Justin Drew THE CORNO D'AMORE

 

THE CORNO D'AMORE

 

THE TRUMPETS OF MATTHIAS HÖFS

 

THE TRUMPETS OF MATTHIAS HÖFS

 

Tabea Debus / Jonathan Rees / Alex McCartney OHRWURM

OHRWURM

Joanna Goodale BACH IN A CIRCLE

Born into a British-Turkish family, Joanna Goodale is a French-Swiss pianist with an eclectic and creative identity, opening up the classical repertoire to traditional world music and to her own comprovisations. 

She has been invited to perform in Switzerland, in France, in Germany, in Turkey, in Spain and in the United Kingdom. Graduate of a Master of Arts in Piano (Geneva) and a Master of Arts in Anthropology (London), she has benefitted from the support of the Fondation L’ABRI in Geneva and of the advice of internationally renowned pianists such as Alice Ader, Alain Kremksi, Cedric Pescia, Menahem Pressler and Anne Queffélec. Deeply convinced that music can transcend borders and touch the sublime, she invites her public to enter in communion with sound and silence in a space-time of rare intensity. 

BACH IN A CIRCLE proposes an encounter between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Sufi whirling dervishes, weaved around a programme where the pieces are in a dialogue, questioning the mysteries of the human soul and reflecting the movements of the Universe. 

After visiting Turkey many times, I realised that Sufi music brought out in me similar emotions to those I feel when listening to Johann Sebastian Bach. This led me to do some research and then highlight the similarities between these two universes which, at first glance, can seem very different. Indeed, sacred Sufi songs and the works of Bach are both characterized by an expression of deep spirituality, a quest to represent the cosmic order and the use of repetitive cyclical patterns in perpetual movement, leading to a sense of transcendence and inner silence. (Joanna Goodale)

Anna Gourari ELUSIVE AFFINITY

In this imaginatively shaped and sensitively played album – her third for ECM -  Russian pianist Anna Gourari explores musical connections and influences extending across the arts.  Three suites of contemporary music are heard here.  Alfred Schnittke’s Five Aphorisms (1990) draw impulses from the poetry of his friend Joseph Brodsky.  Rodion Shchedrin’s Diary - Seven Pieces (2002) dedicated to Gourari and inspired by her playing, reflects the life of a pianist and composer.  Wolfgang Rihm’s sequence of tombeaux, Zwiesprache (1999) pays tribute to musicologists Alfred Schlee and Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, conductor Paul Sacher, and art sociologist Hermann Wiesler. Threaded between the cycles are two Giya Kancheli miniatures drawn from theatre and movie music, as well as Arvo Pärt’s early tintinnabuli-style Variations for the Healing of Arinuschka (1977).  Gourari’s investigation of artistic affinities is framed with Bach’s transcriptions of Venetian composers Antonio Vivaldi and Alessandro Marcello: “Anna Gourari makes these Bach slow movements, too, ours,” Paul Griffiths writes in the liner notes. “And the newer music is cherished and invigorated.”

Mary Elizabeth Bowden / Kassia Ensemble RÊVERIE

Classical Trumpeter and Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner Mary Elizabeth Bowden has been described by Gramophone Magazine as “brilliant” and “radiant in new repertoire for trumpet.” Bowden, a Yamaha Performing Artist, is highly regarded for her artistry and virtuosity as a soloist, and has been praised for the clarity, purity and power of her sound. Bowden released her debut album, Radiance, on Summit Records featuring new American works. She has been featured on MPR’s “New Classical Tracks” with Julie Amacher, which is being aired on NPR stations nationwide.

Bowden’s 2018-19 performance highlights include solo performances at the Maspalomas International Trumpet Festival in Gran Canaria and at Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. She will make her China debut performing Hummel Concerto and Debussy’s Rêverie with the Hunan Symphony Orchestra at the Hunan Spring Festival Concert. She will also perform as a soloist with the Kassia Ensemble, Chrysalis Chamber Players, Richmond Philharmonic, and will make her Vancouver and New York City recital debuts. She will release her second solo album, Rêverie, through Summit Records with the Kassia Ensemble.

Olga Scheps MELODY

Chilly Gonzales wrote the "Olga - Gigue" for her, Sven Helbig did a piano - arrangement of his "Pocket Symphony - Am Abend" for her. Vivan and Ketan Bhatti wrote "Memories of Mussorsky" also for piano solo for Olga.

