Jason Max Ferdinand writes: “This project was birthed in the midst of a pandemic. At such times, just the opportunity to create art is a huge gift. This cadre of singers came together with the encumbrance of travel, limited rehearsal time, having to sing in masks, and dug deep to create this body of work. I will forever be an admirer of their collective strength. The purpose of this recording is simple. It is our sincere hope that peace can be found despite all the chaos around us...COVID-19, social maladies, floods, fires, and more. We the members of the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers bring you SOLACE!”

“This recording project was captured mere days before the semester was abruptly altered. This recording would not have happened if it were scheduled three days later! That thought is sobering and makes me cherish even more this compilation. History is teeming with inspiring stories where, in the midst of a tragedy, humanity has risen to levels of heroism that are simply beyond our day-to-day imagination. This phenomenon is in full effect as I write during this two-headed pandemic: COVID19 + racial tensions. These two viruses are literally killing humanity. Both are crippling. Although lingering emotions of fear, uncertainty, and anguish are constant, compassion is on full display during these times of hardship. How moving it is to see tributes being paid to medical workers who are facing this silent killer head on! It brought tears to my eyes to see a community in Italy curating their own concert as they stood in windows and doorways playing instruments and singing. Seeing persons of all varying ethnic backgrounds in the streets protesting for racial equality is a beautiful thing. Music is a reflection of society. For some listeners, it can be a sobering reminder of calamity. In contrast, some people find consolation in music and feed their being with its rhythm and beat. Whenever they feel despondent, they can plug into music to help alleviate their sorrow. If you are reading this, you are a key conduit in making sure this art form reaches the masses. Because music consolidates humanity, it is cause for optimism. Through our programming we can bring hope to so many in need. You, our audience, should be provoked, challenged, and leave with optimism—the type of optimism that Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King possessed. We, the Aeolians, are no longer satisfied with solely displaying musical prowess. Coupling hope with mastery could be the combination that produces uncompromising societal transformation. We have programmed this music hoping to appeal to the mind, but not leaving the heart untouched.” (Jason Max Ferdinand)

Christmas celebrations are thought to go all the way back to the formidable feasting of the Vikings at midwinter, when in true Nordic fashion yuletide was ‘toasted in’. The celebration of the birth in Bethlehem is more subdued and spiritual, but it is of a far more recent date. We do not know if the Vikings celebrated yuletide with music, but music at Christmas has been a popular tradition since the Middle Ages. Today, practically all peoples around the world celebrate midwinter with special religious and cultural rituals; the precise times vary, but gifts, decorations, festivities, candles, bells and special Christmas music are apparently always part of this. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Christmas was the busiest time of the year for church composers. The congregation expected to hear new Christmas music in church which often involved instruments, choirs and soloists. Here you'll hear the Concerto Grosso - starting with A. Corellis version becoming template for the composers G.Torelli, A.Vivaldi, F. Manfredini and P. Locatelli following the trend of music concertos for Christmas Celebrations.

Hilda Bronstein’s passionate dedication to Yiddish Song stems from her close connection to the language that she learned as a child. She sees these songs as a cultural storehouse of Jewish history and identity. Her early training as a singer at the Royal College of Music in London, and her later work as an academic in English Language and Literature together inform her expressive interpretation of the music and words of these evocative songs. Since 2004, when she made her tentative return to the music of her childhood, she has become one of Europe’s leading interpreters of Yiddish Song. After the success of her previous album, Yiddish Songs Old and New, she competed in the International Jewish Music Festival at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 2008 and was awarded the Mira Rafalowicz Prize for the ‘Best Interpretation of Yiddish Song’. For this album, Hilda has joined forces with a group of talented instrumentalists who share her love of Yiddish song as well as the exciting sounds of klezmer and swing. The collaboration has enabled Hilda to expand her repertoire of beautiful traditional Yiddish melodies and new songs from Eastern Europe. She has also added a number of exuberant up-beat numbers from the days of New York Yiddish Theatre, and demonstrates the resilience of Yiddish song by bringing this album firmly into the twenty-first century with the cool beat of ‘Yener Langer Zumertog’. As on her previous album, Hilda uses her original Polish dialect on some tracks and the standard ‘Litvish’ or Lithuanian dialect on others. While her natural tendency is to the native Polish Yiddish of her childhood, she prefers the Litvish in those songs where the meaning and rhymes of the lyrics seem to demand it.

Son Real is one of London’s most innovative and contemporary Latin bands today. Founded in January 2006 by Latin Touch Entertainments, Son Real aim to create a fresh sound representative of the UK’s love affair with the “Latin spirit”. Musically, Son Real Orchestra is a collaboration between British and Colombian musicians. Their style is modern yet remains true to traditional tropical roots: salsa in all of its variations, traditional folk rhythms like cumbia and plena, the infectious sounds of merengue and urban Latin beats like reggaeton. Son Real’s seven- to fourteen-piece bands are comprised of a Latin Rhythms section: piano, bass and traditional Latin percussion, and the all-important brass section. Vocally they are fronted by three female singers, engaging audiences with their own unique vocal stylings and harmonies as well as vibrant and dynamic stage performances. Their presence on the scene offers a much-needed female perspective in Latin music today. Son Real’s charm lies in its enthralling rhythms which capture their audiences leaving them yearning for more.

Buzz Brass inspired dreams with this new opus, Christmas. The quintet takes the listener out of the familiar with this majestic, elegant and refined arrangements to highlight the holiday season. The male vocal quartet Quartom joins as guest artists in ‘Noël canadien’ and ‘The 12 days of Christmas.’ The ensemble's latest volume, Inspirations, has been hailed as proof of their "testament to the ensemble’s sensational embouchure" by the prestigious Gramophone magazine. Since 2002, Buzz Brass quintet has been travelling all over the globe to captivate classical music lovers. Whether its concerts consist of brass quintet alone or together with guest musicians, the original artistic propositions it presents leave nobody cold. With over 1,600 appearances to its credit, the ensemble has reached more than 350,000 music lovers throughout North America, Europe and China. The numerous awards and distinctions that Buzz Brass has earned over the years (Opus, ADISQ, and Trille Or) attest to both the quality and the relevance of its musical performances.

A highly sought-after musician not only for his virtuosity and the subtlety of his playing, Luc Beauséjour is never short of ideas when it comes to offering music programs imbued with authenticity and refinement. For his new album, Le rappel des oiseaux, the harpsichordist proposes a selection of works by French composers inspired by birdsongs. The extreme diversity of timbre, tune, and rhythm found in birdsong has always fascinated musicians. Even when the creatures in question are out of sight, their twittering, warbling, and chirping fill the air with sweet and pleasant music, both under the morning sun and at nightfall.

Following the success of ‘Arias for Nicolino’, a musical portrait of the celebrated castrato of Handel’s era (A427), Carlo Vistoli turns his attention to Venetian opera of the seventeenth century. The Italian countertenor – ‘a voice [...] intrinsically beautiful, strong and powerful’ (Opera Magazine) – has been delving into this repertory since the beginning of his international career with specialists such as Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, William Christie and John Eliot Gardiner. In this anthology accompanied by the ensemble Sezione Aurea, the focus is on operatic scenes and chamber music by the leading composers of the time, such as Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi, whose famous aria ‘Sì dolce e ’l tormento’ exemplifies the linking thread of the arias in this recording: disappointed lovers. They express their disillusion not only through lamenti, but also in a lighter, more humorous fashion that can include dance forms, as in the chaconne ‘Amanti, io vi so dire’ by Benedetto Ferrari, a lesser-known but historically important composer who, like Filiberto Laurenzi and Francesco Sacrati, contributed to the development of the dramma per musica as a genre.

Listening to this album takes you back to the atmosphere and sound of Jazzhus Montmartre on a random night in the 1960s, engulfing you in Dexter Gordon’s enormous aura. Dexter’s arrival in Copenhagen had a tremendous impact that left a lasting impression on the Danish jazz scene. He was handsome and well-dressed. His playing was superb, with a giant sound; his introductions and showmanship were unique and captivating. In addition, Dexter felt the Danish mentality was well-suited for playing and enjoying jazz. “It was always there”, Alex Riel remembers “It wasn’t a case of going to work, even though we played every, single night in June, July and August during the summer of 1964. Dexter and Tete were there solely for the music, and so were Niels-Henning and I. It is so obvious when I hear the music today. Dexter loved being in Montmartre. He often stayed and jammed with the night shift when it took over, playing on till early morning. I clearly remember us standing outside Montmartre one bright summer morning when the milkman came by. In those days the milkman drove around, delivering bottles of milk to the front doors of apartment buildings in Copenhagen. He brought his young daughter along to lend a hand, and it was hard not to notice her ample bosom beneath her thin T-shirt. Dexter took one look, then said, “Really (that’s what he called me), can she just walk around town and there’s no one who ...? You could never do that in New York ... I’m staying right here!’ And Dexter ended up owning Copenhagen!”

As the symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French melodie became the jewel of the salons of the ‘Belle epoque’. By placing a string quartet and a piano around the singer, Chausson’s Chanson perpetuelle, Lekeu’s Nocturne and Faure’s La Bonne Chanson oscillate between chamber musical intimacy and orchestral ambition. Alongside these famous pioneering pieces, this programme devised by the Palazzetto Bru Zane champions a return to the art of transcription, so popular in the nineteenth century, with the aim of expanding the repertory for voice, strings and piano in order to unearth some forgotten treasures. Hence Hahn, Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Massenet, La Tombelle, Ropartz, Louiguy and Messager all appear in a programme whose guiding thread is the emotions of nocturnal abandonment: the charms of twilight, the trajectory of dreams, the terror of nightmare or the exhilaration of festive occasions. Alexandre Dratwicki has made these arrangements in the style of the nineteenth century. Appropriately enough, the programme ends with La Vie en rose, for this music offers a kaleidoscope of all the colors of human feeling. The texture of solo strings and piano sets Veronique Gens’s incomparable storytelling artistry in a new light.

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REVIEWS:

Soprano Véronique Gens’ last four solo albums have been for the Alpha Classics label, a collaboration which is undoubtedly bearing luscious fruit. Now with ‘Nuits’ (Nights), her new album for Alpha, Gens revisits the genre of French mélodies. Here the fourteen-work programme focuses on eleven mélodies for voice with piano and string quartet accompaniment, played by chamber ensemble I Giardini. Three mélodies have been written by the respective composers’ own hands and eight are transcriptions prepared by Alexandre Dratwicki (Palazzetto Bru Zane). Serving as interludes, the three remaining works are purely instrumental works by Liszt, La Tombelle and Widor. Essentially, the programme is designed not only to suit the qualities of Gen’s voice but to widen the mélodie repertoire with voice accompanied by chamber forces and to present well-known examples together with some rarely heard.

Created by Bru Zane, Gen’s programme has at its cornerstone the theme of ‘Nuits’ (Nights) exploring the different ways poets have described nightfall and dreams. The eleven mélodies have been categorised under four descriptive French headings which Dratwicki helpfully describes as ‘the charms of twilight’ (Lekeu, Fauré, Berlioz); ‘the path of dreams’ (Massenet, Saint-Saëns); the terror of nightmares’ (Chausson, Ropartz, Fauré) and ‘the dizziness of rejoicing’ (Louiguy/Piaf, Messager, Hahn).

