Lavinia Meijer VISIONS

VISIONS

Xuefei Yang CLASSICAL GUITAR BY YANG XUEFEI

CLASSICAL GUITAR BY YANG XUEFEI

Emmanuel Pahud / Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Ivan Repušić DREAMTIME

DREAMTIME

Estellés / Iturriagagoitia / Apellániz / Rosado FIN DU TEMPS

FIN DU TEMPS

Duo Gazzana FIVE PIECES

FIVE PIECES

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.

Miyako Arishima TAKEMITSU - SZYMANOWSKI - CHOPIN - SEROCKI Works for Solo Piano

Steinway & Sons releases the debut album from up-and-coming Japanese pianist Miyako Arishima. The album blends two vastly different, yet kindred worlds: the Romantic, embodied by the music of Frédéric Chopin, and the twentieth century, represented by the works of Toru Takemitsu, Karol Szymanowski, and Kazimierz Serocki. 

Although the record heavily features Polish repertoire, Rain Tree Sketch by Toru Takemitsu, arguably the greatest Japanese composer of the twentieth century, kicks off the album. This piece, written in 1982, reflects the essence of Takemitsu’s composition style, blending Western themes with Japanese cultural roots. Although the piece is short, it focuses on the relationship between meticulously produced notes and silence.

There are two pieces by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski featured on this record: Métopes, Op. 29: Nausicaa, and 2 Mazurkas, Op. 62. The first of the two, Nausicaa, was written while the composer was under the sway of aesthetic impressions from Doric temple friezes at the Palermo museum, and as a result was heavily inspired by Greek mythology. The second, 2 Mazurkas, are later works which form the final opus of Szymanowski, and are distinct from the composer’s earlier works in their softer rhythmic contours and distinct arabesque character.

Three works by Frédéric Chopin, including 4 Mazurkas, Op. 33, the sixth of the composer’s mazurka sets, showcases the signature liveliness of the mazurka, a traditional Polish dance set in triple time, through nostalgic, popular melodies and elaborate minor-mode settings.

Rounding out the recording is the seven-part Suite of Preludes by Kazimierz Serocki, who would later become a radical representative of the Polish avant-garde. This piece is notable for its unorthodox incorporation of Arnold Schönberg’s famous twelve-tone serialism, and its blend of the Chopin-era and post-Chopin musical traditions.

Yu Kosuge FOUR ELEMENTS VOL. I: WATER

“Our daily life has become routinely convenient in today’s society. We can get in touch with others wherever we are and travel easily to anywhere. However, we could ask ourselves if our way of life is natural: is the depth of our relationships between one another, and the way of sharing time getting closer to the essence of humanity, or are we moving away from it? What is the meaning of our life nowadays? 

Through “Four Elements”, which are the most essential to our universe, I wish to face these questions with my audience. Passed on by many philosophers from diverse eras since before Christ, the four-element theory has been interpreted differently in each cultural, religious or national background, giving birth to myths and thoughts. Concerning music, the four elements inspired composers’ imaginations to create not only images or impressions but also works with profound metaphoric messages based on literature or philosophy. These abundant pieces differ widely from each other; from clear, subtle or pure to cruel, passionate or demonic. Even if belonging to a fantasy or imaginary world, their poetry and emotions are always connected with our reality. I would like to visit these works born by nature to explore the origin of this wonderful world and the beauty of our life itself.” (Yu Kosuge)

