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Vaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow / Hickox, LSO
Chandos · Mar 2001CD$21.99 -
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ENDLESS SUMMER SYNDROME
ALTERED INNOCENCE
Blu-Ray
$24.99
Feb 11, 2025
For lawyer Delphine (Sophie Colon), the adoptive mother of a teenage boy and girl, her ordered existence was upended by an anonymous hang-up call-that claimed her husband Antoine (Matheo Capelli) drunkenly admitted to an improper relationship with one of the children. Was the caller merely a twisted troublemaker, or is she now seeing what she prays not to in her family's interactions? Stunning, black humor-fraught opus co-stars Gem Deger, Frederika Milano. 96 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: French DTS HD 5.1 Master Audio; Subtitles: English, Spanish; featurettes; theatrical trailers. In French with English subtitles.
A Beautiful Thing / Cleo Laine
RCA
CD
$17.99
Jan 11, 2011
Track Listing
1. All in Love Is Fair
2. Skip-A-Long Sam
3. Send in the Clowns
4. Least You Can Do Is the Best You Can, The
5. They Needed Each Other
6. I Loves You, Porgy
7. Until It's Time for You to Go
8. Life Is a Wheel
9. Summer Knows, The
10. Beautiful Thing, A
11. Time for Farewell, A - (bonus track)
Personnel: Cleo Laine (vocals); James Galway (flute); Tony Hymas, Don Grolnick (keyboards); Cliff Morris, Bob Rose (guitar); John Miller (bass); Roy Markowitz (drums).
Producers: Mike Berniker (tracks 1-10); Kurt Gebauer, John Dankworth (track 11).
Engineers: Mike Moran, Ed Begley (tracks 1-10); Frank Catero (track 11).
Recorded at RCA Studios B & C, New York on July 10-12, 1974 and Studio D, Sausalito, California in August 1993.
Recording information: New York, NY (07/10/1974-07/??/1993); RCA Recording Studios, Studio B&C, New York, NY (07/10/1974-07/??/1993); Studio D, Sausalito, CA (07/10/1974-07/??/1993).
Photographer: Nick Sangiamo.
Arrangers: Tony Hymas; John Dankworth.
1. All in Love Is Fair
2. Skip-A-Long Sam
3. Send in the Clowns
4. Least You Can Do Is the Best You Can, The
5. They Needed Each Other
6. I Loves You, Porgy
7. Until It's Time for You to Go
8. Life Is a Wheel
9. Summer Knows, The
10. Beautiful Thing, A
11. Time for Farewell, A - (bonus track)
Personnel: Cleo Laine (vocals); James Galway (flute); Tony Hymas, Don Grolnick (keyboards); Cliff Morris, Bob Rose (guitar); John Miller (bass); Roy Markowitz (drums).
Producers: Mike Berniker (tracks 1-10); Kurt Gebauer, John Dankworth (track 11).
Engineers: Mike Moran, Ed Begley (tracks 1-10); Frank Catero (track 11).
Recorded at RCA Studios B & C, New York on July 10-12, 1974 and Studio D, Sausalito, California in August 1993.
Recording information: New York, NY (07/10/1974-07/??/1993); RCA Recording Studios, Studio B&C, New York, NY (07/10/1974-07/??/1993); Studio D, Sausalito, CA (07/10/1974-07/??/1993).
Photographer: Nick Sangiamo.
Arrangers: Tony Hymas; John Dankworth.
Summer Serenade
Storyville Records
Vinyl
$39.99
May 15, 2020
Summer Serenade, recorded in 1980, sees Benny Carter in the latter part of a pioneering and exceptionally long career return to Copenhagen for a session that documents his accumulated relationship with the alto saxophone and why he is remembered as one of the instrument's defining players. On a Sunday in August of 1980, Carter found a comfortable dynamic in a quartet finely tuned to his still obvious talents on the alto sax and who also managed to make their own mark on a series of Carter's own songs as well as those of a few others. Although he played trumpet, trombone, clarinet, tenor and piano at different points in his career, it is as an alto saxophonist that Benny Carter achieved his enviable reputation as an instrumentalist. The broad, sweeping phrases of his improvisations have the structural stability of compositions in their own right, and here, his approach to the instrument benefits from having been honed throughout the prior decades. Benny Carter had previously toured in Scandinavia in the 1930s when he had made a name for himself in the United States writing for and playing with the bands of Charlie Johnson, Horace and Fletcher, Don Redman and others. On this first encounter with European audiences, Carter was welcomed with open arms, and perhaps this initial meeting played into him going back to Copenhagen to record Summer Serenade almost 44 years later.
Summer Moods / Hynninen, Söderblom, Tampere Philharmonic
Ondine
CD
$19.99
Sep 24, 2008
REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, pp.257-58) - "...These songs are well-loved in Finland, and you'll know why when you hear them....Jorma Hynninen could sing the phone book and it would be gorgeous....He doesn't over-inflect; he always sounds natural..."
American Record Guide (11-12/97, pp.257-58) - "...These songs are well-loved in Finland, and you'll know why when you hear them....Jorma Hynninen could sing the phone book and it would be gorgeous....He doesn't over-inflect; he always sounds natural..."
