Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Zoryana Kushpler was an ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera from 2007 to 2020 and performs regularly on the major international stages and festivals as both an opera and Lied singer. Kushpler pays special attention to music from and around her home country. Less than six months after the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law, she gathered the Luhansk Symphony Orchestra, which had fled it's home town in it's entirety, in Lviv to record opera arias by Ukrainian composers and arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs for this CD production in collaboration with conductor Ivan Ostapovych. The resulting album "Ukrainian InterMezzo" offers an insight into the work of the most important Ukrainian composers such as Mykola Lysenko, Julij Mejtus, Borys Lyatoshynsky, Oles Chyshko, Viktor Matyuk, Anatoliy Kos-Anatolsky or Oleh Kiva, which is characterized by the special local color and themes such as love, longing and homeland.
“No matter how one might try, one cannot be unkind to Mr. Bertini: he can bring one beside oneself with his friendliness and all his finely fragrant Parisian expressions; his music has the feel of pure satin and silk.” In his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Robert Schumann gave numerous fellow musicians who rubbed him the wrong way a solid piece of his own mind, but he never found anything to hold against Henri Bertini, a French composer who was twelve years his senior. Although he was a little indirect in his praise, he was right: in the music of this once highly esteemed pianist, piano teacher, and composer there is nothing irritating, nothing that might offend good taste – and yet we never have the impression that here we have a composer who eliminated every trace of »modernity« merely to win public favor. Friendliness apparently was a characteristic trait of this musician who was born in London in 1798 and died in Meylan, near Grenoble, in 1876. He never attempted to go at everything headfirst to prove that it was possible to shatter the sound barrier. His countless études and learning pieces were so very popular internationally because a natural music flows in them, offering welcome expressive opportunities to the pupil. And his finely crafted chamber compositions – from the duo sonata to the nonet – form a catalogue’s trove of treasures combining a very fine ear with great narrative talent. Two of these magnificent pieces from the late 1830s – the Piano Trio op. 43 and the Nonet op. 107 – inaugurate this vibrant work series that would be a top wish for a complete recording edition and definitely in every way represents a valuable contribution to the repertoire.
The 'American dream' is the thread that connects these three works. Amy Beach was born in New Hampshire in 1867 and composed more than three hundred works, including a monumental suite for two pianos inspired by the Romantic tradition and based on ancient Irish melodies. Nadine Dana Suesse nicknamed the "Gershwin Girl" was born in Kansas City in 1909. She played her own compositions on the radio from the age of thirteen and composed hit songs, notably for Bing Crosby. She refused the attractions of Hollywood and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Her works disappeared from the repertory after her death, although the Berlinskaya Ancelle duo are keen to revive her music with this 1943 concerto, described as "romantic, but mixed with modern harmonies and chords straight from jazz". Victor Babin was born in Moscow in 1908 and emigrated to the United States with his wife Viktoria Vronskaya in 1937. Their piano duo was very successful there: they gave the first performance of Babin's virtuosic Second Concerto under the direction of George SzelI in Cleveland in 1957.
For generations, the noble family of the House of Szechenyi have played a decisive role in shaping Hungary's destiny. Katharina Ruckgaber and Tamas Egresi, accompanied by Helmut Deutsch, have compiled a representative selection of songs from the large repertoire of poems and compositions; an impressive testimony to the wide-ranging interests and talents of one of Europe's most important aristocratic families.
As a tenor raised in Northeast Philadelphia, recording an album dedicated to Mario Lanza felt like coming home in the most profound way.' This is how Stephen Costello introduces his second album on Delos, Be My Love. A homage to the great tenor, this selection of songs showcases Lanza's sincerity in his choice of repertoire, his mastery of diction and legato, and the clarion high notes that made him ideally equipped to bring a song to a stirring finish. Indeed, the humble boy from Philadelphia rose to global stardom thanks to his glorious voice and innate charisma. As such, he has been an inspiration to countless singers, even more so for Stephen, who was born in the same city. Songs like 'Be My Love' and 'Without a Song' served as the ultimate secret weapon for the young tenor struggling through his first lessons and auditions. Constantine Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra join in the celebration.
