San Francisco Girls Chorus Kicks Off Summer with International Performances
San Francisco Girls Chorus Kicks Off Summer with International Performances
Summer with the San Francisco Girls Chorus
• Premiere Performances of Thierry Pécou’s O Future at Théâtre de Caen
• In Concert at the 50th Anniversary Kronos Festival in SF
• Tour of South Africa July 10-21
Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org
San Francisco, CA –The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC), under the direction of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, is in the midst of a busy summer season which has included the world premiere performances of composer Thierry Pécou’s multidisciplinary opera O Future at Théâtre de Caen in France with Ensemble Variances, as well as an appearance at the 50th Anniversary Kronos Festival at SF Jazz in San Francisco. Up next, SFGC tours South Africa from July 10-21, 2024, including premiere performances of a new work by South African composer Mokale Koapeng.
SFGC joined forces with La Maîtrise de Caen (Caen Boys Chorus) in the world premiere production of Thierry Pecou’s O Future at Théâtre de Caen, directed by Bernard Kudlak, in June. Librettist and scenographer Alice Kudlak created the text for the opera using interviews with SFGC choristers as well as choristers from La Maîtrise de Caen. O Future follows the path of a group of children, concerned about the future of the Earth and in search of meaning. The work draws on the cultures and wisdom of ancient and forgotten peoples: the Aztecs, the Cree of North America, the Bushmen of South Africa and the Moai of Easter Island. The entire opera was broadcast on France 3 TV, and the replay is currently available online.
Also this month, SFGC performed as part of the Kronos Festival, marking the quartet’s 50th anniversary and the farewell performances of longtime Kronos members John Sherba and Hank Dutt. During this “who’s who of new music stars” (Mercury News) SFGC took the stage at SF Jazz with Kronos to perform works by Vladimir Martynov, Yoko Ono, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, and Pete Seeger.
From July 10-21, SFGC heads to South Africa for a tour consisting of several cities and collaborations with local musical organizations. Their touring program will include Toro Ya Alkebulan (He Had A Dream, An African Dream), by South African composer Mokale Koapeng, with lyrics adapted from a poem by Njeri Wangari, commissioned by Classical Movements 2024. SFGC gave the world premiere of this piece in San Francisco this spring, during their May 19 concert.
Since 1978, SFGC has provided girls and young women the unique opportunity not only to perform at the highest artistic caliber, but also to develop self-confidence, leadership skills, and an awareness of the role of the arts in civic engagement. A leader in the Bay Area and national music scenes, SFGC produces award-winning concerts, recordings and tours; empowers young women in music and other fields; and sets the international standard for the highest level of performance and education. SFGC has been recognized through numerous honors including five GRAMMY Awards, four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming, and in 2002, becoming the first youth chorus to receive Chorus America's prestigious Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. Each year, hundreds of singers of diverse backgrounds from 45 Bay Area cities ranging in age from age four to eighteen participate in SFGC’s programs. The organization consists of a six-level choral training program, which includes the Premier Ensemble, a professional-level chorus of treble voices.
Under the direction of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices fused with expressiveness and drama. As a result, the SFGC vibrantly performs 1,000 years of choral masterworks from plainchant to the most challenging and nuanced contemporary works, many created expressly for them, in programs that are as intelligently designed as they are enjoyable and revelatory to experience.
More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about
More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe
The San Francisco Girls Chorus receives support from Grants for the Arts, The Kimball Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Sequoia Trust, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Sam Mazza Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Joseph and Vera Long Foundation.
Aug. 4: Pianist Sarah Cahill Presented by Gretna Music in The Future is Female – Plus the World Premiere of Bending Light by Tina Davidson & Music by Maria Corley
Pianist Sarah Cahill Presented by Gretna Music in The Future is Female
Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill
Pianist Sarah Cahill Presented by Gretna Music
Performing Music by Women Composers from Around the Globe
in The Future is Female
Featuring the World Premiere of Tina Davidson’s Bending Light
Plus a Performance of Lucid Dreaming by Maria Corley
Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 7:30pm
Mount Gretna Playhouse | 200 Pennsylvania Ave. | Mt. Gretna, PA
More Information
“a series distinctive for its finesse and conviction”
– Gramophone on Cahill’s The Future is Female
Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
www.sarahcahill.com
Mt. Gretna, PA – On Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 7:30pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a concert presented by Gretna Music at the Mount Gretna Playhouse (200 Pennsylvania Ave.). The concert will be preceded by Conversation with Composers, a talk featuring Lancaster County composers Maria Corley and Tina Davidson from 6:45-7:05pm. Cahill will be performing Corley’s work Lucid Dreaming, as well as giving the world premiere of Bending Light, a new work for piano and two three-inch drywall screws composed by Davidson.
Corley says of her work: “Lucid Dreaming was the first piece I wrote for solo piano as an adult. I used to have lucid dreams as a child. In each case, I would fly, usually to escape danger, sometimes with difficulty, sometimes barely above the ground. The opening depicts falling asleep (my favorite part of the day), and then the chase is on, with harmonies that feel a bit off-kilter. The middle section is about soaring, for a brief moment. At the end, the situation has gotten intense enough to wake the dreamer, who sinks back into the pillow, relieved that the dream is over.”
Of her new piece Bending Light, Davidson says: “For some reason, I have been thinking about light often. What if light were a solid and you could actually pick it up and bend it, soft and warm in your hands? Or, maybe, you could stretch it thin, and spin it like gold thread, letting it fly off into the air.”
The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which now includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by Cahill as part of the project.
In addition to the works by Davidson and Corley, Cahill will perform music for solo piano by women composers that span from 1687 to 2024, encompassing the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern periods. Her program includes selections from Keyboard Suite in D minor (1687) by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre; Sonata No. 9, op. 5 no. 3 (1811) by Hélène de Montgeroult; Two Etudes, Op. 26 (1839) by Louise Farrenc; Vítězslava Kaprálová’s April Preludes (1937); and Praeludium in C major (1878) by Ethel Smyth.
Sarah Cahill has been featured performing music from The Future is Female in an NPR Tiny Desk concert as well as in eight-hour marathon performances at the Barbican Centre in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, both celebrating International Women’s Day. She has also brought the project to venues across the U.S. including Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill, NC; Carlsbad Music Festival in San Diego, CA; the University of Iowa; Bowling Green New Music Festival in Ohio; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; North Dakota Museum of Art; the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York; the Newport Classical Music Festival in Rhode Island, and more.
In addition, Cahill recorded 30 works from The Future is Female on a three-volume set of albums released in 2022 and 2023 on the First Hand Records label, which included many world premiere recordings and was widely acclaimed by publications including in the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, International Piano, The Wire, Gramophone Magazine, and more. BBC Music Magazine reported, “the American pianist [Sarah Cahill] takes us on a chronological journey that zips around the world, stitching together contrasting styles into an enjoyable musical patchwork,” while New Music Buff notes the “impressive command of baroque, classical, romantic, and modern idioms” that Cahill brings to these recordings.
Listen to The Future is Female, Vols. 1-3 (First Hand Records):
Vol. 1: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol1
Vol. 2: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol2
Vol. 3: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol3
Sarah Cahill began working on The Future is Female in 2018. She says:
“For decades I had been working with many living American composers, including Pauline Oliveros, Tania León, Eve Beglarian, Mary D. Watkins, Julia Wolfe, Ursula Mamlok, Meredith Monk, Annea Lockwood, and many more, but I felt an urgent need to explore neglected composers from the past, and from around the globe. Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive . . . The possibilities are, in fact, limitless.”
More about Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, which the San Francisco Chronicle describes as being “As tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of…” has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF). Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels.
Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, will perform music from her ongoing project The Future is Female in a concert presented by Gretna Music. The Future is Female is Cahill’s exploration of music for solo piano by women composers from the Baroque to the present day, which includes more than 70 pieces from around the globe, some commissioned by or for Cahill as part of the project. Cahill will perform works from her project that include music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc Vitêslava Kaprálová, and Ethel Smyth The concert will also feature the world premiere of Bending Light by Tina Davidson and a performance of Lucid Dreaming by Maria Corley.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by Gretna Music
What: Music by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Vitêslava Kaprálová, and Ethel Smyth, Tina Davidson and Maria Corley.
When: Sunday, August 4, 2024 at 7:30pm.
Where: Mt. Gretna Playhouse, 200 Pennsylvania Ave, Mt Gretna, PA 17064
Tickets and information: www.gretnamusic.org
Aug. 15: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School in Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Lasser, Keith Jarrett, and Jean-Philippe Rameau
Pianists Simone Dinnerstein Performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School
Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School
In Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Lasser,
Keith Jarrett, and Jean-Philippe Rameau
Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 6:00pm
Harris Concert Hall | 960 North 3rd Street | Aspen, CO
Tickets and More information
“colorful and idiosyncratic” – The New York Times
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Aspen, CO – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “an intrepid artistic personality,” performs on Thursday, August 15, 2024 at the Aspen Music Festival and School at Harris Concert Hall (960 North 3rd Street). Dinnerstein –– who is celebrated for her Bach recordings –– will perform the music of J.S. Bach and other Baroque era-inspired selections: Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations On A Chorale By J.S. Bach (2002); Gavotte et 6 Doubles From Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau (c. 1729-30); J. S. Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias, BWV 787–801 (1720-23); and Encore From Tokyo (1978) by Keith Jarrett.
Dinnerstein shares this of the concert program: “I have entitled this program Reflections, as I think that each work sounds unusual because of the way it is reflected against the music around it. To enhance this quality, I play each half of the program (Rameau-Lasser and Bach-Jarrett) without pause between the pieces.”
Dinnerstein has been playing Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach for over two decades –– including as part of The Berlin Concert, her 2008 album. Lasser takes the chorale from Cantata No. 101 in which, he says, “Bach chooses a particular melodic moment from the Lutheran hymn and infuses all the other voices of the Chorale with this unique sonority, with an almost maniacal insistence. In my Variations, I take on this mania to see how far one can go.”
Bach’s contemporary Rameau also composed a set of variations but on his own gavotte: Gavotte et 6 doubles from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin. In his preface, Bach wrote that his Fifteen Sinfonias were, “An honest guide by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way…to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition." Keith Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo embraces the Baroque convention of a descending repeating bass line and builds a harmonically adventurous and wide-ranging improvisation around it.
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated® pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “an intrepid artistic personality,” will perform a program of Baroque-era inspired works at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Known for her dedication to learning about and performing the music of J.S. Bach, the program will include J.S. Bach’s technical collection of Fifteen Sinfonias (1720-23), Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002), Keith Jarrett’s Encore From Tokyo (1978), and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Gavotte et 6 Doubles (c. 1729-30).
