Pitch-perfect Prokofiev from the Pavel Haas Quartet... what comes through above all is a laser-like intensity and youthful brio... In the wondrous Adagio the cello line rises high, ghostly melodic statements in octaves can expose the smallest tuning difficulties and pizzicati needs must sparkle like. The young players pass every test before dispatching the inventive finale with equal aplomb, differentiating a wide variety of moods and timbres within a swiftish frame. Of the small clutch of classic performances of the component pieces, none is more usefully programmed than the present disc, nor so naturally recorded. Why hesitate?Gramophone
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Though period-instrument recordings of the Fantastic are not uncommon, none that I have heard makes Berlioz’s linear scoring so startlingly different. This, you feel, is how it would have sounded in the 1830s (Erard harps and pianos included). The woodwind and horns, in particular, leap out, but it is the sheer raw clarity of every line and colour in these Flemish players’ performance, and its effect on the rhythms, that strikes you, especially in their revelatory account of the opening movement. Van Immerseel is, otherwise, quite a sober interpreter, resisting the temptation that besets many conductors to whip up the animatos (and setting a rather slow tempo in the Roman Carnival), but only the Scène aux champs seems to me inauthentically heavy-handed. The finale is electric. The Sunday Times
Trichotomy - Variations
The EST and Bad Plus connections are pretty clear in the music of this decade-old Australian trio, but the compositions of pianist Sean Foran and drummer John Parker impart a lot of character to its take on contemporary jazz fusion, and it shares with both of its major models a group ability to shift seamlessly between structures and spontaneity. Trichotomy''s early enthusiasm for fellow-Australian band the Necks is also apparent in a fondness for lengthy pulsating one-note patterns and the subtle animation it injects into the most spacious and slow-moving episodes. The fast Latin pulse of the opening track, with its flowing piano lines over an intricate left-hand repeat and abruptly hushed and dreamy countermelody exploits the Bad Plus''s appealing jump-cut style, as does the following slow floater with its Jarrett-like piano upsurge midway. A violin, viola and sax offer a caressing contrast over an ostinato and a snappy groove on the fourth track, as does Peter Knight''s Arve Henriksen/late-Miles trumpet later on. Sometimes the band offers 21st-century updates on a bright, dancing, Chick Corea-like lyricism: sometimes a fierce improv edge deploying Patrick Marchisella''s electronically distorted acoustic bass; sometimes a tumbling hard-bop piano approach but over a castanet-like chatter; sometimes plucked-strings musings. These three make the resources of the conventional piano trio go a long way. The Guardian
- Prokofiev String Quartets / Sonata for Two Violins
The “classical” sounding work blends the easily distinguishable inspiration by Beethoven’s quartets and the typically Prokofievian pungency and lyricism. The duet, written in Paris, is an inconspicuous yet masterly small-scale work of art and alongside Bartok’s 44 violin duets ranks among the paramount opuses of this genre.
The multi-award-winning partnership of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras is reunited in this second collection of Mozart Symphonies featuring Nos 29, 31 (Paris), 32, 35 (Haffner) & 36 (Linz)’. This much anticipated recording follows on from the astounding success of ‘Mozart Symphonies 38 – 41’ which resulted in him winning the Critics’ Award at the 2009 BRIT Awards and led to ’Mozart Symphonies 38-41’ being named Disc of the Year at the 2009 BBC Music Magazine Awards.
- Merlin – Series Two - Original Television Soundtrack
Music from the second series of the popular BBC Fantasy adventure starring Colin Morgan and Bradley JamesSeries currently airing on BBC, attracting over 6 million viewers.DVD of Series 2 Volume 1 released on 23rd November.Merlin series one was nominated for theBest Original Score of Television” Award by the International Film Music Critics Association.Rousing orchestral music by Emmy Nominated composer Rob Lane (John Adams, Elizabeth I, Jane Eyre, Longford, Tess of the d’Urbervilles) and Rohan Stevenson.
- Dvorak - Songs My Great-Grandfather Taught Me - Transcriptions by Josef Suk of Dvorak Songs
Two of world’s greatest musicians appear together – for the first time anywhere – on Toccata Classics, playing an hour of ‘new’ Dvořák.
Josef Suk – the great-grandson of Antonín Dvořák – undertook these transcriptions of 30 Dvořák songs at the suggestion of Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics.
Josef Suk had Dvořák’s own viola restored for the recording sessions, which took place in Prague at the beginning of September.
Suk’s transcriptions turn the songs into exquisitely beautiful instrumental miniatures.
Actresses have always grumbled that Hollywood doesn’t serve up enough female roles worth getting stuck into. They should try being a singer – they would find their options even more limited. In a sense,there has probably never been a better time to be a girl singer – the charts are full of ’em – but these are within strictly defined market niches: the mid-’00s were all about the ‘retro chanteuses’; this year’s thing is ‘chicks with synthesizers’. Simply being yourself,it seems,isn’t good enough. In this fiercely strategized atmosphere,the sound of an honest,uncontaminated voice is worth more than gold. Gwyneth Herbert is just such a priceless talent. At 27,she has already plunged into the world of record deals and promotional schemes a couple of times,and yet she resurfaces again only more pure,more committed in her belief in music’s power to communicate emotion and experience to a listener.
Internationally renowned Teacher Young-Ho Kim and celebrity presenter Johanna Fellner present this Intensive Yoga workout. The perfect starter for home workout and Yoga. Includes a powerful mix of Eastern spirituality and Western Dynamics. An effective workout which focuses on the stomach,legs and bottom to produce definition & tone. Gain improved overall body tension and feel fitter,firmer and in great shape. Shot on location on the Turkish coastline. Inspiring Sun and Sea.
• Rachel Podger’s first recording with orchestra since the landmark Gramophone Award winning disc of Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza • Follows eight volumes of the Award Winning Mozart Violin Sonatas edition • Rachel Podger challenges Pavlo Beznosiuk • Soloists play on real ‘Strads’
Martinu - 3 Fragments from Julietta
On 11 December 2008 the sold-out Rudolfinum in Prague heard for the first time Three Fragments from the Opera Juliette,a work which ranks among Martin?’s most significant and which the composer himself highly esteemed. Martin? originally composed the opera Juliette in Czech. However,so as to ensure appropriate publicity for the work,he wanted –
‘This extraordinary project confirms the robust health and endlessly varied landscape of Britain’s new music. There is no other document anywhere that has given such a snapshot of an artistic community that,while comprised of a hundred different ways of expressing itself,is of one voice when it comes to creative energy.’ JOHN ADAMS..Read More>>
Sacred Hearts + Secret Music
The repertoire featured on this disc features material that might have been performed by a convent choir in the 1570’s,in the Ferrara area. Both Palestrina and de Rore were celebrated in their lifetimes as two of the greatest composers in Italy,and both were strongly connected to the d’Este family,the rulers of Ferrara in 16th century. ...Read More>>
Unknown Britten
The ‘Clarinet Concerto’ was written for jazz star Benny Goodman, but Britten never completed it as the sketches were impounded by US Customs in 1941. It was Britten’s intention to resume work on the piece in 1943 but he never got round to it and so it remained a fragment, not performed until edited by Colin Matthews in 1990”...Read More>>
