On the first Sunday of every month, WRTI broadcasts a special edition of Sunday Classical, focused on classical new releases. Join host Mark Pinto on WRTI on August 4th from 3-6 p.m. to hear highlights from each of these albums.
Reformation
Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano)
English pianist Momen makes what is old new again with her persuasive recording of keyboard music from Renaissance England played convincingly on a modern Steinway grand piano. Momen brings a new perspective to the “palace of riches” she discovers in these fantasias, pavans and complex variants on popular songs.
Schoenberg & Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi (conductor)
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony and former Music Director Paavo Järvi mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg with music by these two composers, inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1892 play Pelleas et Melisande. The story of the forbidden and doomed love of the play’s title characters prompted Schoenberg’s early symphonic poem and Fauré’s orchestral masterpiece, a suite of incidental music for the play.
Irish Roots
Daniel Hope (violin)
You’re sure to be reeled in by this lively recording from Daniel Hope. The South Africa-born violinist shows his Irish roots in music from classical and folk traditions. Pieces by Turlough O’Carolan, “Danny Boy” and other traditional Irish tunes jig with works by Vivaldi, Purcell and 20th century Irish composer Ina Boyle. Hope collaborates with a slew of stellar guest artists here including the award-winning Irish band Lúnasa and flutists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway, among many others.
Rooted
Neave Trio
A 20th century piano trio based on traditional Irish tunes is a highlight of this new outing from the Grammy-nominated Neave Trio. Digging down to titular roots as well, the Neave point the spotlight to piano trios based on Irish, Czech, African and African-American folk music. In addition to Frank Martin’s Irish-inspired work, the Neave gives us Smetana’s moving and mournful Piano Trio in G minor, composed after the death of his four-year-old daughter, and Coleridge-Taylor’s Five Negro Melodies.
Igor Stravinsky: Symphonies Vol.1
Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Dima Slobodeniouk (conductor)
Here’s an opportunity to explore a fascinating though lesser-known aspect of Igor Stravinsky output — three works bearing the name "symphony." Spain’s Galicia Symphony and their Finnish principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk present Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, a short but daring work in tribute to Claude Debussy. The Symphony in Three Movements is the composer’s response to World War II with a musical content looking back to The Rite of Spring and ahead to The Rake’s Progress. The good-humored, neoclassical Symphony in C rounds out the album.
Liszt, Metamorphosis
Charlotte Hu (piano)
The album’s title refers not only to the music but also to the performer. Formerly known as Ching-Yun Hu, the Taiwanese-American pianist celebrated for her virtuosity and musicianship (and for her work as the founder of the Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy) has adopted a new stage name. On her debut recording for Pentatone, she celebrates the musical evolution of Franz Liszt from his early Beethoven-inspired pieces to the abstract tonality of his late works, stopping to admire Liszt’s own transformations of the music of other composers.
Tempus omnia vincit
Protean Quartet
For those who like their Schubert served on period instruments, here’s a tasty new release from a competition-winning string quartet of young musicians. The program focuses on works in which each individual voice is treated with equal care. "Early" and "late” quartets by Schubert appear alongside transcriptions of pieces by Purcell and Josquin.
Bach Reconstructed
La Festa Musicale
If you’ve been waiting patiently these last 300 years for a sequel to Bach’s enormously popular Brandenburg Concertos, this album just might be for you! La Festa Musicale, a baroque ensemble from northern Germany, offers here three “Neubrandenburg” Concertos. Ensemble member Christoph Harer created these pieces from a composite of Bach works and arranged them for instrumental combinations similar to those in the original Brandenburgs. Bach himself reworked his own music all the time, so the tradition continues!
Sibelius & Prokofiev: Violin Concertos
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Mäkelä (conductor), Janine Jansen (violin)
The wait hasn’t been nearly as long, but it has been nine years since Janine Jansen’s last concerto album. The much-admired Dutch violinist joins forces here with the Oslo Philharmonic under their young, sensational chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä in two early 20th-century stalwarts of the concerto canon, the Violin Concerto of Sibelius and Prokofiev’s First Concerto. This one’s definitely worth the anticipation!
