Stories » In celebration of his 80th brithday, Leon Fleisher releases '6 Digital Recordings'

Stories for August 17, 2019

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    Bion Tsang's new Dvorak And Enescu Cello Concertos with RSNO are chock-full of drama, emotion and power / Wisconsin Public Radio
     
    Posted At : August 16, 2019 12:00 AM

    Bion Tsang was born in America to Chinese parents, and after debuting with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic at age 11, studied at Juilliard, Harvard and Yale. He's a recording artist and professor of cello at the University of Texas-Austin. Tsang's newest release is on the Sony Classical label, and it contains two major works: the "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in b minor, op. 104," by Antonín Dvořák, and the "Symphonie Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, op. 8" by George Enescu. Both pieces are chock-full of drama, emotion and power and there are myriad opportunities for Tsang to display his technical virtuosity. There are lovely lyrical passages as well, full of beauty and subtlety. Tsang handles them all with depth, skill and ample musicality. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Scott Yoo is crisp and clean with a terrific sense of ensemble. Their playing is sensitive and nuanced, providing an equal partnership for the drama unfolding in both pieces. "Each of these concertos takes the listener on an epic journey," says Tsang. "They are both gloriously lush and dramatic in their orchestration, and the cello sings above this backdrop with intense emotion. In both pieces, I feel there are distinct depictions of longing, searching, struggle, and finally triumph." SEE THE Wisconsin Public Radio PAGE

  • Harry Connick, Jr. 'Just One Of Those Things' is Play MPE #1 Jazz download & stream
     
    Posted At : August 16, 2019 12:00 AM

    After 30 million albums sold worldwide, 13 No. 1 jazz albums in the United States, and a music, film, television and Broadway career spanning three decades, the Grammy® and Emmy® winning and Tony nominated musician and actor, Harry Connick, Jr. returns with a sensational new record, True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter on the legendary Verve Record label. The first single "Just One Of Those Things' has just been released and goes #1 on both Play MPE's 'Jazz downloads & Jazz streams'  charts.

  • The Carr-Petrova Duo #50Days4Refugees releases 'The Bongo King'
     
    Posted At : August 16, 2019 12:00 AM

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} The Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, created and directed by the Carr-Petrova Duo, is a project designed to give voice and visibility, through music and film, to the lives and struggles of both local and international refugee communities, and to encourage audiences and artists alike to become connected and involved. Since August 2018, it has brought free, interactive classical music concerts and workshops to displaced populations while increasing awareness of and raising support for both U.S.-based and international refugee-aid programs.  From August 12th to October 1st, 2019, The Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, and the Carr-Petrova Duo are launching #50Days4Refugees - a social media campaign which walks through our past year of travels with the Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project from start to finish. We are releasing a single story/image/clip a day in order to give our followers the chance to virtually travel with us, meeting and engaging with the people, places, life-stories, cultures, music, and organizations we encountered along the way. Follow us daily as we share our journey and highlight the activities, strengths, and specific needs of the organizations we partnered with - along with what we learned about ways anyone anywhere can get involved.  Day 5: "The Bongo King"  Please meet one of the most enthusiastic participants of our musical workshops over this past year of #NovelVoices Refugee Aid Project travels: Mohammad from Kuwait. Mohammad lives in the Jelling Refugee Camp in Denmark and happens to have one of the cutest and sweetest smiles any of us had ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Mohammad has a very open, uplifting, and welcoming spirit - with an eternally curious mind that is ready at any moment to stir up a little mischief. During every activity we offered - Mohammad would be the FIRST to volunteer - ESPECIALLY when it came to playing the bongo (or foosball).  :) 

  • Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra shifting gears after 20 years with new music director / KABC-Yahoo
     
    Posted At : August 15, 2019 12:00 AM

    The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is shifting gears after 20 years, with Music Director Designate Jaime Martín, who's excited about ushering in a new era this September as LACO's sixth-ever Music Director. The LACO, ranked among the world's top musical ensembles, marks an exciting new era as Martín builds upon the orchestra's rich legacy as a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO is "more important with each passing year," (Los Angeles Times), "America's finest chamber orchestra" (Public Radio International) and "one of the world's great chamber orchestras" (KUSC Classical FM). Martín's appearance as LACO's Music Director Designate in early 2019 was described by the Los Angeles Times, as "a thrilling performance, and the orchestra played like it was having the time of its life," adding, "he will make fans very quickly." Overseas, he has been praised as "a visionary conductor, discerning and meticulous" (Platea Magazine), and London's The Telegraph said, "his infectious enjoyment of the music communicated to the orchestra and audience alike." WATCH THE KABC-Yahoo VIDEO p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}

  • The Carr-Petrova Duo #50Days4Refugees releases 'Nightmares'
     
