J. Brahms - Die Schone Magelone Op 33 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Risonanze is the début solo album of London-based viola da gamba player Ibrahim Aziz, who is one of the greatest performers of the instrument of his generation. This recording is a performance of immense expression, expertly delivered on a viol made by English string maker Barak Norman in 1712. The album includes one of the highlights of the baroque era the Cello Sonata No. 2 by J.S. Bach as well as other baroque works. Risonanze also includes contemporary works, including one specially written for Aziz. Popular between the 15th-18th centuries, the viol has a unique quality of the sound through plangent tones of it's middle voice, silvery and vibrant high notes, and the depth of it's bass and human-like qualities. It's bow is played with a technique that discourages sharp attacks on the strings, but instead draws out and threads together each note like beautiful pearls on a maiden's neck, glowing with a silky halo. This quality of sound is not volume but resonance.

Brahms - Die Schone Magelone [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/27/2014

Fanned by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the longing for pure wilderness and the cultivation of rural life, the Nordic National Romanticism arises. All three composers on this album are descendants of this Nordic Romanticism. Although they did not all have the same nationality, their lives are intertwined. In their compositions, Svendsen and Halvorsen remain in form and harmony close to the music of their good friend Edvard Grieg and the distinctive Nordic use of melody; Carl Nielsen, however, goes on a voyage of discovery towards a new idiom with a strong desire for renewal on the one hand and a great need for the revival of the pure archaic on the other. His violin concerto clearly shows this conflict. In a neo-classical 4-part form, reminiscent of the setup of the Baroque concerto grosso, with seemingly simple classical-like themes and references to both Bach and Mozart, he takes the listeners on an incredible adventure throughout Nordic landscapes of pure wilderness and takes all sorts of harmonic and rhythmic twists and turns. Lisa Jacobs writes InchSince the first time I performed the Nielsen violin concerto in 2007, I have been overwhelmed from the very first note. Such an incredible connection with the whimsical Nordic nature that is displayed in this music, such as a natural use of the violin as both a lyrical and virtuoso instrument and such an originality.Inch