Elizabeth C. Patterson - From the Ends of the Earth - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

For his debut on Piano Classics, the Dutch pianist Tobias Borsboom presents a unique new recording sure to attract the attention of pianophiles everywhere the five-movement, hour-long tone-poem which Vítezslav Novák (1870-1949) composed in 1910. The work is marginally better known through the orchestration made by the composer two years later, but the great breadth, melodic richness and sumptuous harmonies of Pan still await discovery by all but the most devoted follower of Slavonic byways. Novak composed the work at the height of his powers. IT presents a pantheistic, spiritual autobiography in music, responding to the idea of the Greek god, and the myths associated with him, through highly colourful, evocative music. The forest stirs and murmurs in a manner reminiscent of Dvorak, but the sea also swells with Debussyan waves of sonority and there are hints of Janacek in the cycle's brooding second movement, 'The Mountains', which inhabits the mood of Novak's more concise orchestral masterpiece, In the Tatras Mountains. As Tobias Borsboom observes in his invaluable booklet essay, the cycle emulates Smetana's Ma Vlast in pursuing a cyclical unity through the return of themes and leitmotifs. Thus the opening 'Pan' theme lends a universal, shaping power to the entire work. A glorious C major apotheosis - on the scale of Scriabin, Schoenberg and Strauss in their contemporary works - brings the finale, 'Woman' to a transcendent climax.

Unto Ages of Ages features the North American recorded premiere of Georgy Sviridov's Ineffable Mystery. In his memory, the choir sang this set of pieces in Moscow and the Golden Ring on their third tour of Russia in 1998. Georgy Sviridov, who was one of Shostakovich's favorite students, wrote the music for Moscow's leading television news program and became one of the leading composers during the Soviet regime. Gloriae Dei Cantores, having already recorded Inchthe best anthology of Russian musicInch (American Record Guide for Sacred Songs of Russia), now adds this rich collection of Russian sacred music to their discography. Also included are excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. Unto Ages of Ages

Mel (Melanie Helène) Bonis was born in Paris in 1858, and showed a prodigious talent for music from an early age, attending the Paris Conservatoire from the age of sixteen, studying alongside Debussy and Pierne under Cesar Franck. Her passionate relationship with the singer Amedee-Louis Hettich was frowned upon by her parents, who pressured her to marry edouard Domange, a twice-widowed industrialist with five children. Bonis threw herself into her role as wife and stepmother, until a reunion with Hettich in the 1890s reignited her serious interest in composition. She composed more than 300 works, including pieces for solo piano, chamber music, and over forty melodies for voice and piano. As Bonis was too modest for self-promotion, and a victim of gender-bias, her music fell into obscurity after the First World War, and she became bedridden from arthritis. She continued to compose until her death, in 1937. Her orchestral output dates from two decades, between 1891 and 1912, and is well represented on this album.