Mostrando postagens com marcador Classical. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Classical. Mostrar todas as postagens
24.8.20
22.8.20
21.8.20
MARTINU • KODÁLY • DOHNÁNYI • JOACHIM • ENESCU : Music for Viola and Piano (Bradley-Hewitt) (2011) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
From the end of the 19th century and onward, the frequency with which prominent composers were found writing for the viola increased dramatically. This phenomenon was seen around the world as the instrument's deep, resonate sound fell more into favor and virtuosos became more commonplace. This Naxos album focuses on viola works to emerge from Hungary. From this country, composers often fell into two camps. The first were those who adopted the popular late-Romantic, German idiom; here, this is represented by the Joachim Op. 9 Hebrew Melodies and the Dohnányi Op. 21 Sonata in an arrangement by performer Sarah-Jane Bradley. (Dohnányi himself had played an arrangement of the piece with violist Lionel Tertis). Countering these highly lyrical compositions are those from composers who sought to develop a more nationalistic musical idiom and include the Martinu Sonata, H. 355, the Kodály Adagio, and the Enescu Concertstück. Bradley's program is not only well thought out and diverse, but demonstrates the viola's abilities both as a virtuosic instrument and one capable of delivering beautiful melodic lines. Joined by pianist Anthony Hewitt, Bradley's performances are admirable in many respects. Her playing is very calm and restrained; there are no moments when listeners are left gasping for air as the violist strains for large shifts or to make it to the end of difficult passagework. Her intonation is generally solid, her tone is warm and even across the range of her instrument. On the downside, her sound is not exceptionally big. Hewitt's playing is quite accommodating in this respect so the piano never actually obscures Bradley's playing, but there is a notable lack of any big, forte sound, or a wide dynamic range. by Mike D. Brownell 
DUTILLEUX, LUTOSLAWSKI : Works for Cello & Orchestra (Poltéra-Van Steen) (2008) SACD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
On this CD, Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra tackles the complete cello works by two of the leading independent-minded European modernists of the mid- to late-twentieth century, Henri Dutilleux and Witold Lutoslawski. Each of the works was written at the instigation of Mstislav Rostropovich, a concerto from each composer, both of which he premiered in 1970, and a solo cello tribute from each, written in 1975 in honor of the Swiss conductor and new music advocate, Paul Sacher. Dutilleux took the title of his concerto, Toute un monde lointain… (A Whole Distant World…), as well as the names of the movements, from the poetry of Baudelaire, the mystery and sensuality of whose writing is reflected in the music. While it has the harmonic sophistication characteristic of postwar European music, Dutilleux's five-movement concerto clearly falls in the lineage of Debussy in its evocative delicacy, essentially lyrical character, and gossamer but colorful orchestration. Lutoslawski's concerto, while idiomatically not too far from Dutilleux's, is more aggressive and emphatic, with a more traditionally competitive relationship between the soloist and the orchestra. These concertos are canonical cello works of the late twentieth century, but the solo pieces are also attractive and idiomatically written, and deserve to be better known. Poltéra delivers committed, virtuosic performances, but he doesn't quite have the radiant tone to make the Dutilleux shimmer and glisten as it can. The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Jac van Steen, is likewise more persuasive in the more formally and timbrally straightforward Lutoslawski concerto. The sound of BIS' SACD is clean, detailed, and vivid, but particularly in the Dutilleux, it could benefit from more warmth. by Stephen Eddins
Tracklist:
Toute un monde lointain, for cello and orchestra
Henri Dutilleux
Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher, for cello solo
Henri Dutilleux
Concerto for cello and orchestra
Witold Lutosławski
Credits:
Maighread McCrann - Orchestra Leader
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Christian Poltéra - Cello
Jac van Steen - Conductor
20.8.20
JOSEPH RHEINBERGER : Complete Piano Trios (Trio Parnassus) (1992) 2CD / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
This two-hour double-disc set of Joseph Rheinberger's complete piano trios is a hefty contribution to the rehabilitation of the composer's oeuvre, though it may be more than the average listener can appreciate in one sitting. Rheinberger's music is earnest and perhaps too heavy for some tastes, and it may even seem too stodgy and dryly theoretical. In his mature Romantic style, his reliance on Classical form, and his pensive expression, Rheinberger often resembles Brahms, though it must be said that he lacks Brahms' rhythmic ingenuity, contrapuntal dexterity, and emotional depth. The resemblances between them are really superficial, and listeners may find these four piano trios lackluster and frustratingly dull in comparison with Brahms' three certified masterpieces. Added to this set's problems are the foggy and overly lush playing by Trio Parnassus, and MDG's indistinct and excessively resonant sound quality. If violinist Wolf-Dieter Streicher, cellist Michael Gross, and pianist Chia Chou had played these pieces with more flexibility of tone and sharper characterizations, and if the label had recorded them in a hall with a dry acoustic, the results might have been palatable. Alas, getting through these murky recordings is a hard slog, and they are only recommended for the most serious-minded of Rheinberger's devotees. by Blair Sanderson Tracklist 1 :
