Music is the key

Patricia Wolf Zuber and Greg Zuber, a husband and wife duo, have been exploring and expanding the flute and marimba duo repertoire for over thirty years. They are passionate about this music, having played countless pieces for this combination and commissioning and arranging over 30 works. They are both winners of numerous Grammy Awards for their performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra of New York, Patricia as an Associate Flutist and Greg as Principal Percussionist, a position he has held for more than 25 years. We have been performing together since we first met in college. Along with busy careers based in New York City, at the Metropolitan Opera, on Broadway, and with other prestigious ensembles, we have continued our duo performances, building repertoire with newly discovered works, commissioned pieces, and adapted and arranged music. We take inspiration from genius composers whose vocation is to translate ideas of life into form and sound. Our passi...

After the scandalously successful (Sunday Times) Symphony No. 10 in 2015, the sheer expressive beauty (Gramophone Magazine) of Symphonies Nos. 5, 8, 9 from 2016, and the overbearing vividness (The Guardian) of the most recent Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11, Nelsons and the BSO continue the Grammy-winning cycle with Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7. The symphonies are complemented by two other works by Shostakovich , the Suite from the Incidental Music to King Lear, Op. 58a and the Festive Overture, Op. 96.

Following the success of her Odradek debut, Splinters, pianist Mariann Marczi pays tribute to the genius of Schubert. With his Moments musicaux, Schubert set the standard for a whole genre: dancing, evocative miniatures, each offering a brief snapshot of some vignette or character, like a succession of colourful pictures in a slide show. Like Schubert, Hüttenbrenner studied with Salieri and was influenced by Beethoven; the theme from the slow movement of his String Quartet No. 1 is audibly related to the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Schubert particularly loved that symphony, but chose his friend’s theme as the basis for his set of Variations on a theme by Hüttenbrenner. Hungarian pianist Mariann Marczi relishes approaching Schubert’s music from different perspectives, ranging from Baroque nuances in some of Schubert’s Moments musicaux, to glorious Romanticism which anticipates Schumann’s music . Alongside Schubert’s captivating Moments musicaux and inven...

Caminante (2014) for cello and choir. The text is from Antonio Machado's poem Caminante, which talks of someone who walks through a non-existing path, creating it by taking steps forward. The music is meditative, mystical, intuitive, welcoming the uncertainty of the future with humility but with confidence. Premiere: Spain 2015. Speechless (2015) for percussion (vibraphone, cymbal, marimba) and cello. The work was dedicated and written for Ensemble ACJW (now known as Ensemble Connect). The piece was born out of a question I have asked myself many times: “What does it mean to have a voice?” In the piece, the performers embark on a playful, yet desperate search. At its core, it is an experience based on a non-verbal discussion between the inner voices of one’s self.The premiere of this work was presented by Carnegie Hall at National Sawdust in New York City, on March 29, 2016. Garrett Arney, the percussionist for whom this piece was written for, premiered it with me. Crisol:...

This season 18/19 Ophélie Gaillard will be performing as a soloist with the Filharmonia Slovenska under the direction of James Judd, with the National Orchestra of Brittany conducted by Marc Feldman and with her ensemble, the Pulcinella Orchestra. Her repertoire includes Boccherini’s concertos, CPE Bach, Vivaldi, Schumann, Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Roccoco Theme, and Nino Rota’s transcriptions. She can be heard in Paris (Radio-France auditorium, the cycle of the Army Museum) and in the French provinces as well as abroad (tours in Italy, Singapore, Germany). In the spring of 2019 a double monographic record will be released, dedicated to Luigi Boccherini with the Pulcinella Orchestra and Sandrine Piau, published by the Aparté label and distributed by HM. Ophélie Gaillard will be a member of the jury of the prestigious competition of the ARD of Munich and will give masterclasses at the French American school of Fontainebleau, in Munich, during the Musicalp sum...

