Arcadia Quartet BARTÓK Complete String Quartets

For its very first recording on Chandos, the Arcadia String Quartet presents what has been at the very heart of its musical career and influences: the complete string quartets by Bartók.

With the music of the Hungarian composer, the members of this Romanian ensemble, neighbours of his birthplace, have won such major career-shaping competitions as Osaka, the Wigmore Hall, and Hamburg.

Bartók’s attachment to the string quartet – as to no other genre – was to the keystone of the Viennese tradition, but with the aim of moving the medium out of its native city a little, into the countryside of alternative tonalities and rhythms. The six mature works he wrote are being revealed here with all the singular patterns, mixed modalities, bitterness, lamentations, and, at times, bright folk influences which they contain.

BACH Clavier-Büchlein für W.F. Bach

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was born on 22 November 1710 and was the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He received an extensive education at first the Lutheran grammar school in Köthen (from 1717) and then St Thomas’s School in Leipzig from 1723, followed by the University of Leipzig, where he enrolled in 1729 to study law, philosophy and mathematics. In around 1727, he took violin lessons with Johann Gottlieb Graun, and six years later he was appointed organist at St Sophia’s Church in Dresden. However, his first attempts at composition began in his childhood, when he received music lessons from his father. As a result, by the age of just ten he was able to write the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, which contained subsequent entries until 1725/26. Between 1724 and 1726, he is also known to have worked as a copyist for his father’s cantata parts.

Carducci String Quartet / Julian Bliss MOZART Clarinet Quintet in A Major K. 581 WEBER Clarinet Quintet in B flat Major

Julian Bliss joins the Carducci String Quartet in performances of two seminal works – Weber’s Clarinet Quintet in B flat Major, Op. 34 and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581. 

Both Mozart and Weber were inspired by the artisty of performers of their day (Anton Stadler in Mozart’s case, and Heinrich Baermann in Weber’s). Their technical prowess, tonal quality and imaginative range allowed each composer to expand the clarinet repertoire with these works, which remain pre-eminent in the genre.

Les Esprits Animaux TELEMANN Chamber music treasures from Dresden and Darmstadt

“Animal Spirits” is a philosophical term used in the baroque period which defines a certain kind of “subtle stream” that runs through the bodies of human beings and is able to affect their soul and ignite their emotions. Coming from three different continents, and representing new generations of historically informed performers, the members of the baroque band Les Esprits Animaux aim to have the same effect in their audience. Through an informed preparation of our programs and very dynamic concert presentations, we intend to create a bond with the listener, to find ways to tell stories set to music several hundred years ago to the society of the 21st century. Energy, vitality, virtuosity and imagination are some of the terms which critics have used to define the ensemble. Our goal is to create emotions, move and affect the souls of human beings through a music that was composed not only to be heard, but to be lived.

Telemann was one of the most famous and prolific authors of his time and apparently one of the most productive composers in the history of music, with a catalogue of almost three thousands compositions.
Proof of the popularity of Telemann’s music and personality is to be found in the actual origin of the pieces performed here, Darmstadt and Dresden. Telemann never worked in either of these cities officially, but his personal contacts took his works to both of them to be performed by top-class musicians.
With the exception of the relatively well-known  Concerto alla Polonese, the other pieces on this recording aim to do justice to some of those still hidden treasures from his repertoire. Furthermore, three works are recorded here as a world premiere and constitute real jewels.

Hirundo Maris SILENT NIGHT

The year ends its round. This is the time when the night is sovereign. In the dark, faces move away. Life goes to sleep. The hours move differently. Everything is different: the familiar trees, the streets of the village, the sounds of the house. Strange face of the world, frightening mystery of darkness. When winter comes, the great ancestral fear comes back too, the anguish rising from the origins. When will the day come back? When will the light be reborn? When will life return to its colors? And what if the world should descend into eternal night and cold? What if the old world should die? At the solstice people approach the stars; their hearts are frightened by their smallness and weakness. So, wisely, they contemplate the universe, and the place of their small world in a big world. It is the time of celebrations. To ward off fear, people gather. They hope for the promise of a new dawn. They seek illumination in the fires they light. Innumerable, the years that make up the history of humanity. Innumerable, the destinies that have crossed the bridge of time. The human tapestry unfolds through the seasons. Some stitches are marked with gold. Here is the story that has illuminated, forever and forever, the march of humans down the centuries. 

Hirundo Maris, the ensemble led by the Catalan Arianna Savall and the Norwegian Petter Udland Johansen, invites us on a mystical journey into the magic world of winter, Advent and Christmas music. This special programme of music, assembled by Hirundo Maris, contains songs with traditional roots and ancient origins, songs from the North and the South, filled with rejoicing, and songs of the present that embrace the songs of the past. Hirundo Maris is characterized by very personal and creative musical arrangements and a love of the past merging with the present. In this programme the ancient spirit harmonizes with the modern.

Gardiner MONTEVERDI Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria

Monteverdi’s great opera is a celebration of unwavering devotion, conveyed in some of the composer’s most poignant, heart-breaking music.

After two brutal decades of war, the weary Ulysses is washed up on the rocky shore of his home island of Ithaca. There, he discovers the hordes of depraved admirers who have beseiged his faithful wife Penelope in his 20-year absence – and launches into battle to win back her love. Monteverdi’s opera is a celebration of unwavering devotion, conveyed in some of the composer’s most poignant, heartbreaking music.

John Eliot Gardiner leads an exemplary cast of world-class singers alongside the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in this live recording from The National Forum of Music in Wrocław, Poland – part of their critically acclaimed Monteverdi 450 tour in 2017.