American Classics - Flagello: Piano Concerto No 1, Etc
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Jun 20, 2006
Born in New York in 1928, Nicolas Flagello began his career as a concert pianist touring widely in the States and Europe. During his student years he had also been a conducting pupil of Dimitri Mitropoulos, and in 1962 was appointed as Music Director of the Rome Symphony Orchestra. As a composer he studied with Vittorio Giannani, an American of Italian descent whose mentor had been Goldmark. It comes as no surprise therefore to find that Flagello inherited a cosmopolitan background, and on his death, at the early age of 66, he left a considerable catalogue of scores, the earliest dating back to his early twenties, though he was forty before he completed his first symphony. Looking back at a previous Flagello review I described his idiom as 'Korngold orchestrating Hindemith's thematic material', a description I would be happy to attach to the present disc. I could add 'Rachmaninov meets Hollywood' to set the scene for the First Piano Concerto, its opening in a rich and dramatic mood offering unlimited space for virtuoso solo display. Conventional relaxed Andante comes before we turn full circle for another shot of brilliant orchestral colours. For Dante's Farewell we are in the world of opera, the big scene highly rewarding for the solo soprano. The Saxophone Quartet Concerto - his last completed work - is highly engaging, its lyrical centrepiece offset by the wild conclusion full of spine tingling excitement. Performances are of mixed origin, but share the same degree of conviction, with soloists that are unfailingly superb, the gorgeous voice of Susan Gonzalez being a major discovery that I am itching to hear again. Sound quality is good, and has the bass drum ever been more realistically captured than in the finale of the saxophone concerto? One of the most enjoyable American music discs I have heard.
"David's Review Corner"
June, 2006
Nicolas Flagello was one of those composers who was a skilled craftsman, and very much a member of his "school", that school being American "neo" something-or-other (fill in the blank with either "classical" or "romantic", it doesn't much matter which). If you like the school, and there's plenty to like, then you will like Flagello. During the dark days of the 1960s and '70s, tonally speaking, facing little if any prospect of performance, he left some of his larger works in short score, hence Anthony Sbordini's sensitive orchestration of Dante's Farewell, a moving scena for soprano based on works by Mrs. Dante. It's a lovely, affecting piece that would have been wonderful had it been sung by someone with a voice far more appealing than that of Susan Gonzalez.
The First Piano Concerto is a bold, passionate, memorably tuneful work that takes its romanticism seriously. There's plenty of storm and stress, and my only quibble is that there doesn't seem to be any particular motivation for the piano and orchestra to divide the musical argument the way that they do. In that sense, it's an odd piece, but still a good listen. Tatjana Rankovich already has recorded Flagello's Second and Third Concertos, and she knows what she's doing, as does the orchestra under John McLaughlin Williams.
Best of all, though, is the Concerto Sinfonico, a late work dating from 1985. This has to be the best piece ever written for saxophone quartet and orchestra--not that there's all that much competition, but it really does work extremely well. The timbres that Flagello exploits are consistently ear-catching, the argument easy to follow but rewarding as well. The performance also sounds very comfortable--inside the idiom and aptly high-spirited. The Rutgers orchestra (of New Jersey) acquits itself proudly, and despite the different venues, the sonics are consistently good.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
"David's Review Corner"
June, 2006
Nicolas Flagello was one of those composers who was a skilled craftsman, and very much a member of his "school", that school being American "neo" something-or-other (fill in the blank with either "classical" or "romantic", it doesn't much matter which). If you like the school, and there's plenty to like, then you will like Flagello. During the dark days of the 1960s and '70s, tonally speaking, facing little if any prospect of performance, he left some of his larger works in short score, hence Anthony Sbordini's sensitive orchestration of Dante's Farewell, a moving scena for soprano based on works by Mrs. Dante. It's a lovely, affecting piece that would have been wonderful had it been sung by someone with a voice far more appealing than that of Susan Gonzalez.
The First Piano Concerto is a bold, passionate, memorably tuneful work that takes its romanticism seriously. There's plenty of storm and stress, and my only quibble is that there doesn't seem to be any particular motivation for the piano and orchestra to divide the musical argument the way that they do. In that sense, it's an odd piece, but still a good listen. Tatjana Rankovich already has recorded Flagello's Second and Third Concertos, and she knows what she's doing, as does the orchestra under John McLaughlin Williams.
Best of all, though, is the Concerto Sinfonico, a late work dating from 1985. This has to be the best piece ever written for saxophone quartet and orchestra--not that there's all that much competition, but it really does work extremely well. The timbres that Flagello exploits are consistently ear-catching, the argument easy to follow but rewarding as well. The performance also sounds very comfortable--inside the idiom and aptly high-spirited. The Rutgers orchestra (of New Jersey) acquits itself proudly, and despite the different venues, the sonics are consistently good.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Caribbean Steeldrums / Various
ARC Music
CD
$13.99
Jun 23, 2017
This new release contains well-known and much loved steeldrum hits, such as Jamaica Farewell, Guantanamera, Yellow Bird, El Cumbanchero, Island in the Sun and many others, presented by two of London’s champion steel bands, the Southside Harmonics Steel Orchestra and the London All Stars Steel Orchestra, both multiple winners of many steel band competitions. The Southside Harmonics Steel Orchestra (formerly the ‘Lambeth Community Youth Steel Orchestra,’ re-named in 1998) was formed in the summer of 1979. Since then the band has gone on to become one of London’s finest steel orchestras. They have participated in the National Panorama Steel Band competition every year. In 1998 they were placed second, which proves the capabilities of the group. Since 1987 the band has also taken part in Europe’s largest street festival, the Notting Hill Carnival in London. They made first place four times in the “Best Steel Band on the Road” competition, entertaining carnival audiences with performances to remember. The London All Stars were the initial winners of the Lambert Steelband Festival Championship and the Jamorama Competition. Between 1980 and 1989 they won the Mangrove Trophy twice, the Panorama Championships three times and the first and second British National Steelband Festival Championship. They made history by being the first steelband to be invited to play at the 1990 BBC Proms and to represent Britain at the 1990 World Steelband Music Festival in Trinidad and Tobago.
Haydn: Symphonies 45, 94, 101
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Apr 07, 1995
Haydn's Farewell Symphony was written in 1772, occasioned by the prolonged stay of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy at his Hungarian palace. Some of the musicians had been compelled to leave their wives behind in Eisenstadt when the Prince took up his summer residence. The Symphony, in the final Adagio of which the musicians leave one by one, was intended as a delicate hint that the time had come to return to Eisenstadt, although some contemporary sources suggest that the subject of complaint was the possible reduction of the musical establishment. The Symphony, in the key of F sharp minor, is scored for the usual Esterháza forces of pairs of oboes and horns, bassoon and strings. The first movement opens with the principal theme, descending arpeggios played by the first violins against sustained wind chords and the urgent syncopation of the second violins. Sonata form is treated with considerable freedom, the second subject making it's D major appearance in the development and the following recapitulation inviting an unusual further development of the principal theme. The A major second movement allows muted violins to announce the main theme, the wind having very little to add during the course of the movement. An F sharp major Minuet follows, with a Trio that allows the French horns momentary prominence. This leads to a finale that modulates to introduce the unexpected slow conclusion, in which player after player leaves the platform, until only two muted violins are left. Symphony No.101 belongs to the group of six symphonies written for Haydn's second visit to London in 1794. It was played there at a concert on 3rd March, followed by operatic songs, a performance by Viotti of a violin concerto and by Fiorillo of a Chaconne. Again, as with most of the London symphonies, there is a slow introduction, this time in D minor, an eerie preface to a bright D major movement from which the symphony derives it's nickname, The Clock, it's source the accompanying figure with which the movement opens. The Minuet returns from G major to the key of D major, it's Trio providing a lop-sided clock accompaniment to the initial flute melody. The symphony ends with a finale in which the second subject is a clear variant of the first. There is a D minor section, replaced by the major key to bring the work to a dramatic conclusion.
Kaiku (Echo) - Finnish Contemporary Works for Cello
BIS
SACD
$21.99
Aug 21, 2026
Finnish-Dutch cellist Jonathan Roozeman presents a programme featuring contemporary works for cello by Finnish composers. For some of the pieces, he is accompanied by pianist and composer Johannes Piirto. Centered around a sonata by music veteran Kalevi Aho, the program's six works reflect the diversity of contemporary Finnish music, all having been composed within the last fifteen years. Sauli Zinovjev's 'Sustained' appears as a ghostly, discordant, fragmented reflection of music from the Romantic period. Cecilia Damstrom's 'Aveo' was composed for people who suffer from long COVID and who have had to bid farewell to their normal lives. 'Recitativo' by Sebastian Fagerlund, a commission from a cello competition, challenges not only the cellists' mastery of their instrument but also their interpretative abilities. 'Sanasi, kiveen uponneet' by Outi Tarkiainen, a composer who brings to her music the perspective of someone born in the north, in Finnish Lapland, features powerful soundscapes inspired by natural phenomena as well as human themes touching on the deepest emotions of mankind. The programme concludes with 'We Lie Down Only to Get Up Again' by Lauri Porra, a composer who exemplifies the multifaceted nature of contemporary Finnish music. This work evokes the atmosphere of a summer morning with warmth, perhaps even with a touch of longing.
Symphonie No. 1 - Chansons
Prospero Classical
CD
$25.99
Apr 24, 2026
Principal conductor Ivor Bolton will bid farewell to 'his' orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, in summer 2025 with a 'French' album. He will hand over the baton to his successor Markus Poschner for the new season. So as a farewell, here are symphonic and vocal works by Ernest Chausson. The Symphony in B flat major recorded here is characterised by it's lyrical melody and harmonic sophistication, which builds a bridge between romantic expressiveness and impressionistic sounds. In comparison, the vocal works also presented here, such as 'Viviane' or 'Helene', often have a more intimate, vocal quality that emphasises the human voice. These differences illustrate Chausson's versatility as a composer and his ability to combine fascinating instrumentation with profound emotions in both instrumental and vocal music.
Quartet Integra
Yarlung Records
CD
$21.99
Nov 21, 2025
... four of the brightest young stars in classical music today. We are enjoying another golden era thanks to Quartet Integra. -Martin Beaver, First Violin, Tokyo String Quartet Producer's notes: Yarlung Records returned to Zipper Hall at Colburn School in April, 2025 to record the debut album for Quartet Integra toward the end of the quartet's 3-year residency in Los Angeles. They had just returned from acclaimed performances in Wigmore Hall in London. The quartet left again after our recording for summer concerts (and a little bit of family time) in Asia before moving to Paris and Hannover in the autumn. Quartet Integra begins a two year residency in Paris at the Centre Europeen de Musique de Chambre and will continue study with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater, und Medien in Hannover. We will miss the Quartet badly in Los Angeles and hope they return soon. This extraordinary young ensemble, Kyoka Misawa and Rintaro Kikuno on violins, Itsuki Yamamoto on viola, and cellist Ye Un Park play Classical, Romantic, Contemporary and Renaissance music equally well. In fact, we explore all four eras in this recording. We begin with Beethoven's last published work, String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Opus 135, written in 1826. Beethoven wrote this piece at the height of his Romantic powers, but the quartet looks back with irony and nostalgia to his classical period. Next, Quartet Integra tackles Ligeti's 1968 ground-breaking Sonata No. 2, which they played for me at their audition and which won me over immediately. Kyoka, Rintaro, Itsuki and Ye Un find beauty and repose in this seat-belts-required 25-minute work full of extended techniques and mid-20th-Century sound world while communicating humor and transcendent energy. Kyoka said "When people hear the name Ligeti, many tend to associate it with contemporary music and assume it will be difficult to listen to. But in reality, that's not the case. Especially the String Quartet No. 2, which we're performing this time - it's wild and destructive, yet it holds a kind of breathtaking beauty. It feels almost like watching a movie." Mike Wechsberg, an audience member at our special live concert recording session commented heartily how "Ligeti is not the sort of music I normally like, but THIS was magnificent! Bravo Quartet Integra!" We ended the concert with Green Mountains, Now Black, a new piece by David S. Lefkowitz which he completed in the spring of 2025. Donna Morton commissioned David's piece for Yarlung Artists and Quartet Integra through Yarlung's sister organization Coretet. Donna and her group have steadfastly supported new chamber music including from composers Caroline Shaw, Diego Schissi (who won a Latin GRAMMY® nomination for Nene, which he wrote for Yarlung's Sibelius Piano Trio), Jamie Thierman, Eric Nathan and Benjamin Taylor among others. Donna serves on the boards of both Yarlung Artists and Coretet, and we relished the opportunity to collaborate again as Coretet celebrates it's 10th Anniversary and Yarlung celebrates it's 20th. Beethoven wrote his last major composition, String Quartet Op. 135, in 1826. This was his final statement in his groundbreaking series. Opus 135 premiered in 1828, performed by Ignaz Schuppanzigh and his famous ensemble, a year after Beethoven died. When the members of Quartet Integra suggested we record this work on their debut album instead of Schubert's "Rosamunda" Quartet written only two years earlier, I initially demurred. Who needs yet another superb performance of Beethoven's final masterpiece?" I complained. "Who needs yet another Rosamunda?" Quartet Integra 'cellist Ye Un Park responded within milliseconds. She had a point, and I'm glad we recorded the Beethoven instead, at least on Quartet Integra's first Yarlung album! The ensemble had just performed Beethoven's first string quartet in London's Wigmore Hall in London, as well as "Rosamunda, " and they were game to expand their horizons and capitalize on their "Beethoven High." They also wanted to utilize the superb acoustics at Colburn School while the quartet was still living in Los Angeles, and we knew Zipper Hall would do the Beethoven special justice. Our recording concludes with David S. Lefkowitz' Green Mountains, Now Black. David's piece offers quotations from Monteverdi's earliest extant opera Orfeo (one of my favorites in the operatic literature) and additional quotations from Monteverdi's final opera The Coronation of Poppea, including it's magical and ever-so recognizable love duet between Poppea and the emperor Nero at the end of the opera. Instead of merely transposing my favorite arias, choral passages and this famous duet for string quartet, David wrote a work that explores the very nature of what it means to be a string quartet. And he experiments with the genre, pushes boundaries, and incorporates his own despair witnessing the burning of much of Los Angeles in the spring of 2025. David and his wife Laurie could see flames and smoke not too far away from their home as he composed this work. Nero himself famously allowed a good chunk of downtown Rome to burn, exercising (and bragging about) his dubious leadership in the process. David layers Octavia's farewell to her beloved city with the giddy love duet between Octavia's husband, the emperor, and his mistress Poppea, to tell the story of David's own