GIYA KANCHELI
Kancheli: Songs Of Fate Vida Mikneviciute (soprano), Magdalena Ceple (cello), Andrei Pushkarev (vibraphone), Kremerata Baltica, Gidon Kremer [ ECM New Series / 2 CD - released 19/Jan/2024 ] "Gidon Kremer has perhaps never before revealed himself as intimately and as existentially focused as on this recording", observes Wolfgang Sandner in his liner note accompanying the Latvian violinist's album Songs of Fate. |
JOHANNES BRAHMS / ROBERT SCHUMANN
Brahms / Schumann Yuuko Shiokawa (violin), Andras Schiff (piano) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 11/Oct/2024 ] After tackling the sonatas for violin and piano of Bach, Busoni and Beethoven in 2017 - a "thoughtfully determined and subtly interconnected programme" according to Strad magazine -, the duo of Yuuko Shiokawa and András Schiff returns with striking... |
J. S. BACH
Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 & 2 Andras Schiff (piano) [ ECM New Series / 4 CD Box Set - released 20/Sep/2012 ] GRAMOPHONE AWARD FINALIST 2013: Instrumental |
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
J.S. Bach: Clavichord András Schiff (clavichord) [ ECM New Series / 2 CD - released 27/Jan/2023 ] "As with his previous period-instrument ventures, Schiff opens up a new world and thoroughly adjusts his temperament, his 'pianism' and his artistry to it." Gramophone Editor's Choice April 2023 |
JOSEPH BRODSKY
Elegie an John Donne Christian Reiner [ ECM New Series / CD - released 25/Aug/2017 ] In the winter of 2012/13, Viennese actor and voice artist Christian Reiner attracted much acclaim for his interpretation of Friedrich Hölderlin's "Turmgedichten". "Reiner is able to coax the music out of the words", German newspaper Frankfurter... |
Danish String Quartet
Last Leaf [ ECM New Series / CD - released 22/Sep/2017 ] "This recording of sublime beauty consists of old hymns, such as Now Found is the Fairest of Roses (1732), and a variety folk songs, all exquisitely set for string quartet." AudAud Best of 2017 |
Danish String Quartet
Last Leaf (LP) [ ECM New Series / LP - released 22/Sep/2017 ] They are widely recognised as the most exciting young string quartet of the present moment, bringing new insights to contemporary composition and core classical repertoire. In parallel, they have also made surprising and impressive forays into the... |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN / BELA BARTOK / J. S. BACH
Beethoven/Bartok/Bach - Prism III Danish String Quartet [ ECM New Series / CD - released 26/Mar/2021 ] "...they're thought-provoking, and often startlingly beautiful. And anyway, perhaps one shouldn't draw too close to the music." Gramophone |
THOMAS ADES / ER NORGARD / HANS ABRAHAMSEN
Ades: Arcadiana / Norgard: Quartetto Breve / Abrahamsen: 10 Preludes The Danish String Quartet [ ECM New Series / CD - released 15/Apr/2016 ] "The Danish are remarkable, as ever - capable of intense blend, extreme dynamic variation (in which they seem glued together), perfect intonation even on harmonics, and constant vitality and flow" Gramophone Award Nomination 2017 - Chamber |
GIYA KANCHELI
Kancheli: Themes From the Songbook Dino Saluzzi (bandoneon), Andrei Pushkarev (vibraphone), Gidon Kremer (violin) & Jansug Kahkidze (voice/conductor) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 1/Nov/2010 ] A very special album for Giya Kancheli's 75th birthday. When starting out on his career as a creator of symphonic and chamber music, the Georgian composer also wrote much incidental music for the theatre and the cinema. Though still little-known in... |
ERKKI-SVEN TUUR
Lost Prayers Erkki Sven-Tüür [ ECM New Series / CD - released 13/Nov/2020 ] Lost Prayers is the first of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür's New Series recordings to be devoted entirely to his chamber music. Scaled-back instrumental forces, however, are no indicator of reduced expressive power, and the volatility of Tüür's... |
