Asfur / Various - Las Estrellas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Robert Oboussier was born in Antwerp and spent much of his youth in Germany. As a staunch opponent of National Socialism he emigrated to Zurich in 1939 where he held a number of important musical positions. However, the circumstances of his death in 1957 served to plunge his name into immediate obscurity and only now is his music being revived. This selection of mostly world premiere recordings demonstrates his personal use of twelve-tone rows, abrupt contrasts and a fondness for fantasia patterns. Oboussier's radical piano miniatures, 25 Abreviations, are heard here in their original versions and in excerpts arranged for plucked string ensemble by Christian Wernicke.

Eilífur (Eternal) is Icelandic contemporary composer Viktor Orri Árnason's solo debut and first PENTATONE album, on which the prospect of living forever is contemplated. Sparked by the realisation that medical advances will soon eradicate death by natural causes, Eilífur weaves together a lucid, near-future narrative via a combination of abstract Icelandic lyrics and adept musical storytelling. The scope and scale of Eilífur is reflected in the extremes of it's sound, which moves seamlessly from intimate strings and sombre voices to grand orchestral gestures and vast drones. Eilífur explores what life will be like in the absence of death's ticking clock. Staying clear of the morbidity that such themes may imply, Eilífur is above all a celebration of life as we know it, and an ode to the things that make it worth living. Viktor composed, produced and mixed the album at his Berlin studio over the course of two years. The studio was a hub of experimentation with a community of outstanding award-winning composers and musicians, including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Dustin O'Halloran, Rutger Hoedemaekers, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Yair Elazar Glotman. Eilífur is a statement, a first glimpse of Viktor's outstanding abilities as a composer, conductor, instrumentalist, producer and mixing engineer; an ambitious album which puts him in the spotlight after many years working behind the scenes.

A truly rare original Long Playing is here out for the first time on album. The highly musical family of the violinist Emil Telmányi are performing music by two composers close to them and which they have championed all their life. The Nielsen Quintet, a rarely heard early work by the young composer, is here receiving it's first modern together with a selection of the romantic J.P.E. Hartmann works for strings. One critic called the LP Inchone of the most important additions to Danish music.Inch Emil Telmányi (22 June 1892 - 13 June 1988) was a Hungarian violinist. Telmányi, who was born in Arad, Partium, Transylvania, then in the Kingdom of Hungary, was also an exponent of the composer Carl Nielsen, having recorded some of his violin sonatas and his violin concerto. Telmányi settled in Copenhagen and was married to Nielsen's daughter, Anne Marie, from 1918 to 1933. One of his most famous recordings is a 1954 recording of Bach's Sonatas and partitas for solo violin played using a violin with what was referred to as the Bach (or Vega) bow, which could be adjusted so the player could play three or even all four strings of the violin at once. He died, aged 95, in Holte, Denmark.