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Bach, Boccherini, Brouwer, et al.: Musical Landscapes / Cracow Guitar Quartet
DUX · Jul 2022CD$21.99
Divine Hair - Mass In F
Sony Masterworks
CD
$17.99
Aug 24, 2011
May 9, 1971: the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the third anniversary of the Broadway musical Hair in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City.
Twice before the producers and the cast of Hair had been involved in a loud and happy birthday party, both times in New York’s spacious Central Park. The events had been “happenings” for the young – particularly those committed to the Age of Aquarius. Just as easily and just as naturally the third anniversary could have been held in the Park, but Michael Butler, the world producer of Hair, felt otherwise. He wanted a service rather than a concert, and he wanted it in a specifically committed building, and yet he somehow wanted it to be large-hearted and generous with the non-committed. The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine seemed to be not only large enough, but also to have the necessary combination of splendor and “give” to insure a service of the character desired. The Bishop of New York and the Cathedral’s clergy, fully conscious that some of their constituents might quit the Christian religion, decided that this sort of thing was one of the reasons for having a Cathedral and went along happily with the whole idea.
Galt MacDermot’s Mass in F, sung by the choirs of St. Martin’s, Manhattan and St. Mary’s, Staten Island, furnished the music necessary for the Solemn Eucharist, and appropriate selections from Hair, sung by the New York cast and the Cathedral Choir, provided the Introit, Sequence, Offertory and the Response to the Blessing and Dismissal.
This recording conveys everything there is to be said about the vitality of the music and the spontaneous joy of all who were there. The calm splendor of the liturgy, constantly aware of the pulse of the music, provided that vibrant tension which is the essence of the drama of which religion is the mother. Its overtones united young and old, rich and poor and men and women, of every race and creed.
Twice before the producers and the cast of Hair had been involved in a loud and happy birthday party, both times in New York’s spacious Central Park. The events had been “happenings” for the young – particularly those committed to the Age of Aquarius. Just as easily and just as naturally the third anniversary could have been held in the Park, but Michael Butler, the world producer of Hair, felt otherwise. He wanted a service rather than a concert, and he wanted it in a specifically committed building, and yet he somehow wanted it to be large-hearted and generous with the non-committed. The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine seemed to be not only large enough, but also to have the necessary combination of splendor and “give” to insure a service of the character desired. The Bishop of New York and the Cathedral’s clergy, fully conscious that some of their constituents might quit the Christian religion, decided that this sort of thing was one of the reasons for having a Cathedral and went along happily with the whole idea.
Galt MacDermot’s Mass in F, sung by the choirs of St. Martin’s, Manhattan and St. Mary’s, Staten Island, furnished the music necessary for the Solemn Eucharist, and appropriate selections from Hair, sung by the New York cast and the Cathedral Choir, provided the Introit, Sequence, Offertory and the Response to the Blessing and Dismissal.
This recording conveys everything there is to be said about the vitality of the music and the spontaneous joy of all who were there. The calm splendor of the liturgy, constantly aware of the pulse of the music, provided that vibrant tension which is the essence of the drama of which religion is the mother. Its overtones united young and old, rich and poor and men and women, of every race and creed.
SYMPHONY N.9 SYMPHONY NO.38
Helicon Classics
CD
$18.99
Oct 13, 2017
This disc joins two masterpieces of the orchestral repertoire: the last fully classical of Mozart's symphonies (no. 38) and the last symphony by Schubert, the triumph of the romantic sensitivity. Mehta and IPO ravish the listener in both cases, enhancing the specific features of each symphony structure and atmosphere.
RHEA ENCHANTED (SOLO VIOLA)
Nimbus
Book
$20.99
Aug 01, 2017
Augusta read thomas : Rhea enchanted (2016)For solo violaDuration: c. 5 minutesFormat: A4 loose sheetsAlso available for solo violin (NMP1035) and solo cello (NMP1037)Available on CD, NI6355“Although highly notated, precise, carefully structured, soundly proportioned, and while the musician is elegantly working from a nuanced, specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled – on the spot - as if we listeners are overhearing (capturing) an un-notated, deeply musical improvisation.” Augusta Read Thomas
Monteverdi: Vespro Della Beata Vergine / Suzuki, Et Al
BIS
CD
$34.99
Mar 01, 2001
‘Our main purpose for this recording,’ writes Masaaki Suzuki, ‘was to perform all the music contained in the collection that Monteverdi published in 1610.’ So he begins with the Missa In illo tempore, a superb example of old-style, elaborate polyphony; moves through the Vespers themselves, following the original order of the pieces and interpolating nothing; then, after the lavish Magnificat a 7, he ends with the more modest Magnificat a 6, which Monteverdi appended as an alternative.
This straightforward approach seems almost radical given the current glut of more fanciful versions, in which conductors reshuffle the Vespers, pepper them with antiphons and works by other composers and variously ‘adapt’ them to fit specific liturgical occasions. Such diverse interpretations make the choice of a benchmark recording highly subjective. Gardiner (dramatic, on Archiv) and Parrott (intimate and liturgically correct, on Virgin Veritas) offer fine, contrasting views, and several other versions (Christie, Garrido, Junghänel, Pickett) are well worth exploring.
This new set is consistently engaging. Unlike his rivals, Suzuki uses a high pitch of A=465Hz (common in Monteverdi’s Italy), but follows current thinking in transposing certain pieces down a fourth (the Missa, the Magnificats, ‘Lauda Jerusalem’). Performances throughout are expressive, sharply focused, intensely committed. Though he dispenses with liturgical trappings, Suzuki, aided by a spacious ‘churchy’ acoustic, certainly brings out the ritualistic and devotional character of the music, from the ornate orchestral splendour of the ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’ to the tender vocal passions of ‘Pulchra es’ and ‘Duo Seraphim’. Excellent.
-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine
This straightforward approach seems almost radical given the current glut of more fanciful versions, in which conductors reshuffle the Vespers, pepper them with antiphons and works by other composers and variously ‘adapt’ them to fit specific liturgical occasions. Such diverse interpretations make the choice of a benchmark recording highly subjective. Gardiner (dramatic, on Archiv) and Parrott (intimate and liturgically correct, on Virgin Veritas) offer fine, contrasting views, and several other versions (Christie, Garrido, Junghänel, Pickett) are well worth exploring.
This new set is consistently engaging. Unlike his rivals, Suzuki uses a high pitch of A=465Hz (common in Monteverdi’s Italy), but follows current thinking in transposing certain pieces down a fourth (the Missa, the Magnificats, ‘Lauda Jerusalem’). Performances throughout are expressive, sharply focused, intensely committed. Though he dispenses with liturgical trappings, Suzuki, aided by a spacious ‘churchy’ acoustic, certainly brings out the ritualistic and devotional character of the music, from the ornate orchestral splendour of the ‘Sonata sopra Sancta Maria’ to the tender vocal passions of ‘Pulchra es’ and ‘Duo Seraphim’. Excellent.
-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine
CALYPSO DIOLA
DIGGERS FACTORY
Vinyl
$35.76
May 08, 2026
In 2005, Frederic Galliano, founder of the Frikyiwa label, decided to put it on hold for a few years. In his archives, many albums recorded during his years of travels in Africa remain unreleased. In the context of the reactivation of the Frikyiwa label, the album Lionel and Stephane Belmondo feat. Keba Kebe Diolas Orchestra: "Calypso Diola" is therefore being released today. It was in the heart of Casamance, in the village of Bignona, that this album was recorded, in a house typical of the region, built of earth, with thick walls producing a warm acoustic open to the outside world. The idea of Frederic Galliano was to bring together the Belmondo brothers with Diola culture, renowned for it's distinctive percussion combining wood and struck metal, as well as singular instruments such as the ekontine (a four-string guitar) or Diola flutes. The vocal melodies typical of Casamance are also strong markers of this album recorded over a few days, live and in an improvisation inherent to jazz. Often composed as duos, with the exception of "Osoforal," recalling a certain 1960s jazz, the tracks of the album are marked by an artistic direction that presents the Belmondo brothers in a more stripped-down light than usual. Composed of duos or slow tempos, these tracks and their particular recording approach give this album an original colour in which each part expresses it's specificity of improvised jazz and Diola culture. Sometimes tinged with humour (Bach to Casamance or Calypso Diola) or with greater softness (Casa Sport), what is delivered here is a truly original and creative recording. It is also important to place this album in it's context: recorded in 2002, it was at the time quite unprecedented to have this kind of in situ encounter between European and African musicians. It should therefore be listened to in this specific light. It nonetheless remains both contemporary and timeless.
D. Scarlatti: Sonatas
Brilliant Classics
CD
$13.99
Jun 07, 2019
Played by the right hands, the astonishing freshness of invention of Scarlatti’s sonatas emerges with no less brilliance on the piano than his intended harpsichord. So why not the organ, too? In fact, Scarlatti probably intended only three of his 555 surviving keyboard sonatas specifically for an organ. Yet even on the instruments of his own time, in churches and chapels across Europe and especially his native Italy and adopted home of Spain, the palette of colors offered by a well-appointed organ brings these vibrantly colored works to life without any fear of them being obscured by clouds of bass pedal or resonance. Organist Nicola Reniero explains that his selection of 19 sonatas concentrates on particularly intricate or individual examples of polyphony and fugue where the organ’s diversity of register and color may be thought to excel. He does so, however, without neglecting the principle that in Scarlatti’s music almost everything is vocal and theatrical: the introduction is like the curtain that rises; the themes are the characters, and the various sections of the piece are like scenes of a wordless drama. Reniero has chosen to avoid the kind of echo effects which would be a conventional way to introduce contrast between phrases: “I have tried instead to emphasize the originality of the harmonies or the characters of famous themes.” The album closes with the most spectacular of all Scarlatti’s fugues, K417 in D minor. It is a stunning piece not only on account of the frenzied finale and the unexpected change of scene that comes about halfway through the piece, but above all for the boundless energy that pervades it throughout. For this new recording, Reniero plays the organ of the Duomo di Desenzano in the town of Garda, a two-manual instrument first reconstructed by the Serassi Brothers and then restored and partially rebuilt by Marco Fratti in 2014.
Thomas: Dream Catcher for solo violoncello
Nimbus
Sheet Music
$32.99
Feb 03, 2023
Native American tradition attaches special meaning to dreams. One tradition was to hang a 'dream catcher' that would move freely in the night air. The hand-crafted object consists of a web within a ring, with feathers extended from the perimeter of the ring. According to tradition, good dreams know their destination: they slip through the hole in the center of the web and glide gently down the feather into the subconscious of the dreamer. Bad dreams become entangled in the web and dissipate with the light of the dawn. Although highly notated, precise, carefully structured, soundly proportioned, and while musicians are elegantly working from a nuanced, specific text, I like my music to have the feeling that it is organically being self-propelled - on the spot. As if we listeners are overhearing a captured improvisation. My music, which is organic and, at every level, concerned with transformations and connections, should be played so that the inner life of the different rhythmic, timbral and pitch syntaxes are made explicit and are then organically allied to one another with characterized phrasing of rhythm, color, harmony, counterpoint, tempo, keeping it alive - continuously sounding spontaneous. All of this, hopefully, working toward the fundamental goal: to compose a work in which every musical parameter is allied in one holistic gestalt. Dream Catcher for solo cello is dedicated with admiration and gratitude to Anssi Karttunen and is In Memoriam Oliver Knussen.
WITHOUT DIMENSIONS
Double Moon Records
CD
$16.99
Oct 16, 2020
Júlia Karosi writes of her new album: "I always wondered whether music belongs to any of the dimensions as theorized in the "standard model" in modern physics. I summarized my subjective answer as the title of this album. I believe that music's apparent lack of dimensions pertains to it's unique ability to lift us humans into a sphere of existence where we become unaware of time and space. I also believe that these timeless experiences are usually tied to specific events in our lives, - often catching us unawares of their significance - the very moments that make our lives worth living for. I considered some unforgettable moments in my own life with the programmatic titles in my original compositions in this album. Rebirth reflects on the birth of my son followed by Insomnia (obviously), Words and Beyond is a conflict between verbal and non-verbal forms of expression. Madeleine Moment is a musical quote of Marcel Proust's poetic description of involuntary memory in his In Search of Lost Time. In this album I wish to pay a "jazz tribute" to two of the greatest Hungarian composers of the twentieth century, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály with arrangements and jazz transcriptions of their works. I hope they wouldn't mind!"
Flight Of Angels - Guerrero, Lobo / The Sixteen
Coro
CD
$20.99
Feb 02, 2015
The Sixteen take a trip back to 16th-century Spain and more specifically to one of the biggest, richest and most cosmopolitan cities on earth - Seville. It was during this 'golden age', when arts and culture flourished, that Francisco Guerrero and Alonso Lobo made their mark. Between them these two composers captured an astonishing variety of moods within their music, from ecstasy and joy to despair, longing and devotional stillness.
Ravel: Orchestral & Virtuoso Piano / Vincent Larderet
Ars Produktion
SACD
$21.99
Apr 29, 2014
It is Vincent Larderet's passion and artistic goal to achieve such musical and pianistic accuracy through a close reading of the annotations in Perlemuter's own edition of Ravel's works. Larderet focuses on two critical aspects of Ravel's musical language: firstly, the composer's engagement with various traditions of virtuosity and secondly, Ravel's specific ideas regarding orchestration and the orchestral character of his piano style.
Dreamers
Sony Masterworks
CD
$11.98
Sep 21, 2018
These days, when even the term "dreamers" is disputed territory, celebrating beauty is a political act. That is the beating heart of Dreamers, the collaboration between New York-based Mexican singer Magos Herrera and the string quartet Brooklyn Rider. The recording, released on September 21 on Sony Music Masterworks, includes gems of the Ibero-American songbook such as "Volver a los 17," (To Be 17 Again); "Coraçao Vagabundo," (Vagabond Heart); and "Balderrama," as well as pieces written to texts by Octavio Paz, Rubén Darío, and Federico García Lorca - all reimagined by a superb group of arrangers including Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Brooklyn Rider's own Colin Jacobsen. The connecting thread is that the poets and songwriters featured on Dreamers came from places that have endured brutal state violence. Consider Violeta Parra, from Chile; Joao Gilberto, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, from Brazil; Gustavo "Cuchi" Leguizamón, from Argentina and García Lorca, Spain. Poet, essayist and Nobel Prize winner Paz even resigned as Mexico's ambassador to India in 1968 to protest his government's violent repression of student demonstrations. "It is, first of all, an album of incredible songs, beautiful songs," says Herrera. But it's beauty with a purpose. The creators featured here, "were affected in different ways, but what transcends is their work, and their work represents love, " she says. "Love for humanity, love for democracy and the inspiration to dream. It's important to remember that every big change in history happened because someone dared to dream about it. This work is to inspire people to keep dreaming. "In fact, for Colin Jacobsen, the quartet's violinist and resident composer and arranger, Dreamers is a reminder that "beauty can come out of terrible situations. This year the world is celebrating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein and I think he has one of the great quotes: 'This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before'. "Dreamers was produced by Brooklyn Rider's violinist Johnny Gandelsman, whose production credits also include Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble's Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home (2016), and music for the Ken Burns' documentary TV series The Vietnam War. Herrera, who after studying in Los Angeles and Boston settled in New York City in 2008, has proven to be an intrepid jazz singer, and her attitude and skill has led her to intriguing pursuits. In recent years - and these are only some broad brushstrokes - she followed a jazz album of original songs (Distancia, 2009) with a tribute to Mexican composers from the Golden Era of the 1930s and 40s (Mexico Azul, 2011) before pivoting to collaborate with flamenco producer and guitarist Javier Limón (Dawn, 2014). Brooklyn Rider - Johnny Gandelsman, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; and Michael Nicolas, cello - also have made ignoring musical boundaries a defining element of their identity. They served notice with their debut recording Passport (2008), which included arrangements of Armenian folk songs, an arrangement of a song by Mexican rockers Café Tacuba and an original by Jacobsen, and have since continued to expand their repertoire to include music by composers as disparate as Philip Glass, Björk, Vijay Iyer and Elvis Costello. They have also explored collaborations with artists such as banjoist Béla Fleck, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, and Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor. "This is my first experience recording with strings and this is not just a string quartet, this is Brooklyn Rider," says Herrera. "They have been together for years and have their own way of working. For me it was jumping into the unknown. " "Working with Magos was very collaborative," recalled Jacobsen. "We wanted this to be a project where there was really space for Magos's singing but also for our playing, so it wasn't a jazz album where you have strings just as background, but something that is very integrated. " Dreamers includes three texts set to music composed by Herrera, two of them by Octavio Paz: "Niña" (Girl) and "Dreams" - from "Cántaro Roto" (Broken Jug). "It's just a little fragment of one of his most amazing pieces, and it talks about dreaming," says Herrera. "I really wanted to sing this song in it's English version because that's the core of the album. I wanted everybody to understand it. " The third piece, "Tu y Yo,"(You and I) is based on a work by Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío. As for the choice of arrangers and matching them with specific songs, Jacobsen notes that "we wanted to have voices that really knew Magos, the singing tradition and the jazz vocabulary but also really knew string quartet vocabulary. "The title of the recording has many layers, but the main inspiration was obviously the current political scenario, and not only in the United States but around the world. As a Mexican woman artist, I wanted to change the narrative," says Herrera, who is a spokesperson for the United Nations campaign Unite to End Violence Against Women. "There's a narrative criminalizing immigrants and immigration. We wanted to express the dignity and beauty of these cultures. "For all the discussions about borders, walls, and the history and meaning of migration, perhaps there is no stronger argument on Dreamers about the power of music to transcend than Jacobsen's arrangement of "Balderrama. " Here's an Argentine folk song, made popular by singer Mercedes Sosa, that celebrates a peña, a restaurant-bar-cum-meeting-place for poets, writers and musicians in Salta, a province in the Northwest of Argentina. It seemingly couldn't be more of a local ditty - or, as it turns out, more universal. And Jacobsen also hears something else that speaks to the spirit of Dreamers. He first heard the song as part of the soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh´s Che, a biopic of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Ché" Guevara. "He uses it very poignantly as the closing theme. I heard it and it just touched a chord in me. I fell in love with it. So when I first spoke with Magos about this project and she mentioned "Balderrama" I said 'yes' immediately," he recalls. "I told her we needed to do this project just because that one song is so beautiful - and also because I really wanted to arrange it. " But, he soberly notes, "Encoded in that song there is something pertinent to the whole project. Here is a celebration of Balderrama, a place where musicians and poets come together and a fire burns through the night for beauty, and the song asks 'where would we go if Balderrama goes out?' which is to say, if that place wasn't there, if that creative fire dies, then all would fall apart. I feel like that's a beautiful image for the whole project.
BEYOND (17TH CENTURY ARIAS)
ERATO
Vinyl
$32.99
Apr 26, 2024
New collaboration between Jakub Jozef Orlinski and Il Pomo d'Oro. Jakub's sixth project features music by early baroque composers, including Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Saracini, Netti, and Jarzebski. Musicologist Yannis Francois researched the program and uncovered some extraordinary repertoire, now recorded for the first time (10 world premiere recordings). "With that album and this very specifically selected program I want to focus on the general meaning of word "beyond". Mostly to show people that this music is beyond it's times. It is still relevant, it is still alive, vibrant, touching, engaging and entertaining." - Jakub Jozef Orlinski.
STANDARDS FROM FILM
CRISS CROSS
Vinyl
$52.99
Sep 29, 2023
Like a well - wrought character in a Hollywood movie, Standards From Film, guitarist Mike Moreno's fourth Criss Cross album, exists atop a solid, cogent back story. Recorded in December 2021, when the world and New York City - Houston-born Moreno's home for more than two decades - were no longer on COVID lockdown, it documents the leader's exhaustive investigations into the provenance of ten iconic standards that, as he puts it, "are the summer jazz workshop tunes" - they say you have to learn these songs if you want to be a jazz musician. You learn them very young or in the beginning days of your journey into this music. The album was recorded December 22, 2021 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in NY. Recording engineer Mike Marciano also did the editing, mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NY. Vinyl remastering has also been done by Mike Marciano at Systems Two In NY. The album originally has been released on CD October 22, 2022 (Criss Cross 1410 CD)
I Will Bring You Home: Songs of Prayer, Stories of Faith / Haas
GIA
CD
$18.99
Jun 15, 2018
Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics International, Washington, DC writes: ‘I Will Bring You Home’ is a selection of 17 songs from David Haas’s book of the same name. David has been putting music on the lips of the people of God for over four decades, and this companion recording highlights some of his most beloved songs and hymns from throughout his prestigious career as a liturgical composer. It also includes two newly composed songs that David wrote specifically for this collection, “I Will Walk with You,” and “What Can I Leave Behind.” “We are called,” as David wrote, “to love tenderly.” But sometimes, we need to sing it to feel it and feel it to live it. No one helps us along that path of love better than David Haas. His work invites us to sing, feel, and live a life of love. No follower of the gospel could hope for more, and these stories help begin to tell us why.
Tranquility: Music for Relaxation
ARC Music
CD
$13.99
Oct 26, 2018
This release is an album of blissful relaxation music specifically curated for meditation, yoga, and stress relief in a busy lifestyle. Award-winning artists are included, such as Jason Carter who “builds relationships across borders,” (British Council, Iran), Gary Stroutsos, who performed at the White House upon invitation from President Bill Clinton, and Baluji Shrivastav, who holds the honor of OBE, awarded by the Prince of Wales. Crossing oceans and cultures, the music on this release comes from all over the globe including traditional music from Nepal, Russia, Egypt, Native America, India and the United Kingdom.
Foerster: Symphony No. 2; Cyrano de Bergerac
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Dec 05, 2025
Josef Bohuslav Foerster was a pivotal figure in Czech musical history and a lifelong friend of fellow German-speaking Bohemian, Gustav Mahler. Foerster's Symphony No. 2, dedicated to the memory of his sister, Marie, achieves a satisfying unity, with it's sombre qualities eloquently transformed into a fervent apotheosis. Cyrano de Bergerac was Foerster's most successful orchestral piece and is a perfect example of his late-Romantic finesse. Conceived as an autonomous work not intended as incidental music, it's 'five symphonic images' each relates to a specific place in the drama.
Dowland: Complete Lachrimae / Musicall Humors Viol Consort
Alpha
CD
$20.99
Apr 14, 2023
‘London, April 1604. With the freshly printed partbooks of his Lachrimae under his arm, John Dowland walks from the printing house to his home in Fetter Lane. He should have been back in Denmark long ago, but for the moment all his thoughts are on the new publication he is carrying, his latest and most ambitious work to date: a complete cycle of instrumental music, twenty-one dances, honourably dedicated to Anne of Denmark, Queen of England.’ For Dowland has just completed one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance music. He had left England to enter the service of the Danish court, disappointed at not being appointed court composer to Elizabeth I, but he seems to have made the best of all his setbacks to compose this magnificent collection of purely instrumental works, much of it bathed in the melancholy typical of late sixteenth-century England.
Musicall Humors – a collective of the finest gambists of their generation – performs the complete set of pavans, galliards and ‘almands’, grouped into suites, each with its own character. A character inspired by the music, but reinforced here by the changing composition of the consort and the players taking turns to perform the ‘top line’, so that each musician’s personal playing style gives each piece a specific colour.
REVIEWS:
Dunford immerses the five-person gamba ensemble led by Julien Léonard and Lucile Boulanger in a rich and often extremely fragile-seeming web of voices and moods with a composure and sovereignty that moves and inspires. Everything breathes in the most wonderfully sonorous interplay, nothing groaning excessively. And when they dance, they maintain their posture and dignity like a dream.
-- ConcertoNet
We are faced with an absolutely referential recording, of intense and unprecedented beauty. Musicall Humors offers us the complete collection, but in a sequence of pavans followed by galliards, which refreshes our ears with the contrast, compared to the usual arrangement.
-- Scherzo
Nielsen: Cantatas / Holten, Knudsen, Andersen, Hedergaard
Dacapo Classical
CD
$13.99
Jan 26, 2010
What amazed me the most about these works, particularly the last two, which are pretty good and original music, is the fact that in each case Nielsen was forced to work on a short deadline, barely more than two or three weeks.
