In “Our American Roots” Feldman applies his talent and skill to an all-American program of music for cello and piano—to include a pair of rarely heard cello sonatas by Barber and Walker. The remainder of the program consists of arrangements of musical Americana: arias from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and his Preludes, and two movements from Copland’s Billy the Kid.
Learn more about pianist Carol Rosenberger and the Delos label on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!
This program is designed to help listeners find a 'quiet time' of non-stressful, contemplative relaxation. Its selection of short, melodic pieces also serves as an ideal introduction to the world of classical music. 'A splendid disc, to be treasured by young and old,' - American Record Guide 'The perfect gift among recordings for introducing a child to the intimacies and universality of music.' - Fanfare 'The world's loveliest piano music, beautifully programmed to help people of all ages find an inner core of tranquillity.' - Keynote The program of Perchance to Dream moves from simple, lyrical pieces, many written for beginning pianists, to more profound works like the Adagio cantabile of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata and Brahms' Intermezzo Op. 117, No. 1. In our high-tech, computerized, accelerating age, the need for a time of relaxation - a period to reflect, or simply to experience a sense of calm - is more important than ever. Work and other responsibilities have a way of overtaking more elemental pleasures - like time spent with loved ones, or in solitude. Yet finding this 'quiet time' need not be difficult, and it is partly with this in mind that this musical program is offered. The selections chosen here - accessible, melodious pieces by great composers - speak to all ages. For children, they may form a gateway to a world not yet explored - that of concert music. For their elders, they may generate fond recollections, like old friends who have not lost their power to inspire or comfort. They also may act as a bond between parents and children, providing a peaceful background for a time of intimacy, storytelling, and shared experience. - Steven C. Smith (from the booklet notes)
Polonaise-Fantasie: The Story of a Pianist / Faliks, Mozo
Delos
CD
$20.99$26.99Save 20%Jul 14, 2017
Inna Faliks is a spellbinding Ukrainian-born pianist with a glowing international reputation. Her long-standing practice of alternating musical interludes with the spoken word takes the form here of narrative storytelling. And with this unique album - her first for Delos - Inna has a captivating, powerful and very moving tale to tell. Her story chronicles her life's path: her family's emigration to America, her seminal early influences and her evolution as an artist. And it's also her love story, as she is reunited as an adult with the childhood friend who is now her husband. Each episode of the pianist's saga - dramatically narrated by actress Rebecca Mozo - alternates with a beautifully played masterpiece that is closely connected to her life story from childhood onward. Music and words combine to spin a powerful and moving tale.
Isabel Leonard’s luxuriant vocal tone, riveting stage presence and remarkable artistic versatility make her one of today’s most in-demand singers. In this – her first Delos release – she explores the riches of Spanish song in all its varied Iberian forms and styles that can be traced back as far as its millennium-old Moorish influences. The generous program encompasses pure folksongs, folk-influenced art songs, dances and popular theater songs by quite a few of Spain’s finest composers of the late-19th and 20th c., Mompou, Falla, García Lorca, Sanjuán, Granados and Montsalvatge. Herself a Spanish speaker and passionate devotee of Iberian musical art, Ms. Leonard is partnered here by Brian Zeger, one of America’s most supremely sensitive and accomplished piano collaborators. “…magnetic charisma and a remarkable depth of tone” (Bachtrack)
Praised for her “impeccably pure and iridescent voice” (Financial Times), soprano Adrianne Pieczonka is primarily known for her vocally opulent and interpretively intense Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner opera performances– though her vocal and stylistic versatility enables her to be at home in dramatic operatic roles by Verdi, Puccini and others. Her first Delos release is constituted of a varied program of Richard Strauss and Wagner songs. Strauss created 158 lieder for soprano voice in total; many of the dozen heard here are among his true masterpieces. The opera specialist Wagner, on the other hand, wrote far fewer songs than Strauss. Best-known among them are the five ecstatically romantic Wesendonck-Lieder, a masterpiece among Lieder cycles. Accompanying Ms. Pieczonka is Brian Zeger, a pianist whose technical finesse and interpretive sensitivity mark him as one of the great collaborators of our time.
Cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard have been making music together since they were teenagers at the Curtis Institute of Music and together they have played almost every sonata in the standard repertoire. The Rachmaninoff Sonata and the Sonata by Samuel Barber hold a special place for them: The Rachmaninoff was the first sonata they worked on together, and Kim’s teacher at Curtis was Orlando Cole, who premiered the Sonata with Barber himself at the piano. Both Sonatas shine as big, romantic works with broad, rhapsodic strokes and superb melodies. Kim and Kennard give stunning performances, putting these young performers at the top of their generation for technique and interpretation.
The latest release by the two classically trained brass musicians/composers Aaron Messing and Anni Hochhalter, Recall, Recall, is an overflowing menagerie of sounds and melodies featuring textured injections of trumpet and French horn, with some voice, guitar, drums, and sensory percussion giving the whole a unique sound. Aaron Messing is a composer, arranger, producer, and trumpet player, and Anni Hochhalter is a founding member and French horn player of classical chamber ensemble WindSync. In substance, the album slips from dimension to dimension within and between songs as though traversing the contours of a calabi-yau manifold - heady and quirky like a Terry Gilliam cut-out animation but grounded in a Herman Hesse-esque spirituality. Each song encompasses it's own singular world, tethered to the next by the brass and the unique contours of the voices of Hochhalter and Messing.
The first volume of virtuoso guitarist Smaro Gregoriadou’s Reinventing Guitar series was hailed as “a guitar edition that changes the flow of the history of the instrument.” In Reinventing Guitar II Gregoriadou again utilizes reinvented guitars, this time to exploit the dynamic range of sound of the period in novel transcriptions of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti. Featuring extensive reference materials and research notes, this is certain to excite the most avid guitar aficionado as well as the casual listener.
The 5 piano concertos of Rubinstein opened a new era in the history of Russian piano art, setting the stage for the great Russian concerto masterpieces, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. This is the 3rd in Delos’ current series of Russian Disc re- and features the 2nd and 4th concertos, as performed by distinguished, Russian-trained artists.
Anton Rubinstein’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 95, emerged in 1874 – ending a dry spell of roughly 20 years since his previous efforts in the genre. It came at a time when the future of the purely instrumental symphony was in doubt, reflecting the notion of Wagner and his disciples that Beethoven had exhausted the possibilities of symphonic development – and that the day of “synthetic” art (the “Gesamtkunstwerk”), with its blend of symphonic, vocal and theatrical elements, had arrived. Rubinstein did not agree, and composed his fourth symphony in an apparent effort to prove that Beethoven’s methods were still valid. This marks Delos’ second re-release of Russian Disk’s acclaimed series of Rubinstein’s orchestral music, as performed with authentic idiomatic flair by Igor Golovchin and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra.
