Music is the key

"Seven Words" addresses that most difficult of subjects, Christ's suffering and death on the Cross. Not many composers have felt equal to the challenge although Haydn's Seven Words of "Our Saviour on the Cross" is one of the enduring works to approach this theme. Hermann Conen in the CD booklet: "Sofia Gubaidulina has accepted the challenge of attempting to capture the great mystery in sound. Although the seven movements are, at least initially, clearly separated by string passages, there is no parallelism of word and sound in the traditional sense. It is more a matter of the instruments 'uttering' what cannot be sung or said; they 'speak' with 'instrumental, metaphorical gestures' (Gubaidulina).The cross symbolism palpable throughout the 'Seven Words' begins on the instrumental level: the cello, coming from the art music of 'high culture', stands for what is 'lofty'; the bayan, a button acc...

He may be a classical star on his own but for violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill, his latest album “Duo” shows the power two musicians can create.  “If I am a soloist on a stage, it’s like I am an actor delivering a monologue, and that’s very wonderful. You think of all monologues in Shakespeare, they are very profound and complete. But most stage drama has to have at least two characters,” he said during a press meeting in Seoul on Monday to promote the album. “I think this album is a great example. I think an album like this really gets to listeners. (The listeners) can really can get to know each one of us individually as well as together.”  Mastering for the album was completed on March 11, and it was released Monday, featuring classical and contemporary duets performed with musicians from Korea, cellist Mun Tae-guk, violist Lee Soo-min and violinist Shin Hyun-su, also known as Zia Shin. “I think this album is an interesting look at how some of the great c...

The name of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) is now emerging from the shadow cast by his wartime collaboration with Italy’s Fascist regime. Operas such as I quattro rusteghi and I gioielli della Madonna occupy a place on the fringes of the repertoire, and Brilliant Classics have made a persuasive case for him as a composer of chamber music in a post-Brahmsian mould with the release of his piano trios.  This album was recommended by Classics Today for the ‘eloquently sustained’ performance of Trio Archè, displaying ‘a whimsical discursiveness… that might be described as the lovechild of Schubert and Fauré.’ Much the same might be said of Wolf-Ferrari’s piano music on the evidence of this new recording by the Italian pianist Costantino Catena, who has made many well-received albums with the Camerata Tokyo. To open the album, Catena has made his own completion of an early, substantial (19-minute) Bagatelle that Wolf-Ferrari left unfinished. Theatricality and high co...

Although a tribute to an artist is always a great responsibility, it is also a way of breathing new life into feelings, thoughts, life and art, in this case by focusing on the importance of a particular chapter of guitar history.  Getting to know Teresa de Rogatis through her manuscripts has been a fascinating form of time travel. The period in which she lived and the places she experienced have come newly alive with the study of the notes that accompany her scores. In some cases these documents even indicate the day and time of composition: for example, in “Bagdad” we read “Teresa de Rogatis, 22 February Thursday 1968 5.30 pm”.  My musical interpretation aims at expressing the compositional refinement typical of Teresa de Rogatis, the way she reconciled brilliant virtuoso air with an elegantly feminine touch, even when the overall tone is jocular or ironic. The decision to record these pieces on a distinctly modern instrument is simply part of the imaginary dialogue ...

This disc is designed as a concerto showcase for four of The English Concert’s regular members, and does a very good job of it while also introducing us to some unfamiliar but deserving music. The name of Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco doesn’t crop up too often but his Concerto a più instrumenti is full of life, mixing Corellian concerto grosso style with a French-sounding aria and chaconne, and a rumpty-tumpty finale. Perhaps it rambles a bit, but the playing here is so delightful, especially in the cleanly delineated duetting of the two solo violins, the sharp dynamic contrasts and the tellingly pointed inner-part details, that you won’t mind. Porpora’s Cello Concerto is alas not so interesting, especially in quick movements that display a fair amount of empty passagework, but there is a suaveness to the opening Amoroso and some operatic scene-setting in the inner Largo . Soloist Joseph Crouch is both agile and expressive, though one might wish for sweeter tone. Alessan...

6CDs presenting Salvatore Accardo's legendary Paganini cycle for Deutsche Grammophon, including the complete violin concertos recorded with Charles Dutoit and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Noted for his exquisite, beautiful playing and a technical wizardry carried off with disarming nonchalance, Accardo is most readily associated with Paganini – though technical wizardry for its own sake holds little fascination for him: "Of course for young violinists it is always a challenge to be able to play the 24 Caprices, but as I got older I understood that what was important in his music was its almost operatic qualities."

On this new recording, Coro Victoria offers a portrait of Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) through a cross-section of his sacred output (his works in Spanish are all lost). The group also illustrates the variety of interpretative practices of the period. The concluding O quam suavis est Domine is sung by a single soprano while the vihuela accompaniment supplies the remaining five parts. Church choirs sang this music in the liturgy, but minstrels also played it during processions, and there was free traffic between sacred and secular contexts.  Coro Victoria was founded by its director, Ana Fernández-Vega, to recover and preserve a native, historically informed tradition of singing Spanish polyphony from its Renaissance-era high noon, exemplified not only by Victoria himself but also his contemporaries such as the Seville-born and bred Alonso Lobo (indeed, Victoria considered Lobo his equal). He is now best known for a haunting, six-voice setting of the R...

Rising star saxophonist Dominic Childs makes his solo recording debut with this exquisite programme of French works for the instrument. Joined by the internationally renowned pianist Simon Callaghan, together they present an engaging recital of works either written by or inspired by women, and that were written with both piano and orchestral accompaniment in mind – the 1903 Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy sits alongside works by Fernande Decruck, Paule Maurice & François Borne.

One of the great minimalists alongside Philip Glass and Terry Riley, Steve Reich remains heroically unafraid of the blank page. The 81-year-old may no longer rewrite the rules of modern composition as he did with revolutionary works such as Piano Phase , Drumming and Music for 18 Musicians , but happily continues to be inspired by younger artists. His Radio Rewrite (2012) evolved from a meeting with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, while Pulse uses electric bass to nod to Giorgio Moroder via Daft Punk. The International Contemporary Ensemble make the wistful Pulse (premiered 2015) sing, with its spiralling, inquisitive strings, completely free of the tense nervousness of some of Reich’s more repetitive work. It’s a less complex listen than Quartet (2013) , a lightly jazzy essay in key-confounding hypnosis on piano and vibraphone, written for and performed by Reich’s favourite percussionists, Colin Currie Group. ( Damien Morris / The Guardian)

Following on from their acclaimed Resonus debut the Fidelio Trio continues its exploration of the French piano trio with this impressive new recording of works by Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson, and Erik Satie. Chausson’s opulent and lyrical Op. 3 piano trio from 1881 , is joined by Fauré’s only work in this chamber music genre – the heartfelt Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 – composed during the latter part of his life. The album is completed with arrangements by John White of works by Erik Satie – selections from his only liturgical work, the Messe des Pauvres, and the incidental music to his own play, Le Piège de Méduse.

"Frage" is the new album by sensational baritone singer Christian Gerhahrer. This new album is the first of many highly anticipated projects to record all of Robert Schumann's songs . This project will be the first time since the 1970s where a singer has devoted themselves to comprehensively perform and record Robert Schumann's complete lieder output. Frage is produced by the Bayerischer Rundfunk and the Deutsches Liedzentrum Heidelberg. Also featured in the project are fellow singers: Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Sybilla Rubens, Camilla Tilling, Julia Kleiter and Martin Mitterutzner as well as pianist Gerold Huber. Christian Gerhaher is set to perform at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London on January 16 2019. He has won many awards including the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and the Midem Special Prize.

Vladimir Ashkenazy's first recording of Debussy's Preludes is a somewhat of a sensation. This recording combines a new recording of Book 1 with a live recording of Book 2 from a recital in New York in 1971. We therefore not only honor the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death in 1918, but also pay tribute to one of the most remarkable pianists and musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the foremost musical figures of our time, Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky in 1937. He began playing the piano at the age of six and was accepted at the Central Music School at the age of eight. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, having studied with Lev Oborin. He won second prize in the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955, first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels in 1956, and joint first prize with John Ogdon in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Since then, he has built an ext...

Bass-baritone Stephan Loges is accompanied by Iain Burnside in a collection that explores concepts of lost youth, the transience of life and the comforting presence of nature. The programme features performances of Schumann’s 12 Gedichte Op. 35 and Brahms’s 5 Lieder Op. 94, as well as in 5 rarely recorded works by Finnish composer Yrjö Kilpinen. Born in Dresden, Stephan Loges was an early winner of the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He has given recitals throughout the world, including regular appearances at Wigmore Hall London and the Oxford Lieder Festival, as well as Carnegie Hall New York and many more.

This album of German Baroque Cantatas is entitled “Herzens-Lieder” or “Songs of the Heart.” This new release features compositions by Christoph Graupner, Johann Kuhnau , Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. Austrian soprano Miriam Feuersinger does a stunning job interpreting these “Songs of the Heart.” She has won several awards, including an Echo award for her 2014 recording of Graupner cantatas.

Sensing a special relationship between Arvo Pärt and J.S. Bach, Jörgen van Rijen on his first recording for BIS Records brings together music by the two composers. It’s a relationship which has several aspects. First, Pärt has readily admitted to his love for the work of Bach, referring to it in titles such as Collage über BACH, but also by using the motif BACH (B flat-A-C-B). In addition, both composers share a fascination for religion, while at the same time composing music that is almost mathematically constructed, possessing an underlying order that forms the basis of its timelessness. In collaboration with the composer, van Rijen has adapted four works by Pärt for the trombone, including the celebrated piece Fratres, which exists in numerous versions, as well as the two religiously themed An den Wassern zu Babel … and Vater unser. Pärt’s open-minded attitude to adaptations of his works is also something he has in common with Bach, who regularly reused his own co...

Program based on the project "Turina x Turina", where Azahar Ensemble pretends to contribute to the enrichment of the wind quintet repertoire by commissioning arrangements of the most remarkable works by Joaquín Turina. The composer, born in Seville, was very influenced by the french impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, but always maintained his andalusian roots present in his musical language. Turina is one of the most internationally renowned spanish composers. For these arrangements, Azahar Ensemble has had the invaluable collaboration of composer José Luís Turina, who is himself grandson of Joaquín Turina.

A vivid demonstration of how widely Fabio Biondi’s musical imagination runs comes with his new recording of Giuseppe Verdi’s work of genius, Macbeth . It is the original Florentine 1847 version of the work, shorn of the Paris revisions more typically found on record, which Fabio Biondi has opted to conduct, the director believing in its greater dramatic and stylistic coherence. Verdi was of the opinion that the Shakespearean tragedy was “one of the greatest creations of the human spirit” and set himself the task of rendering the fire of its drama into music during and following a period when his physical health had broken down. With its scenes of murder, battle and sleep-walking, brindisi and witches’ choruses all creating a sombre atmosphere drenched with paranoia and a lust for power, the dramatic flow of the opera places vast demands on the soloists, notably upon the unhappy title-role couple. Fabio Biondi’s version comes with baritone Giovanni Meoni, a leading Verd...

Alessandro Stradella’s place in the annals of the history of music is not only due to the adventurous circumstances that marked his brief existence, but also to the reputation as an opera composer he has acquired since the 18th century. Inaccessible for many decades to specialists and scholars, La Doriclea is definitely the least known of all Stradella’s operas. However, it constitutes a particularly significant chapter in his overall output: composed in Rome during the early 1670s, to our knowledge La Doriclea represents the first opera entirely composed by Stradella. From the dramatic point of view, La Doriclea belongs to the comedy of intrigue genre typical of the 17th century Spanish theatre tradition. Refined and amusing, it alternates touching lamentos with irresistibly comic scenes, in which the character of Giraldo, a veritable precursor of the basso buffo, allows us to glimpse Rossinian atmospheres. Emöke Baráth (Doriclea) and Xavier Sabata (Fidal...

“‘A century of Polish Piano Miniatures' summarizes years of work and research just as Poland comes to its 100th anniversary of independence. My goal was to explore and present to the audience the real jewels of Polish piano literature from the post-Chopin era. Every piece covers a historically significant moment taking the listener on a fascinating journey through wars, conflicts and victories. Leaving Poland myself over five years ago it was very important for me to see how the new generation of composers take over both inside and (mostly) outside the country. It was also crucial for me to include works written by female composers. I am pleased to share this music with a wider international audience.” (Anna Szałucka)

The Chapter Archive of San Lorenzo in Florence houses a manuscript which served to record church properties. However, its parchment leaves originally belonged to a music manuscript compiled around 1410–20 in Florence. Later, the music was erased to create space for new content. Although its musical origins are known for over thirty years, its 216 compositions have been considered largely illegible. Recently, scholars and scientists from the University of Hamburg were able to render it visible again, using the technology of multispectral imaging. The San Lorenzo Palimpsest, as the collection is known today, is an invaluable source of secular polyphonic music composed between the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. The anthology not only includes new readings for compositions known from other contemporary manuscripts, but contains completely unknown works by Florentine composers . La Morra breathes new life into these rediscovered musical treasures, mo...

