Stories for February 26, 2021
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Wilhelmina Smith's lustrous sonority, wide dynamic range, and impeccable control bring forth Per Norgard and Poul Ruders color and drama / ClassicsToday
Posted At : February 25, 2021 12:00 AM
ClassicsToday Jed Distler writes.....Per Nørgård composed his first solo cello sonata between the ages of 19 and 21. His seriousness, sensitivity, and strong personality were clearly present early on. The first movement's brooding lyricism never turns on itself, while the microtonal gestures are expressively discreet and anything but gimmicky. The Allegro con brio finale is like a fragmented or interrupted gigue, where sudden double stops and pizzicato chords seemingly challenge the music's dance-like profile. Wilhelmina Smith's lustrous sonority, wide dynamic range, and impeccable control in the highest registers bring forth the music's potential for color and drama. She conveys similar eloquence and sustaining power throughout No. 2, which consists of two pieces written nearly 27 years apart, and imparts an appropriately incantatory tone throughout the plaintive slides in the brief No. 3's "Prayer" outer movements. Poul Ruders' Bravour-Studien is essentially a set of variations based on the Rennaissance era's greatest hit "L'homme armé". Ruders pushes the cellist's capabilities in many directions, from hard-to-voice pizzicato flourishes and sul ponticello effects to leaping chords and low-lying runs that must murmur without sounding muddy. Smith's technical aplomb allows her to navigate Ruders' hurdles without difficulty. That said, I prefer Morten Zeuthen's more volatile and daring interpretation on Dacapo. His quavering vibrato in the opening Overture, for instance, immediately raises the emotional stakes, and the Etude boasts more abandon than in Smith's relatively careful reading, which, however, boasts more reliable intonation. While she nonchalantly dispatches the Intermezzo's arpeggiated chords, Zeuthen patiently spells them out, creating more of a contrast to the quiet pizzicato rejoinders. An unqualified recommendation for the Nørgård, but listeners interested in the Ruders should sample both Smith and Zeuthen. SEE THE ClassicsToday PAGEEvening Music with Lara Downes set to premiere on KDFC: San Francisco
Posted At : February 24, 2021 12:00 AM
Beginning Monday, March 8 at 8 pm PT, Lara Downes will host "Evening Music with Lara Downes," a nightly program featuring classical music spanning centuries and styles, specially chosen and explored to reveal unique insights and context. Additionally, as the station's first-ever Resident Artist, Lara will curate and create new digital content that will engage the California community and give KDFC listeners a more in-depth look at the creativity and history that has shaped our musical lives. Pianist Lara Downes is a sought-after performer, Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate. Her dynamic work positions her as a cultural visionary on the national arts scene. Lara's musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective memory, excavating the broad landscape of American music to create a series of acclaimed performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience. Current Host of the Evening Program, Rik Malone will still be featured as a host and continue to program the music for much of the KDFC schedule. Here's soem Q&A with LaraImpulse! Records Celebrates 60 Years With Year-Long Campaign / AnalogPlanet
Posted At : February 22, 2021 12:00 AM
AnalogPlanet's Michael Fremer writes.....Impulse! Records, founded in 1960 by Creed Taylor and home to some of the greatest jazz artists of all time including John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Quincy Jones, among many others, this year celebrates its 60th anniversary. The orange-and-black imprint known as the "House That Trane Built" was a cultural beacon of progressivism, spiritualism, and activism throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the label thrives with a new vanguard of jazz artists including Shabaka Hutchings, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, Brandee Younger, Ted Poor and others. Jamie Krents, EVP of Verve and Impulse! says, "Impulse! Records has an important and enduring legacy that we are proud to celebrate during this anniversary year. We are thrilled to unveil new music, visual content, merchandise, partnerships and more. The famous orange label has been the musical home to progressive artists that pushed the boundaries of music, thought, and culture. Impulse! continues this legacy with a commitment to our history, and our future with artists like Shabaka and Brandee, who both carry the torch and blaze new trails. We are proud to share the story of this remarkable label with the world in this, its 60th year." READ THE FULL AnalogPlanet ARTICLEHilary Hahn discusses 'Paris' with classical radio
Posted At : February 18, 2021 12:00 AM
