After a very successful lifetime, albeit marked by long years of physical and psychological suffering, Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) chose Passy, on the outskirts of Paris, as the place to spend the final years of his life. Here Rossini recovered his health and began composing again after years of inactivity. During these years, in addition to the wonderful Petite Messe solennelle, he wrote...
Without doubt, Benjamin Britten (1913-76) left an indelible impression on every genre of 20th century English music. However, it is his smaller scale vocal repertoire that is particularly fascinating. Featuring three of Britten’s “Canticles” as well as a selection of his best realizations (or “arrangements,” if you will) of songs by Henry Purcell (1659-95), this recording represents the mature...
Brahms composed only a small number of original works for piano four hands, but arranged almost all of his chamber music and orchestral works for this instrumentation. He played most of them immediately after their completion with Clara Schumann and greatly appreciated her opinion. In his Hungarian Dances Brahms brilliantly transformed original Hungarian melodies and rhythms into multi-coloured...
In addition to his famous large-scale song cycles, Schubert also composed and published numerous smaller song compilations. Some of these “miniature cycles” consist of songs written at different times and under different circumstances, but which Schubert himself assembled on the basis of thematic and textual connections. The selected cycles appeared in print during Schubert’s publishing career...
The paths of I SOLISTI and Frederik Neyrinck first crossed in 2011. The ensemble immediately recognised the artistic talent of the Flemish composer and together they set up a long-term collaboration. The fruits thereof can be heard on this album, which consists exclusively of works by Neyrinck, written especially for the ensemble. This CD also marks a new chapter in their ongoing partnership,...
NESHIMA is Orí Harmelin’s exciting debut solo lute and theorbo album. Orí explores a new realm of possibilities for personal creation as a modern musician using the musical language of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The album contains Orí’s arrangements of Madrigals, Motets and Chansons by Cipriano de Rore, Josquin des Prez and Thomas Tallis, alongside his own compositions of variation...
Spanish Guitar music from around 1930 with works dedicated to Regino Sáinz de la Maza (1896-1981). Yiannnis Efstathopoulos performs with an historical informed approach, using a Spanish guitar modelled on the type that was used around 1930 with gut strings. this results in highlighting each string’s individual character and the delicate balance between the high and low strings. Works by Julián...
When Eugène Ysaÿe composed his cycle of 6 sonatas op. 27 for solo violin in June 1923, gut strings were still very common and highly appreciated - statements by contemporary violinists such as Mischa Elman, Toscha Seidel and Jacques Thibaud confirm this. However, neither the dedicatees of Eugène Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas nor other contemporaries made recordings of these works. Martin Reimann has now...
The Richter Ensemble performs music from the 17th to the 20th century exclusively on gut strings and uses its experience with historical performance practice to heighten the sense for the development of musical language over the centuries. The ensemble is passionately dedicated to the music of the Second Viennese School and, based on its research, has decided that the time is ripe to steer the...
