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Chase: Bhajan / Chase, Lorentz

Cold Blue Music

Available as CD

~~$18.99~~ $9.49

Jan 20, 2017

Bhajan is a free-wheeling yet meditative four-section work for electric violin and live electronics, which one critic described as “a pas de deux between violin and electronics,” was written for and features noted new-music violinist Robin Lorentz. Nicholas Chase has headlined festivals in Europe and the US as a composer, performer, and improviser, His interactive, site-specific composition NOVA: Transmission was exhibited as part of the Whitney Biennial in New York and his Ngoma Lungundu opened the New Music+ Festival at the Jana ek Academy, Czech Republic. He was an inaugural Composer Fellow at the 2011 international Other Minds Festival in San Francisco and in 2015 was honored by the International Center for Japanese Culture, Tokyo, Japan.

On Sale

Chase: Bhajan / Chase, Lorentz

~~$18.99~~ $9.49
CD

Cold Blue Music

Jan 20, 2017

CB0046

Bach: Goldberg Variations on Guitar / Salcito

Dynamic

Available as CD

$18.99

Jul 29, 2014

Unlike many Bach works adapted for guitar, the keyboard-specific intricacies of the Goldberg Variations do not easily lend themselves to six strings. In the late 1990s Kurt Rodarmer circumvented these limitations via overdubbing and using a custom-made guitar with an extended bass register. He also transposed the piece to D major, a key that lies more comfortably for guitar than the original G major. By contrast, József Eötvös’ contemporaneous solo transcription adhered to the original key and contained all of the music within a solo guitar’s six string range, albeit necessitating slower tempos, contrapuntal compromises, and frequent transpositions of lines up or down the octave.

Marco Salcito shares Eötvös’ essentially purist conception, although he is less shy to incorporate idiomatic flourishes and articulations that guitarists love, such as rolling chords, and sliding or bending into and between notes. He does this extensively when repeating each variation’s “A” and “B” sections, yet the fanciful embellishments enhance rather than obliterate Bach’s melodic lines. In addition, Salcito’s recasting of the scintillating cross-handed variations in more deliberate, guitar-oriented terms is not unlike watching rapid basketball moves played back in slow motion: you lose the dance but you gain the details.

A good example of this is Variation 26’s triplet figurations that ordinarily sprint up and down the keyboard. When slowed down, previously overlooked inner melodies emerge. Granted, the combination of the guitar’s limited dynamic range, Salcito’s leisurely pace, and his observance of all repeats save for the Aria da capo might make this nearly two-hour-long interpretation seem interminable over the course of a single hearing. Yet Salcito’s quiet, compelling mastery and eloquent musicianship, together with Dynamic’s intimate, full-bodied engineering, will win over guitar enthusiasts, and perhaps seduce a few Bach fans as well.

– Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Bach: Goldberg Variations on Guitar / Salcito

$18.99
CD

Dynamic

Jul 29, 2014

DYN-CDS7699

Weber: Der Freischutz / Chung, Teatro alla Scala

Naxos AudioVisual

Available as DVD

~~$30.99~~ $21.99

Apr 12, 2019

Also available on Blu-ray

Weber was at the forefront of the rise of German Romantic opera and sought to dethrone Rossini from his position as the leading operatic composer in Europe. In his breakthrough and most popular opera Der Freischütz (‘The Marksman’) composed in 1821, he succeeded in his aim of establishing a truly German form. Turning to the folklore and folk songs of his native land he took a story of a marksman who makes a pact with the Devil, vesting it with powerful intensity – not least in the famous Wolf’s Glen scene – and an astonishing control of orchestral color and atmosphere.

-----

REVIEW:

Goodness, but Der Freischütz is a problematic opera for today! You can’t ignore it because it’s instrumental in the development of German musical Romanticism; several scholars would even call it its progenitor. Schumann, Mendelssohn, Wagner and Strauss would have been unthinkable without it, and even Beethoven, who was no friend of Weber’s, was impressed. However, it poses an all but insoluble problem in staging it for modern audiences. Its setting is so grounded in the Romantic German Forest that any attempts to remove it from there or to update its setting invariably fall flat or seem reductive (or simply indulgent). However, staging it in its original setting risks seeming like a parody of blood-and-soil National Socialism. This dilemma means that, more often than not, it’s one of those works where you’re far better to retreat into the pictures of your own mind’s eye, and happily we have lots of good CD recordings to help us do that, most notably those from Keilberth, Kleiber, Harnoncourt and Davis.

This 2017 La Scala production is a game-changer, however, and it does the best job I’ve yet seen of putting the opera on stage in a way that is neither daft nor wilfully obstructive. Matthias Hartmann goes for a mixture of the specific and the abstract. There are plenty of trees to put us in the forest, but well-placed strips of lighting suggest the church, the hut and the mountainscape behind. The costumes are a quirky mix of national dresses – ranging from Scotland to the Balkans – but, more importantly, Hartmann also gets into the work’s dark psychological possibilities, wondering whether Max’s obsession with the magic bullets is a mirror for his wider insecurities. He doesn’t shun the supernatural, however: various devils appear to direct Kaspar’s actions, and occasionally we see demonic creatures that might have been lifted out of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Importantly, this eclecticism works. It poses many questions and gives every facet of the opera its due without getting trapped in any of them, and that alone makes this the opera’s most successful outing on film to date.

The musical performances are excellent too. Who would have thought that the La Scala orchestra would be so good at this cornerstone of the German repertoire? Their playing of the overture is one of the best you’ll hear, with dark, suggestive strings at the opening, a heart-stopping quartet of horns, and a crackling sense of drama in the main Allegro. Myung-Whun Chung is a natural with the whole score, too, shaping the unfolding drama with an unfailingly right sense of where it is going and how it is going to get there.

The singers are top-notch. Julia Kleiter is radiant, luxuriously beautiful in her two big arias without a hint of simpering, and Eva Liebau’s Ännchen is a delightfully light-hearted contrast. Both are fully comfortable in the tessitura and are a joy to listen to as well as to watch. Michael König has a tiny touch of abrasion in his Heldentenor voice, but I could forgive him for his heroic tone, and Stephen Milling does a wonderful deus ex machina as the Hermit. Best of all, though, is Günther Groissböck, whose Kaspar sets the stage alight, almost literally so in the Wolf’s Glen scene. He’s a powerhouse to watch, and he uses his big bass voice with agility and athleticism to bring the part to life.

I approached this with a good degree of scepticism, but I found it completely compelling and was totally won over. To my great surprise, it solves the problems of staging Der Freischütz for our time. With its compelling production and its brilliant musicianship, it is now a clear first choice for Der Freischütz on film, and it’s by some margin the best opera film I’ve seen in 2019 so far.