distress while writing the piece. Green Mountains, Now Black not only refer to Monteverdi himself (Green Mountain) but the fire which turned so many of our spring green mountains to char in Los Angeles. Despite David's gloom and worry during our fires, his iridescent string writing shows itself proudly and his many glorious and lyrical passages outnumber the darker ones. As musicians, the members of Quartet Integra communicate superbly with audiences and with each other as they explore the depths and details of these musical scores. With generous support from Sel, Nick and Martin at Colburn School, we worked with Quartet Integra on April 13-15, 2025 and ended our recording session with a live concert for invited guests from the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society on April 15th. You can enjoy videos of this concert on YouTube's YarlungChannel. Fellow recording engineer and equipment designer Arian Jansen and I used SonoruS Holographic Imaging technology in the analog domain to refine the stereo image, Yarlung's SonoruS ATR12 to record Agfa-formula 468 analog tape, the Merging Technologies HAPI to record 256fs DSD in stereo and surround sound and the SonoruS ADC to record PCM. We used our friend Ted Ancona's AKG C24 microphone previously owned by Frank Sinatra, and Yarlung Audio vacuum tube microphone amplification designed and built by Elliot Midwood. In closing, it was Donna Morton and Martin Beaver who suggested Yarlung support Quartet Integra and Martin coordinated their audition. The Quartet has been lauded as the most exciting ensemble to emerge from Japan (and Ye Un from Korea) since the famous Tokyo String Quartet formed in 1969 at Juilliard. I love a certain symmetry here: two of the non-Japanese born musicians playing as members of the Tokyo String Quartet were Yarlung Special Advisor Martin Beaver, who became principal violin in 2002, and Clive Greensmith, who joined Tokyo as cellist in 1999. Both Martin and Clive performed with the Tokyo Quartet until the ensemble gave their final concerts in 2013, and now Martin and Clive co-direct Chamber Music at Colburn School and have mentored the four members of Quartet Integra. Before their Colburn residency, Quartet Integra won a four-year fellowship with Suntory Hall's Chamber Music Academy where they were coached by Tokyo Quartet members Koichiro Harada, Kikuei Ikeda and Kazuhide Isomura. This is generational integrity and communication worthy of Kyoka, Rintaro, Itsuki and Ye Un. As we celebrate Yarlung's 20th Anniversary, we are enjoying thinking back to our original inspiration. We began working with young musicians starting international concert careers and sharing their transformative performances with the world. Yarlung Records takes it's name from the Yarlung Valley in Central Tibet, which legend holds as a meeting place between heaven and earth. It is in this valley, at the site of Yambulakhang Castle in our Yarlung Records logo, where Heaven and Earth touched in order to transform humanity. What could be a better metaphor for the transformative power of great music? I feel a deep connection between this mythical name for our record label and Quartet Integra. Hearing them play and working with these four good-natured and talented people reminded me why we created Yarlung Records in the first place. Despite my earlier comment, Quartet Integra is not a Japanese ensemble. Three of their members come from Japan and one from Korea, but they are inherently international. Quartet Integra lived in California these past years, and as indicated will spend the next several years in France and Germany. Their ties to the famous Tokyo String Quartet increase the Japanese-ness of Quartet Integra, but Tokyo String Quartet was actually founded in 1969 at Juilliard in New York City, not Japan. In planning their album cover, this image of the Toyosaki Kompira Shrine Torii Gate on the west coast of Hokkaido jumped out at us, and reflected Quartet Integra's refreshing vitality. As does the inspiration for the name of Yarlung Records, a Torii gate symbolizes a portal to the sacred in Shintoism connecting everyday reality with transcendence. -Bob Attiyeh, producer
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4 / Fedorova
Channel Classics
CD
$20.99
Sep 09, 2022
With over 35 million views, Anna Fedorova's live performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto is the most viewed classical concerto video on YouTube. We are proud to release the long-awaited studio recording of this beloved concerto, together with Rachmaninoff's 4th Piano Concerto. "Rachmaninoff wrote his 4th Piano Concerto nine years after emigrating, afterwards it was twice revised by the composer. It represents the change of the era, a farewell to the past and a dive into a quite terrifying future. The 2nd Concerto, however, represents rebirth and resurrection of the spirit, hope and light. Something we all need so much nowadays. I am very grateful to the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, conductor Modestas Pitrenas and recording engineer Jared Sacks for the most inspiring days spent together in St. Gallen recording this album!" (Anna Fedorova) This album is the follow-up to Anna's 2020 release of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.1 with the same orchestra and conductor. Anna will complete her Rachmaninoff cycle with the release of the 3rd Piano Concerto in the spring of 2023.
FANTASIAS BARCELONICAS - TRIBUTE TO PAQUITO D'RIV
SUNNYSIDE
CD
$16.63
Jun 10, 2022
From my very first visit in the summer of 1980, the city of Barcelona fascinated me in all it's senses, from Montjuic, Las Ramblas and the monumental cathedral of La Sagrada Familia to the Palau de la M sica, La Boquer a market and Plaza de Espa a. This must have influenced positively in my relationship with the members of the "Barcelona Clarinet Players," which was love at first sight that began in 2018 during my conversation with the outstanding Cuban-Spanish pianist Pepe Rivero at the AIE headquarters in Barcelona. That afternoon they told me about the arrangement they had made of my "Afro" for a music program for children, so when I got back home I started sending them pieces of mine adapted from versions for previous formats, such as "Cuban Sharks", "A Farewell Mambo", "The Elephant and the Clown", "La Fleur de Cayenne","Kites over Havana" or "Wapango". All of this until one fine day the restless Barcelona Clarinetists got excited at commissioned me an original work for this very special musical ensemble. "Fantas as Barcel nicas" was born, moved by three emblematic Catalan artists whom I have admired for years: The inspired novelist Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, who narrated the mysteries of the night in Barcelona, the charismatic pianist Tete Montoliu, whose sense of swing and jazz improvisation are an indispensable part of the soundtrack of the city where Mir and Caball were born; and finally the brilliant architect Antoni Gaud , who with his amazing and luminous style, fills the streets of his native land with unrepeatable architectural gems. The fact that this extraordinary group of fellow clarinetists decided on recording a CD with works of my own honors me by offering me the opportunity to sing publicly my love for this magical city and my devotion to some of his most beloved children. -Paquito D'Rivera, December 2021
C. Schumann & Hensel: O How Enchanting / Pahn, Schornsheim
Haenssler Classic
CD
$20.99
Sep 02, 2022
“Oh, do it Clara darling!” said Robert Schumann to his bride Clara, strongly encouraging her to pursue composing. Although the pianist had always composed, when she married in 1840 – without being asked to – she was immediately willing to dispense with this part of her musical output: “A woman does not have to desire to compose – so far not one has been able to do so; should that be what I am destined to do?” Clara is caught up in a crisis and feels resigned: “But I cannot compose…I lack all talent for it.” Only after the wedding did Clara return to composing. As long as her father or husband encouraged her to do so, in her consummate adaptability she did so with joy. But after Robert’s death in 1856, Clara stopped composing entirely.
It does not appear that the Mendelssohns were able to enjoy Heine’s kinder side. Although Heine was sometimes a visitor at their home in Berlin, somehow friendly relations did not develop. However, the poet Heine held Fanny in high regard. She had already set his poems “Was will die einsame Träne” (Why this solitary tear) and “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen” (On a radiant summer morning) to music in 1827/28. Her song setting of Heine’s “Schwanenlied” (Song of the swan) – was her first published work, but this only happened in 1846. At first Fanny chose to set poems by her bridegroom Wilhelm to music, of which she had already composed “Lebewohl” (Farewell) the same year they met and before the wedded couple were separated for a long period. Upon getting married she, too, began a busy and fruitful artistic collaboration that involved the daily morning ritual of Wilhelm leaving poems on the piano for her to set to music.
Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1 & 5
Channel Classics
SACD
$21.99
Nov 01, 2019
Iván Fischer leads the Budapest Festival Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphonies Nos.1 and 5. The first, though rooted in his classical examples of Haydn and Mozart, was nothing less than a turning point in the symphonic tradition. It can be seen as a fitting farewell to the eighteenth century, as an exploration of new horizons, and as an energetic statement conceived to surpass his esteemed predecessors. The fifth is the ultimate proof of Beethoven's immortality. For who does not know it's world-famous theme?
Vaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow / Hickox, LSO
Chandos
CD
$21.99
Mar 01, 2001
It was during the summer of 1911 that George Butterworth (a victim of The Great War, and whose enchanting 1913 idyll, The Banks of Green Willow, comprises the achingly poignant curtain-raiser here) first suggested to Vaughan Williams that he should write a purely orchestral symphony. VW dug out some sketches he had made for a symphonic poem about London, whilst at the same time deriving fruitful inspiration from HG Wells’s 1908 novel, Tono-Bungay (and its visionary final chapter in particular). Geoffrey Toye gave the successful Queen’s Hall premiere in March 1914, and VW subsequently dedicated the score to Butterworth’s memory. Over the next two decades or so, the work underwent three revisions (including much judicious pruning) and was published twice (in 1920 and 1936). In his compelling 1941 recording with the Cincinnati SO, Eugene Goossens employed the 1920 version, which adds about three minutes of music to that definitive 1936 ‘revised edition’. Now Richard Hickox at long last gives us the chance to hear VW’s original, hour-long canvas – and riveting listening it makes too!
Whereas the opening movement is as we know it today, the ensuing, expanded Lento acquires an intriguingly mournful, even world-weary demeanour. Unnervingly, the ecstatic full flowering of that glorious E major Largamente idea, first heard at fig F in the final revision, never materialises, and the skies glower menacingly thereafter. Towards the end of the Scherzo (at 5'44) comes a haunting episode that Arnold Bax was particularly sad to see cut (‘a mysterious passage of strange and fascinating cacophony’ was how he described it in his autobiography, Farewell, My Youth [Scholar Press; 1992]). The finale, too, contains a wealth of additional material, most strikingly a liturgical theme of wondrous lyrical beauty (try from 6'42) and, in the epilogue, a gripping paragraph (beginning at 15'47) which both looks back to the work’s introduction as well as forward to the first movement of A Pastoral Symphony. Sprawling it may be, but VW’s epic conception evinces a prodigal inventiveness, poetry, mystery and vitality that do not pall with repeated hearings, and, time and again, I find myself marvelling at just how hugely influential its intoxicatingly colourful orchestral palette must have been on Holst’s The Planets and even Bax’s wartime tone-poems.
