Avie label - CDs

The music on this CD was composed for the private enjoyment of the French court.

During the early 18th century the institution of public concerts had not yet been born and most musicians worked in close symbiosis and interaction with their noble or ecclesiastical patrons. The problematic aspects of this symbiosis have been emphasized often enough. The patrons may have been unreliable employers and stingy with their funds. Their understanding of music may have been limited and they may have been aesthetic philistines. In such circumstances a musician probably had to fight an up-hill battle against the exigencies of his situation. There is, however, another side to the coin. Not all royal patrons were musical ignoramuses. The musician may have enjoyed a respected position at court. Certainly this was the case with Lully, who virtually became the musical dictator of France during his tenure as the musical director at Louis’ court. We also know that the economic circumstances of Couperin were very comfortable and that he became quite a wealthy man in the service of his king.

To paraphrase The Gramophone, Semyon Bychkov “had big competition in the Shostakovich stakes” during the composer’s centenary year, but “he smashes past them brilliantly” (Editor’s Choice, Symphony No. 11, AV 2062). Further superlatives have poured forth for Bychkov’s ongoing Shostakovich series, and sales have followed. Nearly two decades into his Music Directorship of the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Semyon Bychkov has enjoyed an enormously fruitful relationship with the celebrated ensemble, including eight critically acclaimed and award-winning recordings for Avie.

Gramophone Young Artist of the Year in 2007, Vasily Petrenko has been lighting up the podium and winning wide-spread accolades since he became Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 2006, the youngest in the orchestra's 165-year history. His first recording for AVIE was a rare double-bill of Russian operas - Rothschild's Violin by Fleishman and Shostakovich's The Gamblers (AV 2096). He follows up with more Russian fare, though of a lighter, more popular nature - excerpts from Tchaikovsky's ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

“The vertical expression of a horizontal desire,” is how Angela Rippon has described the Tango, and while a trifle risqué it neatly encapsulates the essence of the music with its sensuous rhythms and beguiling beat. The Tango captured the imagination of one of Ireland’s finest fiddlers, Fionnuala Hunt, and this disc – the culmination of years of her own research – tracks the art form from its origins in the bordellos and back streets of Buenos Aires to the concert platforms of the world. Tangos & Dances charts the history of Tango through the 1900s up to the present day, from its early dance form to the more jazz-inspired music of contemporary times.

One of Ireland’s most distinguished musicians with an impressive international itinerary to her credit, Fionnuala Hunt leads the RTE National Orchestra in her own lush arrangements of a dozen exotic dances. Complementing the CD is a bonus DVD of Fionnuala in conversation with genial BBC personality Sean Rafferty, discussing her own passion for the dance and the development of this project.

In her sequel to Romantic and Virtuoso Works for Organ, Volume 1 (AV 0034), Jane Parker-Smith has assembled an international array of works, largely from the 20th century, by organist-composers from America, Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, and France, including Louis Vierne who, like Jane Parker-Smith's teacher, was blind. Jane was granted a French government scholarship which enabled her to complete her studies in Paris with the legendary Langlais, perfecting the knowledge and understanding of twentieth-century French organ music for which she is now internationally renowned.

The large Seifert organ in the St. Marien Basilika in Kevelaer was built during the years 1905 to 1907. The instrument contained 113 speaking stops distributed over four manuals and pedal. Situated in the north gallery of the church was an 18-stop antiphonal division (Fernwerk) which was connected electrically. In 1926, the pneumatic action of the main organ was electrified. At the same time, the specification was enlarged to 131 speaking stops and the present console installed.

In 1944, the instrument suffered heavy war damage. At that time, the basilica was being used as an internment camp. The Fernwerk was completely destroyed. The main organ underwent stopgap repairs in 1946. During the great heat in the summer of 1976, the organ was again heavily damaged. From 1979 to 1981, the instrument was thoroughly overhauled by the company Romanus Seifert in Kevelaer. The visit of Pope John Paul II in 1987 prompted the installation of three horizontal chamade reeds (Tuba magna 16', Tuba mirabilis 8' and Cor harmonique 4') behind the main case. They blend superbly into the tonal scheme of this gigantic symphonic organ.

In 2004, the Fernwerk was rebuilt to the original specification and the console reconstructed and extended with reference to the exemplar of 1926 and equipped with a combination system. An 8' carillon was placed behind the high altar. Today, the large Seifert organ in the St. Marien Basilika consists of 135 speaking stops (not counting borrowings) on four manuals and pedal; 14 stops still remain missing. The case with its neo-gothic facade is 14 metres in height, 9 metres in width and 10 metres in depth.

The Gloucester Cathedral Choir follow their imaginative and acclaimed first release on AVIE, In The Beginning (AV 2072) with a spirited holiday album of traditional and contemporary carols, including famous arrangements by Sir David Willcocks and Sir Philip Ledger, as well as the newly commissioned title track from Richard Rodney Bennett.

As the successor to the boys and monks of the Benedictine Abbey, The Gloucester Cathedral Choir boasts a tradition tracing back over 900 years. Henry VIII established their current incarnation, along with the Church of England, in 1539. Andrew Nethsingha, the choir’s Music Director at the time of this recording, was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, where his father, the distinguished Sri Lankan-born English church musician Lucian Nethsingha, was director of music for 26 years. He studied at the Royal College of Music where he was awarded seven prizes and was the youngest cathedral organist in Britain when appointed to Truro Cathedral in 1994. In addition to singing in six services every week, the Gloucester Cathedral Choir is heard annually at the Three Choirs Festival, and regularly at the Cheltenham International Festival and on BBC radio and television broadcasts.

“From best new talent in 1998 to best musician and best album of 2006 in Italy’s Jazz Musica magazine polls, it is safe to say that Stefano Bollani’s star is in the ascendancy…” Ian Patterson on Stefan Bollani

Turin’s hidden musical diamond must be the superb Filarmonica ‘900 del Teatro Regio di Torino, a new force in the Italian orchestral scene. For their first CD they have chosen two remarkably talented musicians to partner them. Jan Latham-Koenig needs little introduction and is a renowned French music specialist. In addition to his award-winning DVD of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (Arthaus), his recording of Ibert’s opera Persée et Andromede on AVIE (AV 0008) has been a significant success for the label.

Jan now returns to Poulenc with a recording of the complete ballet Les Animaux modèles, a rarity on record and deserving to be much better known. In the Concert champêtre he is joined by a young Italian pianist who is taking concert halls throughout Europe by storm. Best known for his jazz work, Stefano Bollani returns here to his Classical roots playing the piano version of the ‘Concert’ which is better known as a work for harpsichord and orchestra. Poulenc himself, however, performed the work himself as piano soloist. Bollani goes on to resurrect an almost lost tradition by elaborating on the two Improvisations written for the purpose by Poulenc. Jazz is never very far away!

In Schumann’s own words, Mendelssohn was 'the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of composers, who sees more clearly than others through the contradictions of our time and is the first to reconcile them'. Though his music for cello and piano is not his best known, it is certainly some of the most dramatic and powerful for this combination. A mixture of Classical forms and Romantic outbursts defines this unique music, played here by one of the leading cellists of our time, the Brazilian virtuoso Antonio Meneses (repeating his extremely successful partnership with pianist Gérard Wyss) with energetic and, at the same time, intimate feeling. The album contains the complete works by Mendelssohn, and arrangements and transcriptions made by the Italian cellist and composer Alfredo Piatti, making it one of the most comprehensive compilations of this music available.

The landscape traversed on this disc is broad, from twelfth-century conductus to a twentyfirst-century carol, though the musical centre is firmly polyphonic and rooted in the late medieval world. From the meditative simplicity of plainsong, Polyphony’s diverse voices burst forth as a resplendent flowering of music itself, in expressions of joy and wonder, in contemplation and exuberance alike.

This is the fourth release in Jeffrey Khaner’s “Flute Music” series on AVIE, following American Flute Music (AV 0004), British Flute Music (AV 0016), and French Flute Music (AV 0027). His album of music by Brahms (the ‘clarinet’ sonatas) and music by both Clara and Robert Schumann was released in 2005 – AV2075. Jeff is one of today’s most distinguished orchestral musicians. He is also a commanding soloist. This new CD offers a feast of fascinating music. Widor’s Suite was composed for the famous French flautist Paul Taffanel. Benjamin Godard, like Widor was on the staff of the Paris Conservatoire and his untimely death robbed him of the opportunity to hear the first performance of his Suite. The German composer Carl Reinecke lived a long life and he was a prolific composer, especially of chamber music. Saint-Saëns’ Romance started life as a piece for flute and orchestra but later he created a version with piano accompaniment, again for the flautist Taffanel, with whom he toured. The Franck Sonata needs little introduction, and versions of the famous violin sonata, are heard regularly in the concert hall in arrangements for flute, viola and cello.