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BEYOND OTHER STORIES

ORIGIN RECORDS

$16.60 ~~$16.61~~ Save 0% Jan 15, 2021

What comes out when Norway and Cuba team up musically: earthy bass, filigree rhythms, melancholy, charm, humor - and an almost unbelievable lightness. Badische-Zeitung (Germany). Norwegian vocalist/composer Grete Skarpeid's "Beyond Other Stories" is contemporary word painting at it's finest, with rhythmic contours beautifully enhanced by a quartet of master musicians, led by Cuban pianist Aru n Ortiz. Skarpeid draws us into the interior landscape of life with an eerily beautiful sense of freedom in her voice, mixing melancholy and joy, vulnerability and splendor. Ortiz's beautifully crafted arrangements of variety and sensuousness, are captured in every caressed phrase by Skarpeid. The music shines from the ethereal magnificence of "Singing Again," which sets to music a poem by the noted Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge, through the feelings of spiritual loss evoked in "Adam and Eve," to the existential weightlessness of "Flying High." The unlikely musical partnership of Grete and Aru n began by happenstance when Ortiz passed through Grete's remote hometown while touring Norway with Don Byron. Grete shared some of her original songs with Ortiz, who instantly fell in love with her music and encouraged her to write more, later collaborating in New York on Skarpeid's first album, "My Songs" in 2016. "Skarpeid fills us with so much joy as she reveals herself to be an artist of the first order..." - Raul da Gama.

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BEYOND OTHER STORIES
ORIGIN RECORDS Jan 2021
CD
~~$16.61~~ $16.60

COMETA

SUNNYSIDE

$16.49 Aug 25, 2023

The music on Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente's new album, Cometa, comes from a place of love and joy. As a group, they hope to celebrate the reemergence of hope in Brazil with a collection of inspiring music highlighting the power of Brazilian song and the limitless expression of jazz. Grammy award winning vocalist and composer Luciana Souza has been a fan of the outstanding, Grammy award winning, Sao Paulo based piano group, Trio Corrente, since their inception. She had initially met the Trio's drummer, Edu Ribeiro, while teaching. Pianist Fabio Torres is well known as a member of guitarist Chico Pinheiro's different ensembles, while bassist Paulo Paulelli was familiar for his work with the great Rosa Passos. It was Torres who invited Souza to return to her native Brazil to collaborate and tour together in the Fall of 2022. It struck Souza immediately that they should make a recording that unites their collective love of Brazil's uplifting music and jazz.

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COMETA
SUNNYSIDE Aug 2023
CD
$16.49

Beethoven: The Conquering Hero - Complete Works for Cello and Piano / Kloetzel, Koenig

Avie Records

$12.99 ~~$25.99~~ Save 50% Jan 21, 2022

Jennifer Kloetzel’s lifelong journey with Beethoven began early: she was eight years old when her teacher placed the composer’s second cello sonata on her music stand, opening the door to an odyssey of intrigue and, ultimately, obsession with the composer’s music. Since then, rarely has a day passed without Beethoven being a part of Jennifer’s life. She has studied and performed all of the composer’s duos and trios. As founding cellist of the Cypress String Quartet, she spent 20 years rehearsing, performing and recording the string quartets. Jennifer now arrives at a career milestone with this recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano. Views vary as to what comprises Beethoven’s “complete” works for cello and piano. Jennifer’s discerning choice includes the five Sonatas for Cello and Piano, three sets of variations – based on arias from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus – and the Horn sonata for which the composer also wrote a cello part. Jennifer spares no attention to detail across the entire spectrum of this significant recording project. Her performing partner Robert Koenig plays on a 19th century Blüthner concert grand piano. The illuminating liner notes are penned by Beethoven scholar William Meredith who boldly states, “if there were only the five cello sonatas of Beethoven left of all his music, these alone would have cemented his place in history.” The recording was made in the stellar acoustic of Skywalker Sound. The 3-album set is lavishly packaged in a deluxe digipack. The title track, “The Conquering Hero” – from the opening set of variations from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus – evokes everything for Jennifer about Beethoven’s music, coming from a place of triumph and joy.

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Beethoven: The Conquering Hero - Complete Works for Cello and Piano / Kloetzel, Koenig
Avie Records Jan 2022
CD
~~$25.99~~ $12.99

The Star of Mendelssohn

Neue Meister

$16.99 Feb 27, 2026

Mendelssohn's music contains a fascinating duality: deeply rooted in German Romanticism, inspired by Bach and Beethoven, but at the same time shaped by his Jewish origins and the tension between these two worlds. This complexity unfolds in a special way at Christmas time in particular - as a bridge between traditions, cultures and spiritual experiences. An album that combines the festive warmth and spiritual depth of the Christmas season with the radiant music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A unique musical language - full of light, inwardness and festive joy

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The Star of Mendelssohn
Neue Meister Feb 2026
CD
$16.99

Mix & Match

Lamenting Earth

Avie Records

$19.99 May 15, 2026

Lamenting Earth, the latest release from GRAMMY® Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan, in collaboration with The Jasper Quartet and his long-time performing partner pianist Myra Huang, explores humanity's interaction with nature as expressed through composers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Franz Schubert's songs evoke images of water, stillness, and solitude as mirrors of human emotion. Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge, drawing on A. E. Housman's poetry, places the individual within vast cycles of time and landscape - hills, wind, and earth - which persist beyond human joy and grief alike. Ives's Housatonic at Stockbridge memories, hymns, and the river blend together into a shimmering meditation on transcendence, where nature becomes a spiritual threshold rather than a backdrop. 21st century responses include Patrick Castillo's Skyline Palimpsest, an homage to New York City, once his hometown, that reflects on how nature's effects may shape the future of the metropolis. The title track by Canadian-born composer Vivian Fung, pairs American writer Claire Wahmanholm's poem "O" - which has been described as a lament, an elegy, and a clarion call to action - with Gen Z-ers urgent written responses to climate change. Nicholas Phan's burnished tone and passion for vocal chamber music bring vivid beauty to the range of repertoire that shares a central theme. Lamenting Earth is released to coincide with World Earth Day (22 April 2026).

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Lamenting Earth
Avie Records May 2026
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

BEETHOVEN: SYMS 7 & 9

WARNER CLASSICS

Vinyl

$62.49 Oct 17, 2025

I waited a very long time to record the Beethoven symphonies, said Daniel Barenboim when this cycle was first released in 2000. "I waited for the music to mature in me - or me in it - and to find an orchestra that not only did what I asked it to do, but which really felt every detail in the music exactly as I did at the moment we were playing it. This is the greatest joy that a conductor can have." This is the second set of 3LPs, after the first one released in May (Symphonies 3-5); these recordings are released for the very first time on vinyl.

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BEETHOVEN: SYMS 7 & 9
WARNER CLASSICS Oct 2025
Vinyl
$62.49

The Orphans & Poe

Sono Luminus

$16.99 May 16, 2025

A transformation During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world shut down and many lives were lost or changed forever, I experienced a serious transformation. A commitment to sobriety unleashed new creative forces. The world's new normal of quiet and introspection led me to return to a more formal branch of my musical upbringing: fully-inked acoustic music. Untethered from the backbeats and lead sheets of my career in jazz and pop music, I once again immersed myself in scores and music literature. An exciting new sense of freedom filled me with inspiration. I discovered a wellspring of patience and subsequent understanding and became obsessed with form. Hyper-focussed and pencil in hand, I wrote tirelessly from dawn until dusk. When I spoke about this newfound passion with one of the biggest supporters of my lifetime, my Dad, he told me it sounded like I had "seen the light" - a remarkable turn of events during an otherwise difficult time for us all. About the music... String Quartet No. 1 "The Orphans" (2023) The idea of writing a string quartet began to haunt me as this hallowed format can be intimidating. After what initially seemed like fruitless labor, I sidelined this ambition to work on some other music. Then one day while walking in a forest preserve in Chicago, a tune popped into my head which later developed into a promising base movement for a string quartet. Despite a failed attempt at a second movement, my confidence grew, and again inspired by nature, movements I, II and III were written with the base movement now as IV. Just when I thought the whole piece was done, the inspiration for another, shorter, livelier, and more cohesive movement came to me, and outdoors no less! Following my intuition I completely abandoned the germ of it all, the mother of this string quartet, for four of her offspring. It was an unpredictable process. Three Poe Excerpts (2022) While writing my first opera, The Bells of Fortunato, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, I became transfixed by Poe's writing. I discovered more stories of his with moments full of life and beauty that seemed to be wonderful opportunities for songs. I ended up taking a break from Fortunato to work on the songs that became Three Poe Excerpts. "Even as it Was" came first followed by "A Feeling for Which I Have No Name." These both came fairly easily and with much joy, but I wasn't satisfied with just the two. Although initially skeptical of the music that became "To the Right and Left," something told me to stay the course, and I am happy with the result. I thought the three songs could use some sort of set up, and the image of a hand opening an oversized book like in the beginning of old fairytale movies came to mind. This inspired the foreword and afterword. The Thousand Injuries (2023) A section of one of my prior works, a fantasie called Outside Motion in Stillness, gave me the idea to try my hand at an opera. I read through many plays, poems, and stories until landing on the right one. I believe there have been at least a couple of operas based on The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, but that didn't stop me from writing my own adaptation, The Bells of Fortunato. The Carnival scene was the perfect fit for the music I had brewing. Poe's writing is wonderfully succinct and illustrative, and I found myself so intrigued that the rest of the music came without much hesitation. After a musical introduction which includes a chorus singing "nemo me impune lacesset" ("no one attacks me with impunity"), we meet our protagonist Montresor, played by a soprano, who sings the only aria from the opera. "The Thousand Injuries" informs us of her contempt for the entitled Fortunato. The musicians and the studio... I can't speak highly enough of the musicians on this album. The dedication to great performance from each individual is heard in every moment. I am truly honored to have made this with you all. I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to Doyle for assembling this dream of a string quartet to help bring "The Orphans" to life with such finesse and conviction. Thanks to Steve of SHIRK studios for the hard work, perpetual coolness, and professional atmosphere that is consistently provided. Special thanks to Matt Reed, Stu Mindeman, Margaret Casey, and Tom Palmer. All my love to Al and Ray. In memory of Tom Doherty. Rest easy Thos.

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The Orphans & Poe
Sono Luminus May 2025
CD
$16.99

Aerial / Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Sono Luminus

$9.49 ~~$18.99~~ Save 50% May 27, 2022

“I am really excited about our upcoming release of Aerial on Sono Luminus this year! The album was originally released in 2014 on Deutsche Grammophon and now the journey of the album continues with Sono Luminus in a remastered version by their very own Daniel Shores. The orchestra piece Aeriality is at the center of the album which also features Into Second Self, Ró, Tactility, Trajectories and Shades of Silence. It was quite a personal journey to record these pieces in Iceland, working with long time collaborators such as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Caput Ensemble and Nordic Affect. It is such a joy to continue the collaboration with Sono Luminus that we have grown for many years now with releases of, now, all my portrait albums to date! The new release of Aerial will also feature percussion quartet Aura performed by the LA Percussion Quartet.” (Anna Þorvaldsdóttir)

REVIEW:

The Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has emerged as one of the most talented Nordic composers in recent years. Her voice is quite different from that of other contemporary composers, and thankfully her orchestral music has become widely performed and recorded by the leading orchestras world-wide and acclaimed by reviewers and the musical public alike.

The opening work on this disc - Into-Second Self - is for seven brass instruments and percussion. It opens with rumbling, whistling effects as if we are in a dark threatening tunnel, creating an atmospheric roar of sound with the percussion generating what is like an ancient Celtic chant on the horns and trombones. This is heard in an unearthly harmony by evoking sounds of aircraft and loud thuds on the drums, a shimmering of bells becoming increasingly loud then settles into silence.

Written for flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, two violins, viola and cello, Rö, opens with a jangle on percussion and piano chords aided by the bass clarinet and the strings harmony. We hear sudden noises against the wind of the flute and bass clarinet with a hint of an idea on the wind against the loud disharmony on the percussion - all broken by a bagpipe-like noise and a twanging idea, all of which creates a world of mystery, yet is brought to a terrible halt with thuds on the keyboard before a slow descent into quiet.

Under the baton of Ilan Volkov, Aeriality opens with a loud chord from the orchestra offering exciting harmony, and the entry of the piano is heard against strings and woodwind babbling in a dynamic pulse - as if we are hearing the movement of great bodies in space, or on the earth - is this the cosmos? There is a constant flow of sound and dissonance with occasional noises and murmuring on the strings, growing steadily louder with roars from the brass and a shrill woodwind theme emerge together in a great potent idea leading to a low-pitched drone of noise against a twitter of woodwind invoking birds calling out in the wind, yet the sudden crashes on the percussion are like chains breaking against rocks then disappear into silence.

Tactility opens with a mysterious hovering sound on harp and percussion and a dull throbbing sound, yet the harp hints at Japanese music, interrupted by thuds on the drums, and a rustling sound pattering away in the background, then we hear the effect of the wind blowing against the window ending with an inflection on the harp.

Composed for piano and electronics, Trajectories opens with a stirring rise in noise and an enormous build in tension with chimes of momentous chords on the piano, lending the impression of ‘something trying to escape’, all in dreadful harmonies, dissonance and a ripple of piano chords repeated amid the chime of a clock, rippling and tapping on the keyboard and an all-powerful throbbing noise before suddenly dying away.

The composer uses an ensemble of baroque instruments for her Shades of Silence, which opens with high shrill notes on strings, creating an amazing acoustic effect enhanced by the pizzicato strings in rising and falling dissonance, of sharply brutal music on the harpsichord that strangely creates an almost magical effect.

Aura, the final piece here, written for four percussionists, starts with an eerie atmosphere of a strange whispering ringing on the percussion with a chiming xylophone and ringing tubular bells, creating an amazingly catatonic effect, against a rustling, loud throbbing noise ‘like whales in the sea.’ For anyone unaware of this young Icelandic composer, this disc will prove an enlightening experience, and can only whet one’s appetite for her more recent compositions. Thorvaldsdottir herself was responsible for the engineering on four of the seven recordings, adding another credit to her talents; the sound quality is splendidly ambient throughout.

-- MusicWeb International (Gregor Tassie)

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Aerial / Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Sono Luminus May 2022
CD
~~$18.99~~ $9.49

Grechaninov: All-Night Vigil / Kļava, Latvian Radio Choir

Ondine

$9.49 ~~$18.99~~ Save 50% Nov 05, 2021

With this new album the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Kļava is turning its attention to the music of Alexander Grechaninov (1864–1956), one of the masters of Russian liturgic music. Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil is a fitting continuation to the choir’s albums of sacred music by Sergey Rachmaninov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Together with the two latter names, Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil, completed in 1912, belongs to the central repertoire of Russian liturgic music. Unlike the Vigils by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, Grechaninov’s work was written primarily for concert use. Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigilis a bright, optimistic work full of light. Grechaninov used old traditional Slavic chants as the basis of this work and selected the uplifting, solemnly glorious chants to emphasize the character of joy, exultation and jubilance.

The Latvian Radio Choir (LRC) ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe and its refined taste for musical material, fineness of expression and vocal of unbelievably immense compass have charted it as a noted brand on the world map. The repertoire of LRC ranges from the Renaissance music to the most sophisticated scores by modern composers; and it could be described as a sound laboratory –the singers explore their skills by turning to the mysteries of traditional singing, as well as to the art of quartertone and overtone singing and other sound production techniques.

REVIEW:

While there is no mistaking the urgency of the composer’s calls for mercy in his ‘Great Doxology’, or the joy unleashed in the final hymn to the “Victorious Leader”, the overall tone of the work is gentle, soothing, and altogether loving. As the composer told us, his aim was “to create a harmonic dress for our simple church songs”. For Slavic fire and brimstone, then, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

The Latvian Radio is one of the world’s finest choirs and sounds it here. Informative notes, texts, and an English translation round out an offering that any choral aficionado would be proud to claim.

-- American Record Guide

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Grechaninov: All-Night Vigil / Kļava, Latvian Radio Choir
Ondine Nov 2021
CD
~~$18.99~~ $9.49

Idil Biret: LP Originals Edition 1959-1986 [14-CD Set]

Idil Biret Archive

$74.99 Sep 24, 2013

“We are in the presence of one of the greatest virtuosos of our time. I do not see in her generation any other pianist who possesses an equal mastery of the keyboard, in the service of such a mature mind so rich in imagination.”
— Marc Pincherle Nouvelles Litteraires, France 1959

“No doubt remained as soon as the piano began to reverberate: on the stage was a first class musician and a maestro. A complete freedom went hand in hand with Idil Biret’s interpretations. One has the feeling that she plays as easily as she breathes. With an extraordinary plasticity, she moulds each musical phrase like wax with her fingers. But, the freedom in Miss Biret’s interpretation is not accidental. Her attitude towards the works she is playing is the result of meditation. The art of Idil Biret gives joy and emotion.”
– D. Blagoy SOVIETSKAIA KULTURA – USSR 1960

“All the works [on this LP] require a pianist of true class, because each of them presents challenges demanding something quite different from traditional technique. It has to be said that the young Idil Biret exceeds all expectations. This Turkish artist appeared in Brussels (1959) at the tender age of eighteen. Her virtuosity is astonishing, encompassing clarity, rhythmical rigour, precision and strength or delicacy, as required. She can play at great speed and maintain runs of impeccable luminosity. Her flexible touch conjures a thousand surprising effects; some notes and chords explode like whip-cracks, while others caress the keys, and there is an extraordinary purity to her polyphonic playing. In the hands of an artist of such superior qualities, the very particular characteristics of both Bartók’s and Prokofiev’s piano writing are brought out to the full. Taking into account her passionate vitality and lively musical intelligence as well, I believe her talent offers more than enough to be met not simply with satisfaction but with genuine enthusiasm.”
– Jacques Stehman, LA REVUE DES DISQUES (Belgium) 1962

“This is the most successful direct-to-disc piano recording I have heard. Having an artist as sensitive and accomplished as Idil Biret at the keyboard is an enormous help. Her fluency seems limitless and her ability to control, even at the softest dynamics, is all too rare these days…Hers is a bona fide virtuoso rendition.”
– HIGH FIDELITY – USA 1977

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Idil Biret: LP Originals Edition 1959-1986 [14-CD Set]
Idil Biret Archive Sep 2013
CD
$74.99

Absence

Neue Meister

$27.99 Oct 12, 2018

John Metcalfe, who arranges songs for big names such as Coldplay, Simple Minds and The Pretenders, has produced albums with Peter Gabriel and has been touring for decades as a member of the Duke Quartet. Now he releases his debut album on the Neue Meister label. Metcalfe has always been surrounded by music. As a child, he would listen to his father sing opera, before a love of Kraftwerk and Joy Division led to a stint as a drummer in a high school band. But it was a move to Manchester that really accelerated his development as an artist, and led to him finding his true calling. Joining cult band The Durutti Column, then signed to legendary label Factory Records, brought him into the orbit of Tony Wilson and the Hacienda, formative events that would help foster his renegade spirit. Unimpressed with the strictures demanded by the classical recording industry, Metcalfe persuaded Wilson to launch the ground-breaking Factory Classical Label, aimed at unearthing exciting - and unconventional - new British talent. It was here that Metcalfe found a home, and the group that would come to define his musical career; the Duke Quartet. For nearly 30 years, they've existed at the vanguard of contemporary British music, innovating and delighting in equal measure. Working with world-renowned artists across the entire cultural spectrum, from pop, dance, film, TV, and theatre, Metcalfe honed his arranging and producing skills; he's now one of the UK's most sought after arrangers, regularly working with some of biggest names in music. As a solo artist, Metcalfe explores electro-classical soundscapes and the boundaries between genres. His finely tuned compositions are neat yet grand in scale, both in terms of sound and the conceptual ideas underpinning them. Absence, the fifth record to bear his own name, is something of a departure for Metcalfe, framing bold images and themes with some of the most conventional song structures he's ever employed. But it's also his most affecting, deconstructing a subject he's been interested in since his childhood in New Zealand: Dealing with loss.

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Absence
Neue Meister Oct 2018
CD
$27.99

Pipkov: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Toccata

$20.99 Nov 01, 2024

Lubomir Pipkov (1904-74) was one of the leading members of the so-called 'second generation' of Bulgarian composers. In later life he became fascinated with the ancient heritage of Bulgarian folk-music, writing a series of what he called 'metro-rhythmical studies' - piano miniatures that combine melodic immediacy and rhythmic complexity, with a character that might be loosely characterised as sounding like 'Prokofiev meets Bartok in the Balkans'. Indeed, Pipkov saw in the irregular rhythms of Bulgarian folk-dance a parallel with the rhythmic experimentation in contemporary composers like Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky.

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Pipkov: Piano Music, Vol. 2
Toccata Nov 2024
CD
$20.99

WALKING IN SPACE

VERVE

$19.99 Jun 06, 2025

'The protean Quincy Jones returned to the recording studio as a leader after a long stretch in Hollywood with this triumphantly contemporary big band album. He re-established himself firmly with his big band jazz base while casting a keen eye on the pop scene and the world of electric instruments (even Ray Brown is caught playing superb electric bass here). Laid out is his uncanny ability to attract the biggest names in jazz as sidemen: such as Freddie Hubbard, Roland Kirk, Hubert Laws, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Jimmy Cleveland, and Jerome Richardson. For jazz buffs, the long, dramatic title track from the then-raging musical Hair is a highlight; Hubbard positively sizzles on muted trumpet, and the brash Kirk blasts through the grooving rhythm section under heavy reverb. There's some in-the-pocket drumming from Bernard Perdie on two of the six tracks, Jones' classic, swaggering arrangement of Benny Golson's 'Killer Joe', and a rendition of Edwin Hawkins' freak hit 'Oh Happy Day' that bursts with wit and sheer joy. This is one of the great peaks of Creed Taylor's A&M period, and is a perfect blend of all the hippest currents that were cooking up in the scene at the time.

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WALKING IN SPACE
VERVE Jun 2025
CD
$19.99

PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS

DECCA

Vinyl

$27.49 Apr 21, 2023

Vinyl LP pressing. There is no stopping Jeff Goldblum and his inimitable style, especially when it comes to something as close to his heart as playing the piano. Goldblum, together with his longtime band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, delivers sheer joy with his idiosyncratic take on a collection of standards that are amongst the best songs ever written. Here, the actor yet again brings his on-screen charisma and eccentricities to the keys, with a groove that is totally unique.

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PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
DECCA Apr 2023
Vinyl
$27.49

MORNING / EVENING

WARNER CLASSICS

$19.99 Nov 01, 2024

In 2019, I began to think about making concept albums. Of all the ideas I developed, one of the most potent was that of collating works that we would like to listen to in the morning and evening. This was the sentiment behind the creation of the albums Morning and Evening. Consequently, for both albums I sought out music that I found to be reminiscent of either morning or evening, choosing pieces that embodied the unique joy and melancholy of these times of day. Working on the principle that simplicity was suited to morning music, I leaned heavily towards baroque and early classical pieces for the Morning album. The Evening album features classics from the Romantic and late Romantic period. Playing these pieces, I sensed the unique rhythm of morning and evening hidden in their natural flow. I hope you will enjoy listening to them. Fazil Say

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MORNING / EVENING
WARNER CLASSICS Nov 2024
CD
$19.99

Brahms, Schumann: Piano Quintets / Joyce, Alexander String Quartet

Foghorn Classics

$16.99 Jan 01, 2014

SCHUMANN Piano Quintet. BRAHMS Piano Quintet • Alexander Str Qrt; Joyce Yang (pn) • FOGHORN 2014 (70:24)

One would think that the Schumann and Brahms piano quintets would make natural partners on disc; yet, they’ve been paired together fewer times than I’d have thought. I found no more than half a dozen such couplings, and interestingly, of those, only one (not counting the present Alexander Quartet’s version) is anywhere near recent, and that is a 2007 recording with the Artemis Quartet and Leif Ove Andsnes on Virgin, which received a less than favorable review from me in 31:4. Three others fall into the historical category: a recording issued by Pearl with the Busch Quartet and Rudolf Serkin (Brahms, 1938; Schumann, 1942); a recording issued in a three-disc set by Testament with the Hollywood Quartet and Victor Aller (Brahms, 1954; Schumann, 1955); and a recording by Doremi with the Tel Aviv Quartet and Pnina Salzman (Brahms, 1974; Schumann, 1983). There’s also a pairing of the two works on a 2000 Globe CD, featuring the Rubio Quartet and Paul Komen.

This led me to wonder why these two piano quintets by two men who held each other in high esteem, and whose lives intersected in very personal ways, would not be joined together on disc more often. Then, listening to them, one after the other, as they’re programmed on the Alexander’s CD—the Schumann first, the Brahms second—some possible reasons presented themselves.

To begin with, the Brahms Piano Quintet dwarfs the Schumann, and not just in its duration, which is some 12 minutes longer, but in the thickness of its textures, the weightiness of its material, and especially the ponderousness of its piano part. Schumann, the keyboard virtuoso who wrote such magnificent music for his own instrument, also seemed to understand intuitively how to combine piano and strings in a way that was balanced and transparent and that allowed for the strings to be heard on an equal footing. He leveled the playing field. Steven Ritter, in a 34:1 review of the Quintet performed by the Leipzig Quartet and Christian Zacharias on MDG, wrote, “Schumann in this piece knew what he was writing for, and the balance among the strings with the piano is well-nigh perfect.” Exactly right.

Brahms, too, was reputedly a formidable pianist, but his writing for the instrument, at least in his earlier works, was of a different nature. It was muscular, bulky, and dense. For the string players in his Quintet, it’s a constant struggle to be heard.

Then there’s the music itself. Much of Schumann’s Quintet gives off a feeling of spontaneous inspiration. For the most part, it’s a buoyant, ebullient work. Brahms’s Quintet is not spontaneous sounding at all. Much of it, with its convoluted rhythmic contortions, sounds laboriously worked out. Add to that a score containing some of Brahms’s most violent music, and in the very dark key of F Minor—which, according to Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (Ideas for an Aesthetic of Sound Art) (1806), expresses “deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery, and longing for the grave”—and you have a work that’s grim, desperate, and brutal in three of its four movements. Can there be any more sudden or crueler ending to a piece than the fateful three-note thud that decapitates the Finale dead in its tracks?

The piano quintets by Schumann and Brahms are indeed very different works, which, on emotional and psychological levels, probably wouldn’t make compatible marriage partners.

There’s also the age difference to take into account. Schumann composed his Quintet in 1842, more than 10 years before he and Clara met Brahms for the first time in Düsseldorf in 1853. By the time Brahms completed his Piano Quintet in 1864, Schumann had been dead for eight years.

But Brahms’s Quintet was one of those works that had a lengthy gestation and a difficult birth, struggling to find its final form. Originally, it took shape as a two-cello String Quintet. Had Brahms not destroyed that first version, it would have been his only string quintet scored for two cellos, following the example of Schubert’s great C-Major Quintet. As it turned out, Brahms’s only two extant string quintets, opp. 88 and 111, are scored for two violas, following the examples of Mozart.

Unhappy with the piece as a String Quintet, Brahms next revised it as a Sonata for Two Pianos. He was well enough satisfied with that version not to have destroyed it, but Clara Schumann and Hermann Levi, who performed the two-piano version together in concert, both felt that the piece needed a bigger, perhaps orchestral, treatment. Brahms wasn’t ready yet to write a symphony, but he took his friends’ advice to heart, and rearranged the score one last time as the Piano Quintet we know today. The two-piano version, however, was preserved and published as op. 34b. But filed under the category of “can’t leave well-enough alone,” the destroyed two-cello Quintet version was exhumed in a speculative reconstruction by Anssi Karttunen and recorded at least once that I know of, on a Toccata Classics CD (TOCC0066).

The Alexander’s Schumann is indeed breathtaking, as much for its sweeping lyricism and emotional responsiveness to the music’s impassioned Romantic gestures, as for its technical precision, ensemble balance, and tonal bloom. It stands head and shoulders, by far, above any of the recent recordings of the work to come my way. I already mentioned the disappointing Artemis effort; and even more recently, I found the Fine Arts Quartet’s entry with pianist Xiayin Wang on Naxos “workmanlike and professional, but not emotionally moving or inspiring.” Yet another letdown was a live recording from the Heimbach Festival with Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, and friends, a performance I found wanting for a bit more rehearsal time.

Quite honestly, until the arrival of this new version of the Schumann from the Alexander Quartet and Joyce Yang, my favorites have been a performance by the Schubert Ensemble on ASV, reviewed in 30:3, and the classic 1966 recording by the Guarneri Quartet with Arthur Rubinstein, a review of which (assuming it was reviewed) most likely predates the Fanfare Archive. The Alexander’s Schumann is simply wonderful, taking pride of place among all others with which I’m familiar.

The Brahms Quintet, too, is special. The hair-on-fire Scherzo, in particular, is a guided tour through Brahms’s rhythmic arsenal. If the players thoroughly appreciate the pulse-quickening, heart-pounding effect this movement is intended to have, and they deliver it accordingly, it should make you want to jump out of your skin. No one, of course, has literally ever done such a thing; it’s just an expression, like being beside oneself, which, according to quantum theory, at least, is a possibility. But I have to say that the Alexander’s performance is super-charged and electrifyingly exciting. Needless to say, the ensemble’s terrific reading of Brahms’s Piano Quintet is not limited to just the Scherzo. This new recording of the Schumann and Brahms piano quintets will be a serious contender for my year-end Want List.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Brahms, Schumann: Piano Quintets / Joyce, Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics Jan 2014
CD
$16.99

LIVE IN SWING CITY: SWINGIN WITH THE DUKE

SONY

$14.99 Apr 13, 1999

To coincide with the centennial celebration of the great Duke Ellington, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Wynton Marsalis) returns with a new album of all Ellington compositions, featuring performances by Cyrus Chestnut, Dianne Reeves and Illinois Jacquet. This "live" album was recorded as a companion to a PBS documentary on Ellington (to air May '99), and kicks off the Orchestra's world tour and the release of Jump for Joy, a literary homage to Duke Ellington.

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LIVE IN SWING CITY: SWINGIN WITH THE DUKE
SONY Apr 1999
CD
$14.99

NOTEBOOK (O.B.C.R.)

ATLANTIC

Vinyl

$43.86 Nov 08, 2024

Vinyl LP pressing. Based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks that inspired the iconic film, The Notebook features music and lyrics by multiplatinum singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson and a book by playwright Bekah Brunstetter (writer and producer on NBC's This Is Us, The Cake). Produced by Kevin McCollum and Kurt Deutsch, The Notebook is directed by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal, RENT) and Schele Williams (Aida, The Wiz), with choreography by Katie Spelman (Associate Choreographer on Moulin Rouge! The Musical). The cast of The Notebook features Tony Award®-winner Maryann Plunkett as Older Allie, Dorian Harewood as Older Noah, Joy Woods as Middle Allie, Ryan Vasquez as Middle Noah, Jordan Tyson as Younger Allie, John Cardoza as Younger Noah, Andre´a Burns as Mother/Nurse Lori, Carson Stewart as Johnny/Fin. Playing various roles are Yassmin Alers, Alex Benoit, Chase Del Rey, Hillary Fisher, Jerome Harmann-Hardeman, Dorcas Leung, Happy McPartlin, Juliette Ojeda, Kim Onah, Charles E. Wallace and Charlie Webb. While Michaelson has released nine studio albums, including multiple gold and platinum singles over her 17-year career, this marks her first Cast Recording.

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NOTEBOOK (O.B.C.R.)
ATLANTIC Nov 2024
Vinyl
$43.86

Celebration of Christmas: Noel (Live)

BYU Records

$14.99 Jan 18, 2019

Each Christmas season at Brigham Young University over 500 vocalists and instrumentalists celebrate the season in song. Handpicked from the largest private student body in the country, these students comprise four nationally and internationally acclaimed choirs and the highly praised Philharmonic Orchestra. These musical organizations are known for their unity, due in part to the superb technical proficiency achieved under the hands of choral conductors Rosalind Hall, Dr. Andrew Crane, and Jean Applonie and Philharmonic conductor Kory Katseanes. But there is more. Students and conductors share a strong belief in the spiritual character of music. As one critic observed, "The spiritual element is present in each piece the choirs sing." This results in performances that are alive, fresh, and heartfelt-performances that overcome boundaries and draw people together. The music presented here was recorded during the live performances of the December 2016 and 2017 Celebration of Christmas concerts.

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Celebration of Christmas: Noel (Live)
BYU Records Jan 2019
CD
$14.99

Handel: Messiah

Château de Versailles Spectacles

$29.99 Nov 17, 2023

When one of the most illustrious sopranists of our time becomes a conductor, he chooses nothing less than Messiah! Franco Fagioli paints a fresco of Handel's masterpiece with a Latin exaltation, drawing this great English Baroque oratorio in the colours of the Mediterranean, together with the famous Barcelona choir and their Caravaggesque chiaroscuro, which gives the work a shimmer of moiré. The Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal provides the backdrop for the splendours revealed by the soloists, who take us on a journey of joy and sorrow through the life and Passion of Christ: "Behold, I tell you a Mystery … "

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Handel: Messiah
Château de Versailles Spectacles Nov 2023
CD
$29.99