The astonishing 19-year-old Dutch recorder player Lucie Horsch returns to takes us on a journey around Baroque Europe, showcasing the most virtuosic music from her native Netherlands, as well as Germany, Italy, France, Spain and England. Highlights from the album include Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba , Bach’s Badinerie and the world premiere recording of a concerto by Jacques-Christophe Naudot and Dido’s Lament by Purcell. For her second album, Lucie is joined by the Academy of Ancient Music who are making their first DECCA recording in over 20 years!

Acclaimed trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator Wadada Leo Smith has released an oratorio of seven songs inspired by the iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks. In his own words, Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs is "concerned with ideas of freedom, liberty and justice, a meditation centered around the civil rights movement." Looking at Smith's more than 50 years of creative and artistic vision, this release is yet another inspired organic musical direction that has established him as one of the leading composers and performers of contemporary music.  With this personal homage, Smith is taking himself and his audience on another musical and spiritual journey, making discoveries with sparse instrumentation, solo vocalists, spoken word, and historical video presentation, with live performances scheduled for 2019. This tribute to Parks beautifully mixes a world of exceptional vocal parts between African American Karen Parks, Min Xiao-Fe...

It was never going to be a complete surprise to find these four concertos to be an exquisitely joyous and exciting listen, when on the ticket we have Concerto Köln’s concertmaster Shunske Sato and the always sparkling Il Pomo d’Oro. Still, the degree of exquisitely joyful listening has nevertheless completely bowled me over. So much so, in fact, that it feels a little mundane to begin with talk of tempos. However, in the context of the many steeplechase interpretations of this repertoire out there, it is worth stating at the outset that this is not one of those. By contrast, all the speeds here just feel right: unhurried, but equally brimming with energy and flow. What really makes this recording one to treasure, though, is the degree of uncontrived personality and artistry on display. Subtle rubato is a major factor in this: playful mini-tugs that catch and tease the ear without ever interfering with the momentum. Less subtle but equally spot-on touches then inc...

The Elegiacal Muse tends to provide the deepest inspiration. It was said, in the Jacobean England of John Dowland's day, the Lady Musick (a semi-deity seated on a cloud halfway between Heaven and Earth with a lute and song book in her hands) was happiest when men and women below sang songs of deep melancholy, for these plangent harmonies went deep into the hearts of listeners and changed the more sensitive souls permanently, the more dolorous the music, the more sustaining the food for the soul.  Funeral lamentations gave rise to the earliest song cycles in the English language, two by John Coprario: Funerall Teares (1606), a cycle of seven laments for Lady Penelope Devereux on the death of her lover, Charles Mountjoy, and then in 1613 the musical setting of the great cycle of poems written by Thomas Campion grieving at the untimely death of Prince Henry, The Songs of Mourning. These two cycles were the direct inspiration for this present sequence of elegies and laments, a mo...

A famously demanding summit of the Romantic piano literature performed by a Russian artist of prodigious talents. Having gained the Gold Medal and the Audience Award at the XVI International Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in 2014, Andrey Gugnin (b.1987) is in huge demand as both a concert and recording artist. Following that particular competition success (one of many, including the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016), Gugnin recorded Pictures at an Exhibition, which has become a tour de force for Gugnin on recent tours of Europe, America and Asia. Glenn Gould, Emil Gilels and Sergei Rachmaninov are Gugnin’s ‘piano heroes’: the last two noted exponents of Franz Liszt in their own right, and among the composer’s vast output, still only a fraction of which is generally known, the Transcendental Etudes are the pre-eminent works to embody the contradictions and contrasts at the heart of the man and his music: ‘transcendent’ both in terms of the demands they m...

In the centenary anniversary year of the end of the First World War and on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, SOMM Recordings pays tribute to those who fought and fell in battle with In Remembrance. A moving compendium of music spanning 130 years, it features the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Choir of Chelsea Pensioners, Staff and Volunteers, sopranos Katy Hill and Leah Jackson, baritone Gareth John and organists James Orford and Hugh Rowlands under the direction of William Vann. Founded in 1682 by King Charles II, the Royal Hospital is home to the world-famous Chelsea Pensioners – retired veterans of the British army – whose contributions on three tracks adds its own special poignancy to In Remembrance . Moving choral works commemorating courage and offering comfort by Hubert Parry (his anthemic Jerusalem ), Gustav Holst (the stirring I Vow to Thee, My Country ) and Edward Elgar (his serene partsong They are at re...

Perhaps Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Devin du Village has been waiting just for you for two centuries at the Theatre de la Reine at the Petit Trianon. On September 19, 1780, Marie-Antoinette was on stage, in costume, and was acting with her troop of aristocrats in front of a public of close friends. That evening, she was singing the role of Colette, the heroine of this one act opera composed in 1753 by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau , perhaps the most celebrated work of its time. That exceptional evening, a veritable fantasy of the Queens who imagined that she was a shepherdess, has been resuscitated under the direction of Sebastien dHerin in a costumed reconstitution, staged in the original historic sets.

With an impressive repertoire that extends from Palestrina to Britten, the Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge has established itself as a leading British choral group that can hold its own against the competition. Known for an active recording career, the combined voices of the chapel choir and the college choir have produced albums on sacred themes, such as the seasons of the ecclesiastical year and other topics of religious significance. Church music doesn't get more essential than the standard hymns that are held in common by many Christian denominations, and this practical aspect of liturgical music is sometimes overlooked by fans of British choral recordings. For this album, director Richard Pinel has chosen 21 beloved hymns that, for the most part, are so well-known, it might be difficult for listeners to separate their musical value from their regular use in worship. Yet these are among the most memorable melodies in Western music. Such hymns as Praise, my sou...

On this 2018 recording, Pascal Gallois conducts Prague Modern in performances of works by Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) and Fabien Lévy (b. 1968). Before addressing the compositions, some background on the three is warranted as their histories align. During the ‘90s, Gallois and Grisey were fellow instructors at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris, with Lévy a student in Grisey's composition course. Gallois's first encounter with him preceded that period, however. While performing in the Ensemble Intercontemporain in 1981 (having earlier graduated from the Conservatoire himself), Gallois was introduced to Grisey's Modulations (1976-77), which stunned him with its innovative techniques and use of microtonality. Recalling that experience, Gallois said, “I remember leaving the first rehearsal with a real enthusiasm and the feeling of having discovered a world that would leave its indelible mark on my life.” Grisey, who studied with Messiaen...

African music is as diverse as the topography of the land itself, and is said to be comprised of literally thousands of different styles of music. But many experts of regional music tend to separate African music into two distinct groups: North African Music, which is strongly Arabic and Islamic in nature, and Black African music, or that which is centralized in the Western, Central and Sub Saharan regions of Africa.  So many iconic Western musicians have incorporated African instrumentation, ideas and ideals into their music.And ultimately there is an almost infinite variety of music forms, most of which, on some level, have been produced as a result of African music, or influenced by it. Whether Western instruments have evolved from ancient African models, or whether we have adopted our knowledge in terms of rhythms and cross rhythms, various scalic patterns, and the basic evolution of melody and harmony, Western music undoubtedly owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to the ...

With a career spanning 20 years, bandonéon player Juanjo Mosalini is one of the leading musical figures in Argentina. On Delta y Mar, he is joined by guitarist Vicente Bögeholz. These two artists met in 2000 and performed together as Duo Bögeholz Mosalini all across Europe and Latin America. Winners of the German World Music Award, they have made it their mission to honor the legacy of the tango.

As Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich points out in his liner notes, Friedrich Cerha (born 1926 in Vienna) is a musician who has stood above the “schismatic rivalries” of musical modernism, being one of very few composers associated with both streams of Viennese dodecaphony: J.M. Hauer’s on one side, and Schoenberg’s on the other. The post-Schoenberg school is especially indebted to him for his completion of Act 3 of Alban Berg’s “Lulu”. Around the world, the work continues to be performed in Cerha’s version. In 1958 Friedrich Cerha co-founded the ensemble ‘die reihe’ which remained under his direction until 1983 and continues to be a committed force in the cause of contemporary music. Cerha’s orchestral cycle “Spiegel” and his operas “Baal” and “Der Rattenfänger” are amongst his major works. In 1989 the Wien Modern Festival commissioned a cello concerto from Cerha . The result was “Phantasiestück in C’s Manier”, now the 2nd movement of the present three-movement concerto complete...

