Stories » Jonas Kaufmann - The Puccini Album / ClassicsToday

Stories for September 19, 2017

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    The Blind Boys of Alabama continue to evolve on Almost Home / relix
     
    Posted At : September 19, 2017 10:29 AM

    To put things into perspective, when the Five Blind Boys of Alabama-the name under which they performed at the time-first recorded in 1948, most of the 1960s' future rock and R&B heroes were still wondering how their lives would change once they got into junior high. Nearly 70 years later, Blind Boys of Alabama-with surviving octogenarian co-founders Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter still involved-continue to evolve. Almost Home, divvies up the production four ways, with the tracks cut in four different cities. John Leventhal, who sat at the helm for the first three, collaborates on his segment with singer-songwriter Marc Cohn (Fountain and Carter, who still tours, each grab a co-credit). Interestingly, "God Knows Everything," a tune penned sans Blind Boys help, plays closest to the pure gospel vest. Later, Vance Powell and Charles Driebe utilize the songwriting talents of North Mississippi Allstars Cody and Luther Dickinson and Oteil Burbridge on the swampy "Pray for Peace," and Chris Goldsmith matches the group with Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," a song that you might feel needs a rest until you hear what these voices do with it. Finally, Los Lobos' Steve Berlin, keeps it rootsy, putting a Little Feat-esque backbeat on "I Can See," raving it up gospel-tent style on "I Kept on Walking" and closing it out in a grand way with massed vocals and plenty of jubilation on "I Was Called." Remarkably, given the pedigree, nothing about Almost Home feels retro-this is music that reaches across decades, belief systems and genres, its sole goal to spread some joy.

    SEE THE relix PAGE

  • Yusuf / Cat Stevens 'The Laughing Apple' stretches back to pre-Tillerman days / Consequence of Sound
     
    Posted At : September 19, 2017 12:00 AM

    The forward slash in Yusuf / Cat Stevens' billing says quite a lot about the folksinger's return to conventional Western recording and performing over the past decade. With each album, Yusuf seemed to have one paw scratching about the musical alleyways of ‘70s icon Cat Stevens while the other foot stood bare at the foot of a prayer mat, drawing inspiration from a different type of spiritual well. An Other Cup (2006), Roadsinger (2009), and Tell ‘Em I'm Gone (2014) often found him reaching back to repurpose old works, composing new songs about life's curious journey, and even employing Islamic theology in his songwriting – occasionally, the artist on either side of the slash appearing to be the odd man out. Now, with The Laughing Apple, that paw stretches even further back into the pre-Tillerman days, and yet never has the pilgrim and pop star sounded more in harmony. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} READ THE FULL Consequence of Sound REVIEW

  • Chris Brubeck's Triple Play to open 80th TEF season / Thomasville Times-Enterprise
     
    Posted At : September 17, 2017 12:00 AM

    Thomasville Entertainment Foundation opens its 80th season of great performances with an encore performance by Chris Brubeck's Triple Play on Thursday, September 21. The 7:30 p.m. concert takes place in the intimate 500-seat auditorium at the historic Thomasville Center for the Arts located in Thomasville. Music lovers are invited to take an epic sojourn with Chris Brubeck's Triple Play through the landscape of American music with a lively set list of Delta blues, New Orleans jams, Tin Pan Alley standards and original tunes. This acoustic blues/jazz/folk trio with vocals includes the talents of Chris Brubeck on bass, trombone and piano, guitarist Joel Brown and harmonica virtuoso Peter Madcat Ruth. READ THE FULL Thomasville Times-Enterprise p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

  • Sachal Ensemble set for music and film collaboration with SPAC / The Daily Gazette
     
    Posted At : September 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    In October, the film "Song of Lahore" and the groundbreaking musical group it documents, Sachal Ensemble, will come to the Capital Region in a collaboration between Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Proctors and Universal Preservation Hall. "Song of Lahore" will be screened at Proctors at 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, and at Bowtie Criterion Cinemas 11 & BTX, Saratoga Springs, on Sunday, Oct. 29. Sachal Ensemble will perform at Proctors - Schenectady at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28,  and the Spa Little Theatre, Saratoga Spa State Park, at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30. In 2014, when SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol held the same position at Universal Music Classics, watching "Song of Lahore," at a colleague's insistence, had a profound impact on her, she said. The film, by two-time Academy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken, tells the story of Sachal Ensemble - traditional musicians trying to survive under the oppression and brutality of modern-day Pakistan. "We were losing our instruments, losing our musicians, losing our culture - something had to be done about it," Sachal producer Izzat Majeed said. By the early 2000s, Majeed had convened a devoted group of surviving Lahore musicians to rehearse and record privately within his Sachal Studios - to revive their tradition, to keep it alive. "Lahore" illustrates how their expansive music-making - bridging pop and jazz with traditional sounds - not only brought inspiration to their lives, but sustained them in their struggles.  READ THE FULL Daily Gazette 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}

