Narrante
ECM debut of the Naqsh Duo, guitarist Golfam Khayam and clarinettist Mona Matbou Riahi from Tehran, nine joint compositions drawing on Persian tradition. Recorded July 2015 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano; produced by Manfred Eicher and Ramin Sadighi.
Clarinet songs
Daniel Goode's Clarinet Songs has long been a favorite on the new music concert circuit. It is a 75-minute suite for solo clarinet which Goode began writing for himself in 1979, and reached its current form in 1991. It uses all of Goode's virtuosic techniques distilled into sixteen "Songs without Words," a poetics of the new clarinet. It is made up of a series of individual pieces, each a sound world of its own, based on some unique material, perhaps a specific technical, poetic, or sonic idea, …
Piano Music 1959-70
‘Piano Music 1959-70’ is a reissue of an album that enjoys cult status
among Cardew aficionados. The standout piece remains Volo solo (1965),
conceived originally for Tilbury as an attempt to coin a new type of
virtuosity. Cornelius Cardew expected it to be taken at a reckless tempo so that,
as he wrote, ‘the piano should seem to be breaking apart’. But the
material he gives the pianist – 60 inchoate fragments interlinked by
pauses – trips impetus up, the structure left with a hiccuping
s…
Chamber Music 1955-64
Restocked, reduced price. The works on this CD represent arguably the most experimental and radical works to come out of Britain in the past 40 years. Cornelius Cardew's scores from the early 1960's are notable for their elegant, original and precise notational scores, labyrinthine blueprints for realisation as totally new and original compositions. They are open to ever new interpretations whose possibilities are restricted only by the creativity of the performer. It is this responsibility laid…
Sunrise - A cantata on texts by Edvard Munch
Ketil Bjørnstad's cantata on prose by Edvard Munch, sung in Norwegian by Kari Bremnes and the Oslo Chamber Choir under Egil Fossum, with Bjørnstad on piano, Aage Kvalbein on cello, saxophone, bass and percussion. Recorded April 2012 at Rainbow Studio, Oslo.
Ten Exercises
This marvelous recording of these elusive works features composer-supervised performances by a hand-picked group of renowned new-music exponents. "Your first encounter with the music of Christian Wolff leaves you with the impression you've just heard (or played, or read) something totally strange, unlike anything else you know. And yet, upon reflection, you realize it is at the same time something completely ordinary and normal, as familiar in its way as any number of repetitive actions …
(Re):Making music, works 1962-99
Two CDs covering 37 years of Christian Wolff's music, mostly first recordings including the graphic score For 5 or 10 People and Schoenen met veters, played by The Barton Workshop with James Fulkerson.
Stones
2009 release **
The score of "Stones" consists of just a few lines of text:Make sounds with stones, draw sounds out of stones, using a number of sizes and kinds (and colours); for the most part discretely; sometimes in rapid sequences. For the most part striking stones wfth stones, but also stones on other surfaces (inside the open head of a drum, for instance) or other than struck (bowed, for instance, or amplified). Do not break anything. Christian Wolff, STONES, (from: Prose Collection, 1968…
El Encuentro
Four works by Dino Saluzzi for bandoneon, cello and string orchestra, with Anja Lechner (cello), Felix Saluzzi (tenor saxophone) and the Metropole Orchestra strings under Jules Buckley. Recorded live on 13 February 2009 at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam; released 2010.
Complete Works for Violin & Piano
All of Christian Wolff's works for violin and piano: the first recording of Pebbles (1999) and two performances of Duo for Violinist and Pianist (1961), played by the Canadian duo Sabat/Clarke with the composer present.
Early Piano Music (1951-1961)
Early Christian Wolf piano music (written 1951-61), performed by: John Tilbury & Christian Wolff (pianos), Eddie Prevost (percussion). Studio recordings from 2001/2. "During the period when these works were composed (1951-61), Christian Wolff was closely associated with John Cage. Morton Feldmon, Earle Brown and David Tudor (they are sometimes referred to together as the New York School'). Feldman later remarked that he was profoundly indebted to Christian Wolff ('I think of him as my artistic c…
Six Primes
Thirteen-limit just intonation, with the primes 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 governing the tuning, the harmony, the rhythm and the form all at once. The twelve retuned notes yield seventy-five different intervals where equal temperament gives twelve. Brown was a piano tuner for fifteen years and tuned it himself.
The Golden Mean
Charlemagne Palestine live at the Sorbonne chapel in 1979, playing two Bösendorfer Imperial pianos: forty minutes of slowly accumulating intervals and ringing overtones. Hand-made CD in a velvet box designed by Palestine.
Melos
Trio album by Vassilis Tsabropoulos (piano), Anja Lechner (cello) and U.T. Gandhi (percussion): twelve Tsabropoulos compositions and three Gurdjieff/de Hartmann pieces. Recorded June 2007 at Auditorio Radio Svizzera, Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher.
Terje Rypdal, The Hilliard Ensemble, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Dennis Russell Davies, Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, Sebastian Perłowski
Melodic WarriorTwo live orchestral works by Terje Rypdal (electric guitar): Melodic Warrior with The Hilliard Ensemble and Bruckner Orchester Linz under Dennis Russell Davies (Linz, 2003), and op. 97 with the Wrocław Philharmonic (2009). CD, ECM 2006.
ChamberEvents
2005 release **
The works on this CD represent three different series of compositions, which I have been working on simultaneously in the last few years. Structurally, their individual parts resemble each other: all instruments play (rather) long sounds, each one followed by a pause.55 similar events plus two drummers drumming (1999) consists of two layers of events. On the one hand, seven instruments are organized ‘isophonically’ and with regular durations. Their sounds, each comprising the sam…
Songs And One Symphony
Michael Mantler's Ernst Meister settings, sung by Mona Larsen with the Chamber Music and Songs Ensemble (Copenhagen, 1993), and his One Symphony, played by the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt under Peter Rundel (Frankfurt, 1998). CD, 2000.
Folly Seeing All This
Michael Mantler's chamber pieces for trumpet, the Balanescu Quartet, guitar, alto flute, vibraphone and piano, ending with a setting of Samuel Beckett's last poem sung by Karen Mantler and Jack Bruce. Recorded June 1992, Angel Studios, London. ECM 1485, 1993.
Q.E.D.
Two concert works by Terje Rypdal for electric guitar and ensemble, Q.E.D. Opus 52 and Largo Opus 55, played by Rypdal with the Borealis Ensemble conducted by Christian Eggen. Recorded August and December 1991, Rainbow Studio, Oslo. ECM 1474, 1993.
Septet
Chick Corea's five-movement septet for string quartet, piano, flute and French horn, commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, plus The Temple of Isfahan. Recorded October 1984 at Mad Hatter Studios, Los Angeles, produced by Corea. ECM, 1985.