Sinfonía n° 1 \'Canarias\' / Tocata vieja en tono nuevo / Los e
The Sinfonia n° 1 "Canarias" is dedicated to the composer's father, an old Canary Islander aged 94 at the time it was written. He was the reason why Cruz de Castro decided to focus the composition's middle movement wholly on the Canarian Folía. This special, important form of Canarian folk music appears both in its original form and in variations: "That's the way it should be: from the simple to the complex, from the melody line to the concentration: a harmonious whole." (Cruz de Castro) The Toc…
Music for a Summer Evening / A Little Suite for Christmas / Five
Music for a Summer Evening (1974) is the third part of the "cosmic drama" Macrocosmos, which investigates the relations between the innermost human soul and the vastness of the cosmos; relations that also determine the temporal, dynamic and tonal dimensions of the composition. Its immense material extravagance is reflected by a range of some 70 percussion instruments; in addition, the two pianists are required to perform a variety of different techniques, such as pizzicatos, flageolets, etc. A s…
Gnomic Variations / Processional / Ancient Voices of Children
On reading the title Gnomic Variations, lovers of piano music might fancy themselves to be in a kind of "Grieg's World," but the truth is far from it: the title of the piano solo, completed in 1981, does not refer to any thieving Irish gnomes but solely to the conciseness of the structure of the work. "Gnomic" here means expressing an idea in brief words, or, simply, describing a maxim as accurately as possible. The Gnomic Variations consist of three parts, comprising a total of 18 variations. A…
American Piano Concertos
The great creator of musical novelties hardly ever departed from the melodic harmonious basis, though: his major achievements included not least the development of new techniques for piano playing, which he also integrated in his book New Musical Resources. His Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1928) appears to put the spotlight on the technical and musical-historical findings, whereas in pieces such as Irish Jig and Four Irish Tales he openly and merrily inquires into his Irish background, with…
Mad Sweeney\'s shadow
In Mad Sweeney's shadow: mass, piano trio, lieder cycle, wind quintet – for each of these "classic" formats Corcoran has created his own original, archaic sound.
Kabbala
Kabbala, oratorio in Hebrew, originally composed for the „Mittelfest“ in Cividale del Friuli/Italy and first released by col legno in 1993, has been re-released.
Spiegel
As fascinating as ever: Cerha's monumental opus Spiegel, in which he investigates fundamental phenomena of musical creation.
Cangianti
An enchanting piano world: the music of this sensual aphorist encompasses a range from a naively childlike tone to sharp-edged expressiveness.
Quilisma
The succinctness of his work will first become fully apparent when it becomes possible to view the second half of the twentieth century from something more like a bird’s-eye view.
String Quartets No. 1, 2 & 3
A Darmstadt composer and student of Lachenmann, Brass employs the vocabulary a contemporary composer of the middle-European avant garde, in two extended works which continuously ebb and flow, streams of musical consciousness with an apparent, though mysterious, narrative; a sense of unwillingness to be silenced, as though the event of the moment must be preserved at all cost. Microtonal and with much employment of extended harmonics, the music frequently has an unstable, shifting quality, though…
Chamber Music Vol. 1
It is the eternal questions that Nikolaus Brass mainly concerns himself with in his compositional work: the question of existence, of being, and first and foremost of all possible intermediate stages at the edge of what is conceivable, of what can just be grasped. In VOID (1999) he investigates the feeling left by loss, "structural empty spaces that bear the construction of sound while challenging it at the same time." For a due (2003), Brass has borrowed short captions from Yashushi Inoue's nov…
Brahms’ Deutsche Volkslieder
"Only one face": Following their price-winnig recording Schubertlieder, the Tyrolean Musicbanda Franui have now taken up Johannes Brahms' German Folk Songs.
Une Soirée Vian
The Soirée Vian, a kind of meta-cabaret created in 1991 based on a commission by the WDR, develops along the narrative red thread of Boris Vian's novel The red grass and turns into a dizzying journey through the absurdly crazy worlds of Vian's universe. The fullness and polystylism of this venture undertaken by Denys Bouliane might indeed almost make the listener dizzy, not least due to the fantastic performance by the electro-acoustic ensemble "Série B." Their "musical roller coaster ride from …
Musica Viva 02
Musica Viva 02: Space and sound, modernism and pluralism, "perfect harmony" and, finally, the fascination of collectively organized fireflies.
Jugendlieder - Songs From The Youth
Berg's early lieder owe their existence largely to the young composer's great interest in literature; nevertheless it was his friend Hermann Watznauer, who actually inspired him to embark on composing his first lieder around 1900/01. And Berg enjoyed himself so much that he continued along the same lines until 1903, completing another 30 lieder; even Arnold Schönberg was essentially fascinated by them: "Berg's earliest compositions, however clumsy they may have been, already reveal two qualities…
Uncommon Sense
This is: brass to the power of three, and a lot more besides. John Clark, Dave Taylor and Franz Hackl on French horn, trumpet and bass trombone are not just a brass trio but create a whole cosmos of sounds, styles and techniques. In their musical actions and reactions, each of the three is always also each of the other two, with the voices merging into complex moods and styles. On this album the trio reveal their sense of humor, and a moment later become absorbed in hymnic devotion. Big-band ges…
Eisenhans!
Following the great success of Mitterer's "Brave little tailor" our second children's opera is now available on CD: Eisenhans! Child-friendly and light-hearted.
Oboe plus
Right at the start we are welcomed by Le sexe du noyé by Walter Feldmann, which (besides requiring exceptional technical skill) keeps a tight rein on the oboist, even as far as inhaling and minute movements are concerned. But Matthias Arter does not play the oboe only but also other members of the customary concert instrument's family, like the musette (sopranino oboe) he uses in the last part of his own composition Changes. And he has a lot more to offer even than a great variety of different p…
14 Récitations
A songbird that stops singing must die. Georges Aperghis demands a similar degree of self-sacrifice of the performer of his 14 Récitation.
Piano Pictures
Now, which are the points of contact between these two composing gentlemen? "In both composers, a childlike quality shows in their indifference (or impartiality) towards the utilizable musical material: 'sophisticated' and 'lesser' styles, ragtime and music hall, neo-gothic and bitonality, typing machine and doorbell, jocular or praising quotes – everything is linked with everything, without any previous weighing and selection, without preconditions, following a kind of anarchic play instinct. […