~Program~
Johannes Brahms: Six Love Songs
Emmanuelle Bertrand, cello; Pascal Amoyel, piano
From Harmonia Mundi: “Emmanuelle Bertrand and Pascal Amoyel celebrate their twenty years together as a cello and piano duet. It is hardly surprising that they chose to mark this anniversary with the music of Brahms, a composer who has been a constant on their beautiful journey together: beyond his two ultra-romantic sonatas, they take the listeners to an even deeper emotional realm, that of his lieder, splendidly “sung” here by the cello!”
William Levi Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Fagen
William Levi Dawson (1899-1990) was an African-American composer born in Anniston, Alabama. His Negro Folk Symphony was Premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1934 by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. William Levi Dawson born this day in 1899. This recording is on the Naxos label.
Interview: Rob Kennedy speaks with composer Jerod Tate.
Anton Bruckner: Andante from Symphony No. 2 in C minor
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Andris Nelsons
Bruckner’s original version of this symphony featured an Adagio as the 3rd movement. In this 1877 revision, he moved it to the 2nd movement and relabeled it as an Andante.
W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K. 503
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jeremy Denk, piano
You have a trio of geniuses at work here: Mozart was a genius. Pianist Jeremy Denk is a MacArthur Genius Award winner. And Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s playing of Mozart, and, for that matter, anything else, transcends the term ‘genius. You can find this performance on a Nonesuch CD entitled Mozart Piano Concertos.
Luigi Cherubini: Overture to Eliza
Basel Symphony Orchestra, Ivor Bolton
Eliza or The Voyage to the Glaciers of Mount Saint Bernard is an opéra comique. On the same Harmonia Mundi CD are Johannes Brahms’ first Piano Concerto and the Tragic Overture.
Gabriel Fauré: Dolly Suite, Op. 56
Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne, piano
Twenty-seven tracks of French piano music for four hands performed by Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne make for a delightful listening experience.
Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka
Les Siècles, Francois-Xavier Roth
From Harmonia Mundi’s website: “Paris, early twentieth century: in the space of three ballets, a previously unknown Russian composer revolutionised the music of his time. With The Firebird and Petrushka, respectively fairytale and folktale, and of course The Rite of Spring, a telluric invocation with its insanely innovative harmonies and rhythms, Stravinsky dynamised the Late Romantic orchestra, taking it to literally unheard-of places. Among the very first musicians to perform these works on the instruments that witnessed their birth, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles inaugurated a far-reaching rediscovery of these seminal pieces, giving today’s listeners an opportunity to appreciate to the full their audacity and their harsh, savage power.”
Rob Kennedy
September 26, 2021