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performing as part of the Aspen Music Festival
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Lasser, Keith Jarrett, Jean-Philippe Rameau
When: Thursday, August 15, 2024 at 6:00pm
Where: Harris Concert Hall, 960 North 3rd Street, Aspen, CO 81611
Tickets and information: www.aspenmusicfestival.com/events/calendar/a-recital-by-simone-dinnerstein-piano-1/
Sept. 6: Pianist Mao Fujita to Release 72 Preludes – Sony Classical Recording Crosses Continents and Eras – New Single Out Now
Sony Classical Presents Pianist Mao Fujita New Recording Crosses Continents and Eras with 72 Preludes
Sony Classical Presents Pianist Mao Fujita
New Recording Crosses Continents and Eras with
72 Preludes
24 Preludes: No. 8. in F-Sharp Minor - Andante tempo di Barcarolle
Out Now - Listen Here
Preludes Cycles By Chopin, Scriabin - Also Includes World Premiere Recording of Akio Yashiro’s ‘24 Preludes’
Available September 6, 2024 – Preorder Now
“The very model of a modern major pianist” – Gramophone
“Mao Fujita’s Mozart strikes a perfect balance between clarity and elegance, the exquisite and the down to earth.” – The Guardian
Following his “consistently impressive” (Gramophone) traversal of Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas for Sony Classical - winner of an Opus Klassik Award - Japanese pianist Mao Fujita presents a similarly ambitious project: matching sets of 24 Preludes by three composers, Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin and Akio Yashiro. In so doing, Fujita unites the Europe in which he now lives with the Japan where he was born and raised. His new Sony Classical Album - 72 Preludes - is set for release on September 6, 2024 and available for preorder now. Accompanying today’s news is the new track 24 Preludes: No. 8. in F-Sharp Minor - Andante tempo di Barcarolle – listen here.
Chopin’s landmark set of 24 Préludes, completed in 1839, was the first work to treat the piano prelude as a self-contained work capable of standing alone. After the model laid down in Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, the set traverses every key from C major to D minor, alternating major tonalities with their relative minors.
On his new album 72 Preludes, Fujita treats Chopin’s expressive yet elusive cycle as the basis for a dialogue that traverses borders and epochs. In 1884, Russian visionary Alexander Scriabin began work on his own set of 24 Preludes, directly inspired by Chopin’s. Scriabin’s pieces build on the grace and fluency of Chopin’s - also using his key scheme - while showing glimpses of the composer’s emerging radical harmonic and rhythmic character. They suggest that Scriabin, known for music on a huge scale, was an exquisite miniaturist.
Mao Fujita - recognized increasingly for his intelligent programming as well as for his affectionate, rooted and deeply poetic playing - was keen to combine these European masterpieces with work from his homeland. In the 24 Preludes by Japanese composer Akio Yashiro, he found a perfect companion.
Akio Yashiro was born in Tokyo and studied with Olivier Messiaen in Paris, where the two became close friends. His 24 Preludes, mapping the same cycle of keys as those by Chopin and Scriabin, date from 1945 - before the 15-year-old composer had traveled to Europe.
The works incorporate a huge variety of moods and styles as their young composer explores varied harmonic and rhythmic devices with panache. Fujita likens the contents of his new recording to a refreshing but hearty sushi meal: “If the Chopin and the Scriabin are the fish and the rice, the base, the Yashiro is the wasabi - just as vital, and with that special kick to create something delicious.”
In 1976, Yashiro died aged just 46. Fujita has since developed a friendship with the composer’s widow, who has shared stories surrounding the composer’s weekly Saturday concerts of new music and the compositional methodology of his 24 Preludes, which the composer once described as “the pieces in which I express myself most fully and one of the greatest pieces I ever wrote.” Fujita consulted the original manuscripts before recording the work.
As he consolidates his reputation as one of the world’s most distinctive pianists, Fujita sees it as his responsibility to shine a light on the culture of his homeland. “When I came to Europe, there were no Japanese pianists except Mitsuko [Uchida],” the 25-year-old pianist says.
It was only a matter of time before Fujita brought his distinctively weightless, cantabile playing style and crystalline clarity of expression to the music of Chopin. When Fujita included Chopin encores in his acclaimed Mozart Sonata series at Wigmore Hall in London, The Guardian concluded that “an all-Chopin programme from Fujita is now a priority.”
Fujita says he was drawn to Chopin’s particular character of expression and believes he was “able to make something of this special sound; this melodic poetry and beautiful harmony.”
The allure of Scriabin’s 24 Preludes was no less strong. “These are phenomenal pieces, with things you cannot find in Chopin,” Fujita says. “I fell in love with them, especially the way Scriabin uses not just tonality but also time - the atmosphere he creates in those pauses and rests.”
With three four-day sessions allocated to the recording, Fujita believes Sony Classical gave him the space, conditions and staff to get his recording exactly as he wanted it. “The studio is fantastic - the same studio we used for the Mozart - and Martin Kistner, the engineer and producer of this album is fantastic, I respect him a lot,” says the pianist. “We are a good team and it was a wonderful process.”
Mao Fujita makes his BBC Proms debut on August 28 with the Czech Philharmonic under Jakub Hrůša.
U.S. Tour Dates Feat. Album Repertoire:
Date: November 10, 2024
City: New York, NY
Venue: Carnegie Hall
Repertoire: Yashiro Preludes
Date: March 16, 2025
City: Chicago, IL
Venue: Symphony Center
Repertoire: Chopin Preludes
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
Connect With Mao Fujita
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July 30; Aug. 1 & 2: Bay Chamber Presents Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann in Machias and Camden, Maine
The Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann in Machias and Camden, Maine
L-R Jupiter Quartet, credit to Todd Rosenberg; Michelle Cann, credit to Titilayo Ayangade
Bay Chamber Presents Jupiter String Quartet and
GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann
in Machias and Camden, Maine
July 30: Centre Street Congregational Church | 9 Center St. | Machias, ME
Presented by Machias Bay Chamber Concerts
7:00pm: Tickets and Information
August 1: Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber | 5 Mountain St. | Camden, ME
5:30pm: Tickets and Information
8:00pm: Tickets and Information
August 2: Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber | 5 Mountain St. | Camden, ME
8:00pm: Tickets and Information
“The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
www.jupiterquartet.com | www.michellecann.com | www.baychamber.org
Machias & Camden, ME – Bay Chamber Concerts will present the internationally esteemed Jupiter String Quartet – winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition – in four concerts with GRAMMY®-winning pianist Michelle Cann, who is described by Gramophone as “a pianist of sterling artistry.” On Tuesday July 30, 2024 at 7pm, the Quartet and Michelle Cann will be presented by Bay Chamber’s sister organization Machias Bay Chamber Concerts, in Machias, ME at the Centre Street Congregational Church (9 Center St). The Jupiter and Cann give the Opening Night Concerts of Bay Chamber’s summer festival on Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 5:30pm and 8pm and perform a program titled Resonance on Friday, August 2, 2024 at 8pm, all at Bay Chamber’s new home – the renovated Hammer Hall (5 Mountain Lane) in the Bixler Music Center.
On July 30 in Machias, the Jupiter Quartet will perform Mozart’s String Quartet in D Major, K. 575. They will then be joined by Michelle Cann for a performance of Antonin Dvořák’s vivid Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81. They repeat this program on August 1 for Bay Chamber’s Opening Night concerts at Hammer Hall in Camden. On August 2, in a program entitled Resonance, the Jupiter will perform excerpts from At the Octoroon Balls, String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis; Michelle Cann will perform Margaret Bonds’ Spiritual Suite and Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre No. 1 In E Minor; and together, they will combine to perform the final movement of Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet, Op. 67.
The Jupiter Quartet says, “We are so pleased to return to the wonderful Bay Chamber concerts series, a favorite venue of ours since we first performed there over 15 years ago. We look forward very much to our first collaboration with the fantastic pianist Michelle Cann, and hope audiences will enjoy the selection of works we have chosen to play, which represent a wide variety of perspectives and styles.”
Based in Urbana and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Founded in 2001, the Jupiter Quartet was brought together by ties both familial and musical. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences.Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances. The quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall.
GRAMMY®-award winning pianist Michelle Cann is lauded as “technically fearless with…an enormous, rich sound” (La Scena Musicale). Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She made her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2021 and has recently performed concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. Highlights of her 2023-24 season included appearances with the Charlotte, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Québec, Sarasota, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, and recitals in New York City, Portland, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Denver. Cann was the recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization. She also received the Cleveland Institute of Music’s 2022 Alumni Achievement Award and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award.
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter String Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Music Festival, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by GRAMMY®-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
More about Michelle Cann: Lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann has become one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. She made her debut in 2021 with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has recently performed concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. Highlights of Cann’s 2023-24 season included appearances with the Charlotte, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Québec, Sarasota, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, and recitals in New York City, Portland, Berkeley, Beverly Hills, and Denver.
Recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Florence Price, Cann performed the New York City premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016. Her recording of the concerto with the New York Youth Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2023. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival, featuring music by Price and Margaret Bonds, was released in May 2023.
Cann was the recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. Cann joined the Curtis piano faculty in 2020 as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies, and she joined the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 2023.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter String Quartet, described as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity” by The New Yorker, is presented by Bay Chamber Concerts, in four performances with “exquisite” (Philadelphia Inquirer) GRAMMY®-winning pianist Michelle Cann. Bay Chamber is dedicated to bringing “transformative musical experiences to Midcoast Maine.” On July 30 in Machias, ME the Jupiter Quartet and Michelle Cann will perform works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonín Dvořák. For the following three concerts in Camden, ME on August 1 and 2, the Quartet and Cann will perform music by Mozart and Dvořák, as well as works by Margaret Bonds, Wynton Marsalis, Florence Price, and Amy Beach.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann
Presented by Machias Bay Chamber Concerts
What: Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonin Dvořák
When: Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 7:00pm
Where: Centre Street Congregational Church, 9 Center St., Machias, ME 04654
Tickets and information: www.machiasbaychamberconcerts.com/performances/current-details.php/2024-07-30-00-00-00-36/
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann
Presented by Bay Chamber Concerts
What: Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonin Dvořák
When: Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 5:30pm
Where: Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber, 5 Mountain St. Camden, ME 04843
Tickets and information: www.baychamber.org/calendar/michelle-cann-piano-530
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann
Presented by Bay Chamber Concerts
What: Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonin Dvořák
When: Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 8:00pm
Where: Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber, 5 Mountain St. Camden, ME 04843
Tickets and information: www.baychamber.org/calendar/michelle-cann-piano-8
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and GRAMMY®-winning Pianist Michelle Cann
Presented by Bay Chamber Concerts
What: Music by Margaret Bonds, Wynton Marsalis, Florence Price, and Amy Beach
When: Friday, August 2, 2023 at 8:00pm
Where: Hammer Hall at Bay Chamber, 5 Mountain St. Camden, ME 04843
Tickets and information: www.baychamber.org/calendar/jupiter-string-quartet
July 12: Sony Classical Announces Louis Lane Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete Epic and Columbia Album Collection
Sony Classical Announces Louis Lane Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra – The Complete Epic and Columbia Album Collection
Sony Classical Announces
Louis Lane Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra
The Complete Epic and Columbia Album Collection
Conductor Louis Lane’s Complete Cleveland Recordings
Album Release Date: July 12, 2024
Reviewer Rate Upon Request
Pre-Order Available Now
He went on to head major orchestras in Dallas and Atlanta and to guest conduct leading ensembles all over the world. But before that, Louis Lane honed his craft while working in the shadow of one of the great masters: in 1947, legendary maestro George Szell chose the young, inexperienced Texan to assist him in Cleveland – “I think you will do” was the gruff maestro’s verdict, exceptional praise indeed from that notorious perfectionist.
