BIS' first-ever DVD is dedicated to one of the label's most charismatic and longest-standing artists: Christian Lindberg. It forms an extensive - 3h 40 minutes - portrayal of this multi-faceted musician who has since his début in 1984 almost single-handedly turned the trombone into a solo instrument.

Classical Music

Anders Miolin here expresses the universality of Christmas by selecting festive songs from across the world and creating fantasies on them.

Here he uses songs from Russia and Poland, as well as Scotland, Mexico and his native Sweden. In his adaptations he employs a wide variety of styles.

He also includes two of his own compositions: Azure Christmas is a memory of a Christmas he celebrated on Martinique, while Stellæ nocte hibernali somniantes (‘Winter Night Dreaming Stars’) catches the experience of ‘standing in the snow looking up at the clear winter sky, with all its twinkling stars dreaming on our behalf’. 

The program includes international favourites ("Silent Night" and "Veni, veni Emanuel"), Swedish traditional versions from the rich stock of the Lutheran hymn book ("Es ist ein Ros entsprungen") and Swedish folk tunes and newly written material in the same vein. The resulting disc gives a fresh breath of life to familiar materials, presenting us with an entirely new view of Christmas. (BIS)

Includes christmas song(s) by various composers.
Includes traditional hymn(s). Ensemble: Joculatores Upsalienses. Soloists: Roland Pöntinen, Hans Fagius, Peter Mattei.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Orphei Drängar. Conductor: Robert Sund. Soloists: Christina Högman, Peter Mattei, Bengt Forsberg.

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Jean Sibelius, various composers. Ensembles: Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Laulupuu Choir Lahti. Conductor: Osmo Vänskä.

Includes concerto(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Australian Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Conductors: Richard Tognetti, Christian Lindberg. Soloists: Christian Lindberg, Sharon Bezaly.

Classical Music

In 2015, when Ruby Hughes discovered Clytemnestra by the Welsh composer Rhian Samuel, the work had not been performed since its première some 20 years earlier. Hughes describes the 24-minute score as ‘sun-scorched and luscious’ as well as ‘intensely visceral’, but in it she also heard echoes of Gustav Mahler and Alban Berg, two of Samuel’s influences. For her first album as soloist with orchestra, she has therefore devised a programme which brings together the three composers but which also spans a wide range of emotions and moods. For his Rückert-Lieder, Mahler selected five highly intimate and subtle poems by the great Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert, using his large orchestral forces sparingly in a chamber music style. Ten years later, in 1911, Berg found his texts closer at hand as he set contemporary poems by Peter Altenberg, one of the main proponents of Viennese impressionism. Berg's advanced harmonic language caused a scandal at the first performance in 1913, and the songs were only performed in their entirety in 1952, sixteen years after Berg’s death. For Clytemnestra, finally, Rhian Samuel assembled her own text, based on Aeschylus' tragedy Agamemnon and focusing Clytemnestra’s deep anguish at the death of her daughter and her need for revenge. Bringing this wide spectrum of human emotions to life, Ruby Hughes is supported by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen.

Born in Albania in 1958, Thomas Simaku studied composition at the State Conservatory of Music in Tirana. He moved to England in 1991, where he was able to immerse himself in the music that had been banned in his native country, and especially that of Ligeti and Kurtág. This, as well as his earlier experience of working with Albanian folk musicians, had a lasting effect on his own music – but as Simaku himself puts it: ‘when it comes to creativity, one should at least try to speak with one’s voice, however small that might be.’ He often composes for specific performers and the present album highlights his collaborations with Quatuor Diotima and with the pianist Joseph Houston. Catena I, the opening work as well as the most recent one on the programme, was written for Houston, while the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 5 were destined for Diotima, of which Simaku has said that ‘one cannot fail to notice their individual and sensitive approach to sound and color, and their huge range of expression. I have tried to embody these idiosyncratic qualities in both quartets.’ Houston also plays two works written by Simaku as tokens of his respect for two composer colleagues: L’image oubliée d’après Debussy and Hommage à Kurtág. These frame the piano quintet con-ri-sonanza which has also given its name to the entire album, after the sonic qualities it embodies: consonanza, risonanza, con risonanza …