DSCH-Shostakovich Ensemble SHOSTAKOVICH Complete Chamber Music for Piano and Strings

While underlining Dmitri Shostakovich’s importance in the history of music, the musicologist Lev Mazel wrote: ‘if human culture does not die out, the life and personality of Dmitri Shostakovich will be studied in depth for centuries and centuries. Just as every detail concerning Beethoven attracts the attention not only of specialists, but a great number of layman, every detail of the life and work of Shostakovich will be of interest to posterity’. So, what do we know of the life of Shostakovich? That it was full, agitated, under constant public judgement and without any slowing of creative output until the end. A few friends and family members could experience an image of him as an engaged citizen assuming his civic responsibilities but also, most importantly, an image of a citizen engaged with and devoted to his art like few others. This image began to be modified after his death as soon as his memoires, journals and diaries started to be published, a process which increased and developed during the post-Soviet era. This contributed to a re-evaluation of Shostakovich during the period following the Cold War and, more generally, of the whole phenomenon of Soviet culture. The posthumous reception of Shostakovich and his music, beyond expanded recognition of his artistic value, became the object of unflagging fascination on the part of musicians, musicologists, journalists and the general public. Even today, we witness great debates on the extra-musical content of his work, particularly the autobiographical fingerprint that Shostakovich explicitly inscribed in certain pieces –for example, his eighth String Quartet, the tenth Symphony, the first Concertos for Violin and Cello and the Sonata for Violin and Piano–, by imposing an occult musical signature. The famous musical motif DSCH which corresponds to the first letters of his first and last names, which correspond to musical note names in German: Dmitri (S)CHostakovitch = DSCH = D, E flat, C, B. On 5 January 1944, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote in a letter to Antal Molnár: ‘Chamber music requires of the composer the most perfect technique and the greatest depth of thought. I would not be too far from the truth if I affirmed that, sometimes, behind the “sparkle” of the orchestral sound is hidden a lack of imagination. Composing chamber music pieces is, for me, significantly more difficult than composing orchestral works…a lack of depth in the thought process in chamber music is simply intolerable’. [….] (Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro)

Roger Waters / Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Musicians IGOR STRAVINSKY'S The Soldier's Tale

The Soldier's Tale is a theatrical work "to be read, played, and danced" by three actors (the soldier, the devil, and a narrator) and dancers, accompanied by a septet of instruments. The libretto relates the parable of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited economic gain. The music is scored for a septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet or trumpet), trombone, and percussion. The libretto is adapted by Roger Waters from the translation by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black, based on the original text by Charles-Ferdinand Ramus.

As the work opens, Joseph, a Russian soldier, marches toward his hometown on leave, pack in tow. ("Marche du soldat"/"The Soldier's March") He rests by a stream and rummages through his pack. First he takes out his lucky St. Joseph medallion, then a mirror, then a photograph of his girlfriend. Finally, he finds what he was searching for: his fiddle. He begins to play. ("Petit airs au bord du ruisseau"/"Airs by a Stream") The devil appears disguised as an old man carrying a butterfly net, but Joseph does not notice him and continues to play. The devil sneaks up on Joseph from behind and startles him.

Chorus Musicus Köln / Das Neue Orchester / Christoph Spering BACH ETERNITY

The two hundred or so church cantatas that Bach wrote and performed during his early appointments and, later, in Leipzig from 1723 until the 1740s are formally varied. Each is a miniature jewel, and all are fascinating in terms of the way in which words and music enter into a new, more intense and more transcendent relationship in their pursuit of theological interpretation. Bach’s engagement with Luther’s chorales led to the composition of thirteen cantatas that we recorded in their entirety and that were released in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.

We are now turning our attention to the annual cycle of chorale cantatas that Bach performed between Trinity Sunday 1724 and Easter 1725. Even though it is incomplete, it remains arguably the most comprehensive of his annual cycles. What is beyond doubt is that this second cantata cycle is far more unified than the others in terms of its compositional aesthetic and formal design. These cantatas owe their unity to the way they are structured: as the basis of each of them Bach has chosen a hymn that begins and ends the cantata. The opening movement is set as a large-scale chorale fantasia, while the final movement is a simple harmonization. For the hymn’s intermediary strophes Bach uses musical forms such as recitative and aria that are typical of the cantata as a genre. Here he combines the form of the Central German chorale cantata that had been cultivated by his predecessor as cantor at St Thomas’s with more modern forms inspired by Italian opera. By strictly adhering to this principle, Bach ruled out the possibility of falling back on existing compositional material with the result that practically all of the cantatas in this particular cycle are newly composed. With regard to their formal variety these cantatas, too, continue to raise questions for their interpreters, questions that we have once again sought to answer by proposing a number of tentative solutions.

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Harding GUSTAV MAHLER Symphonie Nr. 5

For the second installment in his Mahler cycle for harmonia mundi, Daniel Harding revisits a symphony which clearly represents a turning point in the composer's output. The years following Mahler's early period (marked by Des Knaben Wunderhorn) saw the production of works of ever greater complexity and sardonicism, which show no trace of naïveté. Within a framework of utmost intricacy, the themes, musical gestures, and building blocks (for instance, the interval of a minor third which opens the Fifth Symphony's famous Adagietto) trace a journey from darkness to light which culminates in the striking modernity of the finale.

Cappella Amsterdam / Daniel Reuss JOSQUIN DES PREZ Miserere mei Deus

'To lament, to mourn, to memorialise: such was the new fashion at the very end of the fifteenth century', writes Alice Tacaille. 'The poet, in mourning the musician, attains an expressive intimacy ... a eulogy of art that places the lamenting poet himself at the origin of the immortal memory which the artist will enjoy.' Such is the case with the celebrated 'Deploration' on the death of Ockeghem, which, alongside Nymphes, nappées, forms a pair of superb musical epitaphs by the illustrious Josquin. With this programme combining secular homages and sacred polyphony, Daniel Reuss and the singers of Cappella Amsterdam launch a magisterial trilogy devoted to the Franco-Flemish masters of the Renaissance.

Ian Bostridge / Antonio Pappano REQUIEM - THE PITY OF WAR

Marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano have assembled Requiem, a programme of songs offering historical and poetic perspectives on this momentous event. Composed over a period of some 50 years, the songs were written by Gustav Mahler, Kurt Weill and two creative musicians of promise and achievement whose lives were cut short by the Great War, the Englishman George Butterworth (1885-1916) and the German Rudi Stephan (1887-1915). 

"The three Wunderhorn songs are the highlight of the album for me, though I suspect that they’re also the tracks which will really polarise listeners: this is where Bostridge pushes the voice to its absolute limits, flattening the tone and leaving high notes exposed and raw as Mahler’s terrified little drummer-boy and mortally wounded soldier live out their final, agonising moments...Like the album as a whole, it’s by no means an easy listen - but nor should it be." (Katherine Cooper)

This most anguished of British tenors sings as if piercing each note with a bleeding arrow in a selection that doesn’t just make you feel deeply, but also makes you think...a most thoughtfully planned, wide-ranging recital, splendidly serviced by Pappano’s nimble piano. (The Times) 

Marco Ceccato / Amandine Beyer / Gli Incogniti JOSEPH HAYDN Concerti per Esterházy

During his first years in the service of the Esterházy princes, Joseph Haydn had every opportunity to show what he was capable of accomplishing as both instrumental soloist (on violin or keyboard!) and composer; in fact, all his concertos, most of which date from the 1760s, offer a glimpse of a brilliant artist who gradually moved away from the style galant by inventing a new musical dialogue soon to become the Classical style. Tailor-made for specific virtuosos in Haydn's time, these works now receive the undivided attention of Gli Incogniti with their inspired soloists Amandine Beyer and Marco Ceccato. Their enthusiasm for this delightful and demanding music is irresistible!

Jakub Józef Orliński / Il Pomo D'Oro / Maxim Emelyanychev ANIMA SACRA

This release, Anima sacra, marks a number of firsts. It is the debut album from countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński – born in Poland, trained at the renowned Juilliard School in New York and winner in 2016 of the Metropolitan Opera's prestigious National Council Auditions. It also features what are believed to be world premiere recordings of eight Baroque arias, notably by composers of the Neapolitan school. 

“Baroque style is about freedom and passion,” says Orliński. “There are lots of rules of style to follow, but there are also so many choices to make, starting with ornamentation that you can do in so many different ways. With those ornaments, you can show your creativity, but also get even deeper into the piece and show your artistic persona. It can all be filtered by your own life experiences, which will inspire your choices.” 

Warsaw-born Orliński, who has been praised by the New York Times for combining “beauty of tone and an uncommon unity of colour and polish across his range”, comes from a family in which, as he says, “almost everyone is a painter, architect, graphic designer or sculptor”. He began singing in choirs and became a particular fan of the British male vocal ensemble The King’s Singers, which, significantly, has always featured two countertenors. Before completing his studies at Juilliard, he took a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance at Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin University of Musicand became a member of the young artists’ programme of the Polish National Opera.

Elicia Silverstein THE DREAMS & FABLES I FASHION

Violinist Elicia Silverstein is rapidly garnering praise on the international stage for her nuanced, bold and insightful performances of repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Recently named a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Rising Star, Silverstein is equally at home as performer on historical and modern instruments, as a soloist with orchestra, giving recitals and playing chamber music.  Her inventive and thoughtful approach to concert programming, as well as the sincerity and exuberance she brings to musical communication, distinguishes Silverstein as one of the most important voices of her generation.

Rubicon Classics presents: The Dreams & Fables I Fashion Elicia Silverstein's groundbreaking new album - a musical fantasy in which past, present and future meet and inspire each other...

Pacho Flores / Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra / Christian Lindberg FRACTALES

Alongside a successful career as a trombone soloist and composer, Lindberg is internationally sought-after as a conductor. He regularly conducts orchestras around the world, including in places such as Prague, Malmo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Helsinki, Rotterdam, Milan, Nuremberg, Iceland, Athens and Taipei. Lindberg has previously been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Swedish Wind Ensemble and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra.

Throughout these years, Christian and the Arctic Philharmonic have received stunning reviews for their recordings and their performances all over the world, and for their recording projects on the BIS label - these include a box of Tchaikovsky Symphonies and Nordic music from the Arctic Region.

Lindberg and the orchestra, have in recent years performed at venues like the Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, Beethovenfest Bonn (2014), Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg (2015) and Musikverein Vienna (2015), in addition to making a tour of China in 2011 (Wu Promotion). Future invitations include a European tour organized by Mark Stephan Buhl Management and a Japan tour organized by Genroh Hara, Pro Arte Musicae.

Lindberg was voted “The Greatest Brass Player inHistory” by the world's largest radio station, Classic FM, in 2015, and he was awarded the accolade "Artist of the Year" by 16 international chief editors of classical music magazines, in International Classical Music Awards 2016.

As our wonderful collaboration comes to an end in 2018, we are excited to finalize this epoque with a concert in Concertgebouw in Amsterdam featuring Pacho Flores.

Chamber Choir of Europe / Nicol Matt LIGHT ETERNAL

Writing music that radiates a personal voice is the holy grail for many composers. Morten Lauridsen has found his by tapping into the root power of the human voice itself, creating an aesthetic that is immediate while at the same time transportive and transcendent. This combination makes him a rare instance of a mystic in American music, to borrow the choral scholar Nick Strimple’s apt characterization. And it is the secret behind the immense magnetism that attracts listeners and performers to Lauridsen.

Even a first encounter with Lux aeterna, the work that lends this album its title, readily conveys the special qualities that set Lauridsen apart: the meditative spaces he establishes and sustains over long stretches; the clarity with which he writes for the singing voice; above all, the warmth and emotional directness of his musical ideas, which the composer weaves together with concealed but admirable craft, making them sound inevitable. (Thomas May)

Marlis Petersen / Camillo Radicke DIMENSIONEN - ANDERSWELT

The Otherworld... The human being rooted in the world that sees only what the eye can see… Does he at once dare a glance to the side where nature, spirits and elemental beings reside? Not many of us have kept the ability to view them and get in contact. This release offers you the ‘Otherworldly’ eye from the early Romantic period up to the classical modernism, including the Northern countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland), and now hope you allow yourself to be "lost to the world"… Plunge into the magical world of twilight - populated with elemental spirits, elves, waterlilies, nymphs and merman. The creatures of the unseen are the protagonists of this classical song album and tempt the listener into their legendary realms. Carl Loewe, Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Nikolai Medtner, Hugo Wolf, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Hans Sommer and many more engaged themselves in this mystic world and set it in music in a very sensual and playful way!

Plácido Domingo / Pablo Sainz-Villegas VOLVER

Volver, is the brainchild of Domingo and Villegas out now. Featuring famous Iberian and Latin America songs alongside three solo works for the guitar: "The Spanish Coplas", "Nostalgic Fado", and "Mexican Bolero". The album includes pieces such as Violeta Parras’s Gracias a la vida, which was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013, as well as Volver by Alfredo Le Pera, and Carlos Gardel and Álvaro Carrillo’s immensely successful Sabor a mí. These arrangements were prepared by twelve-time Grammy winner Rafa Sardina, resulting in exciting new versions that capture Plácido Domingo’s voice in a uniquely intimate way.

Aleksandra Kurzak / Roberto Alagna MASSENET La Navarraise

With his red-blooded, action-packed opera La Navarraise, Massenet provided a French response to the Italian-driven vogue for verismo in the 1890s. This recording of this rarely-performed work stars Roberto Alagna as the Spanish solider Araquil and Aleksandra Kurzak as Anita, the titular girl from Navarre who is prepared to kill for love. Alberto Veronesi conducts the Opera Orchestra of New York.

Roberto Alagna / Aleksandra Kurzak PUCCINI IN LOVE

Puccini In Love is the first album by award winning operatic tenor superstar Roberto Alagna and his wife, soprano Aleksandra Kurzak. Puccini In Love showcases some of Puccini’s most emotive and passionate operatic work. The album features some of Puccini’s greatest love duets including Madama Butterfly, Manon Lesca and La Bohème as well as lesser-known duets such as Il Tabarro and La Rondine. Both Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra are accomplished opera singers and Puccini In love showcases the exceptional talent, musicality and charisma that makes Alagna and Kurzak the golden couple of the opera world.

Giuliano Carmignola JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sonatas & Partitas BWV 1001-1006

“Who better to disclose the poetic utterances of these pieces with their highly developed ‘esprit de fantaisie’ than Giuliano Carmignola? I cannot think of any other violinist at the moment who feels this music with such depth and delicacy of expression and who can sustain the melodic line in a manner which mirrors the sustained style of an operatic aria.” (BBC Music Magazine)

Giuliano Carmignola was born in Treviso, where his violinist father discovered and encouraged his son’s passion for music and where the Vivaldi renaissance began 50 years ago. Luigi Ferro, his first teacher at the Venice Conservatory, was a soloist with the Scuola Veneziana Orchestra that Angelo Ephrikian created in 1947 to perform Vivaldi’s music. He later played with the Virtuosi di Roma, with whom Carmignola was in turn to appear as a soloist from 1970 to 1978, while succeeding Ferro as a teacher in Venice. 

Daichi Fujiki / Martin Katz PLAISIR D'AMOUR

Placed first in the vocal division of the Music Competition of Japan in 2012. Made his debut as Mannio in Il trionfo di Clelia (The Triumph of Clelia), at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale in May of 2013. Went on to appear as Carmelo in Divorzio all’italiana (Divorce Italian Style) at the same theater, then as Edgar in Reimann’s Lear (conducted by Tatsuya Shimono of Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra) at Nissay Theatre, to great acclaim. Slated to make his debut at the Vienna State Opera in April of 2017 – a first for a Japanese countertenor, as Herold in Reimann’s Medea. With his international activities spanning a wide range of repertoire from baroque to contemporary, Fujiki is currently one of Japanese highest-profile artists.
After making his debut as a tenor in The Marriage of Figaro at the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 2003, studied in Bologna and Vienna.
Converted to a countertenor in 2011. In 2012, was selected to be the Austrian representative for the 31st International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition for the second consecutive year, became a finalist in the world competition, and won the Hans Gabor award.

Quatuor Sine Qua Non / Jean-Pierre Ferey CRAS Quatuor - Quintette

Rediscovered in the 1980s, Jean Cras (1879-1932) is now regarded as one of the best French composers of that time. After listening to Cras’s quartet, Maurice Ravel wrote to him: “You know how much I love your music…” It is likely that Cras’s career as a naval officer separated him from musical life in Paris and explains why his work was so recently rediscovered despite its quality and abundance. Chamber music is set solidly at the height of his work, particularly the string quartet and the quintet for strings and piano. Both works are rarely performed, perhaps because of their difficulty. Jean-Pierre Ferey is comtinuing his exploration of Jean Cras’s work with this release. After recording his album of Cras’s works for violin and piano with Marie-Annick Nicolas and Cras’s works for piano solo, the French pianist is now performing alongside the young quartet Sine Qua Non, here recording for the first time.

Eugen Indjic CHOPIN Sonatas

4th Prize winner, 8th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1970). Eugen Indjic’s mother was a Russian amateur pianist and his father a Serbian army officer. He emigrated to the US with his mother at the age of four. He became interested in music by chance, after hearing a recording of Chopin’s Impromptu in C sharp minor and Polonaise in A flat major. Moved by a desire to master these pieces, he took systematic piano lessons with Georgian pianist Lubov Stephani. After two years, she introduced him to Alexander Borovsky, who was his teacher for the next five years (1959–1964). Simultaneously, Mr. Indjic studied piano playing at the Juilliard School of Music with Mieczysław Münz and Rosina Lhévinne’s apprentice Lee Thompson (1965–1968), and theory and composition at the Harvard University with Lorin Berman and Leon Kirchner (1965–1969). In 1968, he met Artur Rubinstein with whom he consulted in New York and Paris for over ten years. Between 1965 and 1972, Indjic taking private summer lessons with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Clifford Curzon in Fountainebleau. Before enrolling for the Chopin competition, he also worked with Witold Małcużyński in Majorca and Konstanty Schmaeling in Paris, for several months.

Maria Raspopova PROKOFIEV Visions Fugitives

Throughout the year Maria Raspopova largely plays chamber music with Omega Ensemble. As well as being their resident pianist she is also the Co-Artistic Director which, besides playing music, involves planning repertoire, concerts, administration and a number of other related duties.  While she loves playing chamber music she also loves appearing as a solo pianist.

I discovered Visions Fugitives when I was very young, around the age of 12 or 13. Prokofiev has always held a place in my playing life for several reasons. Firstly, because he was revered in Russia and he was my piano teacher's favourite composer so I was exposed to his music quite a lot.

I always felt connected to his music in a way that I haven’t with other music. I can’t really explain why but I think it has something to do with the purity and the clarity of his writing, especially for the piano. His music, in many ways, is like Mozart. It is simple, pure and profoundly beautiful.

I’m doing the entire set of Visions Fugitives which contains 20 short works. Each work is quite short, and each is very unique with their own character. As a whole these little vignettes represent Prokofiev fully as a composer and I am really excited to present these works to you. (Maria Raspopova)

Bryn Terfel DREAMS AND SONGS

Sir Bryn Terfel has enlisted a host of impressive guest stars to duet with him on his new album Dreams and Songs – including two stars of the big screen and television, his friends Dame Emma Thompson and Rob Brydon. Fellow singers Alfie Boe, Katherine Jenkins, Joseph Calleja and Danielle de Niese also appear on the recording.

Terfel is joined by his former Sweeney Todd co-star, Oscar-winning actress Dame Emma Thompson for “Do You Love Me” from Fiddler on the Roof – a song she describes as being “just so moving”. Terfel says, “She came to the recording at Abbey Road the day after it was announced she was being made a Dame, so of course the champagne corks should have been popping but there was work to be done.”

Comedian and fellow Welshman Rob Brydon joins Terfel on the duet “The Golfer’s Lament”, a light-hearted tale of life on the fairway. The rousing romp captures their cheeky sense of humour and their shared love of the sport – as Terfel says, “I think it describes our love of golf to a tee.” Brydon adds, “It was an honour and a thrill to sing with Sir Bryn, and what better than a song celebrating my sporting shortcomings!”

Completing the remarkable line-up of singers is tenor Alfie Boe on “Perhaps Love”, soprano Danielle de Niese on “Amazing Grace”, tenor Joseph Calleja on “Granada”, and soprano Katherine Jenkins on “Tell My Father” from The Civil War. There is also a world premiere recording of “The Shepherd Poet Of Passchendaele”, written especially for Terfel by Penclawdd-born Sir Karl Jenkins, the most performed living composer. The song is inspired by the story of Welsh poet Hedd Wyn, who died on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele (the Third Battle of Ypres), with poignant lyrics written by Sir Karl’s wife – Lady Jenkins, Carol Barratt.

Acclaimed worldwide for tackling the biggest opera roles, Sir Bryn’s new album – his first in five years – shows his lighter side with a collection of his most loved songs, recorded in brand new orchestral versions. He says, “This is some of my favourite concert repertoire. Songs and duets, some humorous encores that I just adore to sing. And how lucky I am to share the album with some incredible artists, and to record at the amazing, iconic Abbey Road.”

Rachel Barton Pine / Matthew Hagle BLUES DIALOGUES

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” (Washington Post) known for her “bravura technique and soulful musicianship” (New York Times), headlines a groundbreaking album of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent.
World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa’s A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, based on American fiddle tunes, and Billy Childs’s Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata/tone poem written as a response to a fatal shooting by police. Another premiere is Wendell Logan’s violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington’s 1935 composition, In a Sentimental Mood.
The album’s title track, Dolores White’s improvisational Blues Dialogues, draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations and a blues harmonic language. David N. Baker’s gospel-tinged Blues (Deliver My Soul) evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Blue/s Forms and Louisiana Blues Strut befit a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds. Each movement of William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist. Clarence Cameron White’s Levee Dance, a favorite of legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance. Errollyn Wallen’s Woogie Boogie is a humorous and inventive reimaging of the boogie-woogie blues dance. Daniel Bernard Roumain’s Filter, with a new opening cadenza written specially for Rachel Barton Pine, conjures the sounds of electronic dance music and psychedelic guitar. Concluding the program, Charles S. Brown’s A Song Without Words was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson.

Jonas Vitaud DEBUSSY Jeunes Années

Jonas Vitaud studied with Brigitte Engerer, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Christian Ivaldi and was given four first prizes at the Paris National Conservatory (piano, chamber music, harmony and piano accompaniment). He has been awarded several international prizes as a soloist and in chamber music (Lyon, ARD in Munich, Trieste, Beethoven in Vienna).

Passionate about contemporary music, he has worked with, among others, Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtag, Philippe Hersant, Yann Robin... who have inspired him greatly and have helped him develop as an artist.

In 2018, he will release on the MIRARE label an album dedicated to Claude Debussy.

Since 2013, he teaches at the Paris National Conservatory, he is also supported by the Singer-Polignac Foundation.

James Akers LE DONNE E LA CHITARRA

Drama Musica invites you to explore the fascinating world of women composers, which will be featured on our new collection DONNE. The first release of this collection presents a selection of works -including world première recordings - by three overlooked women composers from the 19th century: Emilia Giuliani, Athénaïs Paulian and Catharina Pratten. If the conventional narrative of the guitar caused the neglect of a great deal of music, the composers featured on this recording suffered the added adversity of being women in a male dominated world. They were overlooked by history, occasionally referenced, footnoted as anomalies but rarely championed or performed. These works are performed here by celebrated guitarist James Akers. DONNE’s collection will also be featured on its dedicated website, which will continue the champion women composers.

If the conventional historical narrative of the guitar caused the neglect of a great deal of music, the composers featured on this recording suffered the added adversity of being women in a male dominated world. They were overlooked by history, occasionally referenced, footnoted as anomalies but rarely championed or performed. However, to say these women lived lives devoid of appreciation is to do an injustice to their times.
Madame Sidney Pratten (1821-1895) toured Europe as a child prodigy, was well known in English society and was the subject of a glowing biography. Athénaïs Paulian (1802-c.1875) was a friend of many of the leading guitarists of the day and dedicatee of numerous works; while Emilia Giuliani (1813-1850) shared the stage with Franz Liszt and was judged his equal by audience and critics alike. (James Akers)

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Gustavo Gimeno STRAVINSKY

This double album offers a testimony to Stravinsky’s overwhelming musical heritage, covering all the phases of his creative life. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is twentieth-century music! More than any other composer, he continued to develop his compositional style throughout his seven-decade-spanning career, innovating and adopting all the most important musical trends of his century. Historically, the musical journey starts with one of the first recordings of the recently rediscovered Funeral Song (1909), composed as a tribute to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The next phase in his development is represented with the raw but tremendously refined Rite of Spring (1913), Stravinsky’s most famous work that created a scandal at its Paris world premiere, and immediately turned him into a star. His Neoclassical style is showcased by Jeu de cartes (1937) and the Concerto in D (1947), whereas Agon (1957) presents Stravinsky’s original take on Schoenberg’s serialism.

Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart / Bach-Collegium Stuttgart / Matthew Halls ALESSANDRO GRANDI Vespro della Beata Vergine

Alessandro Grandi (ca. 1586–1630) was Claudio Monteverdi’s Vice-Kapellmeister at St. Mark’s in Venice for seven years, before he was elected Kapellmeister at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo in 1627. He improved the musical conditions there in a very short time, however already in 1630 he and his entire family succumbed to the plague. The musical height of his tenure as Kapellmeister were the elaborately celebrated Marian feast days, for which the musical forces were doubled. Through their publication Grandi’s works were widely disseminated and document the fact that as a composer he proved to be a lasting influence in shaping the rapid developments and changes which took place in music at the beginning of the 17th century. The quality of his psalm settings, especially the later ones, make him, together with Monteverdi and Rovetta, one of the most important composers of his day. His Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) is comprised of works taken from various printed collections of the master and may be regarded as a model for current practice of the early baroque in Italy. The CD is from a live recording of a concert presented during the Musikfest Stuttgart 2010 by the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart together with outstanding soloists, such as Deborah York and Peter Harvey under the direction of Matthew Hall.

Russian National Orchestra / Carlo Ponti MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition - Night on the Bare Mountain

It may seem perverse with a Russian orchestra to have the least Russian-sounding orchestration of Pictures, albeit the most inspired one. Yet Carlo Ponti, so far as he can, brings out the Russian-ness of Mussorgsky’s inspiration with each of the pictures sharply characterised and with much delicate playing in such items as “The Fair at Limoges” set against the weight of the tuttis, notably in the final “Great Gate at Kiev”. That goes with recording of extreme dynamic range, arguably too extreme for domestic comfort. The wind solos are specially impressive, as is the horn descant in the “Great Gate of Kiev”. In short, an excellent version of a much-recorded showpiece.

Night on the Bare Mountain comes in the highly unauthentic but undeniably effective Rimsky version, brilliantly played here with powerful bite. The Khovanshchina excerpts make an effective, atmospheric filler, but the disc offers rather short measure at just on an hour. The Super Audio recording adds to the impact of the performances, well engineered by Pentatone technicians trained by Philips. (Edward Greenfield / Gramophone, 6/2009)

Julien Martineau / Concerto Italiano / Rinaldo Alessandrini COME UNA VOLTA

A luminous, easily recognizable instrument, and a symbol of Italy's learned and popular musical tradition, the mandolin has been the subject of several major compositions throughout the history of music. First of all, the famous concertos by Vivaldi: two of them appear here on this intensely romantic album (‘Come une volta’) that Julien Martineau - one of today’s greatest figureheads of the instrument - has recorded for Naïve. We also finally get to hear, thanks to the world premiere recording by Julien Martineau, the legendary, virtuosic and poetic second concerto (of which the manuscript was lost) by Raffaele Calace (1863-1934), who was often described as "the Paganini of the mandolin". The instrument is in fact so close, in many ways, to the violin. The Caudioso concerto completes an album which, steeped in authenticity and musical excellence, honors and lends prestige not only to the art of mandolin, but also to Italian and musical culture as a whole.

Philippe Graffin / Claire Désert SCHUMANN

Fine as Gringolts is, Graffin’s performance of the second sonata accompanied by Claire Desert, finds subtler colours and contrasts in the music while also coming across as more highly charged: very engaging. I also prefer Graffin’s programme. Having given us the one masterpiece among the three sonatas, he champions the arrangement of the Cello Concerto that Schumann made for his violinist friend Joseph Joachim. I approached this with suspicion but was won over.Not only does the music retain its character in the voice of the violin, but the result sounds more convincing than the concerto Schumann wrote expressly for the violin. Excellent accompaniment from the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken under Christoph Poppen, and a sweet-tasting filler in the shape of Clara Schumann’s three Romances for violin and piano." (Andrew Clark)

Graffin makes a very persausive case for the Cello Concerto on a violin." "Graffin is effortlessly excellent - producing a warm, well-focused sound - and he is very deftly partnered by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern. Christoph Poppen is the sensitive and rhythmically alert conductor. The rest of Graffin’s disc inludes Three Romances by Clara Schumann and a passionate, strongly propelled acount of the Second Violin Sonata in an absorbing partnership with the pianist Claire Desert that makes for impressive results." (Nigel Simeone)

Alexander Lonquich SCHUBERT 1828

Alexander Lonquich has his own special place in the world of the piano: this German pianist, who made his home in Italy, has enjoyed an untypical career. A disciple of Paul Badura-Skoda, he is highly respected by many conductors and instrumental artists, such as Philippe Herreweghe, Nicolas Altstaedt and Christian Tetzlaff, with all of whom he collaborates on a regular basis. Navigating his way between the modern and the early piano, he takes the time needed to allow programmes to properly mature, working on them and thinking them over for several years. Such was also the case for this recording, carefully made on a modern Steinway piano, and we have genuinely fallen in love with it. As Alexander Lonquich’s accompanying notes to the CD testify, the artist has intensively reflected on and lived with the music of Schubert before recording it.

The year of Schubert’s death, which took place on 19* November 1828, was marked - particularly from its springtime - by an extraordinary burst of artistic creativity, produced at a frenetic working pace. It was during this period that he composed the three last piano sonatas and the threeKlavierstücke that make up this programme.

Eloïse Bella Kohn CLAUDE DEBUSSY Préludes

Eloïse Bella Kohn is a regular guest of France’s most prominent concert venues and festivals, such as Salle Gaveau, La Roque d’Anthéron, Radio France à Montpellier, Lille Piano Festival, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse and the Festival International d’Art lyrique in Aix-en-Provence.

Being awarded Young Talent by the renown cultural magazine Diapason in 2016 and “Yamaha Artist” since 2018, the young French pianist shows an extraordinary depth of musicality and is leading a promising career. She makes regular appearances as studio guest of France Musique and other major cultural radio channels such as RTS Suisse.

Eloïse Bella Kohn devotes herself to major piano works such as the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach and the late piano sonatas by L. van Beethoven. Her wide repertory includes the complete works for piano and winds by F. Poulenc. In November 2018 her first album featuring Debussy’s 24 Préludes will be released by the german label Hänssler Classic.

William Youn SCHUMANN - SCHUBERT - LISZT

This album is a musical journey through popular romantic pieces: from Schumann's "HumoreskeOp. 20 ", a selection of Schubert's" Valses sentimentales", Liszt's "Soirées de Vienne ", works by Clara Schumann such as the" Scherzo no. 2 " to works such as" Ständchen" by Schubert / Liszt or " Ichhabe'in IhrAuge" by Clara Schumann / Liszt.

The award-winning pianist William Younhas been described by critics as a “genuine poet” with “sovereign, bravura technique of touch”. After early studies in Korea and in the USA, William again changed continents to study at the Hanover University of Music and at the Piano Academy Lake Como, where he worked regularly with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andreas Staier, William Grant Naboréand Menahem Pressler. Based now in his adopted hometown of Munich, Germany, William performs internationally from Berlin via Seoul to New York with major orchestras, including Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Mariinsky Theater and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

As chamber musician, William enjoys close collaborations with Nils Mönkemeyer, Sabine Meyer, Julian Steckel, CarolinWidmann, Veronika Eberle, Johannes Moser and the Signum Quartet. He also performs increasingly on fortepiano, including at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival and the Mozart Festival in Würzburg. William has recorded for Sony Korea and ArsProduktion. Other recordings include a first disc of works by Brahms with Mönkemeyer, and 'Mozart with Friends' with Sabine Meyer, Julia Fischer and Mönkemeyer, which was named Chamber Music Recording of the Year at ECHO Klassik2017.

Sergio Foresti / Stile Galante / Stefano Aresi ANTONIO CALDARA Brutus

With this album, Stile Galante continues its work in the world of the Italian solo chamber cantata – here Stefano Aresi’s ensemble joins forces with baritone Sergio Foresti in order to bring us a selection of cantatas by Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) for bass. These unusual pieces are preserved in precious manuscripts in Bologna and Vienna and are extremely demanding for the singer, asking for great skills (both vocal and theatrical). The seven cantatas recorded here offer a welcome, unusual view on Italian vocal chamber music, especially as linked to the Viennese court. The Italian bass, Sergio Foresti, graduated with full marks in piano, under the guidance of Germana Ruozi, and in singing with Maria Gabriella Munari at the Istituto Musicale O. Vecchi. He subsequently took part in the specialising courses held by Liliana Poli and Leonardo De Lisi. Sergio Foresti made his debut in 1998 in L’Olimpiade by Antonio Vivaldi at the Teatro Rendano di Cosenza. From then on, he started to appear in some of the most important festivals and theatres throughout Europe.

Musica Fiorita / Daniela Dolci JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Weihnachtsoratorium

After Handels’s Messiah and the Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Daniela Dolci and Musica Fiorita present on Pan Classics their version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Based in Basel, Dolci has easy access to many of the best vocal soloists around, and this recording has been no exception: the role of the Evangelist is sung by Hans Jörg Mammel, and the other main roles are defended by Gunta Smirnova, Flavio Ferri-Benedetti and Raitis Grigalis. With such a setup, the question of “why a new recording of the Christmas Oratorio” is needed is easily answered. For more than 25 years the ensemble Musica Fiorita, conducted by Daniela Dolci, has been specializing in the performance of late Renaissance and Baroque music. The ensemble strives to promote the current standards of historically informed performance practice and is committed to being true to both the original scores and the liveliness of their performance. The varied use of period instruments as well as the presence of a substantial continuo group add to the flourishing of the finer nuances of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Alpha J.S.BACH Goldberg Variations Recomposed by Peter Navarro-Alonso

These Goldberg Variations present new perspectives on a well-known score. Danish composer Peter Navarro-Alonso's composition is a note-by-note reinvention of the original Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach. Thus Alpha's innovative performance adds no additional notes in comparison to the original. It is merely through the very creative and extreme orchestration that the new composition gains its own life. “The combination of recorder, saxophone and percussion is clearly not very well suited to a baroque-style reorchestration,” claims Peter Navarro-Alonso, responsible for this arrangement tailor made for the members of Alpha. “But the richness in that combination lies in its enormous diversity in timbre and dynamics.” Alpha is a unique Danish ensemble, founded by Bolette Roed, Peter Navarro-Alonso, and David Hildebrandt, who all graduated from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen. As early as 2003, they were the first to explore this instrument combination, attracted by its many possibilities. Alpha was an immediate success, and have been prize-winners at contests and festivals all over Europe.

Justin Taylor BACH Harpsichord Works

At the age of only twenty-three, the Franco-American musician wins First Prize at the International Musica Antiqua Harpsichord Competition in Bruges, as well as the Audience Prize and two other special prizes. His first disc, which appeared at Alpha in September 2016 and is devoted to the Forqueray family, earns unanimous critical praise: it is awarded a CHOC from Classica Magazine, an “Editor’s Choice” from Gramophone, and a Grand Prix from the Académie Charles Cros. Justin Taylor is nominated as one of the three finalists in the “Instrumental Soloist Revelations” category in the 2017 “Victoires de la Musique” on the national television channel “France 3”. He has just recorded Mozart’s 17th concerto (K 453) with Le Concert de la Loge (Julien Chauvin). Ever willing to share his love of music with the general public, Justin Taylor performs as a soloist on the harpsichord and the fortepiano, as well as with his chamber music ensemble, the Taylor Consort

Purcell Choir / Orfeo Orchestra / György Vashegyi FRANCESCO BARTOLOMEO CONTI Missa Sancti Pauli

The modern-day appreciation of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti takes a decisive turn in the direction of his church music with this early eighteenth-century composer’s Missa Sancti Pauli given an ideal recording on Glossa by György Vashegyi, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra. Conti was a Florentine who worked for much of his career in the Imperial Court in Vienna, generating much attention there – the ever-observant JS Bach and Zelenka were both known to have been attracted by his music. Curiously, it was liturgical works like this 1715 Missa Sancti Pauli which kept Conti’s name known until near to the end of the nineteenth century rather than the operas, oratorios and cantatas with which he delighted the Viennese Court and which have hitherto been receiving the attention of artists and record labels today.

If Conti’s church music is less fledgling Classical than his dramatic fare, there is much in the way of melodic tunefulness and concertato style – for both voices and instruments – to combine with fugal-imitative writing reminiscent of the stile antico. The work is a Credo Mass (both Mozart and Beethoven were to write examples of this genre, with its rondolike restatement of the word in the Credo section.

The tone, control, presence and unity of the Purcell Choir have been amply demonstrated already on Glossa in music of the French Baroque – Rameau and Mondonville in particular – and the singers are given full opportunity to shine in Conti’s mass – as are the orchestra, comprised mainly of strings, and the vocal soloists, who include Adriána Kalafszky, Péter Bárány, Zoltán Megyesi and Thomas Dolié. Bárány and Megyesi are also soloists in two additional works: the motet, Fastos caeli audite and the aria Pie Jesu, ad te refugio.

