|
|
|
ID: QTZ2007
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Collection: Instrumental
Equally at home in clubs and concert halls, Instrumental seamlessly crosses the divide between classical and dance music. 60 Buddhas is a compellingly original album featuring new works by Instrumental, Joby Talbot and Orbital.
60 Buddhas
I wrote Duno on a borrowed 4 track (big thanks Sez) and basically set out to write an acoustic Techno track. I liked the idea of writing on the cello as I've always been a bit daunted when working on paper. I'd been listening to a lot of dance music (I think we'd been to Ibiza that year!) and loved the way it built up layer on layer and tried to recreate that excitement in the track. The bass and cello 'hits' give the piece it's four-on-the-floor feel which I love and Andy W added a hi-hat in the second half which really sets it up. Andy N.
Piano - This track came to life with the rolling bass and house piano riff - a hybrid of house and latin with intricate string parts adding to the restlessness. This is heightened by the bass loop having a feel of 6/8 7/8 against the relentless 4/4 of the piano. Catherine
Bathtime - Recognised as Gods of the electronic dance arena, Orbital have been exploring other avenues with their music, composing for television and film. The Hartnoll brothers have been big fans of Instrumental since the group re-interpreted Forever and jumped at the chance to write a piece for them. Their piece is constructed around a melody Paul kept hearing in his head whilst Orbital were on tour in the USA in 2001/2. With this project, the tune reaches its final culmination: I really wanted to hear it in the string environment, performed by a group with such musicianship. This is a great opportunity to put the word "composer" after our name.
Harp - Essentially a simple ascending harp line repeated and layered at different starting points. As the piece evolved I became fascinated and absorbed by what I could hear beyond the written score - the sounds and overtones created by the dense chord clusters. The pizzicato string parts add further layers and textures so that the effect as a whole is, I hope, meditative and hypnotic. Catherine
It'll Come was written in 2001, squeezed in while caring for 2 year old son Arthur so possibly inspired by him! I think it shows a bit of the Steve Reich influence and the minimalist style generally. I also wanted players to have solos to achieve the "Instrumental" sound. Sally Lachrymosa - A grieving soul sits in open countryside. One obsessive thought maddeningly echoes without variation. The natural sounds soon begin to gently soothe and the emotional pain gradually lessens due to the comforting and curative of mother nature's salve. Brian
Spacefish - Joby Talbot is one of the most exciting composers working in the UK today. His classical music, television scores and pop collaborations are performed and broadcast all over the world. He formed The Divine Comedy with Neil Hannon in 1993 and has also worked with Michael Nyman and Ute Lemper. His piece for Instrumental is called Spacefish which he says was; inspired by a photograph my wife Claire took at the London Aquarium recently. It shows some rather curious looking carp apparently floating in mid air. The piece is very fast and features a 'viral' bass line which gradually infects the whole piece. With Ising I wanted a joyful upbeat sound. The Asian feel was a bit of an accident - I love that slidey string sound. It was originally in two sections which we built on while recording, lots of great ideas from Instrumentalists included. Sally
60 Buddhas (for R) - I first visited Cafe del Mar in 1992, when it was a solitary building on the outskirts of San An. Through the nineteen nineties, the chill out ethos, of which Cafe del Mar was a major exponent, grew to global proportions, and now it is one of many pre bars and cafe on the Ibizan sunset strip. Returning with Instrumental to play the sundown set at the 20th Anniversary celebration was personally very special for me. (I must also mention the gig we played at Kumharas, for one of the most receptive and informed crowds we've known). I vowed on leaving the island, to write a sunset track and this is it. Catherine
Andy W's Production Biography - After years of trying to find the right thing to do I suddenly found myself learning how to engineer this album! It was quite a shock but as it grew so did we and the results are pretty good. I found the production side suited my late-night nature and I spent many happy hours fiddling around after everyone else had gone home! The group all added their own stuff to the process and the long days and nights have culminated in an album of music which defies description but is exciting and moving. Enjoy. Andy W |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2006
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Guitar Music
...for Generation Jones.
*If anyone wondered...Aigburth is a sort of walk through my childhood haunts.
The highly anticipated album from Steve Topping, one the foremost guitarists of our time and a seminal influence on a whole generation of rock, jazz and classical musicians. This album of new works features performances by several of his long-time collaborators including bassist Jimmy Johnson and drummer Gary Husband. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2005
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
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 |
|
ID: QTZ2003
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: Quartet
The first CD of the Ying Quartet's acclaimed Life Music series. LifeMusic is a series of commissions from established or emerging American composers and each work draws on a different aspect of American life.
Life Music
We have undertaken a long-term project we call Life Music that connects the music we make with the American experience and issues of our time. With the support of the Institute of American Music, we commission two works per year, one from an established and one from an emerging composer. Each composer is asked to write a quartet that is inspired by some dimension of the American experience - perhaps a literary, historical or musical source or a significant and enduring issue. With these commissions, we seek to produce an ongoing series of works from living American composers that is not only inspired somehow by life in America, but also reflects the highest standards of musical excellence.
The idea of LifeMusic grows directly from the experience of the Ying Quartet. Our mission has always been twofold: to make classical music a relevant and vital part of American culture in all its diversity and to do so with the highest standards of artistic integrity. Whether we are performing in Carnegie Hall or the White House, teaching at the Eastman School of Music or spending a week in Helena, Montana, the Quartet is committed to exploring the many ways in which great music can impact and transform our daily lives. LifeMusic is intended to be suitable both in the concert hall and in community settings as an effective manifestation of that powerful connection between music and life.
The Ying Quartet:
Ayano Ninomiya, violin
Janet Ying, violin
Phillip Ying, viola
David Ying, cello |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2002
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: Piano
The debut disc by one of the most talented and acclaimed young violinists to emerge in recent years. Liebeck has established an international reputation for mature, intense and virtuosic performances and this disc of early 20th Century works demonstrates these characteristics in abundance. Partnered here by the virtuoso, award-winning pianist, Katya Apekisheva, this is duo playing of the highest calibre.
Works for Violin & Piano
In 1943, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was evacuated, along with many other prominent artists, to Alma-Ata (Almaty) in modern-day Kazakhstan while the Soviet army fought against the Germans in the West. It was here that he wrote his Sonata for Flute and Piano Op 94 which, at the suggestion of David Oistrakh, he transcribed the following year for violin. The amount of revision needed was minimal and indeed the piano part is exactly the same in both versions.
The Sonata is in stark contrast to the huge upheaval that was taking place on the other side of the country and Prokofiev himself described the work as "perhaps inappropriate at the moment, but pleasant". The key of D Major is perhaps a conscious reference to the Classical Symphony and certainly the Sonata follows the classical model closely, even incorporating all elements of the standard first-movement sonata-form structure although the boisterous Russian finale has more in common with later models. Prokofiev was reputedly inspired to compose the Sonata after hearing the French flautist Georges Barrere, one of the great exponents of 19th Century French flute music as well as the dedicatee of Edgar Varese's experimental Density 21.5 and it is perhaps appropriate that he should have been the motivating force behind this work which harks back to earlier forms and yet is very much of its time.
The violinist Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931) was held in high esteem by his Parisian contemporaries as a powerful interpreter of their works. These famous figures included Saint-Saëens, Debussy, Franck and Chausson who all dedicated works to him (indee Chausson's Poeme was written for Ysaye).
As he was primarily a performer, Ysaye not compose a large catalogue of works and almost all of them were violin pieces. Ysaye's six solo violin sonatas were inspired by the young Joseph Szigeti's performance of a Bach solo sonata in 1923. Ysaye is said to have been so inspired that he immediately locked himself away for twenty four hours and emerged with all six in sketch form. Each sonata was dedicated and tailored to a violinist of his time; Szigeti, Thibaud, Enesco, Kreisler, Crickboom and Quiroga. The First and Second Sonatas follow a similar movement structure to Bach's solo Sonatas and Partitas. Ysaye even quoted the E major Partita in his 2nd sonata ("Obsession") symbolising and perhaps teasing Jacques Thibaud about his obsession with its opening.