Singing in her native French, Orléans-born Gens demonstrates compelling form in such frequently beguiling repertoire. Given her impeccable diction, one feels that the soprano is affording each word of the mélodie special attention. Standing out, too, are Gens’ steadfast vocal lines and purity of tone, enriched by her instinctive talent for style, composure and sincerity.

New to me is Ropartz’s exquisite Ceux qui, parmi les morts d’amour (Those who Died from Love). This is Ropartz’s setting of his own French translation prepared in collaboration with Pierre-René Hirsch after Heinrich Heine’s original German text. There is an affecting sincerity as Gens expresses the lovesick protagonist identifying with the ultimate price paid by suicide victims. Memorable, too, is Après un rêve (After a Dream) Faure’s setting of a Romain Bussine poem. Gens provides a satisfying generosity of expression in this exquisite mélodie, a portrayal infused with tenderness. By some distance, the best-known work on this collection is La Vie en rose with a melody by Louis Guglielmi (Louiguy) to a text by legendary French singer Édith Piaf who made the song world-famous. Clearly enjoying it, Gens sings admirably but I find hers and the other cover versions unable to match the individuality of Piaf’s own recordings and her unique relationship to her signature song.

Gens is deftly accompanied by I Giardini, a chamber ensemble founded in 2012 by Pauline Buet (cello) and David Violi (piano) its joint artistic directors. Set up here as a string quartet with piano, I Giardini is impressive with its sparkling contribution, communicating compassion when needed. Violi’s playing on a lovely toned Steinway is striking throughout and in Liszt’s La Lugubre Gondole (The Funeral Gondola) Buet excels, displays a wistful, yet delightful, cello line.

Sound engineer Olivier Rosset achieves satisfying a quality, with clarity and impressive balance. Alpha Classics is to be commended for ensuring that the French sung texts with English translations are provided in the booklet. There are a couple of helpful essays too: ‘Four Variations of the Soul’ written by Alexandre Dratwicki and the other ‘Love of the Night, Love of the Exotic’ by Hélène Cao.

This new album makes a captivating prospect and one difficult to ignore.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

It is hard to imagine a voice better suited to this repertoire. Evenness of tone between registers and seamless legato are as apparent as ever, as is careful attention to diction and a sensitivity to the changing sentiments of the poetry. Full texts and translations are provided. This is a first-class production in every way and should be heard by every lover of the French mélodie.

– The Classic Review

"This profoundly moving and powerful music bears witness to how ancient Greek and Latin liturgical traditions were richly embellished during the Renaissance on the islands of Crete and Cyprus, all within the shared cultural space of Venetian rule. First performed by Cappella Romana at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht (Netherlands). Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in its exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. Its name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (“New Rome”) and its Slavic commonwealth. “A sound world of unique beauty.” (Gramophone) “You’d have to have ice water in your veins to not be moved.” (Willamette Week)

SOMM Recordings announces the perfect escape from Lockdown Blues with a collection of appealing piano miniatures compiled and performed by Peter Dickinson to chase all your cares away. Lockdown Blues includes soothing masterpieces by Erik Satie (Trois Gnossiennes, Trois Gymnopédies), Francis Poulenc (Bal fantôme, Pastourelle) and Edward MacDowell (To a Wild Rose), alongside Eugene Goossens' melancholic Lament for a Departed Doll and Samuel Barber's valedictory Canzonetta. There is whimsy in George Gershwin's Three-Quarter Blues (familiar to British audiences as the theme to radio and television's After Henry) and Who Cares? from the musical Of Thee I Sing. Of interest are 12 iconic jazz tunes by Duke Ellington. Heard here in their original sheet-music versions, they are pure Ellington, the product of a sophisticated composer. Among featured classic songs are Solitude, Don't Get Around Much Anymore, Mood Indigo and It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing). In his introduction, renowned broadcaster and writer Humphrey Burton describes Lockdown Blues as 'a delightful hour of discovery', hailing the Ellington selections as 'a real find that will surely be much anthologized long after Lockdown has been forgotten'. The disc is completed by three pieces by Dickinson - the titular Lockdown Blues, Freda's Blues and Blue Rose, a take on MacDowell's To a Wild Rose - together with Constant Lambert's Elegiac Blues, Lennox Berkeley's Prelude VI and John Cage's Satie-influenced In a Landscape. Peter Dickinson's career as a pianist has largely been in recitals, broadcasts and recordings with his sister, mezzo Meriel Dickinson, and he has worked with many other performers. Dickinson's Paraphrase II is included on Nathan Williamson's 20th-century British piano music collection, Colour and Light (SOMMCD 0196) and was praised by the British Music Society as 'a Theme with six hugely contrasting variations exploring the outer edges of tonality in a brilliant, structurally refined way'.

