Stories » Jonas Kaufmann - The Puccini Album / ClassicsToday

Stories for June 24, 2017

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    Analekta, now an Apple Music curator
     
    Posted At : June 23, 2017 11:23 AM

    Analekta, the largest independent classical music label in Canada, is now an Apple Music Curator.  In addition to sharing its own classical music knowledge and expertise in the form of thematic playlists, it will also call upon its artists to curate playlists of their own favourite music and share on Apple Music.  Analekta will propose an initial selection of 17 playlists based on themes such as Classical Sunday Brunch, Weekend Music, Classical Music For Roadtrip and others focusing on the repertoire of some of its artists, such as Angèle Dubeau, Charles Richard-Hamelin and Alain Lefèvre.  New playlists based on moods and activities will be added throughout the year.  

    Analekta's president and founder, François Mario Labbé, said: "We are very happy to become an Apple Music Curator.  We have a rich catalogue and we will provide tasteful and inspired playlists, and an outstanding listening experience for those who enjoy classical music."

    Founded in 1987, Analekta was one of the pioneers in the classical music industry to invest on the digital platforms, including the development of a leading website which allowed consumers to listen to its complete music catalogue, as well as offering them the possibility to download files in MP3 and FLAC digital formats. Throughout the years, its recordings have received numerous national and international awards and Gold certifications for sales in Canada.  Analekta recently announced that the musical works from its catalogue have now been streamed 100 million times. VIEW Analekta's Itunes Profile

  • Pacific Conservatory Theatre kicks of 54th season with Freaky Friday / Santa Ynez Valley News
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} PCPA plans a 54th season of world-rocking plays and musicals from November 2017 through September 2018. PCPA's Artistic Director Mark Booher says, "We're thrilled to be bringing a season of plays that we trust will engage our audience in new ways, through stories of genuine transformation and electrifying discovery. This is our time to use great theatre to reflect, connect, and illuminate the path forward. As we all encounter the unprecedented trials and possibilities of modern life, we'll be presenting new-fashioned classics to ground us and sizzling new work to help us soar. We're counting on the Central Coast community to rise up with us." Launching the season November 9, and playing through December 23, in the Marian Theatre is the Disney musical Freaky Friday. When an overworked mother and her contrary teenage daughter magically swap bodies, they have just one day to put things right again before mom's big wedding.  In this hilarious modern day fairytale based on two Disney hit movies, a mother and daughter really see what it is to be a family and experience each other's lives first-hand, if only for a day.  Freaky Friday is a delightfully entertaining musical for anyone with a perfectly imperfect family. PCPA has announced its slate of plays and musicals for its 54th season, from November 2017 through September 2018. Four of the shows are getting runs at the Solvang Festival Theater. "We're thrilled to be bringing a season of plays that we trust will engage our audience in new ways, through stories of genuine transformation and electrifying discovery. This is our time to use great theater to reflect, connect, and illuminate the path forward. As we all encounter the unprecedented trials and possibilities of modern life, we'll be presenting new-fashioned classics to ground us and sizzling new work to help us soar," said PCPA Artistic Director Mark Booher. Launching the season Nov. 9 in the Marian Theatre is the Disney musical "Freaky Friday." When an overworked mother and her contrary teenage daughter magically swap bodies, they have just one day to put things right again before mom's big wedding. Based on two Disney movies, a mother and daughter really see what it is to be a family and experience each other's lives first-hand. READ THE FULL Santa Ynez Valley News ARTICLE

  • Silk Road Ensemble provides open workshop at Ft. Collins - Music District / Rocky Mountain Collegian
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    Members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble provided an open workshop at The Music District in Fort Collins on Tuesday. The musicians were cellist Mike Block, percussionist Shane Shanahan and flutist Kaoru Watanabe. The workshop was part of the Silk Road Ensemble's circuit in Colorado. The circuit began Monday at New Belgium with a screening of Yo-Yo Ma's documentary "The Music of Strangers" and will continue through the week with a performance on Friday at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park on Friday and a children's show at The Music District on Saturday. READ THE FULL Rocky Mountain Collegian ARTICLE   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

  • Edgar Meyer's Overture premier with JB & and the Academy opens Bravo! Vail's 30th season / Vail Daily News
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    Surprisingly, composer Edgar Meyer was not nervous. His new work, "Overture for Violin and Orchestra," was being played for the first time by Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on Thursday to the delight of a nearly packed house to start Bravo! Vail's 30th season. Meyer commented during intermission at Vail's opening night at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. "Well, I've been hearing it all week in rehearsal, so I just tried to enjoy it,"  after his piece premiered. "It's been a joy getting to know the Academy. I've known Josh for three decades, and it's been a joy." READ THE FULL Vail Daily News REVIEW

  • Andris Nelsons, Gewandhausorchester - Bruckner, Wagner is WFMT: Chicago - Featured New Release
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    Pairing Bruckner's Symphony No 3 with Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture, this album launches Deutsche Grammophon's new Bruckner Symphony cycle featuring Grammy-winning conductor Andris Nelsons and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. To highlight not only Wagner's influence on Bruckner, but also the differences between the two composers, selected works by Wagner will be included in each release in the cycle. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra led by Andris Nelsons: Bruckner & Wagner on Deutsche Grammophon is the WFMT: Chicago - Featured Track for Thursday June 22, 2017. Featured track is  - Wagner: Tannhäuser: Overture (15:11)   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

