Ensemble Convivencia - Troubadoure Mittelalt Lieder Aus Aude & Roussillon - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The medieval vocal works on this recording-most of which are world-premiere recordings-come primarily from Swiss monasteries and cathedrals. They were composed in the 13th and 14th centuries, an era in which spiritual and secular power were virtually inseparable. Switzerland's religious communities maintained close ties with the major cultural centers of the time and their musical innovations. In Paris, the intellectual center of the 12th and 13th centuries, outstanding figures were active, including Philip the Chancellor (c. 1160-1236), one of the greatest scholars of his time. It is precisely this connection between European exchange and local tradition that defines the special character of the Swiss sources gathered here St. Gallen, Lausanne, the Abbey of La Maigrauge, and the Basel Song Manuscript were explored by the singers of the Ensemble RESONEZ and recorder player Marie Verstraete through exciting musical testimonies of that era.

Karl B hm - Beethoven Sym #4 / Mahler Wayfarer / Schumann [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/15/1999

This valuable revival of the piano music by Cesar Cui began with a 2CD volume played by Marco Rapetti (PCL10211), surveying the composer's early output from 1877 to 1888. Born in what is now Vilnius, capital of modern-day Lithuania, Cui began to learn the piano as a child, initially from his elder sister. His first and last compositions were written for the piano, and he produced 29 opus numbers for the instrument (the total opus catalogue reaches 106).The Australian pianist Paul Rickard-Ford now moves the project on with a chronological survey from the Quatre Morceaux Op. 22 of 1883 to the Theme and Variations Op. 61, from 1901. Dedicated respectively to Theodore Leschitzky and to Josef Hofmann, these pieces show how admired Cui was in his day, even if he is now generally treated as the forgotten member of the 'Mighty Handful' group of Russian composers.One of Liszt's final works was a piano transcription of Cui's orchestral Tarantelle Op. 12. Other collections on the album are dedicated to Anton Rubinstein (the two Polonaises Op. 30) and to Hans von Bülow (three Impromptus Op. 35), as well as a charming pair of Bluettes Op. 29 dedicated to the Countess de Mercy-Argenteau, who was Cui's generous patron and indefatigable supporter outside Russia.Many of the pieces here are receiving their world-premiere recordings, such as the four pieces composed in 1900-01 and collected as Op. 60. They include a Polka, a Novelette, a Mazurka, and a Polonaise all familiar genres, which Cui inflected with his individual brand of Russian-accented lyricism, ultimately drawing on an early-Romantic lexicon of expression formulated by Chopin and Schumann. Thus all the music here belongs to the salon, designed first and foremost to charm and to entertain.Paul Rickard-Ford has been on the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium for more than thirty years and was Chair of the Piano Unit from 2006