May
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May
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SIGNUM UK 121

SIMPLE GIFTS

After a gap of 10 years The King’s Singers have once again made a full a cappella studio album, featuring sixteen stunning arrangements of classic pop ballads, spirituals and folksongs. Each track on this album has earned its place because of its great melody and coupled with the impeccable style for which the group is justly famous, this album will delight its huge worldwide fanbase. The King’s Singers incredible blend and tuning goes to ensure that this is probably the classiest recording of its type in a long time.

BONGIOVANNI DVD 20008

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
(1756 – 1791)

La Finta Semplice
Dramma giocoso in 3 atti KV 51

Chishiho Hirakawa; Leonardo Cortellazzi; Giovanna Beretta;
Katarina Nicolic; Maurizio Minelli; Janson Valdis; Carlo Gabriele Nicolini
Orchestra Sinfonica “A. Zanella”/Frabrizio Dorsi
Recording: Muncipale di Piacenza, October 2006

This DVD is the only edition of La gazza ladra filmed in high definition. It has been recorded at the prestigious Rossini Opera Festival, which is entirely dedicated to the works of the great composer and it's the most important Italian opera festival. This is a critical edition which means that the respect for the original version and the philological aspect of the opera are granted. At the same time, this DVD features a most interesting stage setting in modern times; the whole story is presented as the dream of a young girl who plays the role of the magpie...

HUNGAROTON DVD 32565

ON BARTOK’S PIANO, VOLUME 1

BELA BARTOK (1881 – 1945)
Mikrokosmos (excerpts)(Sz 107, BB 105);
For Children (excerpts)(Sz 42, BB 53)
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
Sonata in E major, Op. 14 No. 1
FRANZ LISZT (1811 – 1886)
Ave Maria (R. 194, S. 545)

Zoltan Kocsis & Krisztian Kocsis, pianos

BIS SACD 1580

MODEST MUSSORGSKY (1839 – 1881)
Pictures from an Exhibition

MAURICE RAVEL (1875 – 1937)
Gaspard de la Nuit
MILY BALAKIREV (1837 – 1910)
Islamey – Oriental Fantasy

Freddy Kempf, piano

Partly on the basis of his several discs on BIS, Freddy Kempf enjoys a reputation as an explosive and physical performer but also as a highly sensitive artist. His performance of Chopin’s Etudes received high praise, for instance in American Record Guide: ‘At 27, Kempf has attained something most pianists strive for over an entire lifetime ... This release can justly take its place among the very finest recordings of Chopin's Etudes. The set of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was equally well received: ‘Kempf captures the essence of Liszt in playing of wistful nostalgia, yearning passion, with arpeggios and cadenzas that shimmer and scintillate’ (International Piano). The program on the present release bears witness to Liszt’s contribution to piano writing: three central works in the great virtuoso literature for solo piano with qualities in terms of characterization and timbre that have led them all to become the objects of orchestral arrangements – in the case of Mussorgsky’s Pictures numerous times...

BIS SACD 1641

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750)
COMPLETE CANTATAS, VOLUME 39

Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Robin Blaze, counter-tenor
Gerd Türk, tenor
Peter Kooij, bass
Dmitry Badiarov, violoncello da spalla
Concerto Palatino

Bach Collegium Japan
Masaaki Suzuki

After two volumes concentrating on solo cantatas, the full forces – including the splendid choir – of Bach Collegium Japan return in this program of five cantatas dated 1725. The choir instantly makes its presence felt in the first movement of the opening work, BWV 68. This is a large-scale hymn arrangement, where the choir is supported by an orchestra including horn and oboes. This is followed by one of the most charming and beautiful soprano arias in all of Bach’s cantatas, ‘Mein gläubiges Herze’, in which Carolyn Sampson shines. The five works all include various more or less unusual instrumental combinations, from the three recorders which lend a pastoral character to Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen, BWV175, to the wind quartet (two oboi d’amore and two oboi da caccia) appearing in Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV183...

HUGAROTON SACD 32516

BELA BARTOK (1881 – 1945)
DUOS & FOLKSONGS

Barnabas Kelemen, Katalin Kokas
violins
Zoltan Juhgasz
furulya
Zoltan Kocsis
piano

The arranging of folksongs seems inseparable from the name of Bartók. Yet at the beginning of his career he could scarcely have imagined that a defining element of his oeuvre would be peasant music – what is more, peasant music experienced directly, albeit studied with scholarly tools and rigor. Even after becoming involved with arranging folksongs, in his oeuvre he carefully and consistently separated them from his larger scale, or as he often called them, ‘original’ works...