Two things have happened to Cerha's music in more recent years; a conscious avoidance of rigorous structural elaboration of musical ideas in favour of small episodes of 'spontaneous inspiration'; and a decidedly autumnal feel, a sense of time running out. Old habits die hard; the harmonic thinking is still very much that of his beloved Second Viennese School, and the small disparate fragments - such as the very diverse movements that make up the Bagatelles - nonetheless form a convincingly unified whole. Bruchstück is very quiet, static, with bells and the imitation of the ticking of clocks marking the inexorable passage of time. Instants begins in compete stasis, from which a sequence of more active 'moments' of greatly contrasting character - vigorous and motoric; ethereal and calm; echoes of pastoral romanticism from far away - arises. The Bagatelles are strongly differentiated miniature character pieces which form a sequence with a convinci...

Und du... is the main work here, a 1963 commentary and warning about the dangers of the nuclear situation as it then appeared during the Cold War. An ambitious sonic collage, the work weaves together suitably apocalyptic texts, spoken and amplified, with a richly textured orchestral and electronic soundscape, fluid and plastic, devoid of any kind of melodic or rhythmic signposts. The texts are subsumed by the music, which ultimately fades out, to be replaced by an unaccompanied spoken essay on the apparent certainty of a self-imposed end of times (printed in translation in the booklet). Verzeichnis employs a complex collage of vocal styles, from speaking, sprechstimme, conventional singing and extended techniques, as well as the stamping of feet. The text is a list of people executed for witchcraft in Würzburg, and the piece dramatically condemns such arbitrary condemnations and murders. The much more recent Für K was composed for the 70th birthday of sculptor Karl ...

Avi Avital is one of the world's leading classical mandolinists, gracing concert halls from Tel Aviv to Munich to New York. But the young Israeli says he discovered the mandolin only by coincidence. "When I was a kid, I had a neighbor who played the mandolin — the neighbor from upstairs," Avital tells NPR's Guy Raz. "It was one of those buildings where all the doors are open and all the neighbors are friends and more close than relatives. It was like one big family. "I arrived to the age where I wanted to do something after school, and I liked music very much, so when my mother asked me, 'What would you like to play?' I said, 'Mandolin, like my neighbor.'" Avital says it was also a coincidence that he was able to learn to play classical mandolin in his hometown of Beersheba, a small city in the desert of southern Israel. It is a seductive sound and his playing is dazzling . Avital has transcribed for the mandoli...

Praised as one of South Korea’s greatest soprano of the generation, Eunsie Hong carries incredible amounts of performance experience in orchestral concert and opera. Her exceptional dynamic control in her voice sways her audience in happiness and tears.  Highlights of her 2018 season starts with a concert tour as a soloist for the Mozart Requiem at the world-renowned Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna, Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria and Music Institute of Zagreb in Croatia.  She also performed with orchestra Sinfonia Rotterdam at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, singing arias of Strauss and Gounod. She performed with many orchestras including Hradec Králové Orchestra at Smetana Hall of Municipal House in Prague, Ukraine Symphony Orchestra, Kiev Radio Symphony Orchestra and Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, Korail Symphony Orchestra.  She launched her career appearing in the leading roles ; Violetta in La Traviata at Sejong M-Theater, and Adina of L'elisir d'amore.  ...

In the 2018/19 season, Julie will appear in two new productions; as Fiorilla Il turco in Italia at Opernhaus Zürich and as Eurydice Orphée aux enfers at the Opéra Grand Avignon. She will also make her role debut as Eva in the rarely performed opera La morte d’Abel by Caldara at Salzburg Whitsun Festival.  Other concert highlights include solo recitals at the Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Opéra de Versailles, Opéra du Rhin, and Opéra national de Bordeaux, as well as Carmina Burana with the Orchestre national de Bordeaux Aquitaine and a gala concert at Salzburg Whitsun Festival.  Julie’s discography includes a recording of early songs by Mahler and Debussy with Alphonse Cemin, and a disc of Songs for Piano and Voice by Poulenc (Atma Classique).  In 2014 Julie signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, with her first solo album Yes! released in 2015.  Deutsche Grammophon has announced the relea...