  • Rachel Barton Pine interviews with KDFC: State of the Arts
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    On the latest release from Rachel Barton Pine, Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, the violinist plays all of the 24 famed Paganini Caprices, plus a few other works by the virtuoso composer. She sees them as much more than just flashy examples of what the instrument is capable of, especially after deciding to play all the repeats that Paganini indicated. "All of these years, I've been striving to treat Paganini's music with just as much respect as any other serious composer," she says. "Not to treat his Caprices as mere fireworks, just showy pieces, but really to find the musicality in each one, and what its character is. If I were recording Beethoven or Schubert, or anybody else from the early 1800s, I would pay attention to what repeats they indicated. And Paganini is very specific, sometimes he wants repeats of the first and second half, sometimes only the first half… So he obviously meant it, it wasn't just there for convention's sake." Making that decision has helped her discover hidden depths to the Caprices. "It makes you learn things about them. Certain ones are longer, the proportions between them are different, and you know, the onus is on the performer, on me, to make sure that I can sustain the interest with doing certain repeats and hearing the music again, but the music is great enough that it really does sustain that."  Pine decided one way to help be faithful to the spirit of Paganini was to think of vocal lines. "I actually coached with an Italian opera coach because Paganini's music comes from the same time as Rossini and Verdi and all of those quys. And so I wanted to make sure that it had that flavor." Listen to Pine full interview with KDFC: San Francisco - State of the Arts host, Jeffrey Freymann    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica}

  • Stephen Edwards honors his mother Rosalie Edwards in radio day
     
    Posted At : June 22, 2017 12:00 AM

    Requiem For My Mother by acclaimed composer Stephen Edwards was a ground breaking event, staged in one of the most beautiful and sacred places in the world, the Basilica of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Rome. Featuring the 160-voice Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus, including their 60-member children's choir, and the 50 piece City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Candace Wicke, the 11-movement work commemorates Edwards mother, and her influence on him – both personally and professionally – from his first music lessons as a child to his career as a professional film score composer. "I wrote Requiem For My Mother as a remembrance for my mother, Rosalie Edwards, whose passion for music transformed my life and was my constant inspiration. I began the Requiem as a way of dealing with my deep sense of loss at my mother's death in 2006" Edwards said. Requiem earned high praise from acclaimed composer John Williams, who calls the work "heart-felt and honest," and "a touching tribute to a Mother from a loving son."   The audio recording / CD has been receving great airplay on radio stations throuout the US. In conjunction Edwards will be interviewing with outlets nationally and in local cities including - Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Lafayette IN, Interlochen MI and Richmond VA. Watch for our tweet-updates throughot the day.

Top 10 for Jun

  • Diana Krall :

    Turn Up The Quiet

     The multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning jazz pianist and world-renowned singer Diana Krall's highly anticipated new album Turn Up the Quiet will be released on May 5th by Verve Records.
  • Miles Mosley :

    UPRISING

     Mosley's debut solo album UPRISING features his genre-defying and otherworldly core six-piece band The West Coast Get Down collective, and is available on Verve digitally NOW.
  • Avi Avital | Omer Avital :

    Avital Meets Avital

     Two superb musicians of international stature – classically trained mandolin player Avi Avital and jazz bassist Omer Avital – have combined their creative energy and set out in search of their cultural roots on Avital Meets Avital, set for release on June 2 on Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Danny Elfman :

    Rabbit & Rogue

     Sony Classical announces the release of Rabbit & Rogue.
  • Olafur Arnalds :

    Broadchurch - The Final Chapter

     While avid US fans await the return of Broadchurch to BBC America this year, they can get a taste of the "bona fide national obsession" (Entertainment Weekly) in BAFTA-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds' brand new soundtrack for the third and final season, Broadchurch: The Final Chapter.
  • Yo-Yo Ma :

    Yo-Yo Ma plays Bach

     CBS/Sony Classical has been accompanying superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma for decades on his journey through the unsurpassed works written for his instrument by Johann Sebastian Bach.
  • #Bloomerangs :

    HORIZON SUNSET

     p.
  • Rachel Barton Pine :

    Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices

     On May 19th, Rachel Barton Pine releases Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin, a musical tightrope of works that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin.
  • Soundtracks :

    My Cousin Rachel

     Sony Classical proudly announces the release of My Cousin Rachel (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring music by Rael Jones.
  • Cast Albums :

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

     Masterworks Broadway releases the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory digitally on Friday, June 2, 2017 and on CD Friday, June 23, 2017.

Jonas Kaufmann - The Puccini Album / ClassicsToday

Posted: November 14, 2015 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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Jonas Kaufmann has been around now long enough for any glaring faults to have appeared and been criticized; the best we've been able to do is accuse him of crooning occasionally and lacking squillo on top notes. His preparation always seems to be diligent, his use of dynamics, though occasionally exaggerated, is both musical and in character, his phrasing is utterly idiomatic, and the tone handsome and healthy. The problem with a recital such as this, which includes arias from all of Puccini's operas (except, of course, Suor Angelica), is that we realize that tenor heroes are rarely the most three dimensional folks in any opera, and so a sameness sets in. But Kaufmann is too intelligent to just slide by, and this, with a few minor protests, shows him to be unique among today's tenors.

He is at his best in Puccini's more heroic music. As one might guess, his dark-hued tone is rich and full enough for grand statements. The Edgar and Villi excerpts, both beautiful arias, are in the exclamatory Verismo tradition of Giordano and Cilea, and Kaufmann is stunning in both. Luigi's aria from Il tabarro is similarly thrilling: it's a very hard, bitter sing that few tenors can cope with, but Kaufmann makes us hang on every word and every note. (He tries his best with Rinuccio's little aria, singing with great "face" and impeccable diction, and even keeping the vowels pure on the high B-flats, but he sounds as if he could beat the hell out of the whole Donati family, and if I were Schicchi I would keep him away from my daughter at all costs.

READ THE FULL ClassicsToday REVIEW

Crossover Media Projects with Jonas Kaufmann

  • 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.

  • Jonas Kaufmann

    Nessun dorma - The Puccini Album

    After years of singing Giacomo Puccini's heroes on stage to vast critical and audience ac­claim, Jonas Kaufmann finally records an album entirely devoted to the world's most-loved opera composer. His new album Nessun dorma will be released on Sony Classical on September 11th and will include a selection of the composer's stupendous tenor arias drawn from Puc­cini's greatest operas, including Turandot, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly and La fanciulla del West, amongst others. Spanning the breadth of Puccini's output from the early operas Le Villi and Edgar, the album culminates in the mighty aria "Nessun dorma" from his final opera Turandot. Jonas Kaufmann is joined on this album by Maestro Antonio Pappano, the Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and soprano Kristīne Opolais.

    41 NEW  55 Total
    SYND:     Classical 24, CBC
    Direct: Music Choice, MOOD
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Wash DC, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Portland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Austin, New Orleans, Honolulu, Canada
    Online: Taintradio

  • Jonas Kaufmann

    You Mean the World to Me

    Jonas Kaufmann has often sung standards such as "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz", "Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert" or "Du bist die Welt für mich" as encores. We need to only think of his Berlin Waldbühne concert with Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott in August 2011. That's when the idea arose for his new album titled You Mean the World to Me, on Sony Classical. It needed a solid concept: no bland arrangements, just the original sound. The huge field of light music between Offenbach and Abraham was narrowed down to the period between 1925 and 1935 – from the hits of Franz Lehár and Richard Tauber to the heyday of the movie song, from the Roaring Twenties to the expulsion and blacklisting of all the songwriters, lyricists and singers who effectively defined the genre.

    28 New 'ON'  95 TOTAL
    SYND:     PRI/Classical 24
    Direct: Music Choice, MOOD, Spafax
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Atlanta, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Detroit, Austin, Louisville, Columbus OH, Buffalo NY, Canada
    Online: Taintradio, ClassicallyHip

  • Jonas Kaufmann

    Schubert - Winterreise

    If he wanted to, Jonas Kaufmann could easily fill his calendar with Verdi and Wagner, Puccini and Massenet, but however much he loves opera, he cannot live without lieder. For the German tenor, interpreting the classical lieder repertory is "the haute école of singing." It demands far more detailed work than any other vocal discipline, more color, more nuances, a greater range of dynamics and a more subtle approach to the music and words. If there is an acid test for any lieder singer, it is undoubtedly Schubert's 'Winterreise' a cycle of twenty-four settings of poems by Wilhelm Müller that is generally regarded as the pinnacle of lieder singing, a sequence of songs as thrilling for listeners as it is for the performer.

    30 New 'ON'  49 TOTAL
    SYND:     PRI/Classical 24
    Direct:  Music Choice, MOOD
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Atlanta, Cleveland, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Portland, Pittsburgh, Denver, Detroit, Austin, New Orleans, Buffalo
     

  • Jonas Kaufmann

    The Verdi Album

    Sony Classical is pleased to welcome the internationally acclaimed tenor, Jonas Kaufmann to the label with his Sony debut recording The Verdi Album. Recorded in Auditorium Niccolò Paganini in Parma with Pier Giorgio Morandi conducting the Orchestra dell'Opera di Parma, this new album features thirteen highlights, eleven of which are firsts for Kaufmann: so far on stage he has sung only the tenor favorite "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto and the duet with the Marquis de Posa from Don Carlo. It was with Verdi that he made his international breakthrough in 2006, when he sang Alfredo Germont in La traviata at the Met. For Kaufmann the Verdi bicentenary in 2013 is inevitably dominated by performances of works by the great Italian opera composer, with three productions of Don Carlo (in London, Milan and Salzburg), two role débuts in Il trovatore and La forza del destino and his first album devoted to Verdi. 

    49 New 'ON' this week
    SYND: PRI/Classical 24
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice, MOOD
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Denver, Pittsburgh, Madison WI
    Online: RadioIO, WGOE