Music is the key

Admired for his ability to manipulate tone color, Claude Debussy’s opera Pelleas et Melisande is regarded as a special masterpiece, even if it is a solitary one. Debussy was not known for opera. While Pelleas et Melisande was his only successful opera during his lifetime, it was not the only opera he composed. He made plans for future operatic projects, and he dedicated himself to two projects based on texts by Edgar Allen Poe. As the final years of his life were plagued by poor health, Debussy worked on “La Chute de la maison Usher” (The Fall of the House of Usher) until just before his death. The composer was distraught at the thought of leaving the work unfinished. He also was working on “Le Diable dans le Beffroi” (The Devil in the Belfry), but this work only survived in sketch form. English musicologist Robert Orledge, who is renowned for his expertise in early twentieth century French music, reconstructed both of these works with immense sensitivity ...

Through these selected masterpieces of the repertoire for solo cello, Emmanuelle Bertrand invites us on a journey to the heart of languages of popular inspiration. When music takes over the idioms characteristic of each culture, pushing back the limits of instrumental technique, reshaping and dismantling the rules the better to express a specific identity, then the cello truly ‘speaks’ and takes us beyond frontiers, where the souls of a people take root. This title was released for the first time in 2000/11.

The shadow of death hovers over Debussy’s Violin Sonata though you would never guess from its generally genial disposition: in 1915, with his creative urges stifled by the slaughter of the Great War (he wrote barely anything during 1914), Debussy discovered that he had cancer of the rectum, his mother died on 23 March, and his mother-in-law six days later. In the summer of 1915 he and his wife rented a house at Pourville on the Normandy coast and he began to compose again. ‘I want to work,’ he wrote to his publisher Durand, ‘not so much for myself, as to provide a proof, however small, that thirty million Boches can’t destroy French thought...’ Among the works produced in this creative outburst were the Sonatas for cello and piano and for flute, viola and harp. These were the first of a planned Six sonates pour instruments divers, par Claude Debussy – musicien français (as he now signed himself). The Sonata for violin and piano to which he turned in 1916 was to be the...

The young clarinetist Annelien Van Wauwe earned victory at the prestigious 61st Int’l ARD Music Competition in Munich 2012. On her debut GENUIN CD , recorded with pianist and fellow Belgian Lucas Blondeel, the duo features a three-piece program of Prokofiev and Weinberg. Highlighted by Prokofiev’s Op. 94 Sonata, the release is united in part by the Jewish themes and legacies apparent in the latter two of the works on this disc. Miss Van Wauwe is a regular festival invitee where she appears as both soloist and chamber musician, and has appeared as a soloist in prestigious halls throughout Europe.

The five most brilliant concertos for violin, all penned before the age of 19! Mozart was not even 15 years old when he began composing violin concertos that would serve as a backdrop at Salzburg receptions. An insatiable drive for independence would however lead the young Konzertmeister to overtly challenge musical forms, innovate with genres, humour and frivolity, all of which can be heard in this delightful first collaboration between Isabelle Faust and the musicians of Il Giardino Armonico. “These wonderful performances have the air of chamber music, of close listening between soloist, band and director. Faust isn’t spotlit…but seems part of the ensemble, her sound growing out of the corporate entity to glitter, coax, snarl and soar as required…[a] thought-provoking and eminently enjoyable cycle” (Gramophone) “ Faust and Il Giardino Armonico bring out the shades of colour in the music and revelling in the characteristic phrases, but never forcing the issue...

Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide. They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Lionel Bringuier, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, ...

With Molière à l’opéra Jérôme Correas and Les Paladins bring their much-admired combination of Baroque musical stylishness and use of the technique of “parlé-chanté”, adding colour and contrast to the sung text, to comédies-ballets composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marc-Antoine Charpentier during the reign of Louis XIV. The musical and theatrical partnership involving Lully and Molière – they were dubbed “les deux Baptiste” – was one of the most invigorating ever entered into, marrying melody, words, acting and a shared hunger for fame. The collaboration spanned ten works over a decade from 1661. Although Molière never provided the words for a Lully “opera”, the great dramatist clearly inspired the composer who was ten years his junior, in his later tragédies lyriques, a view upheld by the essayist for this recording, Elizabeth Giuliani.  As well as presenting scenes from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, this new Glossa recording draws on the humorous end of the Molière/Lully partn...