  • SpongeBob SquarePants, Original Cast Recording on NPR: First Listen
     
    Posted At : September 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    Not starting the SpongeBob SquarePants musical cast album with "Whoooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea?" is like not starting an Abe Lincoln musical with "Four score and seven years ago." Okay, maybe not that. Maybe it's more like not starting an Oscar Meyer musical with "my bologna has a first name." Instead, after a quick prologue, the SpongeBob album gets underway with "Bikini Bottom Day," written by Jonathan Coulton. (Disclaimer: Coulton works for NPR on Ask Me Another, and I know him well enough that we say "Oh, hey!") Like nearly all the songs in the show, which opens on Broadway in November after a successful run in Chicago, "Bikini Bottom Day" is a new song brought to the stage by an established artist. In addition to Coulton, composers include Sara Bareilles, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, T.I., Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, members of Plain White T's and Panic! At The Disco and The Flaming Lips and They Might Be Giants and a bunch more. And on top of all that original music, the show includes David Bowie and Brian Eno's "No Control." CHECK OUT NPR: First Listen PAGE

  • Star Wars film concert series set with New York Philharmonic / New York Times
     
    Posted At : September 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    "Star Wars" is omnivorous in its inspiration. The saga, which continues in December with "Episode VIII: The Last Jedi," nods to classical mythology, Arthurian legend and even Wagner's "Ring" cycle. John Williams's music for the series - which the New York Philharmonic will perform live, from Sept. 15 through Oct. 7, alongside screenings of the original trilogy and "Episode VII: The Force Awakens" - contain some of the most memorable themes in film history. And like the movies themselves, the score is rooted in the classics. That inspiration crosses centuries: Stravinsky, Mozart and, in one instance, a quotation from the Gregorian "Dies irae" chant used repeatedly by composers. Mr. Williams also associates  brief themes with certain characters and ideas, a strategy Wagner developed with the leitmotifs of the "Ring." "There are dozens of leitmotifs that are used in these films," David Newman, who will conduct the Philharmonic concerts, said in a recent interview. "You can definitely find references in there."
    PHOTO: Creditvia Everett Collection & Scott Myers/Lucasfilm READ THE FULL New York Times ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEOS 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}

  • Yusuf / Cat Stevens - The Laughing Apple / Los Angeles Times review
     
    Posted At : September 15, 2017 12:00 AM

    An inescapable sense of foreboding runs through "Blackness of the Night," the opening track from "The Laughing Apple," the new album by Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens. "In the blackness of the night I seem to wander endlessly, with a hope burning out deep inside," Yusuf sings in the same soft, gravelly baritone that helped make him one of pop music's biggest stars of the 1970s. "I'm a fugitive; community has driven me out/ For this bad, bad world, I'm beginning to doubt." 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} That's a far cry from such buoyant and exquisitely uplifting pop hits of yore as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow" and "Oh Very Young." "Blackness of the Night" is a prime example of the disillusionment of youth. "I wrote it in a way, in anger against the world, about what I thought were the injustices that were going on," said the artist. "The Laughing Apple," released today, Sept. 15. READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times 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}

Top 10 for Sep

  • Yusuf, Cat Stevens :

    The Laughing Apple

     Yusuf / Cat Stevens, one of the most influential singer-songwriters of all time, will release his highly anticipated new album, The Laughing Apple, on September 15 under his Cat-O-Log Records logo exclusively through Decca Records, the same label that launched his career 50 years ago.
  • Bill Charlap Trio :

    Uptown, Downtown

      "unforced erudition, untroubled locomotion, sparkling wit, generous soul.
  • Jane Ira Bloom :

    Wild Lines / Improvising Emily Dickinson

     American original Jane Ira Bloom does it again.
  • Brian Newman :

    Sunday In New York

     Brian Newman, singer, trumpeter and Verve recording artist is gearing up for the release of his first solo recording due out this fall with the launch of a four-city "after hours" club tour that kicks off in Chicago on August 25th.
  • Matt Haimovitz & Christopher O'Riley :

    TROIKA

     Acclaimed for their adventurous and wide-ranging recording projects – from Beethoven Sonatas on period instruments to genre-bending arrangements of Radiohead and Arcade Fire – the endlessly inventive duo of cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O'Riley returns to explore music of the Slavic soul.
  • Christina Pluhar | L'Arpeggiata :

    Handel Goes Wild

     George Frideric Handel now joins Purcell, Monteverdi and Cavalli on the list of composers who have inspired an album by Christina Pluhar and her ensemble L'Arpeggiata.
  • Joshua Bell :

    The Classical Collection

     Sony Classical announces the release of Joshua Bell – The Classical Collection, a 14-CD set of albums of classical repertoire that the internationally acclaimed, Grammy® Award winning violinist has recorded for the label over the past twenty years.
  • Vienna Philharmonic :

    Summer Night Concert 2017

     Summer Night Concert 2017: The Vienna Philharmonic with Christoph Eschenbach & Renée Fleming Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of this year's Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert Schönbrunn 2017, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach with soprano Renée Fleming as soloist.
  • Sharon Isbin | Isabel Leonard :

    Alma Espanola

     p.
  • Various :

    The Passion of Charlie Parker

     The Passion of Charlie Parker is a new album from producer Larry Klein that tells the story of Charlie Parker using his music as inspiration for new songs that narrate his life.

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