Khatia Buniatishvili LABYRINTH

LABYRINTH

 

Sophie Pacini RIMEMBRANZA

RIMEMBRANZA

 

Lavinia Meijer / Carel Kraayenhof IN CONCERT

IN CONCERT

Angèle Dubeau / La Pietà OVATION

“Music must not be the prerogative of the elite ; it belongs to everyone.” These words by Telemann have been my motto for a very long time. I like to think that music should be shared with as many people as possible, and it was in this spirit that I developed the concert program “One Last Time”, performed 33 times in Canada in the fall of 2017 and then on tour in Latin America in the winter of 2018. This album, recorded live at Quebec City’s Palais Montcalm in November 2017, features some of the most striking works that La Pietà has performed during its 21 years of existence. All of the selected works represent important moments I have experienced with my ensemble…

… when I first founded the orchestra, made up entirely of women, inspired by the young girls at the Ospedale de la Pietà, the Venice orphanage where music reigned supreme under the directorship of its famous maestro di coro Antonio Vivaldi…

… or playing George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody N^o 1, a work burgeoning with passion that reminds me of my studies in Bucharest, where I discovered how to make my violin sing, dance, cry, and speak.

… or more recently, a dozen years ago, when I created a series of musical portraits of contemporary composers whose signature styles engaged me so powerfully – artists such as Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass, and Max Richter, whose works on this album are now part of the modern music canon.

… or all the occasions when it has been my great privilege to share the stage with exceptional musicians and premiere new works. My precious partnerships with masters such as Canadian composer Srul Irving Glick and Japanese pianist and composer Joe Hisaishi – giants who have coloured my musical world – also appear on this album.

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have expressed myself through music, I have travelled through music, and it sustains me to this day.

I gave my first concert at the age of five, and 51 years later, I would like to say “thank you,” because after all these years, what fills me with joy is knowing that my music is there with you, both in your everyday life and in the special moments.

Thank you for all of these experiences. Enjoy! (Angèle Dubeau)

Angèle Dubeau / La Pietà OVATION

Recorded live in concert, this album features works by Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, Philip Glass, Ennio Morricone, George Enescu, Joe Hisaichi, Camille Saint-Saens and Srul Irving Glick. Angèle Dubeau writes of this release: “’Music must not be the prerogative of the elite, it belongs to everyone.’ These words by Telemann have been my motto for a very long time. I like to think that music should be shared with as many people as possible, and it was in this spirit that I developed the concert program “One Last Time”, performed 33 times in Canada in the fall of 2017 and then on tour in Latin America in the winter of 2018. This album, recorded live at Quebec City’s Palais Montcalm in November 2017, features some of the most striking works that La Pietà has performed during its 21 years of existence. I gave my first concert at the age of five, and 51 years later, I would like to say “thank you,” because after all these years, what fills me with joy is knowing that my music is there with you, both in your everyday life and in the special moments. Thank you for all of these experiences. Enjoy!”

Anne Akiko Meyers SERENADE The Love Album

Serenade: The Love Album was recorded on the celebrated 'Ex-Vieuxtemps' Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1741, which is considered to be the finest sounding violins in existence, and is known to be most valuable violin in the world, having last sold for over $16 million. Anne Akiko Meyers has been awarded exclusive lifetime use of this instrument. This year, she was featured in a story with the violin on CBS Sunday Morning.
Anne Akiko Meyers was Billboard's top-selling classical instrumentalist in 2014, a year in which she released two critically-heralded and popular albums. The Four Seasons: The Vivaldi Album, released in February 2014, debuted at #1 on the classical Billboard charts, and American Masters, released in September, was named one of the Best of 2014 by Google Play and called "the most noteworthy new music encounter" of the year by the Chicago Tribune.

 On Serenade, Anne Akiko Meyers -- a champion of living composers -- commissioned seven renowned composer-arrangers to create ten works for violin and orchestra from love-inspired music from stage and film to pair with Leonard Bernstein's "Serenade", which was recorded in anticipation of the composer's upcoming 100th birthday celebration. New arrangements on the album include orchestrations of modern classics such as Brad Dechter's versions of "Laura," Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me," and a bluesy, honky-tonk iteration of "Summertime." "Gabriel's Oboe," arranged by J.A.C. Redford, with its acrobatic, high notes, is juxtaposed poignantly with the solemn beauty of Steven Mercurio's take on "Emmanuel." Matthew Naughtin's tongue-in-cheek "Jalousie," bookended by elements of the Tchaikovsky Violin concerto, energetically flows into Astor Piazzolla's soul-busting "Oblivion," arranged by Peter von Weinhardt, and to the magical luster of Leigh Harline's "When You Wish Upon a Star," arranged by father-son composing duo Steven and Adam Schoenberg. Dechter's soaring reworking of "I'll Be Seeing You" and Bernstein's "Somewhere" from West Side Story close out the album.