The church used by members of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri upon their arrival on the Holy Mount in Gostyń most probably contained an organ made in the local workshop of Wojciech Libowicz, who around 1670 is known to have built the instruments in various nearby localities. Regarding the new organ for the basilica of the Oratorian Fathers, historical sources speak of an instrument from the workshop of Jan Bernard Zitner from Głogów. It was installed in the church choir in the years 1766–1768 and remained there until it was replaced in 1855 by an organ made by Konstanty Kamiński from Opalenica. The present -day organ case, with its Classicist prospect, probably dates from that time. In 1958, the Biernacki workshop installed a new instrument inside it, using some of the old pipes. With the passing of time, it ceased to be used and eventually was dismantled in 2016. A new organ was built in 2016–2017 as part of a major project to revitalize the church’s Baroque interior. It has a mechanical action and a timbral aesthetic modelled on the Baroque-Classicist pattern. The historic case has been restored to its former shape and colors. The organ was built by Marek Cepka from Popowo, near Wronki. The works featured in this recording demonstrate the richness of sound of the organ of the Gostyń basilica, while drawing upon the musical tradition of the sanctuary and the two-centuries old musical community at the monastery of St. Philip Neri. These works were written by composers who were known on the Holy Mount from their vocal-instrumental music, as well as by those who participated in the spiritual life of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.

Parisian, Emma Boynet (1891–1974) studied with Isidor Philipp at the Conservatoire and became an established part of the local music scene in the 1920s and 30s. She was one of the few French pianists to find success in the USA, travelling there for the first time in the company of her former teacher in 1934, and as a result, made several albums for Victor in New York, including a five-disc 78rpm album entitled ‘French Piano Music’. Her career seems to have faltered in the 1950s but not before she made two highly regarded (but now rare) Faure LPs which have become collectors’ items. We are delighted to reissue them here.

REVIEW:

I had never heard of the French pianist Emma Boynet (1891-1974) before this remarkable release came to my attention and hooked me for life. Boynet studied with the legendary Isidor Philipp, with whom she remained associated throughout his long life. During the 1930s and ’40s Boynet made frequent concert and radio appearances in the United States, yet kept a low profile in her final decade. More importantly, she made extraordinary recordings. APR has reissued on two generously filled CDs all of Boynet’s solo 78s, together with the contents of two all-Fauré LPs recorded for Vox in 1950 and 1952.

If Boynet had left us nothing else, the sheer insouciance and effortless mastery of her 1932 Pathé Weber Rondo brillante (sound clip) assures her legendary status, although her sultry Falla Andaluza is nothing to sneeze at. She takes Schubert’s G-flat Impromptu at an appropriately alla breve tempo. True, she dashes through the Rondo finale of Haydn’s two-movement C major sonata like a bat out of hell, yet what staggering control and timing!

Apparently all of the selections in Boynet’s 1938 RCA Victor French Music Anthology were first takes, including an audaciously winged and imaginatively phrased Chabrier Bourrée fantasque that makes everyone else’s sound thick and clumsy. Naturally she plays Philipp’s charming Nocturne and scintillating Feux-follets with total affection and style. Boynet subjects Debussy’s Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir from Preludes Book I to capricious tempo shifts, and arpeggiates chords at random; it’s a curious reading that doesn’t convince. However, Boynet and Fauré merge as one.

She understands and internalizes the composer’s textural transparency and intricately wrought counterpoint, while projecting the melodies so that they move over the bar lines. As a result, some listeners may feel that her animation in the Fifth and Sixth Barcarolles borders on impatience, a factor arguably mitigated by the Vox LPs’ dry sonics and less-than resplendent concert grand. On the other hand, her Vox Fourth Nocturne is smoother and more lyrically unfolding than in her earlier 78 rpm version. And Boynet’s spacious, poetic Vox accounts of the great Sixth and Seventh Nocturnes count among the Fauré piano discography’s treasures.

Frédéric Gaussin’s extensive annotations are as scholarly and informative as one could wish, not to mention Mark Obert-Thorn’s world-class transfers. In all, a significant addition to APR’s ongoing French Piano School reissues, and an absolute must for pianophiles.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

A folksy take on traditional music straight out of the Argentinian songbook. Intertwining village roots, lively urban rhythms, traditional acoustic guitar, melodies of the pampas and Buenos Aires tangos, presented by Instituto El Cimarr�n. Argentina's folk music has a rich and varied tradition. Apart from the indigenous music of the Fuegians and Patagonians, Mapuche and Chaco Indians, the descendants of the Quechua and Aymara and the Calchaqui Valley Indians, there is a large mestizo and creole repertoire. The creole repertoire is of predominantly European origin. Three basic types emerge, differentiated by function: Carnival songs (performed collectively), entertainment songs (performed for an audience) and religious songs (performed solo or in chorus).Carnival songs, their lyrics in short stanzas, are accompanied by drums and guitars. Related dances are the chacarera, zamba and gato, the latter being one of the most important rural Argentinian dances. The cueca, a dance like the zamba, is found in western Argentina. The malambo is a dance in which solo dancers alternate in competitive performances. It is popular among the gauchos. The sung milonga may be a romance (traditional ballad) or a corrido (ballad, based on contemporary events). The milonga (dance) is an urban style developed primarily in Buenos Aires by known composers. It is usually accompanied by the accordion. Polkas are sung to guitar accompaniment in triple time or sung in duplets over a 6/8 accompaniment with much syncopation. The polquita (little polka) is sometimes played in processions for saints.

The melting pot of cultures in the islands and coastal areas surrounding the Caribbean Sea have made this region one of the most musically fruitful in the world. Every island and every stretch of coastline boasts at least one signature style of music - often more - each different from the rest, but all bearing an irresistible, dance-friendly rhythm. Enjoy digging your heels into the sand and listening to these sunny songs. Artists featured include ARC veterans, including Blind Blake, The Sons of Buena Vista, King Selewa & His Calypsonians, and more.

Certainly, the 'quietest time of year' is also the time when music is to be most frequently heard - not only in public, in shops or markets, but also in the countryside, where Christmas is the time when perhaps the most singing is done. The music author Marius Schneider once underlined this fact by writing:"God hungers for songs." And thus the time which celebrates the symbolic birth of the Lord is a great time for music - even for people who may have no direct religious beliefs. With this 5CD-Set Capriccio presents in total 100 Classical Christmas titles, sung by most famous choruses and soloists. And draws a bow from the high classical Christmas Oratorio by Bach to more simple songs from the country side. And of course the most famous song can't be missed: "Silent Night, Holy Night."

Maksym Rzeminski graduated from the music school in Kielce in the piano class of Janina Wozniak and from the Academy of Music in Krakow in the piano class of Marek Koziak. In 2015 he released his first album “Inception,” which received the patronage of RMF Classic. He followed with the 2018 album “Maximus” which showcased new interpretations of film music. On this new solo release, he has gathered another program of recognizable and moving works by artists such as Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Whitney Houston, and many others.

Black Umfolosi are Zimbabwe's greatest musical ambassadors. Founded in March 1982 by a group of school friends, the group has developed into a global outfit over nearly forty years together. With unrivalled beauty and enthusiasm, they perform music inspired by the traditional song and dance of their native southern Africa. As such they are true custodians of their culture. The name of the group is taken from the Umfolozi Omnyama River in the Natal Province of South Africa, to where their ancestors can be traced. Just as the river is a permanent feature of this stunning landscape, so the music of Black Umfolosi shall flow from generation to generation as their permanent legacy. Specializing in the 'Imbube' style traditional to the Nguni speaking people of Southern Africa, the band's performances are energy driven and completely engaging, mixing a great gentleness of spirit and song with an exuberance in dance. The group has become firm favorites around the world with people of all ages and cultures, due to their natural ability to communicate through song. WASHABALAL' UMHLABA is the fifteenth Black Umfolosi album to be released internationally. The six voices come together in crystalline harmonies laced with their usual brand of optimism for the world. Here, Black Umfolosi sings of the joys of life, with gentle underlying messages for us to count our blessings, to appreciate and protect what we have.

The area in southeast Europe known as the Balkans has long established folk traditions rich in complex rhythms and evocative melodies. Innovative guitarist Mak Grgic has selected the music of five composers to explore the variety and piquant colors embedded in their compositions. Drawn from his evolving suite called laments, Dances and Lullabies, Miroslav Tadic traces Macedonian folk songs, while each of the other composers brings very personal qualities. Vivid harmonies, vivacious interludes, syncopated rhythms, and a lively, jazz-like feel all combine to create a tapestry of moods and textures. Lauded by The New York Times and The Washington Post, Mak Grgic is emerging as a highly esteemed performer on the international stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests, ranging from Baroque and Renaissance to music of the cinema and from ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music.

Rooted in European music, native folk traditions and often infused by jazz, Brazilian music encompasses a huge variety of dance forms and songs. Prize-winning guitarist Pedro Aguiar has selected a panoramic recital to illustrate these elements which include the choro and music rich in melody and rhythmic vitality. From Villa-Lobos, whose Charos No. 1 is one of the most popular guitar solos ever written, through to the work of the revered Dilermando Reis, and on to contemporary examples of the genre, this is music of dazzling virtuosity and finesse.

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REVIEW:

Pedro Aguiar’s playing is irresistible. This album is a must for guitar lovers and fans of Brazilian music.

– MusicWeb International

“You don’t need a teacher; what you need is an audience.” Those were the words of the great pianist and teacher Alfred Cortot, after the young Rudolf Firkušný had auditioned for him in Paris. Born in southern Moravia in 1912, Firkušný and his mother moved to Brünn after the death of his father. The boy’s musical ability was already in evidence at the domestic piano, where he enthusiastically played by ear tunes that he had heard. A friend of the family accordingly recommended him to the local conservatory, whose teachers included Leoš Janácek. Firkušný’s relationship to Janácek and his works would do much to shape his international career. Janácek concentrated principally on music theory and composition. His career as a concert pianist began in London in 1933 and he was soon playing in the great centres of music across Europe. He travelled to New York in 1938 and went on to tour North and South America. The German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 prompted him to take refuge in Paris, from where he travelled to the USA by way of Portugal in 1940. The persecution and expulsion of Jews from large parts of Europe resulted in a tremendous enrichment of American cultural life by Jewish émigrés. Under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf, the Metropolitan Opera soon assembled a Wagner ensemble of world-class singers; conductors like William Steinberg and George Szell placed their stamp upon orchestras with new repertoire, and the concert halls opened their doors to European soloists. A celebrated concert of 1941 in New York’s Town Hall gave Rudolf Firkušný his own opening to a successful career in the New World. This was further enhanced by his grand tour of South America in 1943 and showed no sign of abating when he returned to his native Czechoslovakia after the end of the war.



REVIEW:

Really special are the violin sonatas op. 120 Nos. 1 & 2 in the version for viola and piano, with violist William Primrose clearly dominating the interpretations. The various piano pieces are technically excellent. A highlight is the very sensitively played sonata by César Franck with the Vienna-born violinist Erica Morini, an artist who formed an ideal duo with Firkusny. Their performances of the Beethoven sonatas in this collection are excellent too. This box also contains only one of Beethoven’s concertos, the Fifth, in a grandiose, energetic and lean interpretation. Firkusny (1912-1994) plays brilliantly and with the greatest precision. But the superiority of the performance is ultimately due to the perfect collaboration between Firkusny and the conductor William Steinberg, who allows the Pittsburgh Symphony to play just as transparently and precisely with a springy, slender sound. Firkusny plays the Piano Sonatas No. 8 (Pathétique), 14 (Moonlight), 21 (Waldstein) with the greatest clarity and attention to detail, with little pedal, and it is certainly not bad to hear these works sometimes so objectively and yet excitingly. Profil’s collection also includes more or less inspired solo recordings of works by Schumann, Schubert, Mozart and Debussy, a very good Piano Sonata in B minor by Chopin, rich in details and sensitively played, as well as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition played with bravura.

Really special are the violin sonatas op. 120 Nos. 1 & 2 in the version for viola and piano, with violist William Primrose clearly dominating the interpretations. The various piano pieces are technically excellent.

Another highlight is the very sensitively played sonata by César Franck with the Vienna-born violinist Erica Morini, an artist who formed an ideal duo with Firkusny. Their performances of the Beethoven sonatas in this collection are excellent too.

Firkusny's playing in the Beethoven Fifth is brilliant, exhibiting the greatest precision. But the superiority of the performance is ultimately due to the perfect collaboration between Firkusny and the conductor William Steinberg, who allows the Pittsburgh Symphony to play just as transparently and precisely with a springy, slender sound.

Firkusny plays the Piano Sonatas No. 8 (Pathétique), 14 (Moonlight), 21 (Waldstein) with the greatest clarity and attention to detail, with little pedal, and it is certainly not bad to hear these works sometimes so objectively and yet excitingly.

Profil’s collection also includes more or less inspired solo recordings of works by Schumann, Schubert, Mozart and Debussy, a very good Piano Sonata in B minor by Chopin, rich in details and sensitively played, as well as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition played with bravura.

– Pizzicato (Remy Franck)

Both in his native Denmark and around the world, Thomas Jensen became known for his uniquely authoritative interpretations of Carl Nielsen’s music. His postwar Decca and HMV studio recordings of the first two symphonies are inflected with unrivalled sweep and passion. They are coupled here with previously unpublished broadcasts of music by four Danish composers from the generation after Nielsen, including the brooding Largo which set the scene for Carl Th. Dreyer’s cinematic masterpiece, Ordet (The Word). Thomas Jensen studied at the Danish Conservatory of Music. Jensen led several Danish ensembles, including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (from 1957) and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (then known as the Aarhus Civic Orchestra). In Aarhus he built the small orchestra up through broadcasts and tours within Denmark and later to Germany and the Netherlands. He also conducted the Tivoli Concert Hall Orchestra.

Cinuçen Tanrikorur's case is that of a genius who, revitalized by an ancestral heritage, crystallizes the transports of his imagination in traditional forms and intentions; the crystals are the creations, the forms are the modes and the various frameworks of composition (pesrev, semâï, beste etc.), and of improvisation (taksim) and the intention is that of traditional art in general and of Moslem art in particular: it must contribute to the most central function of the man who is to be an intermediary between heaven and earth, the khalifat (cf. Titus Burckhardt, “The Art of Islam”). Cinuçen Tanrikorur's style is a kind of paroxysm of Turkish savant art. The voice is characterized by the variety and the subtlety of intonations and timbres, and is placed under the sign of the symbolic conjunction of air and water: a fluidity which transcends both of these elements to the point of evoking the ether, and then the quintessence of sound. The Sufi doctrine of the alternation of light and veils is prolonged here in the domain of sound vibration: one sometimes finds oneself where the “when” and the “where” no longer exist, when “sound” and “silence” are one. The initial intention and the concomitant ambiance permitted the autodidact to invent a style of the ud which is completely traditional at its foundation and completely unusual in its form. The result is a different tuning of the lower strings (4th, 4th, 4th, 4th, 5th), and a right hand technique of playing without a rolling motion, and a fantastic dynamic of the left hand which explores to the utmost the intimacy of each string in order to elicit harmonic resonances which had not even been suspected before. Lyricism, fluidity, precision and hypersensitivity are the requirements of this style which has already begun to develop into a school.

Renaissance music from Spain has come to mean the works of composers such as Tomás Luís de Victoria or Francisco Guerrero rather than their predecessors. But composers such as Francisco de Peñalosa – who died in 1528, the same year that Guerrero was born – were musicians of genuine imagination and skill, whose work often shows a formidable individuality. The most recent edition of Peñalosa’s oeuvre lists 22 works as genuine: masses, lamentations, hymns and motets. From these, New York Polyphony have selected two highly expressive Lamentations, intended for services held during Holy Week and setting biblical texts bemoaning the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Besides two brief motets, Peñalosa is also represented by sections from his Missa L’homme armé, one of the many examples from the 15th to the 17th century of cyclic masses based on secular melodies. These pieces by Peñalosa are brought into relief by shorter works by his near-contemporary Pedro de Escobar – a deeply haunting setting of the beginning of the hymn Stabat Mater – and the aforementioned Francisco Guerrero. Guerrero is represented by Quae est ista, a setting of words from the Song of Songs which have inspired the composer to ecstatic cascades of notes. In contrast his Antes que comáis a Dios, with a text in Spanish, is simple but effective, in a propulsive triple time.

REVIEWS:

Francisco de Peñalosa is the link between the great Flemish composer Josquin des Prez (his senior by 15 or 20 years) and the full flowering of Spanish Renaissance music, represented by Alonso Lobo, Tomás Luís de Victoria and Francisco Guerrero. This new disc from New York Polyphony presents two Lamentationes by Peñalosa, along with a number of his Mass segments.

The superb singing, impressive acoustic space (of the Princeton Abbey in the former site of the Saint Joseph's Seminary in Plainsboro NJ), and perfectly captured audio all come together to provide an experience that is both timeless and completely in the moment. Another impressive project from New York Polyphony!

-- Music for Several Instruments

It’s wonderful to hear more music from Francisco de Peñalosa (1470-1528), and particularly pleasing that it comes on this stylish release from New York Polyphony complete with superb booklet notes by Ivan Moody.

-- Gramophone

In summer 1987, nine years after he first requested permission to emigrate, the 35-year-old Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman was finally allowed to leave the Soviet Union. Feltsman, who had studied at the Moscow Conservatory with the legendary Yakov Flier and won first prize at the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris at the age of 19, arrived in New York amid a welter of publicity. CBS Masterworks offered him a recording contract, while President Ronald Reagan welcomed him to the White House for a recital that was glowingly reviewed in the New York Times.

When Feltsman made his Carnegie Hall debut two months later, the Times hailed him as “an artist of wide musical interests who on this occasion included three pieces from Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésusto set off more popular works by Schubert and Schumann … Mr. Feltsman took an aptly spacious and relaxed approach to the first two movements [of Schubert’s A major Sonata D 664)] … He then let loose in the more brilliant Allegro finale with an impressive display of breathtaking scales … In the Messiaen, Mr. Feltsman drew out its great, clashing sonorities and made light of its technical terrors. At the conclusion of Schumann’sSymphonic Etudes, any lingering doubts about Mr. Feltsman’s pianistic strengths or artistic instincts were blown away.”

Interest in Feltsman’s pianism had already been piqued before the pianist set foot in the New World by a performance, released by CBS in 1986, of the Chopin Preludes recorded in Moscow. “Feltsman sweeps through the 24 Preludes with genuine poetic bravura,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. “There is a daring and Romantic fire in the playing which only add to the agony of his plight.”

Now Sony Classical is reissuing that Carnegie debut recital from 1987, a Russian Chopin recording that preceded it and an even earlier Schubert recital, from Paris in 1978, along with all the other Feltsman performances captured by CBS mics before his collaboration with the label ended in 1989. Among them are a live Liszt recital including the B minor Sonata and a live Rachmaninoff coupling of the Third Concerto andRhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic: “Feltsman’s pianistic control compels admiration. He is a commanding player.” (Gramophone).

He also recorded the First and Third Tchaikovsky concertos with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra under Mstislav Rostropovich, who, wrote Gramophone’s reviewer, “coaxes out playing of the very highest quality – rich-toned, idiomatic in inflexion, with just the right degree of thrust when required … [Feltsman’s] is a relatively laid back view of the First Concerto – no screaming in the outer movements, no flash-fingered shallowness in the central prestissimo of the slow movement. The big first movement cadenza is wonderfully fluid and continuous, and the transition into the following coda is a dream. There is much sensitive dialogue between piano and orchestra, well captured by the recording … a performance one can learn from, and the Third Concerto goes splendidly.”

Feltsman’s last CBS recording featured the first two Prokofiev Piano Concertos and ten pieces from Romeo and Juliet: “One has only to hear the refinement of colour he produces in ‘Romeo bids Juliet farewell’ … or the clarity and lightness of articulation in the First Concerto to realize that he possesses not only formidable fingers but very considerable artistry … The LSO under Michael Tilson Thomas produce excellent support … Again [in Concerto No. 2] there is splendid pianism from Feltsman and cultured playing from Tilson Thomas and the LSO.”