Hickox and the LSO respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.
-- Gramophone [7/2001]
Whereas the opening movement is as we know it today, the ensuing, expanded Lento acquires an intriguingly mournful, even world-weary demeanour. Unnervingly, the ecstatic full flowering of that glorious E major Largamente idea, first heard at fig F in the final revision, never materialises, and the skies glower menacingly thereafter. Towards the end of the Scherzo (at 5'44) comes a haunting episode that Arnold Bax was particularly sad to see cut (‘a mysterious passage of strange and fascinating cacophony’ was how he described it in his autobiography, Farewell, My Youth [Scholar Press; 1992]). The finale, too, contains a wealth of additional material, most strikingly a liturgical theme of wondrous lyrical beauty (try from 6'42) and, in the epilogue, a gripping paragraph (beginning at 15'47) which both looks back to the work’s introduction as well as forward to the first movement of A Pastoral Symphony. Sprawling it may be, but VW’s epic conception evinces a prodigal inventiveness, poetry, mystery and vitality that do not pall with repeated hearings, and, time and again, I find myself marvelling at just how hugely influential its intoxicatingly colourful orchestral palette must have been on Holst’s The Planets and even Bax’s wartime tone-poems.
Hickox and the LSO respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.
-- Gramophone [7/2001]
Habanera - Music for Eight Cellos & Voice
SOMM Recordings
CD
$18.99
May 09, 2025
Multi-part music for the same instrument, dating back to Elizabethan consorts of viols, remains outside the typical orchestral repertoire nowadays, but as ever, SOMM remains true to it's stellar reputation for presenting rare and singular releases. Habanera, Music for Eight Cellos and Voice is a joyous recording that grew out of a collaboration between baritone Roderick Williams and cellist Joely Koos, joint Artistic Directors at the 2023 Endellion Summer Music Festival. The camaraderie enjoyed by the artists and the Endellion Cellists was particularly strong, and a special concert was devised for cello ensemble and voice featuring British-Spanish soprano Ana Beard Fernandez. Now, SOMM presents the formidable Endellion Cellists, soprano Ana Beard Fernandez, and baritone Roderick Williams in a recording of these two artists' uniquely colourful arrangements. The musicians are led by award-winning choral, orchestral, and operatic conductor William Vann. As an added bonus, Roderick Williams plays eighth cello, and recorder-player Iain Hall joins the artists for this recital of shared pleasure and a sense of fun that is palpable. The programme opens with the most famous original composition for cello ensemble: Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 for soprano solo and eight cellos. From the set of nine Bach-inspired Brazilian pieces by Heitor Villa-Lobos, it's two movements are a haunting A´ria and a Danc¸a inspired by a Brazilian saudades song. When the Spanish composer and pianist Manuel de Falla was asked by a soprano for his advice about Spanish songs, he was inspired to arrange some himself. The result was Siete Canciones Populares based on seven folksongs from different parts of Spain, for which he composed wholly original accompaniment, here transcribed for eight cellos. The best-known works by Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge are born of his fascination for the music of the Antilles and West Indian music. His Cinco canciones Negras came out of this aesthetic, and are among the finest examples of late twentieth-century Spanish art-song. The individual songs that make up the second half of this recital include the haunting Vocalise-etude en forme de Habanera by Maurice Ravel, who was born in Basque country near the Spanish border. Three varied songs collected as Tres Canciones include I am madness by the seventeenth-century French composer Henri du Bailly; an anonymous song, So the Oak; and Black Shadow from Six Galician Ballads by the nineteenth-century Spanish composer Xoan Montes. Two twentieth-century Russian songs are the much-transcribed Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff from his Melodies; and a relatively unknown gem by Dmitri Shostakovich, Farewell, Granada, from Six Traditional Spanish Folksongs. By way of a rambunctious encore, the recital closes with the duet, Forêts paisibles (Peaceful forests) by the eighteenth-century French master Jean Philippe Rameau from his opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes.
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 / Rattle, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
BR Klassik
CD
$19.99
Oct 07, 2022
Named Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice for December 2022!
For the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the performances on November 26 and 27, 2021 in the Isarphilharmonie marked the beginning of a new chapter in its Mahler interpretation: with its designated new principal conductor Simon Rattle, the orchestra is now headed by a Mahler admirer every bit as ardent as his predecessors Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, and Rafael Kubelík. The musicians dedicated the benefit concert on November 26 to the memory of conductor Bernard Haitink, who died in October 2021 and was associated with the renowned orchestra for 61 years. The very long silence after the final chord was one of those “goosebumps moments” that one goes to concerts for – and for which music is made in the first place.
Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, in particular, is understood as the composer’s reaction to a heart ailment that was diagnosed shortly before he wrote the first drafts in the summer of 1908. He was in deep despair, but still scarcely aware of how few years he actually had left to live. With Mahler, it was always in and through music that he tried to come to terms with his life experiences and such topics as farewell, the meaning of existence, death, redemption, life after death and love. He wrote his Ninth Symphony in Dobbiaco, in a kind of creative frenzy, between 1909 and 1910. Its premiere took place in Vienna on June 26, 1912, when the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performed the work under Bruno Walter. Mahler did not witness the premiere of his last completed work – he had already died on May 18, 1911.
REVIEW:
I would rank Rattle's performance here with the best of the competition and would add that even the classic recordings of Bernstein, Giulini, and Karajan have no significant advantage over Rattle's. In the end Rattle would be my top choice among newer versions and probably the equal of the classic performances on disc.
-- MusicWeb International (Robert Cummings)
If he has always shown very sensitive affinities with Symphony No. 9, Simon Rattle delivers his most accomplished recording to the Bavarian Radio. Recorded live between November 24 and 27, 2021, at the Isarphilharmonie im Gasteig in Munich by Winfried Messmer, [this] powerful orchestral mass presents both great volume and precise definition of timbre and range.
-- Diapason (citation for a Diapason d'or)
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and its designated principal conductor dedicated one of the two concerts used for this recording to the conductor Bernard Haitink, who died in October 2021. It is a great tribute to this outstanding Mahler conductor, and Rattle once again proves what a major Mahler interpreter he is as well.
Right in the first movement, he succeeds in drawing the whole Mahler world in its gripping originality with magnificent breath. Rising and collapse are always close together, and the exciting alternation between tension and release is maintained throughout the symphony. At the same time, this reading is not lacking in sensuality. There is both lyrical beauty, full of abyss, and the light-hearted (and artfully illuminated) play of sound and movement. The three-movement back-and-forth of emotions leads to the Adagio finale, which Rattle conducts thoughtfully and in moderate tempo. The music dies away in a deeply moving 24 minutes with nostalgia, sadness and also some thoughts of hope.
The orchestra is brilliantly disposed and fascinates with both differentiated coloration and the greatest possible transparency. Under Rattle’s direction, Mahler, the orchestral musicians, and he himself merge into a single instrument.
-- Pizzicato
Superbly played and recorded, from November last year (Isarphilharmonie im Gasteig), a memorial concert for Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon’s third recording (following Birmingham and Vienna, both EMI/Warner) of Mahler Nine sports a first movement, if not without a few cosmetic touches, that is a flowing and feisty affair, defiant, better to be alive than not, with impassioned fortissimos, and only in the concluding few minutes does the music issue calmness as well as bittersweet sentiments, although it seems too sudden as well as much too soon – bearing in mind how the Symphony will end, spare and fading to nothingness. The second movement, with its competing waltz and ländler, has its tempo contrasts well-managed, but is perhaps a little too manicured – it needs to be rougher, more rustic and pesante. Poker-faced sophistication suits the ensuing ‘Rondo-Burleske’, its counterpoint wonderfully clear (antiphonal violins swirl either side of the podium) albeit greater bite is sometimes required, and it’s a surprise that Rattle doesn’t linger more in the central section (his is a tempo-related ‘trio’), and the conclusion is thrillingly fast and rendered with A+ virtuosity – the abyss awaits. The final Adagio follows more or less attacca (I can vouch for such a joining from an LSO concert years ago) and is a dignified if intense leave-taking, powerful (vibrant strings, eloquent woodwinds) and ethereal, with a cathartic climax and a hypnotically controlled paring down of resources as expression becomes more and more off the radar.
-- Colin's Column
Gustav Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 6 - Mariss Jansons
BR Klassik
CD
$19.99
Mar 06, 2026
Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony is perhaps the darkest work he ever wrote-it's nickname is "The Tragic." And there is something almost destructive about the final movement. "But strangely enough," says Simon Rattle, "it is also a very classical symphony. Yes, it is extreme, but for long stretches it is less wild than other works of his-although of course it does convey a harrowing message. But it's like a lot of great works: there are always different ways of reading them. I've been conducting the Sixth for forty years now, and over time I've come to realise that it also contains hope." Mahler composed his Sixth Symphony during the summers of 1903 and 1904 at his "composer's cottage" in Maiernigg, near Klagenfurt. At the Vienna performance in 1907 (the third under his baton), he called it the "Tragic Symphony"-a nickname that soon became the stuff of legend. In particular, the darkness and devastating hopelessness of the finale-written at a time when he was at the high point of his life, both professionally and personally-are puzzling. Even his wife Alma could not quite explain the contradiction. As always, it was in and through music that Mahler came to terms with his experiences, exploring themes such as farewell, the meaning of existence, death, redemption, the afterlife, and love. More than other Mahler works, the Sixth Symphony is committed to "classical" symphonic form: it is in four movements and has no vocal parts. Despite all the liberties it takes, the opening movement follows sonata form. The Andante draws on the rondo form, as do the Scherzo and the Finale. Very unusually, even the Scherzo has march-like features and seems like a parodistic paraphrase of the opening, with a change of perspective. The march, which sets the tone from the very first note of the first movement, plays a major role.