By the Third Sonata (featured here), Ysaye ideas started to move more into his own unique and personal sound world with more chromaticism and free-flowing movement. The sonata is dominated by a fiery and distinctive main thematic idea that develops right until the very end of the piece. He managed to combine this idea with many different episodes of colour and figuration in a way that only a musician with intimate knowledge of the mechanics and capabilities of the violin could. Technically very demanding though the piece is, it is so well tailored to the nature of the violin that it is very playable and has become one of the staples of the violin repertoire. JL.
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) came to music relatively late in life and was often considered something of an outsider, partly by virtue of his relatively well-off background which meant that he was financially independent throughout his life but also for purely musical reasons.
His music bears the hallmarks of many of the great influences of his day, including Franck, Massenet and Wagner but also exhibits the outcome of his own personal interests and explorations. Towards the end of his life, Chausson became increasingly interested in Russian literature and the work of the Metaphysical poets and the Poeme is based on a short story by Turgenev. Originally titled "Le chant de l'amour triomphant: Poeme symphonique pour violon et orchestre" it was subsequently reduced to "Poeme pour violon et orchestre" and finally simply "Poeme".
The Poeme was written for and dedicated to the man who gave its premiere, Eugene Ysaye Although the Poeme was written for one of the greatest virtuosos of his day, it is essentially lyrical in style and focuses on emotional intensity rather than technical pyrotechnics, an approach that reflected Ysaye view that virtuosity should never be an end in itself but, rather, a valuable tool in the violinist's overall technique. It is seamlessly constructed in one movement and demonstrates Chausson's ability to combine complete command of form and structure while allowing the music to sound freely rhapsodic and lyrical.
Of Chausson, one contemporary wrote "all his works exhale a dreamy sensitiveness which is peculiar to him. His music is constantly saying the word 'cher"
In common with his younger contemporary Fauré chamber music runs across Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) sizeable (and now neglected) output - from the often bravura ensemble works of the 1860s and '70s to the autumnal sonatas and character pieces of his last years. In 1885, his First Violin Sonata was written for and dedicated to Martin Marsick - teacher of, among others, Thibaud, Enescu and Flesch. The influence of Liszt is evident in the thematic transformation which operates throughout the piece, as also in the linking of the movements into two complementary pairs - a procedure which Saint-Saëns repeated only in his 'Organ Symphony', written in memory of Liszt the following year.
The darkly sensuous idea which opens the first movement has a fluid, rhythmic profile - in marked contrast with the wistful second theme, which retains its formal outline throughout. There is no development as such, but a modified reprise of the two themes, followed by a sombre coda which tapers away in a poetic transition to the Adagio. The main melody, a beautifully-judged dialogue, treads a fine line between sentimentality and pathos typical of Saint-Saëns. It twice alternates with a more impulsive (though related) idea, and closes in a mood of tranquil tenderness.
The Mendelssohnian scherzo evolves almost entirely from the tripping five-bar phrase with which it begins. Note how, in the brief trio section, the piano continues the underlying rhythm while the violin derives from it a more songful melody. A curtailed reprise, then a passage of pensive anticipation - leading into the finale. The main theme is a brilliant moto perpetuo, culminating in a high-flown melodic gesture. As in the opening movement, these ideas are modified rather than developed as such - working up to a coda which effectively integrates the two and rounds off the whole work in a stream of exhilarating passagework.
Copyright: Richard Whitehouse, 2003 |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2052
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: String instruments
Affairs of the Heart
Concerto for violin and string orchestra
Marjan Mozetich
Platch
for violin and string orchestra
Elena Langer
Concerto for Three
for violin, viola, cello and chamber orchestra
Alfred Schnittke
BONUS TRACK (Hard copy CD only - not download)
Sometimes It Rains
for violin and electronics
Ed Bennett
Roman Mints, violin
Maxim Rysanov, viola
Kristine Blaumane, cello
New Prague Sinfonia
West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra
Mikel Toms, conductor |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2050
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: Piano
|
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2049
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: Piano and Clarinet
Described by Humphrey Burton on BBC Radio 3 as "a major new name on the new music horizon", Benjamin Wallfisch's fast-growing list of large-scale orchestral, vocal and chamber works shows him to be a serious composer for our times. Over thirty works have been commissioned to date.