Andrejs Selickis (b. 1960) is a singular, idiosyncratic phenomenon among Latvian composers. As with Arvo Pärt, Selickis’ work is inseparably linked to his faith, which has found a deep and unique expression in his distinct style. Iconic symbolism, sacred archetypes and the ecstatic experience of God’s presence are the keys to his music. This new recording by the Latvian Radio Choir includes choral works by Selickis. Andrejs Selickis grew up and studied music in Latvia, when a crucial meeting with Arvo Pärt took place in the 1970s. Arvo Pärt became a mentor and an example for the composer, both in life and in music. After Pärt emigrated from the Soviet Union, Selickis’ found new home in his church. Selickis has worked as an independent artist since graduating from the conservatory. He lives in Riga and serves as a regent, liturgist and psalmist in various congregations of the Church. In 2015 he was awarded the Latvian Great Music Award, the highest state honor in music...

This album features cello concertos by Witold Lutosławski and Henri Dutilleux performed by the multiple prize-winning German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Thomas Søndergård. These works, premiered in 1970, are two of the biggest gems of the twentieth century, the golden age of the cello. While equally virtuosic and engaging, both pieces showcase different aspects of the musical landscape of the late twentieth century. Lutosławski’s concerto explores the possibilities of chance composition in the form of a duel between the solo cello and a ferocious orchestral accompaniment, in which the individual ultimately prevails. In comparison, soloist and ensemble work together more smoothly in Henri Dutilleux’ “ Tout un monde lontain ”. In this “cello concerto”, the composer invokes a mystical “world from afar”, inspired by Baudelaire quotes and full of allusions to French musical greats such as Debussy and Messiaen, whil...

Jacques Morel was one of many excellent musicians active in France during the ‘golden period’ encompassing both the Grand-Siècle of Louis XIV, the subsequent Régence, and extending on through most of the 18th century. Due to a scarcity of contemporary sources, we know very little about Morel’s life and the simultaneous existence of other musicians of the same name further confuses matters. It is possible that we are in the presence of a musical dynasty, a common occurrence during this period, though it is not easy to establish connections between the various Morels that appear at this time. Beside Jaques Morel, who describes himself as ‘Page de la Musique du Roy’ there is another (or the same?) ‘Sieur Morel’, former organist at Soissons who in 1749 announces a Livre de pièces ajustées au pardessus [de viole] à cinq cordes; Antoine Morel, an opera singer; and Morel ‘de la Ferronerie’, a composer, and even a later Morel, harpsichord...

The Gentlemen of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace and their director Carl Jackson make their Resonus Classics debut with this album of works for lower voices by Thomas Tallis – himself a Gentleman of the Tudor Chapel Royal serving under four monarchs. Recorded in the impressive surroundings of the Chapel Royal where the choir is resident, this first disc with The Gentlemen presents works for four and seven voices including the Missa Puer natus est nobis based on chant for Christmas Day, and the sumptuous Suscipe quaeso Domine.

For many, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the sound of carols sung from King’s College Chapel, and each year over the festive period millions around the world enjoy the Choir’s A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols . This two-part collection celebrates 100 years of the iconic service with a mix of brand-new performances and historical recordings not heard since the original BBC broadcasts. The first part of this special album tells the story of the service’s long history, featuring Directors of Music David Willcocks, Philip Ledger and Stephen Cleobury in recordings spanning from 1958 to 2017. A selection of traditional favourites are accompanied by world premiere performances of contemporary carols, commissioned by the College from leading contemporary composers, including Judith Weir, Arvo Pärt and Thomas Adès. The second part of the album features brand-new recordings by today’s choir, who shine in cherished compositions such as We Three Kings, The Shepher...

Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing. Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between religion and folk culture developed, with hymns being adapted to a folk-music aesthetic while popular traditions were given a Christian veneer. An example of the latter is the rich store of ‘Staffan ballads’, springing from a pre-Christian horse cult but given a new slant as its focus shifted to St. Stephen – the first Christian martyr.

Joel Frederiksen is a bass singer and lutenist living in Munich, Gemany. He has performed with leaders in the early music world including Emma Kirkby, Jordi Savall, Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, and with the ensembles Musica fiata, Freiburger Barockorchester, Josquin Capella, Ensemble Gilles Binchois and Huelgas Ensemble. Joel studied voice and lute in New York and Michigan, where he received his master’s degree, working closely with early music specialist Dr. Lyle Nordstrom. From 1990 to 1999 he was a member of two distinguished ensembles for early music in the United States, The Waverly Consort and the Boston Camerata. As a singer who plays the lute and archlute, Joel Frederiksen is a leading interpreter of music by the English lutenist songwriters and of early Italian Baroque music. His wide-ranging basso profundo voice and expressive performances have earned him worldwide acclaim.

In 1212 Emperor Otto IV . confirmed the foundation of the Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas, which was initiated by margrave Dietrich the Oppressed of Meissen. The monastery contained a convent school to educate the young cleric, but soon the school was made accessible also for boys who did not live in the monastery. Liturgical singing has been part of the education from the beginning in order to deploy the boys in the numerous weekly church services. In the course of the reformation in 1539 Leipzig acquired a reputation for being a musical and cultural centre, not least because of the significant ​ “ Thomaskantoren” (cantors at St. Thomas).  The musical focus of the Thomanerchor Leipzig is on the maintenance of the ​ “ Musica Sacra ”. The works of Johann Sebastian Bach – who was introduced as Thomaskantor on 1  June 1723 and who stayed in that position for 27  years until his death on 28 July 1750 – form the main musical centre of the cho...

Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki have sung of the wonders of Christmas a number of times, in Bach’s cantatas and Christmas Oratorio as well as in Handel’s Messiah. Here, instead, we hear the choir a cappella in a selection of classic Christmas carols. Masato Suzuki, son of the ensemble’s founder and director, has selected some of the best-loved songs of Christmas, such as Adeste fideles and Silent Night, as well as less familiar hymns, arranging them especially for these singers. A consummate organist, he also performs a number of Louis-Claude Daquin’s noëls variés – keyboard variations on Christmas songs which became a highly popular genre in 18th-century France.

Renowned for her beautifully clear and succinct technique, and with a formidable repertoire knowledge and understanding across all genres, Swedish-born Sofi Jeannin has established herself as one of the finest and most respected choral specialists around today. Currently Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and Music Director of la Maîtrise de Radio France, Jeannin was previously Music Director of the Choeur de Radio France, a post she took up in 2015. Through her work with the French Radio Chorus – the largest professional symphonic chorus in Europe – Jeannin became the collaborative conductor of choice for a number of prominent figures, including Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, Christoph Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev, collaborating with orchestras such as   l’Orchestre National de France , l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

This stylish and elegant modern-instrument recording rounds off Znaider’s cycle of Mozart’s complete violin concertos—the product of an audibly fruitful musical partnership with the LSO. A greatly slimmed-down orchestra plays with nimbleness and delicacy while Znaider—using his gorgeous-sounding “Ex-Kreisler” Guarneri violin (on which Elgar’s concerto was premiered)—gives these youthful works lightness and grace that melt the heart. The Third is the best-known work here and justifies its popularity with a performance of spirit and great charm.

José María Cano was born in Madrid, and gave his first concerts as a university student there. There he met Ana Torroja, who would become the lead singer in their pop band Mecano. Their first album, also called Mecano (1981) and produced with the financial backing of his father, included the hit "Hoy no me puedo levantar". Both José and his brother Nacho composed songs for all their albums. In 1984, José began to play piano and changed his method of composition. He began to compose for other singers, such as Ana Belén, Amaya Uranga, Sara Montiel, Julio Iglesias, Miguel Bosé, Alaska, Françoise Hardy, Sara Brightman, Simone, Mario Frangoulis etc. He composed song that would become well known in the Spanish-speaking world, such as Hijo de la luna, Lia, Mujer contra mujer, Me cuesta tanto olvidarte, Aire, Tiempo de vals, Cruz de navajas, Naturaleza muerta, Una rosa es una rosa and several others, which were covered both by Spanish and Non-Spanish-speaking singers....