Lane remained with the Cleveland Orchestra for more than two decades, moving up the ladder to become associate conductor. Playing his important role in Szell’s transformation of a respected second-tier ensemble into arguably the finest symphony orchestra in America, Lane earned a sterling reputation of his own, directing the renowned Cleveland Pops and broadening the orchestra’s repertoire with no fewer than 75 local premières.
Between 1959 and 1972 – with the full Cleveland Orchestra, the somewhat smaller Cleveland Pops and the chamber-sized Cleveland Sinfonietta – Louis Lane made a series of critically acclaimed recordings for Columbia. They display the “exceptional breadth and impeccable taste” for which this gifted but perennially undervalued conductor was lauded in a tribute by the orchestra’s executive director. Sony Classical is pleased to present them now – many for the first time on CD – in a new 14-disc set, to be released on July 12, 2024. Pre-order is available now.
Reviewers were effusive in their praise when these albums were originally released on LP. Here is a sampling:
Pop Concert U.S.A. (1959) – music by Copland, Gershwin, Bernstein and other American composers: “If only all the pops (or, for that matter, all the classics) were as good as this! … The orchestra plays splendidly” (Gramophone).
On the Town with the Cleveland Pops (1960) – selections from On the Town, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, The King and I and other Broadway musicals: “Scintillating … Under Lane’s enthusiastic direction, the Clevelanders play these familiar musical comedy excerpts with such precision and virtuosity that they emerge with glistening freshness” (High Fidelity).
Music from the Films (1961) – Henry V, Louisiana Story, Bridge on the River Kwai, Gigi, Exodus and other motion pictures: “This concert of music from the movies is so superior to most issues of its kind that it calls for special commendation … Lane has coaxed some beautiful playing from the Cleveland orchestra, and the engineers have provided him with rich and glorious sound” (High Fidelity).
Romances and Serenades (1963) – music by Vaughan Williams, Delius, Warlock, Sibelius and Françaix: “All the polish, assurance and musical sympathy one would expect from a Cleveland performance ... Not the least attraction of this splendid disc is the recording, firm and realistic with a glorious bloom on the instruments” (Gramophone).
Lane also recorded classical repertoire with the Clevelanders, including Mozart in 1966 (“A marvelous D major Divertimento K. 334” – ClassicsToday), Beethoven in 1967 (“…the complete Creatures of Prometheus, led with dramatic flair and character” – ClassicsToday), and a French collection of Debussy, Ravel and Satie (“Moving now to Cleveland we rediscover the striking sensibility of another underrated American conductor, Louis Lane ... Magic ... refinement of feeling. The warm ambience of Severance Hall is another asset ... The 1969 recording is most musically balanced” – Gramophone).
All these performances and many other gems are contained in this newly remastered anthology of Louis Lane’s Cleveland recordings, a long overdue homage to this outstanding American conductor.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1:
Gould: American Salute (Based on “When Johnny comes marching home”)
Anderson: Serenata
Copland: Three Dance Episodes from "Rodeo"
Bernstein: Candide: Overture
Piston: Suite from the Ballet “The Incredible Flutist”
DISC 2:
Gershwin: Cuban Overture
Bernstein: Fancy Free Ballet: Variation III "Danzon"
Gould: Latin-American Symphonette: III. Guaracha
Benjamin: From San Domingo
Benjamin: Jamaican Rumba
Lecuona: Andalucía: 2. Andaluza
Lecuona: Andalucía: 6. Malagueña
Guarneri: Brazilian Dance
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No. 2: IV. Toccata “The Little Train of the Caipra”
Galindo: Sones de Mariachi
DISC 3:
Porter: Can-Can
Loewe: My Fair Lady: Embassy Waltz
Bernstein: On the Town: The Great Lover displays himself
Bernstein: On the Town: Lonely Town (Pas de deux)
Bernstein: On the Town: Times Square (Finale, Act I)
Rodgers: Love Me Tonight: Lover
Rodgers: Jumbo: The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Rodgers: Boys from Syracuse: Falling in Love with Love
Rodgers: Oklahoma: Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
Rodgers: The King and I: March of the Siamese Children
Rodgers: On Tour Toes: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
DISC 4:
Griffes: Poem for Flute and Orchestra
Foote: A Night Piece
Honegger: Concerto da camera, H. 196
Hanson: Serenade for Flute, Harp, and Strings, Op. 35
DISC 5:
Berlioz: La damnation de Faust, H 111: March Hongroise
Schubert: Marche militaire in D Major, Op. 51, No. 1
Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Weber: IV. Marsch
Pierné: Cydalise et le chèvre-pied: Marche des petits faunes
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, Op. 39 No. 1
Rimsky-Korssakov: Le Coq d'Or: Introduction and Wedding Procession
Ippolotov-Ivanov: Caucasian Sketches, Op. 10: 4. Precession of the Sardar
Tchaikovsky: Slavonic March, Op. 31
DISC 6:
Rome: Theme from “Fanny”
Loewe: Suite from “Gigi”
Rodgers: It Might As Well Be Spring from “State Fair”
Gold: Exodus, an Orchestral Tone Picture
Alfred: Bridge Over the River Kwai: Colonel Bogey March
Walton: Death Of Falstaff (Passacaglia) from “Henry V”
Walton: Touch Her Sweet Lips and Part from “Henry V”
Thomson: Acadian Songs and Dances from the film score Louisiana Story (Excerpts)
DISC 7:
Copland: An Outdoor Overture
Menotti: Suite From Amahl and the Night Visitors
Riegger: Dance Rhythms, Op. 58
Elwell: The Happy Hypocrite - Ballet Suite
Shepherd: Horizons: The Old Chisholm Trail
DISC 8:
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66, Act I: Waltz
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act I, Scene 2: Waltz of the Snowflakes
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act III: Waltz of the Flowers
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act I: Waltz
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, Op. 48: II. Waltz
Tchaikovsky: Eugen Onegin, Act II, Scene 1: Waltz
Debussy: Petite Suite, L. 65
Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and Strings
Satie orch. Debussy: Gymnopédie No. 1
Satie orch. Debussy: Gymnopédie No. 3
DISC 9:
Vaughan-Williams: Romance for Violin & Orchestra "The Lark Ascending"
Sibelius: Romance in C Major for String Orchestra, Op. 42
Francaix: Serenade for Small Orchestra
Delius arr. Beecham: Hassan, Act I: Serenade (Arr. T. Beecham for Violin, Harp and Orchestra)
Warlock: Serenade for Strings
DISC 10:
Chabrier: España (Spanish Rhapsody)
Alfén: Swedish Rhapsody
Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 11
Herbert: Irish Rhapsody
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor, S. 244
DISC 11:
Mozart: Divertimento No. 17 in D Major, K. 334
DISC 12:
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11
Mendelssohn: III a. Scherzo (orchestral arrangement of the Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20)
Schubert: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, D. 82
DISC 13:
Beethoven: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Op. 43
DISC 14:
Bach-Walton: The Wise Virgins (Suite)
Scarlatti-Tommasini: The Good-Humored Ladies (Ballet Suite)
July 21: Pianists Simone Dinnerstein & Awadagin Pratt Perform as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival
Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt Perform as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival
Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt
Performing as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival
A Broyhill Classic Concert Series Event
Presented by Appalachian State University
Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources
Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm
Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center
813 Rivers St. | Boone, NC
Boone, NC – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic,” along with GRAMMY-winning pianist Awadagin Pratt, will be presented in concert by the Appalachian State University Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources, as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Classic Concert Series. The concert will take place in Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center, (813 Rivers St.) on Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm. Supporting sponsorship is provided by the Broyhill Family Foundation and Campus Store.
American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice and remains steadfast in her commitment to sharing classical music with everyone. Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts.
Beyond their mutual passion for and prestige with the piano, Dinnerstein and Pratt share a long time friendship and appreciation for collaborative performance. The two musicians have performed together many times over their respective careers, cultivating a deep respect and admiration for one another’s artistry. For this performance, Dinnerstein and Pratt will collaborate on a program featuring several selections for piano: two pianos, piano with four hands, and solo selections for piano, including: Castillo Interior by Pēteris Vasks, performed by Pratt; Philip Glass’s Etude No. 6, performed by Dinnerstein; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 performed by Dinnerstein and Pratt; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s stately Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 “Pastoral” –– as arranged by Selmar Bagge –– performed by Dinnerstein and Pratt together at a single piano.
Of performing this program with Awadagin Pratt, Dinnerstein says:
“There is an intimacy to the two-piano repertoire that makes a concert hall feel like a living room. This repertoire was meant to be played at home. Historically, symphonies were arranged for two-piano as a way of becoming familiar to music lovers long before the days of recording, and when live orchestral performances were few and far between. Orchestral transcriptions require so much imagination, and also reveal elements of the counterpoint that may be different than what one’s impressions are from hearing the fully orchestrated version. I’m anticipating that this concert will have a friendly and more informal feel to it as a result of this quality in the music itself.”
More about Simone Dinnerstein: In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.
For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
About Awadagin Pratt: Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras. Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. Three years later, having moved to Normal, Illinois with his family, he also began studying violin. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he became the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas – piano, violin and conducting. In recognition of this achievement and for his work in the field of classical music, Mr. Pratt received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins as well as an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University after delivering the commencement address in 2012.
For more information, please visit: www.awadagin.com
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” and GRAMMY-winning pianist Awadagin Pratt, are presented in concert by the Appalachian State University Office of Arts & Cultural Programs as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival - A Broyhill Classic Concert Series Event. Dinnerstein and Pratt will perform a program featuring music written for two pianos, piano with four hands, as well as solo selections. The concert will include music by Pēteris Vasks, Philip Glass, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven/Selmar Bagge.
