Marc-André
HAMELIN MAY 2014 | NEW RELEASES
Schumann & Janácek
labels
Accords-Croisés Actes Sud Ad Vitam Agogique Ambronay Aparté APO APR Archie Ball Armide Asphalt Tango Black Saint Bonsaï Channel Classics Chant du Monde Classic Records Contre-Jour Daqui Dawn of Freedom Delphian Discograph Dog My Cat Doumtak Ducale Dutton East Meets West Eloquentia Fedora First Hand FRA Musica Gimell Gloriae Dei Cantores Gramercy Park Music harmonia mundi Helicon HighNote Howe Records Hyperion Institut du Monde Arabe
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Jazz Village Just Looking K617 King’s College La Dolce Volta Les Arts Florissants Long Distance Loreley LSO Live Mariinsky MCO Records Mélisande Mirare M’ister Productions Ocora Onyx Classics Opella Nova Opera Rara Orange Mountain Otá Paradizo Philharmonia Baroque Praga Radio France RCOC Savant SFS Media Signature Spirit of America Tahra Testament Van Cliburn Wahoo Wergo World Village Ysayë
Wholesale & Retail
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Pianists are in the spotlight this month. Canadian superstar Marc-André Hamelin leads off the release with a fascinating album pairing Schumann’s Waldszenen and Kinderszenen with book one of Janácek’s On the Overgrown Path (p.13). Gramophone Award-winning pianist Paul Lewis returns to Schubert with a third volume of Piano Sonatas, this time focusing on the composer’s late works in the genre (p.7). Stephen Hough, “The thinking man’s virtuoso,” presents In the Night – another in his ongoing series of themed recital albums for Hyperion (p.11). Following on the success of his recordings of C.P.E Bach, Danny Driver turns to the music of Handel, with an album of the Eight Great Suites, also on Hyperion (p.12). Lute virtuoso Paul O’Dette is featured in a brand new recording of the artist’s favorite works by John Dowland (p.6). Vocal music also features prominently in our list of priorities. Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink teams up with pianist Anthony Spiri and the Gustav Mahler-Ensemble for an album of Mahler songs for harmonia mundi (p.8) and conductor Valery Gergiev offers his second release of music of Johannes Brahms for LSO Live, this time featuring the powerful German Requiem (p.15). And for baroque opera fans, Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra present an album of excerpts from Handel’s Teseo (p.17).
Tel: (705) 930-5516 Fax: (866) 336-0110 Email: sales-ca@harmoniamundi.com
IN THE PRESS Dowland: Lute Songs Iestyn Davies, Thomas Dunford Hyperion • CDA 68007
Jazz CONCERTS
NEWS & HIGHLIGHTS
Berg: Lyric Suite Jean- Guihen Queyras harmonia mundi • HMC 902150
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STREET DATE: MAY 13, 2014 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 9 Page 10 Page 15 Page 16 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21
Bal•Kan - Honey & Blood Jordi Savall Alia Vox • AVSA 9902
APO Channel Delphian harmonia mundi Helicon Hyperion LSO Live Onyx Orange Mountain Philharmonia Baroque Praga Tahra Testament Wergo
“Overwhelming, fascinating.”
“A bristling, fiery interpretation”
“Ripe, affecting and utterly beautiful.”
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
—SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
—THE NEW YORK TIMES
COMING NEXT MONTH Lucky Peterson débuts on Jazz Village The Son of a Bluesman Lucky Peterson Jazz Village • 570035
contents
CLASSICAL
Lucky Peterson is considered one of the preeminent blues artists of the modern era. Not just a killer guitarist and a wizard of the keyboard, he’s also a first-rate vocalist. His début on Jazz Village, The Son of a Bluesman, pays tribute to his father, James Peterson, who owned a blues club in Buffalo called The Governor’s Inn where all the greats used to play. Recorded in Dallas, The Son of a Bluesman mixes originals and inspired covers in a poetic blend of darkness and light, all supported by a irrepressible groove.
