Polska Filharmonia Kameralna Sopot / Wojciech Rajski PENDERECKI Symphony No. 6 "Chinese Songs" - Concerto per Clarinetto

                 SYMPHONY No. 6 "CHINESE SONGS" - CONCERTO PER CLARINETTO

Claire-Marie Le Guay STRAVINSKY Petrouchka RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé

This disc is advertised as ‘transcriptions pour piano par les auteurs’. Question: what is the difference between a transcription, an arrangement, a reduction and a concert version? Answer: it seems to be a grey area. And in this case the greyness could easily mislead buyers into thinking they are getting something that they are not. 

Stravinsky made the rationale behind the Trois mouvements for piano as clear as could be: ‘I tried to make of this Petrushka an essentially pianistic work using the resources of that instrument and without assigning it in any way a role as imitator’ (a lecture in 1935). Even though the piano was already integral to the work’s original conception, Stravinsky was careful to choose those parts of the ballet that would come off in the solo piano medium, and then felt free to play around with the text.

Ravel’s piano score of Daphnis, variously described here as a ‘transcription’ and a ‘version de concert’, is in fact, as I understand these terms, neither. Nor is it the version referred to in the booklet as the piano score completed on May 1, 1910, since this did not include the definitive ending, which is played here. What Claire-Marie le Guay does play – and with at times breathtaking virtuosity – is no more than the piano score prepared by Ravel for the use of the choreographer Fokine during the 1912 rehearsals. In my view it is a piano reduction, with most of what that word implies. Not to beat about the bush, the atmospheric moments in the score simply don’t work, and the slow chords of the choral link into the Dawn Scene, frankly, sound silly. I was interested to see Bryce Morrison (11/03) confronting a similar problem in Biret’s recording of the Firebird piano score – and also coming up against the arrangement/transcription question. 

I first came across le Guay playing the Dutilleux Sonata, in a performance I admire very much (as, rather more importantly, does the composer). She throws off the Petrushka pieces with enormous élan and does her considerable best at every point in the Ravel. But I’m afraid the latter brought to mind images of women preachers and dogs walking on their hind legs. In the enthusiasm to find ‘new’ pieces by the great composers this is, in my view, a ballet too far. (Gramophone)

Piotr Tarcholik / Monika Wilińska-Tarcholik GEMS OF EASTERN EUROPE

The socio-political situation in Europe in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries facilitated the development of national identities and distinctiveness of individual nations. A significant role in this field fell to music. Historians of music differentiate between two distinct trends: the mainstream current and the peripheral trend (the latter being also labelled ‘national‘), in which the social role of music was fundamental. References to a nation’s past, its heroes, literature, customs, language and folklore resulted in development of national schools (styles) of composition such as: Spanish (Sarasate, Albéniz), Scandinavian (Gade, Grieg), English (Parry, Stanford), Czech (Smetana, Dvorák), Hungarian (Erkel, Mosonyi), Russian (‘The Mighty Handful’), and Polish (Chopin, Moniuszko). This new release from violinist Piotr Tarcholik and pianist Monika Wilińska-Tarcholik  explores the nationalistic music of Eastern Europe, including works form Prokofiev, Bartok, Szymanowski, and Lepianka. (Arkiv Music)

La Simphonie du Marais / Olivier Schneebeli / Ensemble Vocal Contrepoint MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER Le Massacre des Innocents - Psaumes de David

In 1987, after he had been playing with European leading Baroque ensembles, Hugo Reyne decided to create his own ensemble.
In founding La Simphonie du Marais, he hoped to share his discoveries, joys and emotions with as many as possible and to breathe life into his numerous musical projects.
An ardent defender of the French musical patrimony from Lully to Rameau, he chose a name combining the word «Simphonie», the 17th - and 18th - century synonym for instrumental ensemble, and «Le Marais» one of the most beautiful areas in Paris, representative of the Baroque era. The name was quite appropriate as La Simphonie du Marais is now eventually based in Vendée, a region of western France, whose territory is bordered by marshes, namely Le Marais Breton and Le Marais Poitevin.
La Simphonie du Marais proposes programs - concerts and performances - of symphonic music, ballets, comedies-ballets and operas that can assemble up to 70 musicians : soloists, orchestra and choir.
Hugo Reyne is also very keen on the chamber and concertante repertoire for flute, as well as outdoor music with oboe ensemble. Thus, La Simphonie du Marais displays its multi-faceted talents, and is constantly able to propose new programs.

Pierre Boulez / Ensemble intercontemporain PHILIPPE MANOURY La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer - Jupiter

Philippe Manoury is one of the world's leading composers and computer music researchers. He studied composition with Gerard CondZ and Max Deutsch (one of Schoenberg's first students in Vienna), and at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, with Michel Philippot and Ivo Malec. He studied computer-assisted composition with Pierre Barbaud beginning in 1976.

In 1978, Philippe began teaching in Brazil at universities in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and other locations. A major appointment followed at the Conservatoire National SupZrieur de Lyon (1986-96). Most significant is his long association with the world's leading center for computer music research, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), a branch of the Centre George Pompidou in Paris. Philippe has worked as a musical researcher (in collaboration with Miller Puckette) since 1981, and as a Professor of Composition since 1993. At IRCAM Manoury composed Zeitlauf (1981), a work for mixed choir, instrumental ensemble, synthesizers, and tape.

For the European Year of Music, the Council of Europe commissioned Manoury to compose Aleph, which premiered in 1985. He also wrote a series of chamber works, including Musique I and II, and InstantanZs. In 1992 and 1993 he composed La Nuit du Sortilège, which won an award from the UNESCO International Composers' Tribune. In 1999, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland commissioned Sound and Fury, premiered by Pierre Boulez.

Philippe has composed three operas, 60e Parallèle, K..., and La Frontière. K... was commissioned and premiered by the Paris Opera in 2001. One of his most important works is Sonus ex Machina, a series of compositions (Jupiter, Pluton, Neptune and La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer) for solo instruments, ensemble and real-time computer processing. Mr. Manoury was also composer in residence at the Orchestre de Paris where he composed Noon, a large piece for soprano, choir, orchestra and electronics. It was premiered by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In 2005, Philippe composed IdentitZs remarquables and Strange Ritual for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Modern Ensemble. Recently, Mr. Manoury premiered On-Iron, a 75-minute oratorio for choir, percussion, electronics and video which toured five cities in France.

Mr. Manoury will have an immediate impact on our composition, computer music, and ICAM (computer music) programs. He will be available as a senior mentor to Ph.D. candidates in composition, teach the Music 203 composition seminar, 103 undergraduate composition seminar, 270 computer music seminars, and 210 musical analysis. (UC San Diego)