~Program~
Traditional, arr. by Brian Kay: Gaudete! (Rejoice!)
Sir David Willcocks: Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
The King’s Singers have been an institution as one of the world’s finest male a capella choral ensembles for over fifty years. Read about their American tour this December here.
CD: Signum Classics Christmas Carols with The King’s Singers
Jessie Montgomery: Peace
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Gloria Chien, piano
American composer Jessie Montgomery composed this in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to a growing sense of crisis.
CD: Cedille Here With You – Anthony McGill & Gloria Chien
Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20
Abdel Rahman el Bacha, piano
Jed Distler on Classics Today states: “From the late 1990s through the early 2000s Abdel Rahman El Bacha recorded Chopin’s complete solo piano music for the Forlane label. The cycle’s various volumes are hard to source on physical CD, but are intermittently available via download. El Bacha has now re-recorded the Scherzos and Ballades for Mirare.”
CD Mirare Chopin/Scherzi & Ballades
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D, Op. 18 No. 3
Chiaroscuro Quartet
Formed in 2005, the Chiaroscuro Quartet consists of the violinists Alina Ibragimova (Russia) and Pablo Hernán Benedí (Spain), the Swedish violist Emilie Hörnlund and cellist Claire Thirion from France.
CD Bis Beethoven String Quartets, Op. 18 Nos. 1-3
Philip Glass: Etude No. 2
Maya Beiser, cello
Avante-garde American cellist Maya Beiser was raised on a kibbutz in Israel and mentored as a teen by Isaac Stern. Today her repertoire ranges from Bach to David Bowie.
CD: Islandia Music Records Maya Beiser x Philip Glass
Rob Kennedy speaks with Elias Dubelsten about the PaTRAM Institute’s new recording, More Honourable than the Cherubim.
Petar Konstantinov Dinev: It is Truly Meet
PaTRAM Institute Male Choir
CD: Chandos More Honourable than the Cherubim
James MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck
This new Pittsburgh Symphony recording starts beautifully, Manfred Honeck lingering imperceptibly on the upbeat, an unmannered and affecting touch.
For his “Larghetto”, MacMillan created an orchestral arrangement of an earlier choral work, his setting of the Miserere.
CD: Reference Recordings Pittsburgh Symphony/Honeck/Brahms/MacMillan
Niels Gade: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 21
Maria -Elisabeth Lott, violin; Sontraud Speidel, piano
Danish composer Niels Gade was a notable composer of the late Romantic era. Maria -Elisabeth Lott, violin and Sontraud Speidel, piano perform Gade’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor. You can find this on Niels Wilhelm Gade Violinsonaten 1-3 from Ars Produktion.
CD: Ars Produktion Niels Wilhelm Gade Violinsonaten 1-3
Karl Stamitz: Symphony in G, Op. 2 No. 3
Cologne Academy, Michael Alexander Willens
From the pen of German composer Karl Stamitz (1745-1801) comes music that strikes me as listenable as the music of Mozart and Haydn. Michael Alexander Willens conducts the Cologne Academy in a performance of Symphony in G, Op. 2 No. 3.
CD: Chandos Carl Stamitz – Le Jour Variable – Four Symphonies
W.A. Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K. 543
North German Radio Philharmonic of Hannover, Andrew Manze
His background as a violinist and proponent of historically informed performance comes through in his conducting, and the start of the Prague Symphony, even though played on modern instruments,… — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021.
CD: Pentatone W.A. Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 38 & 39
Rob Kennedy
December 5, 2021