Debussy: Il pleure dans mon cœur (No. 2 from Ariettes Oubliées)

At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the interest of composers for a cappella choir music seemed to be weak. When composers like Mahler and Debussy wrote for choir, they mostly included them into orchestral works. In the 1960s Ligeti opened up new perspectives with his piece for choir Lux aeterna and Gottwald’s transcriptions refer to Ligeti’s work, by applying the technique of writing for voices which gives us ultimately better understanding of contemporary choral music.

Over four days of sessions in Hollywood during 1946 and 1947, Jascha Heifetz and his regular accompanist Emanuel Bay recorded this evocative series of encores. The repertoire was wide-ranging, and included three Spanish pieces by Sarasate, Nin and Ernesto Halffter, all delectably played, in his only recordings of them. He turned also to his own transcription of Bax’s Mediterranean as well as to staples such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s dazzling Flight of The Bumble-Bee. Throughout, Heifetz’s bowing, pizzicati, double stops, glissandi and inimitable portamenti grace these pieces with incredible freshness.

Mark Obert-Thorn, reissue producer and audio restoration engineer

These rare historical recordings include some made by Gramophone and Tipewriter (G & T) in 1904 in Paris with Debussy playing the accompaniment to his own works. Mary Garden was born in Scotland but grew up in Chicago and won a scholarship to study in Paris. She established herself as the favourite singer of Debussy, Massenet and Charpentier. These recordings follow her exceptional career.

This remarkable collection highlights the career of the great Metropolitan Opera star, the American soprano Benita Valente, collecting performances from both concerts and the recording studio.

This retrospective program was made in consultation with Ms. Valente to create vocal art of the highest order!

Arthur Hartmann, an American of Hungarian descent was a brilliant violinist who attracted

rave reviews throughout his life as soloist and leader of the Hartmann Quartet.

Emotionally exuberant and vital, his miniatures are infused with the specific harmonic and

rhythmic intonations of Hungarian folklore and skilfully exploit the colours of the different

violin strings.

His works were performed by artists of the calibre of Heifetz, Menuhin, Kreisler and

Thibaud.

A child prodigy at age 11 he gave recitals in Europe, meeting and charming Sir Charles Hallé, Saint-Saens, Hans Richter, Paderewski, Benjamin Godard and many others.

Hartmann’s sympathetic and subtle transcriptions, particularly of Debussy, won the composer’s approval and are still in circulation today.

A pupil of the legendary virtuoso Eugene Ysaÿe, Hartmann was renowned for his interpretation of Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin.

This is the first recording of any of Hartmann’s Kreisler-like salon miniatures for violin and piano which, like Elgar’s violin miniatures, speak immediately to the listener with their easy tunefulness.

Philippe Graffin provided one of Avie’s landmark releases, the world-premiere recording of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto (AV 0044). He returns with a more intimate but equally innovative disc devoted to works from his homeland. The figureheads of French impression – Debussy and Ravel – are paired with Impressions by the revelatory Romanian George Enescu, for whom Paris was like a second home.

Graffin, a multiple Gramophone Editor’s Choice artist, offers some popular melodies in unfamiliar guises. A trio of Debussy miniatures – Minstrels, Il Pleure dans mon Coeur, and La fille aux cheveux de lin – are heard in arrangements by Hungarian violinist Arthur Hartmann, a close friend of the composer. Ravel’s Tzigane is heard here with the original instrument it was written for, the prepared-piano sounding lutheal, using the last known instrument (from 1922) which is housed in the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels.