Michala Petri

The maturity and wisdom harvested from a lifetime of making music on the highest levels ennobles Maestro Abbado’s leadership of the superb Orchestra Mozart. The sublime simplicity of their performance of the Brandenburg Concertos illuminates the complexities of Bach’s incomparable demonstration of the unity of Logic and Love.

Harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone, recorder player Michala Petri, trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich, supreme Baroque violinist, Giuliano Carmignola and the others demonstrate the mastery that makes them among Abbado’s favorite soloists

Employing period instruments, Orchestra Mozart liberates all the vitality embedded in Bach’s notes. Wrote Classical Source: “…As if you’re hearing [the music] for the first time”

World Premiere Recording of Richard Harvey’s Concerto Incantato!

Only available recording of Malcolm Arnold’s late Concerto!

Michala Petri weaves a wonderous web of musical enchantment!

Recorded in state-of-the-art Super Audio Sound!

The recorder has been part of Western music for more than seven hundred years, during which time it has enjoyed a particularly special relationship with the composers and musicians of England. The present recording showcases the music of three generations of English composers who have embraced the recorder, making significant contributions to the repertoire in the process. Gordon Jacob, the eldest, composed numerous works for the recorder from the 1950s up until his last year.

Sir Malcolm Arnold was to follow Jacob’s example contributing his Concerto for Recorder, originally written for and premiered by Michala Petri. Arnold’s amphibious existence as a composer for both film and the concert hall is echoed in the career of our youngest contributor, the BAFTA award-winning composer and recorder player Richard Harvey.

The result? Pure musical enchantment! Jacob's delightful Suite has been a mainstay for recorder players (and an audience favourite…) since its premiere, while Arnold's rarely performed concerto is a late masterwork truly deserving a wider audience makes a most welcome return to the catalogue. The program is capped off by Harvey's magical Concerto Incantato (composed especially for Michala) - a true concert piece for the Harry Potter generation.

All World Premiere Recordings!

Four modern masters explore the musical possibilities of combining the Recorder and choir!

Featuring the virtuoso Danish National Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Stephen Layton.

Recorded in state-of-the-art Super Audio Sound!

The “idea” of combining the recorder with a choir is certainly nothing new; the recorder has joined the human voice in song for almost as long as the instrument has existed. The recorder is in a sense the closest instrument to the human voice, producing a pure sound without mechanisms, reeds or elaborate mouthpieces to alter the tone. However, until recently, few contemporary composers have explored the expressive potential that this combination can deliver.

A recurring theme of each of the four highly personal and distinctive works on this program is a contemplation of nature and humanity. Beginning with Latvian composer Ugis Praulins magical adaptation of Andersen’s beloved fairy tale, we traverse the darker realms of the human heart in Sunleif Rasmussen’s setting of Inger Christensen’s confessional response to Wallace Steven’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Young Danish composer Peter Bruun provides us a glimpse into Gerard Manley Hopkins secretive mysticism while Daniel Börtz, dean of Swedish composers, holds us rapt in adoration as his celestial angel-bird soars above the extraordinary virtuoso singing of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble.

Once again, Michala Petri has proven herself not only the unquestioned master of the recorder, but her visionary approach to programming and commitment to expanding her instrument’s repertoire into the 21st century make this an absolutely essential disc for fans of Michala, choral music, Nordic composers, and contemporary music with a HEART as well as with a “system.”

The Petri/Hannibal duo first appeared on stage in the winter of 1991, and performed their first full concert in the summer of 1992 at the Monastery La Cartuja de la Sierra in Andalusia, Spain. Since then, they have appeared in concert halls and festivals around the world, giving nearly 1500 concerts in programs of music from the late renaissance and early baroque, the classical and romantic periods, to contemporary works written especially for them. Together, they have released five CDs including Kreisler Inspirations (2001) which received the prestigious Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. In 2006, the duo formed OUR Recordings, to present the continuing musical adventures of two most imaginative musicians. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the duo has newly recorded a program of their most popular Baroque repertoire as a very special gift to the audience, their friends and fans around the world!

OUR Recordings is proud to announce the third installment in their pioneering “Dialogue - East Meets West” series.

The music of many of China’s greatest living composers and musicians remains unknown outside of their homeland. As a part of their ongoing series, “Dialogue – East Meets West”, Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal, provide the opportunity for Western and Chinese musicians and composers to creatively collaborate in a truly international, musical dialogue.

Chinese Recorder Concertos features four contemporary masterworks by Chinese, Chinese-American and Taiwanese composers recorded in stunning SACD sound.