Mahani Teave RAPA NUI ODYSSEY

 

RAPA NUI ODYSSEY

 

Rufus Müller / Hammer Clavier Trio OH SWEET WERE THE HOURS

 

OH SWEET WERE THE HOURS

 

Wilde Roses WOVEN

 

WOVEN

 

Sébastien Hurtaud / New Zealand Symphony Orchestra / Benjamin Northey GARETH FARR | EDWARD ELGAR Cello Concertos

 

CELLO CONCERTOS

 

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Owain Arwel Hughes SIBELIUS Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3

 

SYMPHONIES Nos. 1 & 3

 

Marcin Świątkiewicz BACH Goldberg Variations

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

Chloë Hanslip / Danny Driver / Kuss Quartet / Trio Isimsiz BEETHOVEN Great Chamber Works (digital compilation)

                                                      GREAT CHAMBER WORKS

Lidy Blijdorp JOURNEYERS

                                                                    JOURNEYERS

Johanna Rose HISTOIRES D'UN ANGE

One of the most peculiar features of the arts in the lavish Versailles court of the Sun King was his conservatism. His instrumental music produced a series of dances during decades, the so-called suites, of unchangeable composition, barely reminding us of old rhythms like the gallarda or the pavana which made room for novelties such as the gigue or the sarabande, installed from then on for future decades. 

The gambist Marin Marais, referred to as the angel for his delecacy in comparison to the devil Forqueray, played a central role in that little but great world of short melodic stories, charming subtleties, delicate ornaments and changing repertoire - Changes that made everything remain the same. Surely De Visée, a musician like Marais from the Sun King's own chamber, accompanied him dozens of times on the theorbo and the guitar.Our concert, a close visit to that court environment, will take the form of a large suite, initiated by a prelude in improvised style, followed by exotic pieces of a - merely apparent - goût étranger, truly as familiar as the allemande or the rondeau. To finish, like the great operas of Lully, there will be a series of imposed variations such as the chaconne and the folia, that will bring us echoes of that majestic, albeit intimate and decadent world which reached its maximum brilliance on the eve of its extinction.

Baltic Chamber Orchestra / Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht Op.4 - HONEGGER Symphony No. 2

Schoenberg’s early String Sextet ‘Verklärte Nacht’ (Transfigured Night) op.4 dates from 1899. He made the arrangement for string orchestra in 1943. It is a work heavily indebted to Wagner, and especially ‘Tristan und Isolde’ although the unique voice of Schoenberg is already apparent.

‘Gurrelieder’ and ‘Pelleas und Melisande’ would bring the curtain down on his late romantic period and the daring atonal music that has caused him to remain a musical bogey man for many would follow. Verklärte Nacht is a wonderful, intensely moving work and the ideal introduction to this great composer.

Honegger , famous today for his depiction in music of an express steam locomotive ‘Pacific 231’ and the game of rugby in the eponymous work for orchestra composed five symphonies. The second is scored for strings and trumpet . Composed for Paul Sacher and his Basel Chamber Orchestra it was written during the darkest years of World War II. The Nazis had banned Honegger’s music and he was branded as ‘leftist’, composing music for films for resistance cinema. It is a powerful work with a lament -like central slow movement and an energetic choral theme in the finale providing a sense of triumphant resolution.

The Baltic Chamber Orchestra’s first release for Rubicon – Strauss Metamophosen and Shostakovich Chamber Symphony was praised by the BBC Music Magazine and made an orchestral CD of the month upon release. This new album looks set to receive a similarly positive reception.

Fenella Humphreys / Covent Garden Sinfonia / Ben Palmer THE FOUR SEASONS RECOMPOSED

I would love to record the original Four Seasons one day. I think that of any work in the violin repertoire Vivaldi gives you so much scope for creativity and colour, particularly through his written descriptions and sonnets, that you could never come to the end of the possibilities contained within the music. I never learnt them as a kid and then avoided them for years, partly because I’d become so accustomed to hearing them in the background that I didn’t realise how brilliant they really are. When I was finally booked to perform them a few years ago, and forced to learn them, I was actually really pleased to be coming to them fresh and without preconceptions.

For this project we would have been quite pushed to fit both sets of Seasons (Vivaldi and Richter) on a single disc. Richter’s Seasons deserves to be heard on its own terms, rather than in a direct comparison like that, and it felt right for this disc to put his music in a different context. (Fenella Humphreys)

Peter Moore / James Baillieu LIFE FORCE

Don’t judge this disc by its cover. The artwork is the usual moody monochrome of a young soloist in a vaguely industrial setting – so far, so contemporary. But the contents are something else entirely: music chosen by Peter Moore because, he says, it ‘feels special to me’ and which, taken together, portrays a young trombonist with a deeply romantic soul. There’s something disarmingly likeable about an artist who feels as warmly about, say, Thoughts of Love – a sugar-coated concert waltz by Arthur Pryor, formerly of Sousa’s band – as he does about Mahler’s ‘Urlicht’, and who plays both with such genuine sympathy.

Moore is helped at every stage of the way by his duet partner, James Baillieu – who supports him with the same sensitivity to mood and colour that he brings to Lieder. And this is a real partnership: the way Baillieu teases gently at the piano part of the slow movement from Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata, or generates a hushed, pregnant space at the opening of Brahms’s Op 121 songs, very audibly gives Moore something to work with and helps shape the direction of his long, carefully phrased lines.

The Brahms, Bruch and Mahler transcriptions, with their prevailingly sombre atmosphere, perhaps convince more fully than Schumann’s more mercurial Fantasiestücke – though Moore and Baillieu find something distinctive to say in everything here. I hope Moore will take it as the compliment that’s intended when I say that his pianissimo tone in the Schumann is reminiscent of a horn. And that the two ‘lollipops’ – the Pryor and the amusingly jaunty Concerto by Friedebald Gräfe – have just as much character, providing enjoyable contrast in a predominantly serious (though always beautiful) recital. (Richard Bratby / Gramophone)

Christoph König / Soloists Européens Luxembourg SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9 in C "Great" D944 BERIO "Rendering" after Schubert Symphony No. 10 in D, D936a

Just before his death in 1828 at the age of just 31, Franz Schubert was at work on his 10th Symphony in D major D936a, and had signed up for counterpoint lessons with Simon Sechter, who later taught the young Anton Bruckner. The 10th was destined to become yet another unfinished Schubert work, and his 6th unfinished symphony, but the extensive sketches are fascinating and show Schubert clearly moving into new sound worlds that anticipate Mahler in the central slow movement. Berio’s ingenious work ‘Rendering’ brings Schubert’s sketches alive by creating a new work around and within the framework of the unfinished symphony.

Gabriele Carcano SCHUMANN Humoreske - Davidsbündlertänze

Italian pianist Gabriele Carcano was the recipient of a Borletti - Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award in 2010 and has been described as “a sculptor of sound” and an “aesthete” by the Süddeutsche Zeitung after his Munich debut in the famous Herkulesaal. Since then Carcano has appeared in many of the world’s major venues in recital and with major orchestras. 

He was invited by Mitsuko Uchida to the Marlboro Festival four times and Uchida is one of the great pianists who has tutored Carcano - the others are Richard Goode and Alfred Brendel.

Brendel and Carcano worked closely on the preparation of this all Schumann programme. Gabriele will also appear on a second Rubicon album this year in partnership with violinist Stephen Waarts in a programme of Bartok and Schumann.

His debut album, an all Brahms recital for Oehms Classics, was highly praised by the BBC Music Magazine and Radio 3 Record Review, as well as Fonoforum and NDR in Germany, winning a Supersonic award in Pizzicato magazine.

Christian Svarfvar BRUCH - STENHAMMAR

Christian Svarfvar has emerged as one of Scandinavia's most sought after concert violinists. His 2013 debut album on Sterling Records was praised by the Financial Times who insisted, ''we must hear more from him.'' Svarfar has worked with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated on chamber projects with contemporary composers including Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Howard Shore and Anders Hillborg. On his first album for Rubicon, Svarfar features one of the best loved of all 19th century concertos, Max Bruch's evergreen Violin Concerto No.1. Wilhelm Stenhammar's warmly romantic Violin Sonata and Sentimental Romances complete the recording.

European Opera Centre / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Laurent Pillot MOZART Così fan tutte

A Cosi with a difference: studies of the composer’s manuscript by Ian Woodfield reveal that Mozart was undecided whether to ‘cross’ the lovers or keep them uncrossed. Key passages are altered often to startling effect – Ferrando opens the opera singing ‘La mia Fiordiligi’ and not the usual ‘la mia Dorabella’. Phrases such as ‘Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo’ (Turn your gaze upon him) appear in Mozart’s own catalogue as ‘Rivolgete a me’ (Turn you gaze to me) , and although ‘lui’ is in another hand, Mozart had left blank spaces to be filled in later – an indication of his indecision about the pairings. This brilliant aria, cut from the final version is restored in this performance. With the reinstatement of the brilliant ‘Rivolgete’, Guglielmo is in a position to cede his large Act II aria ‘Donne mie’ to Don Alfonso who, unusually for a major character in an opera buffa, has no true aria, his tiny arioso in Act I (‘Vorrei dir’) being little more than a comic caricature. With no opportunity to reveal himself in an extended musical statement, he remains an aloof figure, a philosopher, a puppet master controlling the experiment. Although ‘Donne mie’ presents a misogynist ‘overview’ of the behaviour of women, its performer at least claims to like them. In that sense, ‘my ladies’ receive a slightly ironical and patronising defence in the manner adopted by this character in his summation of the outcome of the experiment in ‘Tutti accusan le donne’. As sung by Guglielmo, however, ‘Donne mie’ can only be taken as a generic aside, since it expresses a view of women diametrically opposed to the one he is advocating so robustly in the main drama.

In the climactic duet between Ferrando and Fiordiligi, indecision is again to be seen precisely in the use of pronouns. It makes a big difference to Ferrando whether he is attempting to seduce his own lover or Guglielmo’s. As he sees Fiordiligi about to waver, he is suddenly unsure as to how he should react; Fiordiligi recognises that her constancy is under threat, but in the balancing phrase, Mozart could not decide whether Ferrando should refer to her constancy (‘la sua costanza’) my constancy (‘la mia costanza’) or even your constancy (‘la tua costanza’). There are multiple crossings out. At the end of ‘Come scoglio’ when everyone on-stage is reeling from the ferocity of Fiordiligi’s dismissal of the men, one of them has to take the lead in attempting to detain her. As the two men are still working as a pair, it was perhaps thought not to matter much, but if it did, then clearly the man setting himself up as Fiordiligi’s future partner should be the one to address her. Mozart had a double change of mind at the start of the ensuing recitative ‘Ah non partite!’ (Ah, do not leave!), setting these words first for Ferrando, then for Guglielmo and then for Ferrando again. Obviously the choice did have some significance.

Stephen Waarts / Gabriele Carcano BARTÓK - SCHUMANN

‘From the first note of Stephen Waarts’ Brahms G major sonata I was hooked, and within a few bars I was moved to tears’ (The Strad)

‘Stephen Waarts gave an outstanding debut at the Kennedy Centers’s Terrace Theater...Waarts showed an uncommon, preternatural sense of tonal color and lyrical beauty on the instrument’ (The Washington Post)

‘Mr Waarts showed himself a technically accomplished and musically insightful artist..’ (The New York Times)

Stephen Waarts’ innate and individual musical voice is establishing him as a firm favourite with audiences. With a voracious appetite for repertoire, Stephen has already performed over thirty standard, as well as rarely performed violin concertos, and is a passionate chamber musician.

For his debut recording Stephen has chosen the rarely played Schumann 1st violin sonata and the Three Romances, and the demanding 1st sonata by Bartok, and his Hungarian Folktunes. He is accompanied by fellow Rubicon artist Gabriele Carcano.

Venera Gimadieva / The Hallé / Gianluca Marcianò MOMENTO IMMOBILE

Bel canto opera is a plethora of paradoxes and these are most powerfully embodied by the prima donna herself. Pure and passionate, alluring and alarming, desirable and dangerous, she is a woman who, driven by uncontainable desire or righteousness, defies or disregards social convention in her search for what might be deemed a more modern form of self-expression and freedom. She articulates a luxurious femininity which sonically embodies the female form and is both emancipatory and intimidating. Undeniably powerfully sensual, she was – and is – subject to patriarchal and social control; innocent, spiritual and soulful, she suffers, is sick and must be destroyed. The melismatic madness of the heroine speaks of a ‘mania’ that is not alien to contemporary notions of a neurosis afflicting modern woman. Does her vocal intensity make us idealise her, or crave and command her sacrifice? At the start of the 21st century, do we recognise her voice as our own? Or is it, as Michel Poizat argues, ‘the angel’s cry’, an inarticulate expression of the soul at both the pinnacle of its power and the moment of death: a momento immobile. (Claire Seymour)

Elicia Silverstein THE DREAMS & FABLES I FASHION

Violinist Elicia Silverstein is rapidly garnering praise on the international stage for her nuanced, bold and insightful performances of repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Recently named a 2018 BBC Music Magazine Rising Star, Silverstein is equally at home as performer on historical and modern instruments, as a soloist with orchestra, giving recitals and playing chamber music.  Her inventive and thoughtful approach to concert programming, as well as the sincerity and exuberance she brings to musical communication, distinguishes Silverstein as one of the most important voices of her generation.

Rubicon Classics presents: The Dreams & Fables I Fashion Elicia Silverstein's groundbreaking new album - a musical fantasy in which past, present and future meet and inspire each other...

Christoph König / Solistes Européens Luxembourg MÉHUL Symphony No. 1 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"

‘For our first live recording on Rubicon Classics we have been thinking carefully which repertoire to choose from. When we observe music history and its repercussion on our times, it can be rather puzzling that our view of some of the most famous and influential composers seems to be rather monochromatic. We emphasise the influence of composers like Bach and Beethoven on their own and later generations of musicians, and tend to neglect the reciprocal influence all their contemporaries have had on them. In this sense it is striking to see the influence composers of the French Revolution - Grétry, Méhul, and Gossec and the Italian (but French based) Cherubini exerted on Ludwig van Beethoven.

More so, because they are generally forgotten whilst Beethoven - and Bach for that matter - remain pillars of classical music. For a long time it has been my wish to juxtapose in concert and recording works by Méhul and Beethoven. Especially the last movement of Méhul’s First Symphony in G minor is a puzzling reminder of how embedded Beethoven actually was in a much wider field of musical activity than nowadays perceived and what he, only a short time later, has achieved with very similar material, style, and attitude’. (Christoph König)