An Evening With Leopold Stokowski

“This vivid act of reclamation has so much to teach, and to enjoy. It shows that Stokowski's arrangements were made not only with love but acuity; that their flair and poetry may survive beyond his own performances, given the flair and commitment displayed by the Brussels Philharmonic” --Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“What’s a period-instrument specialist doing conducting the notoriously inauthentic orchestral arrangements of Stokowski? Having fun, that’s what. Baroque wonders by Bach, Handel and Purcell become dressed in showmanship...The Brussels Philharmonic plays persuasively for Egarr, and the programme’s terrific” --The Times, 8th January 2011

The charm and sheer full-blooded pleasure offered by Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions continues to hold sway today – complete with opulent and resonant strings – some three decades after the dynamic conductor’s death. The “Stokowski Sound” was particularly, indeed deliberately, well-suited to the possibilities offered with the development of stereo recording of the maestro’s day, a challenge which Glossa’s engineer Manuel Mohino has happily embraced as much as the Brussels Philharmonic, whose members have taken to the style like ducks to water in this modern-day “Evening with Leopold Stokowski”.

Leading the way with a classy swagger in transcriptions of Bach, Purcell and Palestrina is a conductor in Richard Egarr, perhaps better known for his work with the unadorned originals (he is the Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, after all), but in reality equally at home in much later music – and he makes no bones about his appreciation of the Stokowski style. About the transcription of Dido’s Lament Egarr says, “It is still Purcell, even in Stokowski's fur coat.” and, for added emphasis, he conjures up his own orchestral confection of Handel’s Water Music. An evening’s entertainment of unalloyed pleasure culminating in a triumphant rendition of the Slavonic March by Tchaikovsky, à la Stokowski, naturally.

Commercial release sheet (PDF)

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Classical Accordion

“Sidorova here demonstrates the remarkable potential of the accordion, not an instrument generally appreciated in classical circles...[The Bach] is fascinating, with Sidorova making the accordion sound like a miniature organ...An attractive and unusual disc.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011

“Anybody disinclined to take the accordion seriously as a classical instrument should listen to the opening track here...[the Nordheim and Berio] are advertisements for the accordion's expressive potential, mining its virtuosic possibilities...a debut recording full of panache and communicative musicianship.” --BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

The winner of numerous international competitions, the brilliant young accordion player Ksenija Sidorova here presents her debut recording; a recital for solo classical accordion.

A particularly accomplished artist, Ksenija has collaborated with many leading musicians (including the Belcea Quartet, and Valergy Gergiev with the CBSO), and won numerous awards and accolades.

“one of the real finds of this series” The Times

Still an underexploited resource in western classical music, the accordion has had a fast-increasing amount of music written for it since the mid-20th Century. Here, Ksenija Sidrova brings a varied recital featuring some of the best contemporary compositions for the classical accordion, alongside transcriptions of well-known works.

No composer has been transcribed more often than Bach; but the accordion - heard here in Bachʼs Overture in the French Style - brings an advantage that few other instruments can offer; itʼs notes do not die away as soon as they are sounded. This allows an array of colouristic possibilities, denied to other musicians.

Amongst the contemporary works here, Arne Nordheimʼs Flashing, written in 1985 for solo accordion, has become a classic of the accordion repertoire. Nordheimʼs music has a real sense of physicality, of movement and change on a large scale. In contrast, Luciani Berioʼs Sequenza XIII opens with a compressed melody which is gradually developed amid splashes of complex harmony and virtuoso filigree.

Yuji Takahashuʼs Like a Water-Buffalo is preceded on this disc by the poem that inspired it. Well-known in Takahashiʼs native Japan, it is a moving, heartfelt piece, strongly transmitting the sounds of freedom.

This recital CD also features a ʻbonus trackʼ - Astor Piazzollaʼs “Asleep”, the first of the composerʼs Five Tango Sensations, performed by Ksenija Sidorova with the exuberant young Sacconi Quartet.

“an amazingly accomplished artist” Classical Source

Composers featured in this stunning recital include: Nordheim, Berio, Schnittke, Takahashi, Piazzolla, Scarlatti, Bach and Mozart.

