Avie label - CDs

The playing of Adrian Chandler and his crack period-instrument band La Serenissima emulates the title of their eighth release for Avie, mining the treasures of Vivaldi’s vast output.

Who are these Gods, Emperors and Angels in the title of the latest virtuoso vehicle for Adrian Chandler and his dazzling period-instrument band La Serenissima? Vivaldi was connected to many Highnesses on the European continent, foremost among them the widely cultured Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV to whom Vivaldi dedicated his set of concertos titled La Cetra, meaning “The Lyre,” hence likening the emperor to the lyre playing god Apollo. The theme continues with the oddly titled Concerto Conca or “Conch Concerto,” alluding to the use of the conch shell as a musical trumpet, heard in the work’s first movement, and as used by Triton, son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and by Neptune’s attendants. The Angels are undoubtedly Vivaldi’s virtuoso female students at the Ospedale della Pietà, one of which was described in a contemporary anonymous poem: “She plays the violin in such a way / that anyone hearing her is transported to Paradise / if indeed it is true that up there / the angels play like that.”

Chandler and his forces, delivering their eighth imaginative album for Avie, play like gods, emperors and angels indeed, further securing their exalted place in the realms of early music performance.

Young Brazilian pianist Felipe Scagliusi, whose mentors include the great Nelson Freire, devotes his debut recording to the poetic and passionate works of Robert Schumann.

Brazilian pianist Felipe Scagliusi makes his recording debut on Avie with an all-Schumann program that displays the 31-year-old musician’s wide-ranging interpretive prowess from poetry to passion – a perfect mirror to the composer’s romantic persona. Mentored by the great Nelson Freire, Felipe first studied in his native São Paolo, then went on to earn a Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music and further tuition from John O’Conor in Dublin. He made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 2005, and is now based in Paris.

The three large-scale works on this album were written in the 1830s, a period of great pianistic composing by Schumann. The 3rd Grande Sonate in f minor, Op. 14, originally conceived in 1835-56, appears here in its revised 1853 version. Inspired by a theme by a 16-year-old Clara Wieck, the future Clara Schumann, proponents of the work have included Franz Liszt and, in more recent years, Vladimir Horowitz. The work’s first public performance took place in 1862, six years after Schumann’s death, and at the piano was none other than Johannes Brahms. Another creation of 1836 was the gorgeous Fantasie in C Major, Op.17, considered by many to be the peak of perfection in the composer’s piano oeuvre. The work is dedicated Liszt, who seventeen years later repaid the gesture, dedicating his only sonata to Schumann. The Three Romances, Op. 28, work here as a triple “intermezzo” between the Sonata and Fantasia. They date from 1839, the end of Schumann’s most remarkable decade of pianistic output.

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Cellist Wen-Sinn Yang dispatches an awesomely virtuoso album of 19th and 20th centuries solo works – the sonatas by Kodály and Ysäye, as well as pieces by the Spanish cellist/composer Gaspar Cassado and virtually unknown Hans Bottermund and Julius Klengel.

Swiss-born Taiwanese cellist Wen-Sinn Yang is one of Europe’s great virtuosos, dispatching the most daunting works with fearless ease. A devotee of contemporary music, he has given premieres by such eminent composers as Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Kevin Volans and Lorin Maazel. An active recording artist with over 20 releases to his credit, on this new Avie disc Wen-Sinn claims the spotlight exclusively. Featuring solo repertoire that straddles the 19th and 20th centuries, all performed with awesome virtuosity, the result is a generously-filled album that is a must for all cellists and a thrilling ride for any music lover.

At the age of 24, Wen-Sinn became principal cellist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and 15 years later was offered a chair at the Munich College of Music. In 1991, he won the Geneva International Music Competition and has since performed all over the world, collaborating with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Semyon Bychkov and Mariss Jansons, and performing chamber music with the likes of Eduard Brunner and Helene Grimaud.

New York Polyphony’s second release for Avie is a compelling fusion of Tudor masterpieces from Byrd, Tallis, Taverner and others and contemporary works by Oslo-based English composer Andrew Smith.

Classical vocal quartet New York Polyphony struck a chord with their 2007 Avie debut, ‘I Sing the Birth’ (AV2141). An intimate meditation on the Christmas season, it garnered unanimous praise on both sides of the pond. For Gramophone Magazine it was “one of the season's best”, and it was an Editor's Christmas Choice in BBC Music Magazine. For their second release, the all-male foursome delivers their signature fusion of historically informed performances in a range of styles. Interspersed between sacred masterpieces of Tudor England are four new works by British-Norwegian composer Andrew Smith, adding a modern harmonic richness and complexity to the album. The result is a compelling synthesis of ancient and contemporary vocal music. New York Polyphony extends the mix of old world and new in the album’s title, named for the distinctive 19th-century neighbourhood on Manhattan’s East Side which is pictured in the striking cover design.