Laia Martin - Catalan Violin Works - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Rebecca had come down to New York from rural Maine and had a band called Once Blue with singer guitarist Jesse Harris. Their album on EMI still sounds playful and timeless, as if Blossom Dearie had recorded with Steely Dan. a series of projects followed an album of standards, MIDDLEHOPE; a lovely album of her own songs, PEOPLE BEHAVE LIKE BALLADS; a collaborations with legendary drummer Paul Motion, that lead to a fine CD, ON BROADWAY 4 or THE PARADOX OF CONTINUITY. THE GROWING SEASON is an album of songs about motherhood, about living in the world and living in your body. There is an effortlessness about it, buoyed by the lighter-than-air rhythms of drummer Brian Blade, the supple rightness of Larry Grenadier's beautiful emphatic bass, the otherworldly chording's of guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, all anchored by Rebecca's elegant songs, lovely, picked guitar and smoky, generous voice. It's a voice that seems to leave nothing out S*x and death and breakfast and wind in the trees and tax forms and laughter and night. All at once.

The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates the tenth anniversary of it's creation and it's sixth recording for Alpha with a complete set of Mendelssohn's quartets, of which this is the first volume it opens with the Quartet op.13, composed in 1827, when he was only eighteen years old. 'A trial run? No, a masterstroke! In every movement of this first quartet, we are constantly aware that the sense of urgency is the blood that runs through it's veins. Never before have we heard such tension maintained over an entire quartet', writes Stéphane Goldet in the album's booklet notes.

Dmitry Yablonsky returns with this new album of Catalan works for cello and piano, accompanied by Laia Martín. The cello was a vital part of Catalan musical expression in the first half of the 20th century. The physical album (8.579097) includes two world premiere recordings; the digital single (9.70354) features three works not included on the album