Classical Music

In Ukraine, as in many other parts of Europe, the late nineteenth century saw the emergence of a national spirit which resulted in a movement to ex¬plore and cultivate popular culture. But the country would have to wait until 1991 for independence, and in the meantime this national spirit could only find musical expression in the more intimate forms. Some of the most authentic examples of Ukrainian art music can therefore be found in chamber music and in song. With this release, the Swedish-Ukrainian pianist Natalya Pasichnyk, her sister Olga and their Swedish colleagues offer the listener a way into this shadowy world – the beautiful, melancholy and emotive world of Ukrainian chamber music. Except for Valentyn Sylvestrov, the composers featured will be mostly unknown to an international audience, yet they invite the listener to share a journey into a soundscape that is both exotic and strangely familiar. The title of the disc, Consolation, is derived from a rhapsodic piano piece by Viktor Kosenko which perfectly captures the inward-looking mood of much of Ukrainian music, but the first sound which meets the ear of the listener is a loosely strummed chord, like the sound of a lute: in his Dumka-shumka from 1877, Mykola Lysenko imitated the sound of the Ukrainian lute, the kobza. Lysenko is a central figure in Ukrainian art music, and is also represented here with the song Meni odnakovo, a setting of a poem by Taras Shevchenko, the poet who for many embodies the spirit of Ukrainian independence.

Following a first release devoted to string trios by Hungarian composers (BIS-2107), the Trio Boccherini now presents a programme dedicated to works composed in France and Belgium during the first half of the 20th century. In a culture that so brilliantly cultivated the art of conversation, it is hardly surprising that early French string trios were often referred to as "Conversations � trois." The programme opens with a trio by Jean Cras, a Breton composer who produced a body of high-quality work while serving as an officer in the French navy. His string trio is a major work that incorporates a wide range of styles, including North African influences alongside echoes of Bach and Bart�k. The next work, Eug�ne Ysa�e's Le Chimay, is an intense work that is demanding for performers, both technically and emotionally. The work was so named because of the venue of it's first performance, long after the composer's death. Rejecting the modernism then in vogue, Jean Fran�aix's Trio appears light, airborne, playful, even impertinent. Both funny and profound, the work stands out for it's unique poetic quality. The programme ends with an arrangement for string trio of Claude Debussy's famous Clair de lune, a work of timeless beauty.

Berlin Philharmonic bass trombone player Stefan Schulz is one of the foremost exponents of his instrument. His second BIS disc, Copenhagen Recital, opens with a quartet of Russian songs, exposing the yearning, melancholic side and melodic potential of an instrument usually associated with music of a more overpowering nature. What follows is a varied program, taking in Telemann's F minor Sonata, Robert Schumann, Lebedev’s Concert Allegro, works by two living composers, Daniel Schnyder and Søren Hyldgaard, and encoring with an arrangement of Thora Borch’s 1866 song The Sky Darkens.

Classical Music

Classical Music

On this transatlantic album, three American composers born during the first half of the last century rub shoulders with two young musicians from Eastern Europe. A member of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme, the violinist Aleksey Semenenko first met the pianist Artem Belogurov at the Stolyarsky Special Music School in Odessa at an early age. Even if their individual careers have taken to different parts of the world, the two still perform together whenever possible, and here they present three sonatas. Of the composers, the best-known is André Previn who composed his Violin Sonata No. 2 in 2011 for Anne-Sophie Mutter. An improvisatory spirit permeates the work which is in three movements with the markings Joyous, Desolate and Brilliant. Tony Schemmer and Paul Gay are both based in the Boston area and share a background in which jazz and classical genres merge. This is reflected in their sonatas, composed in the 1980s and here appearing on disc for the first time.

REVIEWS:

My tastes in repertoire generally stop with the mid-20th century and I don’t take an active interest in contemporary work. Perhaps that very fact indicates why I responded so favorably to Crossroads: American Violin Sonatas, for here are three composers—two of them still living—who continue the craftsmanship, seriousness of purpose, and tonal communicativeness of the best mid-20th-century American music. These sonatas offer no Postmodern spoofery, nor avant-garde aural assaults. All three composers deftly mix popular elements with their classical technique yet in a way that is integral and natural.

The performances of the Ukrainian musicians are faultless and idiomatic, as is the recorded sound. This delightful disc afforded some new discoveries for me and comes strongly recommended.