3352380.az_NIELSEN_BANGERT_Cantata_Opening.html
NIELSEN-BANGERT Cantata for the Opening Ceremony of the National Exhibition in Aarhus NIELSEN Music for Hans Hartvig Seedorf Pedersen’s Homage to Holberg. Helge Rode’s Prologue to Shakespeare: Ariel’s Song. 1 Cantata for the Annual University Commemoration • Bo Holten, cond; Ditte Højgaard Andersen (sop); Mathias Hedergaard (ten); 1 Palle Knudsen (bar); Jens Albinus (nar); Aarhus Cathedral Ch; Danish Natl Op Ch; Aarhus SO • DACAPO 8.226079 (65:52 Text and Translation)
Cantatas by Carl Nielsen? Yes! Surprised? So was I, and I’m sure you’ll be too. One reason they aren’t known is that they were composed for specific celebratory functions whose initial presentation was interrupted by speeches, cheering, polka bands, more speeches, and lots of drinking. Not exactly an atmosphere conducive to great art. Add to that the fact that Nielsen didn’t want to compose some of them, had to work with an over-verbose librettist in one (and assigned half the composition duties to one of his pupils, Emilius Bangert), and carried on a running argument with the committee that commissioned it over the libretto of another, and you can well imagine that these aren’t among the composer’s best works.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’re bad pageant music—certainly not as bad as Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory, which the composer practically laughed at until it turned out to be a really popular money-maker—but the music is only occasionally interesting because the texts are only occasionally interesting. In the first cantata, the Nielsen-Bangert collaboration written in 1909, the most interesting piece by far is No. 4, the one that the two composers split pretty much down the middle (Nielsen wrote the first 117 bars, Bangert the rest). Bangert’s other contributions, Nos. 2, 3, and 7, are by no means “bad” music—the older composer supervised his pupil’s compositions and possibly made suggestions—but they lack character and originality. It’s the age-old battle between craft and art.
The second cantata on this album is in fact the last one composed, in 1923. This is mature Nielsen, and since he had a strong affinity for Holberg anyway, having set his text for the opera Maskerade to music almost 20 years earlier, his heart was really in it. The beginning is not promising—it starts with a pompous brass fanfare in the same vein, and even the same key, that ended the last piece of the previous cantata—but it soon develops into interesting music. Nielsen himself said, “It is … a shame that this music is only for this particular occasion, but it is constructed in such a fashion that it can be performed repeatedly and in other circumstances [emphasis mine].” The first movement features a quartet of Muses; here, soprano Andersen is joined by soprano Eline Denice Risager and mezzos Birgitte Mosegaard Pedersen and Bolette Bruno Hansen. The second soprano and mezzo are not terribly good, but they get by. The second movement features a baritone solo; the third is purely choral.
This is followed by one excerpt, a tenor solo, from a cantata celebrating the tercentennial of Shakespeare’s death (1916). It is so isolated because it was published and performed separately after the event, primarily by Danish tenor Anders Brems. It’s a very nice piece that, unfortunately, is sung by Hedergaard with unsteady tone.
The Cantata for the Annual University Commemoration , written in 1908, is the only one of Nielsen’s cantatas written for a recurring occasion. It is one of the most thoughtfully composed, and most cantata-like in alternating sung recitatives accompanied by piano with full choral-orchestral passages. Again, ignoring the text, this is music that could be performed to other texts for other occasions. There is an unusual touch of harmonic darkness to the music of the second number, where Nielsen also cleverly integrated the piano used in the recitative into the orchestral fabric; during the second recitative, the piano’s role expands into almost song-cycle-like accompaniment. This is a truly inspired bit of writing. Toward the end of the movement, the piano’s role changes again, accompanying four horns in concerto fashion before the chorus returns, then remaining as a prominent instrument along with the full strings. A slow tempo, muted violins, and ostinato bass create a mysterious mood in No. 3.
What amazed me the most about these works, particularly the last two, which are pretty good and original music, is the fact that in each case Nielsen was forced to work on a short deadline, barely more than two or three weeks. His lack of interest in the Aarhus cantata undoubtedly led to his creating the shallowest music. As to the performances, they are absolutely first-rate except for the aforementioned unsteadiness of tenor Hedergaard and two of the lady Muses. Andersen has a very light-toned, pretty Bach-Mozart-type soprano voice. Although baritone Knudsen also shows some signs of unsteadiness, he is generally very good. Diction is crystal-clear. Both the Aarhus Choir and Orchestra and the Danish National Opera Chorus are rock-solid, transparent in texture, and firmly committed to giving the best performances they can. Conductor Holten walks a fine line between creating excitement commensurate to the occasions in question and delivering excellent, well-contoured performances, and he succeeds handsomely in this task. And, happily, the sonics are crystal-clear, no muddiness of sound. If you can ignore the bombast of the first cantata, then, this is a worthy addition to your Nielsen collection.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
NIELSEN-BANGERT Cantata for the Opening Ceremony of the National Exhibition in Aarhus NIELSEN Music for Hans Hartvig Seedorf Pedersen’s Homage to Holberg. Helge Rode’s Prologue to Shakespeare: Ariel’s Song. 1 Cantata for the Annual University Commemoration • Bo Holten, cond; Ditte Højgaard Andersen (sop); Mathias Hedergaard (ten); 1 Palle Knudsen (bar); Jens Albinus (nar); Aarhus Cathedral Ch; Danish Natl Op Ch; Aarhus SO • DACAPO 8.226079 (65:52 Text and Translation)
Cantatas by Carl Nielsen? Yes! Surprised? So was I, and I’m sure you’ll be too. One reason they aren’t known is that they were composed for specific celebratory functions whose initial presentation was interrupted by speeches, cheering, polka bands, more speeches, and lots of drinking. Not exactly an atmosphere conducive to great art. Add to that the fact that Nielsen didn’t want to compose some of them, had to work with an over-verbose librettist in one (and assigned half the composition duties to one of his pupils, Emilius Bangert), and carried on a running argument with the committee that commissioned it over the libretto of another, and you can well imagine that these aren’t among the composer’s best works.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’re bad pageant music—certainly not as bad as Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory, which the composer practically laughed at until it turned out to be a really popular money-maker—but the music is only occasionally interesting because the texts are only occasionally interesting. In the first cantata, the Nielsen-Bangert collaboration written in 1909, the most interesting piece by far is No. 4, the one that the two composers split pretty much down the middle (Nielsen wrote the first 117 bars, Bangert the rest). Bangert’s other contributions, Nos. 2, 3, and 7, are by no means “bad” music—the older composer supervised his pupil’s compositions and possibly made suggestions—but they lack character and originality. It’s the age-old battle between craft and art.
The second cantata on this album is in fact the last one composed, in 1923. This is mature Nielsen, and since he had a strong affinity for Holberg anyway, having set his text for the opera Maskerade to music almost 20 years earlier, his heart was really in it. The beginning is not promising—it starts with a pompous brass fanfare in the same vein, and even the same key, that ended the last piece of the previous cantata—but it soon develops into interesting music. Nielsen himself said, “It is … a shame that this music is only for this particular occasion, but it is constructed in such a fashion that it can be performed repeatedly and in other circumstances [emphasis mine].” The first movement features a quartet of Muses; here, soprano Andersen is joined by soprano Eline Denice Risager and mezzos Birgitte Mosegaard Pedersen and Bolette Bruno Hansen. The second soprano and mezzo are not terribly good, but they get by. The second movement features a baritone solo; the third is purely choral.
This is followed by one excerpt, a tenor solo, from a cantata celebrating the tercentennial of Shakespeare’s death (1916). It is so isolated because it was published and performed separately after the event, primarily by Danish tenor Anders Brems. It’s a very nice piece that, unfortunately, is sung by Hedergaard with unsteady tone.
The Cantata for the Annual University Commemoration , written in 1908, is the only one of Nielsen’s cantatas written for a recurring occasion. It is one of the most thoughtfully composed, and most cantata-like in alternating sung recitatives accompanied by piano with full choral-orchestral passages. Again, ignoring the text, this is music that could be performed to other texts for other occasions. There is an unusual touch of harmonic darkness to the music of the second number, where Nielsen also cleverly integrated the piano used in the recitative into the orchestral fabric; during the second recitative, the piano’s role expands into almost song-cycle-like accompaniment. This is a truly inspired bit of writing. Toward the end of the movement, the piano’s role changes again, accompanying four horns in concerto fashion before the chorus returns, then remaining as a prominent instrument along with the full strings. A slow tempo, muted violins, and ostinato bass create a mysterious mood in No. 3.
What amazed me the most about these works, particularly the last two, which are pretty good and original music, is the fact that in each case Nielsen was forced to work on a short deadline, barely more than two or three weeks. His lack of interest in the Aarhus cantata undoubtedly led to his creating the shallowest music. As to the performances, they are absolutely first-rate except for the aforementioned unsteadiness of tenor Hedergaard and two of the lady Muses. Andersen has a very light-toned, pretty Bach-Mozart-type soprano voice. Although baritone Knudsen also shows some signs of unsteadiness, he is generally very good. Diction is crystal-clear. Both the Aarhus Choir and Orchestra and the Danish National Opera Chorus are rock-solid, transparent in texture, and firmly committed to giving the best performances they can. Conductor Holten walks a fine line between creating excitement commensurate to the occasions in question and delivering excellent, well-contoured performances, and he succeeds handsomely in this task. And, happily, the sonics are crystal-clear, no muddiness of sound. If you can ignore the bombast of the first cantata, then, this is a worthy addition to your Nielsen collection.
FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley
Black Mountain
Berlin Classics
Vinyl
$24.99
Oct 02, 2026
Black Mountain features original compositions by Alexej Gerassimez and Gordon Hamilton, who also conducts this recording with the NDR Radiophilharmonie. The program explores the dynamic interplay between orchestral sound and percussion, with a highlight being the work Leviathan by John Psathas-a powerful composition for percussion and orchestra, written specifically for Alexej Gerassimez.
De Profundis, Miserere, Requiem / Backhouse, Vasari Singers
Naxos
CD
$9.99
$19.99
Save 50%
Nov 11, 2014
I’m sorry to say it but these days my heart usually sinks when I receive a disc that includes Allegri’s Miserere. I’m sure it’s an irrational and unfair prejudice on my part but I find the piece repetitive and it’s definitely over-exposed on CD. However, there are two reasons for making an exception here and welcoming its inclusion on this new disc by the Vasari Singers. The first is that it’s very well sung. The second is that’s it’s an integral part of an especially well thought-out programme.
This is a programme of connections, one of which is the commissioning, by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, of a setting of the Miserere by James MacMillan specifically to complement the Allegri setting. MacMillan succeeds brilliantly in fulfilling the request for his piece to be complementary and it’s very good to hear the two settings side by side, as here. Allegri uses three different choral strands in his setting: the full choir, plainchant verses sung by one or more male voices, and a distant semi-chorus. Some recent recordings I’ve heard opt to have the chanted passages sung by a lone male cantor and that works very well, providing extra contrast. Jeremy Backhouse adopts the more usual approach and has a group of men singing these verses: they do so with impressive unanimity. The semi-chorus is ideally distanced and very impressive they are. The top soprano ornaments some of the phrases. She does so tastefully and these decorations add variety. This is a very successful performance.
James MacMillan didn’t seek to replicate Allegri’s three-strand approach – wisely, I think; that would have risked pastiche. However, he does vary his choral textures most resourcefully during the setting. His piece is expertly imagined for the voices and the music is very responsive to the sentiments expressed in the text. I like very much the way that several times MacMillan writes passages that remind us of Allegri’s setting – yet he writes these sections without compromising his own compositional voice. This is a fine homage to the earlier setting and the Vasari Singers do it very well indeed.
The Allegri and MacMillan pieces are linked, albeit across the centuries. There’s a link also – and one that is much closer in time – between the pieces by Pizzetti and Malipiero that open the programme. They had been good friends but had fallen out – the fault lay with Pizzetti, it seems. In 1937 they patched up their quarrel and, as a gesture of reconciliation, they agreed both of them would write a setting of the De Profundis, each dedicating his piece to the other. Malipiero composed his eloquent setting for a solo baritone accompanied by viola and piano. In this performance an organ is used instead of a piano and, quite honestly, I find it hard to imagine that a piano would be preferable, given the nature of the music and the organ’s sustaining power. Here the baritone is Matthew Wood, a member of the Vasari Singers. He’s very impressive; his voice is well-focused and pleasing in tone and his diction is admirably clear. I enjoyed listening to him very much and the husky tone of Jon Thorne’s viola makes a very attractive addition to the texture. The other interesting feature of the accompaniment is an optional part for bass drum. It’s a very discreet part but Daniel Burges, a member of the choir, gauges the part perfectly so that it adds an unexpected colouring to the piece without intruding.
Pizzetti’s setting, for which he uses a shorter and somewhat different version of the text, is for seven-part unaccompanied choir. It’s very beautiful and Jeremy Backhouse and his singers do it full justice. We should divert for a moment from Pizzetti’s music to consider the small piece by Puccini, which I don’t recall hearing before. It was composed in 1905 to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Verdi. It’s for chorus accompanied by viola and organ. The viola adds a plangent tone to the texture, which is most effective. It’s a short and largely unassuming piece and, in a programme of links, it merits its place because the second time the piece was heard was at a 1924 memorial service for Puccini at which Pizzetti delivered the eulogy.
It’s Pizzetti who provides the most substantial work on this disc in the shape of his 1922 Requiem for unaccompanied choir. This very beautiful piece is something of a rarity in performance though it’s been recorded at least once before. That recording is a superb Hyperion version by the Choir of Westminster Cathedral and James O’Donnell, made as long ago as 1997 (CDA67017). I don’t see that Hyperion disc as a competitor to this new Naxos recording; rather, the two CDs are complementary. One reason is that the programmes differ: The Westminster Choir, who also include Pizzetti’s De Profundis, offer music by Frank Martin as the remainder of their programme. The other, more important factor is that the two choirs offer very different – and equally valid – listening experiences. The Westminster choir is all-male with trebles on the top-line and they’re recorded in the spacious acoustic of Westminster Cathedral. So by listening to them and to the Vasari Singers we can get two nicely contrasting views of Pizzetti’s eloquent Requiem.
There is a pronounced flavour of plainchant in the music and that’s evident right from the start of the Introit. From the basses’ chant-like opening phrases the music soon flowers into lovely polyphony, which is beautifully sung here, the sopranos radiant. There’s a full setting of the Dies Irae and the tone of a lot of the music may come as a surprise. The opening, which is again chant-inspired, is very subdued, basses and altos singing the text while the tenors and sopranos float wordless melismas over the melody. These melismatic phrases recur several times during this movement, which is by some distance the longest in the work. There are several impassioned outbursts when the words justify such treatment but the prevailing mood is that of a prayer for forgiveness. The concluding lines, ‘Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Amen’, are set to the most gentle music imaginable. This deeply affecting though brief passage is tenderly sung.
Pizzetti divides his choir into three four-part groups - one female, two male - for the Sanctus. This is memorable, the complex textures creating a ‘buzz’ of sound. The ‘Hosannas’ are ecstatic. The music for the Agnus Dei is texturally much simpler; it’s a gently prayerful setting which the Vasaris sing with great sensitivity. Unlike, say, Fauré or Duruflé, Pizzetti chooses to end not with a setting of In Paradisum but with Libera me. This predominantly dark text is marked to be sung ‘with profound fervour’. This is troubled, unsettled music though there is a serenely beautiful passage at the words ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.’ The very end of the work sets words about God judging the world by fire; a far cry, indeed, from the vision of the angels leading the departed soul into Paradise with which a number of Requiems conclude.
Pizzetti’s Requiem is a work of great beauty and sincerity and it deserves to be far better known than it is. This sensitive and expertly sung performance by the Vasari Singers can only help its cause.
Over the years I’ve heard quite a number of recordings by this choir and I’ve been consistently impressed. However, I fancy this disc may be just about the best thing they’ve ever done. A thoughtfully conceived and interesting programme has been flawlessly executed. The singing not only gives consistent pleasure but also prompts admiration. The recording has been produced by Adrian Peacock and engineered by Will Brown; they have achieved excellent results. Finally, Brenda Moore’s notes are very good indeed. I hope it will not be long before the next Vasari Singers disc and in the meantime I urge you to try this one, especially if you don’t know the Pizzetti Requiem – or even if you do.
– John Quinn, MusicWeb International
This is a programme of connections, one of which is the commissioning, by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, of a setting of the Miserere by James MacMillan specifically to complement the Allegri setting. MacMillan succeeds brilliantly in fulfilling the request for his piece to be complementary and it’s very good to hear the two settings side by side, as here. Allegri uses three different choral strands in his setting: the full choir, plainchant verses sung by one or more male voices, and a distant semi-chorus. Some recent recordings I’ve heard opt to have the chanted passages sung by a lone male cantor and that works very well, providing extra contrast. Jeremy Backhouse adopts the more usual approach and has a group of men singing these verses: they do so with impressive unanimity. The semi-chorus is ideally distanced and very impressive they are. The top soprano ornaments some of the phrases. She does so tastefully and these decorations add variety. This is a very successful performance.
James MacMillan didn’t seek to replicate Allegri’s three-strand approach – wisely, I think; that would have risked pastiche. However, he does vary his choral textures most resourcefully during the setting. His piece is expertly imagined for the voices and the music is very responsive to the sentiments expressed in the text. I like very much the way that several times MacMillan writes passages that remind us of Allegri’s setting – yet he writes these sections without compromising his own compositional voice. This is a fine homage to the earlier setting and the Vasari Singers do it very well indeed.
The Allegri and MacMillan pieces are linked, albeit across the centuries. There’s a link also – and one that is much closer in time – between the pieces by Pizzetti and Malipiero that open the programme. They had been good friends but had fallen out – the fault lay with Pizzetti, it seems. In 1937 they patched up their quarrel and, as a gesture of reconciliation, they agreed both of them would write a setting of the De Profundis, each dedicating his piece to the other. Malipiero composed his eloquent setting for a solo baritone accompanied by viola and piano. In this performance an organ is used instead of a piano and, quite honestly, I find it hard to imagine that a piano would be preferable, given the nature of the music and the organ’s sustaining power. Here the baritone is Matthew Wood, a member of the Vasari Singers. He’s very impressive; his voice is well-focused and pleasing in tone and his diction is admirably clear. I enjoyed listening to him very much and the husky tone of Jon Thorne’s viola makes a very attractive addition to the texture. The other interesting feature of the accompaniment is an optional part for bass drum. It’s a very discreet part but Daniel Burges, a member of the choir, gauges the part perfectly so that it adds an unexpected colouring to the piece without intruding.
