This podcast looks at his Four Seasons and Mandolin and Lute Concertos arranged for solo piano by Jeffrey Biegel and Andrew Gentile.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570031

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

This podcast looks at music he has written for voice and guitars, including My Secluded Garden, a song cycle based on poetry by Celedonio Romero, the founder of the world famous Romero Guitar Quartet

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572139

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570791

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In this podcast, conductor John Lynch talks about working with contemporary composers, and why he chose this music for his CD.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572231

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

On June 30, Opus Arte releases Marco Polo, Tan Dun’s first full-length opera, for which the composer won the coveted Grawemeyer Award in 1998.

Marco Polo premiered at the Munich Biennale in 1996, with subsequent performances at the Holland Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, New York City Opera, and Settembre Musica in Turin. When questioned about his choice of subject, Tan Dun replied: “It’s a ripe subject for the times and global culture … My personal experience as a traveler from East to West is similar to Polo’s from West to East. I thought the best thing was to draw on my own experience, on my feelings about culture and about the idea of journey. Marco Polo is a symbol of journey, of travel from past to the future, from external space to internal space, from one medium to another. All crossover journeys excite me, and Polo is a great excuse to explore them.”

Tan Dun and librettist Paul Griffiths designed their opera in many layers and have divided the figure of the Traveler into two parts, Marco and Polo; Marco represents the external figure of the Venetian explorer, whereas Polo is his inner being, his memory. They are united only at the end of their journey, when they fuse together into one person. The opera comprises three parallel journeys: one physical, one spiritual, one musical.

The first new release, Moods, features five piano works by four diverse American women composers performed by Max Lifchitz. The recording takes its title from Marilyn J. Ziffrin’s piano suite of the same name, composed in 2005, and also includes her Sonata for Piano (2006). Also featured is Arecibo Sonata by Elizabeth Bell, deemed “one of our country’s leading composers” by American Record Guide. Ms. Bell composed the sonata in 1968 and revised it in 2005; Mr. Lifchitz premiered it in 2006 and performs it here in honor of Ms. Bell on the occasion of her 80^th birthday. Next, Mr. Lifchitz performs Rami Levin’s short work, Passages (2002), on which the composer remarks: “The music describes the joy of bringing a new life into being, and the mixed emotions of a parent watching an offspring gain independence and go off into the world.” The release concludes with four short melodic works by Rain Worthington: Hourglass, Tangents, Dark Dreams, and Always Almost (1991-2001).

Regarding the highly varied repertoire on this disc, Mr. Lifchitz comments, “The featured works approach the keyboard in diverse ways. Ziffrin combines stylish rhythms and harmonies with easy-to-understand formal structures. Bell’s striking harmonic choices and undulating melodic lines create arresting tension and drama. Levin’s work is an impressive tour-de-force for both performer and listener. Worthington’s musical language—simple and direct—rewards the listener with a seemingly endless chain of surprising melodic discoveries.”

The second release from North/South Recordings features a collection of orchestral works by composer Harold Schiffman (b 1928). In addition to performances in the United States, ensembles have presented Mr. Schiffman’s music in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Mr. Schiffman studied composition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of California at Berkeley, and Florida State University. His principal composition teacher was Roger Sessions, and he later found an influential mentor in Ernst von Dohnányi. Appointed to the faculty of Florida State University College of Music in 1959, Mr. Schiffman served in this capacity until 1983 and was designated Professor Emeritus two years later. He also was founding director of Florida State University’s Festival of New Music in 1981.

This release features two of Mr. Schiffman’s most recent compositions: Symphony No. 2: “Music for Győr” (2008), inspired by the composer’s decade-long love affair with the Hungarian city and its orchestra, and Blood Mountain Suite (2008), the transcription of an earlier song cycle for soprano and piano or orchestra. The disc also includes three earlier orchestral works: Ninerella Variata (Varied Lullaby) (1956); Variations on Branchwater for Guitar and Orchestra (1987), whose namesake is a Schiffman tune inspired by the Southern custom of drinking Bourbon whiskey with water; and Overture to a Comedy (1983), from a planned comic opera project that the composer never completed. Variations on Branchwater features Hungarian guitarist Katalin Koltai. The recording includes comprehensive program notes by the composer himself.

Pianist, composer, conductor, and North/South founder Max Lifchitz was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music, held in Holland. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as “a young composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist.” A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Mr. Lifchitz has appeared in concerts and recitals throughout the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. In 1994, New York Women Composers, Inc. bestowed upon him its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his activities on behalf of concert music written by women.

Nino Rota completed four symphonies in his lifetime. Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 are found on a recording to be released by Chandos on June 30. Performed by Marzio Conti and Orchestra Filarmonica ‘900 del Teatro Regio di Torino, Rota composed his first two symphonies simultaneously in the latter part of the 1930s. At this point in his career, Rota’s style had officially evolved into one that was unmistakably melodic. Rota purposely avoided any sort of musical extremism or experimentation in these two symphonies only hinting vaguely toward well-balanced modernism. The composer’s musical language remains neoclassical throughout while also staying true to his own ability to create a landscape in sound.

Also in June, Concerto presents three rarely-recorded Rota masterpieces performed by director Enrico Bronzi and I Musici di Parmi. The recording includes Rota’s Concerto per violoncello with Enrico Bronzi as soloist and conductor and Concerto per Archi (presented here in the revised version from 1977). The Trio con clarinetto of 1973, features Alessandro Carbonare (clarinet) Alberto Miodini (piano) and Enrico Bronzi (who form the Trio di Parma). 

Founded in 2002, the Chamber Orchestra, I Musici di Parmi, brings together musicians who collaborate with the most important orchestral institutions both in Italy and abroad. Created with the intent of exploring a musical world directed at rediscovering unpublished musical scores and popularizing the work of important musicians, I Musici di Parmi has a wide-ranging repertory that runs from Baroque to Classicism, right up to the best of 19th century chamber music. Working with the I Musici di Parmi both as a soloist and as director, Maestro Enrico Bronzi’s collaboration has become stable over the years. Thanks to the originality of their programs and the musical and artistic quality of their performances, the orchestra has established itself in the Italian musical world, receiving the unanimous praise from critics and public alike.

On June 30, 2009, Naxos releases a new performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s 1945 Violin Concerto performed by Grammy®-nominated violinist Philippe Quint.

Nominated for two Grammy® Awards for his 2001 recording of the William Schuman Violin Concerto (Naxos 8559083), violinist Philippe Quint is widely recognized as a passionate advocate of contemporary American violin repertoire. Significant performances and recordings have included the 2004 world premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Violin Concerto No. 1, written for and dedicated to him - performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2007 and 2008, Naxos released recordings by Mr. Quint and pianist William Wolfram, including the complete works of Miklós Rózsa for violin and piano (Naxos 8570190, 2007); and a world premiere recording of John Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices (Naxos 8559364, 2008), the latter earning Gramophone’s 2008 “Editor’s Choice” distinction.

Philippe Quint’s commitment to perform and record contemporary American works is demonstrated again with this latest Naxos release of Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35. He believes, “In two decades, this will be as important as the Mendelssohn or the Tchaikovsky violin concertos.” However, he is not the first violinist to possess such a high opinion of the work. Despite its initial panning by critics for lack of originality and superficial romanticism, the concerto was premiered and championed by none other than Jascha Heifetz, who gave the work its first performance in 1947 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and frequently performed it thereafter throughout his later career.

Today, the rising success of the violin concerto has undeservedly overshadowed much of Korngold’s other music for films and the concert hall. On the new release, Maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Orquestra Sinfónica de Mineria revisit the expressive, humorous, and spirited qualities of the composer’s style in two additional works: the Schauspiel Overture, Op. 4, composed in 1911 at the age of fourteen, and his 1918 concert piece, the Much Ado About Nothing Suite, Op. 11.

Carlos Miguel Prieto is rising as one of the most dynamic young conductors of his generation, and holds appointments as music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria, the Louisiana Philharmonic, and Huntsville Symphony, in addition to enjoying annual recording opportunities and guest conducting engagements with various orchestras around the world.

Alberto Ginastera’s compositional output included four operas and eleven film scores, as well as numerous orchestral works, concerti, choral and solo vocal pieces, chamber and instrumental works, and incidental music for around a half-dozen dramas. The three string quartets, which date from 1948 to 1973, illustrate three distinct compositional phases in Ginastera’s life.

Premiered in 1949 by the Mozart Quartet in Buenos Aires, String Quartet No. 1, Op. 20 (1948) represents a style to which the composer referred as “subjective nationalism,” and is found in his works dating from 1947-1957. With “subjective nationalism” the composer shed his previous concept of “objective nationalism,” which relied on more traditional ethnic elements, and replaced it, as he noted, with “the creation of an imagined folklore.” In this first quartet, Ginastera incorporates rhythmic and thematic elements from Argentina’s traditional folk-music but uses a varied and dissonant vocabulary.

Completed in 1958 (rev. 1968), String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 was a commission by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation and received its premiere in Washington, D.C. in 1958 by the Juilliard String Quartet. Neo-expressionist in style and breaking with the traditional four-movement structure, the five-movement String Quartet No. 2 features microtones, indeterminacy, and polytonality. The opening of the first movement is based on a twelve-tone row, which Ginastera approaches freely.

Like its predecessor, String Quartet No. 3, Op. 40 (1973) received its premiere by the Juilliard String Quartet in 1974 with soprano Benita Valente as soloist. In this quartet, Ginastera builds upon an idea from Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10, which features a soprano voice in two of the movements (in Schoenberg’s work, movements 3 and 4). Here Ginastera has set four poems for voice, leaving only the second movement for the instruments alone. The first movement, Contemplativo, is a setting of Juan Ramón Jiménez’s poem La Música, which celebrates love and the music written about it. The second movement, Fantastico, allows the strings their nocturnal moment. The third movement, Amoroso, is based on Canción de Belisa, a song from Federico Garcia Lorca’s play The Love of Don Perlimplíin for Belisa in Their Garden. The fourth movement, set to Rafael Alberti’s Morir al sol (Death in the Sun), is marked Drammatico, and opens with the lyrics “The soldier has fallen / The woods weep each morning for him.” In this movement, the mood intensifies to the point that the singer is almost shouting with grief. Rounding out the quartet is the fifth movement, marked Di nuovo comtemplativo, for which Ginastera selected another poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez, Oscaso (Twilight; sunset).

Internationally acclaimed American soprano Lucy Shelton is the only artist ever to have won two Walter W. Naumburg Awards. She has worked closely with some of today’s most important composers, including Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, Kaija Saariaho and Oliver Knussen, many of whom have written expressly for her. She has given premieres of more than 100 works, and her discography includes over 50 recordings. Though contemporary music is her specialty, Ms. Shelton is a distinguished performer of music spanning four centuries. A quintessential collaborative artist, she has appeared with nearly all of the major orchestras in the United States and Europe and is a frequent guest-with her vast repertoire of vocal chamber music-at festivals such as Tanglewood, Ojai, Santa Fe, Aspen, Salzburg, Kuhmo, Aldeburgh, and the BBC Proms. Lucy Shelton’s primary mentor was the legendary American mezzo-soprano Jan de Gaetani.

Since its inception in 1999, the United States-based Ensō String Quartet has won acclaim for their vibrant and passionate performances in major concert halls throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Central America, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to audience appreciation and critical acclaim, the quartet has earned its place in the chamber music world with top prizes in the Banff International String Quartet and Concert Artists Guild International competitions. The members of the Ensō String Quartet also are sought after as teachers and chamber music coaches; the quartet has served as faculty for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and as Lecturers in Music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. The instruments used in this recording are a matched set made in 2006 by London-based luthier Nigel Harris, generously on loan to the quartet by Christopher Marshall. This is the Ensō String Quartet’s second recording for Naxos, following its release of the string quartets of Ignaz Pleyel (8.557496 & 8.557497). To learn more, please visit www.ensoquartet.com.

In 1983, Ge began work on his String Quartet No. 1 - Fu (Prose-Poem), but before he could complete it, he relocated to New York City, recruited by Chou Wen-chung at Columbia University. While supporting himself as a restaurant deliveryman, Ge managed to complete the piece, and the Kronos Quartet-celebrated for its commitment to new music-soon made it part of their repertoire. Fu and Yi Feng are both milestones in Ge’s canon, as they represent the development of his individual style: “They are the first of their kind in China, exploring individualism and the essence of Chinese music characteristics while avoiding sentimental melodies then prevalent in China … Fu in Chinese refers to descriptive prose interspersed with verse. In this piece, I tried to express some of the most basic aesthetic feelings typical of Chinese classical poetry and calligraphy, such as subtlety, free form, and masterly strokes.”

The interval of the minor second figures prominently in Fu and generates much of its musical content. Unorthodox means of tone production dominate this work (though instruments are conventionally tuned), including snap pizzicato, harmonics, glissandi, tremolos, and various combinations of these techniques. Moreover, throughout the work, unmeasured, rhythmic passages alternate with more regularly-patterned music.

Some of the same sounds from Fu are prominent in the introductory measures of Angel Suite - String Quartet No. 4 (1998). And, interestingly, the minor second also figures significantly in its second, third and fourth movements. The composer writes: “Of all my works, this piece is the closest to the Western classical music tradition, and it offers a contrast to my other music … The title comes from my interest in Christianity … In this work, I try to express my curiosity in, and observation of, various aspects of Christianity. The titles of the movements (Cherub, Gnomes, Prayer, and Angel’s March) refer to the subjects that I wanted to represent musically. For instance, in the first movement, the harmonic glissando represents a cherub; the second movement focuses on dance rhythm … In the prayer movement, I use contrasting consonant and dissonant chords to draw out feelings of purity and sincerity in praying. In the middle section, I also use the beginning few notes from Schubert’s Ave Maria. For the last movement I chose to write a march, as I always imagine an angel as young and vibrant.”

Fall of Baghdad - String Quartet No. 5 is at once a tribute to George Crumb’s Black Angels for electric string quartet (1970) and an expression of the composer’s own feelings about the war in Iraq. Like Crumb’s work before it, the music comprises three long sections divided into thirteen shorter ones. “Hair-raising squeals” produced by “applying pressure to the strings behind the bridge to create a scraping sound of indefinite pitch” open the work. In this quartet, Ge uses extended techniques neither as cultural relics, as in Fu, nor as suggestions of ethereal spirits, as in Angel Suite, Instead, he uses his unique musical language to symbolize the devastation and despair associated with war. (For contrast and relief, the middle section, “Music from Heaven,” incorporates light percussion; the “Heaven” to which this movement refers, incidentally, is a different paradise than the one Ge depicts in Angel Suite.) Ge employs microtonal inflections to suggest Middle Eastern music (which shares some of its idioms with the music of his native country) and also makes use of (as he explains): “glissandi and distorted sound to create the ‘hellish’ effects; playing col legno (striking the strings with the [wooden part of the] bow) both in front of and behind the bridge for the Caliph’s drum and using extreme high notes on low strings for ‘moaning’ sounds.”

ModernWorks
Called “a dynamic new music ensemble” (The New York Times), ModernWorks was formed in 1997 by cellist and concert producer Madeleine Shapiro. Though its core is a string quartet, the ensemble also performs repertoire in numerous other combinations: string duos and trios, as well as works with accordion, percussion, voice, and multiple cellos. ModernWorks gives an annual New York concert series and has presented over 30 New York or United States premieres by both young, emerging composers and an international roster of established composers. Active in the commissioning of new works, ModernWorks is proud to have been the recipient of two commissioning grants from Meet the Composer USA to commission new works by American composers. The ensemble has appeared in such diverse New York venues as The Knitting Factory and the Museum of Arts & Design, has held a residency at New York University, and has been a regular on the prestigious Sonic Boom Festival. In addition to its NY series, ModernWorks tours both nationally and internationally. (www.ModernWorks.com).

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dacapo 6.220528-29

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Ondine remains an independent unit within the Naxos group organization and its release policy will remain unaffected. The label will continue to pursue its mission to represent the very best of Finnish performing artists and composers combined with working with top level international artists and orchestras.

“I’m extremely excited that Naxos was keen to become our owner,” said Reijo Kiilunen, Managing Director of Ondine. “Naxos shares our solid commitment to classical music. Ondine will benefit from its extensive and professional international organization and distribution network as well as its highly advanced digital business models. In addition, joining forces makes us the strongest classical player in the domestic Finnish market. All this made me realize, that from a number of interesting alternatives, Naxos was the best choice of owner in facing all the challenges within our business world.”

Commented Klaus Heymann, founder and owner of Naxos: “For a long time, Ondine has been one of my favorite labels and I am delighted that it is now part of our group. There is very little duplication in terms of repertoire and the label has a very clear identity which makes it a perfect fit. I think Ondine will benefit from being distributed physically and digitally worldwide by our subsidiaries and qualified third-party distributors. I look forward to working with Reijo on strengthening the label’s presence in the international market.”

Commented Håkan Lagerqvist, CEO of Naxos Sweden and new chairman of Ondine: “This is a very welcome addition to our bouquet of Nordic labels owned by Naxos, already including Proprius, Swedish Society and others. With Ondine, we’ve worked with distribution in Sweden, Denmark and Norway for some years now and we look forward to taking this cooperation to a new level both in the Nordic territory and internationally. I have known Reijo for many years and I have the highest respect for his competence and the way he has made Ondine such a strong brand. This is also a statement that we strongly believe in the future of high quality recorded classical music.”

This podcast features an interview with Tom O’Neal, Director of Bands and conductor on this CD.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572108

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In this podcast, conductor Gerard Schwarz tries to answer that question.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559365

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In this podcast conductor Scott Weiss talks about the music on this disc, and his ongoing commitment to creating new works for winds.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572129

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

This podcast features an interview with the composer plus some examples of what this remarkable piece sounds like.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Delos DE1045

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Cedille Records’ titles are produced through its parent organization, the non-profit Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, founded in 1989 by James Ginsburg (son of US Supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg). Mr. Ginsburg’s vision was to produce and promote recordings by Chicago musicians, performing important repertoire, overlooked by the major labels. With several prestigious awards and numerous award nominations to its credit, Cedille’s roster of artists includes violinists Rachel Barton Pine and Jennifer Koh; cellist Wendy Warner; mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore; conductor Carlos Kalmar; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the Chicago Baroque Ensemble; the Vermeer Quartet; contemporary music ensemble, eighth blackbird; and the choral group, the William Ferris Chorale, among many others. Celebrating its partnership with Naxos, Cedille proudly announces the release of three diverse new discs in May 2009.

Under the direction of conductor and music director Paul French, the William Ferris Chorale leads the May releases with an album of World Premiere recordings of nine sacred works by diverse contemporary American composers. The disc, entitled American Choral Premieres, introduces the first recordings of settings of Biblical, liturgical, and poetic texts by Alan Hovhaness, Egon Cohen, Paul Nicholson, Paul French, Easley Blackwood, Robert Kreutz, William Ferris, William C. White, and Robert Rochberg. 

The William Ferris Chorale was founded in 1971 by its namesake, late composer William Ferris (1937-2000) and tenor John Vorrasi. Under the direction of Maestro Ferris, the Chorale was frequently invited to international festivals and presented over 160 world, American, and Chicago premieres of new repertoire. Since 2005, the chorale has been directed by composer and conductor Paul French, whom had a close collegial relationship with the founder as his mentor, and whose continued excellence with the ensemble underscores continuity of purpose and style. As an important voice in contemporary American music, Mr. French has written more than 200 instrumental and choral works, psalm settings, and acclamations in a variety of media including works for choir, voice, organ, brass, and orchestra.

The second new recording from Cedille’s trio of May releases is a significant treatise on music from the early and mid-20th century Jewish diaspora, Jewish Cabaret in Exile by the New Budapest Orpheum. Under the direction of artistic director Phillip V. Bohlman, the ensemble has recorded a collection of songs composed from exile poetry by collaborators Hanns Eisler and Kurt Tucholsky, solo compositions by Eisler, and Viktor Ullmann’s 1944 set of Three Yiddish Songs (Březulinka), op. 53. The group also includes cabaret songs set to texts that reflect a wide spectrum on the human condition of exile and the meaning of survival, written by Edmund Nick and Erich Kästner, and Georg Kreisler. Finally, the disc captures the essence of some of the finest songs lifted from the scores of Yiddish and postwar stage and screen of the period, by Moses Milner, Mordechai Gebirtig, Abraham Ellstein, and Friedrich Holländer.

The New Budapest Orpheum Society is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Chicago and draws upon a wide range of repertories, all poignantly revealing the stories, beliefs, and feelings behind the music from the great tradition of Jewish cabaret.

 Dating from 1978 and 1985, Romantic Music for Piano Four Hands is a May 2009 compilation reissue of two well-received recordings by the Buccheri/Boldrey Piano Duet. The duo made their debut at North Park University in Chicago during the early 1970s, when both members, Elizabeth Buccheri and Richard Boldrey were faculty members. Their residency resulted in continuous sold-out concerts at North Park and launched the team into wider performance, as they appeared regularly on “Live from WFMT” broadcasts and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in downtown Chicago. From 1978, the duo recorded over half of the works reissued on this disc (the first Onslow Sonata, and works by Balakirev, Liszt, and Wagner). A second set of masters were captured in 1985 (Onslow Sonata No. 2, and works by Reger and Grieg). About the first original LP of Romantic Music for Two Pianos, Fan fare magazine wrote, “This record is a winner…. Boldrey and Buccheri don’t just play the notes. They enjoy the music, and convey that enjoyment tangibly….”

