We are familiar with the flamboyant baritone Laurent Naouri, a distinguished exponent of the four villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann from Paris to The Metropolitan Opera New York and an unforgettable Golaud in Pell�as et M�lisande. But here it is a much more intimate Naouri, the lover of melodies by Faure, Debussy and Poulenc, who invites us to a rendezvous: 'Here is a repertory I've been performing for more than thirty years, sometimes not without a certain frustration: for how can you achieve the intimacy suggested by a poem like Baudelaire's Le Jet d'eau- it almost pillow talk- when the vocal style forces you to "project" the voice? Although classical art song authorizes you to sing piano or pianissimo, it's still inconceivable to whisper in the listener's ear. To whisper, you need a microphone, and there we leave the world of the melodie and enter the world of "chanson," as that term was understood at the beginning of the radio era. I had already been thinking about these questions for a few years when I met the jazz guitarist Frederic Loiseau. We started off our collaboration with Les Berceaux, a melodie that Yves Montand had already sung in a "chanson" style. Encouraged by the result, we looked for other songs that we felt could benefit from this intimate treatment."

Sam Cave writes in the album notes: "For every note the guitar can play there are an infinite number of tone colors waiting to be coaxed from it's body." This is demonstrated very well in this collection of very new works, which extend the tone palette of the guitar in many ways, from the still, almost mantra-like' Refracted Meditation III by the performer, to complex and thickly-textured works by Fox and Murail, two distinctive sonatas by George Holloway and the almost alien soundworld conjured up by Horatiu Radulescu in the only work which introduces electronics (taped sounds) alongside the pure acoustics of the guitar. The contrast between Cave's sparse, single line interspersed with gentle chords, and Murail's transfer of spectral cluster technique, is exceptional. Sam Cave is quickly becoming established as one of the leading exponents of new music for guitar, with performances at leading venues around the UK and Europe. He has performed dozens of world premieres in the last decade as soloist and as a member of the Octandre Ensemble. As a composer, his works have been performed in eight countries by some of the most exciting soloists and ensembles of today. Sam plays a 'super-concert' guitar by Dutch luthier Jerome Hilhorst.

Could you ever imagine that one of the most popular saints in the Christian calendar of the Middle Ages was - Buddha? After ten years of research in a multitude of libraries worldwide, Katarina Livljanic and the ensemble Dialogos, faithfull to their exploratory and fearless spirit, bring yet another surprise from the less known medieval lands, after it's award-winning albums such as Dalmatica: Chants of the Adriatic (A395), Lombards & Barbares (A319), La vision de Tondal (A329), Judith: A Biblical Story from Renaissance Croatia (Alpha 702). It is the incredible story of saints Barlaam and Josaphat, a christianized version of Buddha's life, which crossed over at least four religions and was transmitted through almost all the medieval languages. Powerful songs - incarnated by voice and instruments, sing the legend about the king's son, prince Josaphat, who leaves the noisy world of opulence to search for inner peace - songs which follow the path of his story from one medieval language to another, from Greek, Latin to Old Croatian, Italian, Church Slavonic... This project is a unique new experience: a multimedia e-book, in French and English, is included with this release. It tells the story of Barlaam & Josaphat and leads the listener/reader through one of the most intriguing labyrinths of medieval world. Through a rich and original video, audio and iconographic material, it opens the doors into the artistic creative process which transformed a medieval legend into a music performance.

Pianist Richard Valitutto releases "Noctures and Lullabies", a collection of works organized around themes of transitional states between light, dark, consciousness, and unconsciousness. Featuring premiere recordings of music by Nicholas Deyoe, Rebecca Saunders, Philip Cashian, Marc Sabat, Maura Capuzzo, and Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Valitutto's poignant performances and poetic curation make this a unique and compelling release, containing works that explore a new virtuosity engaged with the delicate management of the piano's resonant properties.