Press & Radio
Tel: (705) 772-5516 Email: media-ca@harmoniamundi.com Editor-in-Chief: Matthew Owen Design: Stephanie Jacobson
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
apo
RESPIGHI Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner APO • CAPC 2436 SA
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner APO • CAPC 2446 SA
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Price Code: CA41 (Suggested Retail Price: $41.98)
Price Code: CA41 (Suggested Retail Price: $41.98)
DOMESTIC SACD Hybrid/ Stereo & Three-channel/ DSD Through the decade following 1953, RCA Victor made a wondrous and substantial body of recordings that have come to be identified with their early release label, Living Stereo. At the beginning of the widespread adoption of stereo audio in the home, Living Stereo offered a superb range of quality music and performances in high quality sound. An impressive number of these records offer music, performances and audio quality that are still top choices and in many cases, still definitive. In both its recording and marketing philosophies, Living Stereo influenced many of the recordings made since. Although available on CD since the early 90s, this marks the first time that the SACD remastering experts at Analogue Productions have worked their magic on RCA’s legendary recordings. The début releases include two recordings that remain favorites of critics everywhere. Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony are featured in Respighi’s tone poems Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade – widely considered to be the jewel in the RCA Living Stereo crown.
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MAY 2014
Dances of the Dolls
IMPORT It has been said that the hope for western music can be found in the east. The recent spate of Asian superstar musicians offers some support Price Code: CA16 for that position, and with Dances of the Dolls, (Suggested Retail Price: $16.98) the Channel Classics début album by 9-year-old Serena Wang, the cycle continues. Wang began her piano studies at age 4. Her talents developed quickly, and only six years later she became the youngest-ever prize winner of Berkeley University’s Bach Piano Competition. It was to be the first in a string of prizes, and the beginning of what promises to be an impressive career. This recording, appropriately, is a disc of music for children, played by a child. It features works by Mozart, Poulenc, Shostakovich and works by Chinese composers including Tan Dun.
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channel classics
Serena Wang (piano) Channel Classics • CCS 81014
The Merton Organ Works by Franck, Stanley, Messiaen, Bach, Dupré and Vierne
IMPORT In a golden age of organ-building, Merton College’s new Dobson instrument stands out as exceptional. It is only the third American-built Price Code: CA20 organ sent to the UK since the Second World (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) War, a bold commissioning choice made by Benjamin Nicholas, the Director of Music at Merton College. Designed to accompany the chapel’s daily choral services and to honor the chapel’s ancient architecture, the instrument also had to be equipped to perform a large part of the solo repertoire. Ranging from Stanley to Messiaen, no inquisitive listener will feel short-changed by the variety and virtuosity on display here. In his solo début, Nicholas combines flair and intelligence as he presents the stunning instrument he helped mastermind.
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delphian
Benjamin Nicholas (organ) Delphian • DCD 34142
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Choir of King’s College London, David Trendell Delphian • DCD 34136 IMPORT Winner of the coveted Prix de Rome, Alfred Desenclos remains an almost unknown figure in twentieth-century music. His Requiem Mass Price Code: CA20 setting dates from 1963. Incorporating influences (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) from Gregorian chant as well as rich harmonies based on added-note chords, this piece is a revelation. Also featured on this recording by David Trendell and the Choir of King’s College, London, are works by Villette and Poulenc, whose return to Catholicism in 1936 initiated a line of pieces that represent some of the most significant religious choral music of the twentieth century.
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Alain Planès (piano) harmonia mundi • HMC 902163 IMPORT “At last, something genuinely new.” It was in these terms that Ferruccio Busoni greeted the publication in 1908 of the 14 Bagatelles, in which Price Code: CA20 Béla Bartók conveyed the violent aesthetic impact (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) of his discovery of authentic Hungarian peasant music. Over the next twenty years, up to the magisterial Piano Sonata of 1926, he indefatigably refined an innovative pianistic language – pungent, dissonant, percussive, with multiple new playing techniques – that was to influence the entire 20th century. A master of every style, from Haydn to Boulez by way of Chopin and Chabrier, Alain Planès stands revealed here as a Bartókian of the front rank.
