John Rutter writes: “Revisiting this 1993 Cambridge Singers recording, I realize I should never have withdrawn it from the Collegium catalogue – and all because of an obscure musicological question in my mind over a Gregorian chant, long since resolved. We assembled a stellar team of forty voices, offering a sumptuous programme of music for multiple choirs, with the dazzling Tallis 40-part motet as the centerpiece. Allegri’s Miserere, now a firmer audience favorite than ever, and the most magnificent of Bach’s six motets, Singet dem Herrn, are among the other choral masterpieces featured on an album that truly is a banquet of voices. For the first time, modern digital sound restoration has allowed the music to be heard in its full sonic splendor, and we are confident the album will once again take its place in the treasured family of Cambridge Singers recordings.”

Volume 4 of Bridge's CHINARY UNG series (a 2-album set), presents five major works composed between 1987 and 2018 by the Grawemeyer Award-winning Cambodian/American composer. Annotator Adam Greene writes: "Ung was inspired by his mentor, Chou Wen-chung, to pursue music that explored cross-cultural practices. Ung's own term for the "style" of music that evolved was 'futuristic folk music', which generally speaking, he approaches through two processes: quotation and evocation. Ung's music is deeply suffused with Asian features, including modal writing, the use of drones, microtonal inflections, elaborate percussion sections, and an expansive, even languid approach to musical-time."

Love! Is all about love. About love in the period from the 17th century to the 21st, via Russia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Germany, to England and the United States. About passionate love, motherly love, forbidden love and love lost. There is a love dance and much more. But Love! Is also about us, about our love for music and the unique combination formed by our instruments. Because the orchestral possibilities and the specifically melancholy tone color of the accordion form a magnificent blend with the scintillating and sonorous sound of the violin. This is the second release on Challenge Classics by the unique duo of accordionist Marieke Hopman and violinist Cecile Hujnen.

The Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni, winner of the 2018 Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, has selected a programme that spans the 20th century. The first book of Debussy’s Images offers poetic evocation and virtuoso caprice, whereas Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 6, completed in 1940, is the first of his ‘War Sonatas’, characteristically contrasting rhythmic vitality with rich lyricism. Ginastera, too, supplies vivid intensity in his Piano Sonata No. 1 suggesting the sound of the guitar, while Ligeti’s Étude is a Debussyian evocation of a rainbow. Dmytro Choni was born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1993, and received his first piano lesson at the age of four. In addition to his victory at the 2018 Paloma O’Shea Santander International Competition, he is also a laureate of many prestigious competitions such as the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (Italy, 2017) and International Piano Competition in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (Ukraine, 2017). In2019 he received the Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

This album of French piano rarities features seldom-heard and recently discovered works by composers who had an influence on Pierre Boulez, as well as the premiere recording of Boulez’s Prélude, Toccata et Scherzo. This large-scale early work looks back on virtuosic Romantic music, while at the same time exploring the new compositional styles that Boulez would subsequently embrace.

Among the rarities is a posthumously discovered piano study by Debussy, a reconstructed birdsong work by Messiaen, and a tiny masterpiece by Ravel found in a notebook.

Ralph van Raat has been fascinated by classical music of the 20th century since the age of 14. Although his repertoire ranges from Bach to Boulez, his primary focus has always been on composers dating from Debussy, Bartók and Ives to present-day masters. Van Raat helps audiences identify with modern day composers by adhering to a classical approach: he firmly believes that a strong sense of classical structure as well as a refinement of tone is essential in conveying the logic and poetry of any music. This has not gone unrecognized: he is the recipient of a substantial number of national and international awards, many composers have written solo works for him, and he has performed over 50 piano concertos with orchestras worldwide.

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REVIEW:

In addition to other solo piano writing from Boulez, van Raat’s new album shows his lustrous way of playing lesser-heard gems by Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen. Given this repertoire, the album’s title, “French Piano Rarities,” makes plenty of sense. Yet it doesn’t do justice to the worldliness that informs this pianist’s process, no matter which tradition he is exploring.

