New Releases

[Brian]

Renaud Capucon playing all (I think?) Richard Strauss' violin-solo-involved music.

CD1
Violin Concerto with the Vienna Symphony and Guillaume Bellom
Violin Sonata and Daphne Etude with Petr Popelka

CD2
Piano Quartet, Capriccio Sextet, and Metamorphosen
with: Guillaume Bellom, Gerard Causse, Clemens Hagen, Julia Hagen, Veronika Hagen, Christoph Koncz, Alois Posch, and Paul Zientara

CD3
Ein Heldenleben with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and Seiji Ozawa

[JBS]

It strikes me a pretty far fetched to claim that the description of the recording as "unique" is prosecutable deceptive advertising. The performer plays a cello with a unique provenance, built as a 5 string cello, converted to a 4 string cello in the 18th or 19th century, brought to the U.S. by a family fleeing the Nazi's, forgotten, rediscovered, and rebuilt to its original five string configuration. I find something unique about it. But, by all means sue them. Why miss an opportunity to drive a classical music label into insolvency.

I side with Madiel. A reasonable consumer would read that claim to mean this was the first time the Suites had been recorded using two different historical cellos. Which is demonstrably not so.

[Madiel]

It strikes me a pretty far fetched to claim that the description of the recording as "unique" is prosecutable deceptive advertising. The performer plays a cello with a unique provenance, built as a 5 string cello, converted to a 4 string cello in the 18th or 19th century, brought to the U.S. by a family fleeing the Nazi's, forgotten, rediscovered, and rebuilt to its original five string configuration. I find something unique about it. But, by all means sue them. Why miss an opportunity to drive a classical music label into insolvency.

They don't claim the instrument has a unique provenance. Getting your wording right matters. There is plenty of case law here about the importance of saying the right, accurate thing.**

If they described the instrument as unusual I wouldn't have a problem. Instead they suggest nobody has ever used 2 historical cellos before, which is simply not true.

But I said nothing about suing them (and I don't have any grounds to sue them, they haven't cost me money). If you want to talk about getting worked up about things, maybe it would be best if you didn't exaggerate? I sent them an email to say they shouldn't make an inaccurate claim. You seem to be unusually upset that I should send an email, as if wanting them to correct their advertising will somehow send the company to the wall.

**For example, the 2 main sellers of AA batteries here kept challenging each other's advertising, claims of whose battery lasted longer and so forth. Some ads had to be pulled as they breached the law. Exactly which ones got pulled depended very much on what the exact statements were.

[Roy Bland]

[Mandryka]

But wait! MARCH 2025 is bringing even more!







Why is Naxos releasing such a generic album? It's tied to the Kreisler Competition winner, the first South American to win the prize apparently. (The past winners list is not exactly superstar-studded; Dmitry Sitkovetsky won the first in '79 and other laureates include Rachel Barton Pine, Daishin Kashimoto, and Sergey Khachatryan.)







"This new album of Bach's complete Cello Suites has the unique feature of being performed using two different historic cellos, one of them being a rare five-string instrument from the 17th century, which is used on Suite 6. Cellist William Skeen is one of the world's premiere Baroque cellists. He serves as Principal Cellist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, and was Principal Cellist of the American Bach Soloists for nearly two decades."

-

finally, we might have an early forerunner for most pretentious album of the year:



based on the pops history book

From the composer: "What I have attempted is a humble musical response to human signposts, concepts, myths, or ideas that we as a species have carried with us, developing along the way these past couple hundred thousand or so years – breadcrumbs on the path of humanity. I imagined the modern piano as a sort of meta-instrument, present at the dawns of humankind, the cognitive and agricultural revolutions, and some of the most notable inflection points of our troubled and triumphant history. The piece begins not on the piano, but at the piano, with a single human breath."

Interesting biographical note on this composer, whose music is appearing on Sono Luminus: "Sean is the CEO of PENTATONE, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music."

Chandos and John Wilson specifically seem to have a fondness for re-recording previously done material, huh?

Interesting to see Scarlatti 87 on that CD, and the fact that she makes it last so long (Antony di Bonaventura takes longer!)

[Atriod]

Interesting to see Scarlatti 87 on that CD, and the fact that she makes it last so long (Antony di Bonaventura takes longer!)

K87 is one of my favorites from Scarlatti, I think it works quite well with a slower tempo.

