Avie label - CDs

Apollo's Fire and founder/conductor Jeannette Sorrell release one of their signature pieces, Monteverdi's Vespers, as a tribute to the work's 400th anniversary and in anticipation of their seven-city tour in October 2010.

The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, together with founder / conductor Jeannette Sorrell, launched on Avie in July 2010 with a double release featuring discs of Mozart and J.S. Bach. They follow with their tribute to the 400th anniversary year of Monteverdi’s seminal Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, released in anticipation of the group’s first European tour which culminates with their Wigmore Hall debut on 30 November. Vespers has been a signature piece for Apollo’s Fire for over ten years, and it’s fitting for Sorrell and her vibrant band to bring this magnificent masterwork to wider audiences through this recording.

Leading international flutist Marina Piccinini pairs with the Brasil Guitar Duo for unique arrangements of J. S. Bach’s popular Flute Sonatas.

One of the world’s leading flute virtuosos, Marina Piccinini presents unique transcriptions of Bach’s evergreen Flute Sonatas. Eschewing the typical piano or harpsichord accompaniment, Marina records these works as never before with a pair of guitars. And what better partners could Marina have than the Brasil Guitar Duo, winners of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild International Competition (New York), whose “maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity … is simply outstanding,” according to Classical Guitar Magazine. It’s a natural combo for the Brazilian-Italian Marina, and this popular repertoire played on popular instruments serves the music exceptionally well. Rounding out the 2-CD set is Marina’s exquisite version of the Solo Partita in A minor.

"Marina Piccinini’s flute-playing is very special, her lyrical phrasing cool, exquisitely shaped and with an underlying delicate sensuality." Gramophone

"Gorgeous tone, rock-solid rhythm, beautiful phrasing, and no identifiable technical flaws. This is great playing." American Record Guide (on the Brasil Guitar Duo)

One of the leading American composers of his generation, Jake Heggie arrives on Avie with 'Passing By', a gorgeous collection of recent songs and duets performed by a superb line-up of international singers and instrumentalists.

Fresh from the extraordinary success of The Dallas Opera premiere of his opera Moby Dick – “a wonderful and rare reminder that new opera truly can excite people if it’s done right,” according to The Washington Post – Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Heggie describes this collection as “songs that tell stories about now and then. Reflections of family, friends and lovers passing by. A missed or mistaken connection, a moment when everything might have been different. People who entered our lives and would be there forever, then suddenly were not there at all.”

Indelibly associated with his acclaimed operas, including Dead Man Walking (which made the Top 10 of Billboard’s Classical Chart), Three Decembers and The End of the Affair, Jake’s heart and soul lie in storytelling through song. With lyrics and poetry by the likes of A.E. Housman, Terrence McNally and Rilke, the songs of Passing By reflect the great American songbook tradition, replete with achingly beautiful melodies and striking observations of life’s journeys.

As ‘Passing By’ illustrates, Jake’s music is championed by the most illustrious international signers, many of whom he has also collaborated with as a pianist. He has received commissions from San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Carnegie Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has had performances as far afield as Australia, Austria, Germany, Ireland and Sweden and South Africa.

Flights of Fantasy' presents Monica Huggett and her Irish Baroque Orchestra exploring the remarkable range, diversity and whimsy of Italian baroque chamber music.

Think you know Italian baroque chamber music? Think again. The range, diversity – and even wackiness – is remarkable, as illustrated by Flights of Fantasy, an album of acute inventiveness by Avie stalwart Monica Huggett and the chamber soloists of her Irish Baroque Orchestra. Take Carlo Farina’s Capriccio Stravagante, which translates as “outlandish whim”, and imitates barking dogs, meowing cats and gunfire. More serious, but no less virtuosic, experimental forms occur in works by Marini, Castello, Legrenzi, and Cavalli – the Venetian best known for his operas – all heard on this album. Created in 1996, the period-instrument Irish Baroque Orchestra occupies a fundamental place in Ireland’s musical landscape. Ten years in, the mantle of artistic director was assumed by Monica Huggett, who has created a decades-long career of critically acclaimed and award-winning recordings, including the Billboard chart-topping, Grammy-nominated Bach Orchestral Suites on Avie (AV2171).

Apollo’s Fire, the leading American period-instrument orchestra hailing from Cleveland, launches a major new series on Avie with two vibrant and varied recordings (a recording of Bach is being released simultaneously), featuring the music of Mozart, anticipating their UK debut at the Wigmore Hall, 30 November.

Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra founded in 1992 by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, launches a major new association with Avie with two releases that exemplify “the intense detailing Sorrell and company bring to music from the Baroque and Classical eras.” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). These vibrant performances of varied works by Mozart feature popular repertoire brought together in pairings that have not appeared on disc before.

It leads with the composer’s darkest Symphony, No. 40 in G minor. American soprano Amanda Forsythe joins the group in a dramatic recitative and virtuoso aria from Lucio Silla. Also included is the Ballet Music from Idomeneo, a festive and rarely-heard suite from the last great work in the opera seria tradition. Rounding out the disc are four lively and entertaining Contradances.

Taking its name from the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is dedicated to the performance of 17th- and 18th-century music on period instruments. Founder and Music Director Jeannette Sorrell and her ensemble of dynamic and creative early-music artists from North America and Europe have been praised internationally for stylistic freshness and buoyancy, animated spontaneity, technical excellence, and creative programming.