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 34
Piano Trio No. 2 in A major, Op. 112
Tracklist 2 :
Piano Trio No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 121
Piano Trio No. 4 in F major, Op. 191
19.8.20
PÉTERIS VASKS : Piano Trio; Piano Quartet (Trio Parnassus) (2008) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
At the climaxes of both these chamber works by Latvian composer Péteris Vasks are love songs. The eight-movement piano trio called Episodi e Canto perpetuo from 1985 reaches its peak with the achingly beautiful Canto perpetuo while the six-movement Quartet for piano from 2000-2001 achieves its apogee in the searingly effective Canto principale. Vasks harmonic language is fundamentally tonal, though with some fairly fearsome dissonances, and his sensibility is resolutely post-modernist, though shot through with a neo-romantic expressivity. Performed here with insight and strength by the Trio Parnassus, Vasks works hard to be understood by his listeners, and though his expressive range is wide and deep, the Parnassus players get it all to make musical and dramatic sense. Recorded in transparent yet palpable digital sound by Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, this disc deserves to be heard by fans of the composer and by listeners who like contemporary music of the not especially fearsome variety. by James Leonard
DUO JATEKOK - Les Boys (2015) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
Tracklist: Three Pieces for Two Pianos
1 I. Passacaille 2:37
Baptiste Trotignon
2 II. Élégie 3:36
Baptiste Trotignon
3 III. Moteur 3:22
Baptiste Trotignon
Sonata for Two Pianos, FP 156
4 I. Prologue. Extrêmement Lent et Calme 6:34
Francis Poulenc
5 II. Allegro Molto. Très Rythmé 5:22
Francis Poulenc
6 III. Andante Lyrico. Lentement 6:01
Francis Poulenc
7 IV. Épilogue. Allegro Giocoso 5:04
Francis Poulenc
8 Élégie for Two Pianos, FP 175 6:01
Francis Poulenc
Points on Jazz for Two Pianos
9 I. Prélude 3:55
Dave Brubeck
10 II. Scherzo 1:53
Dave Brubeck
11 III. Blues 5:07
Dave Brubeck
12 IV. Fugue 2:42
Dave Brubeck
13 VI. Rag 2:18
Dave Brubeck
14 VII. Chorale 2:23
Dave Brubeck
15 VIII. Waltz 2:21
Dave Brubeck
16 IX. A la Turk 5:57
Dave Brubeck
Duo Jatekok :
Piano – Adélaïde Panaget, Naïri Badal
JACQUES LOUSSIER TRIO - Mozart : Piano Concertos 20 / 33 with String Orchestra (2005) APE (image+.cue), lossless
This doesn't really work, but Jacques Loussier's attempt to make Mozart work as jazz is sufficiently complex enough to make you ask, as you're hearing it, why it isn't working, and maybe that's a worthwhile thing. As the liner notes point out, it is most often Bach among classical composers whose music has served as the basis for jazz experiments. Mozart-jazz is much rarer. Chick Corea has played Mozart piano concertos with jazz cadenzas, introducing improvisation where Mozart would have included it anyway -- a natural solution. But Loussier is more ambitious: he tries to recast the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor and Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major entirely as jazz. The problem is that Mozart lacks the combination of clear harmonic framework and steady rhythmic pulse that is fundamental to Bach's music. Mozart may seem to have a clear rhythmic pulse, but one key to his deceptive simplicity is that his manipulations of the listener's perception of time are both highly complex and perfectly balanced. The speed at which things are happening changes constantly but is perfectly controlled. Tamper with it, and the whole thing can fall apart.Loussier goes to great lengths to stop that from occurring. First, he simplifies the overall picture by dropping Mozart's wind parts. Then he breaks up Mozart's flow of music into sections, treating each in a characteristic way. Mozart's opening themes are presented more or less straight, with a few syncopations and light jazz percussion added. It is in transitional material or material leading toward a transition (such as second themes and their subsidiary themes), that he sets his trio (piano, bass, and drums) loose with jazz improvisations upon Mozart's melodies and harmonic progressions. The jazz element thus partially stands in for developmental passages in which Mozart increases the tension by revving up the harmonic rhythm. This doesn't get from point A to point B as smoothly as Mozart does, but it's inventive, and Loussier's unfoldings of his ideas are interesting to follow. In rhythmically intense passages such as the opening of the last movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 -- and only in these -- he turns the drummer loose. The opening themes to these (jazz-loving) ears just sounded bizarre, and sometimes one gets the feeling that the various elements of the music are competing with each other rather than working together. Yet Loussier did not approach his task with anything less than a full appreciation of the complexity of the job, and if he has not delivered a recording that is exactly attractive, he has shown us something of how difficult musical fusion really is when it has aims above the superficial. Any jazz musician who has wrestled with similar questions will find much to chew on here. by James Manheim
Tracklist:
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