Inspired by the work of painter Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome 1593Naples ca. 1656), this release aims to explore features of both paintings and music of the early Italian Baroque, highlighting their creative features and their emotional foundations. Daughter of Orazio Gentileschi (one of the rst Italian Caravaggesque painters) Artemisia was, until a few decades ago, remembered chiey for the scandal of the rape trial she brought against Agostino Tassi, one of her fathers artistic partners, who abused her when she was 17. She had to wait over 300 years to see her value as a painter fully recognised. The music is performed by Accademia d'Arcadia , an ensemble comprising 13 musicians playing period instruments and a singer. The CD contains a 28 page, full colour booklet featuring 3 of Artemisias most famous paintings, detailed infos and texts, together with detailed background information, resulting in a concept that is both interesting and affecting.

‘Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and yet cannot remain silent’, wrote Victor Hugo in 1864. Half a century later, his words had never felt more pertinent. Every composer writing during World War I found a unique way, through their music, to describe and protest against the horrors that were tearing civilization apart. Created in the depth of morbidity, Debussy’s parting musical gift is a subtle, dignified and heroic celebration of youth and joie de vivre. A sense of patriotism in the war years links Debussy with the foremost Moravian composer of the day, Leoš Janáček. Ottorino Respighi was only in his thirties when the war broke out. His 1917 Sonata for violin and piano is a work of Romance written in the time of hate, a reminder that the past and the future remain beacons of hope in desperate times. Commissioned for this recital programme to reflect on the centenary of The Great War from our own times, Kenneth Hesketh’s Inscrizione, derivata, subti...

This release goes to show that Bach is beautiful on any instrument. Zaira Meneses plays Bach on guitar with unusual sensitivity and style. This is anything but mechanical Bach. This is Bach living and breathing on the guitar. Zaira Meneses is among the most exciting performers on the international classical guitar circuit. Her musicality and charisma have delighted audiences on three continents. Zaira Meneses was born in Xalapa, Mexico. From an early age she showed great talent for music, studying both classical guitar and voice. She traveled widely, performing as well with the famed Orquesta de Guitarras. At the age of 17 and as the youngest contestant, she won first prize in an important national concerto competition. This success led to performances of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and Concierto Madrigal for two guitars throughout Mexico. Since moving to the USA in 2001, Meneses has built a stellar reputation for her warm sound, limpid technique, and s...

Arrangements of works by Astor Piazzolla for classical ensembles are common enough, but the ordinary piano trio is a rare medium -- even if the arrangements on Celebrating Piazzolla come from close associates of the great tango composer, José Bragato and Leonardo Suárez Paz (the latter represented by one of his own tango compositions at the end), both of whom were members of Piazzolla's ensembles. As it happens, the U.S.-based Neave Trio proves an ideal classical medium for Piazzolla's Las cuatros estaciones porteñas (The Buenos Aires Four Seasons): the music is neither softened by string groups or classical winds, nor simplified in its contrapuntal and harmonic complexity: the violin and cello, with double stops, pick up most of the detail and catch the variety of attacks created in the original by the combination of piano and Piazzolla's bandoneón. Another attraction here is the group of Piazzolla's songs , much less commonly played than his instrumental music. The t...

The Goldberg Trio was founded when three key-members of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra (Liza Kerob, Concertmaster - Federico Hood, Principal viola - Thierry Amadi, Principal cello), rich with the diversity of their respective cultural backgrounds, joined forces to create this dynamic and electric ensemble. The well-rehearsed string trios by Klein, Weinberg, Dohnányi and Cras are some of the most important and interesting contributions to the genre in the 20th century.