A 2005 commission from Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra was the genesis of the symphonic movement entitled Speed which displays the juxtaposing of extremes in Benjamin Wallfisch's language "great energy contrasted with slow-moving, long-breathed and yearning melody. His first String Quartet was composed for the Belcea in 2001, followed by a second for the Coull. His works outside the concert hall include a major ballet score entitled 21, commissioned by the Rambert Dance Company and premiered at London's Sadler's Wells, and a feature film score for Thomas Vinterberg's and Lars von Trier's Dear Wendy, nominated as "Discovery of the Year" in the 2005 World Soundtrack Awards. From his Opus 1, the luminous and glistening Sudden Light (commissioned by the Manchester Camerata), to his latest works including the stratospheric Escape Velocity, a piece which received its premiere the 2006 BBC Proms, there is a consistent, compelling integrity and a palpable, powerful personality.
He begins a new work by building a strong idea of its overall structure into which he feeds ideas and 'elements which all share the same DNA', and where everything, from the overall rhythmic impetus to the tiniest melodic cell, justifies its existence through its place in a complex network of interconnections. Characteristically, he places emotion at the core of the music, along with a clarity of message that must be communicable, and he taps into a rich and instinctive vein of melody which is both attractive and challenging. Ben's music is, by design, vivid and disciplined, passionate and intense.
He has also built an important parallel career as a conductor and believes that conducting, just like composition, is creative, working to achieve a clearly defined vision that must be communicated with respect and conviction.
Benjamin Wallfisch composer/conductor
Escape Velocity
Concertino
Spectra
Speed
Trio
Requiem
Impulse
Nocturne
Michael Collins, clarinet
Gould Piano Trio
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
O Duo, marimbas
Orchestra of St John's
Jemima Phillips, harp
Trio Tagarela, recorders
York 2, piano duo |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2048
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Piano
Piano 4 Hands
Petite suite
En bateau
Cortege
Menuet
Ballet
Marche Écossaise sur un théme populaire
Six Épigraphes antiques
Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent
Pour un tombeau sans nom
Pour que la nuit soit propice
Pour la danseuse aux crotales
Pour l'Égyptienne
Pour remercier la pluie au matin
Symphonie in B minor
La Mer
De l'aube midi sur la mer
Jeux de vagues
Dialogue du vent et de la mer
|
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: QTZ2046
CDs: 1
Type: CD
|
Subcollection: Choir
Music by Richard Blackford Texts by St Francis of Assisi
Mirror of Perfection
Mirror of Perfection was commissioned by the Royal Ballet School and first performed at the Royal College of Music in March 1996. The words are settings of hitherto unknown poems by St Francis of Assisi and cover a wide expressive and emotional range: from hope to despair, longing to serene acceptance, love to bitterness, delight in Creation to an impassioned plea for peace amongst mankind. In the sixth of the seven parts the word "amore" appears no less than forty-eight times in a passacaglia setting of immense power and vocal dynamism. The cantata is no pious word-setting of an ancient saint; rather it is a passionate and vibrant evocation of a man who remains a symbol of hope in an age of spiritual emptiness and cultural decline.
It is paradoxical that the tiny chapel of the Porziuncula in which St Francis found solitude for much of his life was, four centuries later, overlayed in marble and gilt and enclosed within the massive superstructure of the church of Santa Maria delle Angeli. That the simplicity and goodness for which he stood should have survived the pomp of his canonization, the commercialization of Assisi and what in our world passes for glorification is nothing short of a miracle. Yet Francis remains a beacon of spiritual light in our technological, ego-based, psychologically-oriented twentieth century, and suggests that perhaps it is only poetry and the celebration of life in all its beauty and horror that offers any possibility of redemption as we face the new millennium.
During the composition I returned again and again to the image of Francis' little chapel, stripping away everything inessential, rhetorical, searching within for music that was a mirror of the saint's simple and profound delight in Creation. |
| 18.00 eur Buy |
|
|