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Les Contraltos

"Her voice had contralto inflexions, tender and deep": there we have an excellent summing-up of this voice that has been traditional for at least a century and a half. One thinks of Kathleen Ferrier in Brahms and Mahler, of Erda in .The Ring.. The quotation (by the French novelist Roger Martin du Gard) is taken from the 'Petit Robert' dictionary, which defines the word 'contralto' intself as "the lowest female voice".

The contraltos Sara Mingardo, Maire-Nicole Lemieux, Nathalie Stutzmann, Sonia Prina, Delphine Galou interpret repertoire from Vivaldi to Schumann.

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Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier

“Time and again you are left to admire the way he never burdens Bach's transparency and profundity with a portentous or heavy air of significance. Touchingly and admirably, he always allows Bach his own voice, his manner at once masterly and self-effacing. How simply and directly he colours and inflects the first Prelude, how assertive but never bullying his second Prelude and Fugue. The third Prelude flashes with all of his early virtuosity, the eighth is ideally sustained and the magical chimes of No 13 are caught to perfection.” --Gramophone Magazine, March 2006

BBC Music Magazine Disc of the month - May 2006

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Organ Spectacular

From the dramatic sweep of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, to the majestic pomp of Walton's Crown Imperial and Sigfried Karg-Elert's Nun danket alle Gott, and the brilliant spectacle of toccatas by Théodore Dubois, Charles-Marie Widor and Léon Boëllmann, this outstanding collection, drawn from over two centuries of instrumental showstoppers, celebrates the organ's all-encompassing emotional range.

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Bach: Keyboard Concertos

“This is extremely intelligent, thoughtful, committed playing that displays both a grasp of recent trends in performance practice and a deep love of the music. Of all the pianists seeking to make a case for music of this vintage on the mdoern instrument, I can't think of one who succeeds more eloquently than Injushina.” --International Record Review, May 2013
   
“This music is an apt vehicle for Anastasia Injushina's limpid pianistic facility and taste, but the touches of individuality in the writing and in the work's significance in the development of the keyboard concerto are outweighed by reams of stock, note-spinning gestures.” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2013

“the Hamburg Camerata string are in sparkling form. Anastasia Injushina's articulation is admirably versatile, though ornaments tend to accent, rather than simply decorate, the slow movement's beautifully languid line...Injushina captures the elegance of fluid scales and pert ornaments.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 ****

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JS Bach: Lute Suites Nos. 1-3

“for anyone knowing these suites well, this version will prove totally riveting - I haven't listened more intently for a long time...apart from a curiously limited dynamic range, Smith's playing is profoundly sensitive.” --BBC Music Magazine, September 2013 ****

“Smith has great dignity and poise. Dignity is an especially good word for his noble but restrained way with the emotion of the Second Suite” --MusicWeb International, 2nd July 2013

Hopkinson Smith (German theorbo Joël van Lennep, Rindge, New Hampshire, 1986)

One of today’s 'popes' of early and baroque lute playing, Hopkinson Smith returns to the magic masterpieces of Bach and records the renowned Suites BWV 1007, 1008 and 1009, transcribed by himself for the German theorbo...

Bach was a musical ecologist, the masterful recycler of his own compositions, arranging more than a few from one instrument or combination of instruments to another. Many of his works seem conceived on a somewhat abstract plane, above and beyond any specific instrument, and it was completely natural for the pragmatic 18th-century mind and ear to adapt them to the instrument of its choice.

Among the so-called ‘official’ lute works of Bach, there exist two such adaptations: from the solo violin repertoire, the Third Partita, BWV 1006, becomes BWV 1006a for the lute, and the Fifth Cello Suite is transformed into the Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995. Of course, lutenists had been adapting music for their instrument for centuries. More than half of the continental lute music of the Renaissance is made up of adaptations of vocal works. In the French baroque, Robert de Visée couldn’t stop making transcriptions for his theorbo of orchestral and keyboard works by his contemporaries. The great 18th-century German lutenist, Sylvius Weiss, a friend of Bach’s, was said to have played violin concertos directly on the lute. These examples of adaptations are not given as a kind of ‘justification’ for the present project as if the idea needed to be defended historically. It is more to guide the modern musical thinker (who sometimes knows more about ‘authenticity’ than did the musicians of former times) to the state of experimentation and discovery that is completely natural for the musician: one sits alone with one’s instrument without a score, playing melodies and harmonies that one has heard here or there and making them one’s own.

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Bach: Secular Cantatas III

“Suzuki and his singers are at ease with this carefree Bach, introducing the Quodlibet with background babble, and singing with exaggerated nasal accents...[Lunn's] lyrical, sustained aria in BWV36c is glorious. Two further high points in BWV36c are a rustic bass dance-aria and the admirable oboes d'amore and strings of the opening choral movement.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2013 ****

“As ever, Suzuki and colleagues are excellent, their collective experience as Bach interpreters enabling them to gel as one. You feel you are ever safe in their hands; but if you think that simply means no surprises, listen to them cut loose in the lusty Wedding Quodlibet” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2013

“I've never heard Suzuki and the Bach Collegium having so much fun...conjuring up all the merriment of slightly inebriated music-making (complete with plenty of sound effects). This is undoubtedly the most convincing and enjoyable performance of the Quodlibet, BVW524 I've heard” --International Record Review, September 2013

“Suzuki neither deserts seriousness for levity, nor makes something fey or whimsical of this somewhat lighter form of Bach's writing...The blend between sensitive instrumental playing and thoughtful yet never self-important singing is one of the strengths of these performances.” --MusicWeb International, 10th September 2013

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Fantasie_fantasme

"The idea of choosing piano works for a solo recording that explores the concept of fantasy may not seem all that original. But on this fascinating album the Israeli pianist David Greilsammer explores the concept in a program of striking diversity, exposing musical resonances among disparate works by composers from Bach and Brahms to Cage to Ligeti. Of course the concept would mean little were the performances not so brilliant and probing. Mr. Greilsammer, born in Jerusalem in 1977, is a formidable pianist." --New York Times [11/9/2008]

“However it may look on paper, in practice it works incredibly well, such is Greilsammer’s magnetic ability to find mutual correspondences and attractions between opposite poles” --Julian Haylock, International Piano

“In this enjoyable piano montage, 16 items have been arranged symmetrically around Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor……it’s as though the alienation effect of piano “preparation” has been applied to a whole disc.” --Sunday Times Contemporary Composers (No. 3) Albums of the Year

“The pianism is superb” --Michael Church, The Independent

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Music for Trumpet and Organ

Alison Balsom is the world’s preeminent female classical trumpeter. She is an unique and independent artist who have broken through to the mainstream whilst retaining her integrity and core musical values. Exceptional talent, a glamorous stage presence and a witty and engaging personality make Alison one of the most exciting and bankable artists in the core classical world today.

“The young British trumpeter Alison Balsom is a real star: resplendent and well-varied tone, crisp attack, absolute ease of production throughout the range.” BBC Music Magazine

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Bach: Toccata & Fuge

Overwhelming splendour: Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most important organ composers of all time, with his Toccata & Fugue BWV 565 the best-known work ever written for 'the queen of instruments'. Bach's organ music forms the basis of every organ virtuoso repertoire, thanks not least to its endless diversity, which ranges from intimate musical dialogues with God through virtuoso fugues to a sound of monumental splendour.

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Bach: Keyboard Concertos Nos. 1-5

“An unselfconscious frisson of symphonic timbre and period clarity really does kick these concertos off into some highly distinctive regions...But it's the direct and ringing pianism of Ramin Bahrami that defines this unusual collaboration. The figurative and textural traits of the D minor and major concertos find a compelling viscerality...a remarkably interesting and vitally conceived disc to which I shall return eagerly and admiringly.” --Gramophone Magazine, November 2011

 

“Technically, the playing is highly accomplished and Bahrami's touch is infallible.” --Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 ***

“Bahrami shows fine technique and crisp articulation in the fast passagework.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 ***

“With Chailly’s Bach-ingrained Leipzigers as “historically informed partners”, the Iranian Bahrani delivers crisply articulated, zippy allegros and deeply felt adagios — the Siciliano of the E major concerto lovingly phrased — without sentimentalising the music.” --Sunday Times, 7th August 2011 ***

“Like his colleagues here, [Bahrami] is no early-music fundamentalist, yet baroque manners inform these readings...even though Chailly and Bahrami favour somewhat brisk fast movements. If, as a result of that, there’s an occasional suggestion that the pianist is being pushed perhaps a little too hard, the gamble by and large pays off.” --Sunday Times, 18th September 2011

“These readings...are good enough to make me never want to hear a harpsichord again. Subtly faster speeds mean that it’s possible to squeeze all five concertos onto one disc. And, combined with Chailly’s immaculate, big-hearted accompaniments, Bahrami’s effortless style and panache make listening to the disc a life-enhancing experience” --The Arts Desk, 15th October 2011

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Bach: Secular Cantatas II

Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki present their long-awaited second volume of secular cantatas by J.S. Bach.

“brilliantly caught, from the casting of the four characters to the expectional continuo work, led by Suzuki himself. Makoto Sakurada (as Endymion) conveys the ensnaring potential of love with friendly caution, while Pan (the ever-communicative Roderick Williams) delivers the first feel-good excursion in celebrating our Prince as Pan of his country.” --Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

The “Hunt Cantata”, composed in 1713, is the oldest of his secular cantatas. The libretto includes a dramatic plot in which four divinities from ancient mythology appear.

Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht was intended for the 1719 New Year celebrations in Köthen. The cantata is set as a dialogue between Time (tenor) and Divine Providence (alto), who in the final movement are joined by a chorus wishing ‘glückseligen Zeiten’ (‘joyous times’)

“Sophie Junker is a personable Diana to tenor Makoto Sakurada's youthfully lyrical Endymion. Best of all if baritone Roderick Williams's Pan who renders the outrageous toadying distinctly palatable. Suzuki shapes everything with his trademark light touch, if he's sometimes inclined to under-characterise the drama.” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

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Bach Greatest Hits

Johann Sebastian Bach belonged to a dynasty of musicians. In following inevitable family tradition, he excelled his forebears and contemporaries, although he did not always receive in his own lifetime the respect he deserved. He spent his earlier career principally as an organist, latterly at the court of one of the two ruling Grand Dukes of Weimar. In 1717 he moved to Cöthen as Court Kapellmeister to the young Prince Leopold and in 1723 made his final move to Leipzig, where he was employed as Cantor at the Choir School of St Thomas, with responsibility for music in the five principal city churches. Despite widespread neglect for almost a century after his death, Bach is now regarded as one of the greatest of all composers.

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Bach: Secular Cantatas I

Just over twenty secular cantatas by JS Bach have survived, and we know of almost thirty other cantatas that are now lost. The secular cantatas were almost all composed for some important, festive event in a family or in public, academic or political life. The present disc includes one of the most regularly performed of these works, the Coffee Cantata. This was written around 1734, probably for a performance at the Zimmermann Coffee House in Leipzig.

The disc opens with O holder Tag, a wedding cantata for solo soprano dated, in the version here performed, to 1741. (The piece was actually used in more or less modified form by Bach on at least five different occasions, from as early on as 1729.) The solo soprano, in her first BIS recording, is Carolyn Sampson who is one of the most exciting performers in her field today. A stunning introduction to the world of Bach's cantatas and to the incomparable Bach Collegium Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki.

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Bach: Transcriptions

"Slatkin is at his best here. He is equally interested in line and color, thereby supporting the aims of both Bach and the individual orchestrators… What really makes this recording work is the superb playing of the orchestra. They really respond to Slatkin." --Fanfare

"…a fascinating and hugely enjoyable collection of Bach from various celebrated 20th-century composers played with great verve…" --Gramophone

‘’I cannot imagine anybody who genuinely loves music as a sensory and emotional experience not wanting this’. --American Record Guide

‘In these days of “historically informed” performances it might seem anachronistic, even heretical to present a programme of orchestral transcriptions of works by Bach. But there are two compelling reasons to do this.

The first is that we are presenting pieces in versions made by other composers. In each case it is clear that the transcriptions are made with the deepest respect for Bach’s genius. Clearly, the transcribers were trying to bring the master’s works to a wider public via these orchestrations. It must be remembered that Bach’s popularity is largely a product of the mid- to late-twentieth century.

This brings us to the second reason. For several generations Bach’s music was heard first in various orchestral versions rather than in its original form. Therefore, this disc will represent for some listeners a kind of authenticity of first exposure. We are all influenced by music in the way we hear it for the first time: just as many will always associate The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with the film Fantasia, so will many people remember the sound of a full symphony orchestra as it brings Bach’s music to life.

It is my hope that you will enjoy the wonderful and inventive way in which each of the composers represented here has treated these works. We are reminded of the genius of Bach, who gave all of these creators the inspiration to be inventive.’

Leonard Slatkin

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Bach: Works for Trumpet

Gramophone described her Bach album as “splendid stuff” and the pieces “showcase Balsom’s phenomenal technique and gleaming expressiveness”

“…as a showcase for this young artist's mesmerising virtuosity the disc does its job admirably, and presents some familiar and less familiar Bach in new guises at the same time. The supporting instrumentalists, especially organist Colm Carey, make a sterling contribution...” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2006 *****

“A disc of arrangements which is impressive on every level. Beautifully mellow playing contrasting with virtuosic moments.” --Classic FM Magazine, March 2006 *****

“Two transposed movements from BWV1008 and a mischievous solo take on the Badinerie (from BWV1067) showcase Balsom's phenomenal technique and gleaming expressiveness. Period-instrument practitioners Alina Ibragimova, Mark Caudle and Alastair Ross provide superb accompaniment in a charismatic version of the Trio Sonata. A surprisingly diverse range of textures and moods makes this disc a beguiling experience.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2006

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Bach: The Art of Fugue

'The remarkable Tatiana Nikolayeva … uncovers Bach's revelations as if they were her own' --The Independent

'Absolutely superb. Certainly I can think of no finer recording of this endlessly fascinating masterpiece, whatever the medium. Highly recommended' --DReview

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Bach: Inventions & Sinfonias BWV772-786

“this is a romantic approach, with a limpid, legato touch in many of the Inventions. There is a dynamic rise and fall which emphasises the shape of phrases, and there is a vocal clarity to the contrapuntal strands which keeps us soundly on message for the most part...In the end, most of these performances are very good indeed on their own, but only your individual taste will dictate if you respond to Dinnerstein’s approach.” --MusicWeb International, 28th March 2014

“An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” --The New York Times

Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias (commonly known as the 3-part Inventions) are the foundation of keyboard students’ study. Likewise most musicologists will study part of the Inventions at some stage of their theoretical education. Simone is keen to reach young students, their parents and musicologists, in addition to her usual fan base and plans a series of short videos on a selection of the inventions to connect with this audience.

Simone Dinnerstein says: “The first keyboard pieces of Bach that I remember hearing were his Inventions, when I was nine years old. The music seemed impossibly expressive and virtuosic at the time, and wholly beyond my abilities. Here were two continuous and independent voices, neither of which was subservient to the other. Until then I had thought of music as melody and accompaniment. An instrumental training is as much a training in how to listen as in how to play. In the text that accompanies the Inventions, Bach calls them ‘an honest guide.’ His Inventions and Sinfonias are marvels in demonstrating just how potent counterpoint is as an aid to expression, and how powerful a cantabile voice can be when surrounded by contradiction and elaboration. These small masterpieces have snippets of dances in them, laments and celebrations, simplicity and complexity.”

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Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, BWV 1001-1006 (Guitar Version)

Born in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki, in 1961, Kazuhito Yamashita is widely recognized as one of the world's most premier virtuoso guitarists. His dazzling technique and powerful expression has received accolades throughout the musical world. With an impressive list of almost 80 recordings and numerous original arrangements of such works as Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Firebird, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherezade and Dvorak's Symphony of the New World, Yamashita is a legend within guitar circles.

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