IL MITO brings together eleven landmark songs from across five decades of CGS history, newly arranged and recorded by the current line up - the ensemble that has brought Pizzica onto the global stage over the last twenty years. This formation earned international acclaim, including "Songlines Music Award for Best Group" and the overall #1 position on the World Music Chart Europe annual chart with the album "Meridiana" (2021). With this new project, "IL MITO" also reached the #1 position on the TransGlobal World Music Chart Europe!
Vinyl LP pressing. With Blacknuss, it's as if Kirk is taking listeners on a trip - from the top forty world of Soul Train to the roots of soul in gospel music and back in Africa. It is a remarkable musical-cultural shift in perspective and one that carries the listener with it. Exploding with near chaotic energy, this album makes a great soundtrack to a party about to teeter out of control. Cut all analog!
Folk Music Of China, Vol. 9 - Folk Songs Of The Uzbeks & Tatars Of China
Naxos World Music
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Jan 15, 2021
China’s rich and diverse musical heritage has been recorded and documented in a stunning, original collection. With fifteen albums in the pipeline, this is a highly specialized series with the appeal of perhaps being the closest thing to the ‘complete works’ of traditional Chinese music. Each album features a different region of the vast territory; an historical snapshot of China’s heritage. Due to the cultural privacy China mandates, these are in fact rare, musical gems. The Uzbek and Tatar peoples both live in Xinjiang province and speak Turkic languages. The population of Chinese Uzbeks is around ten thousand, which is approximately three times that of the Tatars. The majority of these two peoples live in the northern and western regions of Xinjiang province. The Uzbek music displays its artistic charm with complex melodic variations and gorgeous ornaments. Their instrumental music mainly includes interludes of Shashmaqam and dutars accompany all the Uzbek musical pieces. The music of the Tatars is the gemstone in Xinjiang’s musical crown, with many of their songs being popular among different ethnic groups. In this album, the accordion accompanies all the Tatar songs. The kubyz, the brass jew’s harp, is another popular instrument among them and they also perform on an instrument similar to a long end-blown flute, the qurai.
Folk Music of China, Vol. 11 - Folk Songs of the Dai & Hani Peoples
Naxos World Music
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Mar 26, 2021
China’s rich and diverse musical heritage has been recorded and documented in a stunning, original collection. With nineteen albums in the pipeline, this is a highly specialized series with the appeal of perhaps being the closest thing to the ‘complete works’ of traditional Chinese music. Each album features a different region of the vast territory; an historical snapshot of China’s heritage. Due to the cultural privacy China mandates, these are in fact rare, musical gems. This series explores China’s rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured in these recordings are folk songs from the Dai and Hani peoples of Yunnan province. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin.
From simple folk melodies to symphonies in the concert hall, Americans listen to music that encompasses all styles and tastes. As the Musical Ambassadors of the Combat Soldier, the Army Ground Forces Band travels throughout the nation performing the various kinds of music that contribute to our national heritage. This album is a small sampling of the many great tunes that are Made in America. The works of several famous composers are showcased on this album, including Henry Fillmore, Percy Grainger, and Aaron Copland.
Norwegian Opera Overtures / Bergby, Norwegian National Opera Orchestra
LAWO Classics
CD
$18.99Sep 24, 2021
The Norwegian opera literature is a well concealed and all too little known gem in our national cultural heritage. There is general agreement that it begins with the Waldemar Thrane/Henrik Bjerregaard Singspiel The Mountain Story from 1824. And throughout the nineteenth century there were a number of Norwegian composers who wrote operas, most of them now long forgotten. With this release we wish to make the music accessible to listeners in the hope of generating new interest in and discussion about why this part of our cultural heritage has been left to lie untouched.