Andrea Lucchesini’s second recording for Avie features his first of the music of Schubert, the complete Impromptus.

The brilliant career of Italian pianist Andrea Lucchesini was launched in 1983, when he became the first Italian ever to win the Dino Ciani International Competition at La Scala in Milan. He has since made numerous award-winning recordings and performed all over the world with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Houston Symphony, London Philharmonic, under the baton of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov and Riccardo Chailly. A probing musician, Lucchesini is well-known for his advocacy of contemporary music – his first recording for Avie featured the complete solo piano works by Berio (AV2104) – yet he is equally at home with the Romantic masters as this, his first recording of Schubert, demonstrates.

Vasily Petrenko, the RLPO and the European Opera Centre reunite for a rare, live recording of the one-act opera Susanna’s Secret by Wolf-Ferrari, uniquely coupled with the composer’s Serenata: Five Songs for Baritone.

Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO first collaborated with the Liverpool-based European Opera Centre on a Russian double-bill of Shostakovich’s The Gamblers and Rothschild’s Violin by Fleishman. The resulting 2-CD set on Avie garnered a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and contributed to Petrenko’s winning the Young Artist of the Year accolade at the 2007 Gramophone Awards. The team reunites for a rare, live recording of Wolf-Ferrari’s humorous one-act opera, Susanna’s Secret. Wolf-Ferrari’s neo-classical score is as seductive as the Edwardian plot in which the new wife of a jealous Count attempts to hide her smoking habit. When he catches her, their improbable reconciliation results in a rather different sort of smouldering. The young singers of the EOC throw themselves into their roles with appropriate passion. The recording is uniquely rounded out with Wolf-Ferrari’s Serenata, five songs extracted from his seldom-heard Italian Songbook.

“This addictive entertainment was as much a showcase for Vasily Petrenko and the Liverpool Phil as it was for Canturri’s incisive, handsome baritone and Rodrigues’s smooth, well-focused soprano” The Independent on Sunday (on the live performance of Susanna’s Secret in Liverpool)

Apollo’s Fire, the leading American period-instrument orchestra hailing from Cleveland, launches a major new series on Avie with two vibrant and varied recordings (a recording of Mozart is being released simultaneously), featuring the music of J.S. Bach, anticipating their UK debut at the Wigmore Hall, 30 November.

Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra founded in 1992 by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, launches a major new association with Avie with two releases that exemplify “the intense detailing Sorrell and company bring to music from the Baroque and Classical eras.” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). These vibrant performances of varied works by J.S. Bach feature popular repertoire brought together in pairings that have not appeared on disc before. The 2-CD Bach set takes the ever-popular Brandenburg Concertos, and uniquely couples them with two Harpsichord Concertos, one of which is also presented in a reconstruction for violin.

Taking its name from the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is dedicated to the performance of 17th and 18th-century music on period instruments. Founder and Music Director Jeannette Sorrell and her ensemble of dynamic and creative early-music artists from North America and Europe have been praised internationally for stylistic freshness and buoyancy, animated spontaneity, technical excellence, and creative programming.

Avie’s support of the music of Hans Gál continues with three world premiere recordings and the label’s first foray into the composer’s orchestral works.

Avie continues to champion the works of Hans Gál with the label’s first foray into the “continental Briton’s” orchestral oeuvre. The album of three premiere recordings is framed by two works for violin and orchestra, both from the 1930s but written under entirely contrasting circumstances. When he wrote the Violin Concerto in 1931-32, Gál was at the height of his career and enjoying widespread recognition. By the time the Concertino was composed in 1939, his life had been turned upside down by the catastrophic Nazi occupation of Germany and later Austria, forcing Gál and his family to flee to Britain in 1938. Despite this life-altering situation, Gál’s musical language remained remarkably steadfast – optimistic and true to his tonal core; the differences between the Concerto and the Concertino are essentially a matter of scale, not of style. Triptych stems from 1970 and was composed in less than a month, an astonishing burst of creative energy for one in his 80th year. A fitting testimony to Gál’s life and outlook, the work’s finale is exuberant, virtuosic and totally life-affirming.

German violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel, who previously recorded a disc of Gál’s chamber works with piano for Avie, has become one of the composer’s most ardent proponents.

She says, “Early on, I was struck by how genuine and pure Gál’s music was … when I think of the man’s musical language: nostalgic…” In both supporting and main roles, the Northern Sinfonia give ardent performances under the baton of up-and-coming American conductor Kenneth Woods.

Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses offers his first concerto recording for Avie, pairing classic Haydn with a world premiere by his compatriot Clovis Pereira.

The great Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses extends his fruitful association with Avie with his sixth release and first concerto recording for the label. Directing the Northern Sinfonia from the cello, Meneses pairs the two classic Haydn concerti with a world-premiere by his compatriot Clovis Pereira. With flawless technique and unerring musicality, Antonio navigates Haydn’s infectious fast movements with astonishing facility, and the inner slow movements with enduring expressiveness. The Pereira, dedicated to Meneses, melds a quasi-Baroque style with elements of the musicians’ homeland, particularly the northeast countryside of the State of Pernambuco, where both cellist and composer hail from. The first movement’s modal scales are unique to this region and the technique akin to the local fiddlers. The second movement recalls the calming, improvised chants of roaming shepherds, and the finale is a festive gallop to the finish.