Accordion Music
2007 release **
Fold in; fold out: the breathing of the accordion. On this CD the accordion unfolds in a very special way, unusually close to the instrument. Four works, four worlds that seem to know each other; refer to each other like a greeting from far away.Hearing John Cage's ,,Cheap Imitation" played on accordion gives you the impression of folk music from an unknown, probably non-existent country. This music comes from nowhere, goes nowhere, is forever on its way.....Like ,,Sam Lazaro Bro…
Air - works for flutes and organ
2015 release **
"Even if the disc's title wasn't known, the attentive listener would be very conscious of air, both as a surrounding factor and with regard to its passage through wooden tubes and pipes. The "flutes" in question are recorders, played by Ruth Walser and tuned to various pitches, their "windways" (a wonderful word which I don't think I've ever before encountered) custom made by Geri Bollinger. Houben presents three works on this recording, two for flutes/recorders and organ, one fo…
Works for flute
2007 release **
calme, silence, solitude for piccolo solo, quelques riens for mauritius flute and moments musicaux for bass flute constitute a trilogy, composed by eva-maria houben for flutist anne horstmann.they may also be performed individually.the mauritius flute is a traverse flute made of speckled bamboo.its seven holes are burned into the wood.the scores of this trilogy contain the note: "hector berlioz abgehört" ("upon listening to hector berlioz").the titles allude to french composer h…
Die Natur der Klange: Neue Musik fur Harfe
Gabriele Emde-Hauffe was born in 1953 in Darmstadt, Germany. She received a humanistic education at a local grammar school in Darmstadt and started studying the harp after her A-levels, first in Darmstadt and finishing in Cologne. Conducted by Péter Eötvös, she worked out modern chamber music and modern improvisation by J. G. Fritsch and Vinko Globokar. Passing her exams in 1980 and 1981, she continued her studies of musical science at Cologne University, based on her thesis, "The Harp bet…
Piano Music And Transcriptions
Michael Habermann made the first, and in many respects the best commercial recordings devoted to Kaikhosru Sorabji’s ridiculously difficult and overwrought piano works. As with Habermann’s previous three Sorabji discs, the present recital offers several sides of the composer: variation writer, miniaturist, paraphraser, and transcriber. Sorabji’s 1945 transcription of Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnol largely stays faithful to the original, save for decorative showers of bitonal arpeggios and runs that a…
100 Trascendental Studies
“Volume 2 of this much-anticipated continuation of Sorabji’s mammoth set of studies takes us almost half way in terms of number, if not in playing time (perhaps a third or thereabouts). The reason for this is encapsulated in the first entry on this new disc; with No.26 the composer appears for the first time to take a decisive step back from writing pieces with some ostensibly pedagogical intent — “studies” per se — and interjects a larger, more musically intricate piece; in this case a ravishin…
New Piano Works From Europe And The Americas
A debut recital of incredibly varied and fascinating music from Argentinean pianist Haydée Schvartz. Her teachers include Roberto Brando, Dora Castro and Nikita Magaloff. Ms. Schvartz continued her studies in London with Maria Curcio and subsequently received a a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Buffalo, New York with Yvar Mikhashoff, where she won the Cameron Baird Competition in 1990. Mikhashoff brought Ms.Schvartz's incredibly sensitive pianism to our attention, and together they imag…
1918 - 1993
The Society of Swedish Composers (FST) was founded in November 1918 as a professional association of full-time composers. Since then it has had a total of 269 members, including every composer of importance during this century. This recording works by 29 composers who have distinguished themselves, not only through their compositions but also within FST and in the cause of Swedish music generally.
Assigned #15
Assigned #15 continues James Saunders’s trajectory of modular, context-sensitive composition. Derived from his long-term project #[Unassigned], this work is scored for seven musicians - violin, viola, cello, percussion, melodica, chamber organ, and objects - each participant given bespoke instructions drawn from Saunders’s accumulated material. Apartment House’s performance (recorded at St Paul's, Huddersfield) embodies Saunders’s philosophy: structure and interpretation are reconfigured for eac…
Chamber Works
2015 release **
"Margriet Hoenderdos, a student of influential Dutch composer Ton de Leeuw, was still honing her own distinctive voice at the time of her premature death in 2010. The precariousness of simply existing is effectively evoked in a 21 minute woodwind quintet in which she responded to a poem by Hans Faverey, written as he endured his own terminal illness. Sombre and harmonically anxious, this music resembles a physical construction that appears sturdy, yet has an unnerving tendency to…
Five Compositions
2015 release **
"Pieces written for a sextet of flute, clarinet, percussion (quiet, white-noisy/rattley-type things), violin, viola and cello. They each follow a similar pattern, presenting a solitary idea – a chord, an instrumental texture – that alternates with short silences and gradually evolves with each return. The first, two and three, is almost like breathing. The sounds themselves are beautifully and carefully devised, particularly the gently descending peals in mulberry grove, but it …
Beten. Prayer
2015 release **
This really is a special one. Solo voice carries so many connotations, of speech, of song, of chant, of prayer. It’s the most directly human, personal, unmediated instrument of all. It’s the way we speak to each other, comfort each other, entertain ourselves, reassure ourselves, talk to our gods. There are elements of all on this CD; remarkably so, because on first listen at least all seven pieces inhabit similarly restrained, private and reticent soundworlds. There is a general …
Complete Cello Works
This first complete recording of Roger Reynolds' cello works is being released to celebrate the composer's 80th birthday. This special 2-CD set contains many first recordings. French cellist Alexis Descharmes and Reynolds have a close artistic relationship which led to this composer supervised set. Alexis Descharmes is an internationally regarded musician and specialist in contemporary music. He has worked with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Alternance and Ensemble Court-circuit…
Fleurs d'X
Fabio Selvafiorita is a composer known to the public of experimental music for his massive musique-concrete work Death by Water composed with Valerio Tricoli. This CD is neither musique concrete or “extreme” experimental music: it's a CD of music for solo classical guitar. Consistent to the baroque guitar literature and its short musical forms, Fleurs d'X consists of musics written for a bard of an imaginary future kingdom's court. This is the best way to imagine this astonishing collection of m…
Anfangen (:Aufhoren)
2013 release **"A split disc with five compositions by Stiegler and two by Ablinger, each performed by some combination of violin (Sabine Akiko Ahrendt), cello (Jan-Filip Tupa) and clarinet (Diego Montes). I think I'd only heard Stiegler's work before in conjunction with Hannes Seidl on their early Wandelweiser release, "das wetter in offenbach". Here, he evinces a rather playful approach, especially in the two "Treibut" (flotsam) pieces, 1/2 (2011) and II (2009); playful but with a nicely bitte…
Oyvind Fahlstrom on the Air - Manipulating the World
Enclosed in a 336 pages book published by Sveriges Radios Förlag (ISBN: 91-522-1817-1). It is written in Swedish and English by Teddy Hultberg. The CD's were released by Fylkingen Records only together with the book. The book itself is enclosed in a slipcover. The Swedish texts on the recordings are translated into English in the book. "Birds In Sweden" (1963) was produced by Öyvind Fahlström in collaboration with sound engineer Erik Winlöf at the Swedish Radio studios in the second half of 1962…
s/t
Die Schachtel, for voices, chamber orchestra & tape by Franco Evangelisti / Performer: Valentina Barbarini, Elena Sorbi, / Conductor: Marco Angius / Orchestra: Ensemble Prometeo. Written in 1962-1963 and performed at the Lenz Teatro di Parma. 27’ 4’’.
Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 by Arnold Schoenberg / Conductor: Marco Angius/ Orchestra: Ensemble Prometeo/ Written in 1912 in Wien. Performed at Auditorium Paganini di Parma. 3’ 21’’.
Chamber Works 1992 - 2009
Chamber Works 1992–2009 showcases the breadth and quirks of British composer Laurence Crane over fourteen pieces for chamber ensemble, composed across nearly two decades and interpreted by Apartment House. Crane’s language thrives on the surface simplicity of steady rhythms and legible harmonies - progressions often cycle between just two chords, melodies unfold in minimal, singing arcs. But beneath the façade, odd details and playful subversions quietly destabilize any sense of predictability: …
Ensemble Works 3
'Palimpsest' (1979) for piano & ensemble. Cory Smythe, piano. 'Echange' (1989) for bass-clarinet & ensemble. Joshua Rubin, bass-clarinet. 'Akanthos' (1977) for soprano & ensemble. Tony Arnold, soprano. 'Thalleïn' (1984) for 16 instruments. 'O-Mega' (1997) for percussion & ensemble. Steven Schick, percussion & conductor. Steven Schick, conductor. 'Zythos' (1996) for trombone & 6 marimbas. Benny Sluchin, trombone.
An exhilarating Xenakis progran, built around works for soloist and ensemble. Most…