– MusicWeb International (Simon Thompson)

On Sale

Weber: Der Freischutz / Chung, Teatro alla Scala

~~$30.99~~ $21.99
DVD

Naxos AudioVisual

Apr 12, 2019

2110597

Auryn Series 16: Brahms String Quartets

TACET Musikproduktion

Available as DVD

$32.99

Jan 15, 2009

This recording is in the DVD Audio format and will only play on hardware specifically compatible with the DVD Audio format. Standard CD players will not play this CD.

Auryn Series 16: Brahms String Quartets

$32.99
DVD

TACET Musikproduktion

Jan 15, 2009

TACET155DVDA

Piano Bass & Drums (Ac3)

AIX Records

Available as DVD

$26.99

Oct 30, 2012

This recording is in the DVD Audio format and will only play on hardware specifically compatible with the DVD Audio format. Standard CD players will not play this CD.

Piano Bass & Drums (Ac3)

$26.99
DVD

AIX Records

Oct 30, 2012

AIX80009

Mahler: Des knaben Wunderhorn, Adagio from Symphony no 10 / Boulez, Cleveland [Blu-ray]

Accentus Music

Available as Blu-Ray

$37.99

May 31, 2011

Note: This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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Also available on standard DVD

Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra
Soloists: Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher

Gustav Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Twelve Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"

“Boulez’s Mahler has surely gained a degree of intensity over the years. Rather than sacrificing his legendary intellectual rigor, he has wedded it to a profound visceral understanding of this music.” -- WCLV classical FM

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages.

Bonus:
- Interview with Pierre Boulez

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 88 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

R E V I E W:

The performances heard on this video are identical to the program released on CD by DG and reviewed by me in Fanfare 34:4. It therefore behooves me to suggest that the only reason to acquire the video is the dramatic difference in the respective sound productions.

The beautiful interior of Severance Hall, with its Art Deco accents, makes a very pleasant backdrop indeed. In contrast to the CD, the program starts with the Adagio from the 10th Symphony. The performance, a very good one, is greatly improved in its surround-sound version, especially on Blu-ray. It must be said, though, that watching Boulez with his minimal gestures and dour expression is not terribly exciting.

The occasional clever use of split screen provides a discrete frame each for the singer’s and conductor’s faces, though in this case the contrast between the animated vocalists and the stone face of the conductor is somewhat unnerving. As I wrote in my review of the CD, this is not my ideal version of this program, though Magdalena Kožená can hold her own with the best of the competition. Christian Gerhaher is a fine baritone but is not as dramatically convincing and lacks the heft of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or Thomas Hampson, two of my preferences for the male voice. Of the two singers, Kožená is more fun to watch, too, as her facial expressions bring character to her songs.

The bonus interview program provides Boulez’s thoughts on Mahler’s music and the specific program performed in Cleveland, his observations on the orchestra and its hall, the future of classical music, and some personal observations. The questions appear written on the screen (typos and all), and then Boulez is shown answering. The interview can be heard in English, German, and French. Also included (from the Severance Hall stage) is a short tribute to the conductor on his 85 birthday with Franz Welser-Möst and the management of the Cleveland Orchesta, which includes an audience-particapatory sing-along.

FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

Mahler: Des knaben Wunderhorn, Adagio from Symphony no 10 / Boulez, Cleveland [Blu-ray]

$37.99
Blu-Ray

Accentus Music

May 31, 2011

ACC10231

Franck: Complete Organ Works / Hans-Eberhard Roß

Audite Musikproduktion

Available as CD

$64.99

Sep 25, 2012

FRANCK COMPLETE ORGAN WORKS • Hans-Eberhard Roß (org) • AUDITE 21413 (6 CDs: 411:46)

When it comes to the organ, I think it’s safe to say that César Franck is the most important composer since Bach, and here we have a survey of Franck’s organ music so complete that it would take an entire page to list the entire contents of these six discs in standard Fanfare headnote format. In fact, there’s not another collection in existence this complete—not Jean Guillou’s, Marie-Claire Alain’s, Anthony Newman’s, or anyone else’s—since whole discs full of items here are flagged as being premiere recordings, premiere recordings for organ, premiere complete recordings, or premiere complete recordings for organ. So, I have decided to describe the set’s contents on a disc-by-disc basis. Let me forewarn the reader, though, that this is a release dedicated to the doggedly determined among lovers of organ music in general and Franck’s organ music in particular.

Organist Hans-Eberhard Roß performs all 142 pieces on a single instrument, the Goll organ at St. Martin’s Church in Memmingen, Germany. I haven’t been able to find any detailed information on the organ builder, but the enclosed booklet gives the following specifications for the organ: built in 1998, it has four manuals plus pedal, controlling 62 registers. The recordings were made between 2004 and 2005 and were originally released in three two-disc sets in SACD. The boxed-up, six-disc set that came to me for review was on standard, two-channel CDs.

One criticism I will lodge about the presentation is this: the track listings for every piece give the date it was composed, the date it was published, and which of nine editions Roß uses. This last bit of information about the editions may be of interest to the musicologist or scholar studying Franck’s organ works, but more interesting to the general listener, I think, would have been a concordance of stops and registrations used for each piece, something I’ve seen in the notes to other organ recordings, and something that ought, I think, to be material to an undertaking of this seriousness.

Disc 1 starts off with a first-time recording of Pièce en mi bémol ; i.e., Piece in E?. Of course, you’d have to listen to it to know if it was major or minor, but I’ll save you the effort. It’s more or less both, opening with a chord progression that eerily anticipates the ear-curling pronouncement at the beginning of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. This is followed by another early work, Pièce pour Grand Orgue . It’s not asterisked as a premiere recording but is nonetheless absent from current listings except for this version. Several more early works fill the first disc, all dating from between 1854 and 1856. There are five pieces by Franck originally written for harmonium and transcribed for organ by Louis Vierne, and this is their first time on record. Also a first on record is a first version of a Fantaisie in C Major. Its second version, apparently not a first on record, is also included on the disc. Roß, himself, has transcribed the harmonium piece, Quasi Marcia , op. 22, and plays it here for the first time on organ.

If it’s mainly a CD of Franck’s big organ hits you want, you would be happy with just disc 2. They’re all there in one place: the Fantaisie in C Major, op. 16, the Grand Pièce Symphonique , op. 17, the Prélude, Fugue, et Variation , op. 18, the Pastorale , op. 19, Prière , op. 20, and Final, op. 21.

Disc 3 contains no fewer than 39 short pieces collected under the heading of Posthumous Pieces for Harmonium or Organ with Pedal for L’Office Ordinaire . This spills over onto disc 4, which contains another seven pieces that are part of the same collection. The fourth disc is then filled out by Three Pieces for Grand Organ , a Petit Offertoire , and an Untitled piece, that last two of which were both originally for harmonium. The entire contents of discs 3 and 4, with the exception of the Three Pieces for Grand Organ , are flagged with three asterisks (***), referencing the fact that they are heard here for the first time complete on organ.

