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An Interview with Tobias Picker Handmaid Tale's Debuts in English Rautavaara Joins B&G Who's Afraid of Julia Wolfe Derek Bermel's Soul Garden The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of Wladyslaw Szpilman John Adams' Atomic Opera A Bridge Not Far Enough Turnage Signs With B&H Sophie's Wrong Choice Copland's Mexico On Being Arvo Rzewski Plays Rzewski Praising Lee Hyla David Lang's Passing Measures Three Tales at BAM Naxos at 15 On the Transmigration of Souls Dead Man Walking David Krakauer's The Year After Steve Reich/Alan Pierson
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Ulisse Composer: Luigi Dallapiccola Conductor: Ernest Bour Radio France Dallapiccola's final masterpiece, the opera Ulisse, which premiered in Berlin in 1968, recounts the voyage both of Homer’s hero and of mankind's search for eternal truths. Recorded in 1975, a few months after the composer's death, this performance is the culmination of a lifetime of meditation and musical discipline by one of the great humanists of the 20th century arts. |
Early and Unknown Piano Works Composer: Morton Feldman Performer(s): Debora Petrina OgreOgress Productions Previously
unrecorded pieces from the early 40s reveal Feldman during the period he
studied with Wallingford Riegger. No real surprises here but no klunkers
either. His composition style borrows 12-tone techniques and
atonality but deploys them within more traditional neo-classic structures.
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Guitar Concertos & Solos Composer: Poul Ruders Performer: David Starobin, guitar Bridge The
long and intimate collaboration between Poul Ruders, the brilliant composer,
and David Starobin, the splendid guitarist, (who also happens to be David
Starobin, the successful record executive--co-founder of Bridge Records)--has
led to some of the most challenging and original compositions in the modern
guitar repertory. Consider this a kind of "greatest hits" for the
modern classical guitar.
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Symphonies 1 & 7 Composer: Aulis Sallinen Performer: Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Ari Rasilainen cpo Another great Finnish composer, ho hum, but Aulis Sallinen (b. 1935) is, with Rautavaara, the latest proof that small countries can produce big composers. There are hints of Sibelius, of course, but Sallinen is a unique voice that speaks directly. His work is tonal and completely devoid of the modern medievalism that characters much north of the Arctic Circle music. |
String Quartets 1 & 3 Composer: Frank Bridge Performers:. Maggini String Quartet Naxos Frank Bridge is a bit of a lost horse in the English stable of composers that includes such giants as Elgar, Vaughan Williams and, his student, Benjamin Britten. But he shouldn't be. No. 1, written in 1901, is a mature, fully realized work; No. 3, composed in 1927 is one of the pilars of 20th century chamber music. As always, the Maggini play magnificiently and the recording is first rate. |
Le Villi Composer: Giacomo Puccini Conductor: Marco Guidarini Performer: Melanie Diener, Ludovic Tezier, et al. Radio France Chorus, French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Naive Just
listening to young Puccini's first opera (as opposed to seeing it staged
and sung), you notice immediately that the big sweeping melodies, the ingenious
"hooks" are already there. Naive has also issued a Radio France recording
of Puccini’s second opera, Edgar,
written five years after Le Villi. In this more ambitious and
complicated work, Puccini develops his technique using a score that merges
stirring arias and ensembles.
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Emerson Concerto / Symphony 1 Composer: Charles Ives Performers: Alan Feinberg (piano), National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, James Sinclair (conductor) Naxos Ives sketched the Emerson Concerto in 1907 but never fully finished it, although he used portions in other works. David G. Porter, a noted Ives scholar, was able to create a performing version which was premiered in 1998 by Alan Feinberg, the pianist on this premiere recording. The piece is extremely demanding, often abrasive, and demands exceptional virtuosity. Symphony No. 1 is fetching, but not as charateristic, of the great American maverick that followed. |
Piano Concertos 2 & 3 Composer: Einojuhani Rautavaara Performers: Laura Mikkola (piano), Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eri Klas (conductor) Naxos The Finnish composer Rautavaara has enjoyed enormous success in recent years with his unique blend of northern lights impressionism and romanticism served up in an aura of modernity. His Cantus Articus is immensely popular, conjuring up associations of Messiean, although the latter is a much more important composer. The Third Piano Concerto from 1998 is forceful, drawings on the Russian school of pianism, although it not technically flashy until the finale. The Second, composed nine years earlier, is more traditional and Laura Mikkola, already on disc with a highly regarded account of the First Concerto, again provides an outstanding performance. |
Ethel Composers: King, Kline, Reynolds, Ziporen Performers: Ethel Cantaloupe New
York's most daring string-quartet sensation, Ethel, makes its debut here
with a menu of the kind of hard-edged downtown music that has won the group
a big following in the NY new music scene. Todd Reynolds and
Mary Rowell, violins; Ralph Farris, viola; and Dorothy Lawson, cello—all
began their careers in New York as freelance musicians, playing difficult
music that relies heavily on non-classical sources but requires a virtuoso
classical ensemble to play. Its repertoire ranges from John King's energetic
blues transcriptions to the gnarly quartets of Julia Wolfe
and on Todd Reynolds' quirky
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Return from a Journey Composers: Gurdjieff, De Hartmann, Performer: Kremski Naive Gurdjieff
was a Russian Aremenian spiritual master who, in addition to the main body
of his teaching created sacred dances, or Movements, as well as 200
or so musical compositions--all of which were were done in collaboration
with German composer Thomas de Hartmann at Gurdjieff's Institute
for the Harmonious Development of Man, near Paris, in the years 1925–27.
For many years, the pieces heard here were played only by De Hartmann or
another of Gurdjieff's disciples but in recent years they have attracted
the interest of a number of adventuresome pianists. Kremski plays
these exotic, vaguely oriental and oddly thematic pieces with great respect
and warmth.
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Chichester
Psalms
Composer: Leonard Bernstein Performers: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Marin Alsop (conductor) Naxos Commissioned in 1965 by the Dean of Chichester, Bernstein’s colorful Chichester Psalms is one of the composer’s most successful and accessible works on religious texts, contrasting spiritual austerity with impulsive rhythms in a contemplation of peace. The composer fashioned his Oscar nominated score to the 1954 movie On the Waterfront into a symphonic suite, skillfully capturing the oppression of the New York dockyards in the ’50s. The Three Dance Episodes were extracted from the popular On The Town, Bernstein's first successful foray into musical theatre. Bernstein protege Marin Alsop gets a robust performance from Bournemouth orchestra and chorus. |
Double Concerto Composer: Witold Lutoslawski Performers: Polish National Radio Symphony, Antoni Wit Volume 8 in Naxos' indispensible survey of Lutoslawski's orchestra work brings us into lesser known territory but there are still treasures to be found. The Dance Preludes from 1955 is basically a five-movement clarinet concerto, with lots of interesting harmonies and rhythmic twists and turns. The Double Concerto for oboe and harp from 1990 rattles the ear a bit and has a demanding oboe part, beautifully played by Arkadiusz Krupa. The Children's Songs, gorgeously sung by the soprano, Urszula Kryger, are beguiling. |
Doña Francisquita Composer: Amadeo Vives Performers: Maria Bayo, Alfredo Kraus, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, Antoni Ros Marba Naive A superb performance of Amadeo Vives' zarzuela masterpiece, sung with enormous vivacity and brio by the ravishing-voiced Maria Bayo and the sturdy Alfredo Kraus. With its nineteenth century Madrid setting, its roots in classical Spanish drama and its festive nocturnal amours, Doña Francisquita provides a retrospective on the romantic zarzuela tradition and its crowning glory. The work was immediately recognized not only as Vives’ masterpiece, but as the greatest full length zarzuela of its era. If you're not into zarzuela already, this is the perfect place to start your collection. |
Symphony 9 Visionaria Composer: Kurt Atterberg Satu Vihavainen (mezzo-soprano); Gabriel Suovanen (baritone) NDR Choir, Prague Chamber Choir NDR Radio Philharmonic, Ari Rasilainen CPO The 9th and final symphony of Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg bears a superficial relationshp to Beethoven's 9th with its big, expresssive choral sound but Atterburg's world is a good deal less joyous. Atterberg's choice of texts reflects the lasting impact on his psyche made by World War II and the Korean War. The Poetic Edda, an Icelandic epic dating from around 1270, relates the visions of a wise prophetess (hence the Symphony's title "Sinfonia Visionaria") who foretells the creation of the world, the warring among gods, giants, and humans, the world's destruction, and finally its recreation. Atterberg uses mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists with chorus and large orchestra, as well as a quasi-oratorio form, to tell his epic tale. This is extraordinary symphony by a composer who is far too little-known in the musical world. |
The Complete Mazurkas Composer: Karol Szymanowski Performer: Marc-Andre Hamelin Hyperion Marc-Andre Hamelin continues his extraordinary journey through the forgotten rivers and bayous of the modern piano repetoire with masterful performances of Szymanowski's Twenty Mazurkas, Op. 50, composed between 1926 and 1931. After assimilating the influence of Stravinsky, Szymanowski began looking for folk themes in Polish music to rival the Russian folk touches of the master. The Mazurka, a traditional Polish dance in three-quarter-time with an often erratic-seeming emphasis on the second beat, (and a favorite form for Chopin) offered great possibilities . These highly diverse pieces are more complex than Chopin, more modern and dissonant, yet also more muted and elusive. Still, Szymanowski remained too much a romantic to settle for anything less then flamboyant virtuosity--a quality that Hamelin possses by the truckload. |
Accentus Composers: Transciptions: Bach, Barber, Berg, Chopin, Debussy, Mahler, Ravel, Wolf Peformers: : Choeur De Chambre Accentus, Equilbey Naive Worth having for the ravishing performances of Samuel Barber's "Adagio" and Mahler's "Adagietto from Symphony No. 5." |
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