The 350th anniversary of François Couperin's birth evoked less activity than other anniversaries in the year 2018, when this album appeared, but if you missed it you might find this a worthwhile acquisition as a state-of-the-art Couperin performance. Harpsichordist/director Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques are lyrical indeed in the set of trio sonatas called Les Nations, "the nations." The set purports to evoke four nations: France, Spain, L'Imperiale (the Holy Roman Empire), and La piémontaise (the Piedmont kingdom, in Italy). Whatever features might have suggested these national styles are hard to hear now, and really Les Nations is above all one of the works in which Couperin cultivated what he called elsewhere les goûts réunis, the "reunited" tastes of Italy and France. In the four Nations, his solution was unique: each of the four parts consists of a little Corellian Italian sonade, or sonata, with its own four sections compacted...

Celebrated Greek composer-artist Vangelis released his new album Nocturne on Decca Records on 25 January 2019. A set of solo piano pieces, it features 11 new tracks plus new versions of some of his best-known work, including the title theme from Chariots Of Fire and the ‘Love Theme’ from Blade Runner.   The album features a wealth of new piano compositions inspired by night time, and by Vangelis’ long-held passion for space. New tracks include ‘Nocturnal Promenade,’ the track that opens the album and is its first single, as well as ‘Through the Night Mist’, ‘Sweet Nostalgia’ and ‘Lonesome.’ For the first time, the artist also plays grand piano on the record. Nocturne is the latest of Vangelis’ works to be linked to themes of science, history and exploration. In addition to his Academy Award-winning score for Chariots of Fire , he wrote the choral symphony ‘Mythodea’ for NASA’s 2001 mission to Mars, and the music for such films as Antarctica , 1492: Conquest of Paradi...

Even if both of them were destined to die tragically of illness at a very early age (Weber at 39, Schubert just 31!), the two composers on this disc were healthy enough when they wrote these works, and were even beginning to taste success. Except that it was not to the piano sonata that they owed their fame: not without a twinkle in his eye, Paul Lewis has coupled their works in this genre in order to paint a different and highly elegant portrait of two musical dramatists who were emblematic figures of Austro-German Romanticism.

A feature of Jeremy Denk's work as a pianist – a blisteringly original, thoughtful one at that – is his parallel skill at writing about music. In this unrushed, transparent, unmannered account of the Goldbergs, he provides an invaluable DVD of "video" programme notes, a bonus for anyone still trying to comprehend these variations, which I suspect is all of us. With unvarnished honesty Denk has said: "The best reason to hate the Goldberg Variations – aside from the obvious reason that everyone asks you all the time which of the two [Glenn Gould] recordings you prefer – is that everybody loves them… I worried for years that I would be seduced into playing them, and would become like all the others – besotted, cultish – and that is exactly what happened." This CD is another to cherish in the huge catalogue of Goldberg recordings. (FionaMaddocks / The Guardian)

Pianist Jeremy Denk's new album, c.1300–c.2000 , is out now on Nonesuch Records. The double album captures a program of works spanning seven centuries that Denk created and performed at venues including Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, and Piano aux Jacobins. "The history of so-called classical music felt closer to me now than it did when I first learned about it in college, not just more relevant, but more alive. Wouldn't it be amazing, I wondered, to experience this sweep and arc in one sitting?" For that program, Denk performed twenty-four pieces by composers ranging from Machaut to Ligeti—with Binchois, Gesualdo, Stockhausen, Philip Glass, and many others in the middle. "A piano recital covering 700 years of music: by most accepted definitions, that ought to be not just an oxymoron but an impossibility," says the Telegraph . "But the usual barriers fall whenever Jeremy Denk is at the keyboard ... Quite exhilarating." "Full of ...

