NOVUS NY / Julian Wachner LUNA PEARL WOOLF Fire and Flood

                                                                FIRE AND FLOOD

David Krakauer / Matt Haimovitz & Friends AKOKA

In their “brilliantly inventive” (The New York Times) live recording, clarinetist David Krakauer and cellist Matt Haimovitz’s AKOKA lift Messiaen's transcendent 1940-41 work Quartet for the End of Time out of the polite context of a chamber music performance, placing it in a dramatic 21st century setting that drives home its gravity and impact. AKOKA was inspired by the wartime experience of Jewish clarinetist Henri Akoka, who premiered the Quartet for the End of Time with Messiaen himself at the German prisoner-of-war camp in which they were both interred. Henri Akoka's vibrant personality and the story of his survival, with all its twists and turns, is the inspiration for this recording, which brings out the human aspect of this composition, seen through the eyes of one individual caught up in terrifying events beyond his control. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is bookended by Akoka, Krakauer’s highly improvisational, Sephardic-tinged piece, and Meanwhile… a re-mix by hip-hop/klezmer artist Socalled, who joins the ensemble on electronics. As the forces of fundamentalism, intolerance and violence intensify in today's world, this mounting of Messiaen’s great work is all the more timely.

Jonathan Crow / Douglas McNabney / Matt Haimovitz MOZART Divertimento

Mozart’s brilliance at the keyboard is well known, but it was his joy in playing the viola – and the musical dialogue and kinship of playing with friends – that led the composer to write his music for string trio. Mozart’s Divertimento remains one of the pinnacles of chamber music history. Haydn had already established the string quartet genre, but there was nothing like the richness and craft of this string trio before Mozart. The equality and variety of roles, the grand form spanning six movements, the constantly shifting couplings – all create a fully satisfying sonic texture from the spiritual and symbolic number, three. All for one, one for all, the three players share a bond, fraternal brothers connected by Mozart’s imagination. 

It brings me happy memories to look back a dozen years to when this recording was made in the marvellous acoustic of Église Saint- Augustin near Mirabel, Quebec. My friends and colleagues Jonathan Crow and Douglas McNabney join me on this Mozartean journey, all of us at the time professors at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. (Matt Haimovitz)

Matt Haimovitz / Christopher O'Riley BEETHOVEN Period

Cellist Matt Haimovitz prefaces his period-instrument Beethoven cycle with an absorbing essay, writing that ‘the consideration is no longer the modern-day “how can the cello cut through the multi-voiced powerhouse of a concert grand piano”, but “how can it make room for the nuances of the 19th-century fortepiano?”’ Good engineering also helps, and Pentatone’s vividly resonant production captures the music’s wide dynamic range with comparable clarity and heft to the two Bylsma editions, and surpasses the slightly dry and close-up Isserlis/Levin cycle.

More significantly, Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley play the living daylights out of these works. They lap up Beethoven’s combative style like hungry lions anticipating raw steak, relishing the composer’s frequent subito dynamics, unpredictable placement of accents and over-the-bar-line phrase groupings. Rarely has Op 5 No 1’s first-movement introduction come alive with such rhythmic character, while the rollicking yet relaxed repartee of Op 5 No 2’s Rondo underlines the music’s kinship to the Fourth Piano Concerto’s finale. Similar attention to detail adds intensity and colour to the off-beat accents in Op 69’s Scherzo, and the Allegro vivace’s playful demeanor (complete with scrupulously observed staccatos) makes for a brash contrast to the eloquence and nobility one normally encounters. If the duo pile into Op 102 No 1’s Allegro vivace too aggressively for certain pitches to register, the joyous, uplifting mood conveyed by their briskly paced Op 102 No 2 final fugue’s transparency and sophisticated phraseology is worth this release’s total price.

Terrific performances of the variation sets prove more than merely filler. If you want a HIP counterpart to the Maisky/Argerich cycle, look no further. (Jed Distler / Gramophone)

Matt Haimovitz ORBIT

Orbit maps my musical journey since the turn of the millenium, a path travelled with my partner in life and music, composer Luna Pearl Woolf. Initially released on Oxingale Records as five thematic albums – Anthem (2003), Goulash! (2005), After Reading Shakespeare (2007), Figment (2009), and Matteo (2011) – Orbit encompasses nearly all of the solo contemporary works on these albums, along with two newly recorded tracks: Philip Glass’ “Orbit” and a new arrangement by Luna of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” All but these two tracks were produced by Luna, and all have now been remastered for SACD HD surround sound. More than twenty composers are represented in the set, fifteen of them still living. Ten works receive their world premiere recording here. 