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dacapo 8.226505

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In this podcast, conductor Paul Hillier talks about Schutz’ importance as a composer, and about his new recording of the Lukas Passion with Ars Nova Copenhagen.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Dacapo 8.226019

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Missa Latin ‘Pro Pace’ is suffused with Mr. Sierra’s experience of growing up a Catholic in Puerto Rico. He notes: “I still recall vividly hearing the Mass in Latin in my hometown when I was a child. These memories created a strong impression-one that has only deepened through the years: a sense of mystery combined with power and compassion in hearing Gregorian chant intoned by the priest in a ritual involving this ‘dead’ language.” He explains that the work’s title “has dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to the traditional Latin text, while on the other hand the work is infused with a ‘Latino’ character: full of Caribbean gestures that allude to my own Hispanic heritage, and which are present in so many of my works. These sounds can be heard particularly in the Laudamus te of the Gloria and the Pleni sunt caeli of the Sanctus.”

Serebrier, who met Khachaturian when he was working with Leopold Stokowski, explains:

“I had the pleasure and privilege of having lunch with Khachaturian in New York, with Leopold Stokowski, when Stokowski invited him to conduct a concert of his music with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and obvious charm and modesty. He stayed on after one of his rehearsals to watch me rehearse the orchestra for one of my own concerts, and sat in the hall next to Stokowski.”

Of this particular repertoire, the conductor remarks: “While the Violin Concerto is a staple of the repertoire, the Concerto-Rhapsody is very rarely performed, and has enormous difficulties for the soloist. In some ways, it’s more interesting and imaginative than the concerto, certainly more original.”

This “audacious plan” (New York Times) has brought Bertolozzi sustained international attention. As part of the 400th anniversary celebration of Hendryk Hudson’s voyage up the river that now bears his name, Bridge Music is available free to the public, beginning in June 2009, through Listening Stations on the towers of the Mid-Hudson Bridge and FM transmitters in waterfront parks along the Hudson River.

International interest has brought this project far beyond the borders of the Hudson Valley. In addition to feature stories in the Associated Press (AP) and NY Times, the project has been reported around the world in places like China, Sweden, Italy, Argentina, England, the Mid-East, Africa and Australia.

The bridge’s 1920s designer, Ralph Modjeski, was a highly skilled pianist and a classmate of Paderewski. He ultimately chose engineering as his profession, and became one of the 20th century’s greatest bridge designers. “Both as a pioneering engineer and as a musician who loved the music of his own time, I think he would be intrigued to experience this boundary-shattering synthesis involving his beloved bridge and the music of our own time” Bertolozzi writes in the liner notes to this album.

On May 26, Naxos releases a recording by pianist Xiayin Wang-her first for the label-featuring works by Alexander Scriabin. For this recording, the artist has selected a program of compositions spanning the composer’s early, middle, and late periods, including two of his earliest surviving compositions: two waltzes he wrote at age 14-Valse in D flat major, op. posth.; and Valse in F minor, Op. 1. From the later period, Ms. Wang has selected Deux Danses, Op. 73, one of the composer’s final piano works (the only other piano work from this period was Five Preludes, Op. 74) and the celebrated Vers la Flamme, Op. 72.

Ms. Wang, who has graced the stages of Carnegie, Weill and Zankel halls, performs a recital at New York’s Alice Tully Hall on Monday, May 18 at 8 PM. Her program, which includes works by Haydn, Chopin, Ravel, Liszt, and Scriabin, also features world premieres of music by American composers Richard Danielpour (The Enchanted Garden, Preludes, Book II), and Sean Hickey (Cursive).

Ms. Wang began piano studies at the age of five in her native China. She came to New York in 1997 and was awarded the 2000 “Certificate of Achievement” by the Associated Music Teacher League of New York, winning an opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall. She also pursued studies at the Manhattan School of Music and won the school’s Eisenberg Concerto Competition in 2002, as well as the Roy M. Rubinstein Award. Xiayin Wang holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Professional Studies degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.

For more information, please visit Xiayin Wang’s website: www.xiayinwangpiano.com.

I just finished reading Laurence Vittes’ article in the June Gramophone on alternative classical venues. Since it’s a topic that I have a particular interest in, I felt compelled to post something on the topic. First, it’s nice to see a mainstream classical music publication take on the trend. Though they’re a bit late to the party, I’m glad to see it get covered. What is most interesting is that, for those of us that live in New York and sample the diversifying concert scene here, this is not news. The alt-classical scene has been taking off in New York, London and Berlin for quite some time. I felt the need to chime in on the topic, not because I take issue with anything said in the article, but to underscore what I think is a hugely important development in classical music presentation over the past few years. Greg Sandow has written eloquently on the topic several times.

Last week I attended a release party for composer/conductor/arranger Peter Breiner and the release of his latest Naxos disc, a wonderful recording of orchestral suites arranged from the operas of Leos Janacek. The event, like others we at Naxos have done, took place at Le Poisson Rouge, specifically in the bar portion. I can’t overstate the pleasure in listening to great music in a public drinking space, and on an excellent sound system that manages to not sound obtrusive but succeeds in cutting through any conversation. LPR’s Justin Kantor has invested heavily in this crucial aspect which naturally means that they’re a great place for events centered around listening. Through LPR’s extensive social network we turned out a respectable crowd, many of them Czechs interested in the music of this fascinating composer. LPR, along with many other venues, have found real success in promoting their events not by advertising in the traditional print publications, but relying on their extensive fan and friend lists on Facebook, MySpace, LastFM and others to spread the word on concerts and gatherings. I’ve attended several shows there and I’ve never seen anything that wasn’t sold out or nearly. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a concert there where I’ve been able to sit down. Amazing how alcohol and interesting music seem to bring people together.

Like many of my friends, I came to classical music through the back door. I grew up playing the electric guitar in imitation of the guitar gods like Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen. In my mid-teens I discovered the progressive rock of King Crimson and the punk spirit of the Clash. At some point around then I heard the Rite of Spring for the first time and, though it might sound cliche, it changed my life forever. The Shostakovich Fifth, especially in context of what I learned of the composer’s life, had a similar effect. Even more life-changing was a trip to see the Chicago Symphony for the first time when I was sixteen. The sight of a primarily empty orchestra stage as a setting for Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments will always stay with me. The unique sound world of that particular piece still has the echoes of Symphony Hall in my ears. At that moment, at least in my mind, I set down the guitar and decided to become a composer. All of this is to say that, if such places as LPR existed in my hometown way back when, I might have taken in my first non-rock concert not on a stiff-back chair, but on a barstool. Okay, that doesn’t sound like the right place for a teenager.

In terms of New York, Vittes could have listed many more places such as The Stone, Barbes, Galapagos, the Nabi Gallery and others, all of them regularly showcasing chamber music, opera and most importantly, new music. I’m amazed at the reception of new works by these audiences, especially in comparison to the crowd at Avery Fisher who can often only manage polite applause for a new piece after unwrapping their throat lozenge. It’s of course important to note that many composers, in great DIY fashion, got their start performing or having their works performed in alternative spaces (some of them private or semi-private and many certainly non-commercial) from the 60’s through the 80s.

All of this is to say that I applaud any venue of any kind that programs classical music or invites new music to be a part - however small - of the overall programming and presentation of music of any kind. My hope is that these kind of multi-genre, multi-generational venues proliferate elsewhere.

This podcast includes hightlights from her new CD, and an interview with Ms. Wang.

Note: Xiayin Wang personal web site and Facebook fan page.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570412

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In May, Naxos of America begins distribution of 2L, a Norwegian label known for releasing the world’s first audio-only Blu-Ray recording, Divertimenti, which subsequently received three Grammy® nominations. Founded in 2001 by Morten Lindberg, 2L’s mission is to achieve state-of-the-art sound and packaging within all future formats of classical music. “What we are seeing is a completely new conception of the music experience,” said Lindberg. “Recorded music is no longer a matter of a fixed two-dimensional setting, but rather a three-dimensional enveloping situation. Stereo can be described as a flat-canvas, while surround sound is a sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially.”

Of 2L’s many high quality and unique releases, one in particular jumped out at my colleague Collin Rae. He shared it with some of us and I was immediately taken by not only the recording and the music, but with the concept behind it and how it directly correlates to Morten’s statement above. The SACD hybrid/Blu-ray recording that I am speaking of is SONaR, a collaboration of Norwegian composer Magnar Åm and harpist Ellen Sejersted Bødtker. The sound on this recording is immaculate, the compositions and performances are beyond words (for lack of a better description).

We decided that in order to really undertand all aspects of this recording, we needed to go to the source, SO we interviewed Magnar and Ellen! You will find my chat with Magnar below. His thoughts on music and sound are intriguing, scratch that, they are downright fascinating. Let’s just say that he composes pieces that no concert hall in the world can yet accomodate. Why don’t I allow him to explain…

You’ve said “Music matters, as it brings to matter what is of no matter”. How did you become so fascinated by sound and how to make it a physical experience?

My fascination for sound is a gift of birth and heritage. My mother was always singing, even up to the moment when she started to press me out. The inspiration to work with music as something appealing to more than feelings and moods also dates back to childhood. I discovered the sense of orientation and that this sense could be cheated willingly by my own perception. Sitting by the window gazing at the snowflakes falling densely outside, I would after a while have a strong perception that the snowflakes were the reference point hovering motionless in the air and that I instead was in the middle of an upward movement, as if I were lifted weightlessly. This was a blissfull experience which I would seek consciously over and over again during our lovely winters. It was not the beauty or the quiet of the falling snow that attracted me, but the mere physical experience of weightlessness being planted in my body when I let myself be receptable and non-judging of what my eyes were seeing.

Because of that discovery I have been working with music as something that can transfer a physical and mental experience regardless of what likes and dislikes the listener would have. To me, music is not about whether I like it or not, but only about what it does to me when I open up. What I discovered in that early childhood - though not yet consciously - was that our senses can be turned upside down dependent on our thinking about what is reality.

Music has taught me a lot through the years; it has been my friend, helping me to dive into the unknown depths of being and come up with a form to it. In this way it has shown me that my deepest reality is not what I see. Through its physical appearance as sound-waves it has portrayed something non-physical. And it has given me some new traces to follow to make it even more physical and thus more directly effective in transfering the non-physical truth to my senses. It can be used like the visual snowflakes to leave my senses with a dual choice of how to perceive reality.

Can you explain your concept of “three-dimensional sound” and how it applies to SONaR and the techniques used to record it?

Three-dimensional sound is achieved when the sound sources are placed globally around you, that is: on your sides, in front, behind, over and under you. Many of my later acoustic pieces are written for such placement, but there is so far no suitable concert halls or commercial sound format for it. Therefore, an adjustment to the two-dimensional performance is necessary, that is: with the sound sources placed around you on a horizontal level, in front, behind and on your sides. This includes the present surround formats and the possible use of some concert halls. In this connection a stereo format and a traditional performance with the musicians placed in front of the audience will be the one-dimensional version, where everything comes from different points on a single line between left and right in front of you.

On SONaR only dette blanke no (this our virgin now) is written originally for a three-dimensional performance. It is then adjusted to a two-dimensional surround format recording by Morten Lindberg. He let the spatial lines of the score be transfered to a spreading out horizontally in the room so that everything had different distance to the different directional microphones and did the recording in a church of rather long reverberation so that the feeling of a large three-dimensoinal space could be perceived.

The first track on SONaR is vere meininga (be the purpose) for which you also wrote the poetry. Explain the creative process behind this piece and its meaningful text. Had you written the poetry before you decided to set it to music? Or did the music inspire the poetry?

The poetry was born gradually together with the music, as it often is. At some points of the composition process the musical idea appearing would be a spoken word or phrase. When that arises as a musical need I know there is a poem coming, although it is yet as unknown to me as the total music, and I know it will reveal itself and its meaning parallel with the music if I just keep on letting the piece unfold.

vere meininga was originally written for Chinese harp and string sextet. Were there any drastic changes that had to be made when developing this version for Ellen and her European harp?

The most conspicuous change is that of the cadenza. Since Ellen operates both the acoustic and the electric harp the possibilities of the electric harp and the contrast to the acoustic harp had to be made very clear here.

I am incredibly moved by det var mjukt written for soprano and harp. The translation of the text is heart-wrenching, yet uplifting. What prompted the composition of this piece? What mind-set must you be in to accurately musically portray text like this?

The original text is the English one, written by Clark E. Moustakas in his book HEURISTIC RESEARCH, Design, Methodology and Application. I teach a small subject called Intuitive Composition/Improvisation and Music Philosophy at Volda University College. And there we have his book on the syllabus list. When Ellen commissioned a short piece for herself and her son to be placed in between the two harp concertos of the CD I knew I would use Moustaka’s beautiful text, as I was just then citing from his book to my students. So I wrote the song to the English text and then made a translation fitting the music. When time came for the recording, her young son was already facing his break of voice and we decided to let the same soprano as in the last piece sing it.

To musically portray a text like this - or any text - you have to be able to recognize in yourself all the feelings hidden in the words, actually see yourself in the role of the author, and let music arise from there.

When Ellen commissioned dette blanke no, concerto for harp and angels, how did you settle on the concept of timelessness and weightlessness? At one point in the creative process did it become clear that two harps would be required to achieve this goal?

I have experienced that when I try to listen consciously to two or more different pulses simultanuously - and really try to keep track of all pulses, at some point my brain gives up. And as it gives up, there is a loss of sense of time, and to me that is a blissful experience, it’s like coming home. So in dette blanke no (this our virgin now), as the choir enters, to portray this side of “home-coming” there is in the harp part a set of repetitive lines with individually different pulses. For the ear consciously or unconsciously to be able to follow the different lines it was necessary to use different coloring of the harp tone in the different slow pulses and even bring in an additional harp, the electric one.

To remind or give the listener a trace of weightlessness - the other side of “home-coming” - I took the memory of me and the snowflakes and gave it a spatial musical setting, letting sound move three-dimensionally the same way.

In this podcast he explains and demonstrates how the instrument works, and talks about his ongoing project to record the complete organ music of Charles Tournemire.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: ATMA ACD22470

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

A fascinating story and interview.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559610

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570563

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559604

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

These brilliant arrangements truly reflect the unique musical language that make Janacek’s operas some of the best written in the 20th century.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570555 & 8.570556

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Last night, as I was watching the documentary film

‘Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris

these ads from my youth randomly popped into my head. I could see Jackie Paris wrapped in a Blackglama® Mink coat with that famous caption above his head—but, of course, that ad never happened.

