EMI Classics and Virgin Classics Highlights for January 2010 Include Solo Recordings and a DVD
From Some of Today’s Hottest Singers, Including Diana Damrau, Philippe Jaroussky, and Natalie Dessay
Plus, an All-Ravel Album from Fast-rising Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and a Veritable (and Danceable) Feast of Ballet Music
Virgin Classics Artist Philippe Jaroussky Makes NYC Solo Recital Debut, Performing His Opium Program Live at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (Jan 14)
COLORaturas
Diana Damrau, soprano
Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Dan Ettinger
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. It’s impossible to know whether Diana Damrau was born great, but she has – without question – achieved greatness; Damrau has firm technical command, unaffected mastery of characterization, and beauty of tone… . More, please.” – Opera News
After two highly-praised Virgin Classics releases of 18th-century repertoire, the superb German soprano Diana Damrau adds a dazzling new title to her Virgin Classics discography: COLORaturas. With the support of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Dan Ettinger, Damrau is showcased in repertoire that ranges from Rossini (including “Una voce poco fa” from Barber of Seville) and Verdi to Stravinsky and Bernstein; from comedy to tragedy; and covers four languages: German, Italian, French, and English. It includes Zerbinetta’s marathon coloratura aria from Ariadne auf Naxos, one of the operas that spearheaded Damrau’s international career.
Opera News has named COLORaturas its Critic’s Choice selection for February 2010. Under the headline “Shattering Expectations,” Judith Malafronte’s review begins with this observation: “Diana Damrau is one of those singers who gobble up the music only to spit it back out with more originality, verve, precision and ease than seems possible. Listening to such a smart singer is an absolute delight as well as a challenge; expectations are shattered by authoritative readings that leave the listener amazed at this artist’s imagination and the inevitability of the results.”
Diana Damrau’s operatic engagements in the U.S. for the current season include starring roles in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment (Feb) and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (Feb – March), as well as Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet in Washington, D.C. (May). She will also take center stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall on January 24, performing orchestral songs by Richard Strauss with the MET Orchestra and James Levine.
J.C. Bach: La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias
J.C. Bach: La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias
Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor
Le Cercle de L’Harmonie / Jérémie Rhorer
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“The countertenor Philippe Jaroussky wields his sweet-toned, radiant voice to emotive effect, displaying both a rapid-fire coloratura technique and a poignant, lyrical expressiveness.”– New York Times
Philippe Jaroussky’s previous operatic recital for Virgin Classics was a collection of arias written for a castrato singer, Carestini, whose star had been somewhat eclipsed by his contemporaries Farinelli and Senesino. In this newest release, the young and charismatic French countertenor turns to a composer who – despite his famous last name, his celebrity during his lifetime, and his influence on the young Mozart – is still not given his full due: Johann Christian Bach (1735-82). The repertoire comprises arias from six of his operas, written for Milan, Mannheim, and London, the city in which he spent the last 20 years of his life and where, in 1764, he met Mozart, then a touring child prodigy.
La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias is Jaroussky’s seventh solo disc for Virgin Classics. Reviewing the new album, a critic for the Toronto Star observed, “France’s Jaroussky, 31, is probably the finest of the younger generation of countertenors. Here, he tackles 13 airs and arias originally written for castrati by Johann Christian Bach… . J.C. wrote a lot of operas, all of them forgotten – which may change, given the impressive performances by Jaroussky and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie under conductor Jérémie Rhorer. This beautiful music spans the full emotional spectrum.
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns praised Jaroussky’s “electrifying treble voice” and “pinpoint brilliance” in a recent review of this and other important new vocal albums. He calls La Dolce Fiamma “a must,” noting, “On Jaroussky’s disc, Johann Christian Bach sounds so good that one can only assume his music simply got lost in the historic shuffle. The Jaroussky disc is necessary for anyone interested in pre-Mozartean opera.”
Jaroussky’s star is already high in the firmament in Europe, especially in France, where his albums have been extraordinary bestsellers. Audiences in two American cities will have the opportunity to hear his work in a broad range of repertoire early in the New Year. On January 14, Jaroussky will give a recital of sensuous and seductive French melodies from the late 19th and early 20th centuries – the so-called Belle Époque – at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall; it will mark his New York City solo recital debut. Jaroussky recorded many of these songs on his Virgin Classics album Opium, which was released this past spring.
Much of the Opium repertoire will also appear on a program Jaroussky will give at the Cleveland Institute of Music on January 16 with the dynamic young ensemble Apollo’s Fire. Writing about Opium, a critic for All Music Guide observed, “Jaroussky rose as a star of Baroque opera not only because of his flawless technique and the exceptional clarity and purity of his voice, but for his ability to bring life, through the depth and emotional honesty of his characterizations, to cardboard roles that had primarily served as vehicles for coloratura fireworks. It’s not surprising, then, that he excels in this intensely personal and emotionally transparent repertoire.”
Additional information about the album is available on-line at www.jarousskyopium.com.
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Stéphane Degout
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien / Bertrand de Billy
DVD available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“Natalie Dessay admitted that Mélisande poses few vocal challenges, noting that the role lies comfortably enough for both sopranos and lightweight mezzos. Indeed, the role is vocally a good fit for her – splendid, in fact.” – Opera News
“There’s more to life than top notes,” Natalie Dessay has said. She has, of course, made her reputation with the florid, stratospheric heroines of Romantic French and Italian opera, but in this new DVD from Vienna she portrays a heroine who presents few opportunities for vocal display, but many for subtle characterization – Debussy’s Mélisande. Dessay had sung the role just once before, in concert in Edinburgh in 2005. Pelléas et Mélisande is full of ambiguity and its vocal lines closely reflect Maurice Maeterlinck’s hauntingly enigmatic text. A few unaccompanied, ballad-like phrases are the closest Mélisande comes to an aria.
For this production, premiered in January 2009 at the Theater an der Wien, Dessay’s French and French-Canadian colleagues included stage director Laurent Pelly – celebrated for riotous comedy (notably La fille du régiment with Dessay, also a Virgin Classics DVD) – and his preferred designer, Chantal Thomas; Dessay’s real-life husband, bass-baritone Laurent Naouri, as her jealous stage husband, Golaud; the lyric baritone Stéphane Degout as her Pelléas; and the contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as his and Golaud’s mother, Geneviève. Conductor Bertrand de Billy completes the high-caliber Gallic line-up.
A preview segment from the DVD is available at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Natalie Dessay’s ever-rising profile in the U.S. has been fueled by a series of critically-acclaimed performances with the country’s leading opera companies, particularly New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She returns there in March to star as Ophelia in the company’s production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet (eight performances, March 16 through April 9). Listeners can preview that performance on Virgin Classics’ recently released Mad Scenes, which features Dessay going off the rails – emotionally, but with perfect musical precision – in works from five 19th-century operas, along with a surprising live performance from Bernstein’s Candide. In his review of the album for the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns calls Dessay, “a modern-day Sills: her sense of theatrical comprehension wins the day.”
La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias is Jaroussky’s seventh solo disc for Virgin Classics. Reviewing the new album, a critic for the Toronto Star observed, “France’s Jaroussky, 31, is probably the finest of the younger generation of countertenors. Here, he tackles 13 airs and arias originally written for castrati by Johann Christian Bach… . J.C. wrote a lot of operas, all of them forgotten – which may change, given the impressive performances by Jaroussky and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie under conductor Jérémie Rhorer. This beautiful music spans the full emotional spectrum.
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns praised Jaroussky’s “electrifying treble voice” and “pinpoint brilliance” in a recent review of this and other important new vocal albums. He calls La Dolce Fiamma “a must,” noting, “On Jaroussky’s disc, Johann Christian Bach sounds so good that one can only assume his music simply got lost in the historic shuffle. The Jaroussky disc is necessary for anyone interested in pre-Mozartean opera.”
Jaroussky’s star is already high in the firmament in Europe, especially in France, where his albums have been extraordinary bestsellers. Audiences in two American cities will have the opportunity to hear his work in a broad range of repertoire early in the New Year. On January 14, Jaroussky will give a recital of sensuous and seductive French melodies from the late 19th and early 20th centuries – the so-called Belle Époque – at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall; it will mark his New York City solo recital debut. Jaroussky recorded many of these songs on his Virgin Classics album Opium, which was released this past spring.
Much of the Opium repertoire will also appear on a program Jaroussky will give at the Cleveland Institute of Music on January 16 with the dynamic young ensemble Apollo’s Fire. Writing about Opium, a critic for All Music Guide observed, “Jaroussky rose as a star of Baroque opera not only because of his flawless technique and the exceptional clarity and purity of his voice, but for his ability to bring life, through the depth and emotional honesty of his characterizations, to cardboard roles that had primarily served as vehicles for coloratura fireworks. It’s not surprising, then, that he excels in this intensely personal and emotionally transparent repertoire.”
Additional information about the album is available on-line at www.jarousskyopium.com.
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Stéphane Degout
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien / Bertrand de Billy
DVD available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“Natalie Dessay admitted that Mélisande poses few vocal challenges, noting that the role lies comfortably enough for both sopranos and lightweight mezzos. Indeed, the role is vocally a good fit for her – splendid, in fact.” – Opera News
“There’s more to life than top notes,” Natalie Dessay has said. She has, of course, made her reputation with the florid, stratospheric heroines of Romantic French and Italian opera, but in this new DVD from Vienna she portrays a heroine who presents few opportunities for vocal display, but many for subtle characterization – Debussy’s Mélisande. Dessay had sung the role just once before, in concert in Edinburgh in 2005. Pelléas et Mélisande is full of ambiguity and its vocal lines closely reflect Maurice Maeterlinck’s hauntingly enigmatic text. A few unaccompanied, ballad-like phrases are the closest Mélisande comes to an aria.