Concert details:
Who: Pianists Simone Dinnerstein and Awadagin Pratt
Presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources as part of An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Classic Concert Series
What: Music by Pēteris Vasks, Philip Glass, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, July 21, 2024 at 2:00pm
Where: Rosen Concert Hall, Broyhill Music Center, 813 Rivers St., Boone, NC 28608
Tickets and information: www.appsummer.org/event/simone-dinnerstein-and-awadagin-pratt-piano
Aug. 23: The Knights and Composer Anna Clyne Announce Sony Classical Album Shorthand – Featuring Performances by Avi Avital, Colin Jacobsen, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma
The Knights and Composer Anna Clyne Announce Sony Classical Album Shorthand
The Knights and Composer Anna Clyne
Announce New Sony Classical Album
Shorthand
Set for Release on August 23
Featuring Performances by Avi Avital, Colin Jacobsen,
Pekka Kuusisto and Yo-Yo Ma
New York-based ensemble, The Knights, announce their new Sony Classical album, Shorthand, featuring the works of one today’s most in-demand composers, Anna Clyne, set for release on August 23, 2024. Shorthand explores the sound of strings through a collection of works that represent and reflect artistic friendships and the power of collaboration and features performances by mandolinist Avi Avital, violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto, plus cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The Knights’ Artistic Directors Colin Jacobsen and Eric Jacobsen and Composer Anna Clyne note:
“Shorthand represents over two decades of artistic friendships and collaborations – each of the artists on this album has played an important part in our artistic lives. It has brought together so many creative spirits and it has been an honor to record these works with them all. Over the span of two years, starting at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts to Power Station Studios in New York City, we have come together to create this special album that we are excited to share with you.”
Shorthand brings together a host of internationally acclaimed artists and presents new interpretations of Anna Clyne’s music, including its title-track, Shorthand, for cello and string orchestra recorded here with Yo-Yo Ma. Three Sisters is performed by its dedicatee, mandolinist Avi Avital, and Clyne’s double violin concerto Prince of Clouds places violinists Colin Jacobsen and Pekka Kuusisto in the spotlight. With works spanning more than a decade, Shorthand presents musical conversations between the soloists and The Knights, and within the ensemble itself. The album was recorded by close collaborator, GRAMMY® Award-winning audio engineer Jody Elff.
Shorthand also features Clyne’s most personal work, Within Her Arms, written as a tribute to her late mother. Scored for fifteen individual string parts, the music is shaped around a simple motif which grows and moves around the listener throughout the piece. The title is taken from a poem by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh.
Earth will keep you tight within her arms dear one—
So that tomorrow you will be transformed into flowers—
This flower smiling quietly in this morning field—
This morning you will weep no more dear one—
For we have gone through too deep a night.
This morning, yes, this morning, I kneel down on the green grass—
And I notice your presence.
Flowers, that speak to me in silence.
The message of love and understanding has indeed come.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
(From "Message" in Call Me By My True Names, 1999, with permission of Parallax Press)
Poetry, art and music are reflected throughout the album, with Prince of Clouds drawing on Baudelaire’s poem L’Albatros. Three Sisters reflects on three stars found in the constellation of Orion, whilst Shorthand muses on Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata and the novella by Tolstoy of the same name. The album also features the premiere recording of Shorthand (Redux), a reimagining of Clyne’s thoughtful work.
Connect With The Knights
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook
Connect With Anna Clyne
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com.
July 5: GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Makes Highly Anticipated Return to San Francisco – Performing as part of Art of the Piano Festival Presented by Awadagin Pratt
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performing as part of Art of the Piano Festival Presented by Awadagin Pratt
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Arianna Dominguez available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein
GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performing as part of Art of the Piano Festival
Presented by Awadagin Pratt
Friday, July 5, 2024 at 7:00pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Barbro Osher Recital Hall | 200 Van Ness Avenue | San Francisco, CA
“an intrepid artistic personality” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
San Francisco, CA – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as an “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will perform on Friday, July 5, 2024 as part of the Art of the Piano Festival, presented by pianist Awadagin Pratt. The performance will be held in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Barbro Osher Recital Hall (200 Van Ness Avenue).
This concert marks Dinnerstein’s first return to San Francisco since early 2020, just before the pandemic began. Her last concert in the area featured her in performance with Lynn Harrell, Daniel Hope, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto. The concert would end up becoming Harrell’s final performance of this work.
Dinnerstein, who is celebrated for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music album Undersong –– the final installment in a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic between 2020 and 2022, which also includes A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020) and Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021). The latter surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The concert program will include Robert Schumann’s Arabesque in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses; Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Dinnerstein explains of Undersong’s title: “Undersong is an archaic term for a song with a refrain, and to me it also suggests a hidden text. Glass, Schumann, Couperin and Satie all seem to be attempting to find what they want to say through repetition, as though their constant change and recycling will focus the ear and the mind. This time has been one of reflection and reconsidering for many of us, and this music speaks to the process of revisiting and searching for the meaning beneath the notes, of the undersong.”
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the `world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will perform as part of the Art of the Piano Festival presented by pianist Awadagin Pratt. Dinnerstein will perform several selections found on her 2022 Orange Mountain Music release, Undersong, including Robert Schumann’s Arabesque in C Major, Op. 18 and Kreisleriana, Op. 16; François Couperin’s Les Barricades Mysterieuses, and Philip Glass’s Mad Rush; and Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performing as part of The Art of the Piano Festival presented by Awadagin Pratt
What: Music by François Couperin, Robert Schumann, Philip Glass, and Erik Satie
When: Friday, July 5, 2024 at 7:00pm
Where: San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 200 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets and information: www.artofthepiano.org/calendar-of-events/dinnerstein-recital-2024
July 14: Newport Classical Music Festival Presents Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers at The Breakers
Newport Classical Music Festival presents revolutionary violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on July 14.
Photo by David Zentz available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Music Festival presents
An Evening with Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers
Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 8:00 PM
The Breakers | 44 Ochre Point Ave | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information
Watch Anne Akiko Meyers’ NPR Tiny Desk Concert
“Vigorous mastery, unflinching technical skills and stylish elegance” – Los Angeles Times
“...a national treasure. She is a musical wizard, with astonishing access to every kind of expressive color.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
“violinist Anne Akiko Meyers is without doubt a rock star” – Salt Lake City Weekly
Newport, RI – Celebrating its 55th Anniversary, the 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival (July 4-21) presents revolutionary violinist Anne Akiko Meyers on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 8:00pm at The Breakers (44 Ochre Point Ave). The GRAMMY®-nominated violinist is joined by the virtuosic pianist Max Levinson. For her Newport debut, Meyers brings an exquisite program of Corelli, Beethoven, and Morten Lauridsen, plus one of the first performances of a new work written for her by the iconic American composer Philip Glass, and a premiere of Arturo Márquez’s seductive Danzón No.2, arranged for Meyers by the composer, promising an unforgettable evening of music.
Anne Akiko Meyers is one of the world’s most esteemed violinists, admired for her purity of sound, poetic interpretations, gorgeous performances, and innovative programming. She has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad, and collaborates as muse and champion of many of today’s most-performed composers, creating a remarkable collection of new violin repertoire for future generations. Some of Meyers’ career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and the national anthem at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium.
Meyers’ first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at the age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams personally chose Anne to perform Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.
Outside of traditional classical, Meyers has collaborated with artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita; pop-era act Il Divo; and singer Michael Bolton. Meyers received a GRAMMY® Award nomination for her live recording with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango, a concerto for violin and orchestra written for her in 2021. The work has already been performed close to 30 times, and the recording is the latest of her more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.
Anne Akiko Meyers’ Newport Classical Music Festival concert on July 14 features Philip Glass’s New Chaconne for violin and piano, which she premiered this past February. The new piece was written specifically for her and is a testament to Meyers’ dedication to Glass, his indelible impact, and his musical legacy. In summer 2023, Meyers visited Philip Glass at his home in Manhattan, and in September 2023, Glass made the pilgrimage to hear her performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It was this experience, new friendship and the simple joy of making music that sparked the creation of this work in which, as Richard Guérin explains in program notes, “the form itself became fodder for reinvention.”
In addition to Glass’s New Chaconne, Meyers’ Newport program showcases the nostalgia and jubilance of Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2, a work Meyers fell in love with at first listen and which inspired Márquez to write Fandango. The poetic poignance of Morten Lauridsen’s Sure on This Shining Night and Dirait-On; Corelli’s Sonata in D minor Op. 5, No. 12 La Folia; and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24, Spring complete the program.
Set against the picturesque backdrop of the City-by-the-Sea, the Newport Classical Music Festival presents 27 concerts held in 11 historic venues over 18 days from July 4-21, featuring a total of 120 musicians from around the world. Patrons can easily craft a Festival itinerary tailored to their preferences – be it the discovery of a new composer, the rhythm of percussion, or revisiting a beloved work with a fresh perspective. For 55 years, Newport Classical has been a beacon for artistry, drawing in countless concertgoers to revel in exceptional performances within unique and intimate settings.
Highlights include Opening Night with the dynamic and inspiring Sphinx Virtuosi and cello soloist Thomas Mesa; the return to Newport of Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, and A Far Cry with special guests Kinan Azmeh and Dinuk Wijeratne; the Music Festival debut of the storied Handel and Haydn Society; two enchanting evenings with Tony Award-winning Broadway star Laura Benanti; plus performances by star pianists Lara Downes, Joyce Yang, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner, Drew Petersen, and Daniel del Pino; and appearances by numerous celebrated chamber ensembles including the Isidore String Quartet; PUBLIQuartet; Duo Kayo; Lincoln Trio; Poulenc Trio with accordionist Hanzhi Wang; and Sō Percussion with vocalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.
More about Anne Akiko Meyers:
Anne Akiko Meyers grew up in Southern California where she and her mother would travel eight hours round trip from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor to the Colburn School of Performing Arts. She moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with legendary teacher, Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18.
Since her teens, Anne Akiko Meyers has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras and in recital. She has worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra), Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Samuel Jones, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Akira Miyoshi, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh, and Joseph Schwantner, performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.
Anne Akiko Meyers has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School and will be inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame this October, to be broadcast on Roku. She performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest sounding violin in existence.
About Max Levinson:
Meyers is joined by pianist Max Levinson, first prize winner at the Dublin International Piano Competition (1997) and the first American to achieve this distinction. Levinson is also a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1999) and the Andrew Wolf Award (2005). He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New World Symphony, Utah Symphony, Boston Pops, San Antonio Symphony, Louisville Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, as well as in recital at New York’s Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., London’s Wigmore Hall, Zürich’s Tonhalle, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Jordan Hall in Boston, and throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.
About Newport Classical:
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts
Aug 30: Danish String Quartet's New Album Keel Road Out on ECM New Series
ECM New Series Releases Danish String Quartet’s Keel Road
ECM New Series Releases
Danish String Quartet
Keel Road
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin; Frederik Øland, violin; Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola; Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, violoncello
“Folk tunes are not just a part of our repertoire, but an important element of our identity as musicians” – The Danish String Quartet
Release Date: August 30, 2024
ECM New Series 2785
Press downloads available upon request.
Keel Road is the latest chapter in the Danish String Quartet’s reckoning with music from – or inspired by – northern folk and traditional sources, rounding off a decade of sustained engagement with the genre. Wood Works, issued in 2014 on the Danish Dacapo label gave notice of the extent of the DSQ’s commitment to folk, explored in parallel with their classical activities, and Last Leaf, released in 2017 on ECM New Series took the story further. A resounding success with press and public, Last Leaf ranked high amongst albums of the year at NPR, The New York Times and Gramophone, the latter magazine suggesting this might be “the best album of folk ditties from a string quartet you’ll ever hear,” an assertion now challenged by Keel Road.
Once again, the group casts its associative net wide: “We set out on a musical journey that traverses the North Sea. For centuries, the main communication channel of Northern Europe, the highway and the internet of bygone eras. And even though known for its swift upsurges and strong gales, brave sailors would again and again travel the keel road, enabling a continuous exchange of goods, culture and music. The musical keel road of this album will take us from Denmark and Norway to shores far away: to the Faroe Islands, to Ireland and England.” The journey illuminates musical affinities as well as distinctions. “While folk music represents local traditions and local stories, it is also the music of everywhere and everyone. At the end of the day, our stories and our music remain closely connected.”
Amid the traditional pieces, Keel Road subtly interweaves compositions by Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, which eloquently convey a “folk” spirit. A brief excerpt from a field recording of the Danish traditional “En Skomager Har Jeg Været” (A cobbler I was) precedes Sørensen’s reflective tune “Once A Shoemaker."
With characteristic attention to detail, the Danish String Quartet creatively colour the album’s arrangements with the addition of instruments including spinet, harmonium, bass and clog fiddle. Guest musicians Ale Carr (cittern) and Nikolaj Busk (piano), meanwhile, both members, with Rune, of the folk trio Dreamers’ Circus join the DSQ for a performance of Carr’s “Stormpolskan."
Keel Road’s musical stopover in Ireland proves particularly productive, as the quartet interprets pieces composed by Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), the legendary harpist from County Meath. Unusual among the itinerant harpists of his day, O’Carolan drew influence not only from local tradition but also from then-contemporary European composers including Vivaldi and Corelli, intuitively seeking his own blend of form and folk spontaneity.
For the Danish String Quartet traditional music has been part of the group’s story since their early days: “As we came together to form the quartet, folk melodies naturally blended into our rehearsals. We were experimenting with lots of different tunes, each of us adding a personal touch. This evolved into a serious endeavour over time.”
*
Now widely recognized as one of the most adventurous string quartets, the Danish String Quartet celebrated their 20th anniversary in the 2022/3 season. 2023 also saw the completion of their five volume PRISM series on ECM, which explored musical and contextual relationships between Bach fugues, Beethoven string quartets and works by Shostakovich, Schnittke, Bartók, Mendelssohn, and Webern.
The group made their ECM debut in 2016 with music of Thomas Adès, Per Nørgård & Hans Abrahamsen, reflecting their special affinity for contemporary composition.
“What they do know is how to be an exceptional quartet, whatever repertory they play.” — Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
*
Keel Road was recorded at Copenhagen’s Village Recording Studio in November 2022, and mixed at Munich’s Bavaria Musikstudios in March 2024.
The Danish String Quartet celebrates the release of Keel Road with concerts in the US and Europe. Further details and information at www.danishquartet.com and www.ecmrecords.com
July 12: Summer Night Concert 2024 – The Vienna Philharmonic Conducted by Andris Nelsons with Soprano Lise Davidsen
Summer Night Concert 2024 The Vienna Philharmonic Conducted by Andris Nelsons with Soprano Lise Davidsen
Summer Night Concert 2024
The Vienna Philharmonic
Conducted by Andris Nelsons with Soprano Lise Davidsen
Album Release Date: Friday, July 12, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now
Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of this year’s Summer Night Concert 2024 with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Andris Nelsons with soprano Lise Davidsen. The unique concert experience will be available on CD, DVD, Blu-ray as well as digitally on July 12, 2024. Pre-order is available now.
The Summer Night Concert was performed this year on June 7, 2024. It is an annual open-air event, which has been held since 2004 in the magical setting of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna/Austria. The illustrious conductors who have previously led the orchestra at this event are Georges Prêtre, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Andris Nelsons.
Thanks to its UNESCO World Heritage setting in the Baroque Park of Schönbrunn with the palace as a backdrop, the Summer Night Concert adds great visual charm to its superb musical quality. The idea of making classical music at its very best available for everyone and thus giving a gift to all music lovers still characterizes the event today. Millions of viewers and listeners in more than 80 countries can follow the concert online, on TV and radio.
The focus of this year’s program was on popular works from the 19th and 20th centuries from Europe’s rich musical heritage. Bedřich Smetana, one of the most important Czech composers, was honored with three works to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. Andris Nelsons conducted the concert for the second time, while Norwegian opera and lieder singer Lise Davidsen made her début with the orchestra. She sang two arias – from Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Giuseppe Verdi’s La forza del destino.
Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen burst onto the international stage in 2015 by winning multiple prizes at the Operalia, Queen Sonja and Hans Gabor Belvedere competitions. These were swiftly followed by triumphant débuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Aix-en-Provence, and Glyndebourne Festivals. In summer 2021 she appeared in two productions at the Bayreuth Festival (Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Sieglinde in Die Walküre). In the same year she was awarded Female Singer of the Year by the International Opera Awards. A frequent recitalist and concert performer, Davidsen has toured with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. In March this year, Lise Davidsen made her acclaimed role début at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in La forza del destino.
Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister in Leipzig. These two positions, in addition to his leadership of a pioneering alliance between both institutions, have firmly established Grammy Award-winning Nelsons as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today, with engagements with the world’s most important orchestras and opera houses. Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra whilst studying conducting. He was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 2008–2015, Principal Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany 2006–2009 and Music Director of the Latvian National Opera 2003–2007. In 2020, Nelsons was also the celebrated conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic’s legendary New Year’s Concert.
The 182-year old tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic goes back to 1842, when Otto Nicolai conducted a Grand Concert with all members of the imperial “Hof-Operntheater”. This event was originally called “Philharmonic Academy” and is regarded as the origin of the orchestra. Since its founding, the orchestra has been managed by the administrative committee – a democratically elected body – and works with artistic, organizational and financial autonomy. All decisions are reached on a democratic basis during the general meeting of all members.
Program:
1 Richard Wagner Die Walküre: Der Walkürenritt
2 Richard Wagner Tannhäuser: Dich, Teure Halle, Grüß Ich Wieder
3 Bedřich Smetana The Moldau
4 Bedřich Smetana The Two Widows: Polka
5 Bedřich Smetana The Bartered Bride: Dance Of The Comedians
6–7 Giuseppe Verdi La Forza Del Destino: Overture – Pace, Pace, Mio Dio!
8 Augusta Holmès La Nuit et L’amour
9 Aram Khachaturian Sabre Dance
10 Dmitri Shostakovich Suite For Variety Orchestra: Waltz No. 2
July 5: GRAMMY®-Nominated Neave Trio Announces New Chandos Records Album: Rooted – Featuring the Music of Bedřich Smetana, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Josef Suk, and Frank Martin
GRAMMY®-Nominated Neave Trio Announces New Chandos Records Album: Rooted
GRAMMY®-Nominated Neave Trio Announces
New Chandos Records Album: Rooted
Featuring the Music of Bedřich Smetana,
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Josef Suk, and Frank Martin
Worldwide Release: July 5, 2024
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“[T]he Neave Trio delivers perceptively characterised interpretations that are by turns individual and blended, supported by a pleasingly warm recording.” – The Strad
www.neavetrio.com | www.chandos.net
The GRAMMY®-nominated Neave Trio (violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura), announces its latest album, Rooted, which will be released worldwide on July 5, 2024. The Neave Trio’s sixth album for Chandos Records, Rooted will feature Piano Trio, Op. 15 in G minor (1855, revised 1857) by Bedřich Smetana; Five Negro Melodies from Twenty-four Negro Melodies, Op. 59 No. 1, for Solo Piano (c. 1905) by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; Petit Trio, Op. 2 in C minor (1889, revised 1890 – 91) by Josef Suk; and Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (on Popular Irish Melodies) (1925) by Frank Martin.
Rooted follows A Room of Her Own, the Neave Trio’s fifth from Chandos released earlier this year to high praise and wide international acclaim. The Times, which called the recording “a richly rewarding disc,” also included the record in its roundup of ”the best albums of 2024 so far.” The Strad praised the disc’s “illustrious performances,” while Stereophile called the album “a must,” for those wanting to “spread your wings beyond the giant [composers] of the [canon].” Prior to A Room of Her Own, in 2022, the Neave Trio released their album Musical Remembrances, which was nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble category.
Rooted features a range of works centered around folk music. Smetana’s distinctive nationalistic style was largely based on the inclusion of bohemian rhythmic and melodic elements, and he was acclaimed in his native Bohemia as the father of Czech music. His Trio in G minor was composed in 1855 as a response to the death of his four-year-old daughter and shows the influence of Liszt. Josef Suk was a favorite pupil of Antonin Dvořák’s, and his early Piano Trio, while shorter in length and less intense than Smetana’s, is embedded in that Czech tradition. Also deeply influenced by Dvořák, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was inspired by his African heritage, and his Twenty-Four Negro Melodies for Piano was a prime example of his research. He subsequently arranged five of these pieces into the suite for piano trio that we hear on this album. The album concludes with Frank Martin’s Trio from 1925, which is based on several well-known traditional Irish melodies.
Of the new album, the Neave Trio writes:
“We are thrilled to introduce Rooted, our new album featuring trios by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Bedřich Smetana, Joseph Suk, and Frank Martin. Each composer drew deeply from their personal lives and cultural roots, creating musical stories that are both universal and intimate. Working on these pieces has inspired us to reflect on our own stories and how our roots shape us artistically and beyond.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's trio reflects his journey of navigating and embracing his dual heritage. Bedřich Smetana's trio is a passionate response to personal tragedy and his deep love for his homeland. Joseph Suk's music is intimately tied to his personal relationships and the broader Romantic tradition. Frank Martin's Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (on Popular Irish Melodies) captures the essence of Irish melodies, showcasing his fascination with folk music and its timeless appeal.
We would like to dedicate the performance of Martin’s Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises to the memory of Ms. Mary Brosnan and Mr. Brian O’Donovan, two individuals who shared a deep appreciation for Irish music and culture. Their passion and support have profoundly influenced our understanding and interpretation of these melodies, and this dedication is a heartfelt tribute to their enduring legacy.
Through Rooted, we aim to honor the personal stories and emotions that shaped these remarkable compositions. We hope this album allows listeners to connect with the profound human experiences embedded within the music. We all come from somewhere, shaped by our backgrounds, influences and significant experiences. This album seeks to explore and celebrate that very human journey, revealing the unique insights our roots provide.”
Hailed by BBC Music Magazine for its "generous and warm-hearted, utterly beguiling playing, the Neave Trio has emerged as one of the finest young ensembles of its generation. It has been praised by WQXR Radio in New York City, with the station noting the alignment of the trio’s unique name and exemplary musicality: “'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The trio is also described by The Strad as having "elegant phrasing and deft control of textures," and praised by The New York Times for its "excellent performances."
