Ewa Kupiec WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI Complete Works for Piano Solo

"Pure substance“, Ewa Kupiec is praised by Fono Forum, Germany’s leading magazine for classical music. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung certifies: “Kupiec plays with a rare mixture of spirit, a faultless technique, a complete understanding of musical texture and an ability to shape music with transparency and an impressive richness of colours. Her playing is brilliant but never obtrusive, full of atmosphere and subtly virtuosic.”



Ewa Kupiec regularly performs at the world’s leading festivals but also with major orchestras, which in recent seasons have included Munich Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Royal Danish Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Orchestre de Paris. Conductors she worked include Marin Alsop, Neeme Järvi, Ingo Metzmacher, Xian Zhang, Sakari Oramo, Semyon Bychkov, Herbert Blomstedt, Krzysztof Penderecki, Lothar Zagrosek, Gilbert Varga, Christoph Poppen, Andrey Boreyko, and Marek Janowski. Renowned Polish maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski has initiated and supported an exceptionally fruitful musical collaboration between the two, and as such they have performed all over the world and, released in 2003, recorded Chopin’s piano concerti  together.



2014 sees four special releases: Polish composer’s Andrzej Panufnik’s piano concerto for the complete recording of his œvre, together with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (cpo), Grażyna Bacewicz‘ piano quintet arranged for piano and string orchestra for the Naxos label together with the Bydgoszcz Philharmonic, piano quintets by Scharwenka and Dvorak with the Armida Quartet (Solaris), and Chopin’s works for piano and cello with Johannes Moser (Hänssler).



Ewa Kupiec is closely connected to the music of Chopin and other Polish composers. For his 200th birthday she offered three different Chopin recital programs. Next to standard works, her concerto repertoire includes works by Loewe or Veress. For Sony, she has recorded Władysław Szpilman’s music, known from the movie „The Pianist“.



In 2012 she played an especially striking juxtaposition of the Paganini variations both by Rachmaninov and Lutosławski, together with the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra. A dramaturgically wonderful incidence not only because he gave new luster to the classical concert solo, but also because these are two of Ewa Kupiec’ typical showpieces among which – next to Chopin’s work – Richard Strauss early masterpiece Burleske can be found.



Equally interesting are Ewa Kupiec’s solo and chamber music programs, for example with cellist Johannes Moser or the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. In 2013, which marks Witold Lutosławski’s 100th birthday, she dedicates a special recital program to him – she worked with him when a young pianist. She will also perform his piano concerto in 2013, together with the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate.



Ewa Kupiec is recognised as one of Europe’s most dedicated interpreters of contemporary music. Her Berlin Konzerthaus performance in 2005 of Schnittke’s First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra was the first performance of this work since 1964 and was released by Phoenix in 2008, together with other Schnittke works for piano and orchestra. Her recital and chamber music programs often include contemporary works, and different composers have dedicated pieces to her.



Among Ewa Kupiec‘ numerous recordings are works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Lutosławski, Szymanowsky (ECHO Klassik 1997) and Paderewski. 2007 Haenssler released her recording of Janacek‘s solo works and in 2008 Phoenix published Schnittke’s piano concerti with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. 2010 saw the release of Żal, with solo works by Chopin and Schubert, and in 2011, in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk, she published a CD with solo works by Kodály and Enescu (Solaris). 2012 saw the release of Chopin’s piano concertos and Nocturnes selection on the Australian ABC label, and 2013 the premiere recording of Lutosławski’s works for piano solo (Sony).



Ewa Kupiec studied in Katowice, at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 1992 she won the ARD Music Competition (category duo piano/cello). From autumn 2011, she will be a professor for piano at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.

Olli Mustonen BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations

This is, no doubt about it, an alternative view of the Diabelli Variations. It starts with what sounds like an intentionally parodistic view of the theme, with manically pecking staccatos in the right hand and predictable surges in the left, rather in the manner of an overenthusiastic amateur. Soon, however, it’s apparent that this kind of thing is going to be the norm; it’s simply Olli Mustonen’s natural, iconoclastic mode of delivery. Imagine someone playing on a heated keyboard with sore fingertips, and you’ll have some idea of his habitual clipped articulation and almost paranoid reluctance to sustain chords and melodic notes for their full notated value. That’s quite effective for the subdued bouncing chords of Var. 2 or the burbling bass figuration in Var. 3, and it’s interesting to hear, say, the dolce e teneramente of Var. 8 menaced by proto-Brahmsian fulminations in the left hand. Var. 25 is another winner: never mind the legato, feel the leggermente. All too often though, Mustonen only succeeds in evoking a world of punk-haircut grotesques. Var. 5 struts in a goose-step, the silences in Var. 13 are perversely non-witty, Var. 18 snatches at phrases like a nervous bird, and so on. Var. 33 is yet another tease; and I’m talking about that sublimely transfigured Tempo di menuetto.
Creative friction between composer and interpreter is all well and good, and certainly more interesting than slavish adherence to the text. But I feel that flights of fancy of the kind the young Finn is fabulously equipped to offer work best from a more humane basis. Remove that and you create mere freakishness. For some, Mustonen’s world-class clarity and agility may override such objections, and others may be able to detect a Gouldian alternative agenda I’ve completely missed. For myself I felt I could have been listening to a fine pianist who for some reason despised the Diabelli Variations and wanted to send them up. Of the many fine available versions, Kovacevich’s continues to give me the greatest satisfaction.
The five C major and minor short pieces work quite well as an appendix, though with a possible 33 minutes to fill, it might have been even more fun simply to make a clean sweep of Beethoven’s C major piano miscellanea. Recording quality is superb. (Gramophone)

Alina Ibragimova / Cédric Tiberghien BEETHOVEN Violin Sonatas - 2

Beethoven produced a total of 10 sonatas for violin and piano during his career, the majority of which came early on when the composer himself was still a young man and the violin sonata as a genre was yet to be entirely defined. Although many of the world's most seasoned, venerable performers have laid down recordings of these great compositions, there's something to be said about youthful, fresh bright-eyed performers tackling the sonatas of a composer who was very much still making a name for himself. Second in a series of recitals devoted to the 10 violin sonatas, this Wigmore Hall album features a live recording of violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien performing the sonatas Opp. 12/2, 24, and 96. Not only do both musicians possess a wonderfully polished, refined technique on their respective instruments, but also a stunning degree of musical sophistication and maturity. Ibragimova's playing is carefree but accurate, and full of brazen risk-taking that pays off again and again. Tiberghien is much more than just a sensitive accompanist, but rather a full partner in what quickly proves to be a true dialogue between the instruments. Every aspect of their venture -- dynamics, phrasing, articulation, pacing, balance -- match seamlessly from the very beginning. Although Op. 96 is not as youthful as the other two on this album, Ibragimova and Tiberghien prove that they are just as capable and comfortable delivering this mature, introspective work as well. Listeners should look forward to the release of the remainder of what is sure to be a memorable survey. (Mike D. Brownell)

Alina Ibragimova / Cédric Tiberghien BEETHOVEN Violin Sonatas - 1

Cédric Tiberghien and Alina Ibragimova first met as members of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme in 2005. Immediately finding a rare musical and personal rapport, they performed together in a number of studio sessions and in concerts at the Wigmore Hall and at festivals around the UK. The unique partnership which developed between the two artists was picked up by ‘The Times’ who concluded its review of Cédric and Alina’s final recital as part of New Generation Artists, at the 2007 Cheltenham Festival, by commenting “Both of these players have the potential to conquer the world”.
The duo went on to perform throughout Europe and in North America, appearing in venues including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Theatre des Champs Elysées in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Vancouver Recital Society, as well as a major Musica Viva tour of Australia. The duo is also a regular guest of the Wigmore Hall in London, where it presented an acclaimed complete cycle of the Beethoven violin sonatas in the 2009/10 season. Future plans include extensive touring in Asia (Taipei, Nagoya, Tokyo and Hong Kong), an appearance at the prestigious San Francisco Performances series, and a complete Mozart sonata cycle at the Wigmore Hall in London.

Cédric and Alina’s Beethoven cycle was recorded for a three-volume release on the ‘Wigmore Live’ label, attracting unanimous praise from the press. International Record Review gave each volume its “IRR Outstanding Recording” award, commenting that “In every way, it proves an extraordinary achievement”. The Times was equally enthusiastic: “Spontaneous, impulsive, young and fresh, the violinist Ibragimova and the pianist Tiberghien make an electrifying partnership”. (Askonas Holt )

Music of EDGAR VARÈSE

From an early age Edgard Varèse showed an interest in music but his father preferred the idea of Varèse leading a more normal life sending him to school in Paris where he studied mathematics and science in the aims of becoming an engineer. Meeting Roussel and D'Indy however changed Varèse's attention more to music, composing several pieces in both Paris and Berlin. 

In 1915 Varèse moved to America where he became a citizen, America would also offer Varèse a platform from which to present his music. As a composer Varèse sought new sounds and new ways in which to present these sounds. He was fortunate enough to be in a country that was still finding its musical identity, unlike his native Europe that was still drawn to tradition, with only a handful of composers bold enough to venture into un-chartered territory. It was at this stage in his life that Varèse's early teaching and admirers became an advantage, for it was their knowledge and encouragement that now gave Varèse the courage to bring his ideas to the public. 

The first of Edgard Varèse's new works to be played was in 1921 when Carlos Salzedo the founder of International Composers Guild played Amériques in its entirety, continuing the performances by introducing the public to Hyperprism (1923), Octandre (1923) and Intégrales (1925). 

Varèse was very particular in which works were presented. In his earlier years Varèse had wrote compositions for opera and orchestra whilst living in Europe, taking one of these Bourgogne (1908) with him when leaving for America; however as with all of Varèse's early works he subsequently destroyed it. 

 Hyperprism also showed the new methods of Varèse by bringing new instruments to the ageing line up that was the orchestra. Sleigh bells, Indian drums and tam-tam's were but a few of the instruments used in this exciting new line up. The excitement however did not pan on to audience, reports of riots from some members of the audience (something that had not been heard of since Stravinsky's first playing in 1913 of Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) or as the critics called it Massacre du Printemps (Massacre of Spring) a piece that saw opera move into new era), to those that asked for it to be played again. 

Maybe this was the reason Varèse put so much effort into one of his most remembered pieces Ionisation, wanting the audience and his fellow composers to truly understand his intentions and methods of organised sound. Using a similar line up to the Hyperprism, Varèse also introduced two sirens to the orchestra's arsenal of sound. The piece also took music theory into places that even at times the composer could have only imagined could be the results of his unique scoring. 

Ionisation attempted to break this pattern of thought by moulding the overall sound with the use of only percussion, producing a whole sound unique to its scoring and unmatchable by any one single instruments timbre alone. Unaware of the implication, Varèse's approach would also give him an upper hand on other composers as electronic musical instruments slowly began to emerge. (New Time Music)

Xenia Löffler / Batzdorfer Hofkapelle GRAUN Oboe Concertos

Johann Gottlieb Graun became a member of the small court orchestra of the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Ruppin in 1732, which Carl Heinrich also joined in 1735. With Friedrich's ascension to the throne in 1740, Johann Gottlieb was appointed concertmaster and Carl Heinrich kapellmeister of the royal court. Johann Gottlieb remained until the end of his life closely linked to Frederick the Great, as concertmaster and chamber musician. Whilst his brother Carl Heinrich became an important figure at the new Berlin Court Opera, Johann Gottlieb strongly influenced the musical life of Berlin and early classicism in general as a violinist and composer. One can no longer determine with any certainty which of the brothers wrote the oboe concertos recorded here the existing sources are too unclear and the differences in their personal styles are too slight. What is certain, however, is that the name "Graun" was a kind of seal of approval in those days for zestful music rich in ideas an estimation still valid today, as is readily apparent when listening to these concertos. The oboist Xenia Löffler has distinguished herself as a specialist for the North German repertoire of this period, as in her recordings with oboe concertos from the Dresden Court and with works from the Dresden Pisendel Collection (ACC 24202 and 24222). Alongside her teaching activities at the Academy of the Arts in Bremen, she is a member of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and in great international demand as a soloist.

Helen Jahren / Elizabeth Westenholz BRITTEN - KRENEK - DORÁTI

Helen Jahren is one of today’s most prominent oboe soloists. As one might expect from a former pupil of the legendary Heinz Holliger, she takes a great interest in contemporary music and has premièred a succession of concertos and works written directly for her. On this disc however, she presents a selection of pieces written between 1935 and 1983 for oboe, with and without piano accompaniment. The composers are Britten, Doráti and Krenek – of English, Hungarian and Austrian origin respectively – and the musical styles they employ in these pieces are even more varied. But as will be obvious to any listener, the specific qualities of the oboe have been a strong inspiration for all three composers. These qualities have been described by Berlioz: ‘The sounds of the oboe are suitable for expressing simplicity, artless grace, gentle happiness, or the grief of a weak soul’, and by Richard Strauss: ’With its thick and insolent low register and its pointed, incisively thin upper register the oboe is very well suited to humorous effects and caricatures: the oboe can rasp and squawk, just as well as it can sing nobly and chastely.’ These diverse personalities of the oboe are much in evidence on this disc. And they are admirably brought out by Helen Jahren with the assistance of Elizabeth Westenholz, known to BIS followers for a large number of recordings, including the complete works for solo piano by her compatriot Carl Nielsen as well as Beethoven’s piano concertos and various chamber music programmes.

Gidon Kremer / Kremerata Baltica THE ART OF INSTRUMENTION: HOMAGE TO GLENN GOULD

Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould’s 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece.

Kremer explains: “For the tenth anniversary of the Chamber Music Connects the World festival in Kronberg, Germany in 2010, I took up an idea that happens to have been voiced by a friend of mine, Robert Hurwitz, president of Nonesuch. One day, we were discussing Glenn Gould—whom Bob had known for years and with whom I had spent a long night in the studio, along with András Schiff—when Bob asked me, ‘Wouldn’t you like to arrange some of the works played by Glenn Gould for strings sometime?’

“When artistic director Raimund Trenkler asked me what could be done to make the anniversary celebration special, I knew the answer. The focus was to be on one of the greatest figures of all time—Johann Sebastian Bach—and on our times. A bridge was to be built,” Kremer continues. “The resulting program’s distant gaze extends into the realm of Bach but pays tribute at the same time to one of the greatest personae of modern interpretation, Glenn Gould. A persona, whose handwriting cannot be mistaken for anyone else’s. That is precisely what I have always valued so highly and still do—the unique.”

Kremerata Baltica was founded by Gidon Kremer in 1996 and is composed of a group of young musicians from the three Baltic States. They first performed in the violinist’s hometown of Riga, Latvia, in February 1996 and have since toured throughout the world. Kremer, who is the group’s artistic director, described the Kremerata Baltica, in an interview with the New York Times, as “a musical democracy ... open-minded, self-critical, a continuation of my musical spirit.” (Nonesuch)

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Patricia Petibon / Susan Manoff LA BELLE EXCENTRIQUE

The compact disc as a physical object, whether the music is classical or pop, is of interest to very few people nowadays. One response from musicians has been an adjustment to the new climate of downloadable single tracks and bite-sized clips that don’t suffer from being part of a shuffle. Patricia Petibon’s new disc does exactly the opposite. Her program happens to contain nearly thirty tracks, but they all go together as a single performance, and they need to be heard in the order in which she presents them. The program is at its core a song recital, but Petibon and pianist Susan Manoff have invited some off-the-cuff participation from a second pianist, a second vocalist, an accordion player and a percussionist. The structure is something of an after-dinner talent show, with relentless high spirits to start, a passing moment halfway through when everybody gets a little soupy and sentimental as the Pernod kicks in, a strategic regrouping for a few big numbers, and one sad song too many at the end to send everybody to the pile of coats on the bed. At times, there’s a deliberately amateurish quality. The second vocalist is Olivier Py, who is not quite a singer (he is quite a director, having mounted a production of Berg’s Lulu for Petibon), and the percussion parts give the illusion of improvisations that non-musicians might toss in from the sidelines. 

There are a few of the French repertoire’s greatest hits, by Fauré and Poulenc, but most of the music is unfamiliar. There’s a good deal of Satie, including two of the zippy Sports et Divertissements (piano only, without the sardonic words). If Petibon is perfectly capable of singing two un-ironic love songs, she nonetheless might separate them with a Satie can-can. But Satie can also have a side that is quietly aghast, and his brief “Désespoir agréable” makes a perfect piano transition into the set of downcast numbers that begins with Fauré’s “Spleen.” There is a particularly clever transition where Satie’s “Grande Ritournelle” for piano four-hands at first seems to be a gussied-up version of Poulenc’s song “Les gars qui vont à la fête,” but it is the real thing, and the real Poulenc song follows. Among the discoveries are Reynaldo Hahn’s “Pholoé,” a rare song about aging, and the music of Léo Ferré, who turns out to be right up there with Michel Legrand. 