Pizzetti’s setting, for which he uses a shorter and somewhat different version of the text, is for seven-part unaccompanied choir. It’s very beautiful and Jeremy Backhouse and his singers do it full justice. We should divert for a moment from Pizzetti’s music to consider the small piece by Puccini, which I don’t recall hearing before. It was composed in 1905 to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Verdi. It’s for chorus accompanied by viola and organ. The viola adds a plangent tone to the texture, which is most effective. It’s a short and largely unassuming piece and, in a programme of links, it merits its place because the second time the piece was heard was at a 1924 memorial service for Puccini at which Pizzetti delivered the eulogy.
It’s Pizzetti who provides the most substantial work on this disc in the shape of his 1922 Requiem for unaccompanied choir. This very beautiful piece is something of a rarity in performance though it’s been recorded at least once before. That recording is a superb Hyperion version by the Choir of Westminster Cathedral and James O’Donnell, made as long ago as 1997 (CDA67017). I don’t see that Hyperion disc as a competitor to this new Naxos recording; rather, the two CDs are complementary. One reason is that the programmes differ: The Westminster Choir, who also include Pizzetti’s De Profundis, offer music by Frank Martin as the remainder of their programme. The other, more important factor is that the two choirs offer very different – and equally valid – listening experiences. The Westminster choir is all-male with trebles on the top-line and they’re recorded in the spacious acoustic of Westminster Cathedral. So by listening to them and to the Vasari Singers we can get two nicely contrasting views of Pizzetti’s eloquent Requiem.
There is a pronounced flavour of plainchant in the music and that’s evident right from the start of the Introit. From the basses’ chant-like opening phrases the music soon flowers into lovely polyphony, which is beautifully sung here, the sopranos radiant. There’s a full setting of the Dies Irae and the tone of a lot of the music may come as a surprise. The opening, which is again chant-inspired, is very subdued, basses and altos singing the text while the tenors and sopranos float wordless melismas over the melody. These melismatic phrases recur several times during this movement, which is by some distance the longest in the work. There are several impassioned outbursts when the words justify such treatment but the prevailing mood is that of a prayer for forgiveness. The concluding lines, ‘Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Amen’, are set to the most gentle music imaginable. This deeply affecting though brief passage is tenderly sung.
Pizzetti divides his choir into three four-part groups - one female, two male - for the Sanctus. This is memorable, the complex textures creating a ‘buzz’ of sound. The ‘Hosannas’ are ecstatic. The music for the Agnus Dei is texturally much simpler; it’s a gently prayerful setting which the Vasaris sing with great sensitivity. Unlike, say, Fauré or Duruflé, Pizzetti chooses to end not with a setting of In Paradisum but with Libera me. This predominantly dark text is marked to be sung ‘with profound fervour’. This is troubled, unsettled music though there is a serenely beautiful passage at the words ‘Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.’ The very end of the work sets words about God judging the world by fire; a far cry, indeed, from the vision of the angels leading the departed soul into Paradise with which a number of Requiems conclude.
Pizzetti’s Requiem is a work of great beauty and sincerity and it deserves to be far better known than it is. This sensitive and expertly sung performance by the Vasari Singers can only help its cause.
Over the years I’ve heard quite a number of recordings by this choir and I’ve been consistently impressed. However, I fancy this disc may be just about the best thing they’ve ever done. A thoughtfully conceived and interesting programme has been flawlessly executed. The singing not only gives consistent pleasure but also prompts admiration. The recording has been produced by Adrian Peacock and engineered by Will Brown; they have achieved excellent results. Finally, Brenda Moore’s notes are very good indeed. I hope it will not be long before the next Vasari Singers disc and in the meantime I urge you to try this one, especially if you don’t know the Pizzetti Requiem – or even if you do.
– John Quinn, MusicWeb International
Handel: Acis & Galatea / Dunedin Consort
Linn Records
CD
$29.99
Feb 23, 2018
Expectations for Dunedin Consort’s recording of Acis & Galatea were high; its release in 2008 followed on from its hugely successful recording of Handel’s Messiah. The combination of Messiah’s award-winning cast and director John Butt’s insights into authentic performance practice ensured it was met with numerous recommendations and outstanding reviews. Acis & Galatea is a beautiful pastoral entertainment; Handel’s first dramatic work in English is a simple yet highly emotional story that encompasses the extremes of love and tragedy. There are notable differences in the original performing version from 1718, including changes in instrumentation and vocal scoring (there is no alto line) made by Handel to suit the forces at Cannons. Butt chose this version specifically because of the small forces involved, since this was one of the aspects that made Messiah so distinctive; although there have been ‘first versions’ of Acis recorded before, Butt felt that there were certain aspects of the original version that had not yet been sufficiently realized.
UNCLASSIFIED AFFECTIONS
PI RECORDINGS
Vinyl
$36.99
Jul 25, 2025
Unclassified Affections is the entrancing new release from drummer and composer Dan Weiss that features the convergence of some of the most intriguing musicians on the scene: Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Miles Okazaki on guitar. The new compositions, which were written by Weiss specifically for these musicians, range from deep, meditative moments to intense, high-energy peaks, while every track unveils a new layer of exploration. Brennan's sonorous mallet work contrasts with Evans' sharp, inventive trumpet lines, while Okazaki's guitar weaves intricate webs of harmony and dissonance, all underpinned by Weiss' hypnotic rhythms. The Layers of rhythmic and contrapuntal interaction flow effortlessly, framed by a ghostly silence, with plenty of room given to improvisation. Together, they weave a profound, mysterious spell that is shrouded with concealed meaning. It's another transcendent project from a truly unclassifiable artist. MUSICIANS Peter Evans - Trumpet Patricia Brennan - Vibraphone Miles Okazaki - Guitar Dan Weiss - Drums
Bach, Boccherini, Brouwer, et al.: Musical Landscapes / Cracow Guitar Quartet
DUX
CD
$21.99
Jul 15, 2022
The album Musical Landscapes contains a carefully thought over and set together group of eight compositions. The latter are formative of a specific music journey that spreads out from north to south and from west to east. This journey integrates diversity and beauty of art experience: from musical subtleties through grandeur of sounds, up to Spanish guitar temperament, from raindrops to storms with hailstones, from corta figure to sonorism. The selected compositions are, on one part, the most prominent works of world music in new arrangements and, on the other, the rarely performed pieces that were originally composed for the four-guitar ensemble. The presented transcriptions, full of the four musicians’ creative solutions and conceptions make up a new repertoire characteristic of fairly individual and authorial traits. The keynote of the project is the landscape conceived of in variety of manners.
