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Pas d'École - Demonstrations of the Paris Opera Ballet School - The School of Dreams / Paris Opera Ballet School [DVD]

BelAir Classiques

DVD

$29.99 Nov 19, 2021

The Demonstrations of the Ballet School are a traditional checkpoint for the institution: they consist of a performance where the audience can appreciate the beautiful and rich education of classical dance taught at the Paris Opera. Considered as one of the School’s highlights, this moment unveils the teaching methods of a traditional artistic knowledge. Led by their teachers, the students display the different skills necessary to master the codes of classical dance and the French style. The Demonstrations also invite the public to discover other artistic disciplines or choreographic styles that complete the student’s training: contemporary, folk, baroque, and character dances, mime and music class. The Ballet School of the Opéra de Paris really is the school of dreams for each and every one of its students, that all wish to became professional dancers for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris. This intimate documentary film allows us to discover, through interviews and sneak peeks of the classes, their schedule, their day-to-day training, their passion, their hopes, their relationships with the teachers and ballet masters, and finally their ambition to become, one day maybe, an Étoile of the Ballet...

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Pas d'École - Demonstrations of the Paris Opera Ballet School - The School of Dreams / Paris Opera Ballet School [DVD]
BelAir Classiques Nov 2021
DVD
$29.99

Tigranian: Armenian Folkdances - Mugam arrangements, Opp. 2,

Grand Piano

$19.99 Apr 12, 2019

Nikoghayos Tigranian belongs to the first generation of composers and folk song collectors who laid the foundation of an Armenian national style. Tigranian's piano transcriptions of folk dances is perhaps his most important legacy, emulating folk instruments and capturing and preserving colorful depictions of Armenian folk life that are simple in texture and rich with harmonic and melodic detail. His interest also extended to Persian improvisational vocal-instrumental poems or mugams; expressive pieces that influenced contemporaries and subsequent generations of composers. Mikael Ayrapetyan is a pianist composer and producer. He is also the founder and artistic director of the music project Secrets of Armenia, which aims to increase international awareness of Armenian classical music, and actively organizes concerts featuring Armenian music in venues around the world.

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Tigranian: Armenian Folkdances - Mugam arrangements, Opp. 2,
Grand Piano Apr 2019
CD
$19.99

Bartók: The Wooden Prince; Dance Suite / Măcelaru, WDR Symphony Orchestra

Linn Records

$20.99 Mar 10, 2023

Following their first album for Linn (Dvorák: Legends Op. 59, Czech Suite Op. 39), the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Cristian Măcelaru pursue the same folk vein with two orchestral works by Béla Bartók. Based on a rather childish tale (prince, princess, fairies, and of course a happy ending!), the music of the ballet The Wooden Prince – recorded in full here – has all the ingredients of a masterpiece: masterful scoring for large forces, use of musical themes, an effortless amalgam of folk and late-Romantic elements.

Composed in 1923 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the merging of the towns of Buda and Pest – alongside commissions by Ernö Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály – the century-old Dance Suite is a six-movement work that has become one of Bartók’s best known compositions. Born in Timișoara, a short distance from Hungary, Măcelaru can boast an unparalleled understanding of Bartók, as evident here.

REVIEW:

For overall quality Măcelaru rivals Mälkki, and comparing the two readings episode by episode, one is as likely as the other to convey a little more mood and color. But neither really has the freshness of discovery and excitement heard in Boulez’s first account on Sony, and neither of the two orchestras, the WDR Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic, approaches Boulez’s spectacular results with the New York Philharmonic.

Măcelaru is up against it again in the Dance Suite, which has had outstanding recordings from Fricsay, Boulez, Solti, and Iván Fischer, among others. Less raw than Solti, Măcelaru shows himself a master of the score in a reading that crackles with aliveness and presence. He gets animated playing from the Cologne musicians, and you quickly forget that they are not on a par with eminent ensembles in this music.

I was captivated from start to finish, and more importantly, I got a bead on Măcelaru beyond my only other exposure to him, in the Shostakovich piano concertos. There’s no reason not to give this release the same enthusiastic praise that has become the norm for Măcelaru. The recorded sound is full, vivid, and lifelike.

-- Fanfare

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Bartók: The Wooden Prince; Dance Suite / Măcelaru, WDR Symphony Orchestra
Linn Records Mar 2023
CD
$20.99

Grieg: Complete Solo Piano Music / Knardahl, Derwinger

BIS

$99.99 Oct 01, 2006

A beautifully packaged box of the complete Grieg piano music on BIS and a fantastic deal at 12 CDs for the price of 3.

There is so much here that one can explore these works for years and never truly get to the bottom of them... a collection of gems that sparkle from any angle.

Eva Knardahl's recordings of Grieg's music for solo piano – here completed with recordings by Love Derwinger of the works unpublished during Grieg's lifetime – have been a milestone ever since they were first released on LP at the end of the 1970s. The Norwegian pianist's interpretations of the music of her countryman blew away decades worth of cobwebs and caused many to reconsider an oeuvre of which one part was so well-known as to risk becoming banal and another was all but unknown. At the time of the first release one reviewer likened Knardahl to ‘an Alicia de Larrocha of the North, who makes her instrument ring out like a cathedral’. When the recordings were re-released on CD, another wrote that her performances ‘suggest that there's a lot more to Grieg's several hundred little pieces than pretty lyricism ... She brings a forthrightness and color to the Norwegian master – even a countrified robustness – that few have suspected is there. Knardahl's performance of the famous Piano Concerto is a rendering full of grandeur, poetry and power. She can really stand comparison with any of her rivals.’

FULL REVIEW

Norwegian-born pianist Eva Knardahl, who died in late 2006, had a very long career. Well-known in her native Norway, she made her debut at the age of 12 performing with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout her life, she recorded a variety of works for piano, paying special attention to the works of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. This box set contains 12 CDs, covering all of Grieg’s compositions for piano.

Knardahl performs on the first ten discs in the set, and Love Derwinger is the pianist for the recordings on discs 11 and 12. This is a repackaging of individual discs that were released over the years, with the Knardahl recordings made between 1977 and 1980, and the Derwinger recordings dating from 1993. It seems unfair that only Knardahl gets her name on the front of the box; Derwinger is credited only on the back. Knaredahly’s recordings were issued first on LP and then reissued on CD in 1987.

The set contains a comprehensive booklet in English, Swedish, German and French, nearly 180 pages long - about 30 pages of text for each language. Fortunately, unlike many other Bis booklets, this one printed in a font that does not require a magnifying glass to read.

Grieg's piano music is one of the monuments of keyboard music, and probably deserves to be regarded much more highly. While not as intense as Beethoven's piano sonatas, or the works of Chopin or Liszt; while not as lofty as the vast output of Bach or that of Mozart, Grieg's piano music combines not only a unique impressionistic approach to the piano, but also elements of folk music from his native Norway. On top of that, many of the tunes in the short pieces are so engaging that you'll find yourself humming them.

Grieg's piano works are mostly made up of short pieces. His 66 lyric pieces, were composed throughout his career but there are also collections of Norwegian folk songs, peasant dances and other works. With just one piano sonata, and one piano concerto - but what a concerto! - his oeuvre is largely one of miniatures. But the size of these works in no way detracts from their interest and force. One can simply listen to the first of the Lyric Pieces, Arietta, to understand just how subtle Grieg's compositional style is. In a simple-sounding ballad of just over a minute, he manages not only to paint a melancholy picture, but also demonstrates that his harmonies are unique and unforgettable. This is a brief piano piece that is more a song without words than a statement of keyboard music.

The three discs of lyric pieces span his entire career, so listening to them in order offers not just a journey through melody, but also an opportunity to listen to how Grieg's style grew over time. His Op. 4 no. 3, Melody, has an intense, melodramatic sound, as does, for example, Op. 54, no. 1, Shepherd's Boy, which is a dark work. Some pieces have such lightness that one can only smile when listening to them. In a way, however, it is fitting that the final work in this series, Op. 71, no. 7, Forgetting, is a reworking of one of the earliest lyric pieces, Waltz, Op. 12 no. 2. Grieg comes full circle with this last lyric piece, showing the subtle ways in which his music evolved.

While there is pleasure enough in listening to the progression of Grieg's style through the first three discs of lyric pieces, one can start again with disc 4, which begins another examination of Grieg's career in chronological order. While it makes sense to group the lyric pieces on the first three discs - which also corresponds to the original release of these recordings on individual discs - it might have been more logical to reorder all the music so the twelve discs flowed in chronological sequence, rather than having two "sets" within the box.

Beginning with the earliest pieces, his Op. 1, Four Piano Pieces, his Poetic Tone-Pictures (Op. 3) and so on, the set traverses his output. In spite of the different names given to groups of works, Grieg's tone does not vary a great deal. All the pieces cover a range of tones from melancholy to exuberant, from bittersweet to pastoral.

An exception can be found in his sets of Norwegian folk songs, where he arranged the raw material of his country's music heritage for solo piano. These helped gain him greater notice, and are one of the finest examples of folk-music brought into the concert hall. There are dozens of such works, many of them tiny gems, others more substantial.

Grieg also wrote one piano sonata, which is somewhat different, on the surface, from his smaller works. A true romantic sonata, it nevertheless features his now familiar song-like approach to music, especially in its second movement. This sonata was and is often performed, yet it is surprising that he did not write another. He remained more interested in his miniatures though he also wrote orchestral and chamber works. In the same manner, he composed just the one piano concerto, which is an extremely popular and oft-performed work. It is played here by Knardahl, with the original version also performed by Love Derwinger.

One work that stands out is the Ballade in G minor, Op. 24, the longest amongst Grieg's pianistic output at just over 20 minutes in this recording. This comprises a series of 14 variations on a Norwegian folk song. Grieg composed this piece after the deaths of his parents in the autumn of 1875. He was overcome with grief, and that comes through in this densely emotional work Knardahl plays it with her emotions at her fingertips.

Some of the pieces are transcriptions from Grieg's larger orchestral works, such as Peer Gynt, Sigurd Jorsalfar, and the Holberg Suite. Grieg very much enjoyed making piano reductions of these works, and his transcriptions shed interesting light on the larger works from which they derive.

The last two discs contain works not published during Grieg's lifetime. Whether the early version of the Piano Concerto, alternate versions of a few works, or some very early pieces that he never deemed interesting enough for publication, these two discs in essence offer the extras or out-takes of Grieg's piano output.

Across the 787 minutes of this set, I have to confess to a preference for Grieg's shorter pieces over the piano sonata, concerto and Ballade. From almost any time in his career, from his lyric pieces to the Norwegian folk songs, from his "short pieces" to his transcriptions of his own songs, dipping into this astounding range of work is never disappointing. In the same way that Schubert rarely wrote a mediocre lied, Grieg has very few weak piano pieces. You can dip into these works at any time and the gods of shuffle will pull out an interesting juxtaposition of pieces that, in spite of when they were composed, fit together organically. There is so much here - again, the comparison to Schubert's lieder comes to mind - that one can explore these works for years and never truly get to the bottom of them. While the last two discs contain some works that are, perhaps, minor, the remainder of this set is a collection of gems that sparkle from any angle.

The recording quality of these discs is excellent, and the piano sounds present without too much reverb, though the Derwinger recordings are a bit hollower than the Knardahl discs. The recording hall adds a different type of reverb, and Derwinger plays a Steinway to Knardahl’s Bösendorfer. For an interesting recording, you might also want to listen to Leif Ove Andsnes' selection of Lyric Pieces played on Grieg's own piano. Given the price and completeness of this set, and the quality of the performances, there is little reason for you to hesitate. Even if you've only sampled Grieg's works in the past, this budget set is a fine reason to discover the full range of his piano compositions. Should you not want all this Grieg, however, the individual discs are still available from BIS, and the three CDs of Lyric Pieces would be a great purchase.

-- Kirk McElhearn, MusicWeb International

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Grieg: Complete Solo Piano Music / Knardahl, Derwinger
BIS Oct 2006
CD
$99.99

Kodály: Te Deum - Bartók: Cantata Profana / Foster, Transylvania State Philharmonic

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 Nov 03, 2023

The Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra and conductor Lawrence Foster present choral-orchestral works by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. They join forces with a remarkable group of soloists – including Luiza Fatyol, Roxana Constantinescu, Marius Vlad, Ioan Hotea and Bogdan Baciu – as well as the Junior VIP children’s choir. The album opens with Kodály’s Budavári Te Deum and Psalmus Hungaricus, followed by Bartók’s Transylvanian Dances and culminating in the composer’s Cantata Profana. The latter work, based on ancient myth, was originally conceived in Romanian, but the piece is usually performed in a Hungarian version. This recording reinstates the Romanian original version, retouched by choir conductor Cornel Groza.

In general, this recording by Romanian ensembles of works by Hungarian composers linked to Romanian sources can be seen as an exploration of Romania and Hungary’s shared roots, and of the bicultural nature of Transylvania in particular. Lawrence Foster has a vast Pentatone discography, including several orchestral and complete opera recordings. The Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra so far featured on two Pentatone recordings under the baton of Foster: Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (2021) and Melody Moore’s solo recital Remembering Tebaldi (2023). Roxana Constantinescu featured on Pentatone recordings of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Puccini’s Il tabarro (both 2020), while Marius Vlad appeared on the above-mentioned La Fanciulla del West recording.

REVIEWS:

One can readily detect a national style in this collection of choral works recently issued by Pentatone, each distinctive and individual if, in the case of Kodály, of uneven inspiration. Of Psalmus Hungaricus Bartók commented that it ‘could not have been written without Hungarian peasant music’.

[Kodály’s Psalmus] is acclaimed as one of the truly great choral works of the 20^th century, and while there’s no shortage of recordings, actual performances today are relatively rare. The Guardian’s Alfred Hickling once observed, ‘Kodály remains a minority taste in this country, lightly dismissed as a kind of low-fat alternative to Bartók’. A little unfair perhaps considering the emotional punch and drama of Psalmus Hungaricus in which the soloist assumes the role of the betrayed King David, with a supplicant chorus echoing his anguish and indignation.

According to the Kodály authority David Vinden, the Psalmus is a work ‘that sings itself’. Here, the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra and Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir do the work proud. Under the direction of Lawrence Foster (American-born with Rumanian ancestry), the chorus respond fervently to the raging of the persecuted, bitterness giving way to the affirmation of God’s divine retribution. King David’s grievances are articulated mainly by the tenor Marius Vlad, but here his impassioned utterances sound a little too clenched for comfort, and only in the latter stages of the work does a more yielding tone emerge. While this performance may not achieve the gravitas or emotional intensity of Kodály’s own recording (Hungaroton, 1957), Lawrence Foster’s ear for balance is sure and his tempi well-judged.

Like the Te Deum, Bartók’s Cantata Profana (1930) is another rarity in the concert hall, although moderately well represented on disc. Based on traditional Transylvanian ballads (and sung here in Romanian), it narrates the tale of a hunter’s nine sons who are magically transformed into stags before their integration into the natural world. The work remains an under-appreciated part of his oeuvre...Bogdan Baciu and Ioan Hotea, as father and son respectively, are impassioned in their solo contributions, manfully facing their extreme pitches. The chorus are assured and bring considerable energy to their role.

Taking the disc to just over the hour are Bartók’s Transylvanian Dances, orchestral versions of his Sonatina for Piano from 1915 and given characterful performances. Overall, these accounts are a worthwhile introduction to the composers’ choral works and make attractive couplings that enjoy full texts and translations with excellent sound.

-- Opera Today

Music by two Hungarian composers, and folk-music-collecting friends, performed in Romania conducted by Los Angeles-born (to Romanian parents) Lawrence Foster, makes for an excellent collection, very well recorded at Radio Cluj in May 2022. Kodály’s Budavári Te Deum is lively and exhilarating, with lyrical correspondences to Walton’s Coronation Te Deum, music that speaks directly without artifice, whereas Psalmus Hungaricus is musically of greater intensity and gravitas, performed here with emotional power to compelling effect. Bartók’s orchestral Transylvanian Dances make a flavoursome prelude to his Cantata Profana, recounting a strange tale involving stags, in an atmospheric, dramatic and suspenseful performance. In addition to the choir and orchestra there are, when required, a children’s chorus and five vocal soloists, each of the latter committed to words and music.