Disc 5 and almost all of disc 6 are occupied by Franck’s answer to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier , the sets of Pieces for Organ or Harmonium. The number seven must have held some mystical significance for Franck because there are nine sets of these pieces, each containing seven numbers, beginning with 7 Pieces in C Major and C Minor , progressing to 7 Pieces in D?-Major and C?-Minor , then to 7 Pieces in D Major and D Minor , which he subtitles, Pour le temps de Noël , and so on. The cycle stops after the 7 Pieces in A?-Major and G?-Minor , leaving the keys of A, B?, and B unexplored. There’s nothing mysterious or supernatural about the reason; Franck died before he was able to finish the project. The entirety of the Pieces for Organ or Harmonium is also thrice asterisked, meaning this is its first complete recording on organ. The final disc in the set concludes with the 3 Chorales for Grand Organ.

At first, I was a bit skeptical of how Franck’s organ music would sound on a modern, German-built instrument. It’s difficult to disassociate these works from the Cavaillé-Coll organs that inspired them. Much of this music, in fact, was composed during Franck’s tenure as organist and maître de chapelle at Sainte-Clotilde between 1858 and 1872. Of the three-manual plus pedal Cavaillé-Coll organ installed in the church, Franck is quoted as saying, “If you only knew how I love this instrument . . . it is so supple beneath my fingers and so obedient to all my thoughts.”

Concluding the 63-page booklet note by Martin Weyer (translated by Viola Scheffel) is a lengthy apologia in defense of playing these works on a Goll organ. The author twists himself in knots talking about the historical period-instrument movement and then tries to turn the argument on its head by explaining why this modern Goll instrument is an appropriate substitute for a Cavaillé-Coll organ and Franck’s music. “Upon hearing the instrument,” Weyer contends, “one will discover a lot of similarities to the sort of instrument that Franck found inspiring.” One could counter that many an organist has recorded Franck’s organ works on authentic Cavaillé-Coll instruments, and that if organist Hans-Eberhard Roß had betaken himself to France to make these recordings, he could have done likewise. But, as far as I’m concerned, the point is irrelevant. Roß is a consummately accomplished player who uses the richly variegated palette of the Goll organ to paint Franck’s pieces in an amazing array of tonal color combinations both bright and subtle, and the acoustic of Memmingen’s St. Martin church, perfectly captured by Audite’s engineers, is ideal. Franck and Cavaillé-Coll are nodding their heads in approval.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Franck: Complete Organ Works / Hans-Eberhard Roß

$64.99
CD

Audite Musikproduktion

Sep 25, 2012

AUD21413

Bach: Trio Sonatas (Arr. for Organ, Viola da gamba & Harpsic

DUX

Available as CD

~~$21.99~~ $10.99

May 05, 2017

It remains an open question whether Bach’s six trio-sonatas fall into the category of keyboard music or chamber music. Bach adopted the then quite common form of the Italian trio-sonata not only for compositional but also for pedagogic reasons. It is also difficult to say how much of the musical material was written specifically for this cycle. At the same time they are exercises demanding an extremely high level of artistry in playing three independent voices with two hands and pedals. The student-originally in this particular case this was probably Wilhelm Friedemann Bach- is to learn thereby not only manual dexterity but also compositional technique. At first sight these pieces may look rather complex, but in fact the upper voices with their richly embellished lines proceed from a quite normal solid harmonic structure that is essentially a product of the basso continuo style. In addition, music for three independent voices provides an excellent opportunity for showing how an organ, with its distinct separate manual and pedal sections, can really sound like three different instruments simultaneously. This music is performed on The Organ of Joachim Wagner in Siedlce, an instrument discovered in 2002 in the village church in Pruszyn.

On Sale

Bach: Trio Sonatas (Arr. for Organ, Viola da gamba & Harpsic

~~$21.99~~ $10.99
CD

DUX

May 05, 2017

DUX1339

Under The Sign Of The Sun - Ravel, Etc / C. Delangle, Et Al

BIS

Available as CD

$21.99

Apr 01, 2007

Conceived under the sign of the sun, this is a series of works for saxophone and orchestra by French composers with a specific affinity for the Mediterranean, its atmosphere and culture(s). Painting these varied landscapes is Claude Delangle, joined by the forces of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by Lan Shui.

Under The Sign Of The Sun - Ravel, Etc / C. Delangle, Et Al

$21.99
CD

BIS

Apr 01, 2007

BIS-CD-1357

Pezel: The Alphabet Sonatas

Olde Focus Recordings

Available as CD

$18.99

Feb 25, 2014

PEZEL Alphabet Sonatas • Acronym • OLDE FOCUS 903 (75: 15)

Pezel’s Opus Musicum Sonatarum Praestantissimarum Senis Instrumentis Instructum , or “Musical Publication of the Finest Sonatas for Old/Revered Instruments,” was published in Frankfurt in 1686. It may well have been a joint commission from all of the members of the ancient Six Cities’ Alliance, for a handsome sum was paid for it by each: Bautzen, Görlitz, Lauban, Kamenz, Löbau, and Zittau. (Pezel himself was then employed as Stadtmusikant , or director of instrumental music, in Bautzen, a prestigious post in what was at the time a decent-sized metropolis.) The work consists of 24 sonatas given alphabetical names, such as Sonata Abella in G Major, and Sonata Bacca in D Minor. In addition, there is a final Sonata Ciacona that features an eight-chord bass ostinato in its ripieno sections, which is doubled and extended again by a further four chords for concertato statements. It’s a fairly massive single movement of its variational type for its time and place, though such things were more common in Elizabethan keyboard music.

The Alphabet Sonatas themselves are actually proto-sonatas, meaning that they’re a grab bag of movements strung together, often in the same key. They descend from the first wave of violinist-composers who emerged from the late 16th century courts of the Sforza who ruled Milan, and the Este who ruled Ferrara. But where those Italian sonatas mixed dances, highly imitative contrapuntal movements, and dramatic recitative, often with highly chromatic harmonic progressions, Pezel’s sonatas include homophonic dances, less complex examples of counterpoint, and the occasional voluntary, all of it less venturesome harmonically. The composer’s previous experience as a Kunstgeiger (city-employed fiddler) and later Stadtpfeifer (member of a typical loud ensemble, with cornetts and sackbuts) in Leipzig can be heard in the distinctively instrumental character of wind, brass, or strings in various movements; though the work was published in seven string parts, with continuo furnished by bassoon and an unspecified additional instrument.

As to why Pezel would give his sonatas feminine names drawn from Greco-Roman history and mythology: Like many academics since the late Middle Ages, he relished showing off knowledge garnered from the Attic Greeks and Romans. So the Sonata Dejanira refers to the tragically unconfident woman who was married to Heracles, while the Sonata Quinquatria highlights the Roman festival held in honor of the goddess Minerva. None of this has any bearing on the music itself.

Acronym is a string ensemble formed in 2012 specifically for this CD project. But as only nine of its 12 members perform here, and other projects including tours are underway, we can safely assume the group has taken on a life separate from Pezel’s work. It was still common enough during Pezel’s lifetime for music to be performed in any variety of arrangements, reduced or augmented, as circumstances warranted. Here, the continuo is provided by either of two performers who handle the honors for theorbo and guitar, and harpsichord and organ, while there’s some trading off among viols and violas—as Pezel didn’t specify da bracchia or da gamba.

The performances of the livelier dance movements have a fine rhythmic bounce, especially the start of the Sonata Nabathea. Any unison playing on this release has a rich, full sound. Individual instrumentalists can at times display an unattractive tone, however, made more evident because none of the performers use vibrato. (As Sergiu Luca once told me, just because you don’t use vibrato doesn’t mean you have to display an ugly tone. Quite the opposite. You don’t have vibrato to cover for you, and have to work to improve your sound.) The Sonata Ciacona exposes this mercilessly, with a very occasional note tonally off-center. Most of the playing aside from this is first-rate, while tempos are varied and well-sustained. There’s an attractive legato in slower movements, and a judicious amount of accenting on both the beat and at cadences.

A final word or 111 about the liner notes. Written by one of Acronym’s musicians, they evidently draw upon some historians of Leipzig who are very much of the Annales School, emphasizing cultural matters by way of source studies in surviving town hall records, legal documents, etc. It’s a pleasure to read someone take such joy in relating more than the usual born/educated/married/died information, right down to the social distinctions between the various music guilds: the Kunstgeigeren, Stadtpfeiferen , lowly Bierfiedlers , and the haughty trumpet players, the top-of-the-heap Kammeradschaft —even to mentioning the brawls on record that resulted when some Stadtpfeiferen employed trombones provocatively shaped and played like trumpets, but with alternative names.

All in all, these are successful readings of attractive music. Recommended.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

Pezel: The Alphabet Sonatas

$18.99
CD

Olde Focus Recordings

Feb 25, 2014

FCR903

STANDARDS

TZADIK

Available as CD

$16.81

Jun 26, 2007

STANDARDS

STANDARDS

$16.81
CD

TZADIK

Jun 26, 2007

TZA7620.2

Michael Finnissy: Piano Works

Metier

Available as CD

~~$45.99~~ $34.99

Oct 03, 2025

Métier presents a landmark 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). Finnissy is widely regarded as one of Britain's most important living composers. Pace, one of the leading interpreters of Finnissy's work, presents an album focused around Finnissy's epic cycle for piano, The Verdi Transcriptions, alongside the second complete recording (after the composer's own) of the iconic English Country-Tunes, and works inspired by music of the late-18th and 19th centuries. The result is a broad view of Finnissy's extensive output of piano music in relation to Romantic aesthetics. The album is released in anticipation of the Métier label's upcoming celebrations of Michael Finnissy's 80th birthday in 2026. Finnissy's four-book cycle of Verdi Transcriptions reimagines Verdi's operas through a modern lens. As Finnissy states in his liner notes: "Transcribing sound into a written form (notation) involves making significant choices. The choices can color the ongoing exploration of that sound as 'composition.'" The result of those choices is a monumental, late-Romantic epic. Finnissy's English Country-Tunes has long been considered one of his signature and most technically demanding cycles. There is a similar line of composition through transcription as The Verdi Transcriptions, only in these works the source material is English folk music. Written in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, the work can also be seen as a commentary on the spirit of British patriotism at the time. Ian Pace's readings reflect decades of study: he first performed English Country-Tunes in the 1990s and has played Finnissy's complete piano oeuvre in cycles (1996 and 2016). The set includes extensive liner notes by both Pace and Finnissy, offering rare insight into the compositional ideas and performance choices behind these demanding works. In Pace's recording of Michael Finnissy's other epic piano cycle, The History of Photography in Sound (MSV 77501), BBC Music raved: "Pace's intimate acquaintance with the totality of History is apparent in his commanding performance... this is a magnificent achievement for both composer and performer," and Gramophone hailed Pace as "Finnissy's David Bailey, each note shaded to perfection, structures translucently and sharply lit, defining sonic images of our time." Incomparable virtuoso, called the Paganini of the harp, Félix Godefroid was also a composer and teacher. This recording, performed by Sophie Hallynck, highlights the composer's studies in high virtuosity. Designed for his own use and that of professionals, they partake of both "absolute music" - as with the deservedly famous Étude in B-Flat Minor, Op. 193 - and the character piece, picturesque or sentimental. These musical miniatures are pieces overflowing with musicality in a refined style, but they express a pedagogical program first and foremost. Godefroid conceived of his études as a true school for harpists. Each technical problem becomes the medium for a musical expression - an approach that gives these études exceptional richness and relevance. Often based on one of those melodies for which Godefroid had such a knack, each one is set apart by a strongly marked expressive character, ranging from laughter to tears, as well as by it's structure, rhythm, novel sonorities, and harmonic surprises not lacking in audacity. Sophie Hallynck has risen to the technical challenges specific to each étude while staying faithful to the spirit of the era, with the aspiration to achieve a subtle balance between virtuosity and expression. Her essential objective has always been to make technique live through music, without ever obscuring that emotion that emanates from it. Shostakovich composed music for film throughout his life, from his teenage years as a pianist accompanying silent films in Leningrad until the early 1970s. New Babylon provoked a political and artistic storm upon it's release in 1929 but remains one of Shostakovich's finest film scores, performed here complete and uncut. Popular favorites The Gadfly and Hamlet are heard in premiere recordings of the complete scores. Also included is the music for Alone, The Girlfriends, Love and Hate, and The Fall of Berlin in premiere recordings that have garnered international critical acclaim. "This composer of the New Complexity movement admires avant-jazz. He also digs 19th-century classics. So, when adapting Verdi, he does it via the spirit of Cecil Taylor. Near the midpoint of Finnissy's "La Traviata" potpourri, you'll find dense fireworks as well as tenderness deriving from a motif Verdi once assigned to Violetta." - Seth Colter Walls, NYT

On Sale

Michael Finnissy: Piano Works

~~$45.99~~ $34.99
CD

Metier

Oct 03, 2025

MEX77402

Guerra-Peixe: Symphonic Suites Nos. 1-2 / Thomson, Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra

Naxos

Available as CD

~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Jul 08, 2022

César Guerra-Peixe was one of the most versatile Brazilian musicians of the 20th century, gaining a particular mastery of orchestration and creating his own inimitable sound through extensive work in radio, television and cinema. The toe-tapping dance rhythms and lyrical expressiveness in his two Symphonic Suites were inspired by research into Brazilian folk traditions, further enhanced by a broad range of vibrantly eloquent global influences. The light-hearted Roda de Amigos mischievously caricatures Guerra-Peixe’s musical circle of friends and their various woodwind instruments.

