Label: BIS 1028
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CHAMBER MUSIC; DUO GELLAND, ET AL.

Label: BIS 1049
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PRECIOUS - Christmas Music With Yoshikazu Mera (Counter-Tenor)
Songs with a Christmas flavor including O Lord My God; Beauty and the Beast; Star Dust; If I Loved You; Some Day My Prince Will Come; O Holy Night; The Meaning of Wonder; Music of the Spheres
FRANZ LISZT: Weihnachtsbaum (1876)
STEFAN PONTINEN: Carillon (2000)
MAX REGER: Mariä Wiegenlied, Op.76 No.52
FERRUCCIO BUSONI: Nuit de Noël (1908)

Roland Pontinen (piano)

Label: BIS 1150
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Violin Concerto ‘Distant Light’ (1996/97); Musica dolorosa (1983); Viatore (2001)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra; Katarina Andreasson, solo violin and leader‘I have always dreamed that my music would be heard where people were unhappy: in hospitals and prisons, in crowded trains and buses… My music is intended for a large number of people, not just for the audiences at concert halls.’ This is a comment that Peteris Vasks (b. 1946) made in connection with Musica Dolorosa, the earliest of the works on the present disc, written in 1983 as a requiem for his sister. If anything the composer’s deep urge to communicate, and his humanistic and spiritual concerns have grown even stronger since then. His violin concerto Distant Light, completed in 1997 and already on its way to becoming a modern classic, is described by Vasks as: ‘A song, coming from silence and floating away into silence - full of idealism and love, at times melancholy and dramatic.’ This disc also offers the world première recording of Viatore (‘The Wanderer’, 2001), which may be described as a representation in sound of ‘becoming’ or ‘passing’ - a spiritual journey in familiar Vasks territory. All the works were recorded in the presence of the composer by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra - an ensemble whose previous BIS recordings have all been highly acclaimed.

Label: BIS 1214
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Extracts from Der var engang (Once upon a time), Op.25; Extracts from Renaissance, Op.59; Two songs from Sange ved Havet (Songs by the Sea), Op.54; Silde ved Nat hin kolde (Late on a Night so Cold); Extracts from Vikingeblod (Viking Blood), Op.50

Susanne Elmark, soprano; Michael Kristensen, tenor Johan Reuter, baritone; Coro Misto
Aalborg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Moshe Atzmon
The Danish composer Peter Lange-Müller (1850-1926) was deeply influenced by Schumann, but developed his own late Romantic style somewhat reminiscent of Brahms. A great part of his output consists of songs and he developed a vocal style of striking subtlety. On this disc some of his dramatic works are represented, among them the most popular of all: Once upon a Time. (The Midsummer Song with which it ends is still sung every year as the Danes gather around the bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve.) The libretto by Holger Drachmann combines motifs from both Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew) and Hans Christian Andersen (The Swineherd) and this recording contains 14, or more than half, of the musical interludes from Lange-Müller’s score. Drachmann and Lange-Müller collaborated on several other projects, such as Renaissance, a play about the painter Tintoretto, from which the Overture and a Serenade have been included on this recording. The Serenade, as well as the Midsummer Song from Once upon a Time, became great successes for the legendary Danish tenor Aksel Schiøtz on recordings from the 1940’s. Included on the disc are also three songs which Lange-Müller himself orchestrated, as well as the Overture and an aria from the composer’s most ambitious project, the opera Vikingeblod (Viking Blood), the lack of success of which contributed to Lange-Müller’s gradual silence as a composer. This disc may be considered part of a triptych of Danish music for the theatre, together with BIS-CD-641 and 749, featuring works by Carl Nielsen and Christian Horneman respectively. As on these discs – and many others in the BIS catalogue – it is the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Moshe Atzmon, who interprets the music of their countryman, along with some of the foremost Danish singers as soloists.

Label: BIS 1233
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DIAMONDS - ORPHEI DRÄNGAR - FRANCIS POULENC: Quatre petites priers de Saint François d'Assise (1948); DARIUS MILHAUD: Psaume 121 (1921); DANIEL BÖRTZ: *Gryningsvind (Dawn Breeze)(1976); VELJO TORMIS: *Muistse mere laulud (Songs of the Ancient Sea)(1979); TOIVO KUULA: *Iltapilviä (Evening Clouds), Op. 27a No. 5 (1914); CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: *Saltarelle, Op. 74 (1885); RICHARD STRAUSS: *Traumlicht, No. 2 of Drei Männerchöre, AV123 (1935); RANDALL THOMPSON: Tarantella (1937); MICHIO MAMIYA: *Composition for Chorus No.6:2 (1968); EUGEN SUCHON: Slovenská piesen (Slovakian Song)(1973); JAROSLAV KRICKA: Three Songs from Zornicka (The Morning Star), Op. 28 (1919-20); ANDERS HILLBORG: muo:aa:yiy::oum (1983/2000). Orphei Drängar conducted by Robert Sund and *Folke Alin. Sweden is famous for its choirs and among them the male choir Orphei Drängar ("the Helpmates of Orpheus") has a special place. On the 150th anniversary of its foundation we are happy to present this disc on which the choir's ambitious and ever-curious approach to music is amply demonstrated. OD has undertaken long international tours since the 1880s and it is only fitting that the program chosen to celebrate the anniversary of this widely travelled and adventurous ensemble is a collection of pioneering masterpieces written over a period of some 80 years by composers from ten countries on three continents. From Michiyo Mamiya's Gongen, an imaginative, highly rhythmical sketch of life in a traditional Japanese village, to the Spanish-inspired Tarantella by Randall Thompson - champion of choral music in the US - the listener is treated to a world-tour in which ancient Estonian runic songs are as important a stop-over as Friedrich Rückert's poem Traumlicht, set to music by Richard Strauss. All this is served to us in nine different languages - not counting the purely phonetic text used by Swedish composer Anders Hillborg in his muo…

Label: BIS 1273
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PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877-78)
Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 (1876)

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jose Serebrier

Label: BIS 1283
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Fatum, symphonic fantasia, Op.77 (1868); Élégie for string orchestra (1884); Marche slave, Op.31 (1876); Andante cantabile for string orchestra (orchestrated by José Serebrier from String Quartet No.1 in D major, Op.11); Capriccio italien, Op.45 (1879-80); 1812, Ouverture solennelle, Op.49 (1880) - Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by José Serebrier - José Serebrier's Tchaikovsky recordings for BIS with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra - two so far - have been extremely well received both by the critics and in the market place. The compilation of "Shakespearean" pieces was described in Gramophone as "A unique and apt Tchaikovsky coupling brilliantly performed and recorded". Serebrier now returns with his Bamberg forces in a popular program, which includes the 1812 Overture - with cannons roaring! The brilliance of this piece and of the Marche Slave are admirably complemented by the more reflective beauty of the Élégie and the Andante cantabile for string orchestra. Even by Tchaikovsky's standards the melodies underlying the Andante cantabile have a unique capacity for tugging at the heartstrings. This is a piece of haunting beauty; one of the loveliest of slow movements in any string quartet. Right from the earliest times this movement has had a life independent of its place in Tchaikovsky's first string quartet and has been performing arrangements for string orchestras. On the present recording, José Serebrier has made his own arrangement of the original quartet version. Though the world is full of splendid recordings of Tchaikovsky's music, this particular compilation, with its generous playing time, should prove very popular, particularly as the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and José Serebrier have already established their credentials in this field.

Label: BIS 1326
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ROSSINI/PLENIZIO: Agnus Dei from Petite messe solenelle; DEBUSSY: Des pas sur la neige from ‘Préludes’, Book I; Clair de lune from ‘Suite bergamasque’ (from Fellini's E LA NAVE VA); CHOPIN: Mazurka in A minor, Op.17 No.4 (from Bergman's VISKNINGAR OCH ROP); Prelude, Op.28 No.2 (from Bergman's HÖSTSONATEN); Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. posth. (from Polanski's THE PIANIST); JANACEK: The Madonna of Frydek & The barn owl has not flown away (from Kaufman's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING); VLADIMIR COSMA: Improvisation on Promenade sentimentale (from Beneix's DIVA); J.S. BACH: Preludium No.1 in C major from ‘Das Wohltemperiertes Klavier I’ (from Adlon's BAGDAD CAFÉ); LIGETI: Musica Ricercata No.2 (from Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT); STEFAN PONTINEN: Cinema music; SCHUBERT: Moment musical in A flat major, D780 No.2 (from Malle's AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS). Improvisation in three parts on themes by Nino Rota; Rota Reminiscence – an improvisation (from Fellini's AMARCORD)

Roland Pöntinen, piano
Roland Pöntinen has a history of devising original recitals for BIS – Music for a Rainy Day (BIS-CD- 300) and Evening Bells (BIS-CD-1164) are only two of them. For Pianorama he has gone to the cinema for inspiration, and the result is as varied and imaginative as always. From the very beginning – even during the era of the silent movie – music has been recognised as a major ingredient of the cinematic experience, and great film makers have been extremely painstaking in their choice of music. When selecting from existing music, directors have been particularly fond of using works for solo piano – maybe a subconscious harkening back to the piano player of the cinemas of the 1920s? Several such works have been brought together here, from films such as Autumn Sonata and Cries and Whispers (Bergman), Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick), The Pianist (Polanski) and Diva (J-J Beneix). Atmospheric in its own right, the music by Debussy, Chopin, Schubert, Bach and Ligeti becomes even more evocative when combined with often striking pictures. The great partnership of Federico Fellini and Nino Rota also features on the disc, with Pöntinen’s own improvisations on Rota’s themes for Amarcord, perhaps Fellini’s best-loved film. Roland Pöntinen has often been praised for his versatility and musical intelligence: ‘In Pöntinen's hands, Liszt's Christmas Tree lights up, blazing with fervor, intelligence and poetry’ (BIS 1164, BBC Music Magazine) and ‘this performance – expansive and impassioned without self-indulgence – deserves a high place among current recommendations’ (BIS 1417, Gramophone).

Label: BIS 133
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FERNANDO SOR: Fantasy, Op.28. Introduction, Theme and Variations on Malborough; Introduction, Theme and Variations on a theme from The Magic Flute, Op.9; Fantasy, Op.40. Introduction, Theme and Variations on Ye Banks and Braes; Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op.14; Sonata No.2 in C major, Op.15; Tema variado;
VICENTE EMILIO SOJO: Five Pieces from Venezuela: Cantico - Aginaldo - Cación - Aire Venezolano – Galerón;
ANTONIO LAURO: Quatro Valses Venezolanos: El Marabino - Valse Venezolano No.2 - Carora – Valse, Criollo No.3;
AUGUSTIN P. BARRIOS: Danza Paraguaya; Las Abejas; La Catedral
Diego Blanco, guitar

Label: BIS 1356
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Rock Score for 19 strings, Op.100 (1997); Concerto No.1 for Cello and String Orchestra, Op.50 (1980)*; TRANSE-CHORAL for 15 strings, Op.67 (1985)

Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Juha Kangas; Marko Ylönen, cello*
In a review of a previous release of works by Pehr Henrik Nordgren on BIS (BIS 826) his music was described as “a humanist's cry of distress, a plea on behalf of our world. ” The composer himself has stated that: "I see composition as an outlet for the need to express myself more fully than in speech, a way of communicating with my fellow human beings." With this aim, Nordgren has, throughout his career, combined elements of a European tonal tradition, twelve-tone techniques, the field technique developed by Ligeti, a Pärtian meditative minimalism, as well as Finnish and even Japanese traditional music. His longstanding collaboration with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Juha Kangas has resulted in a large number of works, including the three on this disc, all premièred by the orchestra. Rock Score is dedicated to the architect Rainer Mahlamäki, and was written for the inauguration of a concert venue, constructed in a hillside in Nordgren’s hometown. As Nordgren himself explains in his liner notes, it is “a musical fantasy carved into the rock”. TRANSE-CHORAL is also to some extent inspired by a building, namely Notre-Dame in Paris, where Nordgren would spend time in thought during a longer visit to the city. And between these two on the disc is Cello Concerto No. 1, the earliest of the three works, and the first in a long series of concertos for solo instrument and chamber orchestra. This is an opportunity to hear contemporary music, which really speaks to the listener, in performances as excellent as might be expected from the Kangas/Ostrobothnian CO team.

Label: BIS 1379/80
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VIOLA SPACE JAPAN 10 ANNIVERSARY - TOSHIO HOSOKAWA: Voyage VI for viola and strings (2002); KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI: Cadenza per viola sola (1984); GYORGY KURTAG: Hommage à R. Sch. for clarinet, viola and piano, Op.15/d (1990); PER NORGARD: Libro Per Nobuko (1992); QUINCY PORTER: Suite for Viola Alone (1930); OEDEON PARTOS: Yizkor (In memoriam) for viola and string orchestra (1947); GYORGY LIGETI: Sonata for Viola Solo (1991-1994); GEORGE BENJAMIN: Viola, Viola for two violas (1997); HIKARU HAYASHI: Viola Sonata 'Process' for viola and piano (2002); ALFRED SCHNITTKE: Konzert zu dritt for violin, viola, cello and chamber orchestra (1994). Nobuko Imai, viola; Yoshiko Kawamoto, viola; Junji Suganuma, viola; Masao Kawasaki, viola; Mazumi Tanamura, viola; Sachiko Suda, viola; Shota Yanase, viola; Toho Gakuen Orchestra conducted by Koichiro Harada; Yuji Murai, clarinet; Ichiro Nodaira, piano; Kyoko Koyama, piano; Yasushi Toyoshima, violin; Noboru Kamimura, cello. Viola Space in Tokyo is one of the world's most important musical festivals dedicated to the viola and the music composed for it. Founded by Nobuko Imai - well known to BIS followers as well as to lovers of the viola - it celebrates its 10th anniversary, and BIS was invited to document some of the 150 works that have been performed over the years. The program spans over more than 70 years, and the list of composer includes Schnittke, Per Nørgård, Penderecki and Oedoen Partos. Nobuko Imai herself performs two of the most exciting works on the two discs: György Ligeti's Sonata for Viola Solo and Toshio Hosokawa's Voyage VI for Viola and Strings. This last piece was composed only last year, and is dedicated Nobuko Imai. It forms part of a series of concertos "in which the soloist symbolizes man while the ensemble represents the universe, nature and world that surrounds us within and without", in the composer's own description. Besides Nobuko Imai, six of the finest viola players in Japan (and indeed the world) perform solo works, chamber music and concertos in which the viola plays a central role. Among these a modern classic such as György Kurtág's Hommage à R. Sch. - in which violist Junji Suganuma is joined by a clarinet and a piano - may be mentioned, as well as Viola, Viola, a constantly surprising duo by George Benjamin. This double CD is unmissable not only as a portrait of a fascinating festival but also as a documentation of the various ways the viola has stirred the imagination of contemporary composers.

Label: BIS 1399
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Symphony No. 3, ‘In memoriam’ (1939); Concertino for Flute and Orchestra (1940) - Sharon Bezaly, flute; Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Sanderling

Here is a rare opportunity indeed: world première recordings of music composed by one of the conducting legends of the last century. When Paul Kletzki (1900-73) left his native Poland for Germany in 1921, he soon became successful both as composer and conductor, a Wunderkind enjoying the patronage of two of the greatest musicians of the time, Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler. But the storms of the 1930s and 1940s made his career take many unexpected turns. Fleeing from nazism, Kletzki went to Italy in 1933, but three years later he was again forced to flee, this time from Mussolini’s fascists. Leaving the manuscripts and scores of his compositions in a chest buried under the ground in Milan, he departed for Soviet. His stay there was short, however, as the life of a foreigner in Stalin’s country became more and more dangerous. In 1938 he made his final move, this time to Switzerland, where he stayed out the Second World War. It was here that he in 1939 composed Symphony No. 3 ‘In memoriam’ - a subtitle which, may stand as the composer’s farewell to the civilized world as he had known it, or as a memorial to the victims of the Nazi persecution of Europe’s Jews. These were numerous already by this time - in a few years they would number millions, and include Kletzki’s own family in Poland. The latter interpretation springs to mind not least because Kletzki himself chose to perform the second movement of the symphony at a ceremony for the victims of the Holocaust in 1946. This is the only time any part of the work has ever been performed, before this recording. Similarly, the Flute Concertino - written in 1940 - never had a performance. A work of completely different character than the anguished Third Symphony, it shows a completely different side of its composer - a composer who soon were to give up the writing of music.

Label: BIS 142
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CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH: Rondo I for fortepiano (aus Sammlung 2); Sonata I for fortepiano (aus Sammlung 5); Rondo II for fortepiano (aus Sammlung 5); Fantasia I (aus Sammlung 5); Rondo III (aus Sammlung 2); Sonata III (aus Sammlung 2); Fantasia II (aus Sammlung 5);
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Suite in A minor, BWV818a; Suite in E flat major, BWV819a
Inger Grudin-Brandt, clavichord/fortepiano

Label: BIS 159
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CHAMBER MUSIC: Morgenmusik for brass; Sonatas for bassoon & piano; saxophone & piano; trombone & piano; trumpet & piano; bass tuba & piano; Trio from 'Ploner Musiktag'. Malmo Brass Ensemble; Knut Sonstevold, bassoon; Eva Knardahl, piano; Pekka Savijoki, saxophone; Jussi Siirala, piano; Christian Lindberg, trombone; Roland Pontinen, piano; Edward Tarr, trumpet; Elisabeth Westenholz, piano; Michael Lind, bass tuba; Steven Harlos, piano; Members of the Musica Dolce Recorder Quintet.

Label: BIS 1614
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JAN PIETERSZOON SWEELINCK (1562 - 1621) - ORGAN WORKS
Toccata in a; Toccata in g; Toccata in C; Psalm 23; Psalm 36; Psalm 116; Psalm 140; Fantasia chromatica in d; Echo Fantasia in C; Chorale ‘Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr’; Chorale ‘Puer nobis nascitur’

Masaaki Suzuki playing the 2002 Marc Garnier organ of Shinko-Kyokai, Kobe
To the general public, Masaaki Suzuki is known as the inspired leader of Bach Collegium Japan, currently undertaking a complete cycle of Bach's cantatas for BIS. He has also received much praise for his on-going recordings of the harpsichord music by the same composer. But his début was actually as an organist - he started playing regularly at Sunday services at the age of 12! When going to the Netherlands to study, Suzuki pursued parallel courses, graduating with a soloist's diploma in both organ and harpsichord. The years spent in The Netherlands also explains his familiarity with the musical world of J.P. Sweelinck, and with the traditions of the Dutch Reformed Church with its ties to Calvin and his 'Genevan Psalter'. The attractively varied program on this disc alternates secular music for the organ with Sweelinck's settings of psalms from the Genevan Psalter. Due to the suspicion with which the Dutch Reformed Church - and Calvin - regarded instrumental music in religious contexts, these settings were not intended to accompany the congregational singing, but were rather played either before or after the service, providing an opportunity for meditation and afterthought. They fill a similar role on this disc, sandwiched, as they are between the more extrovert Toccatas and Fantasias, but also testify to the central place these psalms had in Sweelinck's work. As an epitaph put it, it was he 'who put to music David's royal word, and made it to resound in Zion, in Holland it was heard.' The organ chosen by Masaaki Suzuki is a splendid instrument built by Marc Garnier according to the Northern German and Dutch style of the mid-17th century, especially for the use in the services of the Kobe congregation of the Reformed Church of Japan, where the tradition of congregational singing of Calvin's Genevan Psalter is particularly strong.