SET CONTENTS:

DISC 1:
Chopin: Préludes, Op. 28

DISC 2:
Schubert: Fantasy in C Major, Op. 15, D. 760 "Wanderer"    
Schubert: Moments musicaux, Op. 94, D. 780    

DISC 3:
Schubert: Sonata for Piano in A Major, Op. 120, D. 664    
Messiaen: Vingt regards sur L'enfant-Jésus    

DISC 4:
Schumann: Symphonic Études (Variations) in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 13    
Rachmaninoff: Prélude in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 32, No. 12    
Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme in D Major, Op. 76    

DISC 5:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30    
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43    
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Performer: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC 6:
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-Flat Major, Op. 10    
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 (1923 Version)    
Prokofiev: 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75: No. 10, Romeo and Juliet before Parting    
Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas 
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra 

DISC 7:
Liszt: Sonata in B Minor
Liszt: Tre Sonetti di Petrarca
Liszt: St. Francis d'Assise: La predication aux oiseaux

DISC 8:
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 75: Allegro brillante
Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich 
Orchestra: National Symphony Orchestra 

The acclaimed English Song Series celebrates the richness and diversity of British composers, performed by leading interpreters of the repertoire. Growing out of an ancient tradition that still echoes in the folk song arrangements of Benjamin Britten, the British art song draws its inspiration from the English poetic language, the nation’s unique land and seascapes, and the suffering and joy of human emotions. From the delightfully light-hearted songs of Liza Lehmann to the abundance of invention and imagery from today’s composers, this collection is a repository of the essence of British musical craftsmanship at its finest.

REVIEWS:

There is so much is here that is central to the genre, and it is all almost uniformly well done. In addition, there is enough here that is less well-known, assuming many collectors will have the main works of, say, Butterworth, Finzi, Vaughan Williams, and others, that even that collector will grow their knowledge and pleasure through acquiring this collection. It is to be hoped that this issue does not signal an end to Naxos’s recordings of this repertoire. There are many other composers and songs that could be added to its catalog. Meanwhile we have this superb anthology of many of the finest English songs from the late Victorians to the present day.

-- MusicWeb International

This superlative set's roster is impressive, with turns from Felicity Lott, Thomas Allen, Susan Bickley, Gerald Finley and even Judi Dench.

– BBC Music Magazine

This set will surely provide many hours of listening pleasure.

-- Gramophone

This is a hugely ambitious and successful project that deserves many hours of attention and appreciation. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

– Opera Now

When the Darmstadt teenager Volker Kriegel (1943-2003) officially debuted his first chords in the late 1950s, the guitar was still an outsider instrument in jazz. It could boast a few luminaries, but actually everything was still open when, in 1963 and 1964, the autodidact from Hessen won first prizes as guitarist and soloist at the amateur jazz festival in Düsseldorf. The debut recordings in 1963, which Südwestfunk (SWF) recorded with the nineteen-year-old guitarist in trio at the Deutschhaus in Mainz, and the 1969 studio sessions in the Kammersaal Studio, are worlds apart. For one thing, the guitar itself had carved out a career. On top of this, Kriegel had gained in self-confidence. But above all, he had found a counterpart in Claudio Szenkar, who opened up perspectives not only in terms of communication and composition but also through Kriegel’s own instrument. The combination of vibraphone and guitar was then still fairly new. In 1968, Kriegel decided to make music his main profession. Thanks to "With A Little Help from My Friends" and an appearance at the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, he achieved the breakthrough into public recognition. Together with the vibraphonist Dave Pike, the bassist Hans Rettenbacher and the drummer Peter Baumeister, he founded the Dave Pike Set, which became for four years his artistic center and a beacon combo of European jazz rock. And for the SWF (Südwestfunk, today SWR) he went twice into the sound studio. With the exceptions of The Beatles’s anthem "Norwegian Wood" and "Mother People" by the young guitar berserker Frank Zappa, hardly any pieces by other musicians are still to be heard in these recordings.