REVIEW:

This may be the finest release to date in Naxos’ ongoing Brazilian music series. César Guerra-Peixe (pronounce it “Gweha-Peysh,” more or less) had a relatively long and productive life–1914-93. He was a violinist, teacher, arranger, creator of music for radio, television and film, and an ethnomusicologist, among other things. In his early years, he dabbled in serial (twelve-tone) composition, and it served him well in these two colorful symphonic suites. Both works date from the 1950s, and celebrate the rhythms and percussive sonorities of Brazilian dance music–from the states of São Paulo and Pernambuco respectively–but with a combination of harmonic sophistication and crystal-clear orchestration that makes them models of their kind. Guerra-Peixe’s folk inspirations come out sounding thoroughly modern, more like Bartók, for example, than the early romantic nationalists, and so the result, with its ample use of ostinatos and repetitive gestures, gives the impression of simplicity without ever turning simplistic. They are fresh, vital, and wholly winning.

Roda de Amigos (“Circle of Friends”) is a witty suite in four movements capturing the characters of some of Guerra-Peixe’s musician colleagues: grumpy, stubborn, melancholic, and mischievous respectively. Scored for small ensemble, each movement features a difficult and brilliant woodwind solo, starting with the bassoon and working through the section with clarinet next, then oboe, then flute. The music is genuinely witty, and admirably suited to the emotional character that each movement describes. Kudos to the woodwind soloists of the Goiás Philharmonic, who sound absolutely world-class in each of their turns in the spotlight. Indeed, conductor Neil Thomson galvanizes his forces to deliver performances of all of this music that, in their clarity, vitality and drive, present this splendid music in the best possible light, and the sonics are really vivid too. If you’re looking for a new discovery that you’ll play and enjoy often, then you’ll definitely want to get this terrific disc forthwith.

--ClassicsToday.com (10/10, David Hurwitz)

Another exceptionally interesting and valuable release as part of Naxos’ “The Music of Brazil” series.

Apart from the specific quality of these individual scores, a significant part of the value of this disc is to add another name to the lengthening list of Latin American/Brazilian composers of real worth and talent. For too many years Villa-Lobos alone represented his country’s music to the wider world. Certainly César Guerra-Peixe deserves to be placed alongside his compatriots such as Camargo Guarnieri, Claudio Santoro, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Edino Krieger, Alexandre Levy, Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, Francisco Mignone, Alberto Nepomuceno, and, of course Heitor Villa-Lobos.

A genuinely important and enjoyable disc.

--MusicWeb International (Nick Barnard)

On Sale

Guerra-Peixe: Symphonic Suites Nos. 1-2 / Thomson, Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra

~~$19.99~~ $9.99
CD

Naxos

Jul 08, 2022

8573925

C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin / Podger, Bezuidenhout

Channel Classics

Available as SACD

~~$23.99~~ $17.99

Apr 28, 2023

The Baroque dream team of Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout interpret the astonishing music of C.P.E. Bach’s Violin Sonatas in C Minor, B Minor, D Major and G Minor. The two early sonatas here from the 1730s resemble the older style of his father. Listening to these works, you can imagine J.S. Bach glancing over Emanuel's shoulders while he wrote them as a teenager at home in Leipzig. The later sonatas, written 30 to 50 years later, reveal an emancipated composer whose developed musical language embodies the 'Empfindsamer Stil', the directly emotional and rhetorical style characteristic of northern-german music of the time.

Rachel Podger writes: “It was wonderful to delve into the specific musical world that belongs to C.P.E. Bach for this recording with Kris. These violin sonatas are (quite unfortunately!) largely overshadowed by the classical Viennese sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. Part of his genius is that he is full of surprises and unpredictable turns, and this was hugely enjoyable for me during the musical partnership with the wonderful Kristian Bezuidenhout.”

REVIEWS:

Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout are performers of the highest level of technical polish, and I am especially impressed by Bezuidenhout’s imaginative and assertive pianism. Podger’s violin was built by the Genoese maker Antonio Pazarini (Pesarinius) in 1739. Excellent sound from Channel as usual.

-- American Record Guide

Across the later sonatas Kristian Bezuidenhout and Rachel Podger savor the qualities of coaxing, pleading, playfulness, and arresting quirkiness that signal their identification with the so-called Empfindsamer Stil. But nothing is ever cut and dried. The keyboard opening of the B minor Sonata, composed some three decades after its G minor cousin, sounds like a throwback to the teenage work. And, rich in Empfindsamer fingerprints, the Arioso with five variations proves to be a 1780 respray of an earlier work.

At one level, Bezuidenhout and Podger help to pinpoint the chronology, allotting a handsome-sounding copy of an 1805 Walther fortepiano to the later works and a Taskin-inspired harpsichord to the products of the 1730s. It’s just one example of the thoughtfulness with which they approach a set of performances that are as equally persuasive in the bustling, youthful incisiveness of the G minor and D major Sonatas, as in the pristinely-paced, probingly expressive whimsy of the Arioso. Their music-making is infectiously spontaneous yet tellingly ‘considered’ – seamless rapport and impeccably-judged articulation delighting in a stream of illuminating felicities. CPE Bach’s free-spirited sonatas have surely found their free-spirited match.

-- BBC Music Magazine

This is how it’s done, my friends. A completely scrumptious new release from the queen of the Baroque violin, Rachel Podger. In partnership with keyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout, Rachel gives to us a bit over an hour of completely entrancing music by the often underestimated Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

There should be nothing underestimated about these keyboard and violin sonatas. They are imaginative, innovative, sublime. Add to this the impeccable performances, with that breath of life Rachel delivers so well in all of her performances, the excellent partnership with Kristian Bezuidenhout, and the utterly delightful recording quality from Jared Sacks, and one has an album to savor again and again. It is a must listen recording.

There is pure joy in Podger's performances, one feels her connection with music, the composer, and her audience. Kristian Bezuidenhout is her perfect partner in these works, As with Podger, his playing is not tied to a metronome. He plays, as does she, with a degree of improvisational exploration that makes these works far more interesting than in many other hands.

Listening to them together, one feels their connection in this music. I was particularly struck by this in their excellent performance of the Sonata in C minor which fairly danced with barely contained energy in the final Presto movement – their timing together is exquisite.

The shift from harpsichord to fortepiano and back again adds great interest to the recital. With the change in instruments, the texture of the sound changes. The balance of the violin and the keyboard shifts. Hard to accomplish in a live performance, but a delightful gift across the breadth of this recording.