Previous albums include Musical Remembrances (Chandos, 2022), which features Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1, Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, and Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 67; the highly celebrated Her Voice (Chandos, 2019), which features the works of women composers Louise Farrenc, Amy Beach, and Rebecca Clarke; French Moments (Chandos, 2018), which includes the only known piano trios by Debussy, Fauré, and Roussel; and Neave’s Chandos debut, American Moments (2016), featuring works by Korngold, Foote, and Bernstein. In 2018, Neave Trio also released its critically acclaimed album, Celebrating Piazzolla (Azica Records, 2018), featuring mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski.
Formed in 2010, the Neave Trio – currently the inaugural Ensemble-in-Residence at Virginia Commonwealth University for the 2023-24 season – strives to champion new works by living composers, regularly collaborating with artists of all mediums. These collaborations include the premiere of Robert Paterson’s Triple Concerto with the Mostly Modern Orchestra under the direction of JoAnn Falletta; D-Cell: an Exhibition & Durational Performance, conceived and directed by multi-disciplinary visual artist David Michalek; as well as performances with the Blythe Barton Dance Company; with dance collective BodySonnet; with projection designer Ryan Brady; in the interactive concert series “STEIN2.0,” with composer Amanuel Zarzowski; in the premiere of Klee Musings by acclaimed American composer Augusta Read Thomas; in the premiere of Eric Nathan’s Missing Words V, sponsored by Coretet; in Leah Reid’s Cloud Burst for piano trio and electronics; in Dale Trumbore’s Another Chance; and in a music video by filmmaker Amanda Alvarez Díaz of Astor Piazzolla’s "Otoño Porteño.” During the 2024-25 season, the Neave Trio will collaborate with Pigeonwing Dance, composer Robert Sirota, and choreographer Gabrielle Lamb to perform Rising, an evening-length work which meditates not only on rising temperatures and sea levels, but also on humanity’s rising awareness of our connection to and dependence on the Earth’s oceans.
For more information, visit www.neavetrio.com.
Rooted | Neave Trio | Chandos Records
Release Date: July 5, 2024 (Worldwide)
Recorded May 8-10, 2023 at Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England
Bedřich Smetana (1824 – 1884): Piano Trio, Op. 15 in G minor (1855, revised 1857) [27:40]
[1] Moderato assai [11:18]
[2] Allegro, ma non agitato [7:36]
[3] Finale. Presto [8:46]
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912): Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio from Twenty-four Negro Melodies, Op. 59 No. 1, for Solo Piano (c. 1905) [15:55]
[4] 1. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child (No. 22) [3:58]
[5] 2. I was way down a-yonder (No. 15) [3:24]
[6] 3. Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? (No. 11) [1:24]
[7] 4. They will not lend me a child (No. 4) [4:53]
[8] 5. My Lord delivered Daniel (No. 18) [2:14]
Josef Suk (1874 – 1935): Petit Trio, Op. 2 in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1889, revised 1890 – 91) [15:54]
Karlu Steckerovi
[9] I Allegro [6:24]
[10] II Andante – Adagio [3:48]
[11] III Vivace [5:41]
Frank Martin (1890 – 1974): Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (on Popular Irish Melodies) for Piano, Violin, and Cello (1925) [16:13]
[12] Allegro moderato [4:34]
[13] Adagio [5:56]
[14] Gigue. Allegro [5:42]
Total Time: [76:04]
Recording producer: Jonathan Cooper
Sound engineer: Jonathan Cooper
Editor: Jonathan Cooper
Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England
July 6: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts – Performing the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts Performing the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution here.
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts
Performing the Music of
Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 5pm
Charlemont Federated Church | 175 Main St. | Charlemont, MA
Tickets and More information
“full of elegance and pinpoint control” – The New York Times
Charlemont, MA – On Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 5pm, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in concert by Mohawk Trail Concerts at Charlemont Federated Church (175 Main St.) performing the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
For this performance, the award-winning quartet will perform an array of works shaped by a mix of personal relationships, cultural experiences, and stylistic adventurousness. The last of Beethoven’s first six string quartets owes its wit, levity, and exploratory nature to Beethoven’s teacher Josef Haydn, the grandfather of the quartet. Though Beethoven and Haydn often clashed over their styles, later in life, Beethoven would acknowledge his musical debt to Haydn and the evolution of his quartets from their Haydn-esque beginnings. American composer Kenji Bunch’s third string quartet, Apocryphal Dances, is inspired by 17th century French dance music but the 12 minute work is not written with ardent fixation on the style. Bunch’s intent is for a light and lively experience between the performance of the quartet and the listening audience. Shifts in the melody, chord progressions, and rhythmic structure lead the work to reflect qualities of various musical styles. Dvořák crafted his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major –– his final chamber piece –– in two stages: starting around March 1895 when he was scheduled to depart the United States to return to his homeland and then revisiting the work in December 1895, after writing his Quartet in G Major. He finished the A flat-major in just under three weeks and the music largely reflects Dvořák’s spiritual temperament during this time, which was one of uplifting positivity and joy.
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released on in 2023 on Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 5:00pm
Where: Charlemont Federated Church, 175 Main St., Charlemont, MA 01339
Tickets and information: www.mohawktrailconcerts.org/2024-season
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Mohawk Trail Concerts on Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 5pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a concert program featuring works that are greatly shaped by the composers’ personal experiences and relationships, written from the 19th to the 21st centuries: Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6 (1798-1800), Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 3 (2017), and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).\
Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Mohawk Trail Concerts on Saturday, July 6, 2024 at 5pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
August 17: Newport Classical Announces Children's Concert Featuring WindSync in Peter and the Wolf
Newport Classical Expands Community Concerts Series with Children’s Concert on August 17 - WindSync performs Peter and the Wolf
Photo by Carlin Ma available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Expands Community Concerts Series with Children’s Concert on August 17
WindSync performs Peter and the Wolf
Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 4:00 PM
Newport County YMCA | 792 Valley Rd | Middletown, RI
Free Registration Encouraged
“revolutionary chamber musicians” – The Houston Chronicle
Newport, RI – Newport Classical is proud to expand its Community Concerts Series, presented by BankNewport, into the month of August with a free Children’s Concert featuring WindSync at the Newport County YMCA on Saturday, August 17 at 4 pm. This new partnership with the Newport County YMCA strengthens Newport Classical’s mission to provide free access to classical music to Aquidneck Island children and families.
“We are proud to have provided concerts and programming to our Newport community throughout all twelve months of our 2023-24 season,” says Newport Classical Executive Director, Gillian Fox. “We are delighted to partner with the incredible team at the YMCA for this Children’s Concert, continuing our commitment to provide our community with meaningful access to classical music throughout the year.”
Windsync (Garret Hudson, flute; Emily Tsai, oboe; Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet; Kara LaMoure, bassoon; Anni Hochhalter, horn) will perform Prokofiev's famous Peter and the Wolf for Newport Classical’s inaugural Children’s Concert. With each group of instruments representing a different character, Peter and the Wolf remains a timelessly charming introduction to the orchestra for children of all ages. The free, educational, family-friendly show helps nurture an appreciation for classical music with a concert that brings it to life. Complete with costumes and choreography, this engaging performance introduces the five wind instruments of the orchestra and concludes with an exciting retelling of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.
Cori Kilzi, Associate Executive Director of Newport County YMCA, says, “We are excited to join forces with Newport Classical for this Children's Concert on August 17. This partnership provides a wonderful opportunity to spark a passion for music in young audiences, offering memorable experiences that both inspire and educate. We hope you join us for this family friendly event.”
In addition to WindSync’s thrilling retelling of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, this fun, casual, afternoon concert is accompanied by on-site activities, including an instrument petting zoo that provides a hands-on opportunity to get up-close and personal with different instruments of the orchestra, local food trucks, and opportunities to sign up for programs through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the YMCA.
This concert is made possible through the generous support of Randy and Becky Johnson in honor of their granddaughter Schuyler Madison and is presented as part of the BankNewport Community Concerts Series.
About WindSync:
Versatile and vibrant, the musicians of WindSync “play many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts), showing off the uniquely wide-ranging sonorities of the wind quintet. The group’s charismatic and personal performance style, combined with a three-pronged mission of artistry, education, and community-building, lends WindSync its reputation as ”a group of virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too" (Alison Young, Classical MPR).
WindSync launched an international touring career after winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. WindSync has appeared in concert at Ravinia, the Met Museum, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Library of Congress, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Building a new repertoire driven by purpose and growing from close collaboration, WindSync’s recent premieres include works by Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Mason Bynes, Nathalie Joachim, and Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson.
In demand for their ability to embed in communities, WindSync has served in residencies with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Lied Center. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, the ensemble regularly coaches at training programs nationwide, collaborates with youth orchestras, and performs for thousands of young people each year.
On the heels of “All Worlds, All Times,” WindSync’s Billboard chart-topping 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The Whole Note), the quintet’s second commercial album, recorded with composer Miguel del Aguila at Abbey Road Studios, releases in 2024.
More about WindSync: https://www.windsync.org/about.html
About Newport Classical:
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts
July 11: Telegraph Quartet Performs on Morris Museum’s Celebrated Lot of Strings Music Festival – Part of Morris Museum’s Summer Outdoor Concerts on the Back Deck Series
Telegraph Quartet Performs on Morris Museum’s Celebrated Lot of Strings Music Festival
Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Performs on
Morris Museum’s Celebrated Lot of Strings Music Festival
Part of Morris Museum’s
Summer Outdoor Concerts on the Back Deck Series
Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Morris Museum’s Outdoor Concerts on the Back Deck
6 Normandy Heights Road | Morristown, NJ
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail ... an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Morristown, NJ – On Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 7:30pm, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” returns to the Morris Museum (6 Normandy Heights) to perform on the Museum’s celebrated Lot of Strings Music Festival, part of its annual Outdoor Concerts on the Back Deck series, in music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák. Patrons are invited to bring their chairs and picnics to the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck, and find out why The New York Times said it made it “Joyous to be in Jersey” as they watch the sunset on the hills of Morris County during the concert. Guests may arrive at 6pm to set up and enjoy their refreshments.
The Telegraph Quartet, which last performed as part of the Lot of Strings Music Festival in 2022, formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
At the Morris Museum, the award-winning quartet will perform an array of works shaped by a mix of personal relationships, cultural experiences, and stylistic adventurousness. The last of Beethoven’s first six string quartets owes its wit, levity, and exploratory nature to Beethoven’s teacher Josef Haydn, the grandfather of the quartet. Though Beethoven and Haydn often clashed over their styles, later in life, Beethoven would acknowledge his musical debt to Haydn and the evolution of his quartets from their Haydn-esque beginnings. American composer Kenji Bunch’s third string quartet, Apocryphal Dances, is inspired by 17th century French dance music but the twelve minute work is not written with ardent fixation on the style. Bunch’s intent is for a light and lively experience between the performance of the quartet and the listening audience. Shifts in the melody, chord progressions, and rhythmic structure lead the work to reflect qualities of various musical styles. Dvořák crafted his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major –– his final chamber piece –– in two stages: starting around March 1895 when he was scheduled to depart the United States to return to his homeland and then revisiting the work in December 1895, after writing his Quartet in G Major. He finished the A flat-major in just under three weeks and the music largely reflects Dvořák’s spiritual temperament during this time, which was one of uplifting positivity and joy.