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harmonia mundi
BARTÓK Dance Suite, Hungarian Peasant Songs, Four Old Songs, Piano Sonata, Romanian Folk Dances, Bagatelles Op.6
delphian
DESENCLOS Messe de Requiem, Salve Regina, Nos autem POULENC Litanies à la vierge noire VILLETTE O sacrum convivium, Hymne à la Vierge, Attende Domine
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
DOWLAND My Favorite Dowland Paul O’Dette (lute) harmonia mundi • HMU 907515 IMPORT Now revered as a titan of the lute and one of today’s pre-eminent early music scholars, it may come as a surprise that Paul O’Dette began his musical career playing electric guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio. After exploring guitar transcriptions of lute music he opted to focus solely on the lute and music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In addition to a catalog of more than 120 recordings, O’Dette has garnered five GRAMMY® nominations and numerous other awards. The music of John Dowland has long been one of O’Dette’s specialties. This new recording is an appendix to his mid 90s recordings of Dowland’s complete music for lute on harmonia mundi.
“One of today’s most gifted lutenists...” —GRAMOPHONE
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Also available Milano: Works for Lute harmonia mundi • HMU 907557 (093046755720)
“It’s a perfect match between composer and performer...” —FANFARE 6
harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
SCHUBERT The Late Piano Sonatas Piano Sonatas D784, D958, D959 & D960 Paul Lewis (piano) harmonia mundi • HMC 902165 IMPORT Selections on this set Available as HMU 901800 (794881705924) British pianist Paul Lewis’s auspicious 2001 harmonia mundi début release marked the beginning of his fascination with the music of Franz Schubert. Thirteen years later, now hailed as “the finest Schubert interpreter of his generation” (Gramophone), Lewis offers this two-disc collection, the final installment of his three-part Schubert series, which presents newly recorded interpretations of sonatas D784 and D958 paired with his 2002 recording of sonatas D959 and D960. The ‘late’ works of Schubert hold a special place in Lewis’s heart. In a recent interview he said, “There is no precedent in his music for what the language becomes – that sense of austerity, sparseness, hopelessness, terror even! I think he suddenly had an acute awareness of his own mortality.”
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harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
“Lewis’s Schubertian mastery undoubtedly commands the respect and attention of piano lovers.” —CLASSICS TODAY
Price Code: CA23 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $23.98
Also available Schubert: Piano Sonatas D840, 850 & 894 harmonia mundi • HMC 902115 (3149020211526)
Schubert: Piano Sonata D845 harmonia mundi • HMC 902136 (3149020213629)
“Superbly well played...”
“A revelation.”
—THE GUARIDAN
—BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 7
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. for chamber ensemble by Arnold Schoenberg), Kindertotenlieder, Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen, Ich atme einen linden Duft, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen Bernarda Fink (mezzo-soprano), Anthony Spiri (piano), Gustav Mahler-Ensemble, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Andrés Orozco-Estrada harmonia mundi • HMC 902173 IMPORT Can one really grasp the whole of Mahler’s symphonic output without knowing his songs? Not only do they extensively influence the first four symphonies (sometimes referred to as the ‘Wunderhorn symphonies’), they also encapsulate the fundamental principles of his reading of the world. On this recording, the superb mezzosoprano Bernarda Fink explores Mahler’s song cycles from three different angles. It includes the traditional lieder format with piano, songs with orchestral accompaniment and Arnold Schoenberg’s illuminating chamber transcription of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
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“Fink’s singing is always warm, elegant and thoughtful, with sensitivity to the text and a very personal point of view...”
Price Code: CA20 (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98)
—OPERA NEWS
Also available Canciones espanolas harmonia mundi • HMC 902133 (3149020213322)
“These performances are idiomatic and thrilling.” —THE GUARDIAN 8
harmonia mundi
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
helicon
BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique BORODIN Prince Igor Overture Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Gianandrea Noseda Helicon • 029673
H2o3y2uc(^&#@&s Price Code: CA23 (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98)
BRUCKNER Symphony No.8
BRUCKNER Symphony No.7
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta Helicon • 029674
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta Helicon • 029675
H2o3y2uc(^&$@^s Price Code: CA23 (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98)
H2o3y2uc(^&%@%s Price Code: CA23 (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98)
IMPORT These three new recordings from the Israel Philharmonic, released to support the orchestra’s recent US tour, demonstrate the group’s remarkable versatility and technical brilliance. In an especially colorful program, the extraordinary Italian maestro Gianandrea Noseda leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and the overture to Borodin’s unfinished operatic masterpiece, Prince Igor. The music of Anton Bruckner has always been a favorite of conductor Zubin Mehta. However, for the Israel Philharmonic, performing Bruckner has been somewhat controversial, due to Bruckner’s unrequited status as a Nazi idol. Mehta leads the orchestra in thrilling performances of the Symphony No.8 (in the Nowak edition) and the Symphony No.7 in the 1944 edition by Robart Haas.
