On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That’s certainly true for a number of operas that, while popular and highly lucrative during their composers‘ lifetime, soon followed their creators into the shadowy realm of oblivion. Operas, for example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni – premiered half a year before Mozart’s masterpiece – is such an example, as is Ruggero Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and George Bizet’s Djamileh, widely considered the predecessor of Carmen. Other operas just do not stand out among other works by a composer – Jules Massenet’s operas for example are hardly a footnote of music history, his opera Therese, a thoroughly forgotten work, however, is. Two examples for works that are scarcely performed or even known outside of what is now the Czech Republic are also included in this collection of Opera Rarities on ORFEO: Antonin Dvorak’s last opera Armida and Zdenek Fibich’s Sarka.

REVIEW:

Containing radio performance recordings of six works by Dvorak, Massenet, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Gazzaniga, and Fibich mentioned often in histories of music but almost never on the bill, this is a box certainly precious for those who love opera.

– Classical Music Daily (Giuseppe Pennisi)

Dancing with the rain, in order to conjure, just for a moment, what we thought invisible. Driven by curiosity, eagerness, passion, excellency and tradition, the Percussions de Strasbourg ventures to embody the unique energy of a programme in tribute to four Japanese composers with admirable universes. Rain of petals, rain of screams, rain of silences, all these emotions are harmonized and kept in motion by Franck Rossi, Jean Geoffroy and the Percussions de Strasbourg. (Minh-T�m NGUYEN) Founded in 1962, the Percussions de Strasbourg are world-renowned ambassadors of musical creation. With their exceptional repertoire, the group performs twentieth century masterpieces and commissioned new works with the same concerns: to bring life to a contemporary heritage while revisiting it constantly, and to continue to innovate in a context of artistic diversification.

Classical Music

This new release features highlights of Dresden church music from the Carus catalogue. The set with 10 albums brings together several of Dresden's most important church composers such as Heinichen, Hasse, Zelenka and Homilius. The "Kyrie Gloria Mass" from Bach's B minor Mass according to the Dresden parts is also included in the release as a special treat. The performers include the Dresdner Kreuzchor conducted by their artistic director Roderich Kreile, the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Gaechinger Cantorey conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann as well as the Vocal Concert Dresden conducted by Peter Kopp.

EN SEUMEILLANT

The violin is undeniably the key instrument of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since the very first edition of the Ysaye Competition, won by David Oistrakh in 1937, and Leonid Kogan's victory in the first edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1951, an impressive succession of laureates has helped to shape the musical life of the last 80 years. This 4-album set includes highlights from the performances of the 12 laureates of the 2019 Violin Competition. These young artists are heard in their chamber music programme of the semi-finals, in their performances of the Mozart concerti in the semi-finals with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Jean-Jacques Kantorow, as well as in the great repertory concertos in the final with the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff.

Each recording in this 40-disc set has been selected by Chandos Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, son of the label founder, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.

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Founded by Brian Couzens in 1979, Chandos quickly established itself as one of the world’s leading classical labels. The ‘Chandos Sound’ has become a benchmark for quality, renowned alike among artists and critics around the globe.

From its inception, Chandos has specialised in recording British music, and in bringing lesser-known (and unknown) music to public attention. Released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the label, this handsomely packaged 40-disc set comprises 40 complete recordings from Chandos’ extensive catalogue.

Each of the four decades is represented, and each recording has been hand-picked by the Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.

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Excerpts from select reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Waltzes Suite, Etc. / Järvi, Royal Scottish National Orchestra - NLA


This 1984 recording put the somewhat neglected Sixth Symphony of Prokofiev back on the musical map; it remains on balance the finest available.

– ClassicsToday.com

Vaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow / Hickox, LSO

Conductor and orchestra respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.

– Gramophone

Ravel, Debussy & Massenet / Bavouzet, Tortelier, BBC Symphony

Bavouzet gets the tempo changes in Ravel's G Major Concerto absolutely right, following up with one of the most songfully flowing and elegantly shaped accounts of the Adagio on disc, and concluding with an absolutely scorching finale. The Massenet encores are both novel and delightful.

– ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Awards: Diapason d'Or Choc from the French magazine Classica This Guide to Period Instruments endeavours to answer the questions that every lover of early music has about the instruments used in these periods of music history. Text and recorded excerpts describe the origin and the development of every musical instrument from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century and place them in their historical context. There is a completely new presentation booklet, over 200 pages long and abundantly illustrated, as well as eight CDs of recorded examples of the instruments that shed new light upon major periods of music history. These excerpts have been drawn from the Ricercar catalogue for the most part and are completed by new recordings made for the purpose as well as by material made available to us by other specialist recording labels. This Guide to Period Instruments is a perfect synthesis of the music lover's thirst for knowledge with the sheer pleasure of hearing these historical instruments.

Born in Ontario in August 1919, Tommy Reilly studied violin from the age of eight, and began playing harmonica at the age of eleven. Though he had played in England in 1935 – 37 and continental Europe in 1937 – 39, it was not until his arrest (while studying violin at the Leipzig Conservatory) and subsequent internment 1939 – 45 in prisoner-of-war camps that he developed his virtuosity on the harmonica, basing his ideas of phrasing and interpretation on the playing of Jascha Heifetz. Returning to London in 1945, Reilly began parallel careers as a concert soloist and recitalist, a popular BBC radio and television performer, and a studio musician-composer. He performed with most of the major European orchestras and toured all over the world as a concert soloist. Inspiring the composition of more than thirty works by other composers, Reilly also transcribed a great deal of repertoire for the instrument, in addition to composing his own works. In 1967 he designed a concert harmonica, later manufactured by Hohner and marketed as the Silver Concerto Chromonica. In 1992, he became the first harmonica player to be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. His other awards included the Gold Medal of the Deutscher Harmonika-Verband, and a Golden Badge from the British Association of Composers, Authors and Songwriters. Sir Neville Marriner and Igor Stravinsky were among those who admired his playing.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Holiday Musical Treasures- Newly Imagined! Eric Holtan, founder and conductor of True Concord Voices and Orchestra states: "Every December, True Concord presents it's popular Lessons and Carols by Candlelight concerts in the Tucson area. Unique in the local milieu of seasonal offerings, the focus is on sacred Christmas carols. Even in their simplest form, carols evoke emotionally powerful memories of personal and family experiences that enrich and enliven annual holiday celebrations. With this album, I wanted to capture the essence of our much-loved concerts with the mostly familiar carols presented here, but in musical settings by American composers that are new or not widely known. With the kind assistance of advisor Dale Warland - who set the standard of excellence with several cherished Christmas recordings over the years by The Dale Warland Singers - True Concord offers these holiday treasures, most of which are receiving their world premiere recordings. This is Christmas With True Concord - Carols in the American Voice."This is the group's second album on Reference Recordings. True Concord's first album, "Far in the Heavens,"received a GRAMMY� nomination for Best Choral Performance, and composer Stephen Paulus won posthumously the GRAMMY� for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

COMPETITION, VIOLIN 1967/1971/

The Choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, with their director Edward Wickham, have collaborated once again for this album of Renaissance motets and hymns in praise of St Catharine - one of the most ubiquitous and beloved saints of the Middle Ages who also lends her name to the college (founded in 1473) where both groups are resident. This diverse programme spans a century in which the cult of St Catharine was at it's height, representing the prayers and exhortations of pious communities towards a saint who might represent their interests in the court of heaven. St Catharine's College lies at the historic centre of Cambridge and at the heart of the University's distinguished musical tradition. Founded in 1473, there has been a choir associated with the college for over a hundred years. The mixed student choir currently consists of around 24 undergraduate and graduate members, augmented by former choristers from the Girls' Choir; and sings regular services in the college's eighteenth century chapel.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “ORFEO 40th Anniversary” 2-album sampler well reflects these two sides of the label by combining highlight tracks of historical recordings with today’s global stars.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “Legendary Conductors” 10 album set for the anniversary of 40 years of ORFEO label history presents a selection of outstanding recordings with legendary conductors in the true sense of the word.

The instrumentation indications printed on the scores of 18th century violin sonatas were numerous and varied. However, the renewal of baroque performance over recent decades has imposed the uniformity of a continuo bass played on harpsichord and cello, despite the celebrated ‘o’ of Corelli and many of his pupils in: violoncello o cembalo. Though the use of the harpsichord is not to be called into question, other practices were common, particularly in the case of the violin sonatas. And it was unquestionably Tartini and his contemporaries who pushed a new practice to the forefront from the 1740s onwards: to perform the music of these great violinists-composers with an accompaniment of solo cello, which, far from being incidental, has a major role in the score. Other works of this programme render justice to the cello as a solo instrument, fully equal to the violin, with the first veritable duets for both instruments, something very much in vogue in the classical period. This musical itinerary of duets and sonatas for violin and cello offers a new experience, one that is varied and fascinating, with works of great beauty. Yet David Plantier and Annabelle Luis also show us a new sound image: the fullness of only two instruments of the same family is surprising, whilst the infinite colours and the uncommon pliability presented by this combination reveal unforgettable moments of music.

Der Musikalische Adventskalendar (2007)

Classical Music

ONE WEEK IN RIO is the phonographic debut of the duo, as well as the world premiere of two exceptional pieces. The title suite, written by Sérgio Assad, and a new version of the History of Tango by Astor Piazzolla. Adam Woch and Robert Guzik are one of the most interesting guitarists of the young generation in Poland. They have made their common debut in one of the most prestigious concert halls in the world – Carnegie Hall in New York. Their debut album consists of two world premieres: the seven-movement suite One Week in Rio by Sérgio Assad, composer and guitarist of the legendary Assad Brothers duo and the famous History of Tango by Astor Piazzolla in a completely new version for violin and two guitars, recorded together with Roksana Kwasnikowska. The remaining repertoire is complemented by works by Latin American composers, which have been the most popular during the last years at the concerts of the ensemble.

Classical Music

Nearly every large cinema used to house a theatre pipe organ. These were introduced to provide the accompaniment to silent films, but many British installations took place during the sound film era. When silent films gave way to sound films, those cinema organs began to use them to provide a musical interlude between the second feature and main feature films. This caught on and every worthwhile cinema had a pipe organ installed, and this continued until the later 1930s.

CDCM Computer Music Series, Vol. 1

Ruggiero Ricci is recognized to have greatly contributed to the world's renewed appreciation and affection for the great 19th century composers, though he maintained a broad repertoire including over 50 concertos with orchestra. Ricci has performed the world premieres of several contemporary composers including Gottfried von Einem, Richard Flury, Urs Joseph Flury, Vittorio Giannini, Alberto Ginastera, Alexander Goehr, Gail Kubik, Benjamin Lees, Gerard Shurmann and Carlos Veerhoff. His official discography encompasses the widest repertoire of any violinist. This six-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1951 to 1978, including some rarities, never recorded commercially, like the Ginastera Violin Concerto, Emile Jaques-Dalcroze Violin Concerto, and Paganini Violin Concerto No. 6.