Various Artists - Muller-siemens: Die Menschen / Various - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce Birdsong, a fascinating cross-gender exploration of art songs associated with the female voice by baritone Roderick Williams, accompanied by pianist Andrew West. The recital features signature songs from the height of Romanticism by Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann alongside a more recent quartet of sensuous songs by Sally Beamish. In his revealing foreword, Williams recalls having his choice of Brahms's Sapphische Ode refused by competition organizers because it was Incha woman's songInch. Returning recently to the work prompted him to question why some songs are considered gender specific. Birdsong is his response. In his informative booklet notes, Richard Stokes notes that Brahms's songs Inchbetrays his own essentially melancholic natureInch and his difficulty in Inchsustaining emotional relationships with the women in his lifeInch. His nine songs here include the bittersweet An die Nachtigall, the moving innocent ardency of Das Mädchen spricht and the quiet, earnest longing of Sapphische Ode. Clara Schumann's Liebst du um Schönheit provides an authentic female perspective on courtship, as does Sally Beamish's Four Songs from Hafez (for which she provides her own notes), taking inspiration from the Iranian-born, Glasgow-based Jila Peacock's evocative translations and artistic rendering of the 14th-century Persian Sufi poet's texts. An intimate exploration of a young woman's feelings towards an older man of higher birth, Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und-leben acquires new facets when heard in Williams' characterful baritone.

Rosenvald - Concert for Violin & STRG Orch No 1 [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/04/2004

Compositions attributed to him stretch across the centuries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the early stages of the Baroque period. His music was by turns spiritual and secular, romantic and raucous, traditional and forward-looking. She was equally at home writing Gregorian chant, songs for troubadours, and instrumental dance music. He assimilated elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, tapping into musical traditions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, North Africa and beyond. You name it, she could write it. Needless to say, we know virtually nothing about him. No artist sketched his features. No poet sang her praises. No registrar listed his birth.