    Posted At : August 15, 2019 12:00 AM

    The Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, created and directed by the Carr-Petrova Duo, is a project designed to give voice and visibility, through music and film, to the lives and struggles of both local and international refugee communities, and to encourage audiences and artists alike to become connected and involved. Since August 2018, it has brought free, interactive classical music concerts and workshops to displaced populations while increasing awareness of and raising support for both U.S.-based and international refugee-aid programs.  From August 12th to October 1st, 2019, The Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, and the Carr-Petrova Duo are launching #50Days4Refugees - a social media campaign which walks through our past year of travels with the Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project from start to finish. We are releasing a single story/image/clip a day in order to give our followers the chance to virtually travel with us, meeting and engaging with the people, places, life-stories, cultures, music, and organizations we encountered along the way. Follow us daily as we share our journey and highlight the activities, strengths, and specific needs of the organizations we partnered with - along with what we learned about ways anyone anywhere can get involved.  Day 4: Nightmares While combing through the footage we collected over the past year, we came upon this moment in an interview with our friend Mohammad from Kuwait. In this clip, our film-maker asks Mohammad three questions during his on-camera interviews: What do you miss from Kuwait? What do you like about Denmark? What are three things you dislike in the world?   His responses - though told innocently and through a nonchalant smile, left us with much to ponder. As we played this footage back, we realized that, without fail, each time our film-maker returned to her third question, Mohammad would respond quickly with his first two answers of, "rain, pork" - but no matter how many times she asked, he would always pause and for a split second struggle before his final word, ".....nightmares."

  • Camerata Chicago MD Drostan Hall speaks with classical radio about the poetics of Vivaldi's Four Seasons
     
    Posted At : August 15, 2019 12:00 AM

    Camerata Chicago is thrilled to release its new recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons Educational Double Disc CD, through its in-house record label DMD Classics. Featuring Amelia Piscitelli, violin, Steve Robinson, narrator, and led by Drostan Hall, conductor, Camerata Chicago presents this fabulous double CD set replete with poetry written by Vivaldi himself and incorporates more than twenty musical examples of seasonal elements and characters cleverly depicted in the music  In conjunction with the release, maestro Drostan Hall has made himself available to classical radio TODAY!!! Thursday August 15, to discuss the recording. Watch for our tweets throughout the day. 

  • Itzhak Perlman will pick up a violin and a baton at Ravinia / Chicago Tribune
     
    Posted At : August 14, 2019 12:00 AM

    Violinist Itzhak Perlman will launch a two-night residency Friday evening at the Ravinia Festival, where he will perform as soloist and conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Perlman has been a consummate virtuoso and superb interpreter of the standard repertory for more than half a century, and he seems incapable of wearing out his welcome. So even though he played Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra last November – to celebrate the opening of the university's multi-faceted Holtschneider Performance Center – it's easy to look forward to hearing him perform it again on Saturday evening. For starters, he'll be accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on a program that also will include Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and Wojciech Kilar's "Orawa." Perlman performs Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and conducts the CSO's "Tchaikovsky Spectacular" at 5 p.m. Sunday; at the Ravinia Festival, Lake Cook and Green Bay Roads, Highland Park.
    PHOTO: (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) READ THE FULL Chicago Tribune ARTICLE

Top 10 for Aug

  • Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kahane-Batjer :

    Jalbert, Bach, Part & Vasks

     Making their first appearance on BIS, Margaret Batjer and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) cross great  distances in both time and space in this programme of  concertante violin works.
  • Jon Batiste :

    Anatomy of Angels

     In the fall of 2018, pianist and bandleader Jon Batiste played a six-night residency at the historic Village Vanguard in downtown New York City.
  • Philip Bailey :

    Love Will Find A Way

     Philip Bailey, the legendary falsetto voice, Grammy Award winner and co-founder of Earth, Wind & Fire announces his upcoming solo album Love Will Find A Way via Verve Records on June 21 with the release of the first single "Billy Jack," which he co-produced with Robert Glasper.
  • Nicola Benedetti :

    Marsalis -Violin Concerto in D, Fiddle Dance Suite

     Nicola Benedetti's new album on Decca Classics features premiere recordings of two works written especially for her by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin.
  • Carr-Petrova Duo :

    Novel Voices

     The Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, created and directed by the Carr-Petrova Duo, is a project designed to give voice and visibility, through music and film, to the lives and struggles of both local and international refugee communities, and to encourage audiences and artists alike to become connected and involved.
  • elbow :

    Dexter & Sinister

     British rock band elbow return with ‘Dexter & Sinister' - an exact seven minutes of new music, an epic melding of ominous, creeping grooves and deity denying lyrics that bursts into a sweeping second phase of lament and redemption.
  • Cast Albums :

    Oklahoma

     In 1943, Decca Broadway released the first-ever cast album of all time.
  • Cast Albums :

    Tootsie

     In 1943, Decca Broadway released the first-ever cast album of all time.
  • Laurence Hobgood :

    t e s s e t e r r a

     The Laurence Hobgood Trio with string quartet ETHEL "Two impressive things stand out: how enormous his arrangements make the string quartet sound, and how fluidly these seven musicians blend together.
  • Chloe Flower :

    Get What U Get

     After sending shockwaves through the socialsphere following her electrifying performance alongside Cardi B at the 2019 Grammy Awards, high-energy performance pianist Chloe Flower releases her first-ever original single on Sony Music Masterworks.

