Topic: BRIDGE Releases
December releases from Bridge Records
BRIDGE 9200 DDD Total Time: 71:48
Bridge is pleased to be re-releasing the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s spectacular recording of John Harbison’s poignant setting of Eugenio Montale poems of memory and loss, Due Libri dei Mottetti di Montale. Originally released on the Archetype label, this work and Harbison’s virtuosic Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet and Strings, will now be restored to the active catalog. One astute critic referred to the Concerto as "scenes from a marriage." This metaphorical marriage between solo winds and strings contains quarrels, precarious balances, comic relief, misunderstandings and eventual unanimity. Combined with Harbison’s Sonata No. 1 and his masterful and popular Mirabai Songs, as sung by Georgine Resick in the version with piano, this disc presents the first in an ongoing series of recordings dedicated to John Harbison’s music. The Piano Sonata No. 1 was written for Robert Shannon, Ursula Oppens, and Alan Feinberg on a consortium commission from the National Endowment for the Arts. It bears the inscription “Roger Sessions In Memoriam.” Dedicatee Robert Shannon gives the score a brilliant and transparent reading.
Clara Rockmore: The Lost Theremin Album; Fritz Kreisler: Liebesleid; Johann Mattheson: Air; Antonin Dvorák: Humoreske; Anis Fuliehan: Pastorale from the Concerto for Theremin*; Franz Schubert: Ave Maria; Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C sharp minor (Op. Post.); Gaspar Cassadó: Requiebros; J.S. Bach: Adagio; Heitor Villa-Lobos: Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 5*; J.S. Bach: Celebrated Air; Richard Heuberger: Midnight Bells (arr. Kreisler); Maurice Ravel: Kaddish; George Gershwin: Summertime; Avery Robinson: Water Boy; Manuel Ponce: Estrellita**; Louis Louiguy: La vie en rose; Clara Rockmore, Theremin; Nadia Reisenberg, piano; * with cello ensemble; **accompaniment arranged and performed by Jorge Morel, guitar
BRIDGE 9208 ADD Total Time: 61:03
Long regarded as “The Queen of the Theremin,” Clara Rockmore’s virtuosity as the world’s leading exponent of the theremin, was commonly acknowledged during her long and successful career. Intimately involved with Leon Theremin in the development of the instrument, Clara Rockmore’s career as a thereminist had her performing with major orchestras and with her sister, the legendary pianist, Nadia Reisenberg. The Rockmore/Reisenberg duo is heard on this CD in 13 never-before released tracks, recorded in 1975. Also heard here are three tracks with the accompaniment of a cello ensemble, and one with the accompaniment of the much admired Argentine composer/guitarist, Jorge Morel. This recording comes with a booklet which includes numerous historic photographs of the performers, as well as excerpts from an interview conducted by Robert Sherman, in which his mother, Nadia Reisenberg; his aunt, Clara Rockmore; and the electronic pioneer Robert Moog discuss their lives and the background of their involvement with the theremin and its creator, Leon Theremin.
BRIDGE 9210 DDD Total Duration: 59:20
Bridge is pleased to present Paul Lansky’s latest collection of new electronic compositions. This spectacular collection contains Lansky’s most expressive work to date- from the exhilarating virtuosity of his latest hiphop-inspired ‘chatter’ piece, to the introverted lyricism of his Pavane Noir. Lansky writes that “For the past several years I’ve been in a reactive phase when it comes to making electronic music. Rather than exploring ‘new sonic realms’ or looking for ‘new ways of hearing the world’ I’ve been turning to the computer for more old-fashioned tasks. On five of the tracks (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) I sing, for want of a better term. My efforts range from the serious, Pavane Noir, and Two by Two, to the oddball, B-O-B-O, PassaKaglia, to the celebratory, Wordless. Chatter of Pins, is a response to an invitation by Keith and Mende Obadike to contribute a track of music inspired by hiphop. The text, spoken by me and by my wife, Hannah MacKay, is from an old English folksong, A Paper of Pins, in which a suitor woos a maid with different proposals, only to meet rejection until he offers her the key to his desk and, consequently, his money. She accepts but he then declines when he realizes she loves his money more than him.”
These Paul Lansky CDs and DVD are available from Bridge:
Alphabet Book: BRIDGE 9126; My Cinema for the Ears (DVD): BRIDGE 9117; Ride: BRIDGE 9103; Conversation Pieces: BRIDGE 9083; Things She Carried: BRIDGE 9076; Folk Images: BRIDGE 9060; More Than Idle Chatter: BRIDGE 9050; Homebrew: BRIDGE 9035
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Harmonia artificioso-ariosa: diversi mode accordata (1696); Partias I-VI; Rebel, Jorg-Michael Schwarz, director
BRIDGE 9213 DDD Total Time: 72:21
The music of Biber is widely assumed to have gone out of vogue with violinists before the middle of the eighteenth century. Biber's reputation, however, lived. In 1789 Charles Burney wrote in his "General History of Music", "of all the violin players of the last century, Biber seems to have been the best, and his solos are the most difficult and most fanciful of any music I have seen of the same period." Biber's Harmonia artificioso-ariosa (1696) is a collection in seven parts (partias), each employing a different tuning. Of the six partias heard on this recording (Nos. 1-6), five are for two violins and bass; and one is for violin, viola and bass. The “artifice” Biber refers to is a procedure now known as scordatura (mistuning). Each of the pieces uses a different tuning in the upper parts. Only the Partia VI is written for violins in normal tuning. The performances on this disc are by the superb baroque ensemble, REBEL. Hailed by the New York Times as "sophisticated and beguiling" and praised by the Los Angeles Times for their " astonishingly vital music-making", the virtuosic New York based ensemble (pronounced re-BEL) has earned an impressive international reputation through their tours and recordings. Rebel can also be heard performing recorder concertos and sonatas of Vivaldi on their highly praised CD, "Shades of Red", BRIDGE 9173.