Archive for liner notes
Now Available – Hermitage Piano Trio Plays Rachmaninoff!
Electrifying Piano Trio Performances in the great Russian musical tradition! The Hermitage Piano Trio is distinguished by its exuberant musicality, interpretative range, and sumptuous sound—attributes that Reference Recordings expects to be highly appealing to music lovers and audiophiles worldwide. Following a recent performance, The Washington Post raved that “more striking even than the individual virtuosity was the profound level of integration among the players, who showed a rare degree of ensemble from beginning to end.” Based…
The Poetry of Places – Harold Meltzer: In Full Sail
Harold Meltzer: In Full Sail for solo piano (2016) For years I have been taking walks in Manhattan through Chelsea, along the High Line park, or to take my son to summer camp by the Hudson River. Regularly they bring me past the curved white glass facade of Frank Gehry’s IAC Building, which, according to a critic, “gives the appearance of a tall ship in full sail.” I began to imagine the building launching from…
Fiona Boyes: Little Things
Fiona Boyes is putting together the stories behind the songs from her new Voodoo in the Shadows recording. Here she gives the back-story to “Little Things”: “In the midst of the busy holiday season, remember – sometimes it’s the ‘Little Things’ that count! Here’s instalment #5 of the ‘Voodoo in the Shadows – About the songs’ series, each giving a little glimpse into the stories behind the songs on the new album. ‘Little Things’ is one for the…
Fiona Boyes: New Orleans
Fiona Boyes is putting together the stories behind the songs from her new Voodoo in the Shadows recording. Here she gives the back-story to “New Orleans”: Previous Videos
Fiona Boyes: “What You Put On Me”
Fiona Boyes is putting together the stories behind the songs from her new Voodoo in the Shadows recording. Here she discusses “What You Put On Me”: a romping slide cigarbox boogie with Johnny Sansone on harmonica. Previous Videos: Voodoo in the Shadows Fiona Boyes is Australia’s most successful and celebrated international Blues artist. Her previous Reference Recordings release, Professin’ The Blues, received the 2017 Acoustic Album of the Year award from Blues Blast Magazine. The…
Vera Ivanova: 6 Fugitive Memories
Composer Vera Ivanova introduces her work, 6 Fugitive Memories, written for Nadia Shpachenko, and recorded on the new Quotations and Homages album: “6 Fugitive Memories” were commissioned by and dedicated to the pianist Nadia Shpachenko. These short miniatures represent six dedications to composers who have anniversaries in 2016, the year when Nadia premiered this work. I decided to remove my compositional style and instead recall through quotations and allusions the pieces of composers to whom…
Symphony of a Thousand
Order Now Mahler’s Eighth Symphony– written for a large orchestra, several soloists, and such extensive choral forces as to have earned itself the nickname “Symphony of a Thousand”–was, like most of this composer’s music, the product of a furiously busy holiday. He completed the draft of the enormous work between June and August of 1906 at his summer home in Maiernigg, in Carinthia, and wrote to the conductor Willem Mengelberg: “It is the biggest thing I…
Lennox Berkeley Society Features ¡Viva Segovia!
Many thanks to the Lennox Berkeley Society for featuring the new Roberto Moronn Pérez ¡Viva Segovia! recording on their website! Lennox Berkeley: Quatre Pièces pour la guitare Order Now If Cyril Scott’s Sonatina deserves to be added to the regular repertoire, another Sonatina which has already achieved this status is Sonatina Op. 52 by Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) written in 1957 for Julian Bream. It was always thought to be his first piece for solo guitar,…
Aloÿs Fornerod: Prélude
Pre-Order Among the countries where Segovia played most often after his triumphant Paris debut is Switzerland. Since the best place to meet up with compsoers is after recitals, it is in this context that he met the Swiss composer, teacher and critic Aloÿs Fornerod (1890-1965). Coming from a French-speaking heritage, he studied in Lausanne and then in Paris with Vincent d’Indy. On returning to his country, he taught in Lausanne and Fribourg. His only guitar…
Adam Schoenberg’s Dream Becomes Reality
Order Now I have dreamt of having an orchestral disc of my music since first becoming a composer. This is an extraordinary gift, and I am thrilled to be sharing my music with all of you. The three pieces that you will soon experience embody my growth from student to professional composer. They each explore different styles, but my artistic voice remains consistent throughout. Finding Rothko was written during my second year as a doctoral…
Moritz Moskowski: The Man Behind the Mustache
Moritz Moszkowski was born in what was then called Breslau on August 23, 1854. The Silesian city of Breslau, during its long history, has been part of the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany. Since 1945, due to the border changes after the Second World War, Breslau became part of Poland and is known now as Wroclaw. Along with his parents, Isaac Moszkowski and Salomia Moszkowski (born Hirschberg), and older…
Get Ready to Dance with Augusta Read Thomas and EOS!
The Utah Symphony’s Dawn To Dust release features three new world premieres. Find out about Augusta Read Thomas’ work EOS (Goddess of the Dawn), A ballet for orchestra and watch/listen to a preview from the Utah Symphony: Photo © by Anthony Barlich My catalogue includes 45 additional works for orchestra or orchestral concerti, and I conceived most of my orchestral and chamber works as suitable for dance. I stand at the drafting table as I…
Andrew Norman’s “Switch” A Game of Control
The Utah Symphony’s Dawn To Dust release features three new world premieres. Find out about Andrew Norman’s work Switch and watch/listen to a preview from the Utah Symphony: Andrew Norman © Jessa Anderson During rehearsals for the premiere performances of Switch, Colin Currie gave me an amazing metaphor for the piece. He said that playing Switch feels like being trapped (in the best possible way) inside a giant pinball machine. It’s an apt image for…
A blues musician walked into a bar in Yackandandah…
The Star Hotel has been plying its trade since 1863, but the funky cigar box guitar hanging on the wall was only a few days old and proudly inscribed ‘No 1’ in Sharpie on the back. In an uncharacteristic move, I took if off the wall and played it at my gig that night. While it proved to be a bit of a mongrel, there was something strangely compelling about this little junk yard dog…
#TitanTuesday — Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 The work recorded here is, of course, known everywhere as Mahler’s First Symphony. That is not, however, what Mahler thought he was writing at the time, and it took him several years to decide quite what he had wrought (and, in the process, to drop one of the movements). Was this a symphony, or did it belong rather to that alternative, more modern category, the symphonic poem? It was as an…