The film made me think on many levels. I couldn’t help but think how operatic Jackie Paris’ story was; Jackie Paris: The Opera was the second thing that popped into my head. Of course, it would have to be a jazz opera. But the broken family with a history of drug addiction, the wives and womanizing, the refusal to cooperate with the mob, performing with the greatest jazz legends … and, of course, the last hook: wife no. 1 running off with the child he denied fathering (but had.) What a story. That’s the stuff of opera.

So, why did Jackie Paris fall into obscurity while so many other singers of the era sauntered about in Blackglama® Mink ads? (Peggy Lee and Lena Horne did, and while there were very few men who made it, Ray Charles did). The film posits several plausible theories, including his arrogance, temper, timing … and even the fact that he wouldn’t cooperate with the mob. I now have a few theories of my own.

Being a “musician’s musician” or a “singer’s singer” isn’t always the kiss of death, but it can push you to the background–just look at the career of Marni Nixon, the singing voice of so many great movie musicals, like My Fair Lady. The truth is that Paris’ singing had a certain level of sophistication and polish, which sometimes took his performances out of the realm of merely popular, and some of material he recorded didn’t scream “HIT.” Jackie Paris straddled the worlds of serious black jazz artists (with whom he performed and hung out) and the more “Hollywood” performers like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee (who got him an audition at Capital Records), and, of course Nat King Cole. But he was never able to translate that sophistication into the movie stardom those artists achieved. Paris was in an odd position: how do you bridge the gap between Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker and Frank Sinatra or Peggy Lee? At that point in history, it probably wasn’t possible to do it successfully. And I’m not convinced after seeing the film that he exactly knew what he wanted either, which may explain why his career faltered by the mid-1970s.  

In a way, this extraordinary artist suffered a similar fate to many composers, who–though beloved by their colleagues–didn’t become legends until after their deaths. Of course, the problem for a singer is, unless there are a lot of recordings and film footage left behind, it can be pretty hard to become a legend posthumously. 

Now I can’t really talk about jazz music, as it is not my area of expertise. But I do know great singers. Jackie Paris hung with the best, sang with the best, and was able to “inhabit a song,” as I’ve come to refer to it. (When you hear it, you just know it.) And even in his seventies, when he made a comeback just before his death, he sang the song “Tis Autumn” like he was at the beginning of a promising career, rather than doomed to posthumous recognition. A man with a tremendous ego, he must have loved having a film made about him. And, in the end, who knows? He still may achieve the “legend” status that so eluded him during his life.

Iholba’, for flute, orchestra, and chorus, was originally commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra. Here, flutist Thomas Robertello and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus join the San Francisco Symphony to perform this full-scale symphonic and choral work. Iholba’ sets the text of a poem written by the composer in the native Chickasaw language and is based on a traditional Chickasaw “Garfish Dance Song.” Its two movements are Halbina’ (The Gift) and Iholba’ (The Vision).

In this podcast, both composer Daron Hagen and librettist Paul Muldoon talk about how this opera was created.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.669020-21

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Teatro Real’s production of Handel’s vivid tragedy Tamerlano stars a Lear-like Plácido Domingo as the Turkish sultan Bajazet, defeated and taken prisoner by Tamerlano, the Tartar emperor. Displaying the uniquely heroic quality of his voice, Domingo heads a superb cast, including Sara Mingardo, Monica Bacelli, and Ingela Bohlin-all magnificently responsive to Paul McCreesh’s authentic and luminous interpretation. The theatrical staging by Graham Vick provides a splendid setting for the characters and for designer Richard Hudson’s extravagant Baroque-Islamic costumes, emphasizing the brilliance of one of Handel’s finest dramatic achievements.

Baroque opera is a departure from Domingo’s usual repertoire. In a 2008 interview for NPR, he described the role of Bajazet as “ideal for my voice.” And, like many of Domingo’s signature roles, including Verdi’s Otello, the opera “has a great death scene.” He added: “In real life, I like to enjoy. But on stage … I am a masochist! The more I suffer, the better I can deliver on my music, and feelings.”

After the premiere of Part One, West German Radio commissioned Penderecki to compose Part Two, Resurrection, which premiered on May 28, 1971 in Munster, paired with a performance of Entombment. Since then, ensembles have generally (though not exclusively) performed the two parts together. The first Polish performance of the complete Utrenja duly took place in Kraków on September 16, 1971.

Enthusiastically received by audiences, Utrenja stands beside the composer’s Polish Requiem (8557386-87) and St Luke Passion (8557149) among the masterpieces of modern Polish music.

Breiner notes that the project is the first time that selected material from Janáček’s operas appears in purely instrumental form. Regarding the first set of suites featuring music from Jenůfa and The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, previously released by Naxos in February 2009, Breiner remarked: “These are not your regular suites, which would only include the orchestral music from the operas (overture, interludes, preludes, postludes, and intermezzos) … These suites have plenty of material that was originally vocal (solos, duets, choruses) and was ‘converted’ into instrumental music.” Breiner’s challenge was to choose the highest quality excerpts and themes that were most representative from each opera, cautiously editing and revising them to ultimately create fresh orchestral suites that would appropriately reflect the composer’s distinctive style and colorful aesthetic.

Badiou goes on to observe, “the organization of Frauenliebe und-leben is noticeably different, in that the work’s cyclic character was already imposed on it by the poetic text [by Chamisso]…the verse reflects the aesthetic of the Biedermeier period in evoking the successive stages in a woman’s life: burgeoning first love, amorous ecstasy, engagement, marriage, motherhood, and conjugal fidelity that continues after the husband’s death.”

In 2000, at the age of 24, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux became the first Canadian to win First Prize as well as the Special Prize for Lieder at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium. Winning this prestigious award opened the door to an immediate international career, allowing her to perform in recital and in concert with many great orchestras around the world. She has appeared on many naïve recordings including, most recently, Vivaldi’s La fida ninfa, the latest opera release in the label’s landmark Vivaldi Edition. L’Heure Exquise, her recital of French songs by Hahn, Chausson and Debussy, received the highest rating from ClassicsToday - 10/10 for Artistic Quality/Sound Quality:

“Times are great for fans of mezzos and contraltos, especially ones who perform song recitals as well as opera and oratorio roles. And among today’s several young stars, Quebec-born Marie-Nicole Lemieux has the versatility, technique, artistic instincts, and of course, the voice to ensure a long and illustrious career… This is a first-rate recital by a truly extraordinary singer. Accompanist Daniel Blumenthal is a perfect partner, as you never notice a note or dynamic or aspect of phrasing out of sync with Lemieux. Solo singing rarely if ever gets better than this, and the quality of the recording matches the high standard of the performances.”

Lemieux also sang sacred vocal music by Vivaldi in a release last season with Ensemble Matheus under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi. The New York Times observed, “In the more austere Stabat Mater, Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings with a gripping sense of drama, her darkly rich, agile contralto illuminating the text with anguish and passion.”