Vox Luminis already boasts an impressive discography, orientated mainly towards sacred music and German repertoire (its album devoted to music by Heinrich Schütz won the Gramophone ‘Best Recording of the Year’ Award in 2013). Now this ensemble, founded nearly fifteen years ago by Lionel Meunier, has scaled one of the summits of English music: the legend of King Arthur and his mentor the wizard Merlin inspired one of Henry Purcell’s most popular successes, King Arthur, a semi-opera on which Purcell lavished all his exuberant musical and theatrical inventiveness.   In this revelatory new reading, the Vox Luminis vocal sound always perfectly matches the mix of choruses and highly characterized vocal solos. Prior to recording, the group presented the work in many semi-staged concerts, notably in Britain, where this Franco-Belgian ensemble has enjoyed enormous success, becoming one of the most respected European ambassadors for baroque music-making.

From the moment they were performed, Gioachino Rossini’s overtures have enjoyed the status of colourful, elegant orchestral showpieces. With their sweet cantilene, their rich harmonies, their brilliant orchestration, and their powerful and exciting rhythmic drive, these overtures encapsulate all that was modern, exhilarating and electrifying in Rossini’s music, yet maintain their freshness and attraction to modern audiences. This album features a collection of Rossini overtures, taken from less well-known operas such as La Scala di seta, Tancredi, La gazza ladra, Matilde di Shabran and Semiramide, as well as from the classic comic operas L’italiana in Algeri and Il barbiere di Siviglia, concluding with the preludes to Rossini’s French operas Le siege de Corinthe and Guillaume Tell, in which the composer explored musical Romanticism. The overtures are performed by the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna , which has played a seminal role in the Rossini renaissance o...

The English language draws a clear distinction between the terms “concert” (a musical performance) and “concerto” (referring to the musical form or genre). The German word “Konzert”, on the other hand, can carry both meanings which, due to an ever- increasing propensity towards simplification and sheer linguistic negligence on the one hand and a music scene long characterized by ignorance and amateurism on the other, often leads to hopeless confusion. The Italian word “concerto”, meanwhile, derives both from the Middle Latin and Italian concertare (to agree or concur) and from the Classical Latin concertare (to dispute or contend). While the first meaning was intended to denote a more or less harmonious interplay between singers and instrumentalists, the secondary definition of a rivalrous or contentious interaction between various instruments and instrumental groups, or between singers and instrumentalists, eventually prevailed for musical compositions in which “heterogeneous ele...

Previously-unreleased live recording from Vienna’s Große Saal, 31st May 1971: these tapes were recently discovered in the archives of Austrian Radio – the ‘ORF’. Abbado’s long association with the Wiener Philharmoniker began when he first conducted the orchestra at Herbert von Karajan’s invitation in 1965. The orchestra was so impressed by what the young music director from La Scala achieved that they immediately invited him to conduct one of their subscription concerts in the season after next in the city’s Musikverein. The programme included Schubert’s “Unfinished” and Fifth Symphonies. Austrian Radio recorded the concert on the morning of Whit Monday, 31 May 1971, but the recording lay untouched in the corporation’s archives until now. Now, nearly fifty years later, this recording allows us to rediscover the maestro as we would rediscover a Vermeer with every fresh viewing. “The meaning of each individual note and of the pause and silence ...

When in March 2018 the first bars of Schubert’s “Unfinished” reached the recording equipment, this was not the everyday life of musicians who fulfilled their daily tasks, but the birth of a new body of sound: the KlangKollektiv Wien. Under the baton of Rémy Ballot, musicians from Vienna's leading orchestras gathered to celebrate the music of Viennese Classicism and collectively rediscover it. In order to take into account the unique sound culture of this young ensemble, the producers of this recording at Gramola insisted on using even the highest quality analog recording device. In each bar of the Symphony No. 1 D 82 and the "Unfinished", the consonant love of music is felt, with which the KlangKollektiv Vienna embarks on its self-imposed mission.  Rémy Ballot was born in Paris. While studying violin, music theory and music teaching at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, where he completed his studies with a diploma, at the age of 16 Ballot met hi...

With original music composed and produced by Howard, the soundtrack builds on iconic themes from Tchaikovsky's classic 1892 ballet score. Howard's thrilling orchestral score captures the magic and intrigue of the film by reimagining the original "Nutcracker" ballet mu th -century romantic music that I call upon as a film composer is rooted." sic with a modern twist. "Tchaikovsky was one of the great melody writers of all time," said Howard. "The colors of 'The Nutcracker' ballet score have become a part of the vocabulary of film music. It's where so much of the 19 According to the composer, the score is elegant and emotional. "It's all about the storytelling," he said. "The score is very traditional—a big orchestra score—with lots of woodwinds and strings, plus tinkle bells and celeste and chorale music, including a boys' choir." Considered one of the most distinguished conductors of our da...

Distinguished British music interpreter Sir Andrew Davis joins forces with the BBCSO once again, this time with acclaimed soloists Dame Sarah Connolly and Andrew Staples, in this thoughtful presentation of the last two substantial choral works of Sir Edward Elgar. The maturity of Elgar as an orchestrator is obvious in both works on this disc, notably, in The Music Makers (1912), during passages in which he quotes from Sea Pictures and the Violin Concerto, and in representing the sound of aircraft in The Spirit of England (1917). Elgar uses self-quotation to reflect: The Music Makers is a canvas of self-reflection, written quickly following a period of illness. The orchestral introduction is introspective, melancholic and noble, before the words of Arthur O’Shaughanessy’s poem and much self-quotation within the music offer an insight into the sense of nostalgia and awareness of the loneliness of the creative artist felt by the composer. The Spirit of England reflects ...

A self-taught child of rock and drummer-percussionist, Grare is fascinated by the cultures which line the Silk Road, early 20th Century French and Russian music and, curiously, the harpsichord! Over time and from his travels, Grare has collected an ‘instrumentarium’ creating both soft and clamorous sounds. These instruments range from Madagascan straws to Japanese drums, not forgetting the unique chromatic fan of round steel cowbells from Chamonix, covering four octaves. Today, Grare likes to travel light with a small hand-luggage of castanets, tambourines, mini woodblocks, wooden frogs, toy pigs (!) and other idiophones which stimulate the imagination. Owing to his insatiable curiosity, Grare and his instruments travel through time and space. He has performed baroque music with the Poème Harmonique, Patricia Petibon and Amarillis, flamenco with Daniel Manzanas and ‘world symphonic’ with Yvan Cassar. He has also profited from a decade-long collaboration with Jean...

Guadalupe López Íñiguez’s debut recording includes complete cello works from Gabrielli and Scarlatti, Recorded with the best baroque musicians in Finland. "I have included music that played an important role in my desired transformation from a “contemporary-trained” cellist to a “historically inspired” one. The reasons for such a desire are numerous and span several years and different experiences in my life,” (Guadalupe). Doctor of Psychology and Master of Music Guadalupe López Íñiguez is a Spanish academic– musician based at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Guadalupe has performed as a soloist on period cellos in different festivals. She is especially grateful for the encouragement received from artists Rafael Ramos, Markku Luolajan- Mikkola, and Ciro Rodríguez Perelló. Her artistic and scientific research comprises all her areas of expertise—namely psychology, sociology, research methodology, education, and musicology—in unders...

The Klenke Quartett, based in Berlin and Thuringia, was founded in 1991 at the Musikhochschule Weimar. Since then, and still in its original formation, it has enriched the concert life “as one of the most distinguished European ensembles.“ (Gewandhaus-Magazin). The quartet regularly plays with violist Harald Schoneweg. Their close artistic bond and homogeneity in interpretation makes this new complete recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Six String Quintets, released in a premium 3-CD box set, a recording with reference character, unveiling all the nuances between joy and contemplation, the distinct refinement and condensation, and most of all of all the soundscapes and compositional techniques in Mozart’s Quintets .  Says first violinist Annegret Klenke: “Interpreting Mozart is always a challenge. Approaching his work requires humility first and foremost. As a musician, you can’t hide anything when dealing with Mozart. Everything lies open. And it is well known ...

The violin works of the leading German composer Wolfgang Rihm encompass almost his entire career and reflect the variety of his stylistic thinking. Lichtzwang , the earliest of his concertos, draws on chorale-like sequences and piercing outbursts alike in its memorialising of the writer Paul Celan. Dritte Musik begins almost imperceptibly before growing in intensity and eventually slipping beyond audibility. Defter and more subtle than the preceding pieces, Gedicht des Malers (‘Poem of the Painter’) was inspired by an imagined painting of the great Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. As Rihm has written: ‘The soloist virtually embodies the painter’s brush as it moves over the canvas in sometimes faster and sometimes more deliberate ways.’

