Episode 202: 18202 Eden

Night falls in diverse ways in Magdalena Hoffmann's debut album. Nightscapes sees the German harpist dive deep into the intimate, mysterious, magical world of night music, as well as exploring the theme of dance. Its tracklist spans everything from the austere beauty of Britten's Suite for Harp Op. 83 to the folk-like colors of Tournier's La danse du moujik. The recording comprises both original pieces for solo harp and compositions for piano, skillfully transcribed by Hoffmann herself. Purchase the music (without talk) at:Nightscapes (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Katy Solomon from Morahana Arts and Media.

1 Mars 20221h 21min

Hailed as “one of a kind, a banjoist who specializes in classical music and regularly knocks socks off left and right doing so,” John Bullard has released a new recording, 24 Preludes for Solo Banjo, Volume One, Books 1 & 2 Nos. I-XII was produced by multiple Juno Award and Grammy-winning David Travers-Smith. Bullard commissioned composer Adam Larrabee to write 24 Preludes which Larrabee says he wrote in a style that is “predominantly early 20th-century, at times almost neo-classical and inspired by works of J.S. Bach, Chopin, and Shostakovich that follow the long-standing tradition of writing pieces in all the major and minor keys to showcase an instrument’s versatility.” He continues, “I have tried to make each prelude feature a different form, performance technique, timbre, or rhythmic style. There is an all-pizzicato or muted piece, one featuring natural harmonics or “chimes,” a Bulgarian ratchenitsa, a Basque zortico, a passacaglia, a jazz “stride piano” style cakewalk, a theme and variations, a Brazilian choro in the style of the great Villa-Lobos, and Russian march ala Prokofiev. It has been a wonderful experience to feature the banjo in these diverse styles and create new repertoire for this beautifully unique and versatile instrument.” Available through iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Amazon, and other major streaming services, the recording can also be purchased at JohnBullard.com. Purchase the music (without talk) at:24 Preludes for Solo Banjo, Volume One, Books 1 & 2 Nos. I-XII (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Crossover Media Music Promotion (Zachary Swanson).

28 Feb 202232min

L'Africaine (The African Woman) is an 1865 French grand opéra in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title L'Africaine, but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title Vasco de Gama, the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. Purchase the music (without talk) at:Meyerbeer: L'Africaine or Vasco de Gama (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

27 Feb 20224h 27min

Lisa Batiashvili’s new album, released on May 29, 2020, takes the listener across the world with eleven carefully chosen pieces that represent the most important cities in her life, as well as a suite based on Charlie Chaplin’s own music for City Lights and other films of his, extending last year’s celebration of the 130th anniversary of the iconic artist’s birth.The music ranges from J.S. Bach and Johann Strauss to Michel Legrand and Astor Piazzolla, bringing together diverse genres, including classical, jazz, gypsy, tango, and film music.Ms. Batiashvili is joined in this project by composer-arranger Nikoloz Rachveli, Katie Melua, Till Brönner, Miloš Karadaglić and Maximilian Hornung. Player.FM Podcast of the Day - Feb. 27, 2022 Purchase the music (without talk) at:City Lights (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Katy Solomon from Morahana Arts and Media.

26 Feb 20221h 11min

Pianist Daniil Trifonov is known for performances of 19th and 20th-century virtuoso repertory and hardly at all for Bach. Thus one might expect from his album Bach: The Art of Life a certain old-school Romantic quality and even music that is a bit over the top. The album is all that and more. The title is a bit unclear; the interview-format notes quote Trifonov references to Bach's personal life, but also to various scientific phenomena, but one may dispense with those and get down to the music, which doubtless showcases Trifonov's formidable technical skills. With Bach, it is not about keyboard-clattering speed but about the subtlety of inflection, and the variety brought to the little selections from the Bach's Anna Magdalena Book, pieces that almost everyone who has touched a keyboard has played, is extraordinary. Trifonov also includes a group of pieces by Bach's sons, and he does unusually well at finding what critic Harold Bloom called the anxiety of influence in these, their J.S. Bachian quality even in a stylistic world that had fundamentally changed. However, none of these really prepares the listener for the album's centerpiece, The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, which is divided between the two CDs in the physical version. It is as imposing as the rest of the album is light, and listeners will either love the contrast (Trifonov fans are sure to fall into this category) or find it jarring. Listen to the "Contrapunctus 6 ("in stylo Francese")" for an idea of the outlandish personalities Trifonov gives each fugue here. Even those who find it a bit much will have to concede the skill involved in fully realizing each idea. Instead of breaking off at the end of the unfinished final fugue, Trifonov furnishes his own completion, and it's actually one of the more convincing tries on the market. Listeners will have their own opinions about this release, but it is absolutely never boring, and its commercial success suggests that Trifonov's legions are increasing in number. Purchase the music (without talk) at:Bach - The Art of Life (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Katy Solomon from Morahana Arts and Media.

24 Feb 20222h 24min

Vestige, an album featuring premiere recordings of new pieces by five composers, performed by the contemporary chamber ensemble Wild Rumpus (now Ninth Planet). Five years in the making, Vestige is an ambitious melding of contemporary chamber music and Avant-rock. It features five compositions commissioned by Wild Rumpus, plus an arrangement of a Radiohead song by the ensemble's artistic director, Dan VanHassel. Purchase the music (without talk) at:Vestige (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com This album is broadcasted with the permission of Crossover Media Music Promotion (Zachary Swanson).

23 Feb 20221h 10min

The Day the Earth Stood Still stands as one of the earliest and greatest examples of film exploring the mystery and fear of alien contact, using it as an allegory for our mistrust of one another. With its flying saucer, all-powerful robot, and unnervingly calm humanoid alien, much of this movie feels surreal, and that unsettled feeling is encouraged by near-perfect music by Bernard Herrmann, underscoring its action. Purchase the music (without talk) at:Herrmann: The Day the Earth Stood Still (classicalsavings.com)Your purchase helps to support our show! Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber. @khedgecock#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries #KeepClassicalMusicAlive#LaMusicaFestival #CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice #CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain#ClassicalMusicLivesOn#Uber Please consider supporting our show, thank you!http://www.classicalsavings.com/donate.html staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

22 Feb 202251min