– New York Times (Seth Colter Walls)

The work of pianist Jörg Demus was one of the most important musical exports of Austria after the end of the Second World War. In addition to many other musical partners Demus also entertained a very fruitful collaboration with the established Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger, which is documented on the occasion of his death with 90 years in April 2019 with this 3-album collection with mostly unpublished recordings. In addition to Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Sonatas No. 1 in D major Op. 12 No. 1, No. 5 in F major Op. 24 and No. 6 in A major Op. 30 No. 1, there are two Sonatas for violin and piano by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1016/1017), the Three Romances Op. 94 by Robert Schumann and the famous Sonatina in G major Op. 100 by Antonin Dvorak. The fact that Jörg Demus, in addition to his extensive concert tours and engagements as lecturer, appeared also as a composer in the last decades of his life is only known to proven connoisseurs. On the second album one can hear his Sonatas for Violin and Piano Op. 7 "Gahberg Sonata", Op. 35 "Il tramonto" and Op. 48 "Sonata sylvestre / Forest Sonata".

After their successful first album ‘Old Tunes, Dusted Down’ – a concept album devoted to the impressive fieldwork of folklorist Hubert Boone – MANdolinMAN dug even deeper into Flemish folk music with the album ‘Unfolding the Roots’. Played on four mandolins, the music took on new forms and the historic melodies were injected with a modern and contemporary vigor. Instrumental Flemish Folk music had never sounded so exotic! For their next project, they decided to again breathe new life into tradition, but this time looking a little further afield than Flemish Brabant and Flanders. With this new album – ‘MANdolinMAN plays Bossa Nova’ - the foursome explores the bossa style of Brazil and gives the sound of South America a new original touch.

BYU Vocal Point releases a self-titled album featuring a cappella versions of hit songs from yesterday and today, as well as several songs of inspiration.

The collection of madrigals "I Diporti della villa in ogni stagione” (The Pastimes of the villa in each season), consists of poems that are chained like episodes of a story marked by the seasons, like details of a larger fresco praising the pleasures of life in the countryside in the alternation of the different moments of the year and illustrating, in a succession of lively images, the occupations and amusements to which those who live far from the urban glamour dedicate themselves in the various months. Fields, rivers, flowers, trees, a varied fauna, shepherds, farmers, wine, fruits, fishing, hunting, bathing, dancing of the nymphs appearing, as it were before the eyes of the listeners: a colorful world full of that idyllic beauty longed for by intellectuals, in which echoes of the Arcadian world are felt, as already exalted in the Trionfo di Dori [Tactus, TC590003] and in many other madrigal productions of the time. Tony Corradini leads the Àrsi & Tèsi Vocal Ensemble in the performance of the madrigals dedicated to the seasons, set to music by some of the greatest composers of the Renaissance era.

Two previous albums of pan-flute arrangements on Brilliant Classics have served to showcase the technical brilliance and musical sensitivity of the Swiss pan-pipe virtuoso Hanspeter Oggier, and accordingly been met with critical acclaim. In partnership with the Swiss organist Sarah Brunner he now presents an original combination of folk tunes from the home of the pan-pipe with slow arias and quick dances by masters of the Baroque. Panpipes are difficult to tame, but have an incredibly rich palette of timbres. Hanspeter Oggier plays on a pair of soprano and tenor panpipes built by his father Christoph. Having been fascinated by traditional Romanian music since childhood, Oggier grew up with the records of the Romanian panflutist Gheorghe Zamfir, and he studied with the Romanian panflutist Simion Stanciu, alias Syrinx, for ten years in Geneva. Thus he is familiar with the uniquely irregular rhythms of Romanian folk music. The album opens with Cântec vechi bucovinean, a melancholy-laden song from Bukovina. The round-dance Hora Niculinei makes a lively contrast before the Doina din Transilvania, a rhapsodic love song. Such contrasting expressions also infuse the juxtapositions of Handel’s sublime lament Lascia Ch’io Pianga from Semele with one of Vivaldi’s most typically brilliant concertos originally written for flautino and with a merry dance by Purcell. Not all the Romanian pieces have folk origins, however: Lume, lume (in English: Earth, Earth) was written by the Romanian singer Maria Tanase, known as the ‘Piaf of the East’ who died in 1963. The song is full of sorrow for the passing of life and its drifting qualities are ideally suited to the mysterious, airy sounds of the pan-pipes.