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MAY 2014
RUBINSTEIN Piano Quartets
IMPORT Pianist Leslie Howard is joined here by three of his frequent string collaborators for two Price Code: CA20 forgotten masterpieces of Russian nineteenth(Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) century chamber music by pianist-composer Anton Rubinstein. In his day, Rubinstein was a hugely important figure and the first international professional Russian composer. His influence is almost incalculably vast on the succeeding generations of Russians who benefited from his grasp of Western musical forms allied to an excellence of craftsmanship and an easy melodic fluency.
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PIZZETTI Violin Sonata, Tre canti CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Violin Sonata, Tre vocalizzi Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano) Hyperion • CDA 67869 IMPORT Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez continue their exploration of the early twentieth-century Price Code: CA20 violin repertoire, turning this time to Italy and (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) works by Pizzetti and his pupil CastelnuovoTedesco. Included here are Pizzetti’s impressive Violin Sonata and his Tre canti. Works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco include his Sonata quasi una fantasia and the Tre vocalizzi, originally written for voice and piano. They are heard here in an arrangement for violin and piano by Mario Corti, who saw the potential in these pieces for transcriptions that used violin techniques to imaginative effect.
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hyperion
Rita Manning (violin), Morgan Goff (viola), Justin Pearson (cello), Leslie Howard (piano) Hyperion • CDA 68018
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
Stephen Hough (piano)
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Hyperion • CDA 67996 IMPORT The latest recital album by Stephen Hough takes the listener on a journey through that most intense and absorbing of nineteenth-century obsessions, the night. The Romantic night was one without sleep, where experiences are mutated through darkness. Hough’s thoughtful programming creates a new aural sphere for some of the most celebrated piano works in the repertoire. Hough explores Schumann’s troubled, reeling In der Nacht, and continues with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and two Chopin Nocturnes. Also included is Stephen Hough’s own Piano Sonata No.2, subtitled Notturno Luminoso, which he describes as, “about a different kind of night… the brightness of a brash city in the hours of darkness; the loneliness of pre-morning; sleeplessness and the dull glow of the alarm clock’s unmoving hours; the irrational fears which are only darkened by the harsh glare of a suspended, dusty light bulb.”
“One of our most consistent, dazzling, and adventurous artists…”
Price Code: CA20 (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98)
—ENJOY THE MUSIC
Also available Brahms: Piano Concertos Hyperion • CDA 67961 (4571179612)
“Stephen Hough will satisfy connoisseurs and initiates...” —AUDIOPHILE AUDITION 11
hyperion
In the Night BEETHOVEN Moonlight Sonata CHOPIN Nocturnes Op.27 SCHUMANN In der Nacht (Fantasiestück), Carnival HOUGH Piano Sonata No.2 ‘Notturno luminoso’
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] Danny Driver (piano) Hyperion • CDA 68041 IMPORT Danny Driver’s recordings of C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard works have been praised by critics as deeply stylish and revelatory accounts of eighteenth-century works on a modern piano. Now he turns to Handel’s Eight Great Suites, largely written when the composer was living in England. They are an inspired, idiosyncratic amalgam of Gallic courtly dances, Italian vocal lyricism, Teutonic counterpoint and robust English tunefulness. Whereas Bach’s keyboard suites follow broadly similar patterns, Handel’s are unpredictable, with no two suites alike in the number and ordering of their movements. There are fugues, arias with variations, Italian-style sonata movements and even a Passacaglia. Compared with the elaborate finish of Bach’s suites, Handel’s often give the impression of written-down improvisations. In the fantasia-like Preludes, especially, Handel hints at his own genius as extemporizer, while leaving plenty to the performer’s own imagination.