Diluka brings appreciable nuance and delicacy to Adams’s China Gates and Beach’s Young Birches, and infuses the churning minimalist patterns of Glass’s Etude No 9 with more dynamic and colouristic range than one often hears from so-called contemporary music specialists. In most lyrical pieces, however, softer dynamics often recede and wilt to the point of fading away, especially when Diluka makes diminuendos. You hear this in the two Bernstein Anniversaries, Ginastera’s ‘Danza de la moza donosa’ and Grainger’s gorgeous transcription of Gershwin’s ‘Love walked in’. Her spineless performance of Copland’s Piano Blues No 1 lacks the sinew and projection heard from Leo Smit, the work’s dedicatee, although such a style befits Hyung-ki Joo’s noodly, shapeless Chandeliers.  However, Diluka’s faster-than-usual tempo for Cage’s In a Landscape rescues this music from its usual frozen dream state. Her enervated, flaccid approach to Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans is alien to these jazz ic...

Diluka’s performances of these dances are very musical, and I very much enjoy the sound of the Bechstein instrument she is using. This has a deep resonance in the low registers, a nicely rounded lyrical feel in the rich mid and pearlescent upper scales which work very well for Schubert, creating a more vocal feel than the usually more brilliant and forward projection of your typical Steinway. These days we’ve moved away from the old-fashioned image of Schubert as something of a Viennese chocolate-box composer, and my only fear in having these light pieces corralled together in this way was that we would end up finding it hard to shake such associations. With darker pieces such as the German Dance No. 3 D. 366 and a nice mixture of major and minor keys there is a certain amount of contrast, and with Diluka’s delightful playing one can but sit back and enjoy what’s on offer. The sheer brilliance of Schubert’s inventions in this genre carries the day, but I would still ar...

The German soprano, Simone Kermes, and studied under Helga Forner at the "Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig. She graduated and completed two postgraduate studies, all with distinction. She won first prize in the Felix-Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition in Berlin and was the Bach prize winner in 1996 of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. Simone Kermes already took part in active concert performances during her studies and gained her first stage experience. Guest performances at operas world-wide were to follow in New York, Paris, States Opera Houses in Germany, Lisbon Copenhagen; as Konstanze, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Giunia, Rosalinde, Lucia, Gilda, Ann Truelove, Alcina and Laodice.

The Russian soprano has selected some of Mozart's most beautiful opera and concert arias, as well as discoveries of largely unknown pieces from operas by Tommaso Traetta, Giovanni Paisiello and Vicente Martín y Soler, reflecting the exchange of musical ideas between Mozart and his contemporaries and getting these three composers out of Mozart's shadow. Ms. Peretyatko chose arias from the well-known operas Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Le nozze di Figaro , Don Giovanni and La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart and combined these with arias from rather forgotten operas such as Antigona by Traetta, Il barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello as well as Il burbero di buon cuore by Soler. The connection between Mozart and Soler becomes obvious, as the recording also includes two insertion arias (K582 and K583) by Mozart, which he had written for the revival of "Il burbero di buon cuore". Mozart+ is Peretyatko's second collaboration with the Sinfonieorchester Basel ...

After his successful debut album “Heritages”, the French pianist Simon Ghraichy is back with a new album: “33” . The 33 year old has a reputation of being “the craziest” of all French pianists. He shakes his life in all directions and now presents his personal selection of music, including two world premiere recordings, commissioned by Simon himself: Chilly Gonzales’s Robert on the Bridge and Jacopo Baboni Schilingi’s HUGE . The central piece of his new album is the Humoreske, op.20 , by Schumann: a series of seven short sections, whose musical texture and emotional tones vary widely and differ greatly between the sections. In the second part of the piece Schuman opened up the typical double-staffed score to include a third staff, the middle of which contains a solo voice marked “innere Stimme” (inner voice). Schumann intended this “internal/inner voice” to be seen but not played by the pianist, to appeal not only to the ears, but the eyes as well!

