Kate Royal’s Lesson in Love and Simon Rattle’s Mahler 2 Headline March Releases from EMI Classics

By -

With spring approaching, EMI Classics and Virgin Classics celebrate the joyous season with a prodigious line-up of new releases and special reissues. On EMI Classics, Kate Royal gives listeners A Lesson in Love, a wide-ranging program – spanning two centuries, three languages, and 17 composers – devised by Royal as “a song cycle telling the story of a young girl’s first experience of love.” Royal is also a soloist – along with Magdalena Kozená – on Sir Simon Rattle’s new recording with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of Mahler’s Second Symphony, “Resurrection,” a work beloved by the conductor and long a part of his life and career. Also from EMI Classics, Ian Bostridge pays tribute to three pioneering tenors of the 18th century with the aptly named Three Baroque Tenors, and keyboard legend Martha Argerich joins musician friends on Live from the Lugano Festival 2010.

On Virgin Classics, the Ebène Quartet strikes out in a new direction with Fiction, featuring improvisations and arrangements of themes from film soundtracks, jazz standards, and rock classics with guest artists Natalie Dessay, Stacey Kent, Fanny Ardant, and Luz Casal. Other key releases from the label include an all-Schumann album from Piotr Anderszewski, an all-Scarlatti (Domenico) album from Alexandre Tharaud, and Christina Pluhar and her dynamic ensemble L’Arpeggiata in a recording of Monteverdi’s magnificent 1610 Vespers.

Adding further luster to this month’s release schedule from EMI Classics are several recordings celebrating the legacy of great artists past and present. Highlights include the debuts of the label’s Masters and American Artistry series; five new titles in the ICON series (Elisabeth Schumann, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hermann Prey, Claudio Arrau, and the Melos Ensemble; and a five-set celebration of the artistry of one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors, Sir Thomas Beecham, who died 50 years ago.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more