Kate Lindsey / Baptiste Trotignon THOUSANDS OF MILES

 

THOUSANDS OF MILES

 

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Edward Gardner VERKLÄRTE NACHT

 

VERKLÄRTE NACHT

 

Emmanuel Pahud / Paul Meyer / Daishin Kashimoto / Zvi Plesser / Éric Le Sage VIENNE 1900

VIENNE 1900

Liza Ferschtman ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD Violin Concerto, Op. 35 LEONARD BERNSTEIN Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium”

                             ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD - LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Veronika Shoot JOURNEY THROUGH CHILDHOOD

Born in Moscow, Veronika moved to the UK at the age of five when her father Vladislav Shoot became the composer-in-residence at Dartington Hall. By the age of seven years old she had performed her first recital at the Dartington International Summer School music festival.

Veronika is dedicated to creating compelling and innovative programmes that can be performed to a wide audience. She is also a strong believer in the importance of musical education, and has a great joy in sharing her passion for music. In recent projects she devised a series of workshops in schools combining music and art that the students found “the most exciting” of its kind. Veronika was recently appointed ‘Music Ambassador’ for SaMM (the Saturday morning music school at King Edward VI Community College).

Her debut album “Journey Through Childhood” featuring an array of childhood-inspired music, including well-known masterpieces by Debussy and Schumman, rarely heard musical gems by Lyadov, Korngold and Takemitsu, and the first ever recording of “Children’s Album” by Vladislav Shoot, the Artist’s father, is released on May 10th 2019 on the Ulysses Arts record label and is available for purchase on iTunes, Idagio and all major streaming platforms.

Hila Baggio / Jerusalem Quartet THE YIDDISH CABARET

By juxtaposing Leonid Desyatnikov’s contemporary song settings of Yiddish texts (offering a glimpse into Jewish life in Warsaw during the Weimar Republic) with a pair of chamber works by Schulhoff and Korngold, which also date from this troubled period between the wars, the present recording highlights the fascinating crosspollination then taking place in the music of Eastern and Western Europe.

With soprano Hila Baggio as their featured soloist, members of the Jerusalem Quartet bid us “come to the cabaret” to savour a whole range of stylistic approaches and emotional experiences of the rarest kind.

Quatuor Modigliani PORTRAITS

Modigliani, one of the greatest portrait painters, is the inspiration for this journey made up of pieces with unique characters. Designed as a portrait gallery, this new opus brings together masterpieces and discoveries. The look or here the ear, linger on the curves, the lines, the singular melodic drawing of each of these partitions. Filigree is another portrait, that of the quartet.

Baiba Skride AMERICAN CONCERTOS

“America, you are better off” – wrote Goethe in 1827, weary of German Romanticism and the 'fruitless wrangling' of sterile debates.

A century later, the New World experienced an unprecedented wave of migration consisting of leading figures, largely Jewish, from the cultural and intellectual spheres of Germany and Austriia, composers were able to immerse themselves in the new world of sound film in Hollywood. However, few were able to reap those rewards to the fullest. Among those few, who were able to make their way through pragmatism and perseverance, were Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Miklós Rózsa – both regularly nominated for Oscars. While making a living from this genre of 'music drama', each of them – whether or not they were recognized by the classical music business – sought to push the limits of the traditional formats and were remarkably successful in doing so.

'If you’re Heifetz, I’m Mozart!' Taking a phone call, Rózsa could scarcely believe that the legendary virtuoso was seriously interested in his Violin Concerto and was ready to give the work its premiere – but so he did in 1956. It was the same with the Violin Concerto by Korngold, Rózsa’s senior by ten years: the 1947 premiere of this twentiethcentury classic again showcased Heifetz as soloist. In the new generation of genuinely American musicians, one outstanding figure was Leonard Bernstein, an all-rounder whose early success led on to even greater heights: here too, one can hardly ignore his contribution to film music, even if it amounts to one single film. Bernstein rated his Violin Concerto of 1954, 'Serenade', inspired by Plato’s Symposium, as his best work ever, and this work too in its imaginatively slimmed-down scoring for string orchestra, harp and percussion is now acknowledged to be an important 20th-century concerto for violin. Isaac Stern performed the premiere of the work with the composer conducting. As an encore', this compilation includes the masterly Symphonic Dances from the immortal 'West Side Story', which has long risen above the 'fruitless wrangling' over 'light' and 'serious' music. The very different challenges posed by all three concertos are brilliantly overcome by Baiba Skride, whose unquestionable virtuosity nevertheless takes second place to the immediacy of her musical language and expression.

Caroline Goulding / Symphonieorchester / Kevin John Edusei KORNGOLD & MOZART Violin Concertos

 For nearly a decade, the virtuoso violinist Caroline Goudling has performed with the world’s premier orchestras, in recital and on record and has blossomed from “precociously gifted” (Gramophone) 13-year-old soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra to “a skilled violinist well on her way to an important career” (Washington Post).

"Re-emerging from a seven-month pause from concertizing to focus her attention on meditative practices and the merging of meditation and music, Caroline is reopening the 2018 season with the release of her third album on Claves Records." Caroline has studied with Christian Tetzlaff, Donald Weilerstein, Paul Kantor, Joel Smirnoff and Julia Kurtyka. A past member of the Stradivari Society, Caroline currently plays a Giovanni Battista Rogeri (1675), courtesy of Peter and Cathy Halstead.

Jiyoon Lee / Odense Symphony Orchestra / Kristiina Poska KORNGOLD - NIELSEN Violin Concertos

Orchid Classics releases the debut album of Jiyoon Lee, the 26 year old South Korean violinist who won joint first prize of the 2016 Carl Nielsen International Competition. The album was recorded in Odense, home of the Carl Nielsen Competition in Denmark, together with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kristiina Poska in June 2017 as a part of the competition prize. 

Alongside the Nielsen violin concerto, which Jiyoon Lee performed at the finals of the 2016 competition, she has chosen to record Korngold’s violin concerto. "To understand the musical language of Carl Nielsen was the most challenging part" explains Jiyoon, "but his music is fascinating and the the concerto is a wonderful piece for the violin. It might seem a little exotic at first, but once you understand it, you really can appreciate his musical world."

It was Jiyoon’s performance at the Carl Nielsen Violin Competition which led the President of the Jury, Nikolaj Znaider, to comment "When you sit on a jury you are looking for somebody who makes you forget that it is a competition and I remember very clearly hearing Jiyoon play for the first time in 2016 and she did just that. Her playing was immediately a breath of fresh air. She is a terrific violinist and I can see her going very far. She has lightness in her playing and yet is a musician who takes her craft very seriously."

Such praise has marked the 26 year old violinist out as a genuine talent to watch. Born in 1992 in South Korea, Jiyoon comes from a musical family. She studied with Nam-Yun Kim at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul and moved to Berlin to continue her studies with Kolja Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’. Alongside her growing list of solo engagements, Jiyoon Lee was this month appointed the youngest ever concert-master of the Staatskapelle Berlin and is a devoted chamber musician who participates in music festival across the world, including both Verbier and Tanglewood. On 24 June she performs at the Boulez Saal in a chamber music programme together with Antonio Pappano and returns in February 2018 for a solo recital in the "Rising Stars" programme. With pianist Henry Kramer, Jiyoon will release a second CD on the Champs Hill label early this autumn entitled "Myths", featuring works by Szymanowski, Stravinsky, Bartok, Ravel and Wieniawski.

Since the 2016 Carl Nielsen Violin Competition Nikolaj Znaider has invited Jiyoon Lee to perform as soloist in concerts which he has conducted with both the Poznan Philharmonic (Mozart Concerto in G Major, KV216) and Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea (Mendelssohn Violin Concerto). Jiyoon returns to Denmark in March 2019 to perform with the Carl Nielsen National Academy Orchestra and Marek Janowski as a part of the celebrations to launch the next Carl Nielsen International Competition.

Juliane Banse IM ARM DER LIEBE

Juliane Banse's current concept album, entitled "Love’s Embrace”, is devoted to orchestral Lieder of the early twentieth century and presents works and composers who have been very unjustly forgotten. The romantic lyrics have catchy melodies and lightweight orchestration; they are easily on a par with the well-known orchestral Lieder by Mahler or Strauss. An excellent opportunity to regain familiarity with Late Romantic orchestral Lieder by Hans Pfitzner, Joseph Marx, Walter Braunfels and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and to experience them in exemplary interpretations.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Golden Age of the orchestral piano Lied and the original orchestral Lied had begun - with Hugo Wolf and, above all, Gustav Mahler. “Away with the piano!" was the latter's fierce demand: "We moderns need a larger device to express our thoughts, whether great or small.” Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Reger thought and composed in very much the same manner as such now-forgotten and soon to be finally rediscovered masters as Joseph Marx or Walter Braunfels.