On April 7, Naxos released Seven Last Words from the Cross by renowned Scottish composer James MacMillan. The recording, which features The Dmitri Ensemble and director Graham Ross, also includes two world-premiere recordings of other works by Mr. MacMillan, Nemo te condemnavit (2005) and …here in hiding… (1993), a work originally performed by the Hilliard Ensemble for four solo voices, performed here by The Dmitri Ensemble in a new arrangement for unaccompanied ATTB chorus. Rounding out the recording is the 1994 Christus Vincit, a double-choir anthem written for St Paul’s Cathedral, London, based on text from the 12th century Worcester Acclamations.

Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993), for SSAATTBB chorus and string orchestra, was commissioned by BBC Television and first screened in seven nightly episodes during Holy Week in 1994. The text is based on a compilation from the four canonical gospels of the last seven sentences uttered by Christ.

The composer has written: “The work begins with a cadential figure from the end of my clarinet quintet Tuireadh (Lament), repeated over and over, upon which the rest of the music gradually builds. Again a repeated cadential figure forms the basis of the second movement, this time evoking memories of Bach’s Passion chorales. Christ’s words are kept until the very end of the third movement, when they are sung by two high sopranos, accompanied by high violins. The rest of the piece is a setting of the Good Friday Versicle Ecce Lignum Crucis.”

MacMillan continues: “In the fourth movement, the music rises from low to high before the choir delivers an impassioned lament, above which the strings float and glide. The movement eventually subsides through a downward canonic motion to end as it began. The two words ‘I thirst’ (fifth movement) are set to a static and slow-moving harmonic procedure, which is deliberately bare and desolate. The interpolated text from the Good Friday Reproaches is heard whispered and distantly chanted. The sixth movement begins with hammer-blows, which subside and out of which grows quiet choral material, which is largely unaccompanied throughout. In the final movement, the first word is exclaimed in anguish three times before the music descends in resignation. The choir has finished; the work is subsequently completed by strings alone. In this final movement, with its long instrumental postlude, the liturgical detachment breaks down and gives way to a more personal reflection-hence the resonance here of Scottish traditional lament music.”
Hailed by The Guardian as “a composer so confident of his own musical language that he makes it instantly communicative to his listeners,” James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful living composers and conductors. His music is notable for its extraordinary directness, energy, and emotional power. References to Scottish folk music imbue his work with a strong sense of the vernacular, while his strongly-held religious and political beliefs, coupled with his concerns for the community, inform both the spirit and subject matter of his music. MacMillan first came to the attention of the classical music world when the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra premiered his The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990. His most recent successes have included his second opera, The Sacrifice, a 2007 commission by the Welsh National Opera and winner of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, and the St John’s Passion, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Sir Colin Davis at its 2008 world premiere. MacMillan received the British Composer Award for Liturgical Music for his Strathclyde Motets in December 2008.

Morricone has so many AMAZING soundtracks in which to draw from, a few of my other favorite western titles are:

Il Grande Silnezio (The Great Silence): a brutal and dark film with an unexpectedly Somber and BEAUTIFUL soundtrack. The main theme to this film is perhaps one of my favorite Morricone musical moments.

I Crudeli (known as The Hellbenders in the US): When I first watched this film and heard the soundtrack I was pretty so so about it…until the final scene when an aging and defeated Joseph Cotton realizes that everything has gone terribly wrong and he simply gives up and slides large dirt mound. That THEME made me rethink and rehear the entire soundtrack.

Le Resa Die Conti (The Big Gundown): Not only does Morricone draw upon the theme from Beethoven’s Fur Elise (but with a Spanish guitar twist!), but he also includes one of the most driving and harsh guitar pieces in western cinema history.

One of Morricone’s few and true equals (and also a good friend) was composer Bruno Nicolai, he and composer Marcello Giombini scored a series of films know in the US as the Sabata trilogy. In this case I can say that the scores are far superior to the films themselves (this is not uncommon for this period). Nicolai also conducted many of Morricone’s scores.

Perhaps the GROOVIEST of all of the composers of this period was Piero Piccioni. What he brought to the genre was a real zest for funk and pure acid. His scores still sound as modern and fierce as the day they were recorded.

Definitely one of my favorite soundtracks of all time is Riz Ortalani’s score to the film “Day of Anger”. It’s a perfect combo of Morricone like orchestration with BOMBASTIC John Barry-like strings and that same amazing and harsh western surf guitar. A TRUE Masterwork.

So what is it exactly that makes this music so special? Well perhaps it’s the truly unique / postmodern approach to the compositions, the combinations of Spanish / Mexican Trumpet, gritty surf-like guitar, the lonesome whistle, the angelic choruses and ethereal voices, the almost pop melodies. All of these elements combine to make a kind of music never before heard and impossible to repeat.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.572051

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In February of this year I began an email exchange with composer (and Bang on a Can) member David Lang. A few months previous (November of ‘08) Naxos released a fantastic and intriguing CD of David’s compositions titled Pierced. Then in January of ‘09 Medici Arts / EUROARTS released Bang on a Can’s Music for Airports DVD (a brilliant aural and visual experience based upon the Eno composition of course) which aslo came through Naxos of America. It was in fact this email exchange with David and our discussion about his music that inspired me to do this series of artist interviews.

What I find so fascinating about David’s music is its direct sonic link to what we now call “Indie Rock”. His homage to the Velvet Underground is a fine illustration of this link. It is however pieces like Pierced and Cheating, Lying, Stealing with their organic and almost awkward loops, the spaces and hesitations that flow within that circular-like sound which really grab and propell the listener. There are moments where I feel like I’m listening to some form of post-modernly abstract electronica. Enough of this! Here’s David.

CR: What are 5 recordings (different genres if possible) that shaped / shapes your personal musical landscape?
DAVID:-The Joseph Papp production of the Ralph Mannheim translation of Brecht / Weill Three Penny Opera
-The (1973?) Steve Reich recording of Violin Phase and It’s Gonna Rain
-Leonard Bernstein’s first recordings of Shostakovich’s 1st and 9th Symphonies
-The first Velvet Underground record, with the Andy Warhol yellow banana cover
-Bob Dylan - World Gone Wrong

CR: Now speaking specifically about “Classical Music” what pieces / composers have totally blown your mind and helped shape who you are sonically today?
DAVID:
Glass - Einstein on the Beach
Reich - Drumming
Stockhausen - Stimmung
Berlioz - Harold in Italy
Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame
Andreissen - De Staat
Bach - Goldberg Variations

CR: Can you give us 5 visuals that helped shape that person that is you….these could be moments, a cereal box, a toy, a piece of art, a movie, a television show…whatever…
DAVID: I am not at all a visual person.

CR: We talk a lot about cultures and sub-cultures and how it pertains to music and art, what “culture” do you see you and your music being part of? What “Sub-culture / Subcultures” do you or have you indentified with and why / how?
DAVID: My sub-culture is a kind of no-mans-land between experimental classical and experimental pop musics. One of the interesting things going on right now is that classical music’s gravitational field is pretty weak, and creative young musicians who in past centuries would have been steered towards classical music now go straight to indie pop. there is now a growing part of the pop world that wants its music to be questioning, unusual, uncompromising, not always easy or pleasant to listen to. Those are all the traits we used to want from new classical music as well….