-- Paul Rushton of Positive Feedback

On Sale

C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin / Podger, Bezuidenhout

~~$23.99~~ $17.99
SACD

Channel Classics

Apr 28, 2023

CCSSA41523

Cage: Works For Piano 7 / Margaret Leng Tan

Mode Records

Available as DVD

$32.99

Mar 21, 2006

A major discovery and first recording of an important Cage piece from 1944. In 1944, John Cage was invited to participate in "The Imagery of Chess" exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. The artists included Calder, Noguchi, Motherwell, Breton, Duchamp, Ernst, Man Ray, Tanning and other leading surrealists. Cage contributed a painting entitled "Chess Pieces". It was purchased at the show and went into a private collection. For decades it was deemed lost and was (almost) forgotten by Cage afficionados and scholars.

Re-assembling the original artworks for "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show (2005-06) at the Isamu Noguchi Museum in New York led to the tracking down of the Cage painting. Cage expert Margaret Leng Tan set about transcribing the music in the painting into a playable score which receives its premiere recording here.

Chess Pieces is from 1944, an emotional and creative year for Cage; besides echoes of Satie, Chess Pieces contains prophetic touches of minimalism and has features in common with his monumental piano piece, Four Walls, from the same year.

A renowned Cage interpreter, Ms. Tan worked closely with the composer from 1981 to 1992. Cage was particularly appreciative of her performances of his works for the prepared piano. This is Ms. Tan's long-awaited recording of Cage's prepared piano masterpiece, the Sonatas and Interludes of 1946-48.

Also included is the first recording of the only other musical score from "The Imagery of Chess" show, neo-classical composer Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade.

Also available as a surround sound DVD (MOD-DV158) with full performance videos of Chess Pieces and Chess Serenade, plus 2 documentaries: Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano (Ms. Tan takes an in-depth look at the prepared piano), and CAGE: Music/Art/Chess (a closeup look at Cage's and Rieti's pieces in the Noguchi Museum's "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" show).

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTARY VIDEOS:
* Mr. Cage's Prepared Piano: an insightful look at the history of the prepared piano narrated and performed by Ms. Tan, who also demonstrates how to (and not to) prepare a piano, and describes the preparations in detail both visually and sonically. She prepares and performs excerpts from Bacchanale, Cage's first prepared piano work, and Sonatas & Interludes.
* Cage and the Art of Chess: a visit to "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" exhibit at the Isamu Noguchi Museum with curator Larry List and Ms. Tan. Together they describe Cage's relationship to the show and examine the "Chess Pieces" painting in detail - they also discuss Rieti and his Chess Serenade. Mr. List explores a separate feature on Cage's wife, Xenia Cage, and her Chess Table (Xenia was an artist and also had a piece in the show) and sheds additional background on her life and work.

24-bit surround sound DTS and Dolby Digital surround.
Dedicated 24-bit stereo mix.
English, French, German and Spanish subtitles.

NOTE: Sonatas & Interludes is not accompanied by video.

R E V I E W S

"The seventh volume of John Cage's piano works -- or Volume 34 of the Complete John Cage Edition, if you prefer -- features a transcendent performance of the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948) meticulously rendered by avant-garde keyboardist extraordinaire, Margaret Leng Tan. Yet Volume 2 in this series features a 1994 recording of the same work, played by Philipp Vandre. For those aiming to collect the full series, this may be an annoyance, but others catching these CDs as they are released will surely appreciate having Tan's superb interpretation of the Sonatas and Interludes, with premiere recordings of Cage's long-lost Chess Pieces for piano (1944) and Vittorio Rieti's Chess Serenade (1944) as bonuses, rather than search for the older disc of the single work. But despite seeming redundant, this CD is clearly one to get: Tan is simply remarkable in the Sonatas and Interludes, giving a realization that is scrupulous in execution, deep in sonic dimensions, and luminous in color; and she offers what is actually a 'period performance,' since she plays a piano identical in its specifications to the small Steinway Cage originally prepared in the process of composition. The differences in sonorities between this album and others are immediately noticeable, especially in this recording's superior resonance and crystalline details; anyone who already knows this work will recognize that Tan's interpretation is truly Cagean in its poetic nuances and hypnotic power. So without disparaging other recordings for being less authoritative -- certainly, Tan holds a considerable advantage for having worked closely with Cage in his final years -- it is safe to say that fans of his most popular piano work will give this album full marks. Mode's sound quality is ideal, too, so this CD receives the highest recommendation. --- Blair Sanderson, allmusic.com, March 2006

Cage: Works For Piano 7 / Margaret Leng Tan

$32.99
DVD

Mode Records

Mar 21, 2006

MOD-DV-158

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet / Klinichev, Ural Opera Ballet Orchestra [Blu-ray]

BelAir Classiques

Available as Blu-Ray

~~$36.99~~ $27.99

May 01, 2020

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Two lovers, united by fate but kept apart by an old family feud, who can only be together in death: Shakespeare’s timeless tale, set to ballet music by Sergey Prokofiev in 1935, needs no introduction. However, this production from the Ural Opera Ballet in Ekaterinburg, which won the prestigious Golden Mask Prize as “Best Ballet” in 2017, adds interesting twists to this well-known frame, as choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov sets his performance in a dance studio, during a rehearsal of the Romeo and Juliet ballet. This way, the characters of the play are placed out of a specific country or era: the action could take place anytime and anywhere. It could even be happening in front of your window right now: it is not by chance that the dancers reminded the audience of today’s ‘boys and girls from the Uralmash district’, as some viewers have noted in social media. The motive of struggle between the two clans disappears from the performance – it does not matter which families the street fighters belong to. The concept of repetition and inexorability of the theatrical ritual plays a central part: a tragedy is about to happen and the lovers will die today, but afterwards everyone will go home, a new rehearsal will start tomorrow, and the story will be repeated again from the start. With outstanding performances from principals Ekaterina Sapogova and Alexandr Merkushev, choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov creates an intricate and surprisingly modern choreographical language that draws from classical movements but also from pantomime to best express the feelings and the drama at play in this eternal masterpiece.

On Sale

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet / Klinichev, Ural Opera Ballet Orchestra [Blu-ray]

~~$36.99~~ $27.99
Blu-Ray

BelAir Classiques

May 01, 2020

BAC580

Aix All Stars:... [dvd-audio]

AIX Records

Available as DVD

~~$26.99~~ $20.99

Oct 30, 2012

This recording is in the DVD Audio format and will only play on hardware specifically compatible with the DVD Audio format. Standard CD players will not play this CD.

On Sale

Aix All Stars:... [dvd-audio]

~~$26.99~~ $20.99
DVD

AIX Records

Oct 30, 2012

AIX80028

REGNART: MISSA CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN

HYPERION

Available as CD

$18.49

Oct 01, 2021

Two substantial Mass settings from Jacob Regnart, sound as though might have written them specifically for the glorious voices of Cinquecento. This is a welcome contribution to the restoration of an important, but still under-appreciated, figure.

REGNART: MISSA CHRIST IST ERSTANDEN

$18.49
CD

HYPERION

Oct 01, 2021

HYP68369.2

STANDARDS

SUNNYSIDE

Available as CD

$16.63

Jun 23, 2023

Rising star pianist/composer Noah Haidu's resplendently expressive Standards celebrates the 40th anniversary of the release that launched Keith Jarrett's great Standards Trio and arrives on the heels of Haidu's two recent acclaimed Sunnyside albums, most notably 2021's SLOWLY: Song for Keith Jarrett. Featuring Haidu with bassists Buster Williams and Peter Washington, drummer Lewis Nash and guest saxophonist Steve Wilson, Standards is, in part, the soulmate to SLOWLY, which DownBeat called "a stunning and heartfelt tribute." After Haidu, Buster Williams and Billy Hart recorded it's last two songs - "But Beautiful" and "Georgia on My Mind" - Williams said, "Those two standards were beautiful, got any more?"

STANDARDS

$16.63
CD

SUNNYSIDE

Jun 23, 2023

SYS1705.2

Bach, Berlioz, Verdi, Mahler: Mute Sighs, Silent Laments / Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden

Profil

Available as CD

$32.99

Jan 07, 2022

The musicians of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden were committed to their tradition of staging an annual commemorative concert even under these difficult circumstances and decided to organize a Memento Mori to mark this date that is inscribed in the annals of city history. The program comprised a small ensemble conducted by an expert for Baroque music and two ideally suited voices for the format. The concert was recorded for the Deutschlandfunk Kultur station and broadcast as a message of peace in the world. There were fewer than ten people in the auditorium of the Semperoper, all socially distanced and listening raptly to this unique event. Ultimately this was the first sign of life, the first musical greeting from the orchestra in a concert not open to the public after months of inactivity due to the pandemic. When, barely a year ago, Arnold Schoenberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” (featuring more than 300 performers on stage to a full house!) were performed and produced for album shortly afterwards (Edition Staatskapelle Vol. 50, PH 20052), no one would have predicted that this sonorous performance would be followed by a long phase of silence. May the present recording serve as testimony in the form of a contemporary sign of a cultural reawakening.

Review

With this latest release entitled Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series has reached volume 51. Contained here is a pair of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas from the 2021 anniversary concert held in memory of the destruction of Dresden in 1945. The themes of chosen cantatas are death and hope of salvation seen from the standpoint of their being a gateway to everlasting life.

The city of Dresden was destroyed by three days of Allied bombing raids, in February 1945. It is now an annual tradition for the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden to mark the anniversary date with a commemorative concert with no interval and or applause during the performance or at the conclusion. For the 2021 memorial concert, the Staatskapelle Dresden was keen to maintain the tradition and went ahead while observing coronavirus regulations – specifically, without a public audience and players socially distanced players on stage.

Dorothee Mields sings Bach’s original 1714 version of Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut a solo cantata for soprano with obbligato parts for oboe and viola. As the cantata begins with a recitative and aria, Herreweghe has chosen to start the score with the Sinfonia from the church cantata Weinen, klagen, sorgen, zagen (Weeping, lamenting, sorrow, sighing) BWV 12. Such an exquisite lament, the aria Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) is sung sublimely by Mields, the overall effect heightened by the accompanying oboe part played by Rafael Sousa. In the following short chorale: Ich, dein betrübtes Kind (I, your troubled child) one senses that Mields is living the words of the penitent sinner while the viola part played by Sebastian Herberg is very much her equal.

Recorded in the outstanding acoustic of Semperoper, the sound has clarity and first-class balance. The second ‘bonus’ CD contains extracts from three huge works for chorus and orchestra appropriate to the theme of death and hope of salvation by Verdi, Berlioz and Mahler, all recorded and previously released for the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series on Profil. Included on the ‘bonus’ CD are the interviews that Stefan Lang held in German with Philippe Herreweghe and with violist Andreas Schreiber.

Verdi completed his Messa da Requiem in 1874...[the] three chosen extracts, the sections: Requiem, Dies irae and Tuba mirum are from the recording conducted by Christian Thielemann at the Memorial Concert held on 13th February 2014 in the Semperoper, Dresden.

Berlioz wrote his Grande Messe des Morts a massive work using a huge orchestra and choral forces, in 1837...[the] recording here is the Dies irae by Sir Colin Davis, conducting the Memorial Concert given on the 13th February 1994 at the Kreuzkirche, Dresden.

The chosen extract [from Mahler's Symphony no. 2 "Resurrection" [is] the Finale...part of the recording conducted by Bernard Haitink at the Memorial Concert on the 13th February 1995 in the Semperoper.

A valuable feature of this Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, a bilingual edition in German and English, is the scrupulously produced booklets, produced to a high standard[.] These are exemplary performances. From first to last note, I am totally engaged by Herreweghe’s rewarding accounts of two of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas.

--MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

Bach, Berlioz, Verdi, Mahler: Mute Sighs, Silent Laments / Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden

$32.99
CD

Profil

Jan 07, 2022

PH21024

Antonio Molinini: 8 studi per pianoforte - Vitantonio Caroli

Stradivarius

Available as CD

$16.99

Apr 04, 2025

... When I started writing this collection of studies, I did so for a very specific reason: to justify the existence of some individual pieces for piano, written without a precise destination or name, thus being an end in themselves. By grouping them together into a single collection, they would have more reason to exist, and, for this, I decided to give each of them a specific imprint, a leitmotif, a focus for each piece, that is to say: a cell, a something that would ensure that the study was aimed at perfecting the student's specific technical deficiency in his or her piano playing... Antonio Molinini

Antonio Molinini: 8 studi per pianoforte - Vitantonio Caroli

$16.99
CD

Stradivarius

Apr 04, 2025

STR37316

Works for violin and saxophone

Tactus

Available as CD

$21.99

Jan 30, 2026

In a society where standardization is a prevalent issue, the release of an album that deviates from the usual music centered around the established repertoire to present an original program should be welcomed with enthusiasm. This same enthusiasm is evident in the two performers' dedication to discovering new repertoires, and delivering passionate, meticulous performances. This discographic project, aims to interpret and promote original music written for violin and saxophone by both past and contemporary composers. Works from the 20th century, (compositions by Adolf Busch and Pierre Max Dubois, included here as tributes to those who recognized the potential of the unusual violin and saxophone duo), are juxtaposed, with compositions by contemporary authors specifically written for Scarpa-Pigato. The variety of styles, unfolds through post-tonal compositions, (Paolo Paglia, and Luca Moscardi), serial works, (Antonio Pessetto), and evocative pieces, (Alberto Piazza). The unusual timbral combination of the violin, and the diverse colors of the saxophone family, creates an innovative and surprising sonic impact. The fervor that the performers bring to their interpretations, is the elusive quality contemporary music has long sought. Dedication to meticulous work, combined with interpretative excitement is a winning combination.

