ADAGIO & ALLEGRO

The present CD comprises a selection from the popular miniatures of romantic cello literature. However, the concept of romanticism has been slightly extended to also include into this imaginary club Kodály's and Rachmaninov's lyrical pieces. The works are performed by the third-prize winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians 2014 Gergely Devich, accompanied by his mother Mária Kovalszki on piano.
Release date: 8th June 2015

PIANORCHESTRA

François-Xavier Poizat “A magician at the piano”

Trained within the Russian school by Alexeï Golovine in Geneva and Evgenij Koroliov in Hamburg, and now with Nelson Goerner, the pianist is described by Martha Argerich as “a very talented young pianist with a remarkable virtuosity and deep lyricism” and by Boris Berezovsky as “an excellent musician with high virtuosity”. Born in 1989, the French-Swiss pianist began his career at the age of 12 when the great Argentinian pianist invited him to Japan to play for the “Pacific Music Festival”.

My ARMENIA

“Komitas’s glory lay in his choral arrangements of folk songs, but is represented here by the two arrangements for violin and piano and seven for piano solo: each has a truthful simplicity and charm, suggesting voice and rudimentary accompaniment with bare octaves and skipping rhythms...The other pieces do at least reflect the excellence of Armenia’s conservatoire culture, as do Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan…The pleasure of their musicianship is this CD’s real selling point.” --BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2015

Dedicated to the 100th Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, My Armenia offers a very personal, touching and brilliant tribute to Armenian music by Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan. Sergey and Lusine are regular duo partners. Together, they have given recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Paris Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Madrid Auditori Nacional, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Brussels Bozar, Luxemburg Philharmonie and New York Carnegie Hall.

'My Armenia' offers a large and heartstretching overview of the finest Armenian composers, especially those who have successfully mixed Western Europe and folk influences, such as Komitas or Khachaturian.

MOTHERLAND

“soothing, intimate and reflective. Buntiashvili roduces the most ravishing, velvet-toned pianissimo, beautifully captured in Berlin's Jesus-Christus-Kirche. The trouble is that, after 20 minutes or so of ravishing, velvet-toned pianissimo, one begins to wonder if that is all this pianist is going to reveal of herself” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2014

“Behind the flowers, butterflies and soulful photos there lies some very classy piano-playing...Buntiashvili's playing is eloquent indeed: her voicing is expertly balanced in the opening Bach transcription and the Ravel Pavane, the phrasing sings wonderfully in the Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Scriabin...on the whole these are performances that get under your skin.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2014 ****

Khatia Buniatishvili (piano)

Following the success of her Chopin album on Sony Classical, Khatia Buniatishvili now reveals a new, highly personal side on her album ‘Motherland’.

The CD is an intimate quest encompassing solo piano works from Bach to Pärt and from Brahms to Kancheli, in which the themes of longing for home, the merriment of a folk dance and the eternal cycle of growth and decay are apparent.

Spanning a broad stylistic and historical range, the album celebrates the works that have accompanied Khatia Buniatschvili’s personal path in life, including pieces from her Georgian homeland.

Motherland juxtaposes the happy lightness of a ‘Slavonic Dance’ by Dvorak and the melancholy of Grieg’s lyrical ‘Homesickness’, and contrasts the elegant gaiety of Mendelssohn’s ‘Song without Words’ (op. 67/2) with the graceful introspection of Liszt’s ‘Lullaby’. Classics of the Romantic piano repertoire such as Chopin’s Étude in C-sharp minor (op. 25/7) and Brahms ‘Intermezzo’ (op. 117/2) are embedded between Bach’s cantata ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ and Arvo Pärt’s musical dedication ‘For Alina’.

Khatia Buniatishvili has been described by The Independent as “the young Georgian firebrand”. At the age of only 26 years, this Tblisi-born pianist has already achieved an exceptional maturity of interpretation and a distinctive artistic approach that make her playing unmistakable.

Khatia’s warm, sometimes sorrowful playing may reflect a close proximity to Georgian folk-music, which, she attests, has greatly influenced her musicality. Critics emphasize that her playing has an aura of elegant solitude and even melancholy, which she does not feel to be a negative attribute. “The piano is the blackest instrument,” she says, a “symbol of musical solitude… I have to be psychologically strong and forget the hall if I want to share it with the audience.” Khatia Buniatishvili speaks five languages and lives in Paris.

The Virtuoso CLARINET, Volume 2

"... This warmly recorded recital continues the good work established by Collins in the earlier volume." --MusicWeb-International.com, June 2014

“Michael Collins and his pianist Michael McHale present us with a programme of pieces all expertly written for the clarinet, and very entertaining too… This CD has been planned with great care, taking the listener from one enticing piece to the next in sheer delight.” --Gramophone magazine, April 2014 

↪ Volume 1

Michael Collins (clarinet) & Michael McHale (piano)

Chandos exclusive artist Michael Collins here presents the second volume in his series designed to display the extraordinarily wide range of music written for the clarinet. Volume 1 was BBC Music Magazine Editor’s Choice and received IRR Outstanding from International Record Review, which stated: ‘It is difficult to imagine a finer performance than is given here.’

Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie was written as a test piece for the Paris Conservatoire and contrasts long lyrical lines with capricious acrobatics for the clarinet, being described by the composer as ‘hovering between reverie and scherzo’.

Pieces by Rabaud and Widor, also written for the Paris Conservatoire, test the abilities of the player with their exuberant displays of virtuosity. A jazz influence is present in other works on the release. The Clarinet Sonata which Bernstein wrote at the start of his career is a vivid testimony to his early promise and his fascination with jazz. Milhaud’s Duo concertant and Martinů’s Sonatina were composed in 1956 and demonstrate a diversity of influence, both combining folk and jazz elements. Each of the four Time Pieces by Muczynski highlights some specific characteristic of the clarinet in terms of range, technical prowess, tone colour, and expressiveness.

"... it is impossible not to admire his dextrous skill, musicality and joie de vivre. In all, this is a very well-constructed and pleasurable album." --International Record Review, April 2014

French and English LUTE Music

Though variant tunings having already appeared during the first years of the sixteenth century, the first part of the seventeenth century saw a great number of tunings emerge, the most successful being those occurring in Pierre Ballard’s 1631 and 1638 publications of Tablatures de Luth de Differents Autheurs sur les Accords Nouveaux. Three out of these four accords nouveaux produce a superb resonance, but all share the disadvantage of being restricted to certain keys, modulation being often accompanied by a distinct deterioration in tone quality. 

It was no doubt this factor which contributed to their decline in popularity and the subsequent acceptance of the fourth one, the d minor tuning, which was less susceptible to this problem and remained the standard lute tuning until the instrument’s demise in the late eighteenth century.

The accords nouveaux gained widespread acceptance and inspired players to produce some of the most sublime music ever created for the lute – some of which can be heard on this recording, played by the great English lutenist Anthony Bailes.

ANTHONY BAILES first studied guitar, through which he developed a love of lute music. A chance meeting with Diana Poulton resulted in buying a lute and studying with her. In 1971 he was awarded a grant by the Arts Council of Great Britain to further his studies with Eugen Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.
Since completing his studies he has toured Europe playing at most major festivals. Of his various recordings, several are considered »milestones« and his interpretations of seventeenth century French and German music are particularly esteemed and have been awarded several prizes. Besides performing and teaching, Anthony Bailes has published music editions and monographs on the lute and its music.

The Virtuoso OPHICLEIDE

Following the two volumes of the Guide des Instruments, RICERCAR goes further into the knowledge of several instruments and their specific repertoire. It was in 1817 that the instrument maker Halary invented this instrument whose low register prefigures the tuba.

Integrated into the orchestra by Berlioz, the ophicleide was also used in church to accompany the plainchant and quite present in military bands. But it also benefitted from a solo repertoire in the concerto genre as well as in chamber music. Patrick Wibart impresses with his total mastery of the instrument and the flexibility of his playing. To be discovered imperatively. --Release date: 4th Dec 2015

The ART of Imagination

Works for Flute & Harp from Great Britain & Germany by Bax, Hilse, Doppler/Zamara, Scott

The program of this CD is a compilation of select compositions for flute and harp from the English and German-speaking worlds, the composers of which deliberately explored the pictorial nature of music. Every single one of them has his own pictorial musical language, corresponding to his temporal context and his life’s story. This CD presents a colorful bouquet of emotions with works that were consciously or unconsciously inspired by poetry, theater and the opera. 

Fantasy is the creative ability of man making the creation of inner images and thus of an “inner world” possible. It is the human senses that stimulate our fantasy, and hearing is one of the ?rst senses that develop in the womb. Hearing and listening does not only mean understanding consecutive words and their meaning, but moreover grasping the emotions of what is being said that are expressed through the articulation and the intonation.

The same thing happens when we listen to music. Since its beginnings, music has often been closely connected to dance, theater and poetry, and makes it possible to “paint” reality outside of music, i.e. nature or human emotions. The fact that these are not real pictures from the area of art, but images that originate solely in our fantasy and our subconscious even increases the stimulation of our imaginative and emoti nal lives. The reason for this is that the listener’s fantasy is not bound but rather only stimulated in a certain way and is able to unfold freely.

IN CONCERT

On the past few years harpist Lavinia Meijer and bandoneón player Carel Kraayenhof have met several times on festivals and concerts. On the stairs of the artist café at Carré Amsterdam the idea popped out: ‘Let’s sit together, play a bit and see if we can come up with a concert repertoire.’ The concerts that quickly followed that idea were a great success and most of them sold out. Thus the idea of recording a live album together. “In Concert”, was recorded on the 7th and 9th of September of 2015 at Tivoli Vredenburg (NL).

The choice for a live recording was certain one. Both musicians were filled with the warmth of the audience. Those moments can only be registered with a live recording. In one of the songs a mistake was made. This “mistake” sounds actually better than the notes which were on the paper, so we decided to keep it, and it sounds like it was meant to be.

The repertoire consists of milongas, tangos and other beautiful Argentinean, Spanish and Italian compositions from Piazzolla, Bacalov and Morriconne (among others) and three compositions from Carel Kraayenhof himself; one of them is the tribute to his three legged cat ‘Witneus’. Lavinia Meijer makes debut as composer with het tribute to her niece, who was borne last year, Hello Stranger.

In total the album consists of 15 compositions, one of which is an impressive interpretation of Piazzolla’s three piece Historie du Tango. The already warm sounds from the harp and the bandoneón complete and strengthen each other in this beautiful, passionate repertoire. Kraayenhof and Meijer have made special arrangements to pretty much every piece because for this unique combination of instruments there are no already written compositions.

The photos for the album were taken by ‘Zilveren Camera’ winner, Peter van Breukelen. The author Abdelkader Benali wrote a poetic story line about music, longing and coming home.

Tracklisting Lavinia Meijer & Carel Kraaijenhof – In Concert:

1. Il postino – Bacalov
2. Andaluza – Albeniz
3. So many partings – Kraayenhof
4. Lo que vendrá – Piazzolla
5. Desconcierto – Kraayenhof
6. Palomita blanca – Aieta
7. Milonga – Cardoso
8. Histoire du Tango : Burdel 1900 – Piazzolla
9. Histoire du Tango : Café 1930 – Piazzolla
10. Histoire du Tango : Nightclub 1960 – Piazzolla
11. Hello Stranger – Meijer
12. Ñata blanca – Kraayenhof
13. La puñalada – Castellanos
14. Playing love – Morricone
15. Taquito militar – Mores

HOROWITZ Return to Chicago

Vladimir Horowitz. Even more than twenty-five years after his death, his name still conjures up magical imagery. An artist of extraordinary pianistic abilities, Horowitz came to define an era, when performing artists put their personal stamp on everything they did. And Horowitz did it like no one else, before or since.

This CD set is taken from one of those concerts, a recital from Orchestra Hall, Chicago, on October 26, 1986. Here we hear him in his element, before a live audience. We may not be able to attend a Horowitz recital anymore, but this is the next best thing – with a little imagination, we can become part of the audience ourselves, and it’s just thrilling.

Horowitz performed in Chicago thirty-seven times in all, including twenty-seven solo recitals, starting in the year 1928. He was very popular there, and that popularity caused him to give repeat performances four times in the 1960s and 1970s, in order to reach as many patrons as possible. By 1986, he’d come up with perhaps a better plan: a concert that would be broadcast, as a gift to the city of Chicago. This concert marks the final time Horowitz played in Chicago.

JOURNEY East

Nemanja Radulović represents a boldly innovative young generation of classical artists – profoundly gifted and possessing enormous stage presence, he is constantly seeking new ways to communicate his fiery and innately musical performances to an ever-wider audience.

“While there is no denying Radulović's phenomenal skill and flair, listened to in one session, the constant lurching between accompaniments, composers and styles ultimately becomes wearisome...Heard on piece at a time, the sheer intensity of it all is deeply affecting, even overwhelming on occasion.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2015 ****

For his international debut album on the Yellow Label, the brilliant young violinist Nemanja Radulović proposes a journey throughout the musical traditions of Eastern Europe. The selection contains all-time favorites, both classical and popular, from Eastern Europe, ranging from core classical pieces to traditional folk melodies to film music – among them Brahms’ Hungarian Dance, Dvořák’s Songs my mother taught me and William’s music from the film Schindler’s list.

Nemanja Radulović represents a boldly innovative young generation of classical artists – profoundly gifted and possessing enormous stage presence, he is constantly seeking new ways to communicate his fiery and innately musical performances to an ever-wider audience. He launched his international career in 2006 when he stood in for Maxim Vengerov at Paris’s Salle Pleyel, playing the Beethoven concerto to great acclaim with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Myung-Whun Chung.

The album is produced by the hugely successful French composer-producer Yvan Cassar – known for his work with platinum-selling artists such as Roberto Alagna.

NOCTURNES

Pianist Natasha Kudritskaya revisits with talent the French Nocturnes. Includes music by Debussy, Satie, Fauré, Decaux and Ravel.

Extreme expression and total control: that magical mix characterizes the musical personality of Natacha Kudritskaya. Out of a boundless curiosity this Ukrainian pianist explores the possibilities of the grand piano in new and early music.
Release date: 6th Nov 2015

HIGHLIGHTS Glenn Gould

In 1956 Glenn Gould’s first Columbia Masterworks release, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, took the music world by storm and immediately established the 23-year-old Canadian pianist as one of the most brilliant, original, charismatic and provocative classical performers of his time. Sixty years later, Gould’s prolific recorded output remains a stimulating presence, thanks to Sony Classical’s newly remastered collection of his complete authorized recordings in an 81-CD limited edition. The Sound of Glenn Gould presents highlights from this definitive presentation of the legendary pianist’s discography. Release date: 11th Sept 2015

LOVE'S Dreams

The most important composers of keyboard music are represented, including Felix Mendelssohn,  Franz Schubert,  Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Modest Mussorgsky and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. An even greater number of performers are presented, such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Evgeny Kissin,  Emil Gilels, Mikhail Pletnev, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and other important pianists.