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ID: MELCD1002407
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Chamber Music
Subcollection: Quartet
The New Russian Quartet:
Julia Igonina, violin
Elena Kharitonova, violin
Alexey Steblev, viola
Mikhail Rudoy, cello |
| 16.00 eur Buy |
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ID: QTZ2005
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Piano
A fascinating exploration of piano works by American composers whose lives, in some way, have been touched by New York. "These pieces seemed tied inextricably with the American personality and culture", says Elizabeth Hayes of this programme, "at times warm and intimate, at others dazzling and extroverted, capturing an essence of blue-grass, jazz, hoe-downs and a cool, lyrical modernity".
Gershwin: New York Connections
I was performing Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer and some of the Gershwin Songbook as part of a recital programme. An American friend asked if I played Joplin's Solace, and so later that month I sat down with a couple of scores of Joplin's rags and found them exhilarating. I wanted to explore the American piano repertoire more fully.
I had performed Rhapsody in Blue several times with orchestras, but never properly explored the solo piano version. I was already familiar with Samuel Barber's works, but had yet to include any in my programmes.
I had the chance later that year of visiting New York for the first time, and loved it. I began to connect together a programme of American composers whose lives had touched New York. These pieces seemed tied inextricably with the American personality and culture - at times warm and intimate, at others dazzling and extroverted, capturing an essence of blue-grass, jazz, hoe-downs and a cool, lyrical modernity.
So gradually this recording took shape; I hope it shows the colour and immediacy that I found.
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in 1898, and lived in New York for most of his life. In all of his music there is a vibrancy and colour: the bright lights of Broadway, the glamour of Hollywood. The Preludes were published in 1926. Nos. 1 and 3 are energetic, with moments of schmaltz. No.2 is essentially a blues piece - warm and tender with a simple melody over a strummed bass line.
Gershwin's success was born of the many songs from the shows he wrote with his brother Ira. He arranged several for solo piano, loving to sit and improvise at the many after-show parties. Who Cares? comes from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Of Thee I Sing, written in 1931, and has a modern feel. Fascinating Rhythm and The Man I Love came earlier, in 1924, the year of Rhapsody in Blue. I Got Rhythm was written in 1930 and is a larger-scale arrangement, with a change of key and style in the middle.
The piece that perhaps epitomises Gershwin's style more than any other is Rhapsody in Blue. Written in haste in 1924 when a mooted idea for a concert at the Aeolian Hall in New York became a reality, it is romantic, heart-on-sleeve music. A simple melodic and rhythmic idea forms the basis for the piece, which falls loosely into three sections, and he draws on many different influences in its composition: moments of ragtime, jazz and blues, as well as the work of more established composers such as Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.
Gershwin arranged the piece for solo piano in 1927, managing to keep the sense of a large-scale orchestral work while making some cuts to the original.
Aaron Copland's Four Piano Blues were written in 1949. More than any other composer he seems able to portray the sense of America's landscape and the cultural roots of its music. He was born in Brooklyn in 1900, living most of his life in New York City until his death in 1990.
Though he was known more widely for his large-scale orchestral works, Copland writes with intimacy and a very personal voice in these short pieces. Each has a descriptive performance direction: 1. Freely poetic; 2. Soft and languid; 3. Muted and sensuous; 4. With bounce.
Leonard Bernstein's Anniversaries are again intimate portraits, snap-shots of people in his life. He wrote several sets - these four are from 1948.
1. Dedicated to his wife, Felicia Montealegre - it shows sadness, beauty, a complex character, implicit tenderness. 2. For Johnny Mehegan, is sexy and dangerous - a foretaste perhaps of the music of West Side Story. Mehegan was a successful jazz pianist and close friend of Bernstein.
3. Written for the composer David Diamond - there is a seriousness here, but also a sensitivity. 4. For Helen Coates - a whirlwind of a piece, describing his assistant - a woman central to his career. It shows a brittle, pointed character, buzzing with energy and with a fiery temper.
Leonard Bernstein became connected with New York through his work with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, from 1958, and was a friend and colleague of Copland, dying there the same year, 1990.
Samuel Barber wrote the four Excursions from 1942 to 1944, describing them as "excursions in small classical forms into regional American idioms...Their regional characteristics, as well as their sources in folk material and their scoring, reminiscent of local instruments, are easily recognised." Though sometimes labelled as "neo-Romantic", Barber's writing refuses to be pigeon-holed into one particular style, and these pieces show that diversity well.
The first is the only piece to show sophistication and dryness in its boogie-woogie bass line and rhythmic patterning. More dissonant than the others, it may reflect the city of New York where he lived for some years, dying there in 1981. No.2 has a feel of the deep south, a plaintive blues melody. The third is opulent and lush, with a vaguely Latin-American style. The cross-rhythms are complex, though the overall effect is very free and improvisatory. Finally there is a hoe-down; the fourth piece is exuberant and folksy, reminiscent of harmonica and fiddle-playing.