Signum proudly presents Lapwood’s debut solo organ recording following her critically-acclaimed debut choral recording, All things are quite silent, with The Choirs of Pembroke College, Cambridge. This luxurious programme, including some of Lapwood’s world-premiere arrangements, showcases the softer, more subtle side of an instrument more generally regarded for its bombastic nature. “One of my favorite things about being an organist is the exquisite feeling of practicing in a church or cathedral late at night. The door is locked, the lights are often out, and time seems to flow differently. It’s at night that one really gains a sense of the history of the building, getting to know the creaking noises and clicks that make it seem as if the space is breathing. Sound seems to travel differently too, piercing the warm cushion of dark silence like a beam of light. On this disc I’ve tried to capture some of that magic, recording in a chilly Ely Cathedral after hours in January 2021.” (Anna Lapwood) Anna Lapwood is an organist, conductor, and broadcaster, and holds the position of Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Lapwood recently presented the 2020 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and is due to perfom at the BBC Proms on 7th September 2021.

This brand new Christmas album from The King’s Singers features 25 tracks covering everything from contemporary choral gems and folk songs through to well-loved carols. Dotted throughout the album are several of the most famous English church carols, which take The King’s Singers right back to their earliest singing days, and which also reflect the group’s heritage at King’s College, Cambridge. In Christmas Carols with The King’s Singers, the group bottle that frosty, moonlit, fireside Christmas wonder and pour it into their sound.

The King’s Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group’s rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations.

REVIEWS:

If you love a capella men’s ensembles in Christmas music the King’s Singers are for you. This new album has some of the most beautiful ensemble singing I’ve heard in a long time. The arrangements are all tasteful and the singing, both in solos and ensemble, exquisite. These are not the same singers that recorded some truly ugly arrangements in some truly ugly albums several decades ago. Back them there seemed to be an attempt by their producers to make the King Singers more “withit” by recording them in arrangements that someone deemed funny or original. Since then someone brought the group back to what they do best. There are a number of familiar carols here (`Ding! Dong! Merrily on High!’, `Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day’, etc.), but also some newer carols that are really lovely (`The quiet heart’, `The little road to Bethlehem’, `O, do not move’). What a suitable disc for a wintry evening by the fire! Notes, texts, and translations.

-- American Record Guide

The term étude first started to turn up in musical literature in the late 1700s, and came into common usage in the first half of the 19th century. The notion of a piece of music exactingly engineered to promote some specific aspect of technique was nothing new; in her public presentations of “The Étude Project,” pianist Jenny Lin traces the concept back to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Clavier-Übung, four volumes of keyboard exercises published between 1726 and 1741 — the final volume known more widely as the “Goldberg” Variations.

Countless composers have risen to the challenge of the étude. This album, the first documentation of a sweeping project conceived by Lin, includes some of the most famous examples – Debussy, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Messiaen, Ligeti, and Glass – alongside equally noteworthy contributions to the format by such mavericks as Ruth Crawford Seeger, Toshio Hosokawa, and Unsuk Chin. Lin further pairs each of her canonical selections with an entirely new work by a member of ICEBERG New Music, a determinedly heterodox collaborative of 10 gifted young composers who represent a broad range of stylistic inclinations, but who are united by their enduring faith in substance and craft.

Bucking a current fad, the new études were not proposed as sequels or responses to existing works. Lin simply asked the ICEBERG composers to challenge her, and then used her own keen ear and sure instincts to find sympathetic pairings. Driving rhythms and rich harmonies link pieces by Alex Burtzos and Chopin. Rangy scatterings of notes present a frolicsome affinity between Victor Baez and Unsuk Chin. Stephanie Ann Boyd and Debussy both deploy dreamy arpeggios in rippling waves; and so on. In each case, hearing the new piece enhances your understanding of the older one—and vice versa. Identifying affinities among old and new music, and among familiar and unknown pieces, is a knack Lin has demonstrated again and again throughout her career—and it’s part of what makes her not only a persuasive interpreter, but also an invaluable guide and companion. Stated simply: you are in extraordinarily sure hands, here.

REVIEW:

Aligning with composers of ICEBERG New Music, pianist Jenny Lin gave its ten members absolute freedom of style and pianistic approach when crafting new etudes for her. In addition to her Herculean playing, the fearless pianist brings curatorial prowess to bear in pairing each new etude with an existing work from the canon. Have a listen to this disc and then have another. The Etudes Project will repay you manifestly.

– The Whole Note (CA)

This programme portrays the ‘birth’ of the flute in France in the late 17th century and the following 40 years of its life as a new and fashionable instrument. A famous patron of the arts, King Louis XIV gathered elite composers and musicians to create the refinement, elegance and good taste that was demanded at his Paris Court. From the early petites pièces to more virtuoso suites and sonatas with their ornamented lyricism and grand dance rhythms, the mellow, robust and almost husky sounds of flutes from this period blend and weave around each other like the voices of two singers.

Viol consort Fretwork and mezzo soprano Helen Charlston explore the more reflective and sombre Christmas celebrations of Elizabethan England, in a collection of works by William Byrd, Anthony Holborne, Orlando Gibbons and Martin Peerson. With celebrations confined strictly to the 12 days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, the preceding Advent was regarded as a time of religious introspection, with music composed to mark both fasting and feasting. Byrd’s consort songs for voice and 5 viols encompass this range, from the joyous Out of the Orient Crystal Skies – ending with an exuberant ‘Falantidingdido’, a word whose meaning is lost to history – to his Lullaby, a ‘song of sadnes and pietie’ that became one of Byrd’s most enduringly famous songs.

In 2021, Fretwork celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the past three and a half decades they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and made classic recordings against which others are judged. In addition to this, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned over 40 new works. Acclaimed for her musical interpretation, presence and “warmly distinctive tone” (The Telegraph), Helen Charlston is quickly cementing herself as a key performer in the next generation of British singers. Helen won first prize in the 2018 Handel Singing Competition and was a finalist in the Hurn Court Opera Competition, and the Grange Festival International Singing Competition.

Composer Harvey Schmidt and his writing partner, Tom Jones, created some of our most iconic musicals. Their first, "The Fantasticks", is a perfect musical and one of the most performed pieces in the United States and throughout the world. The team of Jones & Schmidt also wrote the smash hit "I Do! I Do!" as well as "Celebration" and a host of others. But what many people don't know is that in addition to being a wonderful composer and a professional visual artist as well, Schmidt was a brilliant pianist with his own inimitable style. Which brings us to "Merry Xmas 1975". The title tells it all: it's an audio Christmas card! Schmidt played solo piano on a variety of songs from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Broadway. Originally released on LP as a gift to lucky friends of his, the record has been a collectors' item for decades, and now, with the late composer's approval and encouragement, it can be enjoyed and savored by everyone. Don't be fooled by the title, though. There is just one bona fide Christmas standard, Hugh Martin's perennial hit, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," introduced by the radiant Judy Garland in M-G-M's Meet Me in St. Louis. But there are many, many more terrific songs by the masters of the Great American Songbook: Everyone from Cole Porter to Rodgers & Hammerstein, from George and Ira Gershwin to Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson share grooves with Harry Warren. It's a delightful grouping of unforgettable music.