� A comprehensive, multi-layered documentary portrait of this 80 years young (2013) composer. � Includes his personal and career reflections, dialogue and musical extracts. � The film follows Penderecki from Krak�w to Munich, Vienna to Leipzig, and to his country estate in Luslawice. � Interviews with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mariss Jansons and Lorin Maazel, among others. � To be premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, February 2014. � Availability: Blu-ray and DVD � Subtitles. 814337011550 CMAJ715504BR 26016962 .00 37.99 .18 C MAJOR BLU-RAY MOVIE DOCUMENTARY 03/25/2014 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/8/6/3/2523686.jpg 13 1 N
BUSONI / BACH / SLOTCHIVER VISIONARY 3 044747339627 CAV3396.2 27775257 .00 18.99 .20 CENTAUR COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 02/10/2015 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/1/4/9/2839416.jpg 15 1 N
NEUBAUER / PUNTO / DEMACHI / HAGEL / CAPELLA NASSAU COURT MUSIC Searching for traces of once-admired Nassau court music in European and American libraries made it apparent that, despite large losses, there still survives a corpus of court music, though hard to fully assess due to it's size and geographical scattering. The majority of these autographs and manuscripts are unheard pieces, condemned to two and one-half centuries of oblivion. The 350th birthday of Count Johann Ernst of Nassau-Weilburg (1664-1719) provides an appropriate occasion to let the brilliance of the Nassau court music be heard again.
Marking Oriel College's 700th anniversary, this unique collection explores the diverse musical traditions connected with Oriel College. Drawing on sources from medieval Marian devotion to the Oxford Movement, and from the work of distinguished fellows to contemporary commissions for the chapel choir, it explores the influence and inspiration of the college's scholars, poets, and musicians over seven centuries, charting an evolving relationship between the college and it's cultural life.
This release kicks off a new series exploring China's rich and diverse musical heritage. The songs featured in this recording are folk songs of the five minority ethnic groups of Qinghai and Gansu provinces - Tu, Bonan, Dongxiang, Yugur and Salar. As with Chinese traditional visual arts, the song titles explain their mood and origin. The five minority ethnic groups that perform on this album mainly live in seven autonomous counties under the administration of the Gansu and Qinghai Provinces in northwestern China. Bordering Qinghai to the west, Gansu is located between the Tibetan Plateau and the Loess Plateau. The Yellow River flows through the southern part of Gansu, where the Qilian Mountains are located. Volume 2, Folk Songs of Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang is scheduled for release in October 2019.
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has long been known for championing British contemporary music and, following two albums entirely dedicated to Thomas Wilson, the orchestra now turns to other leading composers of the contemporary scene. Devised by conductor Rory Macdonald, the programme includes works that share the themes of loss, love and life: Jay Capperauld's Our Gilded Veins takes centre-stage, alongside Within Her Arms, Anna Clyne's 'fragile elegy' (The New Yorker), James MacMillan's legend-based The Death of Oscarand the commemorative For Zoe, Martin Suckling's Meditation (after Donne) - which features church bells from across Scotland - and Peter Maxwell Davies's Farewell to Stromness (in an arrangement for strings by Rosemary Furniss), which arguably features the composer's most recognisable tune.
2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss Sohn. An occasion for the Duo Praxedis (harpist Praxedis Hug-Rutti and pianist Praxedis Genevieve Hug) to rearrange selected compositions by the composer for harp and piano. The Baba Bussi album also includes works by other composers who have a close connection to Vienna and are firmly rooted in it's musical tradition. It is a tribute to Johann Strauss and to Vienna as the 'world capital of music' - and is being performed for the first time with this delightful instrumentation.
Kahil El'Zabar, drums, earth drums, kalimba; Corey Wilkes, trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion; Ernest Dawkins, alto and tenor saxophone, percussion; Fareed Haque, electric and acoustic guitar. In a Down Beat review of their previous Delmark album, Freedom Jazz Dance (517) Paul de Barros wrote "The forms being advanced here-or at least merged in a creative, new way-are African-American syncopation (funk, jazz) and the vertically integrated multiple parts of African drum ensemble music. With folkish simplicity and beguilingly subdued dynamics, Ethnic Heritage Ensemble-drums, guitar and two horns-achieves an effect something like an ad hoc percussion band walking the second line, with a little James Brown thrown in."