Petibon is having such a good time managing to be loose and crazy even though this is a studio production that she disarms criticism. She can be dirty without being sleazy in the duets with Py. She can drip crocodile tears at the end of “Les gars” but then sing Poulenc’s “Voyage à Paris” without mocking it and deliver two of those quietly devastating Poulenc songs, “Hier” and “Aux Officiers de la Garde Blanche,” with equilibrium. It’s perhaps worth noting that a tiny Manuel Rosenthal song about a zoo elephant who wets his pants has been turned into something impossibly grand by the full company here, and it is funny. But Régine Crespin used to stop the show with this number by underplaying it. Times change, and I love this album. Twice, by the time Rosenthal songs came up, I felt that one piece too many had all that extra percussion. And then twice, just as I do when the cantina tune keeps coming back in Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le Toit, I succumbed unreservedly with a giggle. Madoff, among many virtues, totally gets the deadpan, unreadable quality of Satie’s accompaniments, and the idiomatic English translations of Susannah Howe and James Harding add immeasurably to the considerable enjoyment of this release. (William R. Braun)

Martha Argerich CARTE BLANCHE

The first release in Deutsche Grammophon’s new partnership with the Verbier Festival that will see the release of exceptional concerts with great artists (2 sets per year from 2016) recorded by Verbier over the years.

Something special was bound to happen when Martha Argerich was given carte blanche to invite whoever she wanted, to play whatever she and they chose at her Verbier Festival concert on 27 July 2007. She was the life and soul of the party, playing in seven works and making a rare solo appearance in Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Argerich’s artistic partners are Yuri Bashmet, Renaud Capuçon, Lang Lang, Mischa Maisky, Gabriela Montero, Julian Rachlin in a killer programme.

An uproarious encore was given by Gabriela Montero improvising a tango version of “Happy Birthday” (for Mischa Maisky’s daughter Lily Maisky).

This release offers over two hours of exceptional music-making with an enviable line-up of colleagues is now re-created on these two CDs. (McAlister Matheson Music)

Ophélie Gaillard / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra DREAMS

Swiss-French cellist Ophélie Gaillard, who has made a name for herself recording some of the most challenging repertoire for her instrument, including the suites of Bach and Britten, turns her considerable talents to lighter fare in this album of transcriptions of short Romantic classics. She is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Timothy Redmond, in arrangements made by composer and producer Craig Leon, who had created a similar album for violinist Joshua Bell. The pieces include opera arias (from Rusalka, La sonnambula, L'elisir d'amore, and Gianni Schicchi), piano works by Debussy, Satie, and Chopin, and other vocal, instrumental, and orchestral music by Fauré, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. Almost all are close to the top of charts of the most familiar and broadly popular classical pieces. Gaillard brings a warm, generous tone and creamy legato to this lyrical repertoire. Redmond's thoughtful accompaniments are imaginative and creative in pieces where it would have been easy just to haul out the tried and true, predictable approaches. Leon's arrangements are wonderfully inventive and colorful; he really knows how to make the soloist shine, and the little details of orchestration, particularly in the transcriptions of the piano pieces, add layers of depth that makes his work outstanding. The sound is full-bodied and nicely present, with ideal balance. The album would be a great place to start for listeners just dipping their toes into classical music for the first time and should also appeal to fans of fine cello playing. (Stephen Eddins)

Magali Mosnier / Münchener Kammerorchester MOZART

Magali Mosnier is one of the most exciting artists to emerge from France in the past few years. Since her First Prize at the prestigious ARD competition in Munich, Magali Mosnier has established herself as one of the most sought after flautists and regularly appears in major music centres such as the Ludwigsburg festival, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, La Folle Journée festival, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Rheingau Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern festival, Herkulessaal, Prague Rudolfinium, Festival International de Menton, Potsdam Sansouci and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. In summer 2011, she made her debut at the Salzburger Festspiele and was invited to tours through Germany and Japan.

In September 2004, she was awarded the First Prize and the Audience Prize at Munich International ARD Competition. She had already been a prize winner at such prestigious international flute competitions as Jean-Pierre Rampal (Paris) and Leonardo de Lorenzo (Italy) in 2001. In 2003, she was appointed section principal at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (cond. Myung Whun Chung).

Magali has performed with such internationally renowned artists as Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Isabelle Moretti, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Nora Gubisch, the Moraguès quintet, Quatuor Ebène, the Modigliani Quartett.
Magali also performed as a soloist with various leading European orchestras (Bayerischer Rundfunk, Münchner Rundfunk, MDR Orchester, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, English Chamber Orchestra, Collegium Musicum Basel, Orchestre d’Auvergne, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Essener Philharmoniker, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding. 

Her strong attachment to contemporary music has led her to collaborate with some of her country’s leading composers such as Pierre Boulez, Eric Tanguy, Thierry Pécou, Jacques Lenot, Matthias Pintscher.

Stuttgarter Kammerorchester / Dennis Russell Davies WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI - BÉLA BÁRTOK Musique Funèbre

Conductor Dennis Russell Davies leads the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in a program of music by, and dedicated to, Béla Bartók. The disc opens in the latter vein with Witold Lutosławski’s Musique funèbre, composed between 1954 and 1958 for the 10th anniversary of Bartók’s death. The title, often erroneously translated as “Funeral music,” is better rendered as “Music of mourning,” and connotes homage to one of Lutosławski’s greatest inspirations, if not the greatest, for he never dedicated a work to another composer. Although the piece’s overarching development resembles Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the opening cellos closely prefigure the robust, overlapping memorial of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, even if they do chart a vastly different geography, from collective to individual landing. That initial feeling of density and weight gives way to a dark airiness. Motives bend and sway—at moments pliant, at others sharply angled. Darting violins bring us closer to a sense of inner turmoil and bold reckoning. The Bartókian flavor is clear yet faged, and falls back where it began: in the solemn cellos. Ashes to ashes.