Following her acclaimed recording of Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No. 2 in 2016 (Editors Choice, Gramophone), Xiayin Wang here completes the trio with No. 1 and the posthumously published No. 3, alongside Scriabins only concerto. Whether Tchaikovsky gave his consent to the virtuoso Alexander Ziloti to revise his Piano Concerto No. 1 is unknown, but Wang here presents the lesser-recorded original version. Piano Concerto No. 3 was originally begun as a symphony, all of which except the first movement was ultimately abandoned; that surviving movement was later completed as a singlemovement concert work for piano and orchestra. Scriabin finished his piano concerto in only a few days, although it took months to orchestrate it before the 1897 premiere. Sensitively played by Wang, the concerto shows a naïve charm that even Scriabin, at his most translucent, would struggle to recapture once his career got underway.

The young South Korean cellist Hee-Young Lim won her first competition at the tender age of 11 and has been racking up honors ever since.  It's little wonder. As she showed at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater on Saturday night, Lim, now 20, is a deeply gifted musician with a full, singing tone, near-flawless technique and a natural lyricism that infused virtually every note she played.  Performing entirely from memory, Lim clearly had little use for the theatricality that other wunderkinder often indulge in; in fact, she seemed almost self-effacing onstage, and her playing always favored elegance over indulgence. At first, she almost seemed too well behaved; Boccherini's Sonata in A, No. 6, which opened the program, was decorous to a fault. But she quickly moved into more complex depths with Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor -- a mercurial, elegantly savage work that she brought off with insight and quiet power.

Dami Kim, who was born in South Korea in 1988, began playing the violin at the age of five. In 2002 she was admitted to the Aaron Rosand's class at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philhadelphia. She subsequently studied with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she graduated with a Master's degree in 2012. In 2012 she was not only a laureate at the International Queen Elisabeth Competition but also won first prize in the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hanover.  As part of the prize she was presented with a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. She was awarded further prizes in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, for example, where she also won the prize for the best interpretation of a Paganini Caprice.  From 2013 to 2016 Dami Kim studied as a Young Soloist at Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin. These studies were funded by the Lutz Raettig Stipendium. She currently performs on a Stradiva...

It is difficult to ascertain how many horn concertos Joseph Haydn and his younger brother Michael actually wrote. Certain works are lost; others are erroneously ascribed, or their authenticity is at least doubtful. One of the concertos has even been ascribed by different musicologists to Joseph and to Michael Haydn, but it may have been written by another person entirely. The two brothers wrote most of their concertos for the widest variety of solo instruments, but usually in the same type of situation: i.e. once they had assumed important posts at the head of renowned court orchestras. Joseph Haydn became Kapellmeister for the Ezterházy princes in 1761, and Michael became concertmaster of the Salzburg archdiocese court orchestra in 1763. The court musicians in both orchestras were virtuosos in their own right, and one of the tasks of a Kapellmeister consisted in composing new works that permitted them to display their outstanding abilities in the presence of their so...

Kathleen Kim made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 and has since been the subject of both glowing reviews and intense international interest.  She has been heralded as “spectacular” by Opera News and “a revelation” and “tiny dynamo” by the Chicago Sun-Times .  The Chicago Tribune raved that Ms. Kim “nailed her stratospheric coloratura aria with a precise, penetrating soprano.”  Such critical acclaim reflects the excitement Kathleen Kim generates at many of the world’s premiere opera houses and concert halls.  Ms. Kim’s extensive career at the Met includes performances as Olympia in Bartlett Sher’s production of Les contes d’Hoffmann , conducted by James Levine; as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Kirill Petrenko; and as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera , conducted by Gianandrea Noseda in 2007 and by Fabio Luisi in 2012.  She was hailed by critics for her role as Chiang Ch’ing in the Met’s iconic premiere of Nixon in China , directed ...

Elisabeth Kulman and Eduard Kutrowatz have for many years now been working together, as they share an artistic passion for the unusual and unconventional which has manifested itself in pushing the traditional boundaries between various eras and genres. They aim, in their Lieder programmes, to recount new, interrelated stories, and to this end, they combine song and pieces for piano in unusual sequences, sometimes plucking verses from one song and placing them individually in a programme; carefully and deliberately choosing keys that connect a number of Lieder in order to provide a dramatic link that results in exciting, owing and sometimes imperceptible combinations. At the 2017 Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Elisabeth Kulman and Eduard Kutrowatz dedicated the first part of their programme entirely to Robert Schumann. The lieder cycle Frauenliebe und Leben and the op. 104 songs (after lyrics by the singer’s namesake Elisabeth Kulmann, who was born in St. Petersburg in 1808) form a c...