Avie label - CDs

“In creative programming, I have always seen an opportunity for illuminating the individuality of works by placing them in tonal, dramatic and historic relief. Thus, through the sequence of a recital program, repertoire that has long been familiar to us is put into a new perspective. This series of Perspective CDs is a document of my concert activity and aims at bringing the recital experience to the living room.” Those are the words of pianist Andreas Haefliger whose second release in his Perspectives series juxtaposes sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms with Bartók’s suite Out of Doors. It’s a refreshing approach in an industry all too eager to pigeon hole performers and emphasise single-composer CDs. The results are, according to The Guardian, “thoroughly enjoyable and thoughtfully planned.” Haefliger is recognised internationally for his ability to perform the great Classical and Romantic and works with a rare combination of power, elegance, and poetry. His interpretations spring from a rich musical culture and have earned him the status of one of the leading pianists of our time.

In this release the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s principal clarinettist, Todd Levy, steps out of the ensemble and into the spotlight with some of the most appealing romantic music for his instrument: Brahms’s two lyrically effortless Clarinet Sonatas, Schumann’s Fantasiestücke – the only work he composed expressly for clarinet – and Three Romances, an 1849 Christmas present for his wife Clara. This is Todd’s solo debut disc, but his soulful timbre is not new to aficionados. He appears on two Grammy-winning recordings, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Shadow Dances-Stravinsky Miniatures (1991) and Renee Fleming’s Bel Canto (2003). He also contributed the opening clarinet flourish to the 1999 recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Eos Orchestra on the Classic fM label, which was given a coveted rosette by the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.

In an ongoing commitment to young artists, Avie presents the debut recording by the sensational young violinist Rudens Turku. Wherever he performs, Rudens enthralls audiences and captivates critics. The Albanian-born, German-resident impresses with his steadfast technique, masterful musical style and engaging personality. His debut disc on Avie includes three mainstays of the central European repertoire, Schumann’s Sonata No. 1, Brahms’ Sonata No. 2, and the Franck Sonata. Born into a musical family, Rudens emigrated from Albania at the age of 14 with nothing but a violin in his hand. He rapidly rose through the musical ranks and graduated with distinction from Munich’s Academy for Music and Theater. His career has since taken him on tours throughout Germany as well as to France, Italy, Luxemburg, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. Rudens is partnered on his Avie debut by the outstanding young Russian pianist Milana Chernyavska.

Following the success of the beautiful a cappella choral album Peace: A Choral Album for our Times (AV 0039), the Handel and Haydn Society offers a seasonal offering that once again fuses the familiar with new works which are destined to inspire the festive imagination. Sample Jennifer Higdon’s atmospheric O Magnum Mysterium with glasses and chimes, or Eric Whitacre’s harmonious Lux aurumque, alongside longtime favourites such as Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming and The Coventry Carol in a unique arrangement with hand bells. Another special feature is the world premiere recording of Tom Vignieri’s Hodie Christus natus est, commissioned for the Handel and Haydn Society. For the ensemble’s Welsh-born Music Director Grant Llewellyn this recording is a deeply personal project, recapturing the annual spirit of caroling, maintaining tradition whilst forging new frontiers.

As America’s oldest professional musical organisation, the Boston, Massachusetts-based Handel and Haydn Society, founded in 1815, boasts a venerable history that includes the Stateside premieres of Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B Minor Mass, and Haydn’s Creation. Their modern-day legacy was sealed by a path-breaking series of recordings with former Music Director Christopher Hogwood. Together with the release of Haydn Arias and Cantatas with the late, legendary soprano Arleen Auger (AV 2066), this re-issue of Handel’s Concerti Grossi mines the best of the Handel & Haydn Society’s back catalogue, making them available again to a public where there is clearly still considerable demand. Op. 3 and Op. 6, performed on period instruments, are newly compiled and released together for the first time on this 3 CD set.

Gramophone Editor’s Choice artist Matthew Wadsworth presents the first ever recording devoted entirely to Philip Rosseter’s music. A timely tribute to one of the great masters of the lute and English song, When Laura Smiles features twelve of Rosseter’s most beguiling songs, including What then is love but mourning, If she forsake me, Sweet come again as well as the title track. It also includes all of Rosseter’s surviving lute solos, including an epic chromatic fantasy, two weighty pavans and several charming dances. When Laura Smiles continues Matthew’s exploration of music by John Dowland’s contemporaries, following the critically acclaimed Away Delights with soprano Carolyn Sampson (AV 2053) featuring the music of Robert Johnson.

Ann Murray is a consummate artist, an instinctive and passionate musician. Her career has taken her literally all over the world to many an opera and concert stage, transfixing audiences with her unshowy musicality. A dedicated recitalist, she doesn’t so much sing her repertoire as embody it. Her voice blooms with an immaculate sense of line that transports the listener, as it appropriately does in Schumann’s dramatic life-journey Frauenliebe und Leben. She magically colours the Rückert Lieder in Mahler’s melancholic harmonies. She casts a spell throughout Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies, evoking the power and potential of the night, after which the Cabaret Songs are a suitable tonic. Malcolm Martineau, the collaborator of choice for today’s vocal stars, equals Ann every step of the way, underpinning her sense of style and storyline with every turn of phrase.

Hans Gál penned scores of effortlessly pleasing and melodic music which is rarely heard today. A “continental Briton”, he fled the Nazi regime and settled in Edinburgh in 1939 where he lived until his death at the age of 97. In Germany and Austria he achieved early recognition as a composer, his work championed by Georg Szell. After emigrating, his life was devoted mainly to academia and authoring numerous books on music. There has been a recent upsurge of interest in his work, and this 3-CD set of his complete works for solo piano, including numerous world-premiere recordings, champions the cause. Exquisitely performed by pianist Leon McCawley – his second recording for Avie following his Gramophone Editor’s Choice recording of Schumann Piano Works (AV 0029) – this collection carries the endorsement of Hans Gál’s estate.

The works on In the Beginning were all written in the shadow or the aftermath of World War II, and unite composers of three nationalities who shared a gift of marrying melody to poetry. Finzi’s Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice, written in 1946, was the composer’s longest single stretch of music he had so far attempted, and also his first attempt at writing for organ. The Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti eschewed the modernist trends of his colleagues; his Tre composizioni corali, from 1942-43, are informed by his immersion in Renaissance polyphony and profound Christianity. Britten’s influential Rejoice in the Lamb was written in 1943 shortly after his return to the UK from America, where he met Aaron Copland, whose In the Beginning, a setting of the complete first chapter of the book of Genesis and much of the second from the King James Bible, concludes the disc. 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.