Hilary Hahn's new recording pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. Set for international release by Deutsche Grammophon on 5 March 2021, Paris sees the American violinist resume her productive partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck. The three-time Grammy Award-winner's album presents the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, commissioned by Mikko Franck. It also includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923. HH made some time available TODAY!! to speak with radio stations about the new release. The list includes KDFC: San Francisco CRB: Boston WMBR: Boston WRCJ: Detroit Spokane Public Radio: WA WGTE: Toledo OH WCMU: Mount Pleasant MI WCPE: Wake Forest NC WMHT: Schenectady NY WQLN: Erie PA WOMR Provincetown MA Winnipeg's CLASSIC107: Canada Taintradio: Online
Harmonious World Podcast: UKHarmonious World Podcast interviews William Susman
Posted At : February 17, 2021 12:00 AM
A Quiet Madness features three piano pieces, a piano and violin duet, a series of seven scenes for four flutes and a solo accordion piece that was composed as a response to Hurricane Katrina. The album immerses the listener in a photorealistic sound world of understated beauty. At once calming and thought-provoking, it allows the ear and mind to make their own connections without feeling overwhelmed by thematic constraints. William Susman's precise harmonic and rhythmic languages invite us into a subdued, enchanting expression of madness that roams all over the map, akin to the mind wandering during a rainy day-or, perhaps clairvoyantly, akin to the strange passage of time spent in self-isolation during the collective trauma of COVID-19. Harmonious World Podcast's Hilary Robertson conducts her first podcast with William Susman and extracts from the composer's music. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT Support the showBSO MD - Andris Nelsons describes 'The Spirit of Beethoven' with 99.5CRB - Boston
Posted At : February 16, 2021 12:00 AM
CRB's BRIAN MCCREATH writes.....Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons describes the three online performances he conducts, each of them featuring Beethoven symphonies, and works inspired by them, written by composers of our time. In January 2020, Nelsons and the BSO were looking ahead to a concert tour of Asia, followed by the last chapters of the 2019-2020 season. The tour, however, was cancelled as the now world-wide pandemic took hold in the very countries the orchestra was to have visited. And eventually, those last dynamic chapters of the season, including Nelsons's return, were also stricken from the schedule. In a radically changed world, Nelsons and the orchestra were finally reunited to record three concerts for BSO Now, the Boston Symphony's online concert series. And in a remotely-produced interview, Nelsons described each concert, revealing the ways his relationship with Beethoven's symphonies have evolved, as well as how the impact of those symphonies is refracted through compositional voices of our time. I began by asking Nelsons to describe the feeling of returning to Symphony Hall after being gone for so long. LISTEN TO THE 99.5:CRB - Boston SEGMENTBenjamin Grosvenor learns Liszt from listening / The New York Times
Posted At : February 15, 2021 12:00 AM
The New York Times - David Allen writes....For his new album, Benjamin Grosvenor delved into historical recordings of the daunting Sonata in B minor. "This is music that's probably not supposed to be played cleanly," Benjamin Grosvenor said of Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, the centerpiece of his new album. How do the great musicians prepare to play the great works? Each has his or her own methods, and tends to keep the strategy quiet, a secret key to success. One thing that distinguishes the subtle Benjamin Grosvenor, 28, from the rest of the pack of young star pianists is his extensive knowledge of historical recordings. This listening has paid off in a spellbinding Liszt recording out on Decca on Friday, crowned with a typically thoughtful account of the treacherous Sonata in B minor. "I almost feel like you should know the notable recordings of a work like this," Grosvenor said of the sonata in a recent interview. "More than anything, it helps you understand what works and what doesn't work. You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively, and that fuels your imagination." What do you think about the opening bars of the sonata, which are so spare compared to what follows? It's foreboding, and mysterious, and a little bit threatening. It would be quite interesting to just line up eight recordings of the first bar. For someone who is a music lover but who is not that acquainted with putting a piece together, it might just be interesting to hear how two notes can essentially be interpreted in so many different ways. There are many valid approaches. What Vladimir Horowitz does in a large hall in his Carnegie recording, this kind of demonic thing, works very well. Cherkassky's is interesting; it sounds like he's improvising, like it's something that's just come to him in the moment, but