Andrew Nethsingha and The Choir of St John’s, Cambridge present a tribute album to two former directors, Christopher Robinson and David Hill, who celebrate their 85th and 65th birthdays respectively. Taking the idea of new growth as a starting point, the album develops from the seed of a single treble line, gradually adding organ, then lower voices, a second choir (Yale Schola Cantorum), 150 additional singers, and eventually combining nearly 500 voices together (former members and friends of the college choir). The programme spans Hildegard of Bingen to a new commission by James Long (b.1987) and also includes works by three ex-St Johnians: Herbert Howells, Johnathan Harvey and Christopher Robinson. The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world, known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its distinctive rich, warm sound, its expressive interpretations and its breadth of repertoire.

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards!

Following the success of their last album, Timelapse, this new album from Orchestra of the Swan is a collection of extraordinary works connected by ideas of pilgrimage, contemplation, exploration and enlightenment through the works of composers such as Richter, Respighi, Britten, Piazzolla, Brian Eno, Nico Muhly, Joy Division and more. As with Timelapse, the joy is to be found in discovering the surprising and delightful connections between culturally disparate and musically contrasting time periods. Labyrinths have been an important part of humanity’s cultural landscape for thousands of years; from the Ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur to the intriguing stories of Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco. Our overwhelming desire to find patterns and ‘the hidden truth’ is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the subversive and complex vistas of music. Formed in 1995, Orchestra of the Swan is a British chamber orchestra which, under the artistic direction of David Le Page, is passionate about audience inclusivity and blurring the lines between genres, through its adventurous and accessible programming.

The legendary British oboist Leon Goossens inspired all the composers represented on this recording, and they wrote all but one of the pieces for his oboe, on which he premièred the works by Delius, Bax, Bliss, and Finzi featured here. The piece by Vaughan Williams is written for cor anglais, but Goossens’s precious instrument also premièred Vaughan Williams’s Oboe Concerto, in 1944. Nicolas Daniel has, with special permission from Goossens’s daughter Jennie, recorded the Delius Interludes on Leon Goossens’s (now 110-year-old) Oboe, rather than his own modern instrument, and contributes a fascinating booklet note on the influence and experience of playing this instrument.

Like all the instrumental genres which were destined to last until today, the solo concerto – just like the sonata and the symphony – made its first appearance at the beginning of the XVIII th century in Italy and spread all around Europe to gain universal fame. This 10 album release features a precious and unmissable anthology of Italian violin concertos composed by Vivaldi, Bonporti, Locatelli, Tartini, Lolli, Nardini, Rolla, Viotti and Paganini. Album 1 is dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi, whose solo concertos best expressed his vibrant creativity and brought the genre of violin, strings and basso continuo concertos to fame throughout Europe. The following albums contain music composed by Vivaldi’s followers who aimed at finding their own personal voice.

Some composers such as Locatelli, Tartini and Paganini were destined to become famous all over the world, while some others were perhaps lesser known, but were able to leave their footprint in the musical field thanks to their unique style made of expressive freedom, instrumental vivacity and formal clarity which later defined the iconic Italian style. The last two albums contain music composed by Niccolò Paganini, whose daring and unattainable virtuosity brought this genre to its absolute peak.

REVIEWS:

Despite its Anglicized name, the Genoese Dynamic label specializes above all in disseminating Italian music, mainly opera, but also instrumental music. In recent years the label has released numerous recordings, in some cases complete sets dedicated to concerts by violinists-composers from the Baroque to Romanticism and which as a whole constitute a highly appreciable testimony of the evolution of the genre.

A selection and summary of this gramophonic plethora can be found in this articulated case that contains ten CDs, ten!, with violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1678-1749), Pietro Antonio Locatelli (1695- 1764), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), Antonio Lolli (1725-1802), Pietro Nardini (1722-1793), Alessandro Rolla (1757-1841), Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755-1824) and Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840) in the interpretation of notable virtuosos including Luca Fanfoni, Federico and Giovanni Guglielmo, Carlo Lazari and Franco Mezzena. Particularly interesting are the last two albums, dedicated to Paganini, with four of his concertos, in which Massimo Quarta, a student and follower of Salvatore Accardo, has the opportunity to shine.

-- Ritmo

“I can’t begin to adequately express how excited I am to have our first official studio recording, THE BARI SESSION, finally released! Ever since the very first time John, Raimondo, Gianmarco and I played together back in 2008, I’ve loved this band and knew we had that “special chemistry” that truly makes a band: A BAND. However, since then, our only release thus far has been a double-album entitled LIVE UNDER ITALIAN SKIES that features performances from two live concerts in 2008 & 2012. Due to our extremely busy individual schedules, and the fact that the four of us live in three different countries on two different continents, we’ve never quite found the ideal time and opportunity to actually go into a recording studio to officially document our band’s sound, its chemistry, and some of the songs that have become part of our standard repertoire in live concerts. Well, THE BARI SESSION has now arrived and it beautifully showcases all of those things (as well as some new compositions), because in August of2019 we were able to find a small window of time to go in and record in a fantastic studio in Bari with a first-rate engineer during one of our Italian tours. I believe the result speaks for itself. We also had a really wonderful experience making this recording and the music just seemed to “play itself,” which is always a great sign that the music is “ready” and “cooked to perfection,” just like the best Italian dishes! Godetevi un buon ascolto!” (Paul Wertico)

On his debut album, the Chinese ARD prizewinner Diyang Mei presents truly transcendental works for viola solo: The passacaglias and chaconne by Bach, Britten, Ligeti, Biber and Hindemith - a program of great intrinsic luminosity! It is indicative of the mastery and artistic maturity of the multiple competition winner that he has so completely transformed some of the greatest, most profound works of literature. In so doing, he extends far beyond his instrument. A great production! Diyang Mei was born in China in 1994 and began playing the violin at the age of five. From 2005 to 2014 he studied the viola with Shaowu Wang in the Central Conservatory of Music Beijing's Middle School and has since participated in masterclasses given by well-known virtuosi such as Pinchas Zukerman, Nobuko Imai, Roberto Diaz, Paul Coletti, Thomas Riebl, Valentin Erben and G�nther Pichler. As a soloist he has performed with many orchestras including Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Philharmonic Orchestra Bad Reichenhall, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, Churs�chsiche Philharmonie Bad Elster and Busan Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, among others.

All of the works in this programme were prize winners in the hotly contested 2018 Huang Zi International Chinese Piano Composition Competition, an event marking the 80th anniversary of the death of this influential composer and educator. Themes explored include the charm and unpredictability of China’s landscape, alongside elements of Chinese musical and theatrical aesthetics. Joint First Prize winners were Emile Naoumoff, whose Celestial Parade describes the composer’s wonderful experiences while in Shanghai, and Zhiliang Zhang, whose Qiao Ling Liu Dan portrays six widely differing ‘Dan’ or female characters in Sichuanese opera. Huang Zi (1904–1938) was the most influential composer and music educator of his generation, mentoring many distinguished Chinese musicians. To mark the 80th anniversary of the death of Huang Zi, the People’s Government of Chuansha New Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and the American Pacific Musicians Association jointly launched the HUANG ZI International Chinese Piano Composition Competition from August to November 2018. 52 piano works from all over the world were submitted to the competition, and the impressive collection of works in this recording comprise the joint winners of both Third, Second and First Prizes.