Composer John Knowles Paine (1839 – 1906)—also an acclaimed organist, choirmaster, pianist and pedagogue—is primarily known as the first American to earn recognition for his larger-scale symphonic and choral-orchestral works: music that has attracted renewed interest in recent decades. Of lesser renown are his choral, chamber and keyboard compositions. Recordings devoted to his beautifully crafted…
When I first moved to Riverdale, Maryland, in 2012, I was immediately enchanted by the beauty of the Riversdale House Museum. This wonderful house, built in 1806, seemed like the perfect location for a concert series. Within days I approached the director of the mansion about creating a performance series and I was delighted to…
Hamburg-born Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker is one of today’s most renowned German violinists. Joachim Kaiser, the legendary music critic, described her playing as “beguiling” in its powerful blend of reserve and bravura, of tender restraint and intoxicating spirit and esteemed it as “luck” that coincidence had allowed him to become acquainted with Sabrina-Vivian, whose three CDs in…
Fair world, where are you? Alas, only in the magic land of song Does your fabled memory live on. Friedrich von Schiller, The Gods of Greece Schiller’s poignant verses express the longing of the German Romantics to connect with the power and pathos of the classical world. Several years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art…
As a capstone to Mortality Mansions, the music on this album concludes with a setting by Garfein of a poem by Jane Kenyon, sung by the soprano Marnie Breckenridge, with Dimitri Dover on piano. The poem, “Otherwise,” is one of Kenyon’s best-known and most moving: a paean to the precious quotidian pleasures of life while…
With the second piece of Mortality Mansions, “When I Was Young”, the song cycle shifts into the present tense and dives into the themes of ardor and eros, commitment and loss, in its aging characters. “When I was young and sexual/I looked forward to a cool Olympian age/for release from my obsessions,” Slattery sings with the…
In our newest recording of music by composer Mark Abel, Time and Distance, GRAMMY®-winning soprano Hila Plitmann brings her full emotional range to “Those Who Loved Medusa,” — a powerful story and evocative musical setting that connects ancient Greek legend with our present day’s #MeToo movement. Watch the new “Those Who Loved Medusa” video by…
In 2001, over the course of three days, we immersed ourselves in the world of Ernest Bloch and recorded all of his works that feature the viola and piano. The preparation and concentration that a recording requires is immense and we were disheartened to hear that the digital audio tapes that were used for this…
Within the broad spectrum of chamber music repertoire, pairings of harp and piano are rare. Perhaps that’s because the sometimes subtle differences between the sounds of a piano and a harp in tandem made many composers question the practicality of partnering the two. Yet upon hearing both instruments together, many listeners have been captivated by…
Pre-Order Pre-Order Tchaikovsky wrote the Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62 in one week in August 1887. It was first performed in Paris by cellist Anatoliy Brandukov, with Tchaikovsky playing the piano part. Brandukov also gave the first performance of the piece with orchestra, with Tchaikovsky conducting. The work is dedicated to Brandukov, who had studied with…
Order Now Listen Now Les martyrs grew out of Donizetti’s original three-act, Italian-libretto version Poliuto. Set in ancient Roman-occupied Armenia, its “sacred” theme of early martyrdom of a Christian saint at the hands of the pagan Romans ran afoul of the notoriously touchy Neapolitan censors, and—ultimately—the reigning king. Enraged at the banning of his creation…
Nina Kotova quotes Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavsky, the originator of a system of training and preparing actors, who said that “Cliché and convention are the chains that enslave performers and deprive them of their artistic freedom.” About the music on her new Delos album, Nina Kotova writes: “Although the Variations on a Rococo Theme showcase cellistic…
French tenor, voice teacher, and minor composer Gilbert-Louis Duprez (1806-1896), a native of Paris, is all but unknown to today’s opera lovers. But he was a pivotal figure in the history and development of Romantic-era opera and associated vocal technique in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. When he first ventured into…
Five years ago, when I was pregnant with my son Nathaniel, I started writing down vivid memories of my childhood in Odessa, the former Soviet Union, and of immigration to the United States. Gradually, these started to take the shape of a book about a life in music. At that time, I was living in…
Pre-Order Georgy Sviridov mentioned plans to orchestrate Russia Cast Adrift as early as 1981-82, but his intentions were left unrealized until this new brilliant adaption for orchestra and Style of Five by Evgeny Stetsyuk. This new orchestration dramatically magnifies both the epic scope and profound philosophical meaning of the work. Not by chance did the…
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