it's obviously conscious because he executes it in the same way at the end of the slow movement as well. I was aiming for something mysterious, almost - so the notes are not too present. They're quite soft, very much like plucked strings, the bass more in it than the treble, like what Alfred Brendel does. So comparisons with orchestral sounds help you define what you are trying to achieve, even in a work as pianistic as this? As a pianist you've been playing the piano all of your life; you have a natural association with piano sound. So it's only when you're forced to put it into words that you try to make those associations. But it is an appropriate way to think, because, for most composers, the piano is always trying to imitate other instruments, because of its nature as a percussion instrument. Again, it's a line of thought that adds fire to the imagination, and the colors that you then draw out. One of the challenges in the piece is how to create tension over the whole, or even just over shorter periods of double octaves, or continuous fortissimo dynamics. You picked out a section near the start as an example. In this double-octave passage there is a lot of fortissimo playing, and you vary that in terms of dynamics, but the meter is the same for a while, with these continuous quavers. Horowitz, in the final rise and descent, just pushes through. There's lots of wrong notes, but it's raw. It's exceptionally difficult because of the octaves, but if you can push through it in that way I think it's very effective, all the way to the lowest note on the piano. So when you are playing the piece live, does atmosphere matter more than precision in passages like this? Yes, this is music that's probably not supposed to be played cleanly. Part of the struggle is, it is technically difficult, but that's what makes it exciting. Someone said of Horowitz that his playing is not exciting because he plays fast, but because he plays faster than he can. In this music there's an element of that. Lupu generates the tension in a different way; it's tension by holding back, by creating a limit that you're working against. Then the slow movement poses quite different challenges. It's magical music. The most incredible bit for me is this ascending line in the right hand, the scales after the climax. It's the most static point of the piece, and a groove needs to be found between static to the point of no motion, and finding the magic that's in it. Not to play it too casually. Claudio Arrau there is very special; it's such a wonderful moment with these triple pianissimos - finding that beautiful color, and where to take the time. Then comes the fugue, a moment when I'm always wondering how fast a pianist is going to try to play. Is this another place where aura matters more than accuracy? The counterpoint needs to be clear. So it's the point at which you can still characterize it, and that point is different for each pianist, as long as it builds and builds gradually to the right point. Intellectually speaking it's not necessarily correct, but I quite like the idea of treating the first five bars as a kind of fanfare. They don't carry enough to push forward out of the slow movement, so to me they inevitably sit somewhere in between if you are going to take it at that tempo. I like the change of pace there. The magic, and the music, of the slow movement return on the very last page. It's this final transition from darkness to light: the rumbling in the left hand, then the way that it ascends to the top of the piano. Those diminished chords are little shards of light, then it comes away to the very low notes, then these transcendent last chords. That's what the last page is about: transcendence. You can't help but think that the last note is an awakening from a dream. Close listening brought out the enormous range of possibilities in a work that presents an intellectual challenge of interpretation as much as a punishing test of technique. The piece is a Faustian struggle between the diabolical and the divine; the question is how to make it cohere over more than 30 minutes. Image“You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively,” Grosvenor said, “and that fuels your imagination.” "You react to some things positively and you react to some things negatively," Grosvenor said, "and that fuels your imagination."Credit...Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York Times There is no single answer. The example of Radu Lupu points in one direction. "It has this great inevitability about it," Grosvenor said of Lupu's interpretation. "In terms of the way he controls the pulse it's quite symphonic, and also in the kinds of sounds he produces." Shura Cherkassky, a figure beloved of pianophiles whose impulsive, visionary performances were so idiosyncratic that Grosvenor said he would never dare imitate them, offers something else in a live recording from 1965. "Sometimes it feels kind of improvisatory and sometimes he doesn't quite do what's written in the score," Grosvenor said. "But he somehow makes this miracle of his own unique narrative from it." Perils lurk whichever way a pianist turns. "The danger in pursuing this symphonic, quite rigid, controlled outlook is that it could quite easily become something more of an academic exercise than the fantastical piece that it is," Grosvenor said. "And obviously if you go along the Cherkassky route, you could make it sound like something that doesn't make much sense." If Grosvenor successfully traces a course between those extremes, he also takes inspiration from how his forebears have resolved the many difficulties in a work of this scale. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Top 10 for Feb
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Emile Mosseri :
Minari OMPS
Milan Records today announces the February 12 release of MINARI (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by award-winning composer EMILE MOSSERI (The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Kajillionaire). -
Paul Edward-Francis :
Blood of Zeus-Music From The Netflix Anime Series
Milan Records today releases BLOOD OF ZEUS (MUSIC FROM THE NETFLIX ANIME SERIES) by composer Paul Edward-Francis. -
Tom Hodge :
The Mauritanian OMPS
Sony Music Masterworks today releases THE MAURITANIAN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by acclaimed composer TOM HODGE. -
David Korevaar :
Lowell Liebermann - Piano Music Volume 3
The third volume in David Korevaar's highly acclaimed series devoted to Lowell Liebermann's solo piano music (MSR Classics MS1688) continues his journey of recording all of Liebermann's works for the piano. -
Jakob Bro - Arve Henriksen - Jorge Rossy :
Uma Elmo
With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist-composer Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. -
Keegan DeWitt :
Little Fish OMPS
Milan Records today announces the February 5 release of LITTLE FISH (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer KEEGAN DEWITT. -
Stephan Moccio :
Earned It
Grammy and Oscar-nominated songwriter and composer Stephan Moccio has released a brand new solo piano version of ‘Earned It', a track he co-wrote and co-produced with The Weeknd for the 2015 blockbuster film Fifty Shades of Grey. -
Andris Nelsons | Gewandhausorchester Leipzig :
Bruckner Sym. 2&8 _ Wagner Meistersinger Prelude
This brand-new recording marks the continuation of Leipzig's Bruckner Cycle with Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their award-winning Bruckner cycle. -
Drum & Lace + Ian Hultquist :
Dickinson -Season 2, AppleTV Original SeriesS-trak
Milan Records today releases DICKINSON: SEASON TWO (APPLE TV+ ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK) with music by Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist. -
Will Bates :
Bliss OMPS
Milan Records today announces the release of BLISS (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by composer, multi-instrumentalist, and Fall On Your Sword founder WILL BATES.
Jonas Kaufmann - It's Christmas! makes 'theartsdesk: Christmas CDs 2020'
Posted: December 19, 2020 12:00 AM | By: AdminJonas Kaufmann – It's Christmas! is an album of two halves. Disc one a generous selection of mostly German carols, Kaufmann accompanied by the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. He's in good voice. The arrangements are fine, and it's an agreeable listen. Disc 2 shakes things up a bit. Kaufmann singing Holst and Vaughan Williams is fun – the English pronunciation is good, piquing our curiosity as to how he'll tackle a bunch of cheesier Christmas standards. Naysayers will be disappointed, but Kaufmann does a decent job. Diction is clear, and the Cologne Studio Big Band offer fruity support. "Winter Wonderland" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" are both great. There's a nice vibraphone obligato in Mel Torme's "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire", and the Cologne rhythm section keep Kaufmann on his toes in "Let It Snow!". All fine by me, with Kaufmann audibly enjoying himself in a daft take on Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Improbably enjoyable, and handsomely produced to boot. If this isn't your bag, no-one's forcing you to buy it.
Crossover Media Projects with Jonas Kaufmann
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Jonas Kaufmann
It's Christmas
In a Christmas album that is a gift itself, Jonas Kaufmann – the most acclaimed operatic tenor of the age – echoes his own holiday memories and joys with It's Christmas!, celebrating the most festive time of the year with a unique selection of beloved songs and carols. This uniquely rich and diverse holiday album features 40 favorites that reflect the many facets of Christmas, from ancient Christian hymns to contemporary pop classics. It's Christmas! will be released worldwide November 20 on Sony Classical.
"When I think of Christmas, many memories spring to mind," Kaufmann writes, in his liner note for It's Christmas! "In this I'm probably like everyone else. Christmas is the festival of contemplation and remembrance, of joy and light."