For this production, premiered in January 2009 at the Theater an der Wien, Dessay’s French and French-Canadian colleagues included stage director Laurent Pelly – celebrated for riotous comedy (notably La fille du régiment with Dessay, also a Virgin Classics DVD) – and his preferred designer, Chantal Thomas; Dessay’s real-life husband, bass-baritone Laurent Naouri, as her jealous stage husband, Golaud; the lyric baritone Stéphane Degout as her Pelléas; and the contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as his and Golaud’s mother, Geneviève. Conductor Bertrand de Billy completes the high-caliber Gallic line-up.
A preview segment from the DVD is available at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Natalie Dessay’s ever-rising profile in the U.S. has been fueled by a series of critically-acclaimed performances with the country’s leading opera companies, particularly New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She returns there in March to star as Ophelia in the company’s production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet (eight performances, March 16 through April 9). Listeners can preview that performance on Virgin Classics’ recently released Mad Scenes, which features Dessay going off the rails – emotionally, but with perfect musical precision – in works from five 19th-century operas, along with a surprising live performance from Bernstein’s Candide. In his review of the album for the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns calls Dessay, “a modern-day Sills: her sense of theatrical comprehension wins the day.”
Ravel: La Valse, Mother Goose, Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, etc.
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“In everything, Nézet-Séguin – who is flashy and hyper-expressive in his gestures – got a sound I had never quite heard before from the Angelenos. It was lean, sleek, tart in the French manner, yet also very bold and forward. It reminded me of the sound of the Montréal Symphony during the Charles Dutoit era, but with more punch.”– Los Angeles Times
A new album of orchestral works by Ravel marks Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s debut recording with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The French-Canadian conductor finds Maurice Ravel to be the greatest orchestrator that French music has ever had, which is what he and the orchestra want to showcase on this recording. “It’s all about colors,” Nézet-Séguin explained, “[and] the contrast between intimacy and grandeur, Valse being one of his greatest and most powerful symphonic poems, and yet the Valses nobles et sentimentales being much more in the intimate way… . In Ma mère l’Oye, we are being so intimate, while Daphnis and Chloé is also one of his most uplifting and triumphant [works]. There’s a lot of contrast.”
In the 2008-09 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and also became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2000, he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, gaining many awards for his work there. He has worked with all the leading Canadian orchestras and returns regularly to the Toronto Symphony. He made his European debut in late 2004 with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and has since been invited back by all the orchestras with which he has worked.
Nézet-Séguin has been busy in New York this winter, making his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, which opened on December 31 (six performances through Jan 21), and will soon head across the Lincoln Center plaza to lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in two orchestral concerts at Avery Fisher Hall (Feb 17 and 19).
Schubert: String Quintet in C (D.956); String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887); String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (D.810), “Death and the Maiden”
Belcea Quartet; Valentin Erben, cello
Two-CD set and downloads available January 12 from EMI Classics
The Belcea Quartet adds three late masterpieces by Franz Schubert to their impressive discography on EMI Classics: the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden” (D.810), the luminous and transcendent String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887), and the life-affirming String Quintet in C (D.956) with Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg String Quartet as the second cellist. The Belcea Quartet has garnered much praise for their take on Schubert, with the New York Times recently stating, “In the Belcea’s account [of ‘Death and the Maiden’] the work seemed so formidable and emotionally complex that there was nothing more to say.”
Chopin: “Journal Intime”
Alexandre Tharaud, piano
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“Alexandre Tharaud plays Chopin with superlative technique…[his] intelligent playing …matches its clarity with perception and sensitivity, and variety of touch with sonic beauty. Tharaud is unfailingly responsive to melodic nuance and seems to relish every new twist of the texture. But there is also immense power when the dark energy beneath is unleashed. His concept plumbs the depths of Chopin’s musical psyche with humility… a brilliant and original performance.”
“In everything, Nézet-Séguin – who is flashy and hyper-expressive in his gestures – got a sound I had never quite heard before from the Angelenos. It was lean, sleek, tart in the French manner, yet also very bold and forward. It reminded me of the sound of the Montréal Symphony during the Charles Dutoit era, but with more punch.”– Los Angeles Times
A new album of orchestral works by Ravel marks Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s debut recording with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The French-Canadian conductor finds Maurice Ravel to be the greatest orchestrator that French music has ever had, which is what he and the orchestra want to showcase on this recording. “It’s all about colors,” Nézet-Séguin explained, “[and] the contrast between intimacy and grandeur, Valse being one of his greatest and most powerful symphonic poems, and yet the Valses nobles et sentimentales being much more in the intimate way… . In Ma mère l’Oye, we are being so intimate, while Daphnis and Chloé is also one of his most uplifting and triumphant [works]. There’s a lot of contrast.”
In the 2008-09 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and also became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2000, he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, gaining many awards for his work there. He has worked with all the leading Canadian orchestras and returns regularly to the Toronto Symphony. He made his European debut in late 2004 with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and has since been invited back by all the orchestras with which he has worked.
Nézet-Séguin has been busy in New York this winter, making his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, which opened on December 31 (six performances through Jan 21), and will soon head across the Lincoln Center plaza to lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in two orchestral concerts at Avery Fisher Hall (Feb 17 and 19).
Schubert: String Quintet in C (D.956); String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887); String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (D.810), “Death and the Maiden”
Belcea Quartet; Valentin Erben, cello
Two-CD set and downloads available January 12 from EMI Classics
The Belcea Quartet adds three late masterpieces by Franz Schubert to their impressive discography on EMI Classics: the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden” (D.810), the luminous and transcendent String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887), and the life-affirming String Quintet in C (D.956) with Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg String Quartet as the second cellist. The Belcea Quartet has garnered much praise for their take on Schubert, with the New York Times recently stating, “In the Belcea’s account [of ‘Death and the Maiden’] the work seemed so formidable and emotionally complex that there was nothing more to say.”
Chopin: “Journal Intime”
Alexandre Tharaud, piano
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics
“Alexandre Tharaud plays Chopin with superlative technique…[his] intelligent playing …matches its clarity with perception and sensitivity, and variety of touch with sonic beauty. Tharaud is unfailingly responsive to melodic nuance and seems to relish every new twist of the texture. But there is also immense power when the dark energy beneath is unleashed. His concept plumbs the depths of Chopin’s musical psyche with humility… a brilliant and original performance.”
– BBC Music magazine
Already established as one of today’s most individual and thoughtful pianists, Alexandre Tharaud makes his debut on Virgin Classics with a diverse and very personal collection of pieces by Frédéric Chopin, just in time for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth (he was born on March 1, 1810).
Already established as one of today’s most individual and thoughtful pianists, Alexandre Tharaud makes his debut on Virgin Classics with a diverse and very personal collection of pieces by Frédéric Chopin, just in time for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth (he was born on March 1, 1810).
“Journal intime” (Private diary) features works by Chopin – mazurkas, nocturnes, ballades, the famous Fantaisie-impromptu, and a number of other, lesser-known works that have special importance and significance to Tharaud, who cites the pianism of Vlado Perlemuter and Sergei Rachmaninov as a particular influence on his approach to the music of Chopin. Many of these pieces have been in Tharaud’s repertoire since his student days. “I let time work for me,” he explains. “It is extraordinarily enriching to study a work when you are young and then revisit it in the course of your life. It becomes part of you.” A preview video for the project is available at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Tharaud, born in Paris in 1968, takes a discerning approach to repertoire, highlighting and often juxtaposing composers such as Bach, Rameau, Couperin, Chabrier, Satie, Ravel, Poulenc, and Thierry Pécou (b.1965). His catalogue of recordings for Harmonia Mundi has contributed substantially to his reputation.
This winter and spring, Tharaud will give a number of recitals in America, including performances at the Frick Collection in New York City on March 7 and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on March 12 (these and other dates are listed in the artist tour section at the end of this news release).
Track list
1. Mazurka, Op. 63, No. 3
2. Ballade, Op. 23, No. 1
3. Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 2
4. Mazurka, Op. 68, No. 2
5. Fantaisie, Op. 49
6. Nocturne posthumous
7. Mazurka, Op 7, No. 2
8. Ballade, Op. 38, No. 2
9. Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 4
10. Largo
11-13. Trois Écossaises, Op. 72, No. 3 (I-III)
14. Contredanse
15. Fantaisie-impromptu, Op. 66
16. Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2
Lehár: La veuve joyeuse (The Merry Widow)
Lehár: La veuve joyeuse (The Merry Widow)
Véronique Gens, Ivan Ludlow, Gordon Gietz, Magali Léger
Opéra de Lyon / Gérard Korsten
DVD available Janaury 12 from Virgin Classics
The heroine of La veuve joyeuse is called Missia Palmieri, but she had started off in 1905 as Hanna Glawari in Vienna, where this operetta is known as Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow); its French premiere followed in 1909. The story of the merry widow and her rekindled romance with dissipated diplomat Count Danilo takes place in Paris – notably Chez Maxim’s in the final act – and in fact has its roots in a French play, L’attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac. With Ludovic Halévy, Meilhac was the librettist of Carmen, a number of Offenbach’s operettas and a play called Le Réveillon, which forms the basis of that other supreme Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus. Johann Strauss’s waltzes and polkas were clearly an influence on Lehár, but his sumptuous and often touching score also frequently furnishes reminders that he was a contemporary of both Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini.
This production, mounted in December 2007 at the Opéra de Lyon (the source of Virgin Classics’ DVD of Offenbach’s La vie Parisienne in a riotous contemporary updating by Laurent Pelly) is by the French director Macha Makeieff. She treats the work as the masterpiece it is: “Macha Makeieff’s reading … turns its back on the conventions of operetta frippery, of musical champagne bubbles to keep the crowds happy … . In defining the personalities of the two lovers – two wounded birds who have put up barriers to protect themselves from love – she brings depth and gravity to the work, giving it new stature” (Le Progrès).