CR: Can you put into words your creative process?
DAVID: I like to think about why I like the things I like. What this means compositionally is that a lot of my music comes from examining myself, about why certain kinds of music make me feel good or bad. the piece that won the Pulitzer - ‘the little match girl passion’ - began with me thinking about how strange it is that Jewish classical music lovers spend so much time loving music from the past that worships Jesus. Christianity is central to much of the canon of western music - I know more about Christianity than many Christians I know, simply because I love Bach and Monteverdi and Perotin. After years of thinking about how weird this was I decided to write a piece about it. Likewise, my piece ‘pierced’ came out of years of thinking about the history of the concerto - how we take it for granted that a musical form is about a certain kind of argument between an individual and a group, a heroic depiction of the struggle of one noble person changing all society. What if we wanted to make a piece that was based on a different model of human interaction? What if a concerto was about two groups of people ignoring each other, but whose mutual ignorance added up to something that neither group could achieve by itself? I wrote ‘pierced’ after years of thinking such thoughts.

CR: When do you feel you do your best work?
DAVID: When my children get off to school in the morning I am so happy to be in alone my studio that I find it very easy to work!

CR: What are you working on this very moment?
DAVID: I am rewriting Beethoven’s only opera FIDELIO - not the music, which of course is amazing and utterly untouchable, but the libretto, which has real problems, and which Beethoven himself knew needed some help. I am making my own version of the story, taking out most of the mushy love stuff and focusing on the politics.

CR: Can you create for me a 15 track compilation of music / sound (list the pieces you would put on this compilation)
DAVID: in no particular order:
-Kurt Weill - ballad in which macheath begs all men for forgiveness
-Pere ubu - the modern dance
-Michael Gordon - yo, shakespeare
-Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen - din tavshed
-Evan Ziporyn - tsmindao ghmerto
-Radiohead - everything in its right place
-julia wolfe - early that summer
-John Cage - six melodies
-Brian Eno - music for airports, 1:1
-Marc Blitzstein - the nickel under your foot
-X - the world’s a mess it’s in your kiss
-Frank Zappa - willie the pimp part 2, from fillmore east
-Xenakis - psappha
-Glenn Branca - lesson #1
-Meredith Monk - facing north

All of the music in this podcast comes from the CD Taliban Dances, which features Winstin in all four different roles.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: ERM ERM-5555

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Being released just in time for the 84^th anniversary of its first performance, Ravel received the script for L’enfant et les sortilèges from French novelist Colette in 1917 but did not complete the work until 1924. The opera tells the story of an ill-behaved child who meets a rude awakening when the inanimate objects in his nursery and garden come to life and turn on him. The libretto offers many opportunities for the soloists to provide witty depictions of the various objects that seek their revenge on the young child, such as the damaged grandfather clock, the belligerent teapot, the Ragtime singing teacups, the personification of arithmetic (a crazed professor), and the duet by the amusing cats.

Ravel told his friend Hélène Jourdan-Morhange that L’enfant contained many musical styles: Massenet, Puccini, Monteverdi and American musical comedy. In creatively weaving these many moods, Ravel surely found a lighthearted way to convey that message that actions have consequences and that a civilized society would not exist without care for the world around us.

Shéhérazade is actually the title of two works by Ravel. The first is Shéhérazade, ouverture de féerie, written in 1898 for orchestra. The second (Shéhérazade), which is heard on this recording, was written in 1903 as a song cycle for orchestra after three poems by Tristan Klingsor: Asie, La flûte enchantée, and L’indifférent.

This podcast introduces the man, and three of his works for the theatre.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.570723

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

In this podcast, he talks about the guitar, and about performing the music of J.S. Bach.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Azica ACD-71250

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: Naxos 8.559601

Subscribe to Podcast: Enhanced* | Regular | iTunes Store
Download this Episode: AAC* | MP3

* enhanced version of the podcast contains chapter markers and cover art.

Two special overseas guests were also there: Ekaterine Diasamidze and Shorena Kopaleishvili from Radio Muza in the Republic of Georgia. It’s the only classical music station in that country.

Every time I hear about the current problems here in North America, I think of the folks at Radio Muza, and what they face. Their country has been invaded. Parts of it are still occupied. Yet they still keep their station running 24 hours a day, as determined as ever to make sure everyone can enjoy the music.

They understand that in difficult times, music is more important than ever.

If you want to check them out, they are on the web at www.radiomuza.ge. Every Tuesday and Friday they have a special program dedicated to Georgian music and performers. Very cool music that doesn’t often make it to North America.

These inter-city buses want to entertain their passengers (though one only has too look around!) so it is de rigeur to have a video machine playing Bollywood movies end to end at an EXCRUCIATING volume. From Rajgir to Bodh Gaya I made the bad mistake of sitting near the front, close to the speakers. No chance of moving as the aisle as well as the roof and the back window bracket were full. It is a two hour journey.

I didn’t think much about Josef Haydn’s String Quartets then, nor during the two Indian classical concerts I had the good fortune to hear on my travels.

The first one was in Sarnath, rather curiously in Dr Jain’s Paying Guest House (v. clean, v. basic, 250 rupees a night and it has my unreserved recommendation).

Dr Jain (with the help of an American sponsor) has started free schools for the village children who otherwise would not get an education.

The sitar player and the tabla player sat on an improvised platform in the lobby/dining room and we all crowded around as best we could. They had just come from recording a concert for All India radio in nearby Varanasi – rather different circumstances! – but here they were playing to support the schools project.

It was exceptionally good and the chamber environment only intensified the event.

The second concert was in one of those massive Indian tents accommodating 500 and more on a plot of land on the edge of Bodh Gaya. It was the concluding programme in a week’s convention: a star tabla player with a sarangi player (a soulful bowed instrument played a bit like a cello, though the musician is sitting on the ground.

After one bus too many, I took to the road...

In the West, we normally think of the tabla player as accompanying the sitar. But here it was (generally) the tabla that took the lead. It wasn’t just the complex rhythms that held everyone mesmerised but a growing awareness of the hugely varied consonants and vowels which coloured and shaped the sound. If only the musician’s verbal and instrumental explanation had been recorded! It has changed the way I will listen to the tabla in the future.

I am still in Bodh Gaya as I write this and have the atmosphere of the final raga in my mind. But for this March blog I need to turn my attention to Haydn.

What Haydn would have made of the remarkable improvisations integral to Indian music we will never know.
I bet he would have listened with approving amazement. He was himself an improviser as all musicians of his era were expected to be. His well-attested generosity of spirit would have leapt any cultural gap with ease. By contrast, I am not so sure about Beethoven.

This year we are marking the 200th anniversary of Haydn’s death with the complete symphonies, quartets, oratorios, and much more on Naxos, our parent label, and I cannot recommend too highly Jeremy Siepmann’s audiobiography, which looks at all the key aspects of Haydn’s Life and works, illustrated with long excerpts of music.

It is part of his Life and Music series available from Naxos AudioBooks on CD or to download… they are all both informative and entertaining.

Jeremy also reads Discover Music of the Romantic Era, written by David McCleery which again with words and music, charts the development of Western Classic music in the nineteenth century.

To listen to Haydn quartets is a joy at almost any time… but I didn’t feel I could listen to them as I travelled around India.

However, tomorrow I will have a 12 hour train journey from Bodh Gaya to Delhi before boarding the plane for London… so I think I will don my Bose noise cancelling headphones, turn on my iPod and start with Jeremy’s portrait of Haydn. It will be the proper preparation for a treat I have promised myself this year – listening to all the quartets.