In celebration of his 80th brithday, Leon Fleisher releases '6 Digital Recordings'

Posted: August 3, 2008 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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The Six Full-Length Releases Include Fleisher's readings of Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Mozart, Liszt, Copland and Brahms.
 
In honor of pianist Leon Fleisher's 80th birthday on July 23rd, Sony Classical will release for the first time in digital format six full-length recordings, made between 1954 and 1963 that have only been previously available complete on LP. These recordings document Fleisher's extraordinary artistry in the solo and chamber repertoire before a neurological affliction known as focal dystonia rendered two fingers of his right hand immobile in 1965.
 
The six recordings are:  
Schubert: Sonata  in B-Flat Major, D.960 / Lendler – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release  1956)   

Debussy: Suite  bergamasque / Ravel: Sonatine / Valses nobles et sentimentales / Alborado  del gracioso – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release  1959) 

Mozart: Sonata in C Major, K.330 / Sonata in E-Flat Major, K.282 / Rondo in D Major, K. 485 – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release 1960)

Liszt: Sonata in  B Minor / Weber: Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 70 / Invitation to the Dance,  Op. 65 – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release  1960)   

Copland: Piano  Sonata / Sessions: From My Diary / Kirchner: Piano Sonata /  Rorem:  Three Barcarolles – Leon Fleisher, piano (original LP release  1963)

Brahms: Quintet  for Piano and Strings in F Minor, Op. 34 – Leon Fleisher, piano / Juilliard  String Quartet (original LP release 1963) 
 
The re-releases are available from iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Zune and other major digital outlets.  iTunes is the only digital vendor to carry the original liner notes by Konrad Wolff and Charles Burr.  Physical CDs, complete with each album's original cover art and liner notes, are only available through ArkivMusic.
 
Fleisher has also recorded an exclusive series of podcasts for Sony BMG Masterworks, available on iTunes. His conversation is appealing, relaxed and sincere, as he recounts his early successes and stumbling blocks, most significantly his battle with focal dystonia. He explains his art beautifully but also brings a refreshingly human element to his often-funny interactions with some of the most formidable artists of the 20th century, including Artur Schnabel, George Szell and Leonard Bernstein.  

To hear these podcasts go to http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/podcast/
 
Leon Fleisher is among the most revered pianists of his generation. His grace, intelligence, and wide-ranging musical imagination are the hallmark of a storied career that spans over sixty years and encompasses Fleisher's pursuits as a pianist, conductor, and teacher.  All of these qualities are in ample evidence on these six releases. 
 
Born in 1928, Fleisher led what seemed a charmed musical life. As a nine-year-old, he began studies with the legendary Artur Schnabel before making a sensational debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 16 in 1944. Hailed by conductor Pierre Monteux as the "pianistic find of the century" at the time, he went on to become the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth International competition in Belgium in 1952. He made many recordings, foremost among them his concerto recordings with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, before his career as an international star was cut short in 1965. For the next thirty years, he threw himself avidly into a career as a teacher and conductor with Peabody Conservatory, the Tanglewood Music Center, and Baltimore Symphony, among others.
 
Recently, following new forms of treatment and therapy, Fleisher has miraculously resumed his performance of two-hand literature. The extraordinary renaissance of Fleisher's career has been documented in his first two-hand recording in some forty years, the critically acclaimed Two Hands.  The recordings in this re-release, which were once thought to be the final word on Fleisher's pianism, now stand as a distinguished bookend to an ongoing career, an invaluable marker on his timeline as an artist of the highest distinction. As Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman of the Kennedy Center Honors, said of Fleisher, who was a 2007 honoree, he remains "a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament to the life-affirming power of art."

Crossover Media Projects with Leon Fleisher

  • Leon Fleisher

    Mozart Piano Concertos

    A fixture on the American music scene for more than six decades, pianist Leon Fleisher releases Mozart's Piano Concertos No. 12 in A Major, K. 414; No. 7 in F Major for two pianos, K. 242; and No. 23 in A Major, K. 488. Fleisher plays alongside the Kammerorchester Stuttgart, a distinguished ensemble that has made something of a specialty of the Viennese Classicists, and is joined by wife Katherine Jacobson-Fleisher, in Piano Concerto No. 7 for two pianos.

    Praised in his early career for his poetic yet vigorous performances of works by the Viennese masters, this is Fleisher's first two-hand concerto recording in over 40 years. The pianist naturally devoted his new disc of two-hand concertos to the music of Mozart, following his miraculous recovery from a neurological impairment of his right hand.

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