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Mozart: Piano Concertos No 19 And 27 / De Larrocha, Davis

RCA

$17.99 Feb 14, 2008

Sir Colin Davis’ sensitivity is effortlessly mirrored by Larrocha with her enviable ease, her avoidance of all artifice or attention-seeking dalliance. Few other pianists are more attuned to Mozart’s mix of pain and radiance.

Alicia de Larrocha’s and Sir Colin Davis’s Mozart concerto cycle, while rarely less than distinguished, grows in stature with each new issue. Indeed, so musicianly and distilled are both these performances that the casual listener is in danger of taking them for granted, mistaking their classic sobriety for monotony and their devotion for a monochrome quality.

Sir Colin’s unforced way with the opening tutti of K595, his awareness of “all passion spent” is haunting but unobtrusive. Such sensitivity is effortlessly mirrored by Larrocha with her enviable ease, her avoidance of all artifice or attention-seeking dalliance. Few other pianists are more attuned to Mozart’s mix of pain and radiance, of the subtle major-minor shifts commencing at 6'34'' and, throughout, her economy ensures that every passing mood is unmistakably yet unobtrusively registered. Again, tempos are ideal whether in K595’s gently paced final Allegro (less idiosyncratically slow or autumnal than from Kempff on DG) or in the central Allegretto of K459. Even in the finale’s opera buffa high-jinks she captures the music’s undertow, a poise and equanimity like “the still point of the turning world”.

Balance and sound (grainy but apt) are exemplary, and this issue is graced with a fine portrait of the pianist by Christian Steiner.'

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone [12/1997]

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Mozart: Piano Concertos No 19 And 27 / De Larrocha, Davis
RCA Feb 2008
CD
$17.99

Martin Y Soler: L'arbore Di Diana / Bicket, Workman, Davislim, Vinco, Aikin

Dynamic

DVD

$36.99 Jan 01, 2011

Artists:
Charles Workman, Steve Davislim, tenors; Marco Vinco, bass-baritone; Laura Aikin, Ainhoa Garmendia, sopranos; Michael Maniaci, countertenor; Marisa Martins, Jossie Perez, mezzo-sopranos; Liceu Grand Theatre Orchestra, Harry Bicket, conductor; Thomas MacManus, choreographer; Francisco Negrin, director.

Audio Format: LPCM 2.0 | Region Code: 0 | Format: NTSC, 16:9
Booklet: English, French, Italian, German | Subtitles: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Catalan
Running Time: 148 minutes
Location: Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona | Recorded: October 7, 2009 Packaging: DVD Keep Case

L’arbore di Diana is a two-act opera buffa by the composer Vincent Martin y Soler with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, first performed in Vienna in 1787. Popular throughout Europe at that time, this comic pastorale includes a plot that centers on an apple tree with apples that mutate in the presence of chaste and wanton individuals in the goddess Diana’s garden, and an unhappy god of Love who schemes to destroy the apple tree. Diana’s Tree is a trove of flowing melodies and a feast for the eyes.

“…immersed in an unreal atmosphere that takes advantage of cutting edge technology and an intelligent use of lighting and sound, …[transposing] the fable and satire..to modern times..with genius, explaining the story without confusing it.” – Pablo Meléndez-Haddad, ABC, October 2009.

“…Francis Negrin’s work has managed to maintain the piece’s narrative and to underline its best comical moments.” – Roger Alier, La Vanguardia, Oct. 2009.

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Martin Y Soler: L'arbore Di Diana / Bicket, Workman, Davislim, Vinco, Aikin
Dynamic Jan 2011
DVD
$36.99

Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 "Cliffside Pastorals" / Oramo, Berlin Philharmonic

Dacapo Classical

SACD

$17.99 Nov 04, 2022

Despite being eccentric and at odds with his fellow human beings for most of his life, Danish composer Rued Langgaard was convinced that his time would come – and so it did. In Langgaard’s Symphony No. 1, we find its teenage composer celebrating his love of beauty and harmony in the most hedonistic terms. With this recording the symphony sees it return home, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker, the first orchestra that understood what a masterpiece perhaps the greatest talent that had ever been seen in Danish music had created.

REVIEWS:

Unjustly misunderstood, and at times even ridiculed or dismissed as an eccentric kook by critics of his day, Danish organist and composer Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) deserves to be ranked alongside Wagner, Richard Strauss, Bruckner, Mahler and the like.

Brilliantly orchestrated for large orchestra, with motivic and thematic development on par with the music of Gustav Mahler [the First Symphony's] final movement alone is a revelry of ideas brought together to great effect. Seriously, if the five or so minutes near the end don't capture your full attention, and the final minute doesn't leave you slack-jawed in amazement, maybe you should check your pulse. In this live recording of the world premiere recording of the 2010 critical edition by Bendt Viinholt Nielsen, conductor Sakari Oramo and the members of the Berlin Philharmonic certainly seem to be having the time of their lives.

-- Classical Music Sentinel

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Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 "Cliffside Pastorals" / Oramo, Berlin Philharmonic
Dacapo Classical Nov 2022
SACD
$17.99

Lasso: Cantiones duum vocum

Tactus

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% Jun 10, 2014

Orlando di Lasso, 16th century musician and composer, is one of the masters of 16th century polyphony, considered by many the most versatile. +For over thirty years from 1560, he remained at the court of Duke Albert V of Bavaria, becoming court choirmaster. +In this capacity he traveled widely, often to Italy. +This collection consists of 24 bicinia, a polyphonic instructional genre then in vogue. +Half the collection uses sacred Latin text; the rest have no text. +A world premiere recording.

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Lasso: Cantiones duum vocum
Tactus Jun 2014
CD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Wolf-ferrari: La Vedova Scaltra / Martin, Sollied, Muraro, D'aguanno

Naxos

$29.99 Sep 30, 2008

A far from negligible reading of an attractive opera.

It is not every year, probably not even every decade, that we get an opportunity to see or hear an opera by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. On an early Naxos disc (8.550240) with opera overtures and intermezzi there is music from what are probably his best known works: Il segreto di Susanna and I Gioielli della Madonna. The first mentioned, a one act comedy premiered in 1909, has been recorded a number of times: by Cetra in the 1950s with baritone Giuseppe Valdengo, by Decca in the 1970s with Maria Chiara and Bernd Weikl and somewhat later by CBS with Renata Scotto and Renato Bruson. There may be others but not to my knowledge.

Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice to a German father and an Italian mother. He first studied art to follow in his father’s footsteps. Rather soon he realised that he wanted to be a musician. He went to Munich where he studied with Joseph Rheinberger and even then he had a special sympathy for opera, having seen works by Rossini and Wagner. In 1895 he saw Verdi’s Falstaff in Milan, less than three years after its premiere. There he was also introduced to the composer. It is the parlando style of this opera that has influenced his own works, at least La vedova scaltra. As in Falstaff there is little room for extended arias but the parlando is often condensed into arioso and aria sections with some melodically attractive themes. The music is hardly offensive, no jarring dissonances, and since there are some characters of different nationalities there is also some references to the music of the nations, where especially the Spanish flavour is well caught. The orchestra is skilfully employed in an often chamber music-like transparency with ample scope for instrumental solos. There is a lot to admire, including the only strict solo song, Rosaura’s song in act II about two separated lovers. Il Conte has a beautiful solo (CD 2 tr. 1), accompanied by plucked strings. There is a scintillating chorus that opens the last scene of the opera. As a kind of Leitmotif there is a waltz, that follows the heroine Rosaura, from her first appearance in scene 2 of the first act until the very end of the opera.

No less than five of Wolf-Ferrari´s operas are based on plays by the prolific Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), including La vedova scaltra. This is a comedy about Rosaura and her four suitors from France, England, Italy and Spain. There is also a servant, Arlecchino, who functions as a go-between, bringing messages and gifts from the suitors to Rosaura. Naturally there are a lot of complications – including fights and disguises – before everything is sorted out in the last scene. Quite entertaining, in fact.

It seems quite natural that this recording was made in Venice, where playwright as well as composer were born. In a slightly dry but agreeable acoustic the balance between orchestra and soloists is as good as any other live recording I have heard. Karl Martin appears well attuned to Wolf-Ferrari’s music and the playing and choral singing cannot be faulted. In fact there is real gusto in the chorus. Of the male soloists the two tenors, Emanuele D’Aguanno and Mark Milhofer, are both excellent with light lyrical voices. Alex Esposito as Arlecchino obviously enjoys himself greatly while Maurizio Muraro and Riccardo Zanellato are competent but more anonymous. Elena Rossi is a spirited Marionette but her tone is rather edgy. The star of the performance is however the Norwegian soprano Anne-Lise Sollied as Rosaura. She is a splendid actress and sings with nice care for nuance, especially noticeable in her long solo Nella notturna selva (CD 1 tr. 9). In the final reconciliation she rises to ecstatic heights.

The Italian text can be obtained from the internet but it is quite easy to follow the plot with the help of the synopsis. The recording is also available on DVD (Naxos DVD 2.110234-35) and might be even more attractive in that form.

I do not see this set as signalling a Wolf-Ferrari renaissance but it is good to have this example of his art available in a far from negligible reading. The presence of an audience is hardly disturbing and stage noises are reduced to a minimum.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

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Wolf-ferrari: La Vedova Scaltra / Martin, Sollied, Muraro, D'aguanno
Naxos Sep 2008
CD
$29.99

Dvorák: String Quartets, Vol. 1 / Vogler Quartett

CPO

$36.99 Nov 13, 2012

Dvorák’s quartets number among the gems of their genre. A new recording by one and the same ensemble is long overdue, and the fact that the Vogler Quartet has taken on this gigantic task is very good luck indeed. The Vogler Quartet is a phenomenon. Its membership has remained unchanged since 1985, and over the years the individual and team talent of its musicians has secured them a place among the world’s top chamber ensembles.

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Dvorák: String Quartets, Vol. 1 / Vogler Quartett
CPO Nov 2012
CD
$36.99

Alfano: Suite romantica; Una danza / Grazioli, Milan Symphony

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Apr 12, 2024

Franco Alfano possessed an innate melodic facility combined with a talent for unexpected timbres. From the neo-Classical Divertimento to the noirish post-war Nenia, the lightness of touch of Amour… Amour… to the impressionistic Una danza and luxuriously orchestrated Suite romantica, each work reveals a different aspect of this multifaceted composer. This release of world premiere recordings features the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano conducted by Giuseppe Grazioli who makes his Naxos début.

REVIEW:

Franco Alfano (1875–1954) remains a marginal figure in musical life despite a fair degree of coverage in record catalogs. Yet he is a thoroughly original composer, one who possessed an innate melodic gift combined with a talent for unexpected timbres, as can be heard in the lavishly orchestrated Suite romantica. The half-hour work is heard on this album in a very colorful and expressive, excellently performed interpretation.

With Una danza, completely different colors are expressed and one may hear an influence of Debussy. This is followed by Nenia, a somewhat melancholy solo piece for accordion, sensitively played by Davide Vendramin, which finds its counterpart in the Aria of the Divertimento, even if the outer movements are very lively and playful.

The program, pleasing and excellently played, ends with the Waltz Amour… Amour…, originally composed for piano in 1901 and orchestrated in 1928.