Les Pages et Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles / Collegium Marianum / Olivier Schneebeli MICHEL-RICHARD DE LALANDE Grands Motets

One of the great composing figures from the French Baroque, Michel-Richard de Lalande is starting to receive his just dues through modern recordings, and Glossa is happy to unveil a new release featuring Olivier Schneebeli directing Les Pages et Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles in three of Lalande’s sumptuous grands motets. Very much a favoured composer during the reign of Louis XIV, Lalande progressively assumed – from the 1680s onwards – more and more of the principal court offices, and was called upon to provide sacred music for the Chapelle Royale within the Château de Versailles. Although the new (and ‘definitive’) chapel was not consecrated until 1710, the trio of grands motets (extended multi-movement choral and solo settings, typically of Psalms, with instrumental accompaniment) recorded here will have been conceived of according to the chapel’s architectural and acoustical characteristics. Thomas Leconte, from the CMBV, provides an illuminating historical backdrop in his booklet essay.

Much detailed performing information from Lalande’s time is known today – including number of instrumental forces used and about the composer’s later revisions of his scores – and Venite, exultemus Domino, De profundis and Dominus regnavit all receive expressive and meticulously-prepared performances within the Chapelle Royale itself. To the quality of preparation of the CMBV maîtrise can be added the presence of a quartet of vocal soloists deeply experienced in the style of music from this time: Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Reinoud Van Mechelen, François Joron and Lisandro Abadie. Likewise, the contribution of Jana Semerádová’s Collegium Marianum provides exemplary instrumental support to Schneebeli’s direction in this new CMBV production.

Aleksandra Bryła / Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryła JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 3 Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1014-1016

In the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, two groups of sonatas composed for violin and harpsichord can be distinguished. The first group features the harpsichord performing only the role of basso continuo. The second group includes the harpsichord as an equal partner to the violin. This release features six sonatas of the latter category. Aleksandra Bryla is a versatile violinist with rich artistic achievements. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician, cooperating with prominent figures of the international music scene. She is a laureate of several violin and chamber music competitions around the world. In 2007 she cofounded the Meccore String Quartet, with which she carries out dynamic international concert activity. As a soloist, she has achieved major success at the National Zdzislaw Jahnke Violin Competition in Poznan, the Michael Hill International Competition in New Zealand, the International Violin Competition Valsesia-Musica in Italy and the International Violin Competition in Avignon in France. Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryla is a graduate of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, where she studied in the harpsichord class of Z. Brencz-Budny and E. Mielczarek-Poprawa and in the organ class of R. Sroczynski. She has taken numerous courses in the interpretation of early music, and is founder and director of the early music ensemble Brill’ante.

Mariinsky Orchestra / Valery Gergiev STRAVINSKY Petrushka - Jeu de Cartes

The Mariinsky Label presents Valery Gergiev’s first recording of Stravinsky’s iconic Petrushka score, paired with one of the composer’s hidden gems, the witty Jeu de cartes.

Stravinsky’s score to Petrushka is one of his most celebrated works and a product of his famous collaboration with Diaghilev that also produced The Firebird and Rite of Spring. Presented here in the composer’s original 1911 version, it tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets who are brought to life during the 1830 Shrovetide Fair in Saint Petersburg. Its colourful music typifies Stravinsky’s work during the period and is characterised by the famous bitonal ‘Petrushka chord’.

A ballet in ‘three deals’, 1937’s Jeu de cartes stems from Stravinsky’s life-long enthusiasm for cards; poker in particular. A commission by Lincoln Kirstein and his newly formed American Ballet Company, it was composed during Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. The whimsical music focuses on the deceitful Joker who thinks himself unbeatable, thanks to a chameleon-like ability to become any card. During the work the Joker wages battle with other hands, but after two victorious rounds and the appearance of a third, he is vanquished by a Royal Flush of Hearts. Stravinsky regularly read La Fontaine during the composition of Jeu de cartes, choosing this quote to include in the score: ‘We must wage continual war against the wicked. Peace in itself is a fine thing, I agree, but what use can it be with enemies who do not keep their word?’

Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev REFLECTIONS

Reflections marks the first recording on Decca Classics of Russian pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, second prize winner at both the 2013 Cleveland International Piano Competition and the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition.

The album features Russian classics including Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux, Prokofiev's Visions fugitives, and pieces by Scriabin, Medtner and Tchaikovsky. Of the album, Arseny says that it is very special and precious to him, observing that "it's a bit like an old magic mirror — maybe a false one — which has seen a few generations passing by, and contains memories of all of them."

The album also pays homage to the music of Arseny's grandmother, internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Tatiana Nikolayeva.
  

"when I see Arseny play, the whole history of piano playing begins to unfold before me" - Gerard Willems

"profound musicality and deeply lyrical talent... a rare treat in a musician of his young age, and we can't wait to see him grow and develop in his career" - Dr. Alexander Buhr, Decca Classics

"the piano's ultimate aristocrat" - Cyrus Meher-Homji, Universal Music Australia

Dorothee Mields / Lautten Compagney / Wolfgang Katschner WAR & PEACE 1618 : 1918

Some time ago Dorothee Mields asked me if we could perhaps perform some songs by Friedrich Hollaender. A glance at the fragile manuscript of his Lieder eines armen Mädchens (1921–24) revealed many similarities with the songs of the seventeenth century. The printed editions and manu- script scores that have come down to us from the early Baroque contain very little information and yet they conceal within them whole worlds of musical expression. 

And then the year 2018 arrived, with its linking lines going back to 1618 and the outbreak of the Thirty Years War and to 1918, the end of the First World War. We have placed the First World War within the context of the period from 1914 to 1945, resulting in a further Thirty Years War. Both of these periods ended in extensive changes to existing political systems.

What are the links between works written over a three-hundred-year period? In all of the vocal pieces that are included in this release it is the words that provide this link – all are text-related. The German musicians and poets at the time of the Thirty Years War were all part of the sixteenth-century tradition of the Reformation and as such were looking for new forms for the German language and for new ways in which that language could develop. In their attempt to lend a common impulse to language and literature these poets and musicians formed groups and societies that may nowadays strike us as comical. Their number included the poets and musicians featured in this recording. (Wolfgang Katschner)