This work, performed by Olga will also be a part of the new programm of the break dance group "Flying Steps".

More works by Frederic Chopin, Aphex Twin, Ludwig van Beethoven, or Mozart / Volodos are on this album, which reflects the musical world as it is, without genre - borders.

The English Concert / Harry Bicket DALL'ABACO - PORPORA - MARCELLO - TARTINI - TELEMANN

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

Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto is the best-known work here (it is the one Bach transcribed for keyboard) and is given a mellifluous and atmospheric performance with Katharina Spreckelsen as the warm soloist. The way the achingly lyrical slow movement creeps in from near inaudibility is particularly effective and I rather liked the oboe’s cheeky ‘spread chord’ at the very end. Next comes a typically tricky but composed and poetic violin concerto by Tartini; Nadja Zwiener’s violin is quite foregrounded here but does not suffer thereby, as the singing quality and nonchalant virtuosity of her playing (very assured in the frequent double-stopping) mean that it remains easy on the ear. To end, there is Telemann’s Viola Concerto, perhaps a little halting in the first movement where it could have moved more smoothly, but nevertheless played with bold assurance by Alfonso Leal del Ojo; the finale certainly rounds things off with a flourish. Harry Bicket directs the orchestra with precision, clarity and plenty of useful ideas. A nice way to spend 70 minutes of your time. (Lindsay Kemp / Gramophone)

Nathalie Stutzmann / Orfeo 55 QUELLA FIAMMA

The Arie Antiche compiled by Alessandro Parisotti are known to each and every student of classical singing. But with Quella fiamma, Nathalie Stutzmann and Orfeo 55 breathe new fire into this primer for the voice, performing these songs and arias with original orchestrations, as they would have been heard in their day. Before they were lessons, they were high art.

This album is a selection of pieces from Arie antiche, a 19th Century collection of songs edited by Alessandro Parisotti to be a vocal primer. Though now more famous as the editor of Arie antiche, Parisotti was also a composer, and he managed to slip one of his own works into the book by attributing to Giovanni Pergolesi his song "Se tu m'ami". The collection was very much a part of the trend to rediscover old and forgotten works, and the popularity of the three-volume set has endured to this day. 

For this album the musicians of Orfeo 55 have worked painstakingly to source original scores and to edit the parts as necessary. While the instrumental works are not part of Parisotti’s primer, they provide brief musical interludes between the songs to enhance the overall listening experience and bring these works together into a coherent programme.

Laure Favre-Kahn VERS LA FLAMME

Laure Favre-Kahn studied the piano at the Conservatoire in Avignon, before joining Bruno Rigutto's class at the Paris Conservatoire, where she was unanimously awarded a Premier Prix at the age of seventeen.

At the age of twenty, she made her first recording of works by Schumann, followed a year later by a CD devoted to Chopin, both on the Arion label.

In January 1999, she performed at the Midem Music Festival in Cannes as one of the ‘Revelations Classiques de l’ADAMI’. She makes regular appearances as a soloist or chamber musician in France, in Europe, in USA and in Asia. Her partner of predilection is the violonist Nemanja Radulovic.

She has taken part in many important festivals : Auvers-sur-Oise, Orange (Chorégies), Bagatelle (Chopin Festival), Antibes (Festival des Jeunes Solistes), Evian (Rencontres Musicales), Reims (Les Flâneries Musicales), Montpellier (Festival de Radio France), Rocamadour (Les Eclectiques), Nohant (Rencontres Internationales Chopin), etc...
Laure Favre-Kahn has guested with various orchestras: Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy, Orchestre Symphonique Français, Ensemble Orchestral de Normandie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Orchestre Colonne, Orchestre de Bretagne, Ukrainian Philharmonic Orchestra…

In May 2001, she won the first price International Pro Piano to New York, and gave a recital to the Carnegie Recital Hall in october 2001.
After that, she’s selected as Pro Piano Artist of the Year and recording in 2003 a CD devoted to Reynaldo Hahn, for Pro Piano Records to New York (recognize by New York Times).