Florence, May 2nd, 1589: on occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine an impressive celebration apparatus was put up to display the magnificence of the Medici household. Behind this official event lay an ambitious project which involved an incredible team of the most important poets and musicians of the time, such as Cristofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio, Giulio Caccini, Jacopo Peri, Emilio De’ Cavalieri as well as Count Giovanni De’ Bardi, who was engaged to compose the Intermedi for Girolamo Bargagli’s play La Pellegrina. Renaissance intermediums were sumptuous musical interludes inserted between the acts of a theatrical show on allegorical and moral themes with eclectic references to classical mythology. They are considered as the forerunners of musical opera. The spectacular show, which was performed using a complex stage machinery set up in Palazzo Pitti’s Boboli gardens, was an immediate success, so much that the intermediums were performed in the days to follow during another two plays. The Six intermediums in La Pellegrina provide for choral madrigals, double and triple choirs, solo accompanied numbers and instrumental pieces, inserted into the impressive and sumptuous staging by Bernando Buontalenti. 430 years later, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in collaboration with Galleria Degli Uffizi produces the first staging in modern times of the Intermedi della Pellegrina through an itinerant show in Palazzo Pitti’s Boboli Gardens. Stage director Valentino Villa’s approach was to “attempt at an ironic historical reconstruction, [where] imageries blur together, classical mythology is grafted onto contemporary iconography”. Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli leads Modo Antiquo and Chorus Master Alberto Allegrezza is at the head of Coro Ricercare Ensemble and Compagnia Dramatodìa.

East West explores musical landscapes from the European and American parts of the globe, resulting in a kind of travel journal that begins in Eastern Europe and then travels westward Duo Aliada is known for their creative approach to adapting classical repertoire for their own instruments. Polish saxophonist Michal Knot and Serbian accordionist Bogdan Laketic formed the duo in 2013 in Vienna, a city whose rich musical tradition reflects its history as a crossroads between Eastern and Western Europe. The following years brought Michal and Bogdan to performances around the world, and into contact with various cultures and musical traditions. This wide range of experiences, beginning all the way back with their childhoods in Eastern Europe, is a major source of inspiration for their music making and for this album.

Ghena Dimitrova and Giuseppe Giacomini one splendid evening at the opera in Genoa nearly thirty years ago. Two powerful voices which could stir the emotions like few others: on this particular evening in Genoa Ghena and Giuseppe were in good shape and immediately made that audience connection which makes an evening special, as the often-crazed applause proves. In the treble, their notes rang out with clarity, power and a lightning-fast attack; their phrasing was as imposing as it was tireless; their emotional tension sent shivers down the audience's collective spine; and, most importantly of all, they phrased their notes and articulated their words with a severity and intensity which makes the difference between a fine evening of operatic thrills and an interpretation deserving to be recorded for the benefit of those who were not lucky enough to be there on the night.

The 18th century experienced a mass migration of musicians from Italy – hitherto regarded as “the home of music” – seeking better fortunes in nations to the north. Giacobbe Basevi Cervetto, Giambatista Cirri and Francesco Geminiani went to London, Luigi Boccherini to Madrid. Antonio Vivaldi aimed for Dresden though never arrived, having died en route in Vienna. These Italian instrumentalists / composers and others are the focus of Out of Italy, a survey of sonatas and duos for two cellos and continuo by eminent baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai and her protégé Beiliang Zhu, many of them quite rare. “full-bodied… distinguished performances that offer a genuine point of view” (Classics Today on Phoebe Carrai’s Bach Cello Suites) “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild” (The New Yorker on Beiliang Zhu)

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REVIEW:

Most composers in the programme are anything but familiar to most music lovers. This disc should contribute to making them better known. Phoebe Carrai and Beiliang Zhu are ideal advocates of their instrument and of its music from the 18th century. They deliver technically brilliant and musically compelling performances, and receive excellent support from Charles Weaver and Avi Stein.

– MusicWeb International

The programme performed here by baritone Christopher Maltman and pianist Joseph Middleton was born whilst Maltmann was studying at the Royal Academy of Music. The compositions have been selected to form a coherent but flexible narrative that produces a touching memoir to all those affected by war. One composer chosen for the record, George Butterworth, was a casualty of the First World War: in September 1915 he want to the trenches and was killed, aged 31, in the Battle of the Somme on 5th August 1916. The use of his composition, A Shropshire Lad, is touching in this instance. It gives the listener a more sensitive perspective of the loss in World War One, almost allowing the listener to see the faces of those who passed away, most of whom were young 'lads' from various parts of the country.

One of the leading English composers of his generation, Vaughan Williams was a pupil of Parry, Charles Wood and Stanford, and later of Bruch and Ravel. In his work as a composer he went some way towards creating a specifically English musical idiom, influenced by his interest in folk-song, but colored by his own personal vision and language. Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies, the first of these A Sea Symphony, with words taken from Walt Whitman, the second "A London" Symphony and the third a "Pastoral" Symphony. The Sixth Symphony, completed in it's first version in 1947, seemed to break new ground and was followed by a seventh, the Sinfonia Antartica. Compositions by Vaughan Williams for solo instrument and orchestra include the pastoral romance The Lark Ascending, for solo violin, and a Concerto accademico for solo violin and string orchestra. There is an attractive concerto for oboe and two more unusual concertos, one for harmonica and the other for bass tuba. Flos campi uses a solo viola and is scored also for a small choir and chamber orchestra. He made direct use of folk-song in his three Norfolk Rhapsodies, his Fantasia on Greensleeves, for solo flute, harp and strings and in his English Folksong Suite for military band, among other works. His Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for two string orchestras returns to the 16th century for it's musical inspiration.

Metamorphoses run through nature, history and society. Transformation is one of the leitmotifs of our life, art and culture. For the album ‘Metamorphosen’, flutist Anette Maiburg and her ensemble (Maiburg Ensemble) were also interested in using arrangements to look at works from the classical repertoire and rarities from a different perspective. Whether Anette Maiburg is infusing classical soundscapes with glowing lyricism, luxuriating in the melancholy of a French chanson or swaying with dance-like suppleness in samba rhythm, her flute always sounds exciting, sensuous and colourful. Anette Maiburg is an elegant soloist and sensitive ensemble player and thus a virtuoso on her instrument but more besides. She is a true artist with a zest for experimentation, who moves with the surefootedness of a sleepwalker across the boundaries of genre and style.

On the occasion of a concert at the Brucknertage festival St. Florian the great Austrian jazz pianist Rudi Wilfer took on his journey to Anton Bruckner and his IV. Symphony, which would widely circumpass the written music. Wilfer who has found his very own combination of meditation and swing perceived in Bruckner’s music a fascinating modernity, even agelessness. Surely, the pieces were recorded several times, yet no version turned out alike, even though the musical material remained the same. The listener could literally observe how Wilfer’s playing in every instant led to new paths – new harmonies, articulations, voicings. The album consists of two parts, the live recording and the studio recordings which at times shine a different light onto the same pieces, besides the homage to Bruckner also jazz standards like “You Must Believe in Spring” and “What Now My Love”, Viennese pieces like “Liebesleid” by Fritz Kreisler or “In einem kleinen Café in Hernals” by Hermann Leopoldi as well as “Wiegenlied” by Brahms.

On this release Imogen Cooper explores the links between French and Spanish styles in a programme ranging from Albéniz to Mompou via Debussy, Ravel, and Falla. Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of Classical and Romantic repertoire, Imogen Cooper is internationally renowned for her virtuosity and lyricism. Recent and future concerto performances include the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle, Sydney Symphony with Simone Young and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard. Imogen has a widespread international career and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Budapest Festival, NHK and London Symphony Orchestras. Her recital appearances have included Tokyo, New York, Singapore, Paris, Vienna, Prague and the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg.

REVIEW:

It is difficult to imagine Debussy-playing more personal, suggestive or voluptuous. Cooper has lived with this music long and well. She gives us an Albéniz entirely her own, all the more vivid perhaps for its vantage from the outside looking in. Piquant, understated, with a sultry heat that smoulders rather than bursting into flame, these are compelling performances informed by the palette of Goya and undergirded with an inerrantly zesty rhythmic élan.

– Gramophone