In the title role is the leading French lyric soprano, the graceful Véronique Gens, whose two Tragédiennes recitals are on Virgin Classics; her Danilo is the dashing British baritone Ivan Ludlow, while the roles of the secondary pair of errant lovers are played by the Canadian tenor Gordon Gietz and the delightful Magali Léger, with the latter’s long-suffering husband portrayed by baritone François Le Roux. Conducting is Gérard Korsten, born in South Africa but with long experience as both student and performer in Austria, notably Salzburg.
Special compilations, boxed sets, and reissues
Aldo Ciccolini: The Complete EMI Recordings 1950-91
Specially-priced 56-CD set available January 12 from EMI Classics
Beyond Aldo Ciccolini’s two bestselling complete Satie recordings and other proofs of his natural affinity with the French repertoire (which put him very much in tune with the artistic policy of French EMI under the leadership of René Challan, Eric Macleod, and Gréco Casadesus), and his unflashy Liszt – the ideal alternative to someone like Georges Cziffra – the public knows surprisingly little of the recordings that Ciccolini made for EMI between 1950 and 1991.
In 1950, as winner of the 1949 Marguerite Long Competition, the 25-year-old Ciccolini recorded his first 78; it was devoted to Scarlatti, a composer to whom he later returned. Following soon afterwards was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by André Cluytens – the pianist asked for the tapes of the second concerto to be destroyed, since he did not like the piece – and then produced an anthology of Mozart sonatas which has a finesse, balance, and sonic splendor still typical of Ciccolini’s concert performances today.
EMI’s new 56-CD collection contains numerous items which have become available for the first time (such as Mozart sonatas and Bach inventions previously only released in Japan, or his first Debussy disc, dating from 1969), or which have never before been released, such as the magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition recorded in 1976. With particular care taken over the transfers, including re-masterings of all the late recordings, this box will convince any remaining skeptics that Aldo Ciccolini, though born in Naples, holds a place at the very summit of French pianism.
The Complete Chopin Edition – 200th anniversary
16-CD set and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s birth in suitably grand fashion, EMI Classics is proud to release the Polish composer’s complete works in an exclusive, specially-priced 16-CD boxed set. The collection brings together all of the works – the piano sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, preludes, and other works – that established Chopin as one of the greatest Romantic composers and virtuosos who ever lived. Featured artists include Leif Ove Andsnes, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Andrei Gavrilov, Benjamin Grosvenor, Garrick Ohlsson and Ronald Smith.
American Classics series – five new titles
Various artists
Single and two-CD sets and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics
EMI Classics expands its attractively-designed and smartly-programmed American Classics series by five new and diverse titles this month, spanning the characteristically wide spectrum of the American music scene, from music theater and spirituals to minimalism and the avant-garde.
The five programs and their contributing artists are as follows:
AMERICAN COUNTERPOINT
John Adams: Harmonielehre; John Cage: Three Dances; Conlon Nancarrow: Three Canons for Ursula
Michael Tilson Thomas, Ralph Grierson, Thomas Adès
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Wonderful Town
Kim Criswell, Audra McDonald, Thomas Hampson
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; London Voices / Sir Simon Rattle
RIDE ON, KING JESUS
Florence Quivar sings black music of America
Florence Quivar, Larry Woodard, Joseph Joubert, Harlem Boys’ Choir
AMERICAN CLARINET
Elliott Carter: Clarinet Concerto (“Gra”); Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Howard Sandroff: Tephillah; John Adams: Gnarly Buttons
Alain Damiens, André Trouttet
Ensemble InterContemporain / David Robertson
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture; Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (“Rhapsody in Rivets”); Concerto in F
Cristina Ortiz
London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn
Two New Titles in “100 Best” series:
The heroine of La veuve joyeuse is called Missia Palmieri, but she had started off in 1905 as Hanna Glawari in Vienna, where this operetta is known as Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow); its French premiere followed in 1909. The story of the merry widow and her rekindled romance with dissipated diplomat Count Danilo takes place in Paris – notably Chez Maxim’s in the final act – and in fact has its roots in a French play, L’attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac. With Ludovic Halévy, Meilhac was the librettist of Carmen, a number of Offenbach’s operettas and a play called Le Réveillon, which forms the basis of that other supreme Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus. Johann Strauss’s waltzes and polkas were clearly an influence on Lehár, but his sumptuous and often touching score also frequently furnishes reminders that he was a contemporary of both Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini.