Scott Joplin was born in Texas in 1868, and spent the life of an itinerant ragtime pianist until moving to New York in 1911. He worked in the bars and jazz clubs of St. Louis and Chicago for many years, but was later able to gain an income from the publication of his rags - notably his first success, Maple Leaf Rag - named after the Maple Leaf Club of Sedalia, where he played for some time. The Entertainer has become perhaps his most famous composition - both this and Maple Leaf Rag encapsulate the elegance, subtlety and wit of Joplin's work. Magnetic Rag is an example of the later rags, more experimental in its harmonies, and with one of its sections in a minor key. It has the feel of an accompaniment to a silent movie, with a broader emotional scope than usual. Solace, subtitled A Mexican Serenade, is a much more personal statement, with a gentle melancholy and beautiful lyricism
Programme Notes by Elizabeth Hayes |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: QTZ2029
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Instrumental
A dazzling collection of arrangements and original compositions showcasing the kaleidoscopic talent of Andy Findon.
Andy Findon multi-instrumentalist
Andy Findon - Flutes, Clarinets, Saxophones, Recorders, Chinese Flutes, Indian Flutes, Irish Whistles, Folk Flutes, Ocarinas and Pan Pipes
Multi-tracked performances of works by:
Nyman, Michael
1. In Re Don Giovanni
Rachmaninov, Sergei
2. Vocalise
Arnold, Malcolm
3. Scottish Dance
Williams, John
4. Schindlers List
Vivaldi, Antonio
5. Bassoon Concerto in G minor - 1st Movt.
6. Bassoon Concerto in G minor - 2nd Movt.
7. Bassoon Concerto in G minor - 3rd Movt.
Morley, Angela
8. Valse Bleue
Barber, Samuel
9. Adagio for Strings
Gabrielli, Giovanni
10. Sonata Pian e Forte
Luter
11. Creole Jazz
Rahman, A.R.
12. I Could Live Here (Bombay Dreams)
Debussy, Claude
13. Clair de Lune
Traditional
14. Merry Blacksmith & Sleep Maggie
Gershwin, George
15. Prelude No 2
Hermann, Bernard
16. Psycho
Nevin, E
17. Narcissus
Findon, Marc
18. Serpent Dance
Monti
19. Czardas |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: QTZ2036
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Subcollection: Violin
Roland Roberts
An English Elegy
Summer Song
Edward Elgar
Salut d'Amour, Op. 12
Franz Liszt
Consolation No. 3, S. 172 No. 3 in D flat major
Jules Massenet
Meditation from Thais
Samuel Barber
Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
Antonio Vivaldi
The Four Seasons
Roland Roberts, violin
The City of Oxford Orchestra
Roland Roberts - Director/Violin
Levon Parikian - Conductor |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: QTZ2057
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Piano and Cello
Debut disc by the sensational Latvian cellist, Kristine Blaumane.
Samuel BARBER
Sonata for Violoncello & Piano, Op 6
Edvard GRIEG
Sonata for Piano & Violoncello in A minor, Op 36
Bohuslav MARTINU
Variations on a Slovakian Theme
Kristine Blaumane, cello
Jacob Katsnelson, piano |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: RES10187
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choir
Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys and John Scott
Meg Bragle (mezzo), Frederick Teardo (organ), Anna Reinersman (harp), Maya Gunji (percussion)
Continuing their ongoing series with Resonus, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor John Scott release an album of celebrated as well as more recent American choral music.
Featuring music from the last seven decades, this engrossing recording celebrates the very best of American choral works with music from Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, Nico Muhly, Samuel Barber, Daniel Castellanos, Ned Rorem, and former Saint Thomas music director Gerre Hancock. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: RRC1139
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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London Symphony Orchestra,. |
| 15.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD128
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Vocal Collection
Subcollection: Vocal and Piano
The initial impetus for Songs of Innocence came from Andrew Swait who was extremely keen to investigate repertoire rarely sung by a treble; indeed, several of the songs featured are world premiere recordings.
After rehearsals with Andrew Plant in the summer of 2007, Andrew Swait’s immense enthusiasm for Britten’s unpublished student works was soon evident and is as evident in this fresh recording a year on. A wonderful collaboration of English and American 20th century song.
A chorister of Cheltenham College and former chorister of the Abbey School Tewkesbury, Andrew Swait (b.1994) has already enjoyed an extremely successful solo career, performing as principal soloist on Light of the World (SIGCD068) in 2005 and appearing as a soloist with choirs around Britain and Europe. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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ID: SIGCD235
CDs: 1
Type: CD
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Collection: Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choir
* World Premier Recordings
This recording is compiled from Armonico Consort’s ‘Naked Byrd’ programme, featuring music by Tavener, Purcell, Barber and Byrd, composers who wore their hearts on their sleeves, and whose art saw their emotions laid bare, in an atmospheric concert where magical musical moments are intertwined with sublime passages of plainchant and violin improvisation. ‘Naked Byrd Two’ follows on from their December 2009 release (SIGCD180 - ‘Naked Byrd’). |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
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