Fano, Sinigaglia & Massarani: Musica "degenerata" per violon
Tactus
CD
$21.99Feb 07, 2025
Italian composers and instrumentalists born in the second half of nineteenth-century Italy can be seen as the children of a true cultural revolution of the Risorgimento. This revolution was induced by the need to create a new national musical identity, disengaged from the iconic and dominant role of opera. In fact, for much of the nineteenth century, the operatic tradition had overshadowed the instrumental one, which began to regain particular momentum and diffusion only after 1860. Unified Italy was now compared to the great European powers and needed to be more cultured, progressive, and sophisticated. Instrumental music (symphonic and chamber), had always been associated with literature, philosophy, and the more intellectual world, and was perfectly suited to embody a new musical identity of the country that could match and compete with the great German model. It is the case of the three composers here represented (Sinigaglia, Fano, Massarani), who fully embraced the legacy of their predecessors but, like them, paid the price of living in a transitional historical moment. Like in a limbo between the "old" and the "new," between Romanticism - at the time entirely exhausted in the rest of Europe - and the first glimmers of a new musical language that would soon move towards deconstruction with the avant-gardes of the 20th century. Yet, the outcome of their work is worthy of historical and performance interest, and shows the necessity of rediscovering a significant portion of Italian music history. Certainly, their shared Jewish background and the consequent censorship of the racial laws from the early 1930s may have contributed to some extent to the oblivion that befell these names. Riccardo Pes and Pierluigi Piran focus this recording on the interesting works for cello and piano by the three authors.
The rich musical heritage of the Litvaks is only just beginning to be explored. The music by Jewish composers who were born in, lived in, or emigrated from Lithuania has been lurking in the background for many years. This new creative chapter opens with an album that features two prominent musical figures, the Lithuanian violinist Dalia Dedinskaite and the Canadian pianist Walter Delahunt. Together, they present a musical journey showcasing the creativity of the Litvaks, from Lazdijai in Lithuania to Hollywood in the USA. The album's title, Estrellita (The Star), is not only an allusion to one of it's pieces, but also a multi-sensory symbol. Estrellita, also the Star of David, is a light in the darkness, a star of remembrance. It illuminates the paths of personalities, destinies, and creativity, from those who left to those who stayed. The album Estrellita draws parallels between the lives and works of two legendary 20th-century Litvaks, Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) and Joseph Achron (1886-1943). It also opens up the musical world of Anatolijus Šenderovas (1945-2019), one of the most prominent Lithuanian composers of the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century.
The Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale's Promised Land, led by Artistic Director Christopher Gabbitas, surveys two and a half centuries of American choral music, from African American spirituals and Shaker hymns to works by Eric Whitacre, Caroline Shaw, and Frank Ticheli. Arrangements by Alice Parker, Shawn Kirchner, Moses Hogan and others sit alongside original compositions, unified by themes of freedom, longing, and collective resilience. Voices long overlooked by history, among them Shaker eldress Hannah Cohoon and nineteenth-century songwriter Matilda Durham, are restored to the concert repertoire in this rich and purposefully programmed celebration of America's choral heritage in it's 250th anniversary year.
Drawing from influences as disparate as the blues, jazz, Broadway, gospel, folksong and the wild west, the 'American vignettes' in this album merge popular idioms into a new canon of the repertoire for cello and piano, in a series of musical snapshots that are as varied as the men and women who composed them and yet all remain quintessentially American in spirit. The distinctive voices of six US composers, from the late twentieth and early 21st centuries, here come together to weave a virtuosic and colourful tapestry of Americana.
10 Jahre Basel komponiert - Hans Huber "Romanzen und Ballade
Solo Musica
CD
$21.99Oct 03, 2025
In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.
