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Portland Baroque Orchestra
J.S. BACH: Saint John Passion BWV 245
Avie Records
Monica Huggett has produced numerous best-selling and acclaimed recordings for Avie, notably the Grammy®-nominated Bach Orchestral Suites, which made the Top 10 of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart. This ear-opening version, Monica claims, restored Suite No. 2 to its original instrumentation. She makes a similar case with her new recording of Bach’s Saint John Passion, placing oboes where we typically hear flutes and arguing that Bach’s original score was produced during his early years in Leipzig, where flutes were unavailable to him.
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Christoph Prégardien
SCHUMANN: Wanderer
Challenge Classics
Christoph Prégardien’s newest CD features songs by Schumann,
Killmayer, and Mahler, arranged for chamber ensemble by
Marcus Reißenberger. Well-known works have a fresh glow,
and the superb musicians of the ensemble combine with Prégardien’s
intensity to make this a classical must-have! Christoph
Prégardien needs no introduction, well known for his award-wining
recordings of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang,
both released in 2008. Die schöne Müllerin was honored
with the 2009 MIDEM Record of the Year Award and highly
praised by Gramophone (including Editor’s Choice & Best
of 2008).
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Ton Koopman
BUXTEHUDE: Complete Works 14: Vocal Works 5
Challenge Classics
The fifth volume of vocal music in Challenge
Classics’ series of Buxtehude’s complete works! On this
beautiful CD, Ton Koopman and his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir
expose the “unknown Buxtehude.”
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B’Rock
VIVALDI & CAGE: 8 Seasons
Etcetera
The immediate cause for this CD is the
direction Cage gave in his score of the String Quartet
in Four Parts: “Play without vibrato and with only minimum
weight on the bow.” It inspired Frank Agsteribbe to arrange
this work, originally written for modern string quartet,
for Baroque string orchestra instead. It is only to be
expected that a Baroque orchestra like B’Rock would take
up this project: right from the start it was the group’s
aim to present not only Baroque music, but also 20th-century
and new repertory. This results in a different, refreshing
approach to early music, and one that is full of imagination.
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The Czech Nonet
ASIA: Of Songs & Psalms
Café Zimmerman, et al
Summit Records
Aside from a handful of cantorial pieces,
and despite his fