Nordic String Quartet - Peter Heise: Complete String Quartets - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Extraordinary works by British Women composers, brought to light by cellist Catherine WilmersIn A Cello Galaxy of British Women Composers, Catherine Wilmers brings to light an extraordinary collection of works by British women presenting us with twelve premiere recordings. Drawing on diligent research, Wilmers unearths strikingly original compositions presenting us with premiere recordings by Amy Elsie Horrocks, Ethel Barns, Elizabeth Poston, Joan Trimble, Dora Bright, Susan Spain Dunk, and Sarah Rodgers, whose Mountain Airs was written for the cellist. Some of these works lay forgotten in the archives of the Royal Academy of Music, their potential stifled by societal limitations rather than artistic merit.The album is more than a rediscovery-it is a testament to the resilience and artistry of these composers. The satisfyingly detailed liner notes reveal the challenges they faced, often in their own words or through the prejudices of their time. As late as the 1920s, the critic Cecil Gray echoed Dr Johnson's notorious remark 'A woman's composing is like a dog walking on it's hind legs; it is not done well but you are surprised to see it done at all.' Such dismissals only fuel the need to champion these voices today.Wilmers' deep connection to this repertoire is evident in every performance, matched sensitively by accompanying pianist, Jill Morton. A former cellist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Catherine Wilmers has long questioned why so few works by women have entered the standard repertoire. This album is part of her answer-a luminous and long-overdue celebration of their music.

Danish Quartet - Complete String Quartets [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/16/1993

A famous Beethoven work and a Reicha premiere in the hands of exceptionalperformers. Just like the well-known drama of Beethoven's life, the biography of AntonReicha would also make an exciting film, but this recording mainly shows usthe friendship of the two great composers at the turn of the 18th and 19thcenturies. They were born the same year, and from their first encounter as15-year-olds in the Bonn court orchestra, they became close friends. Theystudied together at the university in Bonn, and they both became friendsof Haydn. Their music also shared similarities mainly during Reicha's periodin Vienna. It was while Reicha was in Vienna that he wrote his only pianoconcerto and that Beethoven wrote his fifth and most famous work inthe genre. Both concertos are in the InchheroicInch key of E flat major. WhileBeethoven's InchEmperor ConcertoInch is a mainstay of the piano literature, thisis the first complete recording of Reicha's concerto. Missing pages fromthe solo part were first discovered in 2018. Jan Bartos is a highly acclaimedinterpreter of Beethoven, and here he is following in the tradition of histeachers Ivan Moravec and Alfred Brendl. The wonderful playing of the ViennaSymphony Orchestra, which has Beethoven's blood in it's veins, gives the liverecording from the Prague Spring Festival the hallmark of authenticity. Playingthe meticulously detailed accompaniment in the studio recording of Reicha'sconcerto is the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Bartos's partner at thehelm of both orchestras is Petr Popelka, today undisputedly a world-classconductor who has the rare ability to breathe meaning and life into everynote. The friends Beethoven and Reicha are symbolically reunited after morethan two centuries on a single album in special musical company.