This production, mounted in December 2007 at the Opéra de Lyon (the source of Virgin Classics’ DVD of Offenbach’s La vie Parisienne in a riotous contemporary updating by Laurent Pelly) is by the French director Macha Makeieff. She treats the work as the masterpiece it is: “Macha Makeieff’s reading … turns its back on the conventions of operetta frippery, of musical champagne bubbles to keep the crowds happy … . In defining the personalities of the two lovers – two wounded birds who have put up barriers to protect themselves from love – she brings depth and gravity to the work, giving it new stature” (Le Progrès).
In the title role is the leading French lyric soprano, the graceful Véronique Gens, whose two Tragédiennes recitals are on Virgin Classics; her Danilo is the dashing British baritone Ivan Ludlow, while the roles of the secondary pair of errant lovers are played by the Canadian tenor Gordon Gietz and the delightful Magali Léger, with the latter’s long-suffering husband portrayed by baritone François Le Roux. Conducting is Gérard Korsten, born in South Africa but with long experience as both student and performer in Austria, notably Salzburg.
Special compilations, boxed sets, and reissues
Aldo Ciccolini: The Complete EMI Recordings 1950-91
Specially-priced 56-CD set available January 12 from EMI Classics
Beyond Aldo Ciccolini’s two bestselling complete Satie recordings and other proofs of his natural affinity with the French repertoire (which put him very much in tune with the artistic policy of French EMI under the leadership of René Challan, Eric Macleod, and Gréco Casadesus), and his unflashy Liszt – the ideal alternative to someone like Georges Cziffra – the public knows surprisingly little of the recordings that Ciccolini made for EMI between 1950 and 1991.
In 1950, as winner of the 1949 Marguerite Long Competition, the 25-year-old Ciccolini recorded his first 78; it was devoted to Scarlatti, a composer to whom he later returned. Following soon afterwards was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by André Cluytens – the pianist asked for the tapes of the second concerto to be destroyed, since he did not like the piece – and then produced an anthology of Mozart sonatas which has a finesse, balance, and sonic splendor still typical of Ciccolini’s concert performances today.
EMI’s new 56-CD collection contains numerous items which have become available for the first time (such as Mozart sonatas and Bach inventions previously only released in Japan, or his first Debussy disc, dating from 1969), or which have never before been released, such as the magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition recorded in 1976. With particular care taken over the transfers, including re-masterings of all the late recordings, this box will convince any remaining skeptics that Aldo Ciccolini, though born in Naples, holds a place at the very summit of French pianism.
The Complete Chopin Edition – 200th anniversary
16-CD set and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s birth in suitably grand fashion, EMI Classics is proud to release the Polish composer’s complete works in an exclusive, specially-priced 16-CD boxed set. The collection brings together all of the works – the piano sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, preludes, and other works – that established Chopin as one of the greatest Romantic composers and virtuosos who ever lived. Featured artists include Leif Ove Andsnes, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Andrei Gavrilov, Benjamin Grosvenor, Garrick Ohlsson and Ronald Smith.
American Classics series – five new titles
Various artists
Single and two-CD sets and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics
EMI Classics expands its attractively-designed and smartly-programmed American Classics series by five new and diverse titles this month, spanning the characteristically wide spectrum of the American music scene, from music theater and spirituals to minimalism and the avant-garde.
The five programs and their contributing artists are as follows:
AMERICAN COUNTERPOINT
John Adams: Harmonielehre; John Cage: Three Dances; Conlon Nancarrow: Three Canons for Ursula
Michael Tilson Thomas, Ralph Grierson, Thomas Adès
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Wonderful Town
Kim Criswell, Audra McDonald, Thomas Hampson
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; London Voices / Sir Simon Rattle
RIDE ON, KING JESUS
Florence Quivar sings black music of America
Florence Quivar, Larry Woodard, Joseph Joubert, Harlem Boys’ Choir
AMERICAN CLARINET
Elliott Carter: Clarinet Concerto (“Gra”); Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Howard Sandroff: Tephillah; John Adams: Gnarly Buttons
Alain Damiens, André Trouttet
Ensemble InterContemporain / David Robertson
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture; Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (“Rhapsody in Rivets”); Concerto in F
Cristina Ortiz
London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn
Two New Titles in “100 Best” series:
Best Violin 100
Best Chopin 100
Various Artists
Two six-CDs-for-the-price-of-one sets available January 26 from EMI Classics
EMI Classics adds two titles to its enormously popular “100 Best” series (now numbering 23 titles with a combined total sales of two million sets worldwide). Like its predecessors, each of the new titles features a plethora of superb artistry from the catalogues of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics at an unbeatable price: six CDs for the price of one!
The first contains 100 violin masterpieces, performed by some of the world’s greatest artists past and present, including Renaud Capuçon, Sarah Chang, Kyung-Wha Chung, Augustin Dumay, Christian Ferras, Leonid Kogan, Fritz Kreisler, and Gidon Kremer.
Each CD is themed by eras and genres, as follows:
CD 1: Vivaldi and the Italian Baroque
EMI Classics adds two titles to its enormously popular “100 Best” series (now numbering 23 titles with a combined total sales of two million sets worldwide). Like its predecessors, each of the new titles features a plethora of superb artistry from the catalogues of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics at an unbeatable price: six CDs for the price of one!
The first contains 100 violin masterpieces, performed by some of the world’s greatest artists past and present, including Renaud Capuçon, Sarah Chang, Kyung-Wha Chung, Augustin Dumay, Christian Ferras, Leonid Kogan, Fritz Kreisler, and Gidon Kremer.
Each CD is themed by eras and genres, as follows:
CD 1: Vivaldi and the Italian Baroque
CD 2: Bach and Mozart
CD 3: Beethoven and Brahms
CD 4: The 19th-Century Violin
CD 5: The 20th-Century Violin
CD 6: Encores and Showpieces
The second new title, Best Chopin 100, features a glittering galaxy of keyboard stars performing the most beloved and famous works by the great Polish composer. Featured artists include exciting new performers, established stars, and legendary artists such as (in alphabetical order): Dmitri Alexeev, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Stanislav Bunin, Georges Cziffra, Youri Egorov, Ingrid Fliter, Samson François, Andrei Gavrilov, Nelson Goerner, Stephen Kovacevich, Dinu Lipatti, Garrick Ohlsson, Mikhail Pletnev, Maurizio Pollini, Arthur Rubinstein, Maria Tipo, and Alexis Weissenberg.
Three special ballet titles:
The second new title, Best Chopin 100, features a glittering galaxy of keyboard stars performing the most beloved and famous works by the great Polish composer. Featured artists include exciting new performers, established stars, and legendary artists such as (in alphabetical order): Dmitri Alexeev, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Stanislav Bunin, Georges Cziffra, Youri Egorov, Ingrid Fliter, Samson François, Andrei Gavrilov, Nelson Goerner, Stephen Kovacevich, Dinu Lipatti, Garrick Ohlsson, Mikhail Pletnev, Maurizio Pollini, Arthur Rubinstein, Maria Tipo, and Alexis Weissenberg.
Three special ballet titles:
The Ballet Edition (ten two-CD sets)
A Festival of Ballet (50-CD boxed set in luxury packaging)
I Love Ballet (Greatest hits on two mid-price CDs)
Available January 26 from EMI Classics
Some people love the total experience of the ballet. Others just love to listen to the glorious music – romantic, dramatic, tragic, comic, charming, exhilarating – composed for the theater by supreme figures like Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Ravel; by lesser masters such as Glazunov, Delibes, and Adam; or by the “one-hit wonder” specialists, like Lovenskiold and Drigo. With this winter’s three complementary ballet strands, EMI Classics draws on its rich catalogue to present releases for the balletomane, the new ballet enthusiast, or simply the lover of enthralling music, all superbly performed.
The Ballet Edition
Some people love the total experience of the ballet. Others just love to listen to the glorious music – romantic, dramatic, tragic, comic, charming, exhilarating – composed for the theater by supreme figures like Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Ravel; by lesser masters such as Glazunov, Delibes, and Adam; or by the “one-hit wonder” specialists, like Lovenskiold and Drigo. With this winter’s three complementary ballet strands, EMI Classics draws on its rich catalogue to present releases for the balletomane, the new ballet enthusiast, or simply the lover of enthralling music, all superbly performed.
The Ballet Edition
This new series, with a special focus on complete ballet scores, is launched with ten two-CD sets. It includes a number of landmark performances: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker and Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella from the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn – interpretations that have long set the standard in these magnificent works; Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Debussy’s Jeux from the Orchestre de Paris under Jean Martinon, a master of French style; and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Petrushka, Firebird, and Apollo – the kind of repertoire that first established Sir Simon Rattle’s international reputation – with the British maestro and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The collection also includes Delibes’ Coppélia and Sylvia, performed by Parisian forces; Adam’s Giselle and Lovenskiold’s La Sylphide; and extracts from Glazunov’s Raymonda, Minkus’s La Bayadère, and Drigo’s Le Corsaire, all in the hands of expert ballet conductors.
A Festival of Ballet
A Festival of Ballet
This sumptuously-packaged 50-CD set provides an epic survey of ballet music as a genre, from its origins in the Baroque era with composers such as Purcell and Rameau, through its establishment in the 18th and 19th centuries in France and Russia, to the great narrative works of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and the works of modernism, some jazz-inspired. Many rarely-heard scores are included alongside essential repertoire.
The array of Russian music exemplifies the set’s impressive scope: beyond substantial highlights from the great Tchaikovsky ballets and other works by the composer, there is music by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky (from Firebird of 1910 through to Agon of 1957), Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich and a number of lesser-known figures such as Liadov and Glière. The discs devoted to French, British, German, and American repertoire also yield a plethora of scores, and there are even four CDs of dances from operas, oratorios, and plays.
Among the fascinating rarities in the set are John Antill’s Corroboree (1950), a spectacular work inspired by the Aborigines of Australia; Charles Koechlin’s tone poem Les Bandar-Log (based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book), which underpinned Antony Tudor’s 1967 ballet Shadowplay; and Constant Lambert’s Horoscope. Presented beside much-loved scores by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland is songwriter Cole Porter’s only classical ballet, Within the Quota.
The recordings feature the world’s great orchestras under leading conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Carlo Maria Giulini, Thomas Beecham, John Barbirolli, Charles Mackerras, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner, Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, and Michel Plasson, and also leading ballet specialists such as John Lanchbery, Barry Wordsworth, Terence Kern, and Robert Irving.
I Love Ballet
The array of Russian music exemplifies the set’s impressive scope: beyond substantial highlights from the great Tchaikovsky ballets and other works by the composer, there is music by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky (from Firebird of 1910 through to Agon of 1957), Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich and a number of lesser-known figures such as Liadov and Glière. The discs devoted to French, British, German, and American repertoire also yield a plethora of scores, and there are even four CDs of dances from operas, oratorios, and plays.
Among the fascinating rarities in the set are John Antill’s Corroboree (1950), a spectacular work inspired by the Aborigines of Australia; Charles Koechlin’s tone poem Les Bandar-Log (based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book), which underpinned Antony Tudor’s 1967 ballet Shadowplay; and Constant Lambert’s Horoscope. Presented beside much-loved scores by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland is songwriter Cole Porter’s only classical ballet, Within the Quota.
The recordings feature the world’s great orchestras under leading conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Carlo Maria Giulini, Thomas Beecham, John Barbirolli, Charles Mackerras, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner, Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, and Michel Plasson, and also leading ballet specialists such as John Lanchbery, Barry Wordsworth, Terence Kern, and Robert Irving.
I Love Ballet
These two richly-filled CDs provide a perfect introduction to the joys of ballet music, with many of its greatest hits included: highlights from Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Romeo & Juliet, Giselle, Les Sylphides, Sylvia, Cinderella, La fille mal gardée, Gayaneh (the soaring theme from the BBC TV drama The Onedin Line), and the charming Tales of Beatrix Potter; the complete “Dance of the Hours” from the opera La Gioconda (made famous by Disney’s Fantasia), the can-can overture from Gaité Parisienne, and the sparkling opening dance from Pineapple Poll (set to the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan); two numbers from Façade, and The Dying Swan, so closely identified with the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova. The impressive line-up of conductors includes Herbert von Karajan, André Previn, Sir Malcolm Sergent, and Sir Charles Mackerras.
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics: Artists on tour – Winter 2010
Jan 14
EMI Classics and Virgin Classics: Artists on tour – Winter 2010
Jan 14
Philippe Jaroussky: Opium program
Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (New York, NY)
Jan 15 and 16
Jan 15 and 16
Ingrid Fliter: Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major
St. Louis Symphony (St. Louis, MO)
Jan 16
Jan 16
Philippe Jaroussky: Songs from Opium program and other works
Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland Baroque Orchestra)
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music (Cleveland, OH)
Jan 21
Jan 21
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (New York, NY)
Jan 22
Jan 22
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Mandel Hall, University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Jan 23
Jan 23
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
First Congregational Church (San Francisco, CA)
Jan 24
Jan 24
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Beekman Auditorium (Los Angeles, CA)
Jan 24
Jan 24
Diana Damrau: R. Strauss orchestral songs
MET Orchestra / James Levine
Carnegie Hall (New York, NY)
Jan 26
Jan 26
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Cabell Hall, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
Jan 26
Jan 26
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
Schwab Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA)
Jan 27
Jan 27
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
Rockefeller University (New York, NY)
Jan 28
Jan 28
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT)
Jan 29
Jan 29
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
Jan 29
Jan 29
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Struthers Library Theatre (Warren, PA)
Jan 30
Jan 30
Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Southern Theatre (Columbus, OH)
Jan 31 and Feb 1
Jan 31 and Feb 1
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
Music Room, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC)
Feb 1
Feb 1
Fabio Biondi: recital
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (New York, NY)
Feb 2
Feb 2
Capuçon-Angelich Trio
La Maison Française (Washington, DC)
Feb 5-23
Feb 5-23
Quatuor Ebène: North American tour
Appleton, WI (Feb 5); Columbia, MD (Feb 6); Toronto, ON (Feb 8); Tucson, AZ (Feb 10); Los Angeles, CA (Feb 12-14); New York, NY (Poisson Rouge, Feb 16); Burlington, VT (Feb 19); Athens, GA (Feb 21); and Washington, DC (Feb 23)
Feb 6 (six performances through Feb 22)
Feb 6 (six performances through Feb 22)
Diana Damrau: title role in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment
Metropolitan Opera (New York, NY)
Feb 17
Feb 17
Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Messiaen, Liszt, Strauss
Avery Fisher Hall (New York, NY)
Feb 19
Feb 19
Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Brahms, Verbey, Bartók
Labels: EMI, Virgin Classics
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