-- Pizzicato

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Alfano: Suite romantica; Una danza / Grazioli, Milan Symphony
Naxos Apr 2024
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Camargo Guarnieri: Piano Music, Vol. 1 / Max Barros

Naxos

$29.99 Jan 29, 2013

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was the most important Brazilian composer next to Villa-Lobos. Guarnieri’s piano music embodies his most distinctive stylistic features. One of his most beloved works, the Dança Negra shares folk-music inspiration with the Suite Mirim. The Ponteios are characterized by an enormous variety of Brazilian music styles and moods, and the Sonata can be seen as a summary of Guarnieri’s musical personality. Max Barros’s “unfaltering brio and a complete command of the idiom” (Gramophone) can also be heard in Guarnieri’s Piano Concertos (8.557666 and 8.557667).

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Camargo Guarnieri: Piano Music, Vol. 1 / Max Barros
Naxos Jan 2013
CD
$29.99

Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 - F.A.E. Sonata

Supraphon

$14.99 Mar 25, 2014

"• Jana Vonášková, a member of the Smetana Trio for many years, partners here with the eminent Latvian pianist Irina Kondratenko for this nearly all-Brahms recital. • Brahms' violin sonatas are touchstones of the chamber music literature • Rarely recorded or performed, the F.A.E. Sonata is here heard in its entirety. • New recordings – 2013."

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Brahms: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 and 3 - F.A.E. Sonata
Supraphon Mar 2014
CD
$14.99

Dvorák: Serenade, Quintet / Chamber Music Society
Delos Jan 1995
CD
$18.99

Gesualdo: Madrigals, Books 5 & 6 / Longhini, Delitiae Musicae

Naxos

$35.99 May 28, 2013

GESUALDO Madrigals , Books 5 and 6 • Marco Longhini, cond; Delitiae Musicae • NAXOS 8.573147-49 (three discs: 182:40 Text and Translation)

Don Carlo Gesualdo (1566–1613), Prince of Venosa (the last of that aristocratic line), is renowned for the mannerist music he wrote, both sacred and secular, and the personal failings that enliven so many accounts of his life. He spent an important few years of his life in Ferrara after marrying the niece of Alfonso II d’Este, a court where he had much company among composers and singers, including Cipriano de Rore, Jacques de Wert, and Luzzasco Luzzaschi, not to mention the celebrated singing Ladies of Ferrara. He had grown up in similar surroundings in Venosa, where one of his teachers was Pomponio Nenna.

Another set of Gesualdo’s madrigals has now been completed, the last of several recordings marking the quarter-centenary of his death, although even this last installment was recorded two or three years ago. Marco Longhini’s interpretive approach is just different enough to make this an alternative to the others rather than a competition among them. We have had the old version of Angelo Ephrikian, recorded in 1968 but still available, sung one voice to a part with slow tempos (not as slow as Longhini), stylistically obsolete in a new era of Baroque interpretation. The other complete set came from Kassiopeia ( Fanfare 33:4) with considerably faster tempos but a keen sense of style. Longhini has now provided the third complete set, including for good measure the few other secular works published separately. Several other directors have recorded complete books, perhaps hoping to complete all six, among them Harry van der Kamp (29:3), Anthony Rooley (8:2), and those mentioned below.

This collection is striking for its departure from the performance practice of the first four books, issued one disc at a time (34: 1, 34:5, 35:3, 36:2). In each of those discs, he acknowledged an alternative performance practice by using harpsichord or theorbo to accompany half of the madrigals, leaving the rest unaccompanied, as all other recordings known to me have done. In these last two books, the madrigals are all unaccompanied. I find no explanation in Longhini’s lengthy and informative notes to indicate why his practice in the first four books has not continued here.