SNÉTBERGER / SHOSTAKOVICH / DOWLAND / BARDER
Hallgató Ferenc Snétberger and the Keller Quartett [ ECM New Series / CD - released 2/Apr/2021 ] On Hallgató, recorded live in the Grand Hall of Budapest's Liszt Academy, Ferenc Snétberger and the Keller Quartett, respectively Hungary's outstanding acoustic guitarist and its foremost string quartet, are heard together and separately in a moving... |
GEORGE I. GURDJIEFF
Sacred Hymns Keith Jarrett [ ECM New Series / CD - released 31/Dec/2008 ] The exact date on which George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born into this world is unknown. This is fitting, for to one who spent his life trying to unravel it, such mundane details would have been unnecessary in the grander scheme of things. Born in... |
HEINER GOEBBELS
Goebbels: A House Of Call - My Imaginary Notebook Heiner Goebbels, Ensemble Modern Orchestra, Vimbayi Kaziboni [ ECM New Series / 2 CD - released 21/Oct/2022 ] A House of Call is a cycle of invocations, prayers, poems and songs for large orchestra. It incorporates recordings of sounds and voices from all over the world collected by Heiner Goebbels during his travels, research, and chance encounters. The... |
HEINZ HOLLIGER
Heinz Holliger: Lunea Ivan Ludlow, Sarah Maria Sun, Christian Gerhaher, Juliane Banse / Philharmonie Zürich, Basler Madrigalisten, Heinz Holliger [ ECM New Series / 2 CD - released 22/Apr/2022 ] "Gerhaher is astonishing in the virtuoso principal role...traversing the gamut of language and expression from song to speech...an excellent Basler Madrigalisten and 34-piece Philharmonia Zürich conducted live by Holliger." BBC Opera Choice July 22 |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Officium Novum Jan Garbarek (soprano and tenor saxophones) / The Hilliard Ensemble [ ECM New Series / CD - released 20/Sep/2010 ] "Over the immanent, limpid voices Garbarek improvises equally immaculate counter-melodies. His contributions tend to be somewhat predictable, more decoration than improvisation in the fullest sense, but his tone is so pleasing...and the melodies so... |
Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard Ensemble
Remember me, my dear [ ECM New Series / CD - released 18/Oct/2019 ] 25 years on from the release of Officium, the groundbreaking alliance of Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble, comes Remember me, my dear, recorded during the final tour the group made in October 2014. The program is emblematic of the range of... |
ANONYMOUS / CAMPION / BANKS / PICFORTH
Amores Pasados John Potter (voice) Anna maria Friman (voice) Ariel Abramovich (lute) Jacob Heringman (lute) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 26/Jul/2015 ] For this innovative attempt to bridge the gap between art song and pop song, John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin fame), Sting and Genesis-keyboardist Tony Banks were commissioned to write new lute songs. "Asking a rock music composer to set existing... |
SAMUEL BARBER / BELA BARTOK
Barber / Bartok: Piano Concertos Keith Jarrett (piano) / Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, New Japan Philharmonic, Kazuyoshi Akiyama & Dennis Russell Davies [ ECM New Series / CD - released 10/Jun/2015 ] For much of the 1980s, Keith Jarrett balanced his improvisational activities with performances of classical music and contemporary composition. On this disc, with concert recordings from 1984 and 1985, he is heard playing Samuel Barber's Piano... |
MORTON FELDMAN / JOHN CAGE / ERIK SATIE
Rothko Chapel Kim Kashkashian (viola) / Houston Chamber Choir, Robert Simpson, with Sarah Rothenberg (piano) & Steven Schick (percussion) [ ECM New Series / CD - released 25/Oct/2015 ] "The Houston choir's singing is warm and percussionist Steven Schick creates a great sense of space and ritual." The Guardian |