The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released in 2023 on Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”
More about Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths––which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet––on August 25 via Azica Records.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Morris Museum’s Lot of Strings Music Festival
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Outdoors on the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ
Tickets and information: morrismuseum.org/telegraph
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented by the Morris Museum, as part of its Lot of Strings Music Festival and annual Back Deck outdoor concert series, on Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform an outdoor concert featuring works that are greatly shaped by the composers’ personal experiences and relationships, written from the 19th to the 21st centuries: Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6 (1798-1800), Kenji Bunch’s String Quartet No. 3 (2017), and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).
Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented by the Morris Museum for The Back Deck Series as part of its Lot of Strings Music Festival, on Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 7:30pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Kenji Bunch, and Antonin Dvořák.
July 20: Newport Classical Music Festival Presents World Premiere by Clarice Assad Featuring PUBLIQuartet & Renée Rapier
Newport Classical Music Festival Presents World Premiere by Clarice Assad Featuring PUBLIQuartet & Renée Rapier
(clockwise) Clarice Assad, PUBLIQuartet, Renée Rapier. Photo available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Music Festival Presents the World Premiere of
Clarice Assad’s Chronicles of Ghosts: “Whispers from the Pirate Queen”
Featuring PUBLIQuartet and Mezzo-Soprano Renée Rapier
Saturday, July 20, 2024 at 8:00 PM
The Breakers | 44 Ochre Point Ave | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information
Plus Composer Talk with Clarice Assad at 11:00 AM
Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn St | Newport, RI
Free Registration
“a thrilling immediacy to the playing…boldly imaginative” – BBC Music Magazine
Newport, RI – Celebrating its 55th Anniversary, the 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival (July 4-21) presents the world premiere of GRAMMY®-nominated Brazilian-American powerhouse composer Clarice Assad’s “Whispers from the Pirate Queen'' performed by multi-GRAMMY®-nominated PUBLIQuartet and GRAMMY®-winning mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier on Saturday, July 20, 2024 at 8:00pm at The Breakers (44 Ochre Point Ave). The concert also features PUBLIQuartet’s What is American, the intrepid ensemble’s improvisation on Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, known as his “American” String Quartet; as well as contemporary works including Jessie Montgomery’s Voodoo Dolls, Fodé Lassana Diabaté’s Sunjata’s Time, Vijay Iyer's Dig the Say, Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday for string quartet and mezzo-soprano, Julia Perry’s Prelude (arr. by Hamilton Berry), and PUBLIQuartet’s MIND | THE | GAP: Wild Women, improvisations on the music of Tina Turner, Betty Davis, Alice Coltrane, and Ida Cox. The performance explores the resonance between contemporary, blues, jazz, free, and rock-inflected music – all of which trace their roots back to the Black and Indigenous music that inspired Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet.
A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres. The composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. With her talent sought after by artists and organizations worldwide, the polyglot musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.
Assad’s new piece “Whispers from the Pirate Queen” was commissioned by Newport Classical. The work is part of Assad’s series Chronicles of Ghosts, which explore the lives of extraordinary but often unsung women throughout history, showcasing their feats and biographical details as recorded in history. “Whispers from the Pirate Queen” dramatizes the imagined bond between two remarkable women transcending time and place: Grace O’Malley, the legendary 16th-century Irish pirate queen, and Anne Hutchinson, the influential Puritan spiritual leader and pioneer of the 17th century, who lived in what is now Rhode Island in the 1630s.
Assad explains, "Through a series of mystical encounters and dreams, Grace O'Malley's spirit reaches across time to guide, inspire, and empower Anne Hutchinson in her journey of courage and resilience. The story weaves together fact and fiction, history and fantasy to create a multi-layered narrative that speaks to the enduring power of female strength, solidarity, and legacy. As Grace O'Malley's whispers echo through the ages, she symbolizes the unbreakable spirit of women who dare to challenge societal norms and fight for their convictions.”
“Whispers from the Pirate Queen” was commissioned by Newport Classical as part of its ongoing initiative, which launched in 2021, to commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. In addition to Assad, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, and Curtis Stewart.
Set against the picturesque backdrop of the City-by-the-Sea, the Newport Classical Music Festival presents 27 concerts held in 11 historic venues over 18 days from July 4-21, featuring a total of 120 musicians from around the world. Patrons can easily craft a Festival itinerary tailored to their preferences – be it the discovery of a new composer, the rhythm of percussion, or revisiting a beloved work with a fresh perspective. For 55 years, Newport Classical has been a beacon for artistry, drawing in countless concertgoers to revel in exceptional performances within unique and intimate settings.
Highlights include Opening Night with the dynamic and inspiring Sphinx Virtuosi and cello soloist Thomas Mesa; the return to Newport of Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, and A Far Cry with special guests Kinan Azmeh and Dinuk Wijeratne; the Music Festival debut of the storied Handel and Haydn Society; two enchanting evenings with Tony Award-winning Broadway star Laura Benanti; plus performances by star pianists Lara Downes, Joyce Yang, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner, Drew Petersen, and Daniel del Pino; and appearances by numerous celebrated chamber ensembles including the Isidore String Quartet; PUBLIQuartet; Duo Kayo; Lincoln Trio; Poulenc Trio with accordionist Hanzhi Wang; and Sō Percussion with vocalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.
About Clarice Assad: www.clariceassad.com
About PUBLIQuartet: www.publiquartet.com
About Renée Rapier: www.reneerapiermezzo.com
About Newport Classical:
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts
Oct. 4: Sony Classical Announces New Recording by Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann & The Vienna Philharmonic Featuring Brahms’ Two Piano Concertos
Sony Classical Announces the New Recording by Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann & The Vienna Philharmonic – Brahms’ Two Piano Concertos
Sony Classical Announces the New Recording by
Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann & The Vienna Philharmonic
Brahms’ Two Piano Concertos
“Andante” Piano Concerto No. 2 In B-Flat Major Op. 83
Out Now - Listen Here
The Triple Album Features Levit’s Long-Anticipated Recording Of Brahms’ Late Solo Piano Works And A Special Encore Of Levit And Thielemann Playing A Brahms Waltz Together
Album Release Date: October 4, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now
“Feel-good vibes effervesced, while applause resounded around the stage: that’s amore!” This is how the Viennese newspaper Der Standard described the audience’s enthusiastic reaction after Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann, and the Vienna Philharmonic performed Brahms’ First Piano Concerto at Vienna’s famous Musikverein in April 2024: “During these fifty minutes, an irresistible dose of emotion was conveyed – but at the same time the sophisticated structure of Brahms’ masterpiece remained crystal-clear.” Levit and Thielemann had already performed the Second Piano Concerto with the same orchestra in December 2023; the headline in Die Presse at the time ran: “Igor Levit sets a new gold standard for Brahms.”
These two concertos make up the first joint recording by Levit and Thielemann, which will be released on Sony Classical as a triple album on October 4, 2024 with Levit’s recording of Brahms’s well-known solo works opp. 116–119. Pre-order is available now. Levit’s and Thielemann’s first meeting was quite unplanned, although both had been curious about each other for a long time. In 2015, Levit spontaneously stepped in for a colleague who had fallen ill and performed Mozart’s C major Concerto K 467 with Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden in Munich. Despite an extremely short rehearsal period, the two hit it off straight away: “We have such a similar way of thinking that it is not necessary to discuss many things,” says Thielemann. And Levit adds: “When the piece begins, I simply have complete confidence in you. I know I can’t take a wrong turn. Having such unconditional trust is extraordinary.”
The two do not have to discuss individual passages – a common understanding is attained without the need for words, simply through listening and responding. Instead, they prefer to talk about performers and composers. And they are always amazed to discover how similarly they perceive so many things. Sometime after their initial meeting, it was during a walk together near Berlin that the conversation turned to Brahms – and thus they conceived the plan to record the two piano concertos as part of an upcoming Brahms cycle with Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic. “I’ve known the Wiener Philharmoniker for thirty-five years,” says Thielemann, and adds: “I’ve always been fascinated by how this orchestra can react to conductors and assimilate even the smallest details. And then there is the concert hall, the Wiener Musikverein, with its acoustic properties that Brahms knew so well.” “And what a sound!” Levit exclaims. “I was sitting in the first rehearsal and the horn began to play. You do not really want to start playing, but rather to say to the hornist: Can you please play that again? It was so beautiful.”
For Levit the addition of Brahms’ beloved solo works opp. 116–119 on the album just felt right. Levit says: “Brahms’ music cannot leave you untouched. It’s just physically and emotionally not possible. Take op. 118 no. 2, for example, it’s like an arrow shot straight into your heart. It’s simply the most beautiful, touching, and tender music imaginable.”
The album concludes with a special encore – the four-hand rendition of Brahms’ charming Waltz op. 39 no. 15 played by Levit and Thielemann. Levit explains: “It’s taken me some years to get to the point of having the courage to play and record this music, and Christian Thielemann has been instrumental in getting me here. Unlike Beethoven’s music, where you go emotionally from peak to bottom almost continuously, here Brahms is often the steadiest of music, with very long breaths and a steady heartbeat. Now that I feel right, placed with this music, you couldn’t find me happier than I am right now.”
TRACKLIST:
Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op. 15
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major Op. 83
Igor Levit, Christian Thielemann & the Vienna Philharmonic
7 Fantasias Op. 116
3 Intermezzi Op. 117
6 Piano Pieces Op. 118
4 Piano Pieces Op. 119
Waltz op. 39 no. 15 (version for piano 4-hands with Christian Thielemann)
Igor Levit
Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.
Aug. 30: Sony Classical Presents Paul Robeson Voice of Freedom – The Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
Sony Classical Presents Paul Robeson Voice of Freedom – The Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
© Johanna Berghorn/Sony Classical
Sony Classical Presents
Paul Robeson - Voice of Freedom
The Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
Album Release Date: August 30, 2024
Reviewer Rate: $55.16 + shipping/handling fees
Pre-Order Available Now
Paul Robeson—African-American bass-baritone, stage and film actor, All-American football player, lawyer, and advocate for civil rights—was outspoken against racism, colonialism, and social injustice. Rutgers graduate, scholar of world cultures, and speaker of more than 20 languages, he worked tirelessly to break down political and racial barriers, and to build bridges between the peoples of this world. However, with the advent of the Cold War and the Red Scare following World War II, the political climate changed. Doors began to close for Robeson as concert halls and radio stations shut him out. In July 1950, the US State Department revoked the blacklisted artist’s passport thus preventing him from pursuing his successful international career as a singer and actor. But international audiences continued to honor and call out for him, and he found technologically advanced and effective ways to reach his communities all over the world.