With the solo cello as our pilot, we steer headlong into the great musical debates of the past half-century: maximalist vs. minimalist; folk-rooted vs. abstract, absolute vs. narrative, tonal vs. atonal. In many ways, we live in a golden age of music, with a perspective rich in history and reference. We can look back at the 20th century’s Tower of Babel. We can embrace its boldness, diversity, complexity, and its return to the natural order of harmony. Leonard Bernstein’s words from his Norton Lectures, The Unanswered Question, ruminating on Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theory of universality, the collective wiring that connects us across borders and between far-reaching lands, resonates more than ever. He writes, “I’m no longer quite sure what the question is, but I do know that the answer is Yes.” (Matt Haimovitz)

Matt Haimovitz / Christopher O'Riley SHUFFLE.PLAY.LISTEN

Shuffle.Play.Listen unites ground-breaking, Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz with pianist Christopher O'Riley, host of NPR and PBS’s popular weekly radio and television series, From the Top, in a collaboration that blurs the boundaries between classical and pop music.

Two performers, each a superstar in his own right, come together to plumb the virtuosic and lyrical possibilities of their instruments in an expansive 2-CD set from Oxingale Records.

Disc 1 features Igor Stravinsky’s neo-classical Suite Italienne, Leos Janacek’s Fairy Tale, Bohuslav Martinu’s Variations on a Slovak Folksong and Astor Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, all interwoven with an arresting new arrangement of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo film score, celebrating the composer’s 100th birthday this year.

Disc 2 kicks off with Empty Room from the 2011 Grammy winning Album of the Year by Arcade Fire, and follows up with tracks by Blond Redhead, the Cocteau Twins, Radiohead, and more Arcade Fire, as well as supergroup A Perfect Circle’s hit song 3 Libras and a jaw dropping rendition of John McLaughlin’s Dance of Maya. All the arrangements for cello and piano were made with O’Riley’s signature passion and finesse, and realized with Haimovitz’s uncompromising artistic depth. The pair display their considerable improvisational skills in several tunes, including their 9-minute un-cut interpretation of McLaughlin’s A Lotus on Irish Streams.

Inside the package, New York Times best-selling author Dan Levitin (This is your Brain on Music), interviews Haimovitz and O’Riley on the making of Shuffle.Play.Listen.

One of the most anticipated collaborations of the 2011-2012 season, Haimovitz and O’Riley will tour extensively in major concert series and university residencies throughout throughout the US. In addition, each continues to tour exhaustively as a solo artist in recital and as concerto soloist.

Shuffle.Play.Listen embraces a new kind of listening public who mix Wagner with Lady Gaga on their iPods, exploring new sounds and moving comfortably between genres. While Classical lovers will be drawn to CD1, more adventurous listeners will thrill to CD2, and both will want to shuffle, play and listen! (Oxingale Records)

Matt Haimovitz J.S. BACH 6 Suites for Cello Solo

Haimovitz has been taking the beloved solo cello suites of Bach out of the concert hall, performing them in intimate venues and music clubs across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and soon Europe. The tour which has sold-out nearly every performance has been profiled on National Public Radio’s ‘Performance Today’ and PRI’s ‘The World,’ as well as in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among the reviews, LA Times critic Mark Swed writes, "In these experiments, Haimovitz has, indeed, recaptured the freshness in music making. There is nothing like the intimacy of hearing great music in a close, casual environment, and Monday night the cellist seemed to absorb as much energy from the crowd as we did from him." Philadelphia Enquirer critic David Patrick Stearns remarks, "If playing Bach in the Old City folk club the Tin Angel was an experiment, cellist Matt Haimovitz succeeded Monday in! ways that say as much about the needs of the music-loving public as his extraordinary talent."

Haimovitz has been honored with the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1986), and was the first cellist ever to receive the prestigious Premio Internazionale "Accademia Musicale Chigiana" (1999). Of six acclaimed recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label, his Suites and Sonatas for Solo Cello was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque (1991) and le Diapason d'Or (1991). Haimovitz’s recording, J.S. Bach: 6 Suites for Cello Solo has been a TOP PICK in U.S. News and World Report and featured in Billboard, Gramophone, The New Criterion, and others. Also on Oxingale, an album entitled "Lemons Descending" of music for soprano and cello originated as a limited edition fine-art book and recording that can be found in some of the finest special collections in the U.S., including the Library of Congress, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Brown Universities and many others. His most recent release, "The Rose Album" with pianist Itamar Golan, a reminiscence through musical association of his teacher, the legendary American cellist Leonard Rose, features the music of Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Paganini, Stern, and Popper.