“It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver’s impeccable technique and musicianship… ”
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—GRAMOPHONE
Price Code: 2CA20 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $41.98)
Also available C.P.E. Bach: Keyboard Sonatas Vol.1 Hyperion • CDA67786 (034571177861) “Impeccable pianism...” —INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW
C.P.E. Bach: Keyboard Sonatas Vol.2 Hyperion • CDA67908 (034571179087) “Unusual and fascinating...” —BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 12
hyperion
HANDEL The Eight Great Suites
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] Marc-André Hamelin (piano) Hyperion • CDA 68030 IMPORT Marc-André Hamelin presents a fascinating juxtaposition of two composers who are not obviously musically related, but who are proved on this album to be a felicitous combination. Schumann’s Kinderszenen is a masterpiece and a staple of the concert repertoire. Each piece is as deftly and exquisitely crafted as anything in his more outwardly sophisticated mode. Waldszenen is another collection of miniatures, and Schumann’s last major cycle for solo piano. This deeply Romantic work is no objective foray into the woods, but a very personal reaction to an imagined landscape. Over half a century separates Waldszenen from the first book of Janácek’s On the overgrown path. Janácek’s subject matter is darker and the piano writing is more treacherous, but the result is one of the composer’s most profound and disturbing compositions.
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“Hamelin, a poet among virtuosos, brings sensibility and a brilliant technique in equal measure...” —THE SUNDAY TIMES
Marc-André Hamelin May Concerts in Canada
2014-05-28 Winnipeg, MB --> Westminster United 2014-05-24 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall 2014-05-25 Toronto, ON --> Ihnatowycz Hall
Worldwide release June 2014 Special advance Canadian release Tuesday May 13, 2014
Also available Busoni: Late Piano Music Hyperion • CDA 67951 (034571179513)
“Continually fascinating, especially in Mr. Hamelin’s commanding performances.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES 13
hyperion
SCHUMANN Kinderszenen, Waldszenen JANÁCEK On the Overgrown Path - Book I
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014 FAURÉ Complete Music for Piano Kathryn Stott (piano) Hyperion • CDS 44601
Price Code: 4CA12 (4 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $51.98)
BRUCKNER Symphony No.3 BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä Hyperion • CDH 55474
Aa34571c!%$&$+U Price Code: CA12 (Suggested Retail Price: $12.98)
DURUFLÉ Complete Organ Music John Scott (organ) Hyperion • CDH 55475
Aa34571c!%$&%[Q Price Code: CA12 (Suggested Retail Price: $12.98)
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CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
[PRIORITY RELEASE] BRAHMS German Requiem
IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo & Multi-channel/ DSD Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra present Brahms’s greatest choral work, the German Requiem, featuring soprano Sally Matthews and baritone Christopher Maltman. Gergiev’s first Brahms release on LSO Live, which featured the Symphonies Nos.1 & 2, the Tragic Overture and Haydn Variations, was highly acclaimed by the worldwide press. Intended to be for ‘all humanity,’ the German Requiem is a powerful and deeply moving work. Its central themes of melancholy and comfort are universally applicable. Non-liturgical, yet sacred and devotional in spirit, it showcases the great romantic melodies for which Brahms was renowned, and has become a popular work with choirs all over the world – admired for its mystical, consolatory and contemplative tone.
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CONCERT REVIEWS “The London Symphony Chorus was wonderfully incisive and articulate...”
Price Code: CA18 (Suggested Retail Price: $18.98)
—THE GUARDIAN
“An undoubted plus was the solo singing – Christopher Maltman giving of his considerable best.” —CLASSICAL SOURCE
Also available Brahms: Symphonies Nos.1 & 2 LSO Live • LSO 0733 (822231173328) “Gergiev declares himself a major new Brahms interpreter to be contended with.” —FANFARE 15
lso live
Sally Matthews (soprano), Christopher Maltman (baritone), London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus Valery Gergiev LSO Live • LSO 0748
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
PROKOFIEV Symphonies Nos.3 & 7 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Karabits Onyx Classics • ONYX 4137
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Stuttgart Opera, Houston Grand Opera Orange Mountain • OMM 5007 DOMESTIC Directed by Michael Blackwood, the film A Composer’s Notes takes the form of an interior monologue as Philip Glass allows us an Price Code: CA32 intimate look at the inspiration, development, (Suggested Retail Price: $32.98) and production of his third opera, Akhnaten. It follows two productions of the opera that were premièring almost simultaneously at the Stuttgart Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Their dramatically different interpretations of the work make for a fascinating contrast in American and European theatrical values. Filmed at rehearsals and performances in Germany and the United States, the disc also includes interviews with conductors and directors and a look back to two earlier Glass operas, Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha. Now more than three decades after its creation, Akhnaten proves to be a watershed moment in Glass’s career. This fascinating in-depth portrait of the composer is a must see for any Glass fan.
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orange mountain
A Composer’s Notes Philip Glass and the Making of an Opera – A film by Michael Blackwood
onyx
IMPORT Onyx presents the first release in a complete Prokofiev symphony cycle featuring Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Price Code: CA20 Orchestra, featuring the Symphonies Nos.3 and (Suggested Retail Price: $20.98) 7. The third makes extensive use of music from the opera The Fiery Angel. It is a vividly colorful work, sensual and exciting. The seventh dates from 1952, the year before the composer’s death. Intended as a work for young people, it harkens back to the great ballet scores. Prokofiev provided an alternative ‘upbeat’ conventional ending to the symphony so as not to provoke criticism from the Soviet authorities. This alternate finale is included on the CD. Today the work is always performed with the reflective peaceful ‘leave taking’ ending that the composer preferred.
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
HANDEL Teseo (Highlights) Amanda Forsythe (soprano), Amy Freston (soprano), Dominique Labelle (soprano), Céline Ricci (soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Drew Minter (countertenor), Jonathan Smucker (tenor), Jeffrey Fields (baritone), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan Philharmonia Baroque • PBP 07 DOMESTIC Music Director Nicholas McGegan leads Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and an acclaimed cast of soloists in highlights from Teseo, a rarely performed masterpiece of Handelian opera. Writing of the live performance of the opera, the New York Times said, “Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Nicholas McGegan, gave a performance that confirmed its leading position in the field.” The cast, led by the glowing soprano Dominique Labelle as the witch Medea and the outstanding lyric soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role, is buoyed by the brilliance of the orchestra under McGegan’s direction. The recording was made in 2013 from live performances at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California.
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“Listening to Philharmonia Baroque under music director Nicholas McGegan ... is a thrill.” —MUSICAL TORONTO
Also available Handel: Atalanta Philharmonia Baroque • PBP 04 (852188003065) “One more Handel opera is put handsomely and securely in place.” —AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE 17
philharmonia baroque
[PRIORITY RELEASE]
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
STRAUSS Don Juan, Tod und Verklärung, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Vier letzte Lieder
IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo/ DSD This SACD release, part of Praga’s Reminiscences series of remastered historic recordings, features Price Code: CA24 music of Richard Strauss. Wilhelm Furtwängler (Suggested Retail Price: $24.98) leads the Vienna Philharmonic in the composer’s tone poems Don Juan, Tod und Verkärung and Till Eulenspiegel. Soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is the soloist in an early recording of the Vier letzte Lieder, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Otto Ackermann under the supervision of Walter Legge. This homage to Richard Strauss on the occasion of his 150th anniversary is an essential release for collectors.
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BARTÓK Two Portraits, Dance Suite, Piano Concerto No.2, Divertimento for String Orchestra Géza Anda (piano), RIAS Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Ferenc Fricsay Praga • PRD 350108 IMPORT SACD Hybrid/ Stereo/ DSD This special release in Praga’s SACD-remastered Reminiscences series recreates a legendary Bartók Price Code: CA24 concert given by Ferenc Fricsay at the Théâtre (Suggested Retail Price: $24.98) des Champs-Elysées on May 25, 1952. This event offered premières of four works that show the full breadth, color and diversity of Bartók’s music. It includes the Two Portraits, the Dance Suite and the Divertimento, paired with the great pianist Géza Anda’s first performance of the Piano Concerto No.2. This homage to Fricsay is released in celebration of his centenary.
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praga
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Ackermann Praga • PRD 350100
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
VIVALDI Gloria VERDI 4 Pezzi Sacri
IMPORT Between October 1957 and March 1996, the famous Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini conducted the famous orchestra of the Price Code: CA19 Concertgebouw of Amsterdam 81 times. The (Suggested Retail Price: $19.98) concert recorded here took place on June 22, 1960 at the Holland Festival, and the program comprised only Italian music. Repertoire included Vivaldi’s Gloria and Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the featured soloist. This recording is issued here for the first time.
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BEETHOVEN Symphony No.3 BRAHMS Symphony No.1 BERLIOZ Harold in Italy DVORÁK Cello Concerto Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Concertgebouw Orchestra, Pierre Monteux Tahra • TAH 766 IMPORT This set documents the penultimate concert conducted by Pierre Monteux (he was 88 years old), leading the famous Concertgebouw of Price Code: 2CA16 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $33.98) Amsterdam. The program includes Beethoven’s Eroica, performed as a tribute to President Kennedy who had just been assassinated two days earlier. Also featured are the Symphony No.1 by Brahms and Harold in Italy by Berlioz. As a bonus, the set includes a performance of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto performed by Mstislav Rostropovich with the above artists. All these recordings are first-time releases.
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tahra
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (soprano), Ursula Boeze (alto), Concertgebouw Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini Tahra • TAH 765
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
Joan Sutherland (soprano), Fiorenza Cossotto (mezzo-soprano), Luigi Ottolini (tenor), Ivo Vinco (bass), Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus, Carlo Maria Giulini Testament • SBT2 1494 IMPORT Both as a man and as a musician, Carlo Maria Giulini was often thought to be the very embodiment of elegance. However, that view took insufficient account of the fires that burned within. Plácido Domingo once said, “It would be difficult to find another musician with Giulini’s combination of gentleness and intensity. His music making is extremely refined. Yet in [Verdi’s] ‘Dies irae’ he seemed to personify God the Father on the Day of Judgment.” This Testament release of the Verdi Requiem, a live performance from the 1960 Edinburgh Festival, features the great soprano Joan Sutherland. One critic of the time hailed the performance as being, “as near to perfection as I ever hope to experience.”
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Price Code: CA24 (2 CD Set, Suggested Retail Price: $24.98)
Also available Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde Testament • SBT 1465 (749677146528) “An absolute highlight...” —INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW 20
testament
VERDI Messa da Requiem
CLASSICAL
MAY 2014
CAGE Sonatas and Interludes
IMPORT Composed between 1946 and 1948, the Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano are among the most famous works of John Cage. Several Price Code: CA25 years earlier, Cage had already developed the (Suggested Retail Price: $25.98) technique of piano preparation to explore the possibilities of sound manipulation. At first, Cage tried to achieve a specified sound image – an ideal which he later modified. Cage explains, “When I first placed objects between piano strings, it was with the desire to possess sounds (to be able to repeat them). But... it became clear that not only are two pianists essentially different from one another, but two pianos are not the same either.” This recording from Wergo features illuminating readings of these masterpieces of modern music played by pianist Antonis Anissegos.
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STOCKHAUSEN Momente Martina Arroyo (soprano), Aloys Kontarsky (organ), Alfons Kontarsky (organ), Kölner Rundfunkchor, Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, Karlheinz Stockhausen Wergo • WER 6774 IMPORT In the1960s, Wergo made a name for themselves as a contemporary music label thanks to a series of ground-breaking recordings entitled Studio Price Code: CA25 Reihe Neuer Musik. Wergo is now offering these (Suggested Retail Price: $25.98) gems from their early years on CD for the first time. Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Momente, written for soprano, four choral groups and thirteen instrumentalists, was not designed as a fixed work with a clearly defined beginning, formal structure, and ending. It is a composition of independent events with multiple meanings. Premiered in May 1962, the composition underwent some changes in the following years which led to several variants, with this CD presenting “Version 1965.”
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wergo
Antonis Anissegos (piano) Wergo • WER 6782
JAZZ
MAY 2014
Bibi Tanga Jazz Village • JV 570037 IMPORT File in: Jazz After several musical collaborations (Malka Family, Le Professeur Inlassable, The Selenites), Bibi Tanga has focused his attention on a new solo project. Driven by his sunshine vocals and the slippery groove of his bass, this is soul music at its most inventive and elegant. Now, the album’s punchy title, perfectly captures its spirit. With inspiration springing from R&B, jazz, hip hop, and afrofunk, no wonder this music is so in tune with contemporary urban culture.
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“A true musical globe-trotter.” —NPR
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jazz village
Now
JAZZ
MAY 2014
¡30!
MPORT File in: Jazz Six years after Songlines / Night & Blue, the Paolo Fresu Quintet have returned to the studio. The result is an album that celebrates these talented and creative artists’ three decades of collaboration and friendship on stage and in life. ¡30! explores the quintet’s many fruitful years together through thirteen original compositions.
D77p p0c@($)* s Price Code: CA23 (Suggested Retail Price: $23.98)
“A musician who does not feel compelled to prove himself with pyrotechnics. Instead... the Italian trumpeter prefers speaking his piece with lush melodies and a rich full horn sound, supported by an exceptional quartet.” —ALL ABOUT JAZZ
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Paolo Fresu Quintet Bonsaï • BON 140401
JAZZ
MAY 2014
Intersecting Lines
IMPORT File in: Jazz The title says it all. Intersecting Lines is about the interplay between saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi Price Code: CA22 and Dick Oatts. This is an old-school blowing (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98) session in the context of hard bop and bebop, and the focus is squarely on the two horns. Bass and drum solos are few and far between — and brief. Bergonzi’s style is influenced by the titans (Coltrane, Rollins) but clearly his own. His sound and his music are a study in contrasts, juxtaposing softness with strength, simplicity with complexity and Oatts is a perfect foil. Both men take unexpected twists and turns in their solos, employing sudden moves and breakneck runs with razor-sharp articulation. They consistently exhibit that brazen freshness and avian freedom that contribute to jazz being ‘forever young,’
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Bloom JD Allen Savant • SCD 2139 MPORT File in: Jazz Every new recording by tenor saxophonist JD Allen serves to solidify his reputation as one of Price Code: CA22 the finest, most adventurous young musicians (Suggested Retail Price: $22.98) playing today. With a gently swinging, very personal vibrato he weaves his way into uncharted territory that is all his own. His unique sound on the tenor combines the elemental sadness of the blues, the solemnity of gospel and ultimately the joy in the creative process. Allen plays in phrases that are somewhat short, but always interconnected. Joined by pianist Orrin Evans, JD takes us on a intensely personal journey through an ever-changing landscape of jazz as he sees it, signaling his ascension to the upper ranks of the contemporary jazz world.
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savant
Jerry Bergonzi, Dick Oatts, Dave Santoro, Andrea Michelutti Savant • SCD 2137
Concert Calendar
Olga Kern
2014-04-30 Vancouver, BC --> Vancouver Playhouse
Midori
2014-04-30 Montréal, QC --> Maison symphonique 2014-05-01 Montréal, QC --> Maison symphonique
Menahem Pressler with New Orford String Quart
2014-04-22 Ottawa, ON --> Dominion-Chalmers United Church
Marc-André Hamelin
2014-05-28 Winnipeg, MB --> Westminster United Church 2014-05-24 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall 2014-05-25 Toronto, ON --> Ihnatowycz Hall
Joyce Yang
2014-05-10 Vancouver, BC --> Orpheum Theatre 2014-05-11 Vancouver, BC --> Orpheum Theatre 2014-05-12 Vancouver, BC --> Orpheum Theatre
Jörg Widmann - Toronto
2014-04-18 Toronto, ON --> Betty Oliphant Theatre
Jeremy Pelt
2014-05-09 Montréal, QC --> L’Astral 2014-05-07 Quebec City, QC --> Largo Resto - Club and Restaurant 2014-05-08 Quebec City, QC --> Largo Resto - Club and Restaurant
Isabel Bayrakdarian
2014-04-10 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall 2014-04-12 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall 2014-04-13 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall
Harold Lopez-Nussa Duo
2014-04-22 Toronto, ON --> Koerner Hall
Handel Hercules, COC, Lucy Crowe
2014-04-11 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre 2014-04-15 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre 2014-04-19 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre 2014-04-24 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre 2014-04-27 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre 2014-04-30 Toronto, ON --> Four Seasons Centre
Daniel Müller-Schott
2014-04-21 Maple Ridge, BC --> Westacres 2014-04-22 Vancouver, BC --> Vancouver Playhouse 2014-04-27 Montréal, QC --> Pollack Hall 2014-04-28 Quebec City, QC --> Grand Théâtre de Québec
Compagnie Olivier Dubois - Tragédie (Ballet)
2014-05-01 through 03 Montréal, QC --> Theatre Maisonneuve
Catherine Russell 2014-05-03 Winnipeg, MB --> Art Gallery / Izzy Asper Jazz 25
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS Alexandra Silber Cheyenne Jackson
WEST SIDE STORY
COMING SOON
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