Lorelei Ensemble IMPERMANENCE

Migration of peoples across borders has shaped the human experience for millennia. While securing permanent shelter—a home—has become a goal for the majority of individuals in our world, migration remains one of our main strategies for survival. Today, tens of millions of individuals live a nomadic lifestyle as hunter gatherers or pastoralists. Pilgrims seek moral or spiritual significance through extended physical journeys. Immigrants and refugees seek freedom, stability, and safety in a new community or country. Whether physical or metaphysical, humanity survives by way of continuous movement—our culture, beliefs, and histories are marked by impermanence. Music functions as a container of meaning, a vehicle we have used for centuries to express and grapple with the ineffable. We want to capture music—to write it down with a notation that clearly defines and preserves our musical ideas for generations to come. Yet, we have struggled to create a collection of symbols that can fully express our intentions—intentions that go far beyond pitch and rhythm. With this evolution came an ever-expanding musical vocabulary, new levels of complexity, and an increased desire to prescribe performance practices with the pen. But music resists this containment—the possibilities precede and outlast the technology that seeks to write them down. The repertoire on this album is rife with symbolism and metaphor that further teases out concepts of impermanence, migration, and the transient nature of musical language. From the wordless vocalises of Takemitsu’s Windhorse depicting Tibetan nomads, to the 12th century polyphony of the Codex Calixtinus sung by pilgrims traveling along the Camino de Santiago, to the dramatic shifts of polyphonic style seen in the 15th century motets of Du Fay and the Turin Manuscript, to Peter Gilbert’s contemporary meditation on the phases of the moon—temporality is a common and unmistakable thread.

Yukyeong Ji REFLECTIONS

The young pianist Yukeong Ji has already had an impressive career. However, despite all the prizes and hymns of praise from the critics, she does not lose her footing. Her debut CD, featuring extremely rare repertoire by Uzong Choe, Toru Takemitsu, Bertold Hummel, Maurice Ravel and Olivier Messiaen, proves this. These are fascinating reflections in music, shedding new light on the works. Yukeong Ji plays crystal clear and with broad phrases. She breathes life into sophisticated literature and captivates the listener.

Reiko Fujisawa BACH Goldberg Variations TAKEMITSU Rain Tree Sketch II

Bach’s Goldberg Variations consists of an aria and 30 dazzling variations. The opening aria is a highly ornamented Sarabande. Melodic contour is wonderfully crafted as Bach explores a descending five-note pattern in a typically French style. However, from the first variation it becomes clear that melody is not the theme. Instead Bach produces variations on the bass line and its chord progression. In other words, it is a harmonic universe that Bach explores.

The thirty variations are generally divided into three groups: dance, canon and arabesque. Every third variation in the set is a canon that increases by its intervallic answer, beginning at the unison until Variation 27 which is a canon at the ninth. This final canon is particularly impressive as Bach leaves out the bass line, leaving a ‘pure’ canon between the upper voices. Such a feat is in itself a contrapuntal exercise in genius; more so as these variations are not heavy with cerebral skill, but instead, dance with sparkling lightness.

Tōru Takemitsu composed his Rain Tree Sketch II in 1992, in memory of Olivier Messiaen, the French composer who was a strong influence on Takemitsu. The title of the work was probably inspired by a quotation from a novel by Kenzaburo Oe, Atama no ii, Ame no Ki: “it was named the ‘rain tree’, for its abundant foliage continued to let fall rain drops from the previous night’s shower until the following midday. Its hundreds of thousands of tiny, finger-like leaves store up moisture, whereas other trees dry out at once.” The work is a dreamy meditation on the flow of life, and was Takemitsu’s last piano piece.

Sheila Arnold ÉCOUTEZ!

Claude Debussy left a profound mark on music history when he dissolved functional harmony under the influence of the music of the Far East. 

Tōru Takemitsu had to distance himself from his own culture in order to listen to Japanese music with the ears of a Western-trained musician – adopting, for instance, the approach of John Cage. He came to realize that Japan’s venerable musical tradition had long been highlighting individual notes as complex sonorities in their own right, instead of treating them as part of a series of several notes. 

From the human need for sound as well as silence, John Cage drew the most extreme conclusions. The concept of a “beautiful” sound was never static in music history: it has changed over the centuries, and it differs from one culture to another. Western musical aesthetics tend to differentiate between “noises” and “notes”: the latter feature well-ordered harmonics. The concept of “dissonance” has also changed throughout different musical periods. What is more, musicians and their audiences have always felt the need to “savor” a dissonance – to listen to it consciously, to experience it – before it is resolved. 

On the other hand, time plays a truly fundamental role in how a work is conceived and structured, and each individual listener experiences musical time in a different way. Ideally, the performer and the listener share the same time system: they enjoy passages in a similar way, they hear a piece with the same depth of focus. Music resonates inside the instrument, in our bodies, in the space that surrounds us. Each note is in motion. When several notes vibrate simultaneously, they make up an ocean of concomitant vibrations. If we add the sounds and noises from our surroundings, then we are dealing with an incredible concentration of sonic events within a very short period of time. 

What happens then? 

We become more aware of the way we perceive things. If we are lucky, this kind of conscious musical listening starts to affect how we pay attention to other people, whether they are speaking or not. And lending an ear to one another has become more necessary than ever. Wouldn’t you agree? (Sheila Arnold)

Emmanuel Pahud SOLO

Interweaving the Baroque era and the 20th and 21st centuries, the newest addition to Emmanuel Pahud's Warner Classics catalogue is an imaginative 2-CD collection of music for unaccompanied flute. Among the composers are Telemann, Nielsen, Honegger, Varèse, Berio, Takemitsu, Pärt, Pintscher and Widmann. "Most of the pieces are about exploring new paths," says Pahud. "The power of this music often lies in the contrast between a simple line and the most refined complexities, between a note so quiet as to be barely perceptible and the loudest, most extreme notes playable on the instrument."

Schumann Quartett LANDSCAPES

 “Four fundamentally different works merge into a musical whole by virtue of our deep and personal relationship with them – like a quartet.” (Schumann Quartet)

When the Schumann Quartet took stock of the selection of works for this recording, they realised that they had, completely intuitively, put together a concept album, without ever having planned to do so. The pieces had to be ones that are close to their hearts, ones that they often play. (...) Ultimately, they are works from four different parts of the classical-music world: an Estonian piece, a Japanese piece, a Hungarian piece and an Austrian-German piece. And contrasts, differences and contradictions also dominate within the works themselves. This is what Christopher Warmuth relates in the booklet text, after a conversation with the quartet. 

This recording thus represents the kind of pure antithesis that gives life to every great whole. Alongside Joseph Haydn's “Sunrise Quartet”, op. 76, No. 4, a homage to “the father of the string quartet”, Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 2, a ne plus ultra of the quartet repertoire, provides a striking contrast with its “imaginary folklore” flavour. It is set off in its turn by Arvo Pärt's evocative, meditative “Fratres”, which exists in versions for very different instrumental combinations, including, as here, for string quartet. The composer – who like violist Liisa Randalu comes from Estonia – has clearly formulated what he sees as the task of music: “For me, the greatest value of music goes beyond its tone colours (...) Music must exist through itself (...) Mystery must be there, whatever the instrument.” The Schumann Quartet prepared this work together with him and recorded it in a church in Viimsi, near Tallinn. And finally, with the title composition, “Landscape I” by Tōru Takemitsu, the Schumanns (who incidentally speak fluent Japanese) forge a connection to their mother's native land – an exotic sound-landscape of noble delicacy that sets wonderful contrasts.

Akiko Suwanai / Enrico Pace FRANCK & R. STRAUSS Violin Sonatas TAKEMITSU Hika

The Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai studied with Toshiya Eto at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, and later with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin at the Juilliard. With several prestigious prizes to her name, her outstanding achievement was as the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. Since then she has amassed an impressive discography. For her latest offering she has chosen two sonatas, often paired. Her collaborator on this occasion is the Italian pianist Enrico Pace.

Suwanai and Pace’s Strauss Sonata reflects the youthful exuberance that not only permeates this work but also the tone poem Don Juan, penned around the same time. They take a broad and spacious view of the opening Allegro, where passion and lyricism are meted out in equal measure. The slow movement is tender and heartfelt and lovingly phrased. In the middle section the violin weaves a magical line over the piano’s diaphanous and luminous cascading waves. The players bring this off stunningly. Fervid passion informs the finale, the duo’s incandescent performance setting the seal on a convincing and assured interpretation.

I’m very happy to make a first acquaintance with the deliciously evocative Takemitsu work, from 1966. Hika means ‘elegy’ in Japanese and, as its title suggests, the mood is sombre, sorrowful and reflective. Set in a 12-tone idiom, both instrumental parts are deftly and imaginatively etched. There’s an unaccompanied section for violin about half-way through, calling for harmonics, tremolos and double-stops, all delivered with consummate polish and flawless intonation. Enrico Pace’s sensitive pedalling brings a wealth of colour and allure to the piano part. This short piece sits well between the two sonatas.

Franck’s ubiquitous Sonata is contemporaneous with the Strauss, with an old age perspective replacing youth. It was composed in 1886 as a wedding present for the great Belgian violinist, Eugène Ysaÿe. This performance certainly highlights the work's effusive lyricism. I’m particularly won over by the exquisite rendering of the Recitativo third movement, which feels like the work’s emotional heart. It sounds improvisatory, with an instinctive sense of line. The finale, which follows, is intensely passionate and intense. As a performance it stands up well in a well-served arena, where there are many fine recordings to be had, one of my favourites being the Kaja Danczowska/Krystian Zimerman collaboration on DG.

Warmly recorded, with excellent balance struck between the two players, the Paroisse Notre-Dame du Liban à Paris provides a sympathetic and intimate ambience. (Stephen Greenbank)

Hélène Grimaud WATER

Hélène Grimaud’s latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, produced by Nitin Sawhney, was inspired by her abiding fascination with Nature’s most precious gift. Water is set for worldwide release on January 29, 2016 and conveys imaginative responses to everything from mighty oceans and great lakes to raindrops and snowflakes as well as inviting listeners to contemplate the mounting threats to the safety, security and supply of this essential resource.

“What inspired the idea to record this album is really the fascination that so many composers of the 19th and 20th centuries seem to have had with the element of water,” Grimaud states. Not only did this sow the seed for a recording, it also grew into a collaboration between the pianist and Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon. Their site-specific installation tears become… streams become… was created for the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in December 2014. Described by the New York Times as a “compelling, boldly original work”, the project blended elements of art, music and architecture, with Grimaud’s water-themed programme located at its core. Gordon transformed the cavernous Drill Hall by slowly flooding its vast floor to create the impression of what he described as an endless “field of water,” entirely surrounding the grand piano at which Grimaud performed.

The album features works by nine composers: it opens with Berio’s Wasserklavier and includes Takemitsu’s Rain Tree Sketch II, Fauré’s Barcarolle No.5, Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, “Almería” from Albéniz’s Iberia, Liszt’s Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este and the first movement of Janáček’s In the Mists, before closing with Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie. These myriad reflections on the qualities of water were recorded live at the Armory during the installation and then connected and woven into the album narrative by seven “Transitions” that were newly composed, recorded and produced by Sawhney. Grimaud was delighted to work with the award-winning composer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist, praising his ability to highlight “the universal human dependence on our planet’s most precious resource” and weave “contrasting poetic and philosophical perspectives into a single, cogent musical ecosystem.”

Each piece on this new album unfolds as part of an acoustic “stream”, carefully structured in its blend of classical and contemporary compositions, yet experimental in its overall aesthetic.

Hélène Grimaud is not only one of the world’s most celebrated pianists, but also a tireless champion of ecological causes, having founded the Wolf Conservation Center, which raises awareness of the importance and relationship of these top predators to our ecosystem. With Water, the insightful Grimaud has united her twin passions for music and the environment in unique fashion.