Mix and Match Add these titles save more →

Works for violin and saxophone

$21.99
CD

Tactus

Jan 30, 2026

TC960005

Stradella: Mottetti / Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano

Naïve

Available as CD

~~$16.99~~ $12.99

Jun 21, 2024

Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano bring their attention to a fascinating and highly rewarding 17th-century Italian composer, Alessandro Stradella, principally celebrated today for his oratorios and operas. This album presents five of his seventeen motets, deposited in the Bibliothèque Estense in Modena at the end of the seventeenth century. These are, for the most part, world premieres.

Rinaldo Alessandrini gathered together motets that are mainly relevant to the cult of the Virgin Mary, written for specific circumstances such as the Nativity, or the Immaculate Conception, or for more generic feasts, on texts chosen for each occasion, including one by Stradella himself (Exultate in Deo fideles).

REVIEW:

As with so much of Stradella’s extraordinarily prolific output, none of the pieces on this new album (with one exception) has been previously recorded. This judicious selection of works drawn from three manuscripts of unknown provenance demonstrates the extraordinary variety of styles and approaches of which the composer was capable at his most impressive.

— Gramophone

On Sale

Stradella: Mottetti / Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano

~~$16.99~~ $12.99
CD

Naïve

Jun 21, 2024

OP7192

Mozart & Birchall: Clarinet Concertos / Collins, Wigmore Soloists, Philharmonia Orchestra

BIS

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Apr 01, 2022

The two concertos performed here by Michael Collins and the Philharmonia Orchestra were both intended for a specific player – Mozart composed his for Anton Stadler and Richard Birchall for Michael Collins himself. Both works – as well as Mozart's Clarinet Quintet – were also written for a particular instrument: the basset clarinet, a slightly larger and deeper clarinet than the one in A which soon after Mozart had written his concerto became the standard. At the very core of the clarinet repertoire, the two works by Mozart have until recently been played on the A clarinet, with necessary adjustments being made to the solo part. Nowadays, however, they are more and more often performed on the instrument they were intended for. Richard Birchall, in his Concerto for Basset Clarinet, also makes the most of the basset clarinet's extended range, for instance in the third movement, "Impossible Construction." That movement, and indeed the whole work, is inspired by the artwork of M. C. Escher and its combination of surreal elements and mathematical precision. With the two concertos, Michael Collins continues his long-standing collaboration with the Philharmonia Orchestra, which includes an acclaimed recording on BIS of works by Vaughan Williams and Finzi. For the Clarinet Quintet he has invited his colleagues from the Wigmore Soloists, the chamber ensemble that he leads together with Isabelle van Keulen.

On Sale

Mozart & Birchall: Clarinet Concertos / Collins, Wigmore Soloists, Philharmonia Orchestra

~~$21.99~~ $15.99
SACD

BIS

Apr 01, 2022

BIS-2647

Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux / Pierre-Laurent Aimard

PENTATONE

Available as SACD with DVD

~~$59.99~~ $44.99

Mar 30, 2018

Renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard kicks off his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1956-1958). The pianist had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue.

Praised by The Guardian as “one of the best Messiaen interpreters around,“ this is Aimard’s first recording of Messiaen’s most extensive, demanding and colorful piano composition. The luxurious release set contains an accompanying bonus film, on which Aimard shares his vast knowledge of and love for Messiaen’s work from behind the piano.

Due to its radical naturalism, the Catalogue d’Oiseaux is exceptional within the repertoire for solo piano. It is the grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the stupefying beauty of landscapes or the magic of bird song. With his Catalogue, Messiaen tried – in his own words – “to render exactly the typical birdsong of a region, surrounded by its neighbors from the same habitat, as well as the form of song at different hours of the day and night,” suggesting an almost scientific approach to his subjects. The idea of ‘reproduction’ may have been central to Messiaen’s conception of the Catalogue d’Oiseaux, but in the finished work we hear a great composer at work, a master of innovative structures who finds an astonishing range of piano sonorities. In a world that is increasingly being destructed by man, Aimard views this cycle as “a musical refuge that resonates with an audience ever more concerned, expanded and affected.”

REVIEWS:

Unsurprisingly, Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s interpretations are anything but tame. His dynamic range is formidable, his voicing of chords scrupulously faithful, his clarity unimpeachable. It’s hard to imagine the textures having greater impact or precision, or the continuity and discontinuity being projected with greater concentration. Nigel Simeone’s essay for Pentatone is exceptionally informative on factual background. One can only salute this outstanding achievement.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, April 2018)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s long association with Olivier Messiaen’s music dates back to the early 1970s, when the teenaged pianist was a protégée of both the composer and his wife Yvonne Loriod. His 2000 recording of Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus has long held sway as a version of reference. In August 2017 Aimard set down the complete Catalogue d’Oiseaux, now released by Pentatone on three SACDS, accompanied by informative booklet notes by Nigel Simone and a valuable DVD where Aimard presents succinct overviews of each piece from the piano and offers interesting insights into Messiaen’s methodology and personality.

As the set reveals time and again, Aimard has long digested and internalized Messiaen’s colorful keyboard syntax. The pianist voices and balances extended sequences of chords with the utmost clarity and specificity. Minute variations in rhythmic asymmetry are scrupulously articulated, while Aimard never shortchanges the music’s frequent moments of silence. He also brings impressive timbral and characterful variety to low-register passagework that can sound muddy or indistinct in the wrong hands. Cases in point include Messiaen’s playful evocation of mating mallards in Le Merle de roche’s opening pages, and Le Loriot’s slow-motion chords that contrast with lively high-register dialogues depicting Garden Warblers.

Le Rousserolle Effarvatte, the cycle’s epicenter and longest movement, emerges as a dramatic and virtuoso tour-de-force, showcasing Aimard’s remarkable concentration throughout sustained contemplative passages, along with his sophisticated gradations in dynamics and touch that seemingly project the gnarly, tumultuous sequences in three-dimensional perspective. To be sure, the pianist’s fortissimos convey an edgy, even metallic patina (so do Yvonne Loriod’s, in fairness), and his occasional vocal grimaces distract. Moreover, there sometimes is more humor to the music than Aimard is willing to concede.

Aimard’s technical, stylistic, and musical authority build upon Loriod’s interpretive legacy, and set modern-day standards that will both inspire and intimidate future generations of Messiaen pianists.

– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

On Sale

Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux / Pierre-Laurent Aimard

~~$59.99~~ $44.99
SACD with DVD

PENTATONE

Mar 30, 2018

PTC5186670

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