ARBITER RECORDS 156

CHARLES TOURNEMIRE
COMPLETE RECORDINGS

CESAR FRANCK (1822 – 1890)
L’Organiste (excerpts); Pastorale; Cantabile; Choral No. 3 in A minor
CHARLES TOURNEMIRE (1870 – 1939)
L’Orgue Mystique:
Andantino & Paraphrase-Carillon;
Five Improvistations: Petite Rhapsody, Cantilene, Te Deum, Fantasie & Choral

Charles Tournemire
Cavaille-Coll organ of Sainte-Clotilde
Paris

Recorded in 1930 & 1931

Tournemire’s revelatory improvisations and interpretations link his master César Franck to Messiaen. A profound and volatile mystic, his avant-garde experimentation emerges from plainchant and modes. These rare discs document the only surviving sounds of the organ Franck played on for thirty-one years before it was rebuilt in 1933...

BIS 1909/11

THE SIBELIUS EDITION
VOLUME 4 – PIANO MUSIC I

Folke Gräsbeck, piano
Lasse Pöysti, recitation

The piano music of Sibelius might be regarded as a well-kept secret, overshadowed by his orchestral music. The sheer volume of piano works suggests, however, that the composer's often-cited dislike for the instrument has been greatly exaggerated. Many of the present works belong to the first part of Sibelius’s career – including his student days – and are included in the manuscript collection that was donated by the Sibelius family to Helsinki University Library. The overwhelming majority of these early works were resurrected by Folke Gräsbeck, who also performs them here. The backbone of the present installment of the Sibelius Edition is made up of three previously released discs, but it also includes more than two discs’ worth of recordings that have not been released before, including a number of world premières...

CENTAUR 2931/2

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

L’Orfeo
Favola in Musica (1607)

Monahan; Kelley; Anderson; Gall; Hite; Sheehan; Rentz-Moore; Ripley; Baker; Honeysucker; Collver

Music from Aston Magna/Daniel Stepner
(on period instruments)

DANIEL STEPNER, Artistic Director, has distinguished himself as a violinist of great versatility, having performed and recorded contemporary music with the Boston Musica Viva; the sonatas of Charles Ives with pianist John Kirkpatrick; and solo works, chamber works and concertos from the Baroque and Classical eras on period instruments. Mr. Stepner recently accepted the position of first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet. He has served as concertmaster of the Handel & Haydn Society, Banchetto Musicale, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic, and the New Haven Symphony, and as associate concertmaster of Frans Brüggen's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Mr. Stepner has taught at Eastman School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Longy School of Music...

GLOSSA 920921

CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI

Primo Libro dei Madrigali – 1587
Nono Libro dei Madrigali – 1651

 

In completing their masterful Monteverdi Edition, Claudio Cavina and La Venexiana have returned to the beginning – to the Madrigali a cinque voci… Libro primo – of Monteverdi’s exploration of the madrigalian art form, a journey which was to occupy the composer for more than 50 years of his life across his staying in the cities of Cremona, Mantua and Venice. In approaching the Libro primo, published in 1587 when the composer was barely 20 years old yet demonstrably showing clear evidence of to his approaching maturity, La Venexiana’s performances are faithful to Monteverdi’s passion for the written word – above all to the weight theme of love. In this final release in the Monteverdi Edition Cavina adds a twist in the tail by including on this new CD the madrigals from the posthumous Libro nono put together by the composer’s Venetian publisher...

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NAGEL HEYER 097

HAPPY TOGETHER
Ken Peplowski & Jesper Thilo

Recorded on April 20, 2002
at Birdland Jazzclub, Hamburg,
by Dieter Reichert

The late Mel Tormé said, "Since the advent of Benny Goodman, there have been too few clarinetists to fill the void that Goodman left. Ken Peplowski is most certainly one of those few. The man is magic." The New York Times pronounced a concert of Ken's "Goodman Straight Up, With A Twist Of Lightning." These quotes only hint at Ken Peplowski's virtuosity – not only is he an outstanding clarinetist and saxophone player, but he's also a charismatic entertainer who has been delighting audiences for over 30 years with his warmth, wit, and musicianship. Here Ken is joined by Jesper Thilo, Danish jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist born in Copenhagen. Thilo is perhaps best-known for his work with Ernie Wilkins from in the 1980s called "Ernie Wilkins's Almost Big Band". Thilo also appears on the Miles Davis album "Aura" recorded in 1985...

Jens Joneleit is a gifted contemporary composer, born in Offenbach, Germany, in 1968. In his formative years as a composer, he was largely influenced by the musical environment provided by his parents who both play the piano. Realizing their son's talent in music early on, Jens Joneleit was sent to a music school to learn basic theory skills when he was seven years old. In 1975, Jens started to take percussion lessons and successively took part in performing with the marching band of his home town Nieder-Roden. From 1984-1986, Jens Joneleit taught himself the piano during which time he became more interested in composing music, writing compositions for solo piano and percussion...

PARNASSUS 96041

ALL THE KEYS & THEN SOME
PIANO MUSIC FROM NEW ORLEANS

Tom McDermott
piano & synthesizer

All the Keys: 24 Pieces for Piano
Some Friends of Mine
(for piano and synthesizer)

Parnassus Records is pleased to announce the reissue of a unique project: “All The Keys And Then Some” by New Orleans pianist/composer Tom McDermott. Inclding 38 tracks and clocking in at 72 minutes, the disc is comprised of two suites. “All the Keys” is a cycle of 24 pieces for solo piano in all the major and minor keys and has elements of klezmer, tango, boogie-woogie, rag, New Orleans R&B, Chopinesque waltz, Brazilian choro and forms not se easily described. “Some Friends of Mine” is a set of 14 portraits of friends from New Orleans and St. Louis, composed for piano or Kurzweil synthesizer. This disc came out initially in 1995 on New Orleans’ STR label. “Over the years”, explains Tom, “I have been aggressive about getting it in the hands of some of my music idols, and I’ve had wonderfully positive feedback from a motley crew of talented musicians: William Bolcom, Ivan Lins, Leon Redbone, George Winston, Ellis Marsalis, Van Dyke Parks, Harry Shearer, Dick Hyman and others”...

WORLD MUSIC

"MINESTRONE. Italy, vegetable soup enriched pasta or rice," (from the Larousse Gastronomique, March 1986 edition p. 632). A Ceriana 'U MENESTRUN OF SERIANA is not only a cooking term means, but also a musical improvisation, a chain of tunes, sung entertainment at the discretion of the person who launches the song, a veritable potpourri that s'entonne all' osteria, at the bar. The different themes and the directory is the vast majority of Ceriana, but draws the Compagnia also in other collections of songs northern, central Italy and Genoa (trallallero), melodies of fanfare, and so on. The particularity of MINESTRONE, however, as is the case with this interpretation, in the presence of famous arias from Italian opera which demonstrate the great popularity enjoyed by the bel canto in this country...

SONODEA 1639

THOMAS HENKELMANN
GREENWICH

 

In celebration of the tenth anniversary of their restaurant Thomas Henkelmann, the Henkelmann’s have partnered with Miles Carroll and Sonodea to create a compilation of music that is both sensual and sophisticated. This CD is the first volume of a planned series allowing the listener to bring home the feeling and magic that is Thomas Henklemann. “All of the senses come alive at the property and the compilation of this music was inspired by this world view” says Miles Carroll. Sophisticated, sensual and intelligent, the vibe rages from transcontinental chill out to lounge club music; from dance inspired electronica, to trip-hop. “We wanted the vibe to be cutting edge, yet posses a comfortable, classic feel” says Carroll. The selections were chosen for a specific, albeit eclectic clientele. Patrons of Thomas Henkelmann rage in age from 30+ and consist of anyone from international CEO’s, to A-list movie executives to trendsetting ‘foodies’...

NEW FROM ORFEO INTERNATIONAL

ORFEO 674081

FRANZ DANZI (1763 – 1826)
Septette & Potpourris

Consortium Classicum:
Andreas Krecher, Johannes Krause, violin
Niklas Schwarz, viola
Armin Fromm, cello
Jürgen Normann, double bass
Dieter Klocker, clarinet
Jan Schroeder, horn
Johannes-Theodor Wiemes, horn
Karl-Otto Hartmann, bassoon

Franz Danzi was an important figure on the cusp of the dying Rococo and the early years of Romanticism. In his tuneful, emotionally charged and dance like instrumental music we also meet the visionary exponent of music theatre who left a lasting mark on his pupil Carl Maria von Weber.

ORFEO 715081

SALUT!

PIOTR BECZALA
tenor

DONIZETTI; GOUNOD; VERDI; BAZIN;
MAILLART; MASSENET; MASCAGNI;
LEONCAVALLO; PUCCINI; OFFENBACH

Müchner Rundfunkorchester/Ion Marin
Recording: June 25 – 28 & July 9, 2007

The debut recital by one of the most sought-after lyric tenors of our age: Piotr Beczala greets his public with arias from the Italian and French repertory, his flawless technique, beguiling beauty of tone, secure top notes and stylistic assurance confirming his international reputation in appearances that have taken him from the Salzburg Festival to the Metropolitan Opera, New York...

CLASSICAL NEW RELEASES

BIS 1545

THE TRIO SONATA
IN 17TH-CENTURY GERMANY

VEIRDANCK; KEMPIS; SCHMELZER; BECKER; ROSENMULLER; WECKMANN; HACQUART; BUXTEHUDE; KERLL

London Baroque:
Ingrid Seifert, Richard Gwilt
violin
Charles Medlam
bass viol
Terence Charlston
harpscord/chamber organ

PANDA DIGITAL 0238

THE EDGE OF EMOTION
Patrizia

Tracks: Fury (Mozart / Lyrics by Patrizia); Damnation (Verdi); Terror (Verdi / Lyrics by Patrizia); Heartbreak (Bellini); Temptation (Bizet); Desperation (Puccini); Devotion (Bellini); Ecstasy (Bizet); Forgiveness (Verdi); Goodbye (Catalani); My Way (Intro) (Thibault/Francois/Reveaux/Anka); My Way (Thibault/Francois/Reveaux/Anka)

A fascinating combination of a powerful 4-OCTAVE operatic voice, the sex appeal and stage presence of a true bonafide rock star, PATRIZIA transcends genre, language and time by reinventing the operatic aria with ZEPPELINESQUE/PINK FLOYD/U2/QUEEN rock instrumentation where the raw primal emotion and drama of the music is the driving force. Her style of ALTERNATIVE OPERATIC ROCK has garnered praise, attention from music critics, fellow musicians and much media coverage such as The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Global TV, City TV to name a few and her music was recently heard on FASHION TELEVISION! PATRIZIA's video for the song "TEMPTATION" reached to #1 on CHUM'S BRAVO!TV charts in 2004 and her current video "DESPERATION" now charting at #2 and will be featured on an upcoming BRAVO!FACT presents as a special tribute to Canadian vocalists...

SUPRAPHON BG 3944

ANCERL GOLD EDITION
VOLUME 43 – 46

Vlach Quartet
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Kühn Children’s Choir/Jan Kühn
Prague Radio Choir/Jiri Pinkas
František Rauch, piano

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the conductor Karel Ancerl the “final word” remains to be said within the Ancerl Gold Edition. The four CDs sum up the work of Ancerl’s contemporaries, with the exception of Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”, that of Czech composers. The set bears unprecedented witness to the 1950s and 1960s, the period when the Communist powers decided on taste and composition trends, and when the criterion for acceptance or rejection of a work was its “mass appeal” and the degree of consonance with the “Socialist Realism” style...

TIMPANI RECORDS 1113

IANNIS XENAKIS (1922 – 2001)
WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA, VOLUME 5

Metastaseis; Pithoprakhta; ST/48; Achorripsis; Syrmos; Hiketides

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg
Arturo Tamayo

Finally! Long awaited by numerous music lovers, here comes Volume 5 of a true monument of contemporary music: Xenakis’ woks for the orchestra. In this case the selected pieces represent Xenakis’ “works from his youth”, those written from 1954 to 1964. Fierce works that already herald this creator’s future who stands resolutely “left” of the way music was presented at the time. Closer to Varese than the serialists who then ruled the roost...

Kevin Maynor Tour Schedule

QUALITON CD 906