2012

Gould Glenn: Plays Bach / Goldberg variations [2 CD]

Gershwin: Rhapsody in blue (Litton) [SACD Hybrid]

Phoenix Chorale / Charles Bruffy<br/><br/>The critically acclaimed, Arizona-based Phoenix Chorale (formerly Phoenix Bach Choir) originally focused on music of the Renaissance and baroque periods, but today is equally dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. On this disc the Choir performs choral works, and settings of sacred texts by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.<br/><br/>When he first heard Gjeilo's Ubi caritas, Charles Bruffy was instantly hooked, finding the music 'refreshing and magnetic'. Bruffy brought Gjeilo's music to the Chorale and its audiences, and the response was immediate. Soon after, Gjeilo was invited to be the Chorale's first Composer-in-Residence.<br/><br/>Phoenix, a setting of the Agnus Dei, is dedicated to Charles Bruffy and the Phoenix Chorale in honour of its fiftieth anniversary. When Gjeilo first visited the choir in Arizona, he had never been to the desert before, and the 'quiet beauty and barrenness of the landscape' moved him deeply. He describes Phoenix as 'symphonic in nature... one of those pieces where the text is very much the servant of the music, not the other way around'.<br/><br/>In contrast, Northern Lights takes its inspiration from Gjeilo's homeland, Norway, and the 'terrible beauty' of the natural phenomenon that may be observed there. The music reflects the powerful and electric quality of the northern lights, which must have seemed both mesmerising and terrifying to people in the past when no one knew what they were, and superstition prevailed.<br/><br/>The Phoenix Chorale made its first appearance on Chandos in 2004 with Shakespeare in Song. Since then it has released several joint recordings with its sister choir, the Kansas Chorale, featuring among others Alexander Grechaninov's Passion Week, the disc nominated for a Grammy in no fewer than four categories, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance, winning in the Best Engineered and Classical album categories.

Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet<br/>Roland Pöntinen, piano<br/>Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Kenneth Sillito <br/><br/>Ever since his sensational breakthrough some twenty years ago, Håkan Hardenberger has been breaking new ground for the trumpet, commissioning new works from the world's foremost composers. On the present disc he shows a different side - one that may surprise those who know him as the intrepid interpreter of fiendishly complicated contemporary scores or the impeccably elegant performer of the classical repertoire such as the trumpet concertos by Haydn and Hummel. Not that Hardenberger is less intrepid or elegant than usual - but now he is finding use for these qualities in a programme of his own favourite songs and film themes, in imaginative arrangements made especially for this recording. Continuing a tradition begun by Chet Baker, Hardenberger's trumpet-and-strings disc is as smooth as any, with the soloist relishing the opportunity to play the most meltingly beautiful tunes, in the most meltingly tuneful way. It also brings him together with some long-standing musical collaborators of his - the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the pianist Roland Pöntinen, who has made several of the arrangements and who also appears as guest performer in Michel Legrand's Sans Toi and Kurt Weill's Speak Low.

HÖGSTA BETYG I SYDSVENSKAN: "Schubert och Schumann saknar konkurrens som romanstonsättare. Men håller vi oss på anspråkslösare nivå är den svenska sångrepertoaren från tidigare 1800-tal också älskansvärd. Då gläds man åt A F Lindblad, Erik Gustaf Geijer, Franz Berwald och August Söderman. Visst finns det mycket liknande utgivet, men Anne Sofie von Otters och Bengt Forsbergs antologi "A Summer's Day" är ett fynd. 32 sånger av skilda typer, där von Otter kan anlägga en vårdad viston, dra fram skälmska tonfall eller ta till operamässiga uttryck. Det finns lagom rymd i klangen, och den finstilta intimiteten i den romantiska repertoaren fångar Bengt Forsberg nyansrikt..." (Sydsvenskan)

Banks Tony: Six pieces for orchestra 2012 [CD]

Savall Jordi: Armenian spirit (Hesperion XXI) [SACD Hybrid]