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Jonas Kaufmann
Selige Stunde
Jonas Kaufmann's new album, "Selige Stunde", will be released by Sony Classical on 4 September. During the corona lockdown he joined forces with pianist Helmut Deutsch to record a highly personal selection of lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Mahler and other masters. "Selige Stunde" is the first album from this series of recording sessions and the first single - Schumann's "Mondnacht."
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Jonas Kaufmann
An Italian Night - Live from the Waldbuhne Berlin
Two years after the release of his highly successful album Dolce Vita, Jonas Kaufmann reaffirmed his love affair with Italian music this summer with a special concert at the Waldbühne – Berlin's renowned stage-beneath-the-stars. In what can be seen as a wondrous zenith of his dedication to Italy and her music, the concert has become one of this year's biggest classical music events. Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of the magical concert on DVD and Blu-ray on October 19, with the CD and digital formats available October 5.
"An Italian Night – Live from the Waldbühne Berlin" features popular songs and canzone as well as passionate Italian opera arias and duets from Cavalleria rusticana, where Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili joined Jonas as a charming guest-artist and duet partner. Both were supported by Jochen Rieder conducting the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
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Jonas Kaufmann
L'Opera
Jonas Kaufmann pays homage to a magnificent era of opera that defined musical splendor and elegance, in his new album of 19th-century French opera arias and duets. His selection of music for tenor spans this momentous period, starting with "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" from Halévy's La Juive (1835), through two of Bizet's greatest works, "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" from Carmen (1875) and "Au fond du temple saint" from Les Pêcheurs de perles (1863), by way of Gounod's "Ah! lève-toi, soleil!" from Roméo et Juliette (1867) and ending with the latest aria "Pourquoi me réveiller" from Massenet's masterpiece Werther (1892). Plus many more along the way.
15 NEW 70 TOTAL
SYND: NPR/ATC, Classical 24, TRH, CBC
Direct: MOOD, AccuRadio
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Santa Fe, Honolulu, IA(Statewide), WI(Statewide), Canada
Online: AccuRadio, Passion Musique et Culture -
Jonas Kaufmann
Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde was posthumously premiered in Munich in 1911 and described by Mahler as a "symphony for tenor, alto (or baritone) and orchestra." It follows that two soloists have been featured in every performance and recording to date: either tenor and baritone or tenor and alto/mezzo soprano. Jonas Kaufmann is the first soloist to be heard singing both parts. His recording of Gustav Mahler'sDas Lied von der Erde has been recently released on Sony Classical.
28 TOTAL
SYND: Classical 24, CBC
Direct: MOOD
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Canada
Online: AccuRadio, Beyondcriticism.com -
Jonas Kaufmann
Dolce Vita
Italy and its immortal music have a magical pull on people like no other culture. Jonas Kaufmann, long familiar with Italy's ways has had his own special bond with the country since his youth. The new album, Dolce Vita is his tribute to this culture, this way of life that has conceived one immortal melody after the other for the tenor voice. Available October 7, Sony Classical is proud to release this special collectionof timeless Italian songs – sung by "The world's greatest tenor" (The Daily Telegraph)
24 NEW 66 TOTAL
SYND: Classical 24, CBC
Direct: MOOD, AccuRadio
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Austin, St. Louis, Denver, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Madison WI, Louisville, Honolulu, KS(Network), IA(Network), WI(Network), MN(Network), NE(Network), CO(Network)
Online: DWRadio -
Jonas Kaufmann
The Age of Puccini
Jonas Kaufmann became the first German tenor to sing Cavaradossi at the Metropolitan Opera in 103 years. He shaped Puccini's music with exceptional elegance, balancing the character's essential revolutionary fervor with a heart-stopping tenderness. Critics and audiences received the portrayal ecstatically. Listeners familiar with Kaufmann's artistry in German and French repertoire exclusively will be astonished by his affinity for Italian music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Having welcomed him as Cavaradossi in 2008, Covent Garden presented his first Maurizio in 2010 and his debuts as Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut in 2014 and as Andrea Chénier in 2015. The current collection highlights many of these roles as recorded for Decca.