Tempos are again an obvious measure of the difference among competing versions of these madrigals. In Book 5, the northerners, Kassiopeia (33:4) and Hilliard (35:6), take about 55 minutes in all, while among the Italians, La Venexiana (29:2) takes 64 minutes and Longhini 83 minutes. Book 6 is similar, for Kassiopeia (also 33:4) is 67 minutes, La Compagnia del madrigali (36:6) is 78 minutes, and Longhini is 100 minutes. The very first madrigal in Book 6, Se la mia morte brami , is exactly twice as long here as in Kassiopeia’s. I would rather hear it too slow than too fast, but note that the recent La Compagnia del Madrigale version is a moderate four minutes. So it goes for every selection, if not exactly a 2:1 ratio. To be sure, all the cited versions are listenable or better, and on the fast side the Hilliard’s Book 5 is exquisite. Choosing moderation, it may be noted that La Venexiana’s Book 4 (24:3) may be added to their Book 5 and La Compagnia’s Book 6 to encompass lovely renditions of half the total. On the other hand, do not overlook Longhini’s extensive and literate notes (in fluent translations) in each issue, treating both music and biography at considerable length.

All of the recordings cited are sung very well and recorded up close. If you started collecting Longhini, don’t hesitate to complete the set. Naxos prints texts and English translations in the booklets as well as posting them online, unlike for some of their other recent issues.

FANFARE: J. F. Weber

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Gesualdo: Madrigals, Books 5 & 6 / Longhini, Delitiae Musicae
Naxos May 2013
CD
$35.99

Dvorák: Songs

IBS Classical

$17.99 Apr 27, 2018

Between 1874 and 1878, the young Antonín Dvorák received help from the Austrian government to compose musical works. At that time, he was a promising composer who, having been brought up in Bohemia, not only spoke German but also demonstrated a profound knowledge of the Central European musical tradition. The composer, with all this, very quickly faced reality: in the Vienna of that time what they wanted of a Czech composer was music that sounded Czech, not German. Of the works he wrote in those years, the one that caught the publisher´s and Brahm´s attention was his song cycle, Moravian Duets. They particularly stood out if we keep in mind, as mentioned by Michael Beckerman, that to the Bohemian composer the Moravian culture was as foreign as any other. This is how history, with its selective forgetfulness, has prolonged for years the European rule that has been to label Dvorak a nationalistic Czech composer and author of various worthy symphonies. That he left more than a hundred songs written, that his inspiration went far beyond Bohemian folklore and that he was one of the most prolific Opera composers of his time are irrelevant questions. This recording from Spanish mezzosoprano Marta Infante and pianist Jorge Robaina gives us an opportunity to hear some songs that seem to have been written out of their time.

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Dvorák: Songs
IBS Classical Apr 2018
CD
$17.99

Saverio Mercadante: Don Chisciotte Alle Nozze Di Gamaccio

Naxos

$29.99 Jul 31, 2012

A contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante was one of Italy’s most productive 19th-century operatic composers. Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio was written during the composer’s stay in Spain, and is based on a chapter of Cervante’s Don Quixote in which the hero prevents the forced marriage of a poor farm girl to the wealthy Camacho. Magnificently entertaining and dramatically innovative, Don Chisciotte combines fashionable Neapolitan style with Spanish folk music elements in an unforgettable melodramma giocoso. It is heard on this recording in its first modern performance.

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Saverio Mercadante: Don Chisciotte Alle Nozze Di Gamaccio
Naxos Jul 2012
CD
$29.99

Kapsberger: Libro Primo / Bungarten

MDG

SACD

$24.99 Nov 05, 2021

Once again, Frank Bungarten has delved into the exciting history of guitar making, following the two previous projects, each of which was awarded an "Opus Klassik". Now it is the bowed guitar, equally impressive visually and acoustically, that the artist documents for the first time in a recording. Jan Tuláček, a highly specialized restorer from Prague, built him an exact replica for this recording, based on Schenk's original from the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum, on which Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger's imaginative lute tablatures are opulently heard. The bowed guitar is actually at home in the Biedermeier era. Its stringing as a 10-string third guitar, however, is perfectly suited to Kapsberger's music originally intended for Rennaissance lute. The body of this instrument is extended in a wide arc around the fingerboard and joins the pegbox at the end, resulting in striking resonances. The range and sonority are more reminiscent of keyboard instruments than a guitar. With its equally long-lasting and lively articulation, the bowed guitar proves to be ideal for a style that the lutenist Israel Golani called "17th century bebop". Highly expressive, with abrupt changes of affect, "Il primo libro di Intavolatura di Lauto" speaks directly to the mind and makes a broad sweep, even reaching into the rhetoric of sentiment. to the rhetoric of sensibility and the harmonies of jazz. Even during his lifetime, Kapsberger was regarded as a singular phenomenon in the papal Roman environment; for his lute lessons, he is said to have demanded - and received - twice as much in fees as his colleagues.

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Kapsberger: Libro Primo / Bungarten
MDG Nov 2021
SACD
$24.99

Bruckner: Pange Lingua & Motets (Live)

Fra Bernardo

$20.99 Mar 31, 2015

For this CD a chronological cross-section of Anton Bruckner's work was chosen for the recorded concert, from the very first composition of an 11 year-old, a Pange lingua, to the late Vexilla Regis. It's often hard to define Bruckner's musical roots and origins, since his first symphony already bears his unmistakable stamp, but some of these seldom performed early sacred works, still prescribing to 18th and early-19th c. Upper Austrian church tradition, can give an idea of his musical background. The chorale melodies, by Bruckner himself, display typical Alpine regional melodic attributes.

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Bruckner: Pange Lingua & Motets (Live)
Fra Bernardo Mar 2015
CD
$20.99

Granados, Falla, Llobet, Rodrigo, Pujol / Anabel Montesinos

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 27, 2011

Multi-award winner Anabel Montesinos returns to the Naxos label with the ‘graceful flexibility’ and ‘flawless technique’ (MusicWeb International) of her earlier acclaimed recital (8.557294). She has since become 1st Prize Winner at the prestigious 2010 Michele Pittaluga Guitar Competition in Alessandria. This programme is emblematic of the ‘Spanish guitar’, ranging from Pujol’s and Rodrigo’s respective Tres piezas españolas which descend from traditional folk styles, to Fernando Sor’s Variations on a Theme of Mozart, a showpiece which turns the guitar into a ‘miniature orchestra’.

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Granados, Falla, Llobet, Rodrigo, Pujol / Anabel Montesinos
Naxos Sep 2011
CD
$19.99

Wolf-Ferrari: Suite veneziana, Divertimento, Arabesken & More / Ovideo Philharmonic

Naxos

$19.99 Aug 12, 2022

Wolf-Ferrari is famous for his operatic works in which he invented a new idiom by transplanting 18th-century Venetian culture into the 20th century. But almost all of the composer’s orchestral music dates from his final years and occupies a different expressive realm. The Suite veneziana resonates with melancholy, and the Triptychon is a contemplative, passionate masterpiece of orchestration. Subtle use of counterpoint transforms the Divertimento into a playful exploration of themes, while Arabesken pays tribute to an old friend, the Venetian painter Ettore Tito (1859–1941). His own elegantly simple melody, known as ‘Tito’s theme’, is turned by Wolf-Ferrari into a sequence of sumptuous orchestral variations culminating in a powerful fugue.

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Wolf-Ferrari: Suite veneziana, Divertimento, Arabesken & More / Ovideo Philharmonic
Naxos Aug 2022
CD
$19.99

Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro, K 492 & La Clemenza Di Tito, K. 492
Orfeo May 1991
CD
$20.99

GUERRERO: MAGNIFICAT LAMENTATIONS & CANCIONES
HYPERION Mar 2021
CD
$18.33

Cage: Works For Piano 7 / Margaret Leng Tan

Mode Records

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

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Cage: Works For Piano 7 / Margaret Leng Tan
Mode Records Mar 2006
DVD
$32.99

Ravel & Falla / Tharaud, Langrée, Orchestre National de France

ERATO

$17.49 Apr 12, 2024

The music of Ravel is especially close to Alexandre Tharaud's heart. Now, in partnership with the Orchestre National de France and conductor Louis Langrée, he has recorded both the composer's piano concertos, pairing them with Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), Manuel de Falla's sumptuous work for piano and orchestra.

"Ravel's Concerto in G major is fresh and Mozartian in it's colours, while his Concerto for the Left Hand is haunted by dark shades and suppressed fears," says Tharaud. Both concertos were premiered in 1932. "Characteristically for Ravel, they are simultaneously unique and alike. They share meticulous craftsmanship and jazzy touches, and both evoke little automata and the ghosts of war." The cross-currents of French and Spanish culture, so evident in Ravel's aesthetic, flow though Falla's concerto-like piece too. The Andalusian composer lived for a time in Paris and became friendly with Ravel. "The solo piano in Noches en los jardines de España plays a different role from the piano in the Ravel concertos," continues Tharaud. "It blends in more closely with the orchestra, though the works share a Romantic spirit and a poignant sense of nostalgia."

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Ravel & Falla / Tharaud, Langrée, Orchestre National de France
ERATO Apr 2024
CD
$17.49

Subissati: Sonate per violino solo e basso continuo

DUX

$29.99 Nov 01, 2024

Joanna Morska-Osinska is a versatile artist, performing music from the Baroque era to jazz. On this two-disc album, she presents very rarely performed, formally original sonatas by Aldebrando Subissati, discovering and creating their sound anew. In the virtuoso interpretations, together with her partner musicians, specialists in the field of early music performance, she reveals to listeners the sophisticated and imaginative face of forgotten compositions of the early Baroque era.

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Subissati: Sonate per violino solo e basso continuo
DUX Nov 2024
CD
$29.99

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1, Sonata Op 28 / De Laroccha

RCA

$17.99 Jun 29, 2012

Alicia de Larrocha's Beethoven is 'central' in the most constructive sense of that term—in other words, moderately paced, warm-hearted, cleanfingered and free of attention-seeking mannerisms. Tilson Thomas reflects her comparatively romantic bias—this isn't quite the superfine Beethoven of his ECO symphony cycle—and has the LSO support her with poise and propriety. The Sonata is equally composed, though here de Larrocha traces some interesting contrapuntal detail (at the beginning of the Andante, for example).

-- Gramophone [12/1993]
reviewing these performances included as part of RCA 61675

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Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1, Sonata Op 28 / De Laroccha
RCA Jun 2012
CD
$17.99

Carlo Ferrari: Sei Sonate per Violoncello e Basso Continuo,
Tactus Jan 2003
CD
$21.99

DIVERTIMENTO K. 563

LAWO Classics

$18.99 May 10, 2019

Ssens Trio (pronounced "Essence") was established in 2014 by three musicians with a wealth of experience in the international music scene. The trio has appeared in concert with Geir Inge Lotsberg, Elvind Ringstad, Havard Gimse and Leif Ove Andsnes, among others. Their first album, "Beethoven: String Trio Op. 3 & Serenade Op. 8" received Pizzicato Magazine's "Supersonic Award" and a prestigious ICMA Awards nomination in 2018. Fanfare Magazine wrote: "With absolutely no hesitation I will say that it goes right to the top of my Beethoven String Trios list." (Jerry Dubins). And the following from a review in Pizzicato Magazine under the heading 'Beethoven With A Communicative Joy of Music Making:' "Their performance is brimming with the joy of playing together. An outstanding 'trialogue,' with each performer fully sensing the other. Through this interactive music-making, which in the Adagio and Minuet movements invokes a remarkably intimate mood, Beethoven's works gain in depth and sensuousness. And when one combines the sensitive playing with a wonderfully eloquent virtuosity, the way is clear for pure listening pleasure." (Alain Steffen)

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DIVERTIMENTO K. 563
LAWO Classics May 2019
CD
$18.99