Noël Akchoté, composer/guitarist from Paris, unites supposedly incompatible material on the album "My Choice": Zarah Leander's Nazi-era hit "Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt", Serge Gainsbourg's irony about Nazi refuge in South America "SS in Uruguay", Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking "Street Woman", Kylie Minoque's "Red Blooded Woman" and Paolo Conte's "Via Con Me" and one is amazed, because his choice is genius. It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful! Everything comes together to form a new whole. "The strand always grows from it's middle, both sides - I don't believe in styles, nor genres. All proves that the original musical gesture remains the exact same since it first happened. I got hit by Jazz at earliest age because they had all to invent, another Blank Page. As many white pages as individuals, eternally. Because you can't, because it's too high, you will perpetually - Dare, fear, burn & adore. Reproduce. All arts are timing, so are lives. All arts are at present when coming near by. A frame is a length, a text a tone, a sound a height. The biggest lesson one can achieve is to really integrate the fact that by playing, writing, directing, performing, it will always be you and only doing so. Therefore only You can beat yourself at your own games."

Victor Schiøler was undoubtedly the greatest Danish pianists ever. His fame was legendary and he made some of the most impressive recordings for the Danish HMV and TONO label along with giving concerts all over the world. His recorded legacy is among the most fascinating in existence, and we are proud to give you the fifth volume in an ongoing series of his rarest and most sought-after recordings. This volume of Victor Schiøler’s recordings features two live recordings and the great Haydn and Mozart Trio recordings plus a wide range of popular shorter virtuoso piano pieces.

ORFEO presents Georg Gagnidze’s long-awaited debut album. Georgian baritone George Gagnidze - characterized by the American opera magazine Opera Now as a “gentle bear of a man” - on his long-awaited debut album presents celebrated and diverse opera characters such as Verdi’s murderous Count di Luna (Il trovatore), the vengeful Renato (Un ballo in maschera), the loyal friend Posa (Don Carlos) the great kink Nebuchadnezzar (Nabuko) and – outside the Verdi canon – Andrea Chénier’s revolutionary colleague Gérard, Mozart’s notorious seducer Don Giovanni and Wolfram (Tannhäuser), who pines for the love of Elisabeth.

A strong and unique collaboration between two of America's greatest jazz heroes and two of Denmark's young, new talents. The group, consisting of Eric Reed, Ralph Moore, Andreas Svendsen and Matthias Petri has existed since 2015, and is now ready to release the album Prism on Nov. 22nd. Eric Reed is one of America's most famous pianists. With his strong roots in gospel traditions, he is recognized for his natural approach to music, and is described as a rare talent on his instrument. He is probably best known for his work with world-renowned trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, for whom he was a pianist from 1990. Since then he has recorded numerous albums both in his own name but also for other artists. The group's saxophonist Ralph Moore, originally English, left the American jazz scene desolate for aspiring saxophonists as he played with practically everyone on the US Jazz scene, shortly after arriving in the United States. As the second half of the group's massive rhythm battery, we find Denmark's is arguably best young drummer Andreas Svendsen. Andreas is sought after on both the Danish and international jazz scene as well as the Danish pop scene. Last but not least we have Matthias Petri - One of the most sought-after bassists in Denmark, who has quietly built a solid reputation since moving to Copenhagen in 2010. Prism is a direct and uncompromising jazz release featuring 10 compositions performed by the members of the group. These compositions are exposed here to both cultural and generational differences, which rounds them off and moves the entire collaboration into a higher unity.

The creation of the WindWorks label represents an expanded relationship between the North Texas Wind Symphony and GIA Publications. GIA’s generous support and ongoing dedication to wind music has made it possible for the ensemble to continue producing recordings of the highest quality that are a testament to the perseverance and work ethic of everyone involved. The present release showcases works by Philip Sparke, Paul Robert Marcel Fauchet, James M. David, and James Stephenson. Internationally acknowledged as one of the premier ensembles of its kind, the North Texas Wind Symphony is selected from the most outstanding musicians attending the College of Music. The Wind Symphony has been highly acclaimed for “wonderful and artistically rendered performances that are elegant and polished,” and complimented for “terrific ensemble skills that embody a high degree of integrity and sensitivity.” They have been praised for “stunning and inspirational recordings,” and for being an ensemble whose “enriching performances demonstrate their sheer joy of musicing.”