-- Colin's Column

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Kodály: Te Deum - Bartók: Cantata Profana / Foster, Transylvania State Philharmonic
PENTATONE Nov 2023
SACD
$21.99

Mussorgsky: Songs & Dances of Death

Urania Records

$20.99 Feb 21, 2025

Old Russian folk melodies; the traits of human life (joy, love, illness, poverty, death, religion); a high aesthetic-musical realism as a compositional commitment. These are the ingredients in Musorgsky's Lieder, already appreciated by Liszt and Debussy, and now available in this box set.

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Mussorgsky: Songs & Dances of Death
Urania Records Feb 2025
CD
$20.99

Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen

Opus Arte

DVD

$29.99 Jan 07, 2022

‘This hand shall never more come near thee with such friendship.' How long is forever? When the imprisoned Palamon and Arcite vow eternal friendship, they don’t expect that anything will come between them. But then from their cell window they see the beautiful Emilia, and their priorities take a sudden and violent turn. In this late romance, Fletcher and Shakespeare examine love in all its fluid and complex forms. Barrie Rutter, recipient of the 2003 Sam Wanamaker Award, directs his first play since stepping down as Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides. Inspired by the play’s Morris language and references, The Two Noble Kinsmen is set in pastoral ‘Merrie England’ and brought to life with original music composed by acclaimed folk musician Eliza Carthy, and dance choreographed by Ewan Wardrop.

Review

Running at a tight two hours 15 minutes, this tragicomedy still squeezes in a lot of Shakespearean tropes: a tyrant king, a last-minute death, and a young woman driven to madness by love...Barrie Rutter’s direction keeps the play together. Coupled with Jessica Worrall’s design, which leaves the grass-covered stage looking like an enchanted forest and the characters leaping between jewel-toned block colours and fringed dance costumes, the production is both lighthearted and light on its feet, with choreographer Ewan Wardrop’s work particularly standing out. Francesca Mills has great comic timing as the jailer’s daughter, as do Paul Stocker and Bryan Dick when they bounce off each other as Palamon and Arcite. (The Guardian)

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Shakespeare: The Two Noble Kinsmen
Opus Arte Jan 2022
DVD
$29.99

Sing Lustily & With Good Courage / Prior, The Carnival Band

Saydisc

$20.99 Sep 01, 2005

Gallery hymns of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Carnival Band made their debut in the summer of 1984. Their repertoire ranges from medieval dances to music hall songs in a style that draws on early music and folk from Europe East and West, and America North and South. Maddy Prior enjoys many and various musical activities. Working with the Carnival Band holds a special affection for her. She says that the joyful and enthusiastic way the projects are approached make them a delight to do. Elsewhere she has been singing with Steeleye Span for around twenty years and continues to do so with undiminished enjoyment. She also works regularly with her husband Rick Kemp, writing and performing their own compositions. She had done projects with June Tabour and numerous television and radio appearances. Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band were first brought together in 1984 for a BBC Radio 2 broadcast of Christmas carols. This became the basis of 'A Tapestry of Carols' (CDSDL366) which was enthusiastically received by the press and the public. Another commission from Radio 2 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of John Wesley's spiritual awakening and the 200th of his brother Charles' death led to this, their second recording. While Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band are happy to maintain their separate identities and careers, they enjoy these occasional collaborations which give them the opportunity to combine their different styles and talents.

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Sing Lustily & With Good Courage / Prior, The Carnival Band
Saydisc Sep 2005
CD
$20.99

Lully: George Dandin - La Grotte De Versailles / Ensemble Marguerite Louise; Gaetan Jarry

Château de Versailles Spectacles

$20.99 Oct 09, 2020

It was on July 18, 1668 that Moliere successfully performed George Dandin ou le mari confundu, a play mixed with a sung pastoral, for “Le Grand Divertissement Royal de Versailles” offered by Louis XIV to his Court, as a celebration of the Peace of Aachen. This amusing story of a rich peasant who purchases a young noble girl includes interludes set to the splendid music of Lully. The same year sees the promising meeting between Lully and Quinault: together they write for King La Grotte de Versailles, in which Louis is glorified, and dances in person the role of a nymph. These two works, symbolic of the creative vigor of the early days of Versailles, and of the artistic appetite of a thirty-year-old Sovereign, are brought back to life thanks to Gaetan Jarry and Marguerite Louise, with incomparable taste: tambourines, flutes and musettes are part of the festivities and the trumpets proclaim the glory of Louis. Here we have a scintillating echo of the sumptuous festivities given at Versailles by Louis XIV!

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Lully: George Dandin - La Grotte De Versailles / Ensemble Marguerite Louise; Gaetan Jarry
Château de Versailles Spectacles Oct 2020
CD
$20.99

Sale

TANGOS & DANCES
CHESKY RECORDS Jun 1992
CD
~~$16.61~~ $16.60

Chen: Momentum / Chinese Folk Dance Suite
BIS Jul 2003
CD
$21.99

Granados: 12 Danzas Espanolas

Naxos

$19.99 Dec 05, 2025

Enrique Granados was one of the leading figures of the late-19th-century Spanish nationalist and impressionist school of musicians. The much-loved Danzas espanolas is a collection of piano pieces that represents Granados's refined blend of Romantic lyricism and Spanish folk imagery. This charming and charismatic journey through Spain is presented here in a colourful transcription for two guitars. Fabio Rizza's 2024 arrangement of the evocative Capricho espanol completes the programme.

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Granados: 12 Danzas Espanolas
Naxos Dec 2025
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty / Reimer, Berlin Deutsche Opera Orchestra [DVD]

BelAir Classiques

DVD

$29.99 Oct 28, 2016

When she is finally released from an evil spell by the kiss of a young prince, the Sleeping Beauty awakes and is- in spite of a hundred years of sleep- as beautiful as a young woman. The love of the prince is simply stronger than the curse that rests on the haunted princess. The artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Nacho Duato, has brought new life to this beloved classic, which itself is over a hundred years old and for which Tchaikovsky has composed the unforgettable music. This production demonstrates that Nacho Duato can also tackle classical ballets with dance en pointe with great success. Nothing in this production is old and dusty, rather the entire choreography looks fresh and is bursting with vitality and brings an air of spring to the stage. The costumes by Angelina Atlagic deserve likewise admiration as they sparkle on stage like spring buds in morning dew. The stage design, also designed by Atlagic, offers a refined setting for the ballet fairy tale. The décor of this production is highly imaginative and colorful, yet at the same time very elegant and stylish.

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Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty / Reimer, Berlin Deutsche Opera Orchestra [DVD]
BelAir Classiques Oct 2016
DVD
$29.99

DANCING IN THE DARK

GREEN HILL PROD.

$12.99 Sep 02, 2008

Once in a while a musician comes along with impeccable technique, deep understanding of the jazz repertoire, an innate tendency to swing and the rare ability to communicate the heart and soul of a tune to listeners. That musician is Beegie Adair. About her music Adair says, Falling in love with jazz is like falling in love with a person, except with jazz you never get over it. About Beegie (say B-G) Adair, what do others say? Jazz great Helen Merrill salutes her inventive jazz sense, her wonderful sense of time and improvised melody. Christopher Louden of Jazz Times magazine says Adair is accomplished artist with a delicate touch. The Los Angeles Times calls her music Elegant. Entertainment News writes, Beegie Adair is one of the finest piano players in the world. Intrigued? So are thousands of jazz fans, who agree with critics about Adair's sophisticated and listenable jazz performances, and who have made her recordings among the biggest sellers in the jazz world. Citing George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner among her influences, Adair has recorded 24 CDs, ranging from Cole Porter standards to Frank Sinatra classics to romantic World War II ballads. Her 6-CD Centennial Composers Collection of tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael and Berlin became an instant collectible classic when it was released in 2002. Kentucky born and raised, Adair lives and records in Nashville a€" something of a surprise to people who associate the city solely with country music. In fact Nashville lives up to it's Music City nickname by hosting a vibrant jazz scene, in which she has been a leading light for decades. A sought-after studio musician in her early days there, Adair accompanied such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash and also worked with Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Mama Cass Elliott and Peggy Lee. Her guests on Improvised Thoughts, Beegie's radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, included such greats as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland's Piano Jazz show and has performed with Nat Adderley, Bill Watrous, Lew Tabackin, Terry Clarke, Urbie Green and Jim Ferguson, among many others. When she's not in the studio or appearing in clubs and concert halls around the country, Adair wears a variety of hats, from adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University to teacher and mentor at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Recently she co-wrote and scored an innovative theatrical production, Betsy, which in April 2006 premiered off-Broadway in New York. She has recorded eight projects for Village Square Records in Nashville; her most recent CDs are Sentimental Journey, a popular collection of World War II-era songs, and a solo piano recording, Quiet Romance. She performs solo and with the Beegie Adair Trio, whose members include drummer Chris Brown, a veteran of the Maynard Ferguson ensemble, and bassist Roger Spencer, who has played with the Les Brown Band, Ray Conniff, the Page Cavanaugh Trio and Pete Jolly. They are, she says, my main guys. They're so tuned into the way I visualize music that it's effortless to play with them. In clubs and concert venues from Los Angeles to New York, Beegie and her main guys win kudos from audiences and critics alike who appreciate her unique take on classic jazz. She fell in love with the music a long time ago, and indeed she's never gotten over it -- a love affair the jazz world is much the better for.

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DANCING IN THE DARK
GREEN HILL PROD. Sep 2008
CD
$12.99

Throwback to Dance

Signum Classics

$19.99 Nov 21, 2025

This album, Throwback to Dance, explores how composers turn to dance forms to carve out new paths: predominantly court dances, folk dances but also the more 'modern' waltz. The album is inspired by the charming meeting between Ravel and Grieg back in 1894, and looks at Grieg's influence on Ravel, seldom documented, as well as that on Pejacevic and Chaminade.

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Throwback to Dance
Signum Classics Nov 2025
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

Dancing on Water

Cold Blue Music

$18.99 May 01, 2001

Marty Walker performs music for clarinet and bass clarinet written for him by composers Daniel Lentz, Peter Garland, Jim Fox, Michael Jon Fink, Rick Cox, and Michael Byron. Performing with Walker are noted new music stalwarts William Winant, Wadada Leo Smith, Amy Knoles, and others. The music runs the gamut from a lush work for ten pianos and ten clarinets to a technically thorny solo and includes just about everything in between. Although the individual pieces are on their surfaces quite different from one another, they share a certain commonality—an embrace of music’s inherent sensuality. Critics have described Walker’s playing as “masterful,” “flawless,” and “true artistry.” Minnesota Public Radio’s Michael Barone called this album a “mild-mannered, soul-filling collection of contemporary ‘meditations’. . . think Satie and Morton Feldman, and you come close to the overall mood. Delicate textures prevail…the thinking-listener’s slow lane.” 21st Century Music magazine wrote, “If people are best known by the company they keep, then clarinetist Marty Walker is blessed indeed. He keeps wonderful company with an excellent series of composers…. Both the playing and the recording quality are sparkling.”

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Dancing on Water
Cold Blue Music May 2001
CD
$18.99

Postcards from Ukraine, Vol. 3 – Folk Dialogues

Toccata

$20.99 Apr 10, 2026

The first album of Postcards from Ukraine gave a potted history of Ukrainian music in the form of a series of miniatures for piano and violin, and the second presented four outstanding chamber works by important Ukrainian composers. This third instalment brings six new arrangements of Ukrainian folksongs, for violin and piano, by Markiyan Melnychenko, integrating them into a programme of folksong- and dance arrangements by some of his best-known virtuoso predecessors.

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Postcards from Ukraine, Vol. 3 – Folk Dialogues
Toccata Apr 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Dvorak, Grieg & Brahms: Music for Piano Four Hands / Chevallier, Immerseel

Alpha

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% May 19, 2017

The repertory for piano four hands is very large and was very popular, especially in the period between 1780 and 1950, with both professional pianists and amateur players in the home. Jos van Immerseel and Claire Chevallier chose for this recording a selection of ‘dances’ by three masters of the genre, who show a certain affinity with one another and composed the works in question within a short period of time (1878-81). Brahms wrote twenty-one dances, from which the artists have chosen the less well-known books, nos. 11 to 21. He wrote these works while living in Vienna where he got to know Hungarian folk music through the street musicians, which inspired these works. Grieg loved his country, its atmosphere and culture, and this drove his composition. He wrote: “To turn Norwegian nature, Norwegian folk life and Norwegian poetry into music. This goal appeals to me, and I feel strongly that through it I will achieve something.” Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances for piano four hands are largely inspired by the aforementioned dances by Brahms. The three composers were also pianists and knew the keyboard instruments of their time. The benchmark for them was the German style of piano construction. They knew all the possibilities but also the limitations of their instruments. For this recording, the duo chose a Bechstein grand piano of 1870, believing that a masterly restoration of a masterly instrument of the composers’ time offers a better chance of listening to the music as the composers conceived and heard it.

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Dvorak, Grieg & Brahms: Music for Piano Four Hands / Chevallier, Immerseel
Alpha May 2017
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

Muller: Antillean Dances / Bessette

Analekta

$20.99 Nov 19, 2021

Wim Statius Muller, who came to be known as “the Chopin of Curaçao,” spent just over 30 years in various security and counter-espionage organizations! Although for the most part Wim Statius Muller’s music is based on folk dance rhythms, it is nevertheless garbed in the fine attire of concert music, with the waltzes and other dance tunes. The extraordinary musician Louise Bessette offers on this new album all 22 pieces from the Antillean Dances collection and gives these dances the “royal treatment,” offering precise and exceptionally clear performances.

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Muller: Antillean Dances / Bessette
Analekta Nov 2021
CD
$20.99

Barkhudarian: 4 Oriental Dances, 12 Armenian Dances & Piano

Grand Piano

$19.99 May 11, 2018

The Armenian and Georgian composer Sarkis Vasil'evich Barkhudarian is famed for his piano miniatures. Some are among the first piano works to use Armenian folk themes as the basis for a series of original compositions. His colorful and unusual harmonies, created by the sinuous, interweaving modes of Armenian music, are immediately attractive and his miniatures, whether full of grace or pungent dance rhythms, bear out Glazunov's admiration of his 'sincerity, elegance and harmony of form.' Mikael Ayrapetyan was born in 1984 in Yerevan, Armenia, where he had his early schooling. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary and includes rarely performed works of Armenian composers. He is actively engaged in the popularization of Armenian classical music, organizing concerts in the major concert halls of the world, and acting as producer, artistic director and pianist for these performances.

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Barkhudarian: 4 Oriental Dances, 12 Armenian Dances & Piano
Grand Piano May 2018
CD
$19.99

Rodrigo: Guitar Music, Vol 1 / Jouve, Perroy

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Mar 25, 2008

Tres piezas españolas (Three Spanish Pieces), dedicated to Andrés Segovia, were composed in 1954, the same year as Rodrigo’s second guitar concerto, Fantasía para un gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Gentleman). Fandango, with its ‘wrong note’ beginning, contains fine moments of lyricism accompanied by colourful chords, as well as many brilliant passages of triplets in which the player’s dexterity is exploited to the full. The composer wrote about this piece:

The fandango was a very popular dance in the eighteenth century; it was the dance both of the nobility and the masses...The fandango is a slow dance and sometimes includes ballads which are sung. Its origin is uncertain though many experts claim the fandango is of Arabian descent. Except in the trio of this central section, this Fandango does not employ popular themes, but it is inspired by the sevillanas, an extremely intricate folk-dance. The melodic style reflects the gallantry and pomp of the eighteenth century in Spain and especially in Madrid.

The second movement, Passacaglia, more introspective in character, reveals how resonant a single line can be on the guitar, especially on the bass strings. Gradually the figurations over the repeated ground become more complex through succeeding sections until a chordal rasgueado (strumming) takes us into the atmosphere of the indigenous guitar of Spain, but with slightly altered chords from what might be expected. The harp-like brilliance of the following section precedes a fugato coda in fandango rhythm. The transition from the pensive opening to the vigorous finale is a masterly piece of composing requiring a fine judge of pace and shading from the performer. Zapateado is a virtuoso demonstration of the rhythms of the flamenco dance famed for its skilful footwork. Its perpetual motion, inventive modulation and subtle rhythms create not only picturesque images of vigorous choreography but also provide a dramatic climax to the triptych.

Sonata giocosa, Rodrigo’s first sonata for the guitar, was composed in 1958 and dedicated to Renata Tarragó, an earlier editor of the Concierto de Aranjuez. The work is naturally good-humoured, following concepts of the ‘sonatina’ rather than the weightier precedents implied by ‘sonata’. The opening Allegro moderato contains several echoes and associations from other works, such as the ‘wrong note’ and dissonant chord concepts of Fandango from Tres piezas españolas, the downward triple runs reminiscent of the Concierto de Aranjuez, and rapid scale passages in quasi-flamenco mode. The slow movement, Andante moderato, relies on a lightly dotted rhythm interspersed with firm chords, the key of E minor here contrasting with the A major of the outer sections. A composer can hardly be giocoso (Italian for ‘jocose, playful, jesting’) at a more leisurely tempo but this Andante moderato has charm and elegance and the thematic implications of its opening bars are fully explored. The Spanish writer, Sergio Fernández Bravo, described the piece as ‘like a pavana, lento, solemn, full of reveries and references to a past steeped in history’. The final Allegro is a vigorous zapateado dance in six/eight time, with strummed chords, and a strong flamenco flavour, reinforcing the predominant mood of wit and gaiety.

Por los campos de España (In the Spanish Countryside) is a group of impressionistic pieces written over several years. The first of these, En los trigales (In the Wheatfields) was composed during a short summer visit to northern Spain in 1938 after Rodrigo had spent several years abroad. It can be viewed both as a stimulating portrait of the Spanish landscape and as a song of joyous homecoming after long absence.

Junto al Generalife (Close by the Generalife) (c.1955), was dedicated to the eminent German guitarist, Siegfried Behrend. The Generalife was the pleasure palace, with beautiful gardens, of the former kings of Granada, its name derived from the Arabic, Gennat-Alarif – ‘the gardens of the architect’. Situated on the slopes of the Cerro del Sol, the Generalife overlooks the city. The composition is in two parts. The introduction is a gentle lento e cantabile, with fast scale passages in quasi-improvisatory style punctuated by full chords. An Allegro follows, reminiscent of the malagueña. The middle section consists of the melodic tremolo recalling the themes of the granadinas, the flamenco form originating among the gypsies of Granada. The final pages present the recapitulation and a coda which includes passages of fiery descending triplets.

Bajando de la meseta (Coming Down from the Plateau) was completed in 1954, and dedicated to Nicolás Alfonso, Professor of Guitar at the Brussels Conservatoire. Rodrigo explained the background to the work:

The plateau (meseta) referred to is the one that forms the region of Castilla la Nueva; coming down from this plateau we reach Andalusia and in this imaginary and musical journey we are suddenly confronted by loud singing that echoes out to the wide horizon and then changes into a quick, trembling dance. It is the real, bewitching Andalusia, with its pulsing rhythms, which rewards the traveller after the long journey.

En tierras de Jerez (In the Lands of Jerez), written for the famous Austrian guitarist, Luise Walker, was published originally in Antologia per Chitarra (Ricordi, 1973), along with compositions such as Poulenc’s Sarabande (his only work for guitar) and Petrassi’s Suoni notturni. Jerez is the sherry producing area of Spain around Jerez de la Frontera, some sixty kilometres from Seville on the way to Cádiz. Sherry was first exported to England from there in the reign of Henry VII. Originally the town was the Roman settlement called Asido Caesaris, so the word ‘sherry’ may distantly evoke the name of Caesar. Later Jerez became a Moorish settlement until recaptured in 1264 by Alfonso X. The composition offers a variety of moods and some exquisite melodic moments. The quiet opening, in six/eight time, deploys once again the single line concept culminating in tersely rhythmic chords. The theme returns (after the chords), stated an octave higher, ending in a rapid scale run. An intriguing section with strummed six-string chords follows, conjuring up images of the Andalusian guitar glimpsed from afar. After a melody in the bass accompanied by treble chords, an intricate arpeggio episode (broken into by further chords) is introduced. This part also ends with a virtuosic scale across the length of the fingerboard. The climax consists of strummed chords, a repeat of the bass melody section, and a further hearing of the original theme.

Entre olivares (Among Olive Groves), dedicated to Manuel López Ramos, was first published by Ediciones Musicales Madrid (1958) in company with En los trigales (edited by Narciso Yepes). It begins with discordant triplet chords (such as a chord of G major set against an augmented fourth, the C sharp). The energy of the piece, a rapid allegro, suggests that Entre olivares is less a serene amble through twisted little trees on Spanish hillsides than a boisterous peasant dance. The middle section presents a characteristic device of Rodrigo – a melodic line articulated on the bass strings contrasted against allegro gracioso quaver passages featuring the use of alternating pedal notes and rapid movement on the treble strings. The opening theme returns, with a frenetic coda, the last bars marked accelerando and siempre accelerando.