Winds Of Change

SteepleChase

$22.99 Jan 01, 1990

In the summer of 1989 when this album was recorded in sweltering heat of NYC pianist/composer Jim McNeely at the age of 40 had already had an impressive track record of performing with prominent players such as Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Dave Liebman, the Thad Jones/Mel Louis Orchestra, among others. McNeely, now a celebrated veteran himself, has earned ten nominations of the Grammy Awards and worked as conductor/composer/soloist-in-residence with a handful of radio orchestras of European major cities including Copenhagen, Frankfurt, etc., besides leading his own group. “This must be one of the finest piano trio albums I’ve heard, well, since the last by Jim McNeely… His musical sensitivity and sophistication make this album a constant joy.” (Any Hamilton – Wire UK on Winds Of Change)

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Winds Of Change
SteepleChase Jan 1990
CD
$22.99

The Mystery of Christmas

Divine Art

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Nov 16, 2018

There is a tradition among the Greek peoples of the singing of carols ('Kalanda') on Christmas Eve. This album is a set of carols newly composed by Greek-Cypriot composer Cilia Petridou. As musical works they also qualify as art-song in fine performances by three excellent sopranos. For those who love Christmas music but want something new, this album will fit the bill. The three sopranos each take a number of solo carols and form a trio for the last two; Lesley-Jane and Alison have both worked with the composer for some time and also made several highly-praised recordings for Divine Art and Metier. Cilia Petridou was an accomplished pianist until her career was ended by major surgery since when she has concentrated on composition. Moving with her family to the UK after the Turlish invasion of north Cyprus which destroyed their home town of Famagusta, her music is often informed by that political tragedy, but her Kalanda are bright and full of joy.

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The Mystery of Christmas
Divine Art Nov 2018
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Mambos y Fanfarria!

Genuin

$20.99 Jan 29, 2013

This symphonic wind ensemble is a product of the "El Sistema" system, the Venezuelan music education project of José Antonio Abreu. This CD testifies to the versatility and unbridled joy in playing of the 100 plus young wind instrumentalists. Valdemar Rodríguez, founder of Banda Sinfónica, and young Víctor Mendoza are featured as soloists.

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Mambos y Fanfarria!
Genuin Jan 2013
CD
$20.99

Songs With Latin American Soul

ARC Music

$20.99 Sep 30, 2014

Colombian singer and Latin Billboard Music Award nominee Marta Gómez’s Cantigo is an album of original songs presented in the rich and multifaceted rhythms of South America. Ms. Gómez has developed an extensive career that has placed her as one of the most interesting singer songwriters on the world music scene, performing a repertoire of original compositions based on a vast amount of rhythms from Latin America. Marta mixes the joy of the Caribbean with the nostalgia of the Andes, adding jazz and pop elements and taking the authenticity of South American indigenous folk music into new realms

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Songs With Latin American Soul
ARC Music Sep 2014
CD
$20.99

Christmas With Sonoro / Ferris, Higgins

Resonus Classics

$18.99 Oct 05, 2018

For most listeners, even those experienced with Christmas choral collections, the majority of original works and arrangements on this program will be unfamiliar. And that turns out to be a good thing—the selections are diverse enough yet compatible and complementary in style, all set with a sensitivity to text, to the spirit of the occasion—whether celebratory or contemplative—and, importantly, to singability and listenability.

So many Christmas collections in recent years, for some reason mostly from British choirs, have to their credit highlighted new music—but much of it unsingable by any but the most accomplished ensembles, and so difficult for the ear to reconcile alongside starkly more “accessible” works that the listening experience becomes uneasy and even intermittently unpleasant. Which is why I warily listened to the first several selections here—and found myself thoroughly and continuously surprised as the disc progressed. Here is a choral Christmas program that you can listen to straight through without fear, combining the delight of discovery—new composers, new music and texts, new arrangements of traditional carols—with the comfort and joy of a few beloved, favorite, familiar anchors, from Joubert’s There is no rose and Howells’ A spotless rose, to Warlock’s Bethlehem Down.

Beginning with Malcolm Archer’s A little child there is yborn, its bouncy, jovial character reminiscent of a John Rutter setting, the program progresses through a wide array of traditional texts and sometimes tunes—The angel Gabriel; In the bleak midwinter; Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; The Holly and the Ivy; Coventry Carol—but in inventive and always agreeable new realizations by composers and arrangers such as Paul Spicer (whose In a Field as I Lay is a highlight), Gareth Treseder (Blessed be that Maid Marie—another gem), Michael Higgins, Becky McGlade, Betty Roe, and Sally Beamish. And it doesn’t hurt that the singing by the 17 voices of Sonoro—yes, a professional British chamber choir—is consistently well-tuned, perfectly balanced, and projects a vibrant, characterful sound that gives the impression of concert-like spontaneity—a rare and welcome effect on a recording. The sooner you get this the more time you’ll have to listen. Highly recommended.

– ClassicsToday.com

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Christmas With Sonoro / Ferris, Higgins
Resonus Classics Oct 2018
CD
$18.99