The winner of the 1999 Paganini Competition at the age of 16, Sayaka Shoji isn’t merely a superb technician, she’s a deeply engaging performer who punches above her weight. The richly resonant, spirited sound that the diminutive young violinist produces with her 1729 “Recamier” Stradivarius is impressive and so, too, is the poetic delicacy of her phrasing. Clearly she relishes the solo violin repertoire but she’s hardly the first to pair works for solo violin by Bach and Reger. Jennifer Koh did so most recently in 2005 (Cedille). Nor has Shoji recorded Reger’s Op 117 in its entirety, as has Renate Eggebrecht (Troubadisc). She has chosen three pairs of works, to draw attention to the influence of Bach on Reger, of which the most telling must be the magnificent Chaconnes: where Reger provides a gymnastic display, Bach creates music of the highest order. Like so many modern players, Shoji makes little attempt to differentiate them stylistically despite the two ce...

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was born during the night of 5 to 6 January 1920 in Brescia, Italy. He began his musical training at the age of four at the "Istituto Musicale Venturi" under the direction of Paolo Chimeri. He subsequently went on to continue his musical education in Milan, where he studied piano and composition under Giovanni Anfossi as well as violin with Renzo Francesconi. He obtained his soloist's diploma at the age of fourteen, and immediately launched his concert career. His extraordinary talent was recognized immediately and was first honoured in 1939 when Michelangeli won the first prize of the prestigious Geneva International Competition , whose jury was headed by Ignaz Paderewski. His importance as a towering figure among 20th-century pianists was stamped (coined...) by Cortot's saying: "Here is a new Liszt" .

Famed for its interpretations of some of Handel’s most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of its 40th anniversary season by releasing its first new Handel recording in five years. Handel’s pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handel’s music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as ‘Wretched lovers!’ and the grief felt by Galatea in ‘Must I my Acis still bemoan’. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording. 'Christophers uses stylish Handelians and "consort" singers who blend to perfection in this intimate "chamber" performance. The big success here is Stuart Young's rotund-sounding, menacing Polyph...

The New York Times has described the French ensemble as “a string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band” and its recordings of Haydn, Bartók, Brahms and Schubert have been praised all over the world. Portal and the Ébène first played together in Paris in 2013, where Piazzolla’s compositions were also on the programme, prompting Le Monde to speak of “a significant lesson, a superb encounter, a real conversation.”   Eternal Stories might just turn out to be one of the best albums that Portal has ever recorded. He could well have been thinking of his beloved Charlie Parker, who in 1949 realised his dream of making a recording with a string section. Eternal Stories is not some kind of attempt at a remake, but comprises completely new pieces and two new arrangements of classic Portal numbers, a late work by Piazzolla and astonishing contributions from members of Quatuor Ébène itself.

Having started to play the piano before the age of five, Korean-Canadian pianist Jennifer Lim made her first public appearance one year later and came into the spotlight when she captured the Grand Prize at the Korea Times National Music Competition at age eight. She studied privately with Jane Coop and Anton Kuerti in Canada, and with Peter Serkin at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the coveted Rachmaninoff/Festorazzi Prize. She then completed her master’s degree at The Juilliard School in New York City as a protégée of the legendary pianist Bella Davidovich. Jennifer Lim presents a quiet, introspective piano CD with GENUIN: just in time for Valentine's Day, her recording of Romantic works such as Liszt's Liebestraum, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Debussy's Clair de Lune is being released. Lim’s transparent playing allows these classics to radiate from within, lending them contours so that the well-known works rec...

Born in Belgrade, Mirjana Rajic studied under the legendary pianist Lazar Berman in Weimar and in Imola, Italy, in Belgrade under Srdjan Grbic and in Munich under Bianca Bodalia. She completed her piano performance degree with distinction in Dresden with Winfried Apel. She has also attended master classes with Andrew Ball, Aldo Ciccolini, Michel Dalberto, Rudolf Kehrer and Amadeus Webersinke. Fire and passion, rhythm, and pulsating joie de vivre: that's what virtually jumps out when you put Mirjana Rajic's GENUIN debut CD into the player and press "play.” There are original Balkan beats by Marko Tajcevic, nobles et sentimentales from France by Maurice Ravel as well as unworldly romantic frenzy by Robert Schumann. Mirjana Rajic, the young, internationally award-winning and celebrated pianist based in Dresden, pours her heart and soul into this CD —and at an extremely high pianistic level!