In 1960 Rodrigo composed Tonadilla for two guitars, a work which demonstrates the composer’s mastery of guitar idioms. Dedicated to the esteemed Presti-Lagoya Duo, the perfect appropriateness of the duo writing, the high level of virtuosity demanded, and the breadth of the sonata-like structure, reveal Rodrigo at full creative stretch. Rodrigo, in a short note, observed how the tonadilla is related to the Italian intermezzo, a musical interlude played between acts of a theatrical presentation, whether burlesque or tragedy, and thus a flexible form capable of expressing many diverse moods. Tonadilla is made up of brief themes developing in the style of a sonata as the three movements conjure up individual scenes according to the listener’s imagination. The language of Tonadilla is lucid and logical, inspired by the music of Scarlatti but absorbing within the first movement bitonal passages representative of both the twentieth-century and the traditional influence of Scarlatti’s harmonic writing.

Fandango del ventorrillo (Fandango of the Little Tavern) was originally a piano piece written in 1938, dedicated to Emile Trépard, a Parisian friend of the composer, and included in the suite Cuatro piezas para piano (Four Pieces for Piano). Emilio Pujol, guitarist and scholar, arranged this for two guitars and it was first published in Paris by Max Eschig in 1965. A subsequent arrangement by Pepe Romero was published by Ediciones Joaquín Rodrigo, Madrid, in 1993.

The pianists, Gregory Allen and Linton Powell, described this as ‘another of Rodrigo’s masterly exercises in two-part counterpoint...full of unexpected quirks such as off-beat accents, overlapping phrases, vehement interruptions, mercurial harmonic twists – and a diabolical little drumroll’. The piece certainly displays considerable indebtedness to the late Baroque, exploring harpsichord figurations with implications of the toccata style in dexterity and lightness of mood. Moreover, the repeated notes of the opening theme have various similarities with the melodic vitality of En los trigales, composed the same year. The transferring of Fandango del ventorrillo from pianoforte to plucked strings seems entirely natural, enhancing the piece by bringing it closer to the timbres and spirit of the eighteenth-century keyboard.

Graham Wade

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Rodrigo: Guitar Music, Vol 1 / Jouve, Perroy
Naxos Mar 2008
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Ceske Lidove Pisne - Czech Folk Songs / Musica Bohemica
Supraphon Mar 2010
CD
$28.99

FOLKS

SUNNYSIDE

$16.63 Aug 05, 2022

The idea that the creation of an infinite number of melodies is attainable from just 12 tones has always fascinated me. Additionally, I find it intriguing that folk music, the traditional music of the people in a country or region, is strikingly analogous in it's raw melodic content despite developing in relative isolation to one another over hundreds of years. As I composed the music for this album, I had the idea of folk melodies in mind: minimal but not minimalistic - simple but not simplistic - miniature melodic moments; specifically crafted for skilled improvisers to instantly absorb and interpret. Apart from the composed melodic content, this music was fully improvised without frameworks or forms. // The melodies set the tone for group improvisation. "Heaven Above" is the only exception, in which the improvisations occur within a circular form over a predetermined harmonic sequence and tempo. // John, Michael and I have been playing together for several decades resulting in a deep, nearly telepathic, musical connection.

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FOLKS
SUNNYSIDE Aug 2022
CD
$16.63

Folk Music of China, Vol. 7: Folk Songs of the Yi and Qiang Tribes in Sichuan & Yunnan / Various

Naxos World Music

$8.49 ~~$16.99~~ Save 50% Jun 12, 2020

This album features songs from the Qiang and the Yi tribes, who both mainly live in the mountainous regions of southwestern China, specifically in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Many of the Yi folk songs make reference to the mountains in this region, especially in love songs and group dance songs, as heard in tracks 19 and 23. The music of both of these two minority groups includes lively short dance songs in duple metre and long melodious labor or love songs that employ a free rhythm. At first, you may not be able to distinguish between the music of these two minority groups; in fact, the two tribes are closely related and the Yi are thought to be descendants of ancient Qiang tribes. The languages of the Qiang and Yi both belong to the Sino-Tibetan language phylum. Yet the music of each tribe has its own distinct characteristics. Although both of them often prefer high pitches, the songs of the Yi tribe use a broader vocal range. The dance songs of the Qiang have lively rhythms and are structured with repetitions of a few musical phrases. The dance songs of the Yi incorporate more melodic and rhythmic variations and long, resounding cries. The cries also appear in other types of Yi songs, for example, the middle of track 23, and the beginning and end of track 24. It is noteworthy that the songs featured here have distinct local characteristics, which may differentiate them from the songs of the Qiang and Yi minority groups living in other parts of China. The Qiang songs in this album come from Xin Beichuan County, the only Qiang autonomous county in China.

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Folk Music of China, Vol. 7: Folk Songs of the Yi and Qiang Tribes in Sichuan & Yunnan / Various
Naxos World Music Jun 2020
CD
~~$16.99~~ $8.49

Farkas: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 - Music for Flute & Strings / Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra

Toccata

$20.99 Mar 11, 2016

This album is the fourth release in a series of orchestral recordings by Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000). The album focuses on his compositions for strings and flute. These works have all the transparent scoring, driving rhythms, and hearkening to Baroque-style dance forms that make Neo-Classical music so appealing. Flutist Andras Adorjan is featured on this album, alongside Viktoria Herencsar on cimbalom. Janos Rolla also leads the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra on this recording.

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Farkas: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4 - Music for Flute & Strings / Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra
Toccata Mar 2016
CD
$20.99