1 Allegro 13:39
2 Romance 9:29
3 Rondo presto 9:18
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
4 Allegro 12:26
5 Adagio 5:58
6 Allegro assai 8:27
Credits:
Acoustic Bass – Benoît Dunoyer de Segonzac
Composed By – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Drums – André Arpino
Piano – Jacques Loussier
with Strig Orchestra:
Jean Claude Auclin - Cello
David Braccini - Violin
Vincent Debruyne - Viola
David Naulin - Violin
Paul Rouger - Violin
Jacques Saint-Yves - Violin
Richard Schmoucler - Violin
Renaud Stahl - Viola
Mathilde Sternat - Cello
Mathias Tranchant - Violin
JACQUES LOUSSIER TRIO - Schumann : Kinderszenen (2011) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
Over the years, third stream music has been criticized in both the jazz and Euro-classical worlds. Jazz snobs have argued that if a jazz musician is playing something by Beethoven or Chopin, he/she can't possibly maintain an improviser's mentality; classical snobs will argue that great classical works need to be played exactly as they were written, and that jazz artists can't possibly do the compositions of Schubert or Debussy justice if they improvise. Thankfully, Jacques Loussier hasn't paid attention to the naysayers in either the jazz or classical worlds, and after all these years, the French pianist (who turned 76 in 2010) is still taking chances. This 2011 release finds Loussier putting his spin on Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood), which German romanticist Robert Schumann (born 1810, died 1856) composed in 1838. Schumann turned 28 that year, and he wrote that nostalgic, 13-song work in memory of his childhood. Loussier (who forms an acoustic piano trio with bassist Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac and drummer André Arpino) performs Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) in its entirety, and he approaches it not as European classical music, but as acoustic post-bop jazz. Thankfully, Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) is appropriate for Loussier, who maintains the 13 songs' nostalgic outlook but does so in a consistently jazz-oriented fashion. Loussier sounds like he is fondly remembering his own childhood, which came about long after Schumann's. Indeed, Loussier was born in 1934, which was 96 years after Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) was composed and 78 years after Schumann's death; Loussier grew up surrounded by a lot of music and technology that didn't exist when Schumann was a kid. But the more things change, the more they stay the same, and nostalgia continues to inspire musicians today just as it did in Schumann's pre-jazz, pre-electricity, pre-records time. This 49-minute CD is among Loussier's creative successes; his experimentation hasn't always worked, but it works impressively well for him on this imaginative interpretation of Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood). by Alex Henderson
Tracklist:
1 Von Fremden Ländern Und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands & People) 2:52
2 Kuriose Geschichte (A Curious Story) 1:41
3 Haschemann (Blind Man's Bluff) 3:17
4 Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child) 2:56
5 Glückes Genug (Happy Enough) 3:01
6 Wichtige Begebenheit (An Important Event) 2:54
7 Traümerei (Dreaming) 9:54
8 Am Kamin (At The Fireside) 3:16
9 Ritter Vom Steckenpferd (Knight Of The Hobby Horse) 3:36
10 Fast Zu Ernst (Almost Too Serious) 6:03
11 Fürchtenmachen (Frightening) 2:30
12 Kind Im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep) 4:19
13 Der Dichter Spricht (The Poet Speaks) 3:04
Credits:
Bass – Benoit Dunoyer De Segonzac
Drums – Andre Arpino
Piano – Jacques Loussier
18.8.20
JACQUES LOUSSIER - Solo Piano : Impressions on Chopin's Nocturnes (2004) Mp3
Jacques Loussier has made a career out of playing classical themes in a jazz setting. Born in France in 1934, he came to fame in the late 1950s with his Play Bach Trio, a group that stayed together 20 years, transforming the themes of Bach into creative and melodic jazz. Since then he has put together another trio in which he interprets not just the music of Bach but Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel, Satie and other classical giants. This set (which is subtitled Impressions on Chopin's Nocturnes) is a bit of a departure in that Loussier performs Frédéric Chopin's 21 nocturnes as unaccompanied piano solos. Nocturne No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op, 9., No. 2 is the most famous of these melodies although a few of the other nocturnes may be familiar even to non-classical listeners. Generally Loussier states the right-hand melody while altering the patterns written for the left-hand, and then builds from there. The essence of Chopin's music is retained while Loussier is free to improvise his own ideas based on the themes. Most of his interpretations are gentle and subtle while never neglecting the rich melodies, and the treatments are at times slightly reminiscent of early film music and ragtime. Classical purists may not love this approach but they should be thankful, for Jacques Loussier has consistently introduced the beauty of classical music to jazz listeners. This is a very enjoyable set. by Scott Yanow
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JOACHIM KÜHN — Europeana : Jazzphony No. 1 (Michael Gibbs) (1995) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
Europeana won the Annual German Record Critics' Award upon its initial CD release in 1995. ACT Tracklist : 1 Castle In Heaven 4:16 Fr...
