Heather O'Donnell - Reponses to Ives - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Miro Quartet invites you to gather around the warmth of the holiday Hearth-a deeply personal and joy-filled album that celebrates the spirit of the season through the voices of today's most compelling composers. Whether your traditions include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or simply quiet reflection by the fire, this album captures the essence of holidays as a time of connection, memory, and hope.Featuring works by composers such as Anna Clyne, Clarice Assad, Gabriel Kahane, Reena Esmail, and Paola Prestini, each piece is a musical keepsake-an imaginative reworking of a holiday tune chosen by the composer and infused with personal meaning. From Renaissance hymns to familiar carols like Jingle Bells, and from West African rhythms to tender string lyricism, this vibrant collection reflects the rich diversity of how we celebrate, remember, and come together. Hearth follows the Miro Quartet's acclaimed PENTATONE Ginastera String Quartets (2025), honoured as a Gramophone Editor's Choice, one of The New York Times 5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now,' and recipient of Pizzicato's Supersonic distinction. Also available are the GRAMMY-nominated Home (2024) and Beethoven Complete String Quartets (2021). With this , we are proud to share these musical stories - each one a gift, wrapped in sound, from our hearts to yours.

Mendelssohn' successor as the music director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and a close friend of Joachim and the Schumann's, the Danish conductor and composer Niels Wilhelm Gade melded Nordic spirit.

César Franck's great Violin Sonata in A, arranged for piano by Alfred Cortot, forms the focus on our new solo album featuring the gifted and successful pianist Michael Korstick. InchThe version without disturbing scratching noises does indeed have it's appeal,Inch Korstick ironically opines and then explains, InchI know that I'm now making myself extremely unpopular with all violinists, but some things come across even better in the version for piano alone. One doesn't miss the violin.Inch This is of course a controversial statement, especially since it refers to the embodiment of the sensuous romantic violin sonata. InchThe fact is that Franck almost always thinks starting from the organ,Inch thus Korstick's argument continues, Inchand Cortot so genially distributed the voices of the octaves that the polyphonic structure becomes clearer.Inch The audience at it's premiere in Paris in 1885 was immediately enthused, and most pianists continue to be so even today. Michael Korstick regards this work as Franck's Inchmost important, central solo piece,Inch and the Franck expert Jörg Demus views the Prélude, Aria et Final as one of the few InchlucidInch compositions of the late romantic period and pardons it for it's difficulty in playing technique InchBut what do difficulties mean when the emotional content compensates one for it in such a rich way!