She has the best performance I've heard for Ives' first sonata, I was hoping the disc would include all three of Boulez's sonatas.

[Mandryka]

[Mandryka]

[bioluminescentsquid]

Has a poetic rendition of the Te deum.

[prémont]

Has a poetic rendition of the Te deum.

Still the Treutmann organ, Grauhof?

The organ he used for Buxtehude Vol. 1 and 2, and I find this organ poorly suited for North German organ music, which is the reason why I haven't planned to purchase Vol. 3.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Still the Treutmann organ, Grauhof?

The organ he used for Buxtehude Vol. 1 and 2, and I find this organ poorly suited for North German organ music, which is the reason why I haven't planned to purchase Vol. 3.

Still Grauhof!
I enjoyed this disc more than Vol II at least. Not sure why. I think you should give it another try.
I also thought the organ did not fit the music very well when I first heard volume 1 (as well as his Vincent Lübeck), but now I find it (with its 18th century pastel colors) as a refreshing change from most Buxtehude recordings, done on 17th century Northern organs.
Also it might not be so historically "incorrect" after all. Many of the surviving Buxtehude sources come from 18th century Central Germany. The builder Treutmann also had a lot of contact with Arp Schnitger's work as Schnitger built many organs (with what we think of as "18th century Central German" characteristics) in Magdeburg.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Listening to Friedhelm Flamme's Vincent Lübeck, recorded 20 years earlier, I'm enjoying it a lot as well!

[Mandryka]

28 Feb

[foxandpeng]

28 Feb

Looking forward to this to complete the set.

[Mandryka]

Looking forward to this to complete the set.

Penny for your thoughts about his 4th. I love it.

[foxandpeng]

Penny for your thoughts about his 4th. I love it.

Ha. Probably not worth a penny. I lean toward Vänskä as my usual source for Sibelius, but this works for me. Overall, this feels a little more brisk than that, but not excessively. It does feel to me more pastoral and less bleak than some other interpretations... again, not necessarily a bad thing.

I do like his Wood Nymph!

[Der einsame Einsiedler]

Renaud Capucon playing all (I think?) Richard Strauss' violin-solo-involved music.

CD1
Violin Concerto with the Vienna Symphony and Guillaume Bellom
Violin Sonata and Daphne Etude with Petr Popelka

CD2
Piano Quartet, Capriccio Sextet, and Metamorphosen
with: Guillaume Bellom, Gerard Causse, Clemens Hagen, Julia Hagen, Veronika Hagen, Christoph Koncz, Alois Posch, and Paul Zientara

CD3
Ein Heldenleben with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and Seiji Ozawa

It's not all of it. Le bourgeois gentilhomme has some prominent and important parts for the violin, so it should've been included, IMHO. Of course, this 3-CD set doesn't claim any kind of completeness.

[bioluminescentsquid]

Many amazing releases today!
Ah, and this one

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/john-bull-organ-works-1613-1628-2?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1yRvkZ_ksVxINvSsig-m27uip5BeVF_xIsYp7d6JavCty31_yh7l5huc0_aem_YwJi84v4obW149Zyhg-Vww

[Mandryka]

Many amazing releases today!
Ah, and this one

https://editionsgrandier.bandcamp.com/album/john-bull-organ-works-1613-1628-2?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1yRvkZ_ksVxINvSsig-m27uip5BeVF_xIsYp7d6JavCty31_yh7l5huc0_aem_YwJi84v4obW149Zyhg-Vww

The organ for the Byrd sounds good, listing now to the first track - will be interesting to revisit Glen Wilson in this music after.

Booklet for the clavichord recording. Looking forward to the chaconne.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/45/000184054.pdfp

The Bull isn't streaming yet.

[Brian]

MORE MARCH STUFF

First of all, Brilliant Classics is prepping new versions of its complete Haydn, Mozart, Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi giant box sets.



a living composer enters the Brazil series





Silvestrov - Bagatelles Op. 1
Liszt - Dante Sonata
Debussy - Et la lune descend..., L'isle joyeuse
Liebermann - Gargoyles
Silvestrov - Postludium Op. 5



SOME APRIL STUFF



Not sure why Slovenia is on the cover of a Mendelssohn album from Latvia on a Finnish label...



This is a bunch of shorts: Rachmaninov, Bortkiewicz, Ravel, Rosenthal, Bonis, Bowen, Alkan, Chaminade, d'Indy, Respighi, etc.

and finally one disc coming in MAY: