The CD under the title „in fall of Byzantium” presents music from Italy, France and Byzantium during the first half of the century. Furthermore, provides works by Gaullaume du Fay and composers of his period, related to historical events between the Byzantium and the West.
The Father, the Son and the Godfather is a snapshot from a time when art music escaped from the courts and churches. Domestic music-making in the company of close friends became a treasured extension of social interaction, and the resulting boom in ‘market opportunities’ offered composers a tremendous freedom in their choices of genres and styles, as demonstrated by this colourful programme. It features three composers whose music could not be more different, taking into account that all works were composed during the span of only two generations by authors who knew each other better than just well: J.S. Bach (the father), C.P.E. Bach (the son) and Georg Philipp Telemann (CPE’s godfather). We thus get Johann Sebastian’s rigorous, intellectually demanding Sonata in B minor, ample examples of the elegant and tender Empfindsamer Stil of his son C.P.E., and in two Trio Sonatas a taste of Telemann’s ‘world music’, in which the composer mixes elements of folk music from Poland with French and Italian styles of art music. This is the first recording of Paradiso Musicale, an ensemble featuring the acclaimed recorder player Dan Laurin and made up of an unusual combination of instruments: recorder, viola, cello and harpsichord. The members all have experiences from a number of musical genres, including avant-garde styles, and with musicians such as John McLaughlin, Prince and Frank Zappa as inspiration, their ultimate goal is to achieve the feeling of a jam session when performing. As can be heard on this disc – for instance in the final track, a Telemann Allegro – the result is exhilarating.
Darius Milhaud (1892–1974)La Cheminée du roi René Op. 205 13:041. I. Cortège 2:082. II. Aubade 2:103. III. Jongleurs 1:114. IV. La Maousinglade 2:255. V. Joutes sur l’Arc 0:566. VI. Chasse à Valabre 1:487. VII. Madrigal nocturne 2:26Štěpán Lucký (1919–2006)Divertimento 13:238. I. Alla marcia. Vivo 3:099. II. Notturno. Lento 4:3610. III. Scherzo. Presto 5:38Samuel Barber (1910–1981)11. Summer Music Op. 31 11:43Robert Paterson (1970)Wind Quintet 19:17(underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation)world premiere recording12. I. Andante 4:5413. II. Suburban Waltz Fantasy 4:0614. III. Melting Clocks 4:5615. IV. Klezmeshugeh 5:21
Howard Shelley continues his appraisal of a composer who in his lifetime was classed with Mozart and Beethoven, and enjoyed international fame and admiration. Shelley is a master of the Classical–Romantic style and in his hands the music of Spohr, heard very little today, reveals a freshness and excitement which is utterly beguiling. Spohr’s Piano Sonata and Rondoletto are paired with works by George Onslow, Spohr’s exact contemporary. Both composers wrote very little piano music and this release comprises all their major works for the instrument. Again, music to charm and delight is rediscovered through Shelley’s expert performances.
A classic reissue of an Australian Brandenburg Orchestra classic! Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Gluck. Favourite composers played by one of Australia’s favourite orchestras.
Since they were founded in 1979 Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have recorded over 100 discs of choral music spanning 600 years. On this new collection, CORO presents a selection of their most celebrated recordings of music by composers from across Europe. This disc features music from over a dozen composers representing ten countries from Palestrina’s Assumpta Est Maria and Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir to excerpts from Poulenc’s Sept Répons des Ténèbrae and Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir. This disc provides a superb collection of works from some of Europe’s most celebrated composers and, alongside the first disc in this set, Great British Choral Works, is the perfect introduction to The Sixteen’s wonderful music.
This recording centres on music produced by a group of composers linked to the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing, famous for its choir (comprising men and boys) at the beginning of the twentieth century. These composers made, up to the time of the momentous events of 1917, a significant contribution to the future of Russian choral music, one that, while never forgotten in Russia, is now also coming to be appreciated in the West. That their work did not emerge from a vacuum is made evident here by the inclusion of music by earlier composers: Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840– 1893), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), Mili Balakirev (1837–1910) and César Cui (1835–1918).In 1879 there occurred a famous incident which would have significant consequences for Russian church music. Pyotr Jürgenson, the Moscow music publisher who frequently worked with the Imperial Chapel, published Tchaikovsky’s Liturgy of St John Chrysostom without the authorization of the Chapel—indispensable since the time of Bortnyans’ky. Bakhmetev, its director, attempted to forbid publication, but Tchaikovksy sought and received authorization from the Senate. Though many have considered the work too ‘Western’, it may be seen as truly Russian in spirit, and marks the end of the period of German domination and the initiation of the study and recovery of the Russian Church’s musical past. Tchaikovsky himself later worked more seriously with the chant repertoire, and his settings for the Vigil show a preoccupation with finding a valid style of genuinely liturgical composition. The present recording includes his arresting setting of Priidite, poklonimsya, followed by the Trisagion (Trisviatoye), from his 1879 Liturgy.
This disc, originally made in 1989 and led by early music pioneer Konrad Junghänel, stands up well and was a strong candidate for reissue. The Symphonia Angelica of the title was a printed madrigal collection issued by Hubert Waelrant, who was also a composer and included his own effort, Tra romor tamburi. That piece, and all the others, are Italian madrigals, and the disc provides a fair cross-section of Italian madrigals as they became famous across Europe and in England, where they stimulated the creation of the works still taken up every year by high school choirs and glee clubs. The madrigals are mostly in four or five parts, and Junghänel varies his forces nicely; some are accompanied with viols or his own lute, while others are sung unaccompanied, and the group slightly shifts with each new work -- an eminently reasonable solution. The singers involved aren't virtuosi but blend nicely, with accurate intonation. The repertoire is the most attractive feature of the performance. Centered on romantic and even sexy poetry, the disc features composers -- Giovanni de Macque, Luca Marenzio, Philippe de Monte -- whose chromatic experiments are enshrined in music history books that assumed modernism as a virtue. But these composers wrote all kinds of music, and the lighter pieces heard here would be the ones that became popular -- the more experimental pieces were more in the nature of things to be shared with connoisseurs. One of those is indeed included: the composite Mentre ti fui, with four composers each setting a single verse of the same poem. Texts are given in Italian and English; the last line of Macque's delightful Bacciami vita mia (Kiss me, life of mine) unfortunately comes out as "and then I shall leave my soul between your beautiful ips." The booklet also includes commentary in French and German (but not Italian); beyond the dry observation that "King Philip II of Spain was not exactly in Flanders for the cultural development of the country" it contains mostly specialist information. The average buyer, however, will get what the average buyer of the original book got in 1585 -- a pleasing collection of Italian madrigals. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide
The 15th and 16th centuries were the golden age of Flemish polyphony. Dufay, Josquin, Isaac and many others were among the composers most celebrated in the major courts of Europe. In terms of both their methods and their musical output, these composers transmitted a style characterised by complex counterpoint and a remarkable sense of musical architecture. Ludwig Senfl had the highest regard for these qualities. Under the influence of his teacher Heinrich Isaac, he made the Flemish idiom his own, while adding to it obvious personal touches.Making the present selection has brought home to us what a privilege it is to be able to choose from an output of such quality – yet how frustrating it is to have to do so! We have done no more than lift one small corner of the veil beneath which Senfl’s masterly oeuvre lies hidden. Nearly 500 years after his death, a large part of his output remains consigned to musical history, completely unknown to both music-lovers and performers. We hope that this recording will demonstrate how unjustly Senfl’s reputation has been obscured by that of his teacher Isaac; for us, his music has been a revelation and a source of huge musical pleasure.
Works by: Chopin Fryderyk,Mili Balakirev; Franz Bendel; Edvard Grieg; Ferruccio Busoni; Eduard Nápravník; Pyotr Tchaikovsky; Arthur Honegger; Sir Lennox Berkeley; Heitor Villa-Lobos; Federico Mompou; Benjamin Godard; Leopold Godowsky; Theodor Leschetizky 2010 sees the 300th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, and among the many celebratory recordings, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer’s extraordinary influence and legacy. Chopin’s unique style of piano writing was to utterly transform the way in which composers wrote for and thought about the instrument. Few escaped some aspect of that legacy until the early years of the twentieth century; and few pianists have not had Chopin’s music in their concert repertoire. Small wonder that so many composers and pianistcomposers— major and minor—have felt moved to pay their respects to a musician for whom there is almost universal approbation. A fascinating selection of hommages are represented here. Jonathan Plowright has recently been described as ‘one of the finest living pianists; the possessor of qualities that should no longer remain a secret’ (Gramophone). His formidable technique and musical integrity combine in a disc which is a must for any pianophile.