In 1903, Pfitzner, for example, wrote his song "Infidelity and Consolation", which alternated between the popular sound” and artistic contrapuntal ambitions, and then orchestrated it: a "German folk song" from the pen of an intensely cerebral composer. In contrast, the Six Simple Songs op 9, composed from 1911 onwards by Erich Wolfgang Korngold - a childhood as well as a teenage prodigy - are by no means "simple"; instead they are artificial, refined, lightweight, melodically extravagant and harmoniously dazzling. The Graz composer Joseph Marx, once the most-performed living Austrian composer, represents the aspect of modernity that usually comes under the heading of “Late Romantic”; like Hugo Wolf, he also wrote music for an "Italian songbook" after Paul Heyse. The highly delicate "Three Chinese Songs" composed in the world war year of 1914 by Walter Braunfels, who was open to all the fine arts, were written for soprano and orchestra from the outset - but not merely as a footnote to once-fashionable exoticism. Like Mahler with his "Song of the Earth," Braunfels had been inspired by Hans Bethge's "Chinese Flute".

Together with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Sebastian Weigle, Juliane Banse recorded the orchestral Lieder in a studio production by the Bayerischer Rundfunk in March 2015.

Kate Lindsey / Baptiste Trotignon THOUSANDS OF MILES

Closing the distance between classical music and Broadway, between the old and new worlds, between opera and jazz... Thousands of Miles is born out of an encounter between two extraordinary performers: opera star Kate Lindsey and jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon.

For their debut joint album, Kate Lindsey and Baptiste Trotignon have produced a rich and varied programme around the songs of Kurt Weill, from Nanna’s Lied and Trouble Man, to classics from The Threepenny Opera and Lost in the Stars. The journey through three European languages brings the listener to the very beginnings of jazz, and features new arrangements and deft improvisations by the award-winning Trotignon. They also pay homage to three composers who, like Weill, were forced to leave their homelands in Germany and Austria, emigrating to the ‘new world’ of the United States of America and taking their stories and styles with them: Alma Mahler, Zemlinsky and Korngold. The disparate group are united by a shared narrative, their songs all speaking of intense longing and homesickness. Several songs have rarely been recorded before.

London-based, American mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey has thrilled audiences around the globe with her performances of Mozart and Purcell, but grew up steeped in the music of Broadway, from Gershwin to Cole Porter. She comments “the works on Thousands of Miles all share a deep, complex search for a sense of belonging, for a collective spirit, for a physical and emotional home. In exploring this idea, Baptiste and I brought together our two very different musical worlds. It was a journey where we both had to open ourselves up and make ourselves vulnerable, myself as a classically-trained singer, and Baptiste, who has rhythm in his DNA. Together, I hope we developed a deep mutual understanding of each other's musical language and used it to enrich our own.”

Ilya Gringolts / Copenhagen Phil / Santtu-Matias Rouvali / Julien Salemkour KORNGOLD - ADAMS Violin Concertos

Two twentieth century violin concertos, stylistically polar opposites, but with a common emphasis on melody. Written by two very different composers who nevertheless, each in his own time, rejected the mid-20th century ascendancy of atonality and the serial composition of music.

John Adams (b.1947) is a composer who does not like to be pinned down. Being branded a minimalist has not suited him any better than did the confines of his training in the twelve-tone system while he was a student at Harvard. Adams has said that “it’s taken me 20 years to escape the corrosive effects of graduate school.” Indeed, his style has continued to evolve since his early association with the so-called minimalists Philip Glass and Steve Reich. The term itself is a bit of a misnomer – it is difficult to point to anything minimal in Glass’ Einstein on the Beach or Reich’s Desert Music. Musicologist Richard Taruskin prefers the term “Pattern and Process” music, which highlights the tendency of these composers to set patterns in motion within dense, rhythmically complex textures, and then gradually morph these patterns over time. But perhaps what the term refers to – aside from the hallmark components of repetition and a steady, often entirely unchanging pulse – is the dearth of melody that typifies the style. Adams himself recognized the incompatibility of this particular element of his music with the genre of the violin concerto:

“I knew that if I were to compose a violin concerto I would have to solve the issue of melody. I could not possibly have produced such a thing in the 1980s because my compositional language was principally one of massed sonorities riding on great rippling waves of energy. Harmony and rhythm were the driving forces in my music of that decade; melody was almost non-existent.”

As if in reaction to having pushed melody aside for so long, the Violin Concerto, composed in 1993, is relentlessly, unforgivingly, melodic. Adams has called it “hypermelodic.” The entire piece is essentially one prolonged, continuously unfolding melody for the solo violin. Not that repetition as a device has disappeared from his music – the first movement sets the solo violin’s endless melody over persistent, steadily rising eighth-note figures in the orchestra. The second movement pays homage to a time-honoured repetitive form, one which moreover holds a cherished position in the violinist’s repertoire: the chaconne. Adams evokes a second duality here, beyond that of orchestra / solo instrument, with the association of a poem by American Robert Haas, “Body Through Which the Dream Flows.” The movement’s ethereal beauty is difficult to account for, but it is easy to imagine the solo violin’s fleeting, other-worldly imagery flowing through the sublime, yet corporeal sounds of the orchestra. The third movement is a satisfyingly virtuosic romp, with thrillingly “minimalist” writing for the orchestra, all the while maintaining unrelenting melodic invention in the solo violin part.

Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, premiered in 1947, might also be called “hypermelodic.” Korngold (1897-1957) himself noted that the concerto, “with its many melodic and lyric episodes was contemplated rather for a Caruso of the violin than for a Paganini.” Written at a time in music history where atonality held nearly undisputed sway in musically sophisticated circles (Korngold’s music is emphatically tonal, if harmonically complex), the work was the first in what Korngold hoped would be his triumphant return to concert music, after a long and celebrated career as Hollywood’s preeminent film composer. The piece contains material in each of its three movements from several of Korngold’s film scores, the rights to which he had shrewdly secured for himself in his contracts with the film studios.

Korngold in many ways single-handedly defined the genre of the film score, but in spite of his success he was plagued by the notion that he had sold his talents too cheaply – that a “true” composer wrote music for the concert hall and operatic stage. Korngold was well-established as an opera composer in Vienna when he came to Hollywood for the first time in 1934. He returned in 1938 to write the score for 1938’s ground-breaking Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. Hitler’s Anschluss in March of that year intervened, and Korngold elected to stay in California, vowing to support his family by writing music for films until Hitler was defeated. (Orchid Classics)

Ophélie Gaillard EXILES

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States, land of freedom, open to the world, a democracy concerned with human rights, attracted emigrants of all origins. Rightly or wrongly, the young nation, in full economic expansion, embodied a land of redemption for the composers brought together by Ophélie Gaillard.

After Alvorada, her globe-trotting cello leads us in the footsteps of Bloch, Korngold, Prokofiev, Chava Alberstein and Giora Feidmann, singing their exile, whether suffered or deliberately chosen. She makes us vibrate to the sound of a film score (Korngold’s Concerto), a prayer (From Jewish Life), an Hebraic narrative (Schelomo), a lullaby, a wedding dance… The spirit of celebration, tenderness, religious meditation: so many facets of daily life and the culture of several generations of Jewish immigrants, related by Ophélie Gaillard’s humanistic bow.

Neave Trio AMERICAN MOMENTS

Hailed by the magazine Fanfare as ‘having exceeded the Gold Standard and moved on to Platinum’, the Neave Trio has emerged as one of the finest young ensembles of its generation. It has been praised for its ‘bright and radiant music making’ by the critic Robert Sherman (WQXR Radio), and described as ‘a consummate ensemble’ by the Palm Beach Daily News and ‘a brilliant trio’ by MusicWeb International. Its debut at the Rockport International Chamber Music Festival was cited among the ‘Best of 2014’ by The Boston Musical Intelligencer, which wrote: ‘it is inconceivable that they will not soon be among the busiest chamber ensembles going.’ Its members originating from the US, Russia, and Japan, the Trio has performed on concert stages from Carnegie Hall in New York to venues in the UK, continental Europe, and Russia, bringing audiences to their feet and receiving the highest critical acclaim. Performances have been broadcast on radio stations across the United States and abroad, notably on American Public Media’s Performance Today, The McGraw-Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase on WQXR Radio (New York), as well as on WGBH Radio (Boston) and WXXI and WCNY Radio (New York). Previous recordings have been met with critical acclaim, included on the 2014 ‘Want List’ in Fanfare, and made Recording of the Month by MusicWeb International. The Trio has held artist residency positions at Brown University, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, San Diego State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and Concord Academy. As part of its mission to create new pathways for classical music and engage a wider audience, the Neave Trio frequently works with artists of all mediums. Notable collaborations include the world premiere performance of Klee Musings, a work dedicated to the Trio by the American composer Augusta Read Thomas, as well as multiple award-winning productions with dance companies and filmmakers.

Engage, Exchange, Connect. That is what this young American piano trio is all about, on stage as well as on this album, its very first.

Experience the group at its revelatory best in these idiomatic and fresh interpretations of early-twentieth-century American piano trios, by Foote, Korngold, and Bernstein.

As reported by WXQR radio, ‘Neave is actually a Gaelic name meaning “bright” and “radiant”, both of which certainly apply to this trio’s music making’. Praised for its ‘heart-on-sleeve performances’ (Classical New Jersey), the Neave Trio has been described as ‘A consummate ensemble’ (Palm Beach Daily News), ‘A revelation’ (San Diego Story), and ‘A brilliant trio…’ (MusicWeb International), one that has ‘exceeded the gold standard and moved on to platinum’ (Fanfare).

Isabelle Druet / Anne LeBozec SHAKESPEARE SONGS

There are thousands of vocal and instrumental settings of Shakespeare's texts, drawn from his comedies, tragedies and sonnets alike. The music celebrating his verse covers more than four centuries: this fascination has lived on into the 20th century and does not appear to be running out of steam.
A linguistic virtuoso, a master of human emotions, an expert in Machiavellian stories of intrigue and tyranny, and a bard of love and of the moment - these are but a few of the many facets of the Shakespearian message. We follow him into the heart of humanity and its excesses, from madness to the burlesque, from despair to bonhomie, from hatred of one's fellow man to universal love. So is it really surprising that so many composers in so many languages have used such a rich tapestry of humanity, or that we - the singers at the end of this great chain - have decided to devote a recital to him? Several figures recur: Ophelia “in her sweet madness” and Desdemona in her despair, two women of high birth, infinitely fragile, victims of the machinery of power, of the vengeance and jealousy that eats at the hearts of men. Also appearing regularly is the fool or jester, the only member of the court - where everyone is muzzled - who can tell the truth in the form of a caricature or lament.
But this program also has a certain lightness, for it too undergirds the world, and Shakespeare celebrates it with Silvia or Cymbeline: idealized female figures who are depicted with ardor, astonishment, and rapture.
Shakespeare shows us the path through this labyrinth. He knows where the world is headed.
Let's follow him! (Isabelle Druet & Anne Le Bozec)

Anne-Sophie Mutter MUTTERISSIMO The Art of Anne-Sophie Mutter

It was in August 1976 at the Lucerne Festival that Anne-Sophie Mutter first set foot on the world’s stage. She was thirteen at the time. The following year she made her Salzburg Whitsun Festival debut under Herbert von Karajan, and a year after that her first recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon. The words “child prodigy” inevitably appeared in the newspapers. “I was half-aware of what was being said,” the violinist recalls, “but it was of little interest to me. I knew that I was a child. And the ‘prodigy’ part struck me as somehow comical.” To become world-famous as a teenager practically overnight was gratifying, of course, but it was also an emotional and a mental challenge. “As a result I learnt from a very early age to adopt a realistic attitude to all that was written about me and to place a certain distance between it and my private life.” This down-to-earth attitude was to prove useful to Anne-Sophie Mutter, for what followed was an international career unlike that of any other subsequent violinist.

Universally considered as one of the greatest violinists of our time, Anne-Sophie Mutter’s stunning and multi-faceted music-making extends across masterworks from the full breadth of the violin repertoire.

Mutterissimo – The Art of Anne-Sophie Mutter is a selection of highlights from her discography, personally picked by Mutter herself, bringing together recordings that date for the most part from the last twenty years. It invites listeners to undertake two tours of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s multiple worlds of music:

The first explores the highways and byways of the core repertory and features well-known works for violin and orchestra by Dvořák and Schumann alongside less familiar pieces. The second one, often with Mutter’s long-standing piano partner, Lambert Orkis, combines virtuosity and light-heartedness; the popular and the surprising; and emotion and rhythmic energy. 

For many years Anne-Sophie Mutter has performed not only in major international concert halls but recently also in clubs, where a young audience, largely unconcerned with traditional rituals, reacts to the music much more spontaneously. It is only logical, therefore, that she increasingly uses social media to engage in a dialogue with her fans.

Vilde Frang BRITTEN - KORNGOLD Violin Concertos

Vilde Frang has long dreamed of recording the violin concertos of Erich Korngold and Benjamin Britten – two highly contrasted pieces, both written in the USA around the time of World War II, and a unique pairing. As The Strad magazine has said: “Vilde Frang … weaves an emotional narrative that is utterly spellbinding … it feels as though the music’s inner soul is being revealed for the very first time.”

Gramophone Recording of the Month: "These are urgently communicative, potentially transformative accounts of scores which, if no longer confined to the fringes of the repertoire, have yet to command universal admiration...Vilde Frang writes that it has long been her wish to bring together two of her favourite concertos. If you’ve been impressed by her previous releases you’ll already have this one marked down as a compulsory purchase and likely Awards contender."

The Guardian: "Her sound is superb – icy, fiery, whispered, ultra-rich – and her phrases pour out fearlessly, urgently. It’s a fresh and convincing performance."