Fapy Lafertin is a leading light in jazz, a legendary figure and guardian of the flame. He is also a great guitarist. Here he fronts his New Quartet represents the cream of the young guard of "string jazz" in Belgium, with Alexandre Tripodi and Renaud Dardenne (the "Violons de Bruxelles") and C�dric Raymond, known for his work with Tcha Limberger, Toots Thielemans etc. The album ranges between gypsy jazz - one of the most attractive, animated expressions of swing in continental Europe - and the choro and fado genres of Brazil and Portugal, whose Atlantic melodies are full of romanticism and sensitivity. The guitarist and his companions, all of them tuneful stylists, here invite us to fly through the air on a voyage that defies gravity.

Along with Vivaldi’s ‘Seasons’ or Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos belong to those works that are so well-known that we risk taking them for granted. In order to (re-)discover the special qualities that can inspire us today, in 2001 Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra decided to contact six contemporary composer, asking each of them to compose a companion piece to one of the concertos. Seventeen years later, in 2018, it was time to present the result, with a performance at the BBC Proms of all the works – new and old. Recorded over a period of 18 months leading up to this event, the present boxed set provides a unique opportunity to experience six very different musical minds and idioms entering into conversation with Bach: Mark-Anthony Turnage, Steven Mackey, Anders Hillborg, Olga Neuwirth, Uri Caine and Brett Dean. Bach’s concertos are remarkable in that they are all scored for different instrumental combinations, and part of the brief to the group of composers was to reflect this. In her Aello, Olga Neuwirth has for instance used several ‘instruments’ to stand in for Bach’s harpsichord, including a synthesizer, a milk frother and a typewriter. Brett Dean, on the other hand, has stayed very close to Bach’s instrumentation, but has chosen to write his work as a preparation for Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 – an Approach to Bach’s extremely tight canonic writing. In performing the twelve works the orchestra and Dausgaard are joined by leading soloists including Clare Chase, Mahan Esfahani, Håkan Hardenberger, Pekka Kuusisto and Tabea Zimmermann.

Szabadnak sz�lett�l is the title of the new album from Zsuzsa Koncz, one of the most famous Hungarian pop singers in the world. Zsuzsa Koncz's career began after her performance in a 1962 talent show. Since then she has performed with various bands and musicians, most notably Illes and Janos Brody. She went on several successful tours abroad during the 1970s, with performances in France, West Germany, the United States, and Japan. She is known for her lyrics which were sometimes highly critical of Hungary's pre-1990 political system. She is the recipient of the 1977 Liszt Prize, the 2001 Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, and the 2008 Kossuth Prize.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This album features works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Bach, Weiss, Albéniz and Febonio.

An important centre for iron production in 17th-century Sweden, Leufsta Bruk came into the hands of the De Geers, a Dutch family, in the 1640s. In 1730 the young Charles De Geer inherited the estate and the ironworks, and it was here that he kept his extensive collection of sheet music, including many volumes imported from Amsterdam but also works by composers based in or visiting Sweden, such as Hinrich Philip Johnsen and Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch. Charles played the cello and the harpsichord, and it is probable that much of the music in the Leufsta collection will have been performed by members of the De Geer family themselves. The collection, now housed in the library of the University of Uppsala, thus offers fascinating insights into domestic music-making in 18th-century Sweden. This is the third album to present music from the collection, and the first to focus on vocal music. It also features the famous organ in the church belonging to the estate, built in 1728 by Johan Niclas Cahman. Ranging from Swedish chorales to French opera, the varied selection is performed by soprano Elin Rombo and members of Rebaroque, one of the leading baroque ensembles in Sweden.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This carefully selected programme represents the key Romantic-era composer/players alongside more traditional pieces.

Born July 10, 1923, in Tiflis (later named Tbilisi), Georgia, Rudolf Kerer (also spelled Kehrer) was descended from Swabian immigrants and grew up within the Pietist community in Georgia. He began piano studies at six, and by twelve qualified for the gifted class at the Tbilisi Conservatory. In 1938, he performed in public Tchaikovsky's first Piano Concerto. In October 1941, Kerer and his surviving family were deported as enemy aliens to Kazakhstan. Without a piano, he devised a “table piano,” a table on which he painted a keyboard, so he could “practice.” By 1949-at 26-he had given up his dream of a musical career but in 1954, in Uzbekistan, he was accepted at the state conservatory as a student in the class of Zelma Slonim-Tamarkina. Three years later, Kerer graduated, and began teaching piano in Tashkent. Four years later, in 1961, he competed in the second All-Union Competition in Moscow and won the first prize. Following this winning, Kerer became a professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He performed throughout the Soviet Union but was not allowed to concertize abroad. In 1988, at 65, he was allowed to serve on the jury of the Beethoven competition in Vienna. He remained there to teach at the Musikhochschule for eight years. Later, he moved to live in Zurich, where he died on October 29, 2013. This release hears him performing some of music’s most beautiful piano concertos and sonatas.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This album features works by Sor, Tárrega, Bach, Paganini Rodrigo and Myers.

Sharon Kam is one of the world’s leading clarinetists. For her debut album on Orfeo (and performing for the first time in this trio line-up), she delivers a dramatic, sharply contrasting programme that is presented chronologically. Performing with her brother Ori Kam (viola) and the pianist Matan Porat, the program begins and ends with music by Mozart and Bartók, the latter's Contrasts producing possibly the most original and captivating contribution to the repertoire for this combination of instruments. In between are works by Schumann and Brahms that contain multi-layered biographical references and are closely related in their romantic spirit. “Sharon Kam is a clarinetist with an exceptionally wide expressive range.” (Edward Greenfield)

One of the most celebrated Korean-born composers, Isang Yun (1917-1995) lived through the turmoil of WWII and the Cold War. After being kidnapped and imprisoned as an alleged Communist by the South Korean government, he was released following international protests and moved to West Berlin in 1969. Isang Yun’s music explores Korean sensibilities and the compositional techniques of European avant-garde music. The composer established his unique musical language based on the traditional Korean music ingrained in him, the Taoism that prevails in Korean culture, and European Modernism. To celebrate the centennial of Isang Yun’s birth in 2017, composers from far afield wrote solo pieces for pianist Eunmi Ko to perform as a tribute to him – eight musical worlds that come together in one: Unus Mundus. Participating composers each had their own approach to his legacy. Ingrid Stölzel and John Liberatore reinterpreted Isang Yun’s “main tone” technique in their compositions. Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, Alejandro Román, and Stölzel used a motive or fragment from Yun’s piano work or symphony as main musical material in their pieces. Eduardo Costa Roldán was inspired by Isang Yun’s life and the Korean history that Yun lived through. Girolamo Deraco and Seunghee Lee make more indirect allusions: Deraco explored the theatrical effect that a performer’s body creates during the course of the performance, while Lee’s inspiration came directly from the Korean kite flying tradition. Most nostalgic among all the works on the album, Christos Samaras expressed sentiments from his personal memory of Isang Yun throughout his work Euphoria. This homage album looks back as well as forward. Isang Yun established himself as one of the most prominent composers in the twentieth-century classical music through embracing his cultural roots and embedding it into his music. It is hard to imagine the cultural diversity and richness of the twenty-first century music without the legacy of composers like Yun.

This release is the newest from Swedish vocalist Isabella Lundgren. It features arrangements of classic Bob Dylan songs, sung with Isabella’s exceptional artistry. “Isabella Lundgren has a seriousness and a gravity that is unique. It's like she makes time stand still just by being, I guess that's what they call charisma and presence. And then she sings absolutely fantastically, with a natural, flowing time and a low-key but expressive phrasing. The fact the she has something to say with her lyrics, also adds to the magic. She is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to the Swedish Jazz scene”. (Swedish Daily News)