This album is a unique musical marriage between double bass player Gianmarco Scaglia, who has released 20 projects in the past, and drummer Paul Wertico, who gained worldwide recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 to 2001. "I think that music, in most cases, "speaks" much better than the words. This album reflects exactly my personality and my approach to life and to music itself. I am grateful to the musicians, to Paul, Simone and Mirko who shared this vision with me. A special mention to Stefano Amerio (Artesuono) for his precious professionalism." (Gianmarco Scaglia)

This new release is part of the Best Loved series, covering a substantial selection of iconic and entertaining works from the Naxos catalogue. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists. Includes works by Purcell, Bach, Handel, Couperin and Rameau taken from recordings such as Wolfgang Rübsam’s Goldberg Variations (8.573921), Byrd’s Fantasias performed by Glen Wilson (8.572433), and Carillon from Poulenc’s Suite française played by Christopher D. Lewis (8.573364).

This new release is part of the Best Loved series, covering a substantial selection of iconic and entertaining works from the Naxos catalogue. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists. Includes Beethoven’s Für Elise, Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor, and works by John Field and Schumann, taken from top recordings such as Idil Biret’s acclaimed Chopin edition, Jeno Jandó’s Schubert Impromptus (8.550260), and Boris Giltburg’s Beethoven Sonatas (8.573400).

This new release is part of the Best Loved series, covering a substantial selection of iconic and entertaining works from the Naxos catalogue. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists. Awesome Organ includes tracks from popular releases such as Eric Lebrun’s recordings of Jehan Alain’s organ works, (Vol. 1, 8.553632), Wolfgang Rübsam’s Pachelbel series (8.554380) and Dupré’s Variations sur un Noël from Ji-Yoen Choi’s debut recording (8.555367).

A vibrant mix of creole heritage. The music of Sakili is from the island Rodrigues, a small volcanic island just east of Mauritius. The island’s European and African influences - waltzes, polka, mazurka, Scottish - all blend harmoniously with the ségadrum rhythms to intertwine the past musical traditions of African slaves with the western world. The three members of Sakili (Francis Prosper, Vallen Pierre Louis and Ricardo Legentil) had their own solo careers and were put together in 2019 by Mauritian artistic director Percy Yip Tong. The purpose of the group’s formation was for a European tour to introduce the rarely heard music of the Rodrigues island.

This is the third volume in the EP series ‘The Library’ – a series that explores both the history, and the new horizons, of The King’s Singers close-harmony repertoire. Close-harmony is the part of their work for which they are best known, and their library of thousands of arrangements is one they’re determined to explore, maintain and develop. The track-listing is designed to celebrate some old favorites from the library alongside brand new arrangements and adaptations, created especially for these recordings, which may perhaps become ‘old favorites’ of the future. The King’s Singers were founded on 1 May 1968 by six choral scholars who had recently graduated from King’s College Cambridge. Their vocal line-up was (by chance) two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass, and the group has never wavered from this formation since.

Inspiration, energy and freedom compose the alluring menu of La Vaghezza's very first opus. The five instrumentalists of the young Italian ensemble, recent winners of the EEEMERGING+ scheme, sculpt one by one these magnificent pieces of 17th century Italy, like jewels to be (re)discovered. La Vaghezza is a trio sonata ensemble playing music from the 17th and early 18th Centuries, with a special interest in the unpredictability, extravagance, originality and freedom found in 17th Century Italian music. Their musical interpretations are historically informed, but always guided foremost by their common sensibility as an ensemble and their search for ‘La Vaghezza’, an aesthetic concept which describes a beauty impossible to understand or grasp: like smoke, something calling to be touched yet remaining intangible.

Summertime's here, and it's been so long since we've been to the beach to soak up the sun's healing rays and engage in a day of red-hot fun! Bear Family has a perfect new soundtrack to accompany your trip to the oceanfront: 30 tracks that are all about frolicking in the sand and working on your tan while relaxing on your favorite blanket. Familiar names are scattered throughout the compilation; after all, no one knew how to throw a beach party better than Frankie Avalon, and his handsome pals Bobby Darin, Bobby Vee, and Freddie Cannon are here too. But there are also killer obscurities by Buddy Skipper and The Jetty Jumpers, Wayne Hollers, Al Barkle, and Ray Doggett, while R&B sax wailers Big Al Sears and Freddie Mitchell blow up a honking sandstorm. After the sun goes down and a cool breeze begins to waft in off the water, The Danleers' dreamy 1958 doo-wop smash One Summer Night is a perfect choice for slow dancing under the stars. Even guitar mauler Link Wray gets into the act with a surprisingly melodic Summer Dream. Pack the cooler, bring plenty of sunscreen, and pop 'Destination Beach' into your portable CD player at the first opportunity. Even on the hottest summer afternoon, it's the coolest!

Resonance is the debut album of Canadian cello-marimba duo Stick & Bow. These classically trained musicians present original arrangements that span a wide spectrum of musical styles, from Bach to Radiohead. This album transforms the listening of familiar works in refreshing and unexpected ways while introducing the audience to daring new music from active composers. The energetic duo Stick & Bow was formed by the encounter of Canadian marimba player Krystina Marcoux & Argentinian cellist Juan Sebastian Delgado in the vibrant city of Montreal. Classically trained musicians, they strive to present a wide spectrum of musical styles, ranging from rock to gypsy-jazz, Baroque or tango. Their eclectic repertoire features original arrangements of some of the most celebrated works in history, showing the potential of their instruments combined. In their creative process, they unite musical narration with humor and storytelling in which the powerful arrangements for cello & marimba transform the listening of familiar works in refreshing and unexpected ways. Stick & Bow is also strongly committed to the music of our time, commissioning works that are daring yet accessible from composers such as Luis Naon, Camille P�pin, Luna Pearl Woolf, Jason Noble & Marcelo Nisinman.

To celebrate it's 20th anniversary, Canada's largest classical music label, Analekta, is releasing a box set of six CDs and hours of music magnificently interpreted by it's major artists. Ang�le Dubeau, Alain Lef�vre, Luc Beaus�jour, Anton Kuerti, the Gryphon Trio, Tafelmusik, Orchestre symphonique de Montr�al and many other artists have each selected their favorite works just for you. 77 tracks. Analekta. 2008.

This collection of best-loved Christmas repertoire was recorded live at the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Festival of Carols concerts in 2015 and 2016. GRAMMY award-winning vocalist Sylvia McNair adds her own unique beauty and warmth, and as ever, the programme celebrates the joys of the season with sparkling versions of family favorites. The tranquillity and magic of Christmas eve, heartfelt messages of hope, reconciliation and peace, and thrilling new compositions all combine to capture the celebratory excitement of the holiday season.

REVIEWS:

The title refers to the practice in many churches of having a ceremony of carols and traditionals during the Christmas season, a holiday for the choir when they can really open up and let 'er rip, and, quite often, a sing-along for the congregation as well. It is, after all, the most joyous time of the Christian year.

We get all of that in a well-packed program by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra under conductor Eric Stark. The substantial choir are supported by an orchestra that plays with a lot of gusto, especially the folks in the percussion section (this genre of music encourages a lot of gongs and bells). Listen for some distinguished playing by pianist David Duncan in Rob Swenson’s Christmas Hosanna with its jaunty rhythms recalling that old chestnut, Good Christian men, rejoice.

Most welcome of all is soprano Sylvia McNair, whose warm vocal presence...adds a special quality to such songs by contemporary composers as Mary, Did You Know? (Buddy Greene) in which the choir asks Jesus’ mother a series of poignant questions (“Did you know when you kissed your baby boy, then you touched the face of God?) and Grown-Up Christmas List (David Foster/Linda Thompson Jenner) with its plea for greater understanding and peace among people).

McNair does some of her best work in the two spirituals, This Little Light of Mine and Go Tell It on the Mountain, the last-named with an accompaniment by David Duncan that partakes deliciously of the spirit of the blues and R&B. Sylvia’s intimate vocal warmth and sensitive interpretation capture the special quality of both these grand old songs.

There’s something for everyone here, including J.S. Bach’s Sinfonia from the Christmas Oratorio, its lilting melodies and swaying pastoral rhythm recalling those time-honored instruments of simple shepherds, the wooden flute and the hurdy-gurdy. We also have John Rutter’s All Bells in Paradise and his Magnificat, the lastnamed animated by use of Latin-American rhythms, Mendelssohn’s Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a recounting by composer William Goldstein of ‘Twas the Night before Chistmas with delightful spoken narration by Sherry Stark, and a rousing Jingle Bells.

-- Audio Video Club of Atlanta

As the forerunner of the piano and violin concertos, the concerto grosso is all about give and take. Not only one against many but also one, two or three musicians conversing with each other and with a larger ensemble in a genre that celebrates intimacy, diversity and virtuosity. The form inspired collections of instrumental masterpieces by the greatest names of the Baroque era, and it’s an ideal environment for the relaxed mastery of Seldom Sene. Ever since the ensemble’s debut release in 2014 (Taracea, 94871), it has continued to fulfill imaginative recording projects with the same ‘commitment, technical versatility, unanimity of ensemble and near-immaculate tuning on display’ (Gramophone) in that first album. In their booklet notes, Stephanie Brandt of Seldom Sene and Matthias Havinga explain that the challenge of arranging this repertoire was to create a wide variety of sound colors through the intelligent use of different types of recorders and the stops of harpsichord and organ. The Sixth Brandenburg Concerto of Bach is an obvious candidate for Seldom Sene’s performance, having originally been written for a similarly homogeneous ensemble of lower strings. In Handel’s lovely Organ Concerto Op.4 No.1 Havinga retains the solo part while the recorder quintet plays the role of orchestra and basso continuo. The roles are reversed in Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso Op.3 No.10, where the harpsichord accompanies the recorders’ flights of fancy. There is also an originally scored rarity: the Sonata for five winds and organ by the Italian-born Viennese court composer Antonio Bertali.

One of the world’s foremost experts on the 10-string guitar, Pascal Boels offers us a cross-section of the finest music for his instrument from around Europe in the Renaissance and the Baroque. He identifies this as the guitar’s ‘golden age’ – rather than the later proliferation of guitar music in pre-Romantic Europe, from Spain and Italy through Paris, London and Vienna, even as far as Moscow – because in the 16th and 17th centuries, the guitar and its plucked-string ancestors reigned supreme, whereas the later guitar music, although often of great quality, could not compete with the genius poured by the great composers of the day into the fortepiano. Renaissance Spain in particular was a bastion of the art, where the 12-string vihuela inspired an immense corpus of great quality, often enhanced with the mystical qualities of plainchant. The musical range on Disc Two of this set is quite comprehensive: court music, fantasies, variations or glosses on secular melodies (Josquin des Prez’s Mille regretz for example) and liturgical music. As the piano did in the 19th century, the vihuela in the Renaissance served as a platform for reductions of works for larger forces, making the great polyphonic music of the time more readily accessible to the masses and to individual players. The artist devotes Disc One to lands further north, where the guitar was often overshadowed by the lute, especially in England and Germany. Yet a portrait of this age in Europe would not be complete without the lute players Dowland (early Baroque) and Weiss (late Baroque) whose music is a perfect match for Boels’ instrument. This very personal selection is a small but evocative sample of a vast yet paradoxically little-known repertoire, that nevertheless goes a long way to helping the classical guitar further stand the test of time.