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The King's Singers, Wonderland, A Capella Music by Ligeti, etc.
The King's Singers are a choral institution. We have the good fortune to hear part of why that is and to hear them right now at a peak, performing music they have commissioned over the years that have...
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Bach 6 with 4, Amit Peled, Mount Vernon Virtuosi Cello Gang
When is Johann Sebastian Bach not Johann Sebastian Bach? One might answer, when he is arranged to sound somewhat differently than he himself customarily would call for? For example we have this...
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Julia Werntz, Somebody Who Loves You Throws Me at You
One way to avoid a strait and simple return to tonality is perhaps at times to carve a path through microtonality, so that if all goes right it expands our sense of what is available, stretches our...
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Dan Flanagan, The Bow and the Brush, New Music for Solo Violin
Solo violin music in the Contemporary Classical world has become something like what the solo saxophone offerings became in New Jazz beginning in the seventies, a kind of opening frontier and as such...
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Arvo Part, Odes of Repentance, Capella Romana, Alexander Lingas
Estonian master composer Arvo Part is probably the world's most acclaimed choral composer among the living, and that for good reason. The Capella Romana present fresh versions of some of Part's most...
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Quinsin Nachoff, Stars and Constellations
The so-called Third Stream of Jazz and Modern Jazz and Classical music has never really died in our lifetimes, it just has changed names in various ways. There is no shortage of inspired examples if...
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Vivian Fung, Insects & Machines, Quartets, Jasper String Quartet
Vivian Fung steps forward thanks to a rewarding new album covering her four string quartets on the recent CD Insects & Machines (Sono Luminus DSL-92270), played with a beautiful sense of color and...
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Justin Dello Joio, Oceans Apart, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Garrick Ohlsson,...
You live your life day-to-day and for me anyway the new music I hear marks time as a constant and an inspiration to me. There is no different a situation today except perhaps the offering stands out...
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Leonard Bernstein, Music for String Quartet, Aaron Copland, Elegies for...
In music you might spend a lifetime with some composers and still not know some of the works. That is the case for me to date with Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland and their respective Music for...
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Sonic Alchemy, YuEun Kim, Mina Gajic, Coleman Itzkof Play Arvo Part, Peteris...
Sonic Alchemy (Sono Luminus DSL92261) gathers together the considerable interpretive and sonically advanced gifts of violinist YuEun Kim, pianist Mina Gajic, and cellist Coleman Itzkoff for a rather...
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Marc Ponthus Plays Beethoven Hammerklavier sonata opus 106 and Stockhausen...
It is not precisely usual to experience an album sequence that pairs Beethoven with Stockhausen, excepting perhaps an old album of Stockhausen's that dealt with Beethoven themes on a 1970 Stockhausen...
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Stanley Grill, The Bridge
US composer Stanley Grill takes inspiration from Hart Crane's epic poem on his recent World Premiere recorded orchestral work The Bridge (self released digital) featuring Brett Deubner on viola and...
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Gerald Cohen, Voyagers, New Music for String Quartet, Clarinet and Trombone
Ah, great, somebody I've never heard of has works I've never heard," some reader I've never heard of either might be saying as she confronts this article. OK, so I ain't gonna get rich covering...
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Linda Catlin Smith, Dark Flower, The Thin Edge New Music Collective
Linda Catlin Smith is a composer getting attention in good ways with her work in recent years including especially her new album Dark Flower (Red Shift CD). The Thin Edge Music Collective commissioned...
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Susan Alcorn, Jose Lencastre, Hernani Faustino, Manifesto
Today we roll into the modified Space Age and that robotic vision of Hal in 2001 is closer to our experience than certainly it was when the movie was made. And the music we hear now, is that any closer...
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Alice Ping Ye Ho, Blaze, Christina Petrowska Quilico, Contemporary Works for...
The state-of-the-art when it comes to Modern virtuoso music for the piano today can be had nicely in the recent album of piano works by Canadian-Chinese composer Alice Ping Yee Ho as played with...
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George Crumb, Music For Amplified Piano, (1979-2012), Yoshiko Shimizu,...
If you are like me you sometimes think of various lists of favorite artists and/or perhaps composers... like for example what about the more important and innovative High Modern composers for the...
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Plinio Fernandes, Bacheando, Works for Solo Classical Guitar
Brazilian born classical guitar virtuoso Plinio Fernandes returns with more sparkling fare for solo classical guitar, this time flourishing within the Bachian strain with works initially written for...
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Vincent Larderet, Ravel, The Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. One
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), as many readers will ,know. was one of the 20th centuries most original and poetic of composers for the piano. His was a voice of great color and poise. He gives the...
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Rodney Sharman, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Known and Unknown, New Music for Solo Piano
Not everything can be grasped in a single setting as we all have learned over time. For New Music these days it has never been more true. It used to be at times that you more or less knew what you...
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Denman Maroney Quintet, The Air Conditioned Nightmare
When Minimalist hypnotic circularity meets Free Jazz oriented geometric Pointillism we have something that makes sense and indeed when in the right hands such as here we have some sensational music....
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Johan Helmich Roman, Assaggi per Violino Solo, Fabio Bondi
If you are a Baroque fanatic you may know the name of Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758), or perhaps you do not. He is new to me. The recent recording of his Assaggi Per Violino Solo...
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Nova Pon, Symphonies of Mother and Child, Turning Point Ensemble
When listening to unfamiliar New Music it may on occasion suggest some better known composer without sounding like a direct imitation. Sometimes the style revives itself under this new creator and...
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Lewis Gill, Parochial Chamber Works, Music Inspired by Warrington, Volume One
I have been friends with UK composer Lewis Gill for some time now, having the pleasure of hearing about his music on social media and exploring mutual musical frontiers by sharing music and thoughts...
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Charles Ives, Sonata No. 2, "Concord Mass, 1840-1860," Donald Berman
I have, after a long period of listening intently to virtually all available recorded versions, come to the conclusion that Charles Ives Sonata No. 2 "Concord Mass, 1840-1860" is one of Ives very most...
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