Precious little Dutch polyphonic music survives from the middle ages. Whatever is left consists of fragments of manuscripts, now kept at the university libraries of Utrecht, Leiden and Amsterdam, dating from around 1400. This means that a significant number of compositions come down to us in an incomplete state: voices are missing, and some of the music has become illegible. To make a larger portion of this repertoire accessible to the public, some of the fragments have been restored digitally, some of the lacunary pieces have been reconstructed (‘recomposed’) by ensemble leader Niels Berentsen. The exact provenance of the fragments is difficult to assess with certainty, but what is clear is that they originated from the Dutch language-area: in all collections we find songs on Middle-Dutch texts. It is probable that the fragments originated around the court of the county of Holland in The Hague, or in the urban environment of Utrecht, the bishop’s residence. With this album, Diskantores presents a cross section of this unique, multifaceted repertoire. Liturgical pieces could have been performed as part of a mass, while secular pieces with Dutch, French or German texts would have been sung in a private circle of connoisseurs, or during festivities at the court. This then presents a project that perfectly fits muso: off the beaten track, full of joy and beautifully performed by a young vocal ensemble, joined here by Jacques Meegens on a medieval organ whose sounds leave no one indifferent. A musical treat that will lift all spirits!

Violinist Movses Pogossian has assembled this illuminating collection of contemporary music from Armenia, "Modulation Necklace," revealing a vibrant repertoire whose aesthetics are as outward looking as they are grounded in their reverence of a centuries old culture. In his liner notes, Pogossian acknowledges the long shadow that the Soviet Union cast on Armenian composers during it's reign - this recording celebrates this generation's liberation from those constraints. The composer Tigran Mansurian played a pivotal role in connecting the threads of this Armenian new music tradition, both by literally introducing Pogossian to musicians involved in the project, but also in his courage and leadership to explore Western and later older Armenian sources for inspiration during the Soviet era. The performers heard here are drawn from Pogossian's Dilijan Chamber Music Series, the Lark Musical Society, as well as the flagship group of UCLA's Armenian Music Program, the VEM Ensemble.

When the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals revived the solo suites of Bach in the first decades of the last century, he reminded both audiences and composers of the huge potential of his instrument to hold the stage in its own right, no less than a violin or a piano. Inspired by his charisma, and that of his successors such as Tortelier and Rostropovich, many modern composers have followed Bach’s example. The Italian cellist presents music by ten of them on this exciting debut album for Brilliant Classics. Tortelier and Rostropovich are represented by their own, little-known but highly imaginative works – a Circus Suite and an innocently titled but fearsomely challenging study respectively. Carter Brey, the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, has also written for the instrument with inside knowledge, in a tango of big, seductive gestures preceded on Tarantino’s album by Latin-themed showpieces from Albeniz, Piazzolla and Rogerio y Taguell. Each half of the album is brought to a reflective close with a soliloquy by the modern Italian composer Giovanni Sollima. The cello’s melancholy moods are further explored by Ilse de Ziah and Sebastian Diezig, but Tarantino has chosen and ordered his repertoire to display the cello’s expressive range to its fullest. Mixing familiar and little-known composers, it’s a perfect introduction to the ever-expanding universe of solo cello music beyond Bach. Born in 1977, Luciano Tarantino is a performer and teacher with his origins in Puglia, in the far south of Italy. He has played with many of today’s greatest conductors and founded a music festival in the region of his birth. On this recording he plays a fine 1736 cello by Antonio Testore.

On his third PENTATONE album Time Traveler’s Suite, pianist Inon Barnatan redefines our notions of the suite by taking us on a journey through time and space, from Baroque pieces by Bach, Handel, Rameau and Couperin to more recent works by Ravel, Barber, Adès and Ligeti. The program culminates in Brahms’s ingenious Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. Inon Barnatan is one of the most admired pianists of his generation (New York Times). His complete recordings of Beethoven’s piano concertos together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Alan Gilbert were released on PENTATONE in 2019 and 2020.

REVIEW:

The Time Traveler's Suite is a suite of a sort. One might call it a meta-suite, collecting short pieces that each reveal some new aspect of a coherent set that runs from the Baroque to the contemporary era and starts back again. This is the kind of program that can easily fly out of control, but Barnatan maintains a grip on it, both steely and thoughtful. It's an entirely original concept that is compellingly realized from beginning to end, and PentaTone's engineering work conveys the listener into the pianist's thoughts.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

A Classic Christmas featuring Michael Barry and Friends, remixed and remastered, to be released on November 6, 2020. 12 tracks of Christmas favorites in classical arrangements for guitar, recorder, cello, violin and flute. Also a bonus track, Nat King Coles Christmas Song, performed by the Nat King Cole Generation Hope Summer Strings. 10% of proceeds to be donated to Nat King Cole Generation Hope to support its mission to provide music education to children with the greatest need and fewest resources. Michael Barry is a Grammy award-winning guitarist, composer and producer living, working and making music in New York City. He has performed extensively in the United States, as well as Canada, South America and Europe. A former music instructor and Executive Director of the American Institute of Guitar, he continues to explore music as a universal language and a means of bridging the gap between people of different cultures and backgrounds.

Eug�ne Ysa�e, a violin virtuoso admired by all his contemporaries, was an inheritor of what has justly been considered as the Belgian school of violin, whose ascendancy can be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century. His work as a composer, however, is much less well known today and it is this facet of his extraordinarily active life that we will explore here. He composed many different types of works; here we present his works for solo violin and orchestra, including two movements of violin concertos which are now available on record for the first time, and his chamber music. A great champion of the music of his time, Ysa�e gave the first performances of a great number of works, many of which were dedicated to him as well as having been commissioned by him; the most well-known of these pieces are also included here. This fascinating boxed set from the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel is a fine example of the work of this important musical institution: it features the Chapel's masters and the young soloists who trained there alongside two Belgian orchestras of international renown.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is undoubtedly one of the greatest vocalists of the past century – and one of those with the most extensive discography. Yet we constantly note the disappearance from the catalogue of early recordings for radio or gramophone, particularly those which covered less popular repertoire. And there are a number of recordings that have simply never been issued on album. The present anthology aims to bridge this gap – with seven albums offering an average of 77 minutes playing time, or a total of some nine hours of music: rare repertoire, seldom or never yet available in these versions on album, matched by indispensable gems of recorded music such as the young Fischer-Dieskau in Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in the orchestral version under the baton of the great Wilhelm Furtwängler. That legendary orchestra director, in his turn, judged that “no-one has ever sung Mahler better” than the young baritone.

CUSTÓDIO CASTELO is the world’s leading player of the Portuguese fado guitar, the instrument that helped make fado music Portugal’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO). Like Carlos Paredes, Custódio Castelo creates groundbreaking new sounds that have promoted the Portuguese Guitar to a concert instrument that can be played solo or as accompaniment. His unique Portuguese guitar, handmade from an oak root by master Oscar Cardoso, is capable of fine nuances of emotion, and he uses them well, especially for melancholy, but also for a sense of jubilation. On this release Custódio Castelo plays fados made famous by the Queen of Fado, Amália Rodrigues. “Custódio Castelo is the world’s leading exponent of the Guitarra Portuguesa, the instrument that gives the country’s fado music its poignant song.” (Allmusic)

“American Music for Violin and Horn” presents 19 tracks of world-premiere recordings with music by 12 American composers. A varied program which includes original and transcribed works for violin and horn by David Amram, Vernon Duke, José Serebrier, Duke Ellington, Sean Hickey, Rebecca Clarke, Phillip Ramey, Francine Trester and several others, this album also features poetry by Emily Dickinson and Francine Trester, recited by the performers Elmira Darvarova (violin) and Howard Wall (horn). Several of the original works for violin and horn were written for these two performers (new compositions by David Amram, José Serebrier, Sean Hickey, Phillip Ramey, Francine Trester), while other works were transcribed by the performers as duets for their two instruments (“Black Beauty” by Duke Ellington, “Two Pieces” by Rebecca Clarke, “Etude” by Vernon Duke, “Calliope” & “Gramophone” by Jan Bach, two Bop-Duets by Bugs Bower, and other arrangements). Of note is Scott Dunn’s arrangement of Vernon Duke’s iconic standard “April in Paris”, in a version for violin and horn. All 19 tracks on this album are offered in their world-premiere recordings. Violinist Elmira Darvarova (first and only woman-concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and hornist Howard Wall (a New York Philharmonic member, formerly with The Philadelphia Orchestra) offer splendid interpretations.

Fleur de Son Classics is proud to release this stunning, debut recording of virtuoso Mexican guitarist, Ricardo Saeb. The program is a playlist of masterworks for the guitar, from the Spanish folkloric mannerisms in Aguado’s “Le Fandango”, to the metrical dichotomy of “Zephyr” by American guitarist/composer, Christopher Gainey (World Premiere Recording). The pieces herein comprise a collection of contrasting and continuously enthralling guitar music. Ricardo Saeb is enjoying an international concert career and we welcome him to the Fleur de Son Classics roster of distinguished recording artists.