Hewitt's remake for Hyperion deploys her personal Fazioli concert grand. The instrument's hair-trigger response to note attacks and release yields complex hues that contrast with the rounder, relatively uniform sonorities of the beautiful Steinway featured on Hewitt's 1999 recording (4/00). More importantly, the pianist's enviable polyphonic acumen and dance-orientated conception continue to operate at full capacity, albeit on a deeper and subtler level, as comparative listening reveals. As they say, the devil is in the details. For example, Hewitt tosses off Var 5's challenging cross-handed leaps more playfully, tempers Var 6's erstwhile fluctuations with greater expressive economy and allows Var 7's dialogue to flourish. Note, too, her nimbler dispatch of the Fughetta and the canon at the fourth (Var 12). By contrast, Var 19's heightened polyphony and slower tempo impart extra gravitas to the music's quasi-minuet character. Hewit...

Collegium Vocale consort from the very beginning of its artistic path (1992) have incorporated Dowland’s songs in its repertoire, and performed them for many years in various configurations. Several presentations of solo performances and duets can be heard on the album “Bonjour, mon cœur” of 2006. The idea of recording the present CD is based on the consistent use of four-voice vocal ensemble. Why? We wanted to see, how songs, which are familiar to us in solo interpretations of Emma Kirkby, Barbara Bonney, Anne Sophie von Otter, Michael Chance, Nigel Rogers, Andreas Scholl and... Sting (among others), would sound in full 4-parts vocal performance. Do they lose its lightness, appeal and charm, or—in the contrary—the listener would discover more nuances, new layers of expression, hard to find in instrumental interpretations lacking words? Of course, we leave the evaluation of the effect to the audience.  We invite to listen to a selection of most popular songs of John Dowl...

T here are thousands of vocal and instrumental settings of Shakespeare's texts, drawn from his comedies, tragedies and sonnets alike. The music celebrating his verse covers more than four centuries: this fascination has lived on into the 20th century and does not appear to be running out of steam. A linguistic virtuoso, a master of human emotions, an expert in Machiavellian stories of intrigue and tyranny, and a bard of love and of the moment - these are but a few of the many facets of the Shakespearian message. We follow him into the heart of humanity and its excesses, from madness to the burlesque , from despair to bonhomie , from hatred of one's fellow man to universal love. So is it really surprising that so many composers in so many languages have used such a rich tapestry of humanity, or that we - the singers at the end of this great chain - have decided to devote a recital to him? Several figures recur: Ophelia “in her sweet madness” and Desdemona in he...

It was in August 1976 at the Lucerne Festival that Anne-Sophie Mutter first set foot on the world’s stage. She was thirteen at the time. The following year she made her Salzburg Whitsun Festival debut under Herbert von Karajan, and a year after that her first recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon. The words “child prodigy” inevitably appeared in the newspapers. “I was half-aware of what was being said,” the violinist recalls, “but it was of little interest to me. I knew that I was a child. And the ‘prodigy’ part struck me as somehow comical.” To become world-famous as a teenager practically overnight was gratifying, of course, but it was also an emotional and a mental challenge. “As a result I learnt from a very early age to adopt a realistic attitude to all that was written about me and to place a certain distance between it and my private life.” This down-to-earth attitude was to prove useful to Anne-Sophie Mutter, for what followed was an international career...

Between chamber music and solo recital, Hugues Chabert has chosen not to choose, bringing together in his debut album the two inseparable components of his life as a pianist. Oscillating between deep interiority and expressive generosity, the Etudes-tableaux op.39 and Cello sonata op.39 are pure jewels of instrumental lyricism, introducing two facets of Rachmaninov's music.

It is rare for an artist to break through the boundaries of classical music stardom and achieve recognition in the wider world, but Anna Netrebko has achieved that and more. In a recording career stretching a mere dozen years she has not only seduced the classical scene with the beauty of her voice, her superb vocal control and supreme musicality, she has also become an interna­tional icon. More than an operatic diva, Anna Netrebko is an enormously charismatic individual whose vivacious style and dazzling stage presence are as celebrated as her musical artistry. Her future plans include her latest return to the Met, this time as Manon Lescaut (November / December 2016), and appearances as Lady Macbeth at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (December 2016). Before that, she will give three concert performances of Manon Lescaut at this summer’s Salzburg Festival, starring opposite her husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov, with whom she will also give concerts in Hamburg an...

“I work in between the cracks,” says vocalist/composer/performance artist Meredith Monk, “where the voice starts dancing, the body starts singing, the theatre becomes cinema.” In a way, everything she does is about ecology – that interconnectedness; those wild vocal noises – and On Behalf of Nature is a treatise without text, an outcry without words. She wants the work: “to expand our awareness of what we are in danger of losing”, and she does that by making music that sounds as if it comes from the earth, feet planted in the mud, voices erupting and gusting and keening. As a live show its physical gestures were a bit stilted and obscure; for me it’s more articulate as music alone. And though Monk’s incredible technical range is going, the softer stuff is still enthrallingly playful and ritualistic. Sometimes it feels weird being a bystander to her music: this kind of elemental rite should involve us all. ( Kate Molleson / The Guardian) With her latest, multivalent ECM ...

The Musical intoxication of a great era: on 7 September, 2002, Sir Simon Rattle was appointed new Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, marking the start of a new and memorable era for the world of music. Rattle has opened up new repertoire channels for the musicians, endowed the tradition-steeped ensemble with a youthful image and established the inimitable 'Rattle Sound'. Great moments – brought together here for the first time on 3 CDs.

Gustavo Dudamel and the Wiener Philharmoniker release their latest recording with Deutsche Grammophon, an all-Russian album out now.The album couples two selections by Mussorgsky –  Pictures at an Exhibition , orchestrated by Ravel, and  A Night on Bald Mountain  – with Tchaikovsky's Waltz from  Swan Lake .  While making the album at Vienna's Musikverein in April 2016, Gustavo and members of the orchestra participated in workshops alongside young people from the El Sistema-inspired Superar. The program is based in one of Vienna's most ethnically and culturally diverse neighborhoods and offers music lessons to around 900 children between the ages of five and sixteen. "For our current recording project, a wonderful program of Russian delights, the Wiener Philharmoniker and I have joined forces with children from Superar, offering young people of a range of backgrounds the opportunity to engage with themes from Mussorgsky's  Pictures at an Exhib...

The achingly beautiful, haunting lyricism of early Rachmaninov and the soaring effusiveness of late Prokofiev are glowingly brought to life by the German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and the Russian pianist Andrei Korobeinikov in this new release from PENTATONE of richly expressive 20th century cello sonatas and other works. Composed during troubled periods in the composers’ lives, the cello sonatas are life-affirming works. Rachmaninov’s arresting sonata which he wrote following a nervous breakdown is not unlike his perennially popular Second Piano Concerto: a journey from brooding melancholy to untrammelled joy, with a transcendentally beautiful slow movement. Prokofiev wrote his outstanding sonata while labouring under considerable hardship. It is by turns restrained and movingly lyrical, but the hair-raising final movement with its bravura passagework ends the work in a blaze of defiance.  “Both Rachmaninov and Prokofiev are genius musical storytellers,” M...

If there is a Cinderella among Hindemith’s three dozen(ish) sonatas, it’s not that for double bass, tuba, or even the Canonic Sonatina for two flutes, but the Sonata for althorn (1943). A tenor instrument, known in the US as the alto horn, it is so rare that Hindemith accepted his sonata could be played on the horn or alto saxophone. It is a delightful work for a delightful instrument, beautifully rendered here.  Melnikov’s role parallels that of Glenn Gould but his accounts are less wayward than the Canadian’s, his soloists generally stronger. Indeed, in most of the sonatas, the primary competition comes from one-off recordings (now that Ensemble Villa Musica’s almost-complete sonata set, with pianist Kalle Randalu, is unavailable). On BIS, Roland Pöntinen is accompanist for three rival accounts. In the 1935 Violin Sonata, Wallin may now have been overtaken by Zimmermann, Becker-Bender and now Isabelle Faust but choice will depend primarily on couplings since the margins betw...

