In June 2022, Yunchan Lim became the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; his performances throughout showcased a “magical ability” and a “natural, instinctive quality” (La Scena) that astounded listeners around the world. As Jury Chair Marin Alsop expressed: “Yunchan is that rare artist who brings profound musicality and prodigious technique organically together.” The depth of his artistry and connection to listeners also secured him the Audience Award and Best Performance of a New Work. Lim’s astounding performance of Liszt’s complete Transcendental Etudes from the semi-final round of the Van Cliburn Competition is available on his Steinway & Sons debut album.

REVIEWS:

This disc bears witness to the international arrival of a musician of authoritative stature and charismatic presence. The hope must be that the remarkable promise of this debut recital is triumphantly realized. In the meantime this is genuinely transcendent playing that demands to be heard.

— MusicWeb International

Lim’s effortless virtuosity and total immersion into Liszt’s idiom indeed define transcendental. A little audience rustle is a small price to pay for what must be the best live integral performance of the Transcendental Etudes ever preserved in sound. Let’s hope that Lim will sustain this level of artistic and pianistic brilliance over the course a long and fulfilling career.

— ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Competition performances often have a well-practiced, safe quality, but not this one; Lim goes out onto the edge and stays there. Everything one has heard about his playing is true, it is indeed astonishing.

— AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

"After releasing my album Portrait: Philip Glass in 2008, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the vast œuvre of this composer, an icon of our era and one whose work has and will long continue to have impact. For many years now his fascinating and captivating music has been nourishing me intellectually and musically. Glass being one of the most prolific of composers, there was no shortage of works to include on this my 48th album. My selection approach remains the same; I choose those works I find significant and compelling. Like Glass’ work as a whole, the content of this album is very diverse: music for theatre and for cinema, for chamber and for symphony orchestra, and recent works as well as some written almost 50 years ago! Thank you for giving me carte blanche to revisit these works with my ensemble." (Angèle Dubeau)

This release—the Taylor Festival Choir’s second album for Delos—features original Christmas works by two distinguished American composers: Brian Galante, whose choral works and arrangements have met with worldwide acclaim; and the late, great Stephen Paulus, whose many choral and orchestral compositions have been performed by America’s leading choirs and orchestras. The two multi-movement works presented in this album—Galante’s So Hallow’d the Time and Paulus’s Christmas Dances—are heard here in world premiere recordings. Based in Charleston, SC, the Taylor Festival Choir (Robert Taylor, founder and conductor) has gained international recognition since its inception in 2001 as one of America’s finest professional choral ensembles; and proudly claims Brian Galante as its regular Composer-in-Residence. They deliver truly transcendental performances in this lovely recording.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its Music Director Rafael Payare make their Pentatone debut with Mahler’s 5th Symphony. The album is also the first recording under Payare’s tenure, and the beginning of a longer recording relationship with the label. For Payare, the Fifth is the last symphony that shows Mahler still looking forward to what the future might bring, unlike his subsequent, much darker and existential works. Despite that optimism, there is enough tragedy and struggle along the way, resonating with Mahler’s life at the time of creation. Payare’s proficiency in late-Romantic repertoire coupled with the matured, distinctive sound of the Montréal players make this a collaboration to look out for.

REVIEWS:

Throughout, Payare applies subtle but meaningful touches of rubato, creating a consistent feeling of tension and release. Everything holds together as one unit; every passage connected to what came before and what comes next. Expressively, what impressed me most is that the music does not come off as sectionalized. Orchestral execution is at a very high level as well.

-- Fanfare

This was, first and last, a superlative Mahler performance with the type of energy and spirit that caresses and screams with the same commitment, and moves easily between the two qualities. Beyond that, this was playing at the edge of control, something Mahler often demands and no more so than in this work.

Beyond Payare’s in-the-moment direction, his preparation came through in the excellent pace, dynamics, and balances within and through the orchestra. There are so many opportunities to pick and choose details to highlight, and the playing shone a spotlight on the wonderful wind colors in this orchestra, especially the unusually nasal double-reeds and a dark trumpet sound. The articulation of details in the strings, things like quick 16th-note rests toward the end of phrases and moments of portamento, were superb.

The tempest in the “Stúrmisch” second section melted away into a rich, dark interpretation of the cello line, no solace but only devastation. The extremes of light and dark with and across the forms were heightened. The first two sections alternately emotionally wrenching and fulfilling.

In the Scherzo, Payare had horn soloist Catherine Turner stand, and her playing was brilliant and unerring, and even more impressive was the perfect blend as she passed off her sustained, decaying notes to her seated stand-mate. The Adagietto was slow in the contemporary manner, almost nine minutes, but the internal pace and tempo modulations made it flow forward, leading directly into the finale.

-- New York Classical Review (Reviewing the 3/8/23 Carnegie Hall performance)

The international award-winning octet, VOCES8, has established itself at the forefront of British a cappella. Performing a repertoire ranging from Renaissance polyphony to unique Jazz and Pop arrangements, the group has been praised for stunning performance, exquisite singing and creating a sound that spans the entire range of vocal color.

REVIEW:

Voces8 offer polished and well-nigh flawless singing. The tone, however, seems rather ‘white’; frequently I found myself longing for a bit less studied technical perfection and a bit more by way of grit and feeling; much of this disc seems too smooth and effortless.

-- MusicWeb International

This brand new Christmas album from The King’s Singers features 25 tracks covering everything from contemporary choral gems and folk songs through to well-loved carols. Dotted throughout the album are several of the most famous English church carols, which take The King’s Singers right back to their earliest singing days, and which also reflect the group’s heritage at King’s College, Cambridge. In Christmas Carols with The King’s Singers, the group bottle that frosty, moonlit, fireside Christmas wonder and pour it into their sound.

The King’s Singers have represented the gold standard in a cappella singing on the world’s greatest stages for over fifty years. They are renowned for their unrivalled technique, versatility and skill in performance, and for their consummate musicianship, drawing both on the group’s rich heritage and its pioneering spirit to create an extraordinary wealth of original works and unique collaborations.

REVIEWS:

If you love a capella men’s ensembles in Christmas music the King’s Singers are for you. This new album has some of the most beautiful ensemble singing I’ve heard in a long time. The arrangements are all tasteful and the singing, both in solos and ensemble, exquisite. These are not the same singers that recorded some truly ugly arrangements in some truly ugly albums several decades ago. Back them there seemed to be an attempt by their producers to make the King Singers more “withit” by recording them in arrangements that someone deemed funny or original. Since then someone brought the group back to what they do best. There are a number of familiar carols here (`Ding! Dong! Merrily on High!’, `Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day’, etc.), but also some newer carols that are really lovely (`The quiet heart’, `The little road to Bethlehem’, `O, do not move’). What a suitable disc for a wintry evening by the fire! Notes, texts, and translations.

-- American Record Guide

First, you need to play this recording at a higher than normal level because it's got a very realistic dynamic range--which means that the opening's soft string chirpings won't register fully at a low level. But then, watch out (I said it's a realistic dynamic range): when the orchestra rips, you'll be abruptly transported to Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall. Okay, so what's all this state of the art 24-bit digital technology bringing to us? Namely one of the best Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances on disc! The playing by the Minnesota Orchestra is simply stupendous: tremendously unified ensemble, immaculate balances that let you hear all the important lines, and a palpable sense of enjoyment from the players (those trumpets rule!).


Eiji Oue sets an ideal tempo for the first movement and employs perfectly timed rubato in its lyrical central section. The second movement flags a bit, lacking the snarling sexuality of Jansons with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, which remains the most gripping performance of recent years; but with the finale Oue gears up again for a blockbuster reading of tremendous excitement and bracing virtuosity. And yes, he lets the final tam-tam stroke reverberate uninterrupted, as (confusingly) indicated in the score.


A gently passionate performance of the ubiquitous Vocalise functions as an interlude (with serenely singing strings) before the Études-tableaux, where Oue again exploits his orchestra's radiant sonorities to fully flesh out Respighi's brilliant orchestrations of these mysterious, sensuous, and evocative pieces. Reference's recording renders all the music's color, irony, and drama in true high fidelity. An excellent conclusion to an excellent disc, one you are wholeheartedly urged to investigate.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

“Blue stands for a particularly intimate mood,” says renowned Spanish guitarist Pablo Sainz-Villegas. And correspondingly his latest album is titled The Blue Album, which will be released by Sony Classical on 9 June 2023. “Blue symbolizes a mysterious intermediary realm: one thinks of the moment when the sun rises and night slowly withdraws,” Pablo Sainz-Villegas goes on to explain. These are exceptional moments, moments between silence and waking, between heaven and earth, between light and darkness. These are also the moments that spirit us away from the hectic routine of our everyday lives and that create an atmosphere of reverie and relaxation, allowing us time to slow down. All of this is reflected in Pablo Sainz-Villegas’s new programme. Few composers have captured this mood so unmistakably in their music as the French composer Erik Satie, who is represented here by selections from his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. Debussy’s “Clair de lune” and “La fille aux cheveux de lin” are almost magical in their expressiveness: this is music that is filled with calm and with the power to enchant.

According to Pablo Sainz-Villegas, “this album brings together some of the most beautiful and most heartfelt melodies that have ever been written. All these pieces create a magical atmosphere, their colours create a mood, a mystery. The guitar whispers an invitation to the listener to explore and go to the most intimate part of your soul. It creates a moment to look inside and have a conversation with the essence of yourself. “ The repertory is correspondingly wide-ranging, extending, as it does, from the German and Italian Baroque – with music by Silvius Leopold Weiss and Domenico Scarlatti – to the present day with music by Philip Glass and Max Richter’s A Catalogue of Afternoons – which, as first single, is out today. Sainz-Villegas also undertakes a foray into the world of film music with the Cavatina from the classic film The Deer Hunter of 1978. And this release inevitably includes the international hit La Paloma, one of the most frequently performed and arranged pieces of the last 150 years. This Spanish work has come to embody the quintessential notion of longing.

Watch our interview with Lara Downes on Love at Last!

Love at Last is pianist Lara Downes’s first Pentatone album, inspired by the poem Sachki, Sachki by the Odessa-born Jewish writer Shaul Tchernichovsky. Downes presents 24 pieces, many of them in world premiere recordings, of works by living composers around the globe. Spanning generations, continents and cultures, these diverse voices are united in a stubborn belief in the possibility of humanity, brotherhood, peace, and compassion, and in the everlasting power of love.

An iconoclast and trailblazer, Lara Downes’s dynamic work as a sought-after soloist, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a producer, curator, arts activist and advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. She was honored as 2022 Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today.

Hear Downes's appearance on NPR's Morning Edition, discussing Love at Last!

REVIEWS:

It's not unusual for an artist to include a message to listeners on an album; it's less common for said message to be included as a concluding audio commentary. Such a move is, however, wholly consistent with Lara Downes' character: rather than share her message through the impersonal medium of the written word, she connects with immediacy using her voice, the illusion fostered of the artist speaking directly to you. Those who've been following the pianist throughout her career are familiar with her generosity of spirit, her resolute belief in the potential of human beings, her hope for peace, and her embracing vision. One comes away from a Downes recording, Love at Last no exception, renewed and uplifted.

An activist, mentor, and trailblazer, Downes expresses her appreciation for a vast array of artists from multiple countries and eras on her Pentatone debut. In a seventy-five-minute programme recorded in Mt. Vernon, New York in September 2022, pieces by J. S. Bach and Schubert sit comfortably alongside covers of standards and world premiere recordings of works by living composers from around the globe.

The journey, while scenic, panoramic, and ever-changing, is long; things move quickly, however, when the selections are compact in length and most two to three minutes at a time. Naturally, certain pieces register more strongly than others; what's never wanting, however, is investment on her part: she commits herself fully to the project and penetrates to the essential core of each piece. The evidence is audible the moment Jaroslav Ježek's haunting “Dawn” introduces the set until Shawn E. Okpebholo's arrangement of “Amazing Grace” ends it twenty-three songs later. Along the way, hope, sorrow, and tenderness surface, with a number of pieces written during the pandemic and confronting feelings of isolation and longing.

Downes' poised renderings of Bach's stirring “Wachet Auf” (“Sleepers Awake”) and Schubert's “Frühlingsglaube” (“Believe in Spring”) exemplify her general approach: refraining from embellishing on the material gratuitously, she opts instead to focus on themes and let their poetry emerge in its fullest possible form.

Downes' humanitarian values find expression in eloquent, life-affirming material such as Debbie Friedman's “Laugh at All My Dreams,” Margaret Bonds's “I Believe: Credo No. 2,” Gabriel Kahane's “Little Love,” and Valentin Silvestrov's “Lullaby.” One of the more interesting new compositions is Sean Hickey's “Fluid” for the way it both references gender fluidity and, by incorporating rhythmic and harmonic elements from Debussy's La Mer and Joni Mitchell's “River,” water. Memorable too are pianist Mariel Mayz's elaborate re-imagining of Sammy Fain's “I'll Be Seeing You,” the popular tune known through recordings by Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday, and Dobrinka Tabakova's enchanting “Simple Prayer for Complex Times.”

Downes' positive outlook isn't a reflection of childish naïveté or an obstinate refusal to acknowledge reality: she knows the world is fraught with problems and sees like the rest of us many parts struggling with debilitating issues. Even so, she determinedly holds to her values of love and compassion. For her, “this is the hour to awake from our sleep and greet a new dawn.” Like other recordings in her esteemed discography, Love at Last shines like a light fighting to overcome darkness and symbolizes the inexhaustible power of hope and resilience.

-- Textura

This selection is HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) recording.

Napoléon Coste was the most eminent French guitarist of the 19th century and a creative innovator. Fantaisie symphonique shows the range of his ambition with its quasi-orchestral textures, swift mood changes and virtuoso flourishes. Le Départ is one his most popular extended pieces, full of liquid transitions. Volumes 1–5 can be heard on 8.554192, 8.554194 and 8.554353-55.

Great Performances, Great Sound, and a World Premiere! Reference Recordings proudly presents Symphony No. 4 of Johannes Brahms, with the world premiere recording of James MacMillan’s "Larghetto for Orchestra", in exceptional performances from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. This release is the twelfth in the highly acclaimed Pittsburgh Live! series of multi-channel hybrid SACD releases from Reference Recordings. This series has received GRAMMY® Nominations in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Its recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 /Barber Adagio for Strings won the 2018 GRAMMY® Awards for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Classical Album.

REVIEW:

Theeeyyyyrrre Back! After some strangely wayward recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth and Tchaikovsky Fourth, Manfred Honeck is back on form in this new release of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, demonstrating once again that it’s still possible to turn in characterful, personal interpretations of standard repertoire without the need to flirt with perversity. After a first movement outstanding for its exquisitely gentle (but still fluent) opening and an aptly ferocious coda, the remainder of the symphony is noteworthy for its unusual fleetness–no “autumnal” Brahms here! This approach pays big dividends in the ballad-like second movement, whose singing, legato melodies could have started to sag at a slower speed.

The third movement, too, has more of a “scherzando” character than it usually does, with the triangle blended into the texture rather than given concerto-style prominence. As a result, the finale has both urgency as well as the necessary weight. The famous flute solo at its center is played magnificently by Principal Flute Lorna McGhee, offering a quiet moment of pathos before Honeck drives the symphony to an excitingly grim conclusion. Through it all, the Pittsburgh Symphony plays the music as beautifully as it can be done. It’s worth noting that this same orchestra, under Marek Janowski, recorded a first-rate Brahms cycle of very different character not too long ago for PentaTone: more “classical,” far less self-consciously sculpted, but I wouldn’t part with either.

James MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra is a Pittsburgh commission, an orchestral reworking of a choral setting of the Miserere text. As the title suggests, it’s a rather grave, prayerful piece, whose obvious vocal origins take the form of solemn chorales alternating with repeated-note melodies evocative of chant. It’s easy on the ear, but not especially memorable. Still, it works well as a “serious” coupling to a very serious symphony, and perhaps it will grow on me (and you). Superb engineering makes this new release especially welcome. A winner all around.

– ClassicsToday.com (10/10; David Hutwitz)

The technical skill and brilliance of the players have to be heard to be believed, and the multi-faceted, multi-colored, multi-dimensional tapestry of sound they produce on this amazing multi-channel, SACD recording is absolutely transfixing

– Fanfare

Includes work(s) by various composers. Soloists: Richard Alderson, Ann Alderson, Carey Lovett, Stacy Kowalczyk.

Kevin Puts is one of America’s most exciting and important composers. His first opera, Silent Night, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, was commissioned by Minnesota Opera. It premiered in 2011 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A work profound and sweeping emotional power, it has since entered the modern operatic repertoire with remarkable speed, enjoying world-wide performances. The opera is based on Christian Carion’s screen-play for the 2005 French war film Joyeux Noël, and its fictionalized subject is the series of Christmas truces on the Western Front in 1914.

REVIEWS:

American composer Kevin Puts’ first opera, Silent Night, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, was commissioned by Minnesota Opera, the house where this live recording was made. The opera's subject is the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914.

Various languages are used in the opera, German, French, English, Italian, and even Latin.

Puts and Campbell have packed the serious theme into a complex score, very colorful and modern in style, with painfully dissonant and wonderfully lyrical moments. Overall, the opera is good for an impressive musical experience, though the question is whether the visuals of the theatrical experience are missing from the audio recording. On the other hand, with just the audio there is more focus on the music, and it is, after all, quite expressive and convincingly performed in this live recording.

-- Pizzicato

As we have already heard in his orchestral works, Puts is a highly compelling and innovative orchestrator, and here he is equally compelling in the field of opera where he works within the conventions of solos, duets and choruses. They are then brought together by the British-born conductor, Courtney Lewis. It is not the type of story you can enjoy, but the opera, which takes two hours, must rank amongst the most outstanding staged in recent times. Add to this the ideally balanced recording, and it becomes self-recommending. The twin disc comes with English. This, and the slim two disc jewel case with notes on the artists, is then presented in a cardboard box.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

This is Naxos’s fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. He was GRAMMY-nominated for his album Violins of Hope (Naxos 8.559809) and is among the most frequently performed of living composers. The themes of these recent works are remembrance, memorialization, and hopefulness. Elegy addresses ideas of harmony and discord through contrasting thematic ideas. The Violin Concerto No. 2 follows the ‘symphony-concerto’ model with a resonant and lyrical slow movement inspired by Jewish mysticism at its core. Pulsating harmonies eventually subside into serene and hopeful writing in Of Thee I Sing, written in an act of creative transcendence to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Learn more in this Roundtable Discussion, which Arkiv co-hosted with Naxos! 

 

...and learn more about the release on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

REVIEW:

Listening to Jonathan Leshnoff’s hauntingly beautiful Elegy, and then going on to listen to the superbly inventive Violin Concerto, one is again reminded that Leshnoff occupies a special niche among solidly established contemporary American composers: he inhabits a world of tonality and yet manages to say something unheard before with each note of music he pens.

The sterling violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley delivers an elegantly energetic reading of the concerto, supported by Alexander Mickelthwate at the helm of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

The orchestra and maestro Mickelthwate again excel in the emotionally charged Of Thee I Sing, accompanied by the highly accomplished vocal ensemble Canterbury Voices. Leshnoff sets the text of Samuel Francis Smith’s 1831 poem America to now anguished, now healing music that depicts the impact on the country following the tragic Oklahoma City bombing.

Many composers have rightfully refused to burden their art with any moral function. Inversely shunning art for art’s sake, Jonathan Leshnoff keeps company with some composers of the past by providing music that illuminates the human condition with art that compassionately heals the spirit. This listener cannot think of a higher calling.

-- All About the Arts (Rafael de Acha)

Even a cursory listen of Leshnoff's music reveals why his music resonates so powerfully with musicians and audiences. He's no iconoclast but rather someone who builds upon established traditions with works rich in harmony, lyricism, melody, and structural poise. His is an oft-eloquent music characterized by directness of expression, rhythmic propulsion, and introspection, and all such elements are accounted for in the recent works featured on the release. It also holds the distinction of being the Oklahoma City Philharmonic's first full-length album recording since its 1988 formation. It goes without saying that their superb presentation of Leshnoff's material flatters both composer and performer.

-- Textura