Albrecht Mayer VOCALISE

Vocalise is a compilation of favourite pieces from Albrecht Mayer's recent releases in which the oboe more than lives up to its reputation as a wind instrument remarkable for its singing tone

The artist personally selected this collection ranging widely from Baroque arias of great virtuosity to the charm of the French chanson

Even as a boy soprano with the Bamberg Cathedral Choir, Albrecht Mayer was already fascinated by the human voice, and although he later decided against pursuing a career as a singer and chose instead to become an oboist, he is unquestionably a magician who as soon as he breathes life into his instrument casts his spell on his listeners’ hearts and minds with the beauty of his playing, transforming the oboe into an irresistible Vox Humana.

Nelson Freire BACH

Nelson Freire has long been seen as a connoisseur’s pianist, but a series of superb recordings have raised his profile to the extent that he is now thought of as one of today’s universally recognised great musicians. Whether playing the great warhorses of the repertoire or the gentlest miniatures, he brings to his performances a level of quiet thoughtfulness that puts him in a class of his own.

Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, he began piano lessons at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at the age of five playing Mozart’s Sonata K. 331. In 1957, after winning a grant at the Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition with Beethoven’s Emperor concerto, he went to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, teacher of Friedrich Gulda. Seven years later he won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London and first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.

Since his international career began in 1959, Freire has appeared at virtually every important musical centre, in recital and working with countless distinguished conductors and orchestras.  A great musical collaborator, he has toured extensively with Martha Argerich, with whom he shares a long-time musical collaboration and friendship. They have recorded several discs together, including a live recital from the Salzburg Festival.

“This, Nelson Freire's first disc devoted to Bach, is predictably personal. It speaks of a long acquaintance with the works on offer and you only need to sample the Fourth Partita's Sarabande to hear how lovingly he caresses the music, giving it a raptness that rivals Perahia” (Gramophone)

. . . a superb overview of Bach's works played on the piano, from towering original works such as the Fourth Partita or the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, through to a selection of transcriptions. In lyrical mood, as in his version of Myra Hess's arrangement of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", Freire's Bach is soft, flowing and atmospheric; elsewhere, especially in the Chromatic Fantasy, his fingerwork is dazzlingly fast, accurate and pin-sharp in its attack. (Paul Drive, Classic FM)

Heinz Holliger / I Musici CONCERTI PER OBOE

This is not a record for the purists but, accepted for what it offers, it is an enjoyable one. The Marcello has long topped the baroque-oboe pop charts and has plenty of recordings, even on CD: Holliger's embellishment of its famous slow movement is fluent but perhaps over-elaborate for a melody whose lines are beautiful enough in their own right. The booklet tells us about Sammartini's ''Concerto No. 1 in F'', in four da chiesa movements, but not the fine Concerto (three movements, in D) on the recording, a newcomer to the catalogue. The Albinoni is a new recording not taken from the CD of six concertos from his Op. 9 by the same artists which are remasterings of originals from 1968. Lotti's small corpus of instrumental works includes only one concerto—for the oboe d'amore his preoccupation with vocal music is reflected particularly in the delightful affetuoso, a gentle siciliana and by far the longest single movement on the record. The change of instrument also brings some variety of tone-colour.
The odd man out is Cimarosa, who didn't write an oboe concerto: Arthur Benjamin it was who adapted some of his keyboard sonatas to compile one of four movements. The resultant hybrid makes agreeable listening but not more. Holliger's oboe sings beautifully and not, as the modern oboe is wont to do, down its nose. I Musici are in good form, light in touch and decently in touch with baroque style where it is called for, the harpsichord is nicely audible in the well-engineered recording.
(John Duarte, Gramophone_4/1988)

Dorothee Oberlinger / Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca FLAUTO VENEZIANO

Dorothee Oberlinger trained to become a music teacher and also attended a course in German studies before studying the recorder in Cologne, Amsterdam and Milan. Having won the first prize in the Moeck/ SRP Solo Recorder Competition in London, she made her professional début in the capital’s Wigmore Hall in 1997, subsequently winning many other prizes, including an Echo Klassik Award.

Since 2004 Dorothee Oberlinger is teaching at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, where she runs the Institute for Early Music.

In the concert hall she has appeared as a soloist with such distinguished Baroque ensembles and orchestras as I Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, Musica Antiqua Köln, the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin, the Academy of Ancient Music and Zefiro.

In 2002 she formed Ensemble 1700, a specialist group that performs chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Within the context of numerous concert projects and CD recordings, Ensemble 1700 has worked with many leading figures from the world of early music.