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Classical music lovers are familiar with the legacy recording label Deutsche Grammophon. For the first time DG has released the symphonies of William Walton, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra led by Kazuki Yamada. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with one of the orchestra's leading violinists, Richard Thomas, fresh off the ensemble's tour.
KBACH's First Take
Alessandro Scarlatti wrote hundreds of cantatas for the soprano voice in the Baroque era. A small percentage use a string ensemble; some of those are featured on a new album by Francesca Aspromonte titled "Vieni, o Notte" (Come, oh Night) with the ensemble Arsenale Sonoro directed by Boris Begelman. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Aspromonte on First Take.
Violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua takes Mozart as a starting point on her new album, "Mozartiana." It features composers inspired by him, often incorporating fragments of his music into their own. Some are historical like F.X. Mozart (Wolfgang's son), Beethoven, and Hindemith, but there are also pieces newly written for the album. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Bevilacqua.
Edward Elgar felt his dramatic depiction of a man on his deathbed followed by the soul in the afterlife was his greatest music up to that point. It was controversial for being explicitly Catholic in England which still looked with suspicion on the religion in 1900. A new recording features the Huddersfield Choral Society which first recorded the complete piece in 1945 and whose story has parallels with the recent film "The Choral," in which a fictional amateur choir produces Elgar's masterpiece during WWI. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with the conductor of the album, Martyn Brabbins.
Harpsichordist Gabriel Smallwood has recorded pieces by the young J.S. Bach alongside less famous composers found in manuscripts that Bach would have known while growing up. The album "Juvenilia" gives a seldom-seen picture of how Bach developed his own musical voice. Michael Keelan talked with Smallwood on First Take.
For more details, visit https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/juvenilia
Eugène Ysaÿe was one of the most prominent violinists in Europe during the Impressionist era of the late 19th to early 20th century. His original music is in that style but also uses the demanding techniques of virtuoso showpieces.
A new album from violinist and Royal College of Music professor Natalia Lomeiko features the accompanied works of Ysaÿe, just as dramatic and impressive as his familiar solo sonatas. Michael Keelan talked with her on First Take.
Cellist Michelle Kesler is from Gilbert and attended ASU; she is now associate professor of cello at Brigham Young University.
Conductor Kevin Sherwin has arranged excerpts of Karl Goldmark's 1875 grand opera
The Chicago-based ATLYS Quartet recently released a recording of the Sonnenberg Suite by Ari Fisher, music inspired by the Sonnenberg Gardens in upstate New York. Greg Kostraba chatted with two of the quartet's members, violinist Jinty McTavish and cellist Genevieve Tabby, about the release, the genesis of the ensemble, and their innovative process of remote recording.
Pianist Nathalia Milstein looks at the relationship between two of the most popular Romantic era composers, Tchaikovsky and Schumann, on her new solo recording. She plays Schumann's daunting Fantasie, Op.17 and Tchaikovsky's eclectic Six Pieces, Op.19, alongside her own transcription of a Schumann chorus.
Michael Keelan talked with her about the album, Alla Schumann.