As Wolfgang Sandner observes in this album’s liner notes, for Bartók the music of Hungary’s peasants “was the source of a radical new musical system, not material for reverting to a nostalgic transfiguration of the original sounds.” In light of this, we might reckon his Romanian Folk Dances of 1917 not as an archival storehouse but, more like Estonian composer Veljo Tormis’s choral arrangements, as an experiment made fresh by extant impulses. While for me the reference recording by Midori and Robert McDonald (1992, Sony Classical) gets to the core of the music in ways I’ve not since heard, the Stuttgarters’ soaring performance of this 1937 arrangement for string orchestra by Arthur Willner articulates the orbits of its moons with surprising precision. A delicate piece of nevertheless sweeping proportions, it moves by a hand unseen. The solo violin stands out like a red rose among a field of black, its changes organic, even a touch mournful, in the present setting. As the mosaic evolves, it gives light to the translucent cells of its becoming. The flute-like strings in the enlivening finale give us reason to rejoice in the shadows.

So, too, does the Divertimento. Composed 1939 in dedication to Paul Sacher (who commissioned the work) and the Basler Kammerorchester, it achieves novel balance of spiritedness and restraint under Davies’s direction. Its unmistakable beginning lures with its insistent rhythm but would just as soon fragment into multiple galaxies of melodic thought. There is a smoothness of execution in the tutti passages and a paper-thin delicacy to the solo strings. While one might expect that energy to be sustained, it waxes and wanes in a most natural, thought-out-loud sort of way that lends especial insight into Bartók’s compositional process. The second movement proceeds slowly at first, but then, with the coming of dawn, stretches its gravity. The lower and higher strings forge an implicit harmony, an acknowledgment of the invisible forces connecting them both. The contrast between double basses and violins is one not of tone but of purpose: the lowers an unstable fundament, the uppers a firmament in turmoil. This chaos they share as if it were blood. The final movement returns the promise of that dance with wit. There are, of course, intensely lyrical and slow-moving parts, with the violin carving surface relief, but always returning with that whirlwind of fire.

In the wake of this dynamism, selections from Bartók’s 27 Two- and Three-Part Choruses (1935-41) come as something of a breather. They are not adaptations of folksongs, but were composed in such a style at the behest of Zoltán Kodály. With evocative titles like “Wandering,” “Bread-baking,” and “Jeering,” each is a vignette of imagined life. A snare drum pops its way through the choral textures, by turns martial and lyrical, adding colors of interest throughout. And while these pieces hardly hold a candle to his a capella choruses (the orchestral writing feels at points superfluous), they provide welcome contrast to the veils that precede it with gift of vision.

Rachel Barton Pine / Academy os St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner MOZART Complete Violin Concertos

2014 marked the 90th birthday of Sir Neville Marriner, whose experience and instinct for Mozart here gels with the artistry of the 40-year-old Chicago-born violinist Rachel Barton Pine. All five of Mozart’s violin concertos were composed during the 1770s while he was still in his teens, possibly for himself to perform since at the time he was recognised more as a violinist than as the keyboard player he soon became.

If the concertos have sometimes been underrated simply because of their early provenance, Barton Pine, in league with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the ever-stylish Marriner, reveals that there are subtleties alongside the grace and exuberance that render the music endlessly fascinating and appealing.

Barton Pine’s tone is pure, unadulterated by any extraneous affectation, and is ideally matched to the music’s lucid and chamber-like discourse; she plays her own, tastefully tailored cadenzas, since Mozart and his contemporaries extemporised their cadenzas and wrote nothing down. In the Sinfonia concertante K364 she is partnered by the equally sensitive, again Chicago-born viola-player Matthew Lipman, still in his early 20s and gifted with poise and a warmth of timbre that ideally complement the allure of the set as a whole. (The Telegraph)

Lavinia Meijer VOYAGE

Lavinia Meijer (born in South-Korea, 1983 and adopted into a Dutch family) started to play the harp at the age of 9. Within two years she was admissioned to study at the young talent class of the conservatory of Utrecht (Bachelor) and later at the conservatory of Amsterdam (Master). At both conservatories she graduated with Honours. Erika Waardenburg has been Lavinia’s principal teacher.

Her success at the conservatory of Amsterdam was a prelude on Lavinia’s career to come. She performed only contemporary compositions at her graduation concert, making a firm statement already: Lavinia is here to add new chapters to the history of music.

Besides performing the classic harp repertoire, Lavinia also experiments with electronic music, theatrical music, contemporary music, modern classics, jazz and pop. Several composers e.g. Paul Patterson (UK), Garrett Byrnes, and Jacob TV (Netherlands) have dedicated new compositions to her.

Already at a young age, Lavinia competed in several international harp competitions, winning prizes in the USA, France, Switserland, Israel, and Austria. Soon after her graduation Lavinia received the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship (London, 2006). In 2007 Lavinia was heralded as the “Rising Star” musician of her generation. She performed solo-recitals at concert halls like Musikverein (Vienna), Carnegie Hall (New York), Philharmonie (Köln), Jerusalem Theater, Seoul Arts Center, Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Cité-de-la-Musique (Paris), Konzerthus (Stockholm), and Symphony Hall (Birmingham, UK).

In 2009, at the young age of 26, Lavinia received the highest distinction for a classical musician in the Netherlands: the Dutch Music Prize. In 2011 she was the recipient of an Edison Award for her album Fantasies & Impromptus (Channel Classics).

As a featured soloist, Lavinia performed harp concertos with renowned orchestras, such as Royal Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra Amsterdam, Israel Philharmonics, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Noord Nederlands Orkest, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She performed with conductors such as Thierry Fischer, Frans Brüggen, Hannu Lintu, Thomas Ades and Marco Boni.

Her broad interest to find new sounds on and new compositions for the harp has let her to meet the American composer Philip Glass in 2011. He invited her to his concert in Amsterdam where she performed his Metamorphosis I-V on the harp. “You are the special effect of this evening”, he told Lavinia after the show, and he supported Lavinia to record a full album of Glass’ compostions. The result was overwhelming. Metamorphosis/The Hours (Channel Classics) received mostly 5 star reviews (not just in the Dutch press), and reached the certified Platinum status within half a year.

Lavinia’s newest album Einaudi by Lavinia: Passaggio (Sony Classical) consists of pieces by the Italian composer/pianist Ludovico Einaudi. Lavinia has met Mr. Einaudi twice and he encouraged her to work on his pieces and approved of Lavinia’s renditions of famous compositions like Divenire, Passaggio, I Giorni, Nuvole Bianche, Mattina (which was included in the soundtrack of the movie Intouchables) and other Einaudi-classics. Lavinia is known for her dark, deep, and rich timbre in the lower register as played by her left hand, which she combines with gracious notes in the higher register played by her right hand.

Passaggio is recorded at Funkhaus, Berlin. Tonmeister Andreas Neubronner (who recorded 13 Grammy Award winning albums) has captured Lavinia’s performance in what he describes as a ‘Cinemascope sound’, which displays the richness of Lavinia’s incredible performance.

In 2013 she signed an exclusive contract as a recording artist for Sony Classical.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Chamber Orchestra of Europe MOZART Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail

Deutsche Grammophon’s projected cycle of the mature Mozart operas, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is central to Rolando Villazón’s efforts to reinvent himself as a Mozart tenor. Villazón and Nézet-Séguin are the two constant factors in the seven recordings, which are to be based on concert performances given each summer at Baden-Baden. The first set, of Così fan Tutte, appeared two years ago; a Don Giovanni followed last autumn, and the fourth instalment, Le Nozze di Figaro, will be recorded next week.

If the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden, the largest opera house in Germany, seems an odd place to choose for recording Mozart, then on the evidence of this Entführung neither Nézet-Séguin nor Villazón is an obvious point of reference for such a project, either.

The impression of the whole performance is of something old-fashioned which, the odd desultory vocal ornament apart, could have been recorded 40 or 50 years ago. There’s a bouncy enthusiasm to Nézet-Séguin’s approach, with its wide, dynamic contrasts, but not a great deal of subtlety, though the COE is its usual cultivated and alert self. The inclusion of a fortepiano continuo, which can only rarely be heard behind the weight of the modern strings and wind, seems tokenistic, especially with voices placed as far forward in the recording as they are, though the acoustic is consistent, and for once the spoken dialogue seems to belong in the same acoustic as the rest of the performance, with Thomas Quasthoff taking the purely speaking role of the Pasha Selim.

Villazón is Belmonte, but neither his sound nor his style is really plausible. It’s all very generalised, and often he could be singing Verdi rather than Mozart, with coloratura that is laboured, and tone that seems alternately nasal and curdled. The sense of style that’s missing in Villazón’s singing is emphasised by the other tenor, Paul Schweinester as Pedrillo, and especially by Diana Damrau as Konstanze, but Anna Prohaska is a disappointingly anonymous Blonde, and Franz-Josef Selig a surprisingly lightweight, rather unmenacing Osmin. Alongside the best performances already in the catalogue, whether traditional (conducted by Karl Böhm, say, or Colin Davis) or historically aware (William Christie or John Eliot Gardiner), this new version doesn’t begin to compete. (The Guardian)

Egberto Gismonti & Academia de Danças SANFONA

For his third ECM effort, renaissance man Egberto Gismonti offers a classic diptych. The first half is a heaping helping of originals played with his Academia de Danças quartet, the second a live solo set from Munich. One can hardly listen to Gismonti at his best without being there to catch every story as it falls through the cracks. Everyone’s story will be different. Here’s one:

The accentuating winds of “Marcatu” waft past our noses. The scent is moist, hinting at lichen. Our breathing quickens us as we climb into thinner air, compensated by a majestic and quiet beauty in all directions. Gismonti’s piano introduces itself as the traveler who will be our guide. As he works his magico on the keys, bass (Zeca Assumpção) and drums (Nene) assume his lead, leaving Gismonti running with a saxophone (Mauro Senise), and us, following close behind. Every gesture of “10 Anos” is another footstep tracing the outskirts of a place unknown. And without knowing it, we have become one person. We wish to introduce ourself to the new community in the vale, into which we have now crossed. Drums nip at our heels as we find ourselves propelled by the downward slope. We are welcomed with ceremony in “Frevo.” But then, a lone figure cuts through the celebration, bringing with him the possibility of destruction. Instead, he shows us the wisdom of local ways, observing proper form in the presence of new life, the possibilities of love, and the realities of an ever-changing kinship. As the forest yields ancestors’ whispers, that their progeny might better survive, so too are voices encamped here among their people, where fires burn low and judgments even lower. Yet somewhere in the shadows, the saxophone lies in wait, trickster in disguise. Whatever mischief lies in store, however, is dispelled by the crystalline joys of “Lôro.” Here we find rebirth, brought forward to a council of harmony.

A four-part tribute follows, an epic in true Gismontian fashion. This time around, his guitar returns cloaked in the shadows of pianism, carried by an airborne saxophone. Every fluted note is an ensnared animal, gift of the hunt and of the gather. Recounting those undeniable moments of community that embraced us, we hear the voices of our own past in the harmonium, bleeding into guitar and drums. From this tenderness emerges “De Repente,” an engaging 12-string interlude that could give Gustavo Santaolalla a run for his money any day. And run it most certainly does, as if after spending time in the village, we find our heart also ensnared, only now by the life we abandoned on our way to getting here. And so, we take these feet and put them to the ground as quickly as they will, running hand-in-hand with the person we once were. The Ralph Towner-like diction here makes for one of Gismonti’s most captivating solo pieces. In our wake we leave the lamenting “Vale Do Eco.” The newly escaped continues in our place, lost and alone. In “12 De Fevereiro” we become her lullaby as she lays herself among the ferns and slumbers. And there she stays until a new village grows in her place, her dream at last realized in “Carta De Amor” before making her final leap into a rare green flash that halos the setting sun.

This album is a perfect example of what “World Music” really should be: not music of this, or any, world, but music that is a world in itself. Arguably Gismonti’s best date on any label and an essential one for your collection.

Göran Söllscher FROM YESTERDAY TO PENNY LANE

Lennon and McCartney together must be one of, if not the greatest contributors of composition to popular music. Along with the Beatles producer George Martin they influenced not one but possibly every generation of music makers since their emergence in the early '60s.
Leo Brouwer, the Cuban guitarist/composer whose broad musical views take in so many aspects of music, recognised Lennon and McCartney early on, and included arrangements of their music in his concerts, (at least one of which " Fool on the Hill" was recorded by John Williams [MK 45538]). So this collection of personalities, together with the featured Göran Söllscher, one of Sweden's premier guitarists makes for a formidable collaboration of musical talents.
Basically the disc is divided into four distinct sections, the opening tracks finds Söllscher playing five arrangements for solo guitar. These, for the most part, are successful, the lyricism of the slower pieces working well, especially "In My Life" where the harpsichord solo of the original is faithfully retained, only "Can't Buy me Love" fails to engage, possibly because the tempo chosen for the piece requires a certain swing that Sollscher just doesn't make sound convincing.
The next three selections are probably the most unusual due to the pairing of guitar and bandoneon, a type of concertina. In the hands of Per Arne Glorvigen the bandoneon displays a variety of expressive moods: from the strident, as in "Come Together" to the gentle "I Want To Hold Your Hand" where the players elect to transform the Beatles original almost demanding delivery of the title words into a tender loving request. Good stuff.
The inclusion of George Martin's composition "Three American Sketches" makes for a nice interlude in the proceedings. Not so well known for his composing as for his producing skills this piece does show Martin's understanding of a style that is very much in the tradition of 20th century American music, such as Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland.
The subtitle '7 Songs After the Beatles' is so appropriate to the collection of arrangements by Leo Brouwer as there is as much of Brouwer here as Lennon and McCartney. Certainly the tunes are the product of the Liverpool songsmiths but Brouwer's orchestral textures mark them with his own strong individual character. Never afraid to occasionally allow the orchestra to take the melody, the guitar's accompanying role always reinforces the proceedings. An orchestral episode in "Ticket To Ride" is very much as we heard in his "Concerto de Toronto" and the use of cannon at the beginning of "Eleanor Rigby" is a delight
All in all, a very well produced, entertaining recording, however I do feel that novelty is an over-riding factor with this type of disc. It is after all only one in a long line of records where the music of Lennon and McCartney has been given one sort of treatment or another. I don't know which sector of the music-buying public this disc likely to appeal to. However I do wish it well. (Andy Daly, MusicWeb International)

Göran Söllscher HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

Göran Söllscher was born in 1955 in Växjö, Sweden. He grew up in Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden and started to play the guitar at the age of seven. After his musical education, including studies at the Malmö Conservatory (1975–77) and at the Royal Conservatory of Copenhagen (1976–79), Göran Söllscher embarked on an international career after winning the first prize at the “Concours International de Guitare” in Paris, in 1978. He has since appeared worldwide in recitals and concerts with leading orchestras under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sir Alexander Gibson, Sixten Ehrling, Woldemar Nelsson and Esa-Pekka Salonen and makes frequent appearances on radio and television. His repertoire is exceptionally wide, ranging from Renaissance music to well-known standard concertos for guitar and orchestra, to contemporary music often written especially for him.

Pamela Thorby / Andrew Lawrence-King GARDEN OF EARLY DELIGHTS

The title’s a play on both Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and Jacob van Eyck’s recorder collection The Flute’s Garden of Delights; but more than anything this new disc recalls Herbert’s line “a box where sweets compacted lie”. Straddling the Renaissance and early Baroque, the programme comprises sonatas, sets of divisions and arrangements of songs and popular tunes from Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and England. This repertoire proves rich soil for Thorby and Lawrence-King, and the resulting cross-fertilisation of styles and modes of expression with a modern scholarly aesthetic enlivened by two of the keenest musical intelligences in the business results in a most satisfying listening experience. 

Thorby maximises the affective impact of the music through an incredibly varied approach to articulation and phrasing - compare the lively glosses of the delightful opening track, Diego Ortiz’s Recercada segunda de tenore, with the evocative, floating lines of Giovanni Battista Fontana’s Sonata seconda. Lawrence-King is likewise alert to the rhetorical possibilities inherent in both his accompaniments and solos; in the former category, he proves an ideal partner for Thorby in his ability to think vocally, while in the latter his almost visual sense of line and colour is apparent, as in Biagio Marini’s Passacaglio and Dowland’s “Weep you no more”. 

Recorded sound is nothing short of stunning, while the cover image of a hummingbird nicely encapsulates Thorby’s lightness and agility as she darts from piece to piece to extract its nectar. This is Paradise indeed. (William Yeoman)

Myung-Whun Chung / Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra MAHLER Symphony No. 5

Myung-Whun Chung began his musical career as a pianist, making his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven.  In 1974 he won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.  After his musical studies at the Mannes School and Juilliard School in New York, he was appointed Carlo Maria Giulini’s assistant in 1979 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became Associate Conductor two years later.

He was Music Director of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1990, Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale of Florence from 1987 to 1992 and Music Director of the Opéra de Paris-Bastille from 1989 to 1994.  The year 2000 marked his return to Paris as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.  His love for Italy has been at the basis of his extensive work in that country for many years, including, from 1997 to 2005, his position as Principal Conductor of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.  He also appears regularly at the Teatro La Fenice, most recently for Verdi’s Otello.  In Germany, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden at the beginning of the 2012/13 season, the first conductor to hold the post in the history of the orchestra.  Outside Europe, he is increasingly committed to musical and social causes in Asia through his role as Music Advisor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and, from 2006, Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Myung-Whun Chung has conducted virtually all the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouworkest, all the major London and Parisian orchestras, Filharmonica della Scala, Bayerische Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Boston and Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. 

An exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 1990, many of his numerous recordings have won international prizes and awards.  Recent releases include Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with the Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille, as well as Mahler’s Symphony no.2, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique’ Symphony and a Beethoven disc, all with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Christian Lindberg / Norrköping Symphony Orchestra ALLAN PETTERSSON Symphony No. 9

Despite its imposing length, Allan Pettersson's Symphony No. 9 is an intensely concentrated work, built on a simple chromatic scale heard at the beginnning, and developed into 70 minutes of astonishing contrapuntal activity and fertile regeneration. While tonal in a technical sense, this symphony is harmonically complicated and frequently dissonant, so listeners should expect a challenge to their sense of key and form, notwithstanding the oddly serene resolution of the piece in F major. Even more important are the listener's resilience and sitzfleisch, because this long single-movement work is a bracing experience, with much of the music flying by at breathtaking speed and with fierce, persistant energy. Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra demonstrate their ability to play with exacting precision and virtuosic brilliance, and it's an extraordinary display of cohesion, because the ensemble moves unnervingly as a single entity. (Blair Sanderson)

Natalie Dessay / Emmanuelle Haïm / Le Concert D'Astrée HANDEL Cleopatra Arias from Giulio Cesare

The fact that the role of Handel's Cleopatra includes enough music to fill out a CD, and that, combined with the music's demands for immense virtuosity and versatility, makes it a daunting challenge and Natalie Dessay is impressive in her account of these excerpts. Dessay's singing is not entirely consistent throughout the album, recorded in 2010, whether because some arias are simply better suited to her voice than others, or because she was not at her best for some of the recording sessions. While the agility and precision of her coloratura are always intact, in some selections, such as the arias "Tutto può donna vezzosa," and "Venere bella," Dessay's voice sounds lighter than it does on albums from earlier in her career, and even a little breathy in her lower register. In other arias, though, she conveys the remarkable fullness and purity for which she is renowned. "Se pieta di me non senti" is breathtaking; her gleaming tone is practically voluptuous and she spins lines of miraculously velvety smoothness and searing emotional intensity. "Piangerò la sorte mia" and the substitution aria "Per dar vita all'idol mio" are other highlights that showcase Dessay at her most vocally and dramatically dazzling. Mezzo-soprano Sonia Prina as Caesar is a capable partner for Dessay in several recitatives and the duet, "Caro! Bella!" Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée, frequent collaborators with Dessay, bring their characteristic finesse, spirited intelligence, and dramatic urgency to the music, and the realizations of the continuo parts are especially inventive. Virgin Classics' sound is exceptionally vivid and present, with good balance. (Stephen Eddins)

More Hispano / Vicente Parrilla YR A OYDO

Yr a oydo is an old Spanish expression for "going by heart" and is the name of MORE HISPANO's latest innovative project lead by the recorder player Vicente Parrilla. The young Spanish Ensemble presents Ancient Music of early 17th century Spain and Italy, completely improvised but not without cherishing the skills of historic performance - a goal that is as ambitious as it is unique.

MORE HISPANO holds ideal qualifications for this kind of music: the musicians have been in the business for many years, some of them performing together since childhood. Most have since come to belong to the best and most innovative specialists of their generation in Ancient Music in Spain. They perform solely on historic instruments and artful replica of instruments that were in use in the 17th century. The soprano Raquel Andueza not only performs with MORE HISPANO but also with a variety of internationally renowned ensembles and projects, among them L'Arpeggiata under Christina Pluhar.

This recording is the outcome of the musicians' experimentation and struggle with the historical standards, of their longstanding shared performances, and the playful interaction with their instruments, peer musicians and not least themselves. The aim therein was not to gain distance from the original historic compositions but an intense and often very personal involvement with those works which frequently leads to surprising results.

The record at hand stands in the tradition of the practice of improvisation: not one piece was played twice in equal manner, no solo was predictable, no one knew at the beginning of a piece when or how it would end.

As a result, the track titles are not work titles as such, but much rather hint at the structure of the piece (e.g. "Passacaglia" as a form of dance), or suggest the employed compositions (e.g. "Guardame las vacas"). In many ways, the style of making music here relates to Jazz, and oftentimes the inherent and uncompromising quest for emotion and expression will be more familiar to the fan of Jazz than it might be to the admirer of Ancient Music. It is this gap in today's musical landscape that Yr a oydo aspires to bridge. (Carpe Diem Records)

Horacio Lavandera DINO SALUZZI Imágenes

Imágenes features premiere recordings of Dino Saluzzi’s music for piano. The pieces gathered together here, written between 1960 and 2002, were variously conceived in Salta and Buenos Aires and on the road. Periodically, the great bandoneonist has set aside the instrument which has accompanied him for more than seven decades, to find expression by other means. Over the years, of course, he has written the most diverse music for ensembles of many kinds, including chamber music for his Kultrum collaboration with the ‘Rosamunde Quartett’, pieces for duo with classical cellist Anja Lechner, and works for orchestra performed and recorded with the Metropole Orchestra in Amsterdam’s Musiekgebouw. On Imagénes, Horacio Lavandera, a gifted Argentine pianist specialized in both classical music and contemporary composition – he studied with Maurizio Pollini and Charles Rosen, and has collaborated with Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel – proves to be an ideal Saluzzi interpreter, attuned both to his love of his homeland and his artistic need to travel widely.

Lavandera recorded these pieces, under the supervision of the composer, and with Manfred Eicher as producer, at Oslo’s Rainbow studio in October 2013. The album is issued in time for Dino Saluzzi’s 80^th birthday on May 20.