Today, his remarkable voice and unrivaled stage presence live on in sound recordings and films. This 14-CD edition on Sony Classical, is the first ever release of his complete Columbia, HMV and Victor recordings from 1925 to 1947. All of his American recordings have been meticulously restored from the original master discs and tapes, and 25 studio recordings—as well as his complete historic New York and London recitals from 1958—are presented here for the first time on CD. The richly illustrated 160-page book, with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, pays tribute to a cultural icon of the 20th century.
Blacklisted and erased from American history, many of Robeson’s recordings in the U.S. remained unreleased – until now
Special 14-CD edition, documenting his complete major-label discography, recorded 1925–1947
First release of Robeson’s groundbreaking Victor recordings on CD, 16 recordings reissued for the first time, 5 previously unreleased
First restoration of Robeson’s famous 1944 Othello stage production with Uta Hagen and José Ferrer from the original 33 master disc sides
His complete remastered Columbia albums (Songs of Free Men, Popular Favorites, Spirituals)
First release of his historic 1958 recitals at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, New York, and Royal Albert Hall, with 30 previously unissued recordings
Richly illustrated 160-page book with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, a wealth of photos and facsimiles from the archives of The Paul Robeson Trust, the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, and Columbia Records, plus complete discographical notes
Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his work as singer and actor and for his political activism.
Robeson attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where he was an All-American football player. Upon graduating from Rutgers at the head of his class, he rejected a career as a professional athlete and instead entered Columbia University. He obtained a law degree in 1923, but, because of the lack of opportunity for blacks in the legal profession, he drifted to the stage, making a London debut in 1922. He joined the Provincetown Players, a New York theatre group that included playwright Eugene O’Neill, and appeared in O’Neill’s play All God’s Chillun Got Wings in 1924. His subsequent appearance in the title role of O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones caused a sensation in New York City (1924) and London (1925). He also starred in the film version of the play (1933).
In addition to his other talents, Robeson had a superb bass-baritone singing voice and studied more than 20 languages. In 1925 he gave his first vocal recital of African American spirituals in Greenwich Village, New York City, and he became world famous as Joe in the musical play Show Boat with his version of “Ol’ Man River.” His characterization of the title role in Othello in London (1930) won high praise, as did the Broadway production (1943), which set an all-time record run for a Shakespearean play on Broadway.
Robeson’s recorded repertoire spanned many styles, including Americana, popular standards, classical music, European folk songs, political songs, poetry and spoken excerpts from plays.
Returning to the United States in 1939, during World War II Robeson supported the American and Allied war efforts. However, his history of supporting civil rights causes and pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the FBI.
In 1949, a concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27 in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill, New York. Before Robeson arrived, a mob of locals attacked concertgoers with baseball bats and rocks. The local police arrived hours later and did little to intervene. Thirteen people were seriously injured, Robeson was lynched in effigy and a cross seen burning on an adjacent hillside. The concert was then postponed until September 4. Following the concert, request for Klan memberships from the Peekskill area numbered 748 persons.
Paul Robeson moved to Harlem and from 1950 to 1955 published a periodical called Freedom which was critical of United States policies.
In the McCarthy era, Robeson's passport was revoked, his records disappeared from stores, his name was blacklisted, which equated to a ban on performing in the United States. International committees were formed demanding freedom for Robeson to travel, particularly in Britain. In May 1957, members of the British House of Commons organized a "transnational" concert by telephone in London's St. Pancras Town Hall. He was only allowed to leave the U.S.A. again in 1958 as a result of a 1958 United States Supreme Court decision.
In the early 1960s he retired and lived the remaining years of his life privately in Philadelphia.
Robeson became the main mentor to the young Harry Belafonte, who became one of the most popular black entertainment stars of the early 1950s, but also a protagonist of the African American civil rights movement. Belafonte referred to Robeson both artistically and politically.
SET CONTENTS
DISC 1: THE EARLY VICTOR AND RCA RECORDINGS 1925–1940
Spirituals · Ol’ Man River · Ballad for Americans
16 recordings restored for the first time from the original masters, 5 recordings previously unreleased, all others newly remastered
DISCs 2–8: THE HMV RECORDINGS 1928–1939
DISC 9: THE COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS RECORDINGS 1942/1947
Songs of Free Men · Popular · Favorites · Joe Louis Blues
All recordings newly remastered · 1 recording previously unreleased
DISC 10: THE COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS RECORDINGS 1945/1947
Go Down, Moses · Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and 22 more spirituals
All recordings newly remastered
DISC 11: LIVE IN NEW YORK, JUNE 1, 1958
Spirituals · Arias · Folk Songs · Ode to Joy
First restoration of the historic recital at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church
14 recordings previously unreleased
DISC 12: LIVE IN LONDON, AUGUST 10, 1958
First restoration of Robeson’s return to Royal Albert Hall
16 recordings previously unreleased
DISCs 13/14: SHAKESPEARE: OTHELLO (1944)
Columbia Masterworks’ first album of an entire stage production, restored from the original 33 disc sides
June 21: ECM New Series Releases Delian Quartett's New Album Im wachen Traume
ECM New Series Releases Delian Quartett’s Im wachen Traume
ECM New Series Releases
Delian Quartett
Im wachen Traume
Schumann / Reimann, Byrd / Pierini, Purcell
Delian Quartett
Adrian Pinzaru, violin; Andreas Moscho, violin; Lara Albesano, viola; Hendrik Blumenroth violoncello
Claudia Barainsky, soprano
Mikhail Timoshenko, baritone
Matthias Lingenfelder, viola
Andreas Arndt, violoncello
ECM New Series 2743
CD: 0289 4875875 3
Release Date: June 21, 2024
Press downloads available upon request.
Named after a lyric from the first piece in Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben song cycle, the Delian Quartett’s programme of Im wachen Traume combines said cycle – in a new arrangement for soprano and string quartet by the late Aribert Reimann – with music by Renaissance composer William Byrd and Baroque composer Henry Purcell. Most of the works appears in world premiere recordings here. The earlier English repertory bookends the album, framing Frauenliebe und Leben in a thematic embrace and, as the quartet’s violinist Andreas Moscho puts it, “in dazzling harmonies, that colour the musical span from the bliss of the moment to the end of things”.
Much has been said about Frauenliebe und Leben, from 1840 based on the poetry cycle by Adelbert von Chamisso, and many interpretations and versions of it uttered. This remodelling, however, conceived specifically for the Delian Quartett and soprano Claudia Barainsky, opens up truly new perspectives that seem to have been lying dormant within the original score all along. By transferring the piano part to four voices, Reimann dresses the cycle in an entirely new guise – one that builds on the sustained quality of the strings and utilizes both the art of reduction, to a concentrated and minimalist end, and embellishment, in form of vibratos, pizzicati and harmonic flourishes, for the purpose of emotional emphasis of both music and lyrics.
“Music and poetry have ever been acknowledg’d Sisters, which walking hand in hand, support each other; As Poetry is the harmony of Words, so Musick is that of Notes; and as Poetry is a Rise above Prose and Oratory, so is Musick the exaltation of Poetry. Both of them may excel apart, but sure they are most excellent when they are join’d…” Henry Purcell wrote this in 1650 – in a way, predicting the significant role poetry would play in Romantic music almost two centuries later.
Claudia Barainsky, one of the foremost interpreters of Reimann’s music, is a striking presence throughout the programme and especially expressive in the Schumann cycle, delivering the story of an enamoured woman, from her first meeting with her love, through marriage, to his death and after, with conviction and a keen sense for the text’s emotional delivery. The piano’s uniquely independent voice-leading from the original score is expanded upon in this arrangement for string quartet, with inspired translation choices made regarding range, drone-passages and how repetitive piano motifs here are cleverly spread across the two violins, viola and cello.
Andreas Moscho introduces the project in his performer’s note: “Two powers continue to overcome the changes of our fast-paced world. They have inspired human existence since forever: death, which limits us, and love, which carries us beyond our end. They also echo in the history of music. Under their influence, composers of all eras have bequeathed us with their most stirring moments. Some of them are brought together on his album. It traverses the space between light and shadow, between sorrow and joy, laying out new paths along the way: None of the works selected here were originally conceived for string quartet. In all of them, however, the string quartet seems to return home.”
All Byrd and Purcell pieces appear in arrangements by Italian composer Stefano Pierini, except for the Purcell instrumentals, “Pavane” and “Chaconne”, which are rendered in their original shape. More than mere reiterations, these Renaissance and Baroque reinterpretations inspire spirited performances by the quartet and soprano. Joining the ensemble on Byrd’s “Lullaby, my sweet little baby” and the programme-concluding Purcell piece “Hear my prayer, O Lord” is baritone Mikhail Timoshenko. Additional viola and violoncello parts on the last piece are contributed by Matthias Lingenfelder and Andreas Arndt.
As with Schumann, the synergy of poem and music comes to play here as well, in Byrd’s “Jhon come kiss me now”, which, in the version of Pierini, is based on the 1792 poem by Scottish lyricist Robert Burns. Word and song are entwined throughout Im wachen Traume, and the Delian Quartett’s impassioned performances together with Claudia Barainsky confirm Purcell when he suggests that they are indeed “most excellent when they are join’d”.
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Since its inception in 2007 the Delian Quartett has gained widespread international attention, performing on major stages and festivals in Europe and alongside various important figures in the classical world. The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has praised the quartet’s “wonderful sonority and striking plasticity of structures”. Previous recordings, among them performances of Schumann and Haydn, have been met with acclaim and garnered award nominations. One of the Delian Quartett’s main emphases is the expansion of its repertory to include the works of contemporary composers, such as Alberto Colla, Per Arne Glorvigen, Gabriel Iranyi, Christian Jost, Uljas Pulkkis and the in this album included Stefano Pierini and Aribert Reimann. Most of them have written music specifically for the ensemble.
The late German pianist and composer Aribert Reimann (4 March 1936 – 13 March 2024), known especially for his literary operas, was specialized in the contemporary Lied (art song) – he was a professor of the contemporary Lied in Hamburg and Berlin. Among his most well-known works are the operas Ein Traumspiel, Lear (based on Shakespeare’s play) and Medea. As recounted in this album’s liner note, Reimann conceived his arrangement of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben after having dreamt about a version of the cycle performed by strings. This was in 2018 – he completed the score within two months of the dream.
Claudia Barainsky studied at the Hochschule der Künste in her home city of Berlin with Ingrid Figur, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Aribert Reimann and is internationally regarded as one of the most versatile singers of her time due to her wide-ranging repertory. She made her debut with the title role in Aribert Reimann's Melusine and was awarded the German Theater Prize "DER FAUST" for her outstanding interpretation and portrayal of the title role in Aribert Reimann's German premiere of Medea at the Frankfurt Opera. Barainsky has worked with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors – chamber music being her speciality.