”Lundgren’s incisive and agile voice, often reminiscent of Anita O’Day and Billie Holiday, came from a formally attired, deceptively slight frame and it thus was less of a surprise than it might have been to discover later that having studied music at New York’s New School she is now in Stockholm studying to be a priest. She had the congregation in her hand right from the lightly accompanied rubato intro to That Old Black Magic that opened the set. There was also It’s Magic and a couple of blues, all delivered with compelling authority and a mischievous sense of swing.” (Mark Gilbert, JazzJournal)

Esma Redzepova was a Macedonian Romani vocalist, songwriter, and humanitarian. Because of her prolific repertoire- which included hundreds of songs- and her contribution to Roma culture and it's promotion she was heralded as the "Queen of the Gypsies." These are the last songs she ever recorded- an album that will be truly cherished by her doting followers. Recorded in the studio with The Nune Brothers, the album is a blend of jazz, reggae, swing, salsa, and samba, all influenced by a range of Balkan sounds. "Beauty, charm, striking voice and performance skills." (The Guardian)

Arsen Petrosyan presents Hokin Janapar (my soul's journey), an album with a diverse collection of songs from many eras and genres of Armenia's historic timeline. Arsen has collaborated with Steve Hackett (Genesis), Emirati composer Ihab Darwish, and oudist Omar Bashir among others. He has performed throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. As a solo artist, Petrosyan has also toured extensively in North America and performed on BBC Persia. "Nothing short of exquisite." (Gapplegate Music) "Arsen's duduk playing sounds wonderful. It has a special magic." (Steve Hackett) "... one of the potential heirs to the duduk throne." (Deep Roots)

Soirée captures the atmosphere of informal, domestic music-making. Czech star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená offers an intimate and highly personal collection of international songs together with an outstanding group of musical friends, including Sir Simon Rattle, who makes his recording debut as a pianist. The German lied is represented by Brahms (Two Songs, Op. 91 and Five Ophelia Songs, WoO 22) and Strauss ("Morgen!"), the French chanson by Chausson (Chanson perpétuelle) and Ravel (Chansons madécasses), and 20th-century avant-gardism with Stravinsky’s Three Songs from William Shakespeare. In between these explorations, Kožená revisits her musical roots with a selection of Dvořák songs, arranged by Duncan Ward, as well as Janáček’s Nursery Rhymes.

Soirée is the second release of Magdalena Kožená’s exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, after having presented the baroque cantatas recital album Il giardino dei sospiri in 2019.

REVIEW:

Kožená is very much at home in this repertoire. Her beautifully produced, glowing tone absorbingly catches the predominantly fleeting moods of these parlour songs. She is accompanied by a mix of seven instrumentalists, whose playing is first-rate; that includes Rattle in his recording debut as a pianist. Soirée was not recorded in the Rattle household but under studio conditions, using the renowned acoustics of Meistersaal, Berlin. The sound engineers for Pentatone provide remarkable clarity and satisfying balance on this hybrid SACD (I reviewed it on my standard player). In the booklet, Kožená gives a short foreword. The essay by James Parsons is helpful and easy to read. I am grateful for the full sung texts with English translations in the booklet.

Magdalena Kožená is at her most engaging in this exquisitely performed chamber collection of songs.

-- MusicWeb International

Leading performers of 17th-century music the Magdalena Consort, Fretwork and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts combine forces under the artistic direction of William Hunt for their second release exploring the English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem – Psalms and Royal Anthems, particularly those of William Byrd. More than any composer before him, William Byrd catered prolifically to a wide variety of musicians. Connoisseurs of Latin motets at home and abroad, troupes of boy actors with their viols and their unbroken voices, solo keyboard players, the choirs of the established English church, and the underground ensembles of Catholic households where mass was celebrated in secret—performers of all these kinds could look to Byrd for quantities, in some cases vast, of music of the highest excellence.

The pianist Maria Kihlgren studied at Göteborgs Musikhögskola and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna gaining her diploma in 1979. She has performed in Sweden and several European countries, the USA and South America. In recent years she has also devoted herself to recordings. Her albums, with solo music for piano on the Sterling label, have been internationally acclaimed. All of them have a specific theme, with cover pictures by her father, the painter Carl Speglitz. The present release includes works by Scarlatti, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Reger, Debussy, de Falla, and more.

Herwig Zack was born in Frankfurt/Main. He started to play the violin at age 5 and studied with Karl-Albrecht Herrmann, Edith Peinemann and Max Rostal. Scholarships from the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” and from the “Rotary Foundation” made it possible for him to complete his education at Indiana University in Bloomington/Ind./USA as a member of the violin class of the legendary Josef Gingold.From 1982 to 1995 Zack held the position of 1 st Concertmaster of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, Herwig Zack has performed and recorded under the baton of conductors such as Karl Münchinger, Ferdinand Leitner, Uri Segal, Yutaka Sado, Paul Nadler and Gilbert Varga; his musical partners have included Henryk Szeryng, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Trevor Pinnock, Grigori Zhislin, Peter Nagy, Bernd Glemser and Ingo Goritzki, among many other renowned artists. This new release is a recital that features solo violin compositions by Bach, Vieuxtemps, Ysaye, Honneger, and more.

Vienna around 1900 was a melting-pot in several ways: a city attracting artists from the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire where bohemian writers and musicians rubbed shoulders with aristocrats and establishment figures, and where late-Romanticism co-existed uneasily with the Wiener Moderne aesthetic of the fin-de-siècle. In the visual arts, Jugendstil (or Wiener Secession) was all the rage: its curlicues, floral patterns and fluid lines were seen everywhere – in architecture, interior design and graphic arts. In music, the term is usually associated with composers such as Mahler, Zemlinsky and Korngold, but also early works by Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg. Following on three previous acclaimed recital albums on BIS, Camilla Tilling and Paul Rivinius have devised a programme with songs by these very composers, written between 1898 and 1916. The songs range from the Einfache Lieder by a teenaged Korngold to Zemlinsky’s set of Walzer-Gesänge based on Tuscan folk poems and the much-loved Rückert-Lieder by Mahler. Schoenberg is represented by his Op. 2 collection 4 Lieder and his student Berg by the set of Sieben frühe Lieder, from 1905–08.

Rivka Golani is one of the leading virtuoso violists of modern times. Her mastery of the instrument combined with superb musicianship has been a source of inspiration to many players and composers. More than 300 pieces have been written for her, including over 80 concertos to date - with several more in the pipeline. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras throughout the world including the Boston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan, Montreal Symphony and the Toronto Symphony. The BBC Music Magazine included her in it's list of the 200 most important instrumentalists and the five most important violists currently concertizing. As a teacher, Golani draws students from around the world to her master classes. She holds a professorship at Trinity College of Music in London and has also taught at Birmingham Conservatoire, the University of Toronto, and London's Royal Academy of Music.

Contemporary sacred choral music has been central to the repertoire of Vasari Singers throughout its existence, and to mark its 40th anniversary it has selected a sequence of anthems, mostly with star-based themes, the vast majority of which are by living composers. The rich variety to be heard reflects the choir’s commitment to the genre, whether in the ecstasy of Ēriks Ešenvalds, the serenity of Jonathan Dove, the shimmering harmonies of Eric Whitacre, or the ethereal beauties of Paul Mealor.

This release presents some of some of the best-known works from the Renaissance, recorded by Vox Luminis and originally included in various boxed sets on historical themes (Flemish Polyphony, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Music in Europe at the time of the Renaissance) that Ricercar has released over the last years. Vox Luminis was established 15 years ago; today, the ensemble uses its sparkling traits to enhance the world of early music! The push was made in 2004 by Lionel Meunier – bass and founding base of Vox Luminis. The objective is to gain access to the Light through the Voice. Every year, the ensemble releases on average two discs and offers its audience more than 60 concerts on Belgian, European and international stages.