Forrester’s Cape Breton Scottish Dance Company is the performing group of the Forrester School of Celtic Dance established in 1965 under the direction of artistic director Eileen (Pottie) Forrester of Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The dance company has been invited to represent Canada and their province at many international festivals. They have performed all over the world including Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. One of the highlights was their participation in the World Folklore & Folk Game Festival in Taiwan in 1997 with 300,000 spectators and twenty other countries represented. Another festival that ranks among their favorites was Rhythms of the World at Epcot Centre, Walt Disney World, Florida, in which they represented Canada and performed in twenty-one shows at the America Gardens Theatre by the Shore. Forrester’s musical ensemble consists of award-winning highland bagpipers, drummers, bodhrán players and fiddlers. They all work together to provide their audiences with a varied repertoire of Celtic music with a mix of both traditional and contemporary works of music and dance. Their mandate is to continue to share the Celtic culture of their ancestors with many diverse audiences locally, nationally and internationally. This is evident in the fact that the director has three daughters who perform Scottish dance, and Eileen herself was first introduced to this culture by her two older sisters.

Producer Joji Hirota writes: “The Italian taiko group KyoShinDo is very unique in their approach to taiko music. They are not only taiko drummers, but also karate experts. Their mentor, former karate champion Luciano Parisi, has influenced them enormously. I met the group in 2003 when they came to see my concert at Genoa’s Mediterranean Music Festival. They were fascinated by taiko music as an ensemble, both its sound and its movements. I have been teaching them for over ten years in the techniques of both traditional and contemporary Japanese taiko music. Their skills as karate experts adds a unique flavour to the technique I teach: taiko with a martial arts touch. I trust that their drive and ambition to develop further makes them one of the great and most unique taiko groups. I am proud to present KyoShinDo to the world.”

One of the modules in the exhibition MusicaFemina – Women Made Music, presented in 2018 in Vienna, featured 100 female composers who have characterized female composition of music from the time of Sappho to the present day. When the exhibition was open for two months and viewed by 56,000 visitors, the poet, filmmaker and composer Sophie Reyer had the idea, inspired by her ancestresses, of composing 100 poetic texts to complement the series of 100 short biographies. She offered the 100 poetic passages as texts or audio portraits to contemporary composers for composition, with the poet eagerly creating postscripts for those particularly forgotten, those whom the female composers particularly wished to be remembered. The compositional work about the ancestresses was a voyage of discovery: into the history of the female composers; into one’s own history. This poetic-musicological project represents an impressive, profound snapshot of female composing, a poetic encyclopedia, a first-time and unparalleled bridging of the chasm between historic and contemporary composing. it is an opportunity to take a look at the history of music and clear the path for further opportunities.

There are certain texts which inspire composers more than others but there is one in particular that has provided us with sublime music ever since it appeared centuries ago—the Agnus Dei. This collection from The Sixteen celebrates some of the finest settings from the Renaissance through to the 20th century. Let time stand still whilst listening to the arching melismas and subtle imitation of settings by Tye and Sheppard; delight in the genius of Bach’s setting in the Mass in B minor; and revel in Poulenc’s soaring soprano solo at the opening to his Agnus Dei—so poignant, ethereal and effortlessly beautiful. Of course no collection of this type would be complete without Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei—probably one of the most famous settings ever written, certainly in recent times, and which rarely leaves a dry eye. From Tallis to Scarlatti and Rubbra to Britten, the variety of settings and musical language featured here is quite astounding and you may even discover an Agnus Dei that you haven’t heard before!

Here, pianist Joanne Chang performs a group of her favorite works. All are done from the perspective of Joanne as a New Yorker. Described for her captivating and poetic musical interpretations, Malaysian pianist, Joanne Chang has performed and taught internationally in Asia, North America, and Europe. Joanne has been featured on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase (New York), WFMT’s Fiesta Latin America (Chicago), International Menuhin Music Academy (Switzerland), BFM’s Front Row Podcast (Kuala Lumpur), Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center (Bloomington), Sphinx Connect (Detroit), and the National Youth Orchestra of China (Beijing), among others. As a pedagogue, Joanne is faculty member at the Indiana University Young Pianists Academy and Camp Encore/Coda (Maine). She also held teaching positions at Indiana University and Florida State University. At IU, Joanne served as Associate Instructor in Piano and program assistant to the Secondary Piano and Accompanying Departments. Joanne is president/founder of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Collegiate Chapter at IU, established Fall 2019.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the ground-breaking, Grammy Award-winning OXINGALE RECORDS, MON AMI, Mon amour offers music which, even in times of darkness, never loses sight of its joie de vivre. The vibrant musical palette of cellist Matt Haimovitz and the graceful insight of pianist Mari Kodama exquisitely meld in MON AMI, Mon amour. Cello and piano remain in constant, colorful conversation for rarities by sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, in Debussy’s neo-Baroque Sonata, and in the effervescent world of Poulenc’s Cello Sonata. Ravel’s poignant Kaddish and Milhaud’s hopeful E´le´gie, composed at the end of World War II, round out the program. Two Fauré gems are included, the virtuosic Papillon and the breathtaking Après un rêve, with its longing for a mysterious night and an elusive, ecstatic love.

REVIEW:

The two major works—the opener, Francis Poulenc’s exquisite violin sonata; and Claude Debussy’s enchanting cello sonata—are played with graceful intimacy, while shorter pieces by Fauré (two of them!), Milhaud, Ravel and the sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger are given equally committed readings by these perfectly paired artists.

– The Flip Side

Big Data – the title reveals the defining themes of this recording! The Decoder Ensemble considers the possibilities and consequences of the limitless availability of media in the digital age. All of the pieces here focus in different ways on common contemporary practices like remixing, copying & pasting, sampling, and recycling. An involvement with these techniques is natural for the members of Decoder, three of whom are themselves composers. The group, founded in 2011, calls itself a “band for contemporary music” and is actively involved in the newest musical developments and trends including electronics, computer techniques, multimedia, and elements of pop and rock music. The idea for this release grew out of the group’s “Big Data Weekend”. According to clarinetist Carola Schaal, this was a small festival “organized in 2017 by the Decoder Ensemble for which the group commissioned eight works dealing with the theme of remix. We chose several of those works for this album, as well as a piece by Brigitta Muntendorf that seems to us to fit perfectly with the others.”

“The French horn is notoriously difficult to play. You can practise all you like but there is no guarantee that the note you blow into the mouthpiece is the same one which will come out of the bell once it has travelled through all the twists and turns of the tubing. However, when all goes well, the horn is glorious and I absolutely love being a horn player, even with all risks – and maybe even because of them.” (Sarah Willis) After the enormous success of Mozart y Mambo (ALPHA578) which went straight to Number 1 in Germany on release in 2020, Alpha has decided to reissue one of the first albums recorded by this multi-talented and tireless ambassador of the French horn. In this re-release of the 2014 album, Horn Discoveries, Sarah Willis demonstrates all the rich potential of her instrument with exciting original compositions and beautiful arrangements of well-loved repertoire pieces such as Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Dvorak’s Humoresque, Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles and Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Juliette Hurel and Hélène Couvert, who have long enjoyed a close rapport on the concert platform and on disc, here celebrate five French women composers at the turn of the twentieth century. Countess Clémence de Grandval was the composer of some sixty songs, of which Saint-Saëns said: ‘They would certainly be famous if their composer did not have what many people regard as the irremediable defect of being a woman.’ Augusta Holmès earned the admiration of Liszt, Wagner and Saint-Saëns. To mark the Universal Exhibition of 1889, she composed a monumental work for more than a thousand musicians. During her studies at the Conservatoire, Mélanie Bonis fell madly in love with a singer, but had to marry a rich industrialist. She later returned to composition and used the pseudonym Mel Bonis, leaving her gender in doubt. Cécile Chaminade displayed extraordinary gifts at a very early age. Bizet called her ‘My little Mozart’. Lili Boulanger received her first music lessons from her sister, the famous teacher Nadia. In 1913, at the age of nineteen, she became the first woman to receive the Prix de Rome. The word ‘compositrice’ was born!

Riga-born Ksenija Sidorova is today one of the most eminent global ambassadors of the classical accordion. She has proudly borne the colors of her instrument in appearances in the world’s leading halls and with the foremost orchestras. Here she pays homage to Piazzolla in her own way: ‘Piazzolla the revolutionary, the ground-breaker, a man thinking ahead of his time . . . Playing this repertoire gave me a sense of artistic freedom and ignited my belief in advocacy of my instrument. For this album, I wanted to celebrate Piazzolla the innovator by pairing some his masterworks with pieces written by other composers for classical accordion, the majority of which I have premiered in recent years. Being of Russian heritage, I couldn’t help noticing the similarity between the nostalgia of the tango and that of Russian composer Sergey Voitenko’s Revelation. French accordionist-composer Franck Angelis’s Fantasia is based on Piazzolla’s waltz-tango, and the programme is completed by the Nocturne of Italian accordionist-composer Pietro Roffi and a piece by Sergey Akhunov.’