-- Fanfare

Semenenko and his duo partner present premiere recordings of jazz-influenced sonatas written in the 1980s. The Schemmer is a particularly joyful discovery.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

COPLAND; BRAHMS; FROST; LUTOSLAWSKI; PIAZZOLLA; HILLBORG; HOGBERG AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA; FROST (CLAR.); TOGNETTI (DIR.) DANCES TO A BLACK PIPE- CONCERTO FOR CLARINET AND STRING ORCHESTRA WITH HARP AND PIANO; HUNGARIAN DANCES NOS 1, 12, 13 & 21; KLEZMER DANCES FOR CLARINET AND STRINGS; DANCE PRELUDES (2ND VERSION); OBLIVION FOR CLARINET, SOLO VIOLIN AND STRINGS; ETC.

Two of Sweden's most highly respected musicians, each in their own field, join forces on this very special disc. Classical violinist Cecilia Zilliacus has won acclaim for her recordings in magazines such as The Strad and Gramophone (Editor’s Choice), and folk musician Lena Willemark is a fixture on the Scandinavian folk and world music scene. The two open their highly original programme with Bach’s Partita in D minor in a version for voice and violin. This duo version is based on the research of the musicologist Helga Thoene, who has proposed that the celebrated Chaconne which closes the partita was written in response to the death of the composer’s first wife. Woven into Bach’s violin part are numerous quotations from various chorales, from which Willemark has devised a vocal part which she performs drawing on the strong tradition of chorale singing in Swedish folk music. Together with Cecilia Zilliacus’s violin, the clear attacks and straight-toned and direct style of singing form a final farewell, by turns dramatic and serene, to a loved companion. In order to expand their common repertoire, the two musicians approached the composer Sven-David Sandström in 2011. The result was Dansa (‘Dance’), a scene in seven sections to a text by the poet Maria Wine. Having collaborated previously with both performers, Sandström includes improvisatory passages and provides rich opportunities for the folk musician Lena Willemark to make her imprint on the music, including asking her to change over to the fiddle in one of the sections. Between these two works Cecilia Zilliacus performs a solo sonata written for her by Svante Henryson. In the course of seven movements the piece reflects the versatility of its composer, with a background in jazz, classical music and heavy metal, and allows Zilliacus to display the many facets of her own musicianship.

One of the world's foremost wind quintets meets one of today's finest pianists in a work that many consider to be one of the best examples of a work for piano and winds: Poulenc's Sextet. The composer himself called it 'a homage to the wind instruments which I have loved from the moment I began composing', and its cheeky character, virtuosic drive and catchy melodies are typical of his other writing for wind instruments. Poulenc also supplied the piano with a crucial - and virtuosic - part, however, including jazzy elements typical of the period as well as emotional outbursts in the manner of Rachmaninov. Stephen Hough and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet have enjoyed a long collaboration. On disc this has resulted in recordings of the quintets by Mozart and Beethoven, a release which made the reviewer on the website classicstodayfrance.com surrender unconditionally: 'the adjective which comes to mind while listening is one of excruciating banality, and yet it says everything: this disc is profoundly beautiful'. Poulenc's sextet is framed by three other French works, and from the late-Romantic Quintet by Taffanel to the last of Tomasi's Cinq Danses (a 'War Dance' marked 'wildly frenetically'), the players of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - who began performing as a group more than 20 years ago - once again demonstrate their supreme capacity not only on their individual instruments, but as ensemble players. Please note: The music on this Hybrid Super Audio CD can be played back in Stereo (CD and SACD) as well as in 5.0 Surround sound (SACD).

If the string quartet can claim Haydn as its father, the wind quintet has two - Anton Rejcha and the slightly younger Franz Danzi (1763-1826). Between them they provided this new combination with a large repertoire (Rejcha alone composed no less than 24 quintets) and set the mould for composers to come. Thereby they also came to contribute significantly to the development of a new type of wind playing without which the classical/romantic symphony orchestra sound would be unimaginable. Danzi trained as a cellist and composer - by his contemporaries he was held in high regard for his successful operas, instrumental concertos and sacred works - but it was probably his experiences as a conductor, chiefly at the Karlsruhe court theatre, which formed the basis of his fine understanding of wind instruments and of ensemble playing. This was recognised at the original release of these discs, when the Gramophone's reviewer wrote that the music 'has great charm and polish, enhanced by the persuasive craftsmanship of its scoring.' But even more than the music - described in Fanfare as pieces which 'could turn Mozart-lovers into lovers of Mozart-loving Danzi' - it was the performances by the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and (in the three piano quintets) Love Derwinger that moved the reviewers to use superlatives. The French magazine Repértoire claimed that the interpretations were 'luminous: alternately flowing and spirited, dreamy and boisterous; of an exhilarating virtuosity, tinged with poetry and in full gala dress.' Here, then, is a great opportunity to discover the birth of a genre in the best possible company!

