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BEST OF THE YEAR FROM WARNER CLASSICS AND ERATO 9845242 Antonio Pappano and his Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi with this programme of sacred choral music. 9845192 An exciting opportunity to hear these two Rachmaninov masterpieces, SymphonicDances and TheBells, performed by one of the world’s most renowned orchestras under their celebrated principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle. 9341212 Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato celebrates her 10 year recording career with this ‘Best Of’ album produced by her fans, who were invited to put forward suggestions for album title, musical contents and more. 4334302 To honour Britten’s centenary, Ian Bostridge, the internationally acclaimed tenor whose “attention to the text always matches Britten’s own scrupulous word-setting”, has recorded this album of songs accompanied by Antonio Pappano. 7236112 Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker perform this ground-breaking ballet alongside new recordings of Stravinsky’s Symphoniesof WindInstrumentsand ApollonMusagète. 6154482 Paying tribute to the 100th birthday of Benjamin Britten, Warner Classics releases this brand new recording of his WarRequiemfeaturing a stellar line up of soloists – Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson under Antonio Pappano. 4645492 The recording, a musical exploration of the Mediterranean Sea by Christina Pluhar, presents traditional tarantellas, sung in Greek by spectacular soloists. These folk pieces were a Baroque custom in the Greek-Albanian villages of Calabria. 0191622 Among the most exciting classical musicians of our time, Alison Balsom was first inspired by Dizzy Gillespie to become a virtuosic trumpet soloist. In this selection, she plays gems from the Baroque repertoire on both natural and valved instruments. 64126-5 2564 Discover Wagner’s complete Ring cycle under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in your choice of two high quality audio formats, packaged neatly onto a USB stick along with unique video footage, the full libretti of all four operas and other special features. www.warnerclassics.com Marketed and distributed by Warner Classics UK. A division of Warner Music UK Ltd.

Gramophone’s guide to the classical scene in the US and Canada Sounds of America Reviews New recordings from Nashville, San Francisco...and Sweden » The Scene Live highlights – page VII J Beck String Quartets – No 1a; No 2, ‘Fathers & Sons’b; No 4a; No 5c c Da Kappo Quartet; bNevsky Quartet; a San Gabriel Quartet Innova F INNOVA867 (63’ • DDD) Recorded a2001, b2003, c2010 Assured string quartets from a Kentucky-based composer Composers who venture into the realm of the string quartet do so at their peril, especially with such masters of the genre as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Bartók looking over their shoulders. But Jeremy Beck, for one, has gone past intimidation to produce five substantial quartets, four of which are performed on this release featuring three ensembles. It’s clear from the moment the first entry – the Fourth Quartet – begins that the American composer knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. The swirling gestures at the outset are like jolts of Bartók (but Miraculous Mandarin, not the quartets) that quickly give way to Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world. As in all of the quartets on this disc, the writing is concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic. The First Quartet, in three movements, moves organically from solemn to invigorating ideas, with ample contrapuntal interplay to keep the narratives rich and layered. In the Second Quartet, the subtitle Fathers & Sons reflects the influence of material in the first movement on the unfolding events in the second. It is a striking and intensely felt work. Likewise, the Fifth Quartet makes a haunting impression in three movements of contrasting utterances. The excellent performances by the San Gabriel, Nevsky and Da Kappo Quartets were recorded over a decade in California, Russia and Kentucky. The Nevsky can be heard playing the Third Quartet (Shadow and Light) on a 2008 Innova disc of Beck’s music, ‘Never Final, Never Gone’. Donald Rosenberg Beethoven Three String Quartets, ‘Rasumovsky’, Op 59 Miró Quartet Longhorn Music F b LMH2012004 (105’ • DDD) talks to... Jeremy Beck The composer on the unique joys and challenges of writing music for string quartet Did you always have a desire to compose for string quartet? My principal instrument is the cello; although I no longer perform, when I was younger I played in a variety of ensembles. One of those groups was a student string quartet and I vividly remember us playing the Ravel. I was deeply moved by that experience, of inhabiting Ravel’s world from the inside. In part because of that early influence, the string quartet occupies a special place in my creative thought. What are the particular difficulties of writing for just four players? Part of the joy as well as the challenge of writing for a string quartet is the focused intimacy and the exposed nature of the medium. With four players, there is no place to hide. One creates a kind of concentrated abstract play, where the language of music provides the dialogue, interaction and emotion of the four participants. You have written five quartets, do you feel that you have more to say in the genre? There is always more to say – I’m sure there is at least a No 6 in my future. The first five were composed over a period of about 25 years, and each has emerged between three and five years after the previous one. No 5 was composed in 2006, so the next one may come knocking any day now. And of course I am always open to requests! Banff-winning quartet record middle-period Beethoven Making a determined and largely successful effort to recapture the sweep and vision of Beethoven’s original inspiration, the Miró Quartet, based in Austin, Texas, sweep many of the most likely cobwebs off the ‘middle-period’ quartets with readings that pulse with dramatic energy. Working from the 2008 Bärenreiter edition, the Miró use exhilarating speeds, spare textures and virtuoso playing, leavened in the slow movements by a gentle lyricism, to make sure that the music’s impact comes through loud and clear. While this occasionally brusque approach has been more usual with many quartets in Op 59 No 3, it is often startling to hear how it increases the surface tension in No 2. First and foremost, it smooths out the awkward transitional passages so that the momentum can continue unabated, as in the last movement’s delirious whirlwind. If things are not so revolutionary in No 1 – in fact, the thème russe of the last movement seems positively tame at times – it is compensated for by an Adagio molto e mesto slow movement which is, for once, effectively molto and which benefits impressively from the quartet’s ability to maintain line and structure. Viola player John Largess’s excellent booklet-notes signal the Miró Quartet’s intention ‘to present the ideal performance as Beethoven would have imagined it in his inner ear’, which is of course every quartet’s intention, although rarely realised with as much conviction and actual gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE DECEMBER 2013 I

Page Text

BEST OF THE YEAR FROM WARNER CLASSICS AND ERATO

9845242

Antonio Pappano and his Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi with this programme of sacred choral music.

9845192

An exciting opportunity to hear these two Rachmaninov masterpieces, SymphonicDances and TheBells, performed by one of the world’s most renowned orchestras under their celebrated principal conductor Sir Simon Rattle.

9341212

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato celebrates her 10 year recording career with this ‘Best Of’ album produced by her fans, who were invited to put forward suggestions for album title, musical contents and more.

4334302

To honour Britten’s centenary, Ian Bostridge, the internationally acclaimed tenor whose “attention to the text always matches Britten’s own scrupulous word-setting”, has recorded this album of songs accompanied by Antonio Pappano.

7236112

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker perform this ground-breaking ballet alongside new recordings of Stravinsky’s Symphoniesof WindInstrumentsand ApollonMusagète.

6154482

Paying tribute to the 100th birthday of Benjamin Britten, Warner Classics releases this brand new recording of his WarRequiemfeaturing a stellar line up of soloists – Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson under Antonio Pappano.

4645492

The recording, a musical exploration of the Mediterranean Sea by Christina Pluhar, presents traditional tarantellas, sung in Greek by spectacular soloists. These folk pieces were a Baroque custom in the Greek-Albanian villages of Calabria.

0191622

Among the most exciting classical musicians of our time, Alison Balsom was first inspired by Dizzy Gillespie to become a virtuosic trumpet soloist. In this selection, she plays gems from the Baroque repertoire on both natural and valved instruments.

64126-5

2564

Discover Wagner’s complete Ring cycle under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in your choice of two high quality audio formats, packaged neatly onto a USB stick along with unique video footage, the full libretti of all four operas and other special features.

www.warnerclassics.com

Marketed and distributed by Warner Classics UK. A division of Warner Music UK Ltd.

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