Benjamin Grosvenor's fourth album on the Decca Classics label, Homages  explores works by great composers paying tribute to their predecessors. Mendelssohn and Franck look back to the Prelude & Fugue form made so popular by Bach. Busoni takes Bach's great solo violin Chaconne and reinterprets it in a bold and imaginative transcription for piano. Chopin breathes new life into the traditional Barcarolle of Venetian gondoliers, followed ten years later by Liszt's tribute to Italian folk song, Venezia e Napoli.   "Benjamin Grosvenor has the art (and the patience and courage) to plan ingenious programmes which offer a multicoloured zig zag between styles and moods ... His pianistic ingenuity, his lyrical voice and aristocratic distinction, remind one of the young Josef Hofmann or Ignaz Friedman. The whole recital is charged with Romantic élan. [In the Bach-Busoni Chaconne]  Benjamin Grosven...

This recording unites pianist Rudolf Buchbinder with his friend and conductor Zubin Mehta with whom he has built an intimate musical rapport. They are joined on this album by the Wiener Philharmoniker, an orchestra with which Buchbinder has appeared over many decades and enjoyed some of the greatest triumphs of his career. Approaching his 70th birthday, Buchbinder once more revisits the concertos as a result of his increasing awareness of Brahms’ music. “With Brahms, most people are struck only by the idea that his music is incredibly difficult and complex. But sometimes it requires a whole lifetime to become intimate with Brahms’ sound world and achieve the maturity that gives you a new freedom as a performer.” (Rudolf Buchbinder).

“Whether Mozart or Stravinsky, their musical line always sounds as if it’s being woven for the very first time... But the illusion of improvisation is the genius of their performances. In all their recordings there is a deceptive sprezzatura that is born of throwing the preparation to the winds and hanging onto each others ears.” The Times Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide. Katia and Marielle Labèque also launched the KML Foundation, aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertoire through meetings between artists of all fields. One of the Foundation latest projects is a concert around Moondog...

To be musically avant-garde in the 1950s meant to be difficult. Not by the end of the 1960s. That decade saw a group of American beatniks overthrow the musical givens of postwar Europe. In a series of disobediently straightforward compositions La Monte Young, Terry Jennings, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass declared that music could be clear, honest, pretty and experimental. Turning their backs on the conventional centres of musical power, the earliest minimalist works got their first public audience in La Monte Young's 1960-61 Chamber Street Series in Yoko Ono's New York loft. Through the 1960s in art galleries and alternative spaces, the minimalists slowly demystified, democratised and Americanised European modernism. They rejected the angst (what Philip Glass would call "crazy creepy music"). They rejected the invisible games. They rejected the theatricality. "I don't know any secrets of structure that you can't hear," wrote...

Cho Seong-jin, winner of this year's International Chopin Piano Competition, will release his debut album with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda, Deutsche Grammophon announced, Monday. He had initially planned to make his debut studio recording with conductor Chung Myung-whun, former music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO).  Cho was scheduled to start recording Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Chopin's four Ballades in April under the baton of maestro Chung and the Staatskapelle Dresden Orchestra where Chung has been principal guest conductor since the 2012-13 season.   Chung reportedly canceled the recording because of personal reasons.  Also Chung will no longer conduct Cho's Chopin performance with the SPO at Seoul Arts Center, July 15. He will be replaced by French conductor Yan Pascal Torteller.  The pianist will be performing the award-winning Chopin's Piano Concerto No...

On the 9th December 2001, Mstislav Rostropovich accepted the honorary presidentship of the rising Chamber Orchestra I Solisti di Pavia , born from Enrico Dindo’s passion and the Banca del Monte di Lombardia Foundation’s sponsorship. Thanks to the talent and enthusiasm of its conductor, Enrico Dindo, in over ten years of  activity I Solisti reached excellence, thus representing an important presence in Pavia and a well-established reality in the musical scenery, both in Italy and abroad. In June 2002, I Solisti did their first international tour, performing in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Vilnius, followed by two important dates in Beirut and Algiers in 2002, where they played to celebrate the end of the six-month Italian Presidency of the European Union, and a long tour through the major South American theatres in 2006. In 2008 and 2009, they inaugurated the “Malta Festival” in the prestigious setting of Palace Cluyard. In November 2011, I Solisti di Pavia debute...

I t is impossible to talk about the chamber music of the Australian composer Brett Dean without mentioning that he was principal viola of the Berlin Philharmonic. Inevitably he understands string textures from the inside, with compelling results. The excellent Doric Quartet rise to the challenges of these elegiac works. Eclipse (String Quartet No 1), particularly timely, conjures the despair of the boat people rescued from the Indian Ocean by the Norwegian freighter Tampa in 2001, then denied admission to Australia. The three movements flicker between light and dark, turbulence and calm. Five Epitaphs offer moving portraits of five dead friends, including the conductor Richard Hickox. The Quartet No 2, ”And once I played Ophelia” (2013), has a part, too, for soprano (Allison Bell) which began as the seeds of an unwritten Hamlet opera. Tense, tender and original, it’s a tough but rewarding listen. (The Guardian)

One of the most sought-after Italian pianists of his generation, Giuseppe Albanese has performed throughout Italy and abroad, with praise for his performances as "ravishingly beautiful" and "truly superlative". First prize winner at Premio Venezia, the most important national piano competition in Italy, Albanese also won the first prize at London 2003 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition, headed by Sir Jeffrey Tate and defined by Le Figaro as "the piano world's most prestigious award". He was also awarded the special prize for the 'best execution of contemporary music' at the 54th Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano. In 2014, Albanese has made his debut on Deutsche Grammophon label with "Fantasia", a concept album featuring Beethoven's Sonata quasi una Fantasia Op. 27 No. 2, Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy Op. 15 and Schumann's Fantasy Op. 17.

None of these pieces was written for cello and harpsichord, and at no stage does that matter one bit. Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord may not have been conceived for that combination but they are such sublime creations that the identity of the instruments is perhaps the last thing that should worry us. Rather, it is the performers’ musicianship that counts, and in this case that is of high quality indeed.  Steven Isserlis makes no attempt to make his cello imitate the wispy resonance of the gamba, instead claiming the music for his instrument with vigorously articulated lines, robust technical athleticism and ravishing cantabile. Indeed, it is this wondrous singing quality—which never loses its bearing and employs vibrato only as one of its discreet expressive elements—that stands out in these performances, its presence felt above all in the slow movements, of course, but also constantly governing the sense of line in busier ones. Also telling is the profo...

Música Callada (Music of Silence) is a very special work, one of the most beautiful and elusive in the entire piano repertoire. It is extremely difficult to perform. On the one hand, there’s the temptation to stretch each piece out hypnotically, if monotonously, while quicker speeds preserve the music’s melodic essence at the expense of much of its atmosphere and harmonic richness. For although much of the music is indeed quiet, and none of it moves quickly, it is all meaningful. Mompou himself found the perfect balance between incident and repose, and of all the pianists since, Jenny Lin arguably comes closest to doing the same, only in much better sound. It’s not so much that her tempos match Mompou’s own (she’s actually not copying him–it would hardly be possible in a work containing 28 individual pieces), but rather that her phrasing and sense of timing let the music breathe and sing with its own special poetry. To take just one example, consider the sadness that Li...

Here is a package that satisfies intellectual curiosity and is musically delightful. This two-disc set begins with a precise, but still musical, harpsichord performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations by Céline Frisch. Her Aria is clean, with both the melody and the bass line countermelody clear and phrased so that everything comes together well. Her ornaments fit naturally into the melodies throughout the variations, without drawing attention away from the tune, and she always has a sense of direction and forward momentum. The second disc contains the 14 canons on the first eight notes of the bass of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations and the two songs that are contained in the quodlibet near the end of the Variations. The canons are rich and warm performed by Café Zimmermann, a string sextet that includes a double bass, with excellent contrasts in the feel of each canon. The song Cabbages and Turnips Have Driven Me Away is the highlight of the two discs. Period ins...

To me music is an all encompassing vital need. This universal language has since time immemorial had the strength to unite people and cultures beyond the frontiers of time and space. It is contagious and has an addictive effect; it is ubiquitous and is never disappointing. It has become my master and gives the energy and inspiration to translate the world around me into sounds. Every day it gives the strength to move that one stone in the river one millimetre forward. It is the language that helps me articulate my thoughts and emotions and daily shows me the path towards greater wisdom and beauty. Composing is a commitment; it is my life’s mission. For me composing means creating a vacuum around myself and allowing myself to be submerged by impressions. It is a continual struggle between fantasy and reality, between dream and reality. Out of chaos of sounds and emotions I try to order my thoughts by juggling shreds of melodies, original chords, striking sound colours and alternatin...

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton burst upon the global opera and concert scene in recent years after having won many of the world's most prestigious prizes for vocal excellence and accomplishments. Delos has scored a major coup in releasing her debut album. Jamie's well-chosen program of late-Romantic repertoire begins with eight of Gustav Mahler's finest lieder- including his wonderful Five Ruckert Songs- before treating us to the rare delights of Antonin Dvorak's song cycle Gypsy Songs. Her album concludes with even more seldom-heard selections from the many lovely Swedish-language songs of Finnish master Jean Sibelius . This sublime release- further graced by pianist Brian Zeger's peerless collaboration- will take your breath away, and leave you hungry for more from Jamie Barton, considered by many of the world's top vocal and operatic experts to be the rising mezzo of our time.   "A great artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone, a...

Since his conversion to the Orthodox faith in the early 1970s, Arvo Pärt has composed a large number of works of religious inspiration. He is attached to the Latin language, and has borrowed numerous texts from the Roman Catholic liturgy (masses, Stabat Mater, Salve Regina and others), but he naturally feels particularly close to Orthodox spirituality, which has been the source of both instrumental compositions (Silouan’s Song, Trisagion) and vocal works. In his settings of Orthodox prayers, Pärt sometimes makes use of English translations (Litany, Triodion), but on certain occasions he prefers to retain Church Slavonic, the of cial language of the Russian Orthodox liturgy. This is the case with the Kanon Pokajanen (Canon of Repentance), at once his most monumental work and one of the very rare musical settings of a canon (kānon), a poetico-liturgical genre dating from the Byzantine era. The Kanon Pokajanen (Canon of Repentance) , premiered in March 1998, is Arvo Pärt’s most mo...

Listen blind and you’d never guess this was music by a Frenchman operating in the post-Boulez era, the best clues being the iridescent sonorities achieved throughout and the reliance on early Messiaen as a model for the paradisiacal element of the third movement of the Cello Concerto (2008). As Guillaume Connesson himself admits, Shostakovich, John Adams, pop and jazz mean more to him than his intellectualising predecessors, so it is perhaps inevitable that the great Russian should influence key moments in his own Cello Concerto. Of course Shostakovich was writing for Rostropovich in a very different, anti-hedonistic cultural climate. Connesson’s more accessible piece is dedicated to Jérôme Pernoo , who plays it here with evident authority and commitment.  Now in his forties, Connesson is a professional to his fingertips, and should you warm to the work of the classier commercial composers and orchestrators you may find his world wholly congenial. It is those sympathetic to the ...

Daniel Barenboim’s first solo recording on the remarkable new concert grand Barenboim-Maene which he developed in collaboration with instrument maker Chris Maene.  Barenboim has selected works by four keyboard masters to display his piano’s timbral and tonal capabilities:  “I’ve fallen in love with my new piano”, he exclaims, “and want to spend as much time with it as possible.”  Conceived and commissioned by Barenboim himself, the new piano was developed and built by esteemed Belgian instrument maker Chris Maene, with support from Steinway & Sons.  Barenboim was inspired to create a new piano after playing Franz Liszt’s restored grand piano during a trip to Siena in September 2011. Struck by the vital differences in sound of an instrument constructed with straight, parallel strings rather than the diagonal crossed ones of a contemporary instrument, he set out to create a brand new instrument that combines the best of the old and the new and offers a re...

Leonard and I first began talking about a poetry and music collaboration more than six years ago. We met at that time in Los Angeles, and he had with him a manuscript that became the basis of the collection of poetry now published as the Book of Longing . In the course of an afternoon that stretched into the evening, he read virtually the whole book to me. I found the work intensely beautiful, personal, and inspiring. On the spot, I proposed an evening-length work of poetry, music, and image based on this work. Leonard liked my idea, and we agreed to begin. Now, six years later, our stars are in alignment, the book is published, and I have composed the music. For me, this work is both a departure from past work and a fulfillment of an artistic dream. (Philip Glass)

Maurice Ravel’s mature works for violin and piano have established a central place in the core recital repertoire and are considered among the most popular of the genre. These diverse works acknowledge the influences of a range of musical styles from jazz to Impressionism and fuse the tonal colours of Debussy with the lyricism of Franck. The posthumously published one-movement Violin Sonata, written by Ravel as a student, is a lyrical precursor to the composer’s stunning Violin Sonata in G major with its unique character and adoption of the ‘blues’ idiom. The spontaneity, tonal colours and exotic soundscapes in Ravel’s violin music call for immense skill in interpretation, and passages in the frenzied Tzigane test the limits of the performers’ virtuosity. Violinist Alina Ibragmiova rises to these challenges with extraordinary verve. Recent winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious ‘Young Artist of the Year’ award, she displays a vast expressive range a...

Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is one of the most popular works in the classical repertoire worldwide but Vivaldi wasn’t the only composer to be inspired by the change of seasons. Christopher Simpson (1605–1669) was one of the best viola da gamba players of the early English Baroque. His Four Seasons is one of those fascinating works that take us on a musical journey through the recurring parts of the year. Now Hille Perl and her ensemble, Sirius Viols, have recorded this colourful piece. Hille Perl is a German virtuoso performer of the viola da gamba and lirone. She is considered to be one of the world's finest viola da gamba players. The Sirius Viols was founded by Hille Perl, consisting of Perl alongside Marthe Perl and Frauke Hess.

“Now I know there is a God in heaven!”, exclaimed Albert Einstein when he heard the young Yehudi Menuhin play the violin. Not only was Menuhin an extraordinary musician, he lived through – and helped to shape – a momentous period in history. The Warner Classics catalog contains 70 years’ worth of his recordings and this 3-CD collection, Yehudi: The Art of Menuhin, provides a fascinating perspective on his achievements: Menuhin was a man of ideals who changed the world through music. (Arkiv Music) As a musician, as a man of ideals, and as a citizen of the world, Yehudi Menuhin made an extraordinary mark on his era. 22nd April 2016 will mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. YEHUDI explores Yehudi Menuhin’s genius and artistry through his legendary recordings – the best-loved violin masterpieces, famed duets and collaborations and exclusive unpublished material - in a specially priced 3-CD compilation for the great violinist’s centenary year. (Presto Classical) ...

An internationally recognized soloist, Anaïs Gaudemard quickly stood out in the musical world among the best current harpists. In 2012, she wins the First Prize at the prestigious International Harp Contest in Israel, and the special award for the best interpretation of The Crown of Ariadne by Murray Schafer, then in 2016 she wins the 2nd Prize and the Münchener Kammerorchester Prize at ARD Competition in Munich.  In 2015, Anaïs wins the « Thierry Scherz Prize » at the Festival des Sommets Musicaux in Gstaad. This prize, awarded by the Foundation Scientia Pro Arte, offers to her the opportunity to record a CD with orchestra. Anaïs has chosen to dedicate it to the Concertos for Harp by Debussy, Boieldieu and Ginastera with the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie. It will be released the November 4, 2016 on the Claves Records label. Anaïs Gaudemard has the privilege to collaborate with orchestras such as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Münchener Kamm...

Award-winning violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt are joined together with Tanja Tetzlaff in this exciting new recording of the Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Trios. The Brahms Piano Trios belong to the very core of the romantic chamber music repertoire. They span a period from the 1850s (the 1st version of Op. 8) to the 1880s, Op. 101 being completed during the last decade of Brahms' active career as a composer. Piano Trio No. 1 was also revised by the composer as late as in 1889. Christian Tetzlaff has been considered as one of the world's leading international violinists for many years, and still maintains a most extensive performing schedule. Musical America named him "Instrumentalist of the Year" in 2005 and his recording of the violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Schumann, released on Ondine in 2011, received the "Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik". Gramophone Magazine chose his recording of the Schumann V...

A double Second Prize winner at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 2011 and at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009 Yeol Eum Son’s graceful interpretations, crystalline touch and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide.Yeol Eum first drew international attention in 2004, when she was chosen as the soloist for the New York Philharmonic’s tour of Asia; she subsequently reappeared with the Philharmonic and maestro Lorin Maazel in 2008. A favorite among other international orchestras, Yeol Eum has appeared with the Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Svetlanov Symphony (former USSR State Symphony), NDR Radio Philharmonie, St. Petersburg Academic Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony and Seattle Symphony Orch...