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

The style in which the Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund composes might be described as ‘magic realism’, combining elements of surrealism with factual narrative. Drawing upon the symphony orchestra’s full spectrum of colours, the music reflects not only the traditions of impressionism, modernism and post-minimalism but also reveals the composer’s acute ear for other genres, from cool jazz to ambient music. An earlier recording of orchestral works by Fagerlund was described by the enthusiastic reveiwer in BBC Music Magazine as displaying 'boundless technical resource at the service of a considerable imagination'. These qualities, and his receptivity towards different musical traditions Fagerlund shares with Pekka Kuusisto, to whom the violin concerto Darkness in Light is dedicated. The title of the work is a subtle reference to a quote from author Haruki Murakami’s novella Firefly: ‘Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it’, and illustrates how the music transcends distinctions: darkness and light, tonality and atonality, orchestra and soloist, destruction and renewal – there cannot be one without the other. The disc closes with the orchestral work Ignite, composed for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra which performs it here, under its chief conductor Hannu Lintu. The work takes its name from the constant collision of ideas that ‘ignites’ new energy, but in terms of form the inspiration has been the spiral, a shape found in DNA and mussel shells as well as in whirlwinds and the structure of galaxies. With a duration of 30 minutes, the work is organized in four movements separated by brief interludes – all of which are played without interruption.

Estonia provides both starting point and goal for this disc of sacred music for male choir, with a traditional hymn followed by works by composers such as Kreek, Eespere and Lemba, and the closing De profundis by Arvo Pärt. But in between, Orphei Drängar and their conductor Cecilia Rydinger Alin make a grand tour of Europe, taking in music by composers from the Nordic countries, France, Italy, Central Europe and the UK. Biblical Psalms have provided many of these with their texts, such as Milhaud (in French), Langlais (in English), Kreek (in Estonian) and Pärt (in Latin). Others - Lemba, Söderman, Sandström - have set portions of the text of the Catholic mass. Grieg and Biebl were both inspired by prayers in Latin, while Rossini chose to set one in Italian. For Nattlig madonna ('Nocturnal Madonna') the Finnish composer Nils-Eric Fougtstedt selected a poem depicting the Virgin Mary with her newborn child by his compatriot Edith Södergran, while Bob Chilcott has chosen one by the Guyanese-British poet John Aagard, whose version of John Newton's Amazing Grace gives the background to the conversion of this 18th-century slave-trader turned abolitionist. Throughout a programme ranging from Rossini's Preghiera from c. 1860 to Sven-David Sandström's Sanctus, composed for the choir in 2010, Orphei Drängar and Rydinger Alin once again demonstrate the versatility and exalted standards that habitually causes the choir to be described as the finest male-voice choir in the world.

'The five pieces featured on this recording are the result of an extended fascination and confrontation with Shakespeare's Hamlet', writes Brett Dean in his introductory text, going on to explain that the intention of this programme is to be 'a sonic exploration of the spaces, atmospheres and archetypes of emotion and character in which, and through which, the tragedy of Hamlet unfolds'. These works derive, each in it's own way, from an opera, Dean's take on the topic of Hamlet, premiered in 2017. And once I played Ophelia for soprano and strings focuses on the often-misjudged character of Ophelia. Rooms of Elsinore for viola and piano, here played by the composer on the viola, feels like a drone flying over the castle of Helsing�r, the play's supposed setting, moving from room to room. Gertrude Fragments for mezzo-soprano and guitar appears like a tribute to the art of lute songs - which are contemporary with Shakespeare - and centres on the complex character of Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Examining the monologue of Hamlet's remorseful uncle Claudius, Confessio for bass clarinet solo explores the possibilities of the instrument. Finally The Players, a concerto for accordion and small orchestra, revisits the players' scenes from the first act of Dean's opera. A fascinating musical exploration of this most iconic of literary masterpieces.

More than most composers currently active, Brett Dean uses music to tackle political and social themes of our times. A common factor in the works on this recording is the sometimes problematic aspects of human communication and the erosion and misuse of language. The recording was made during a public performance of Vexations and Devotions in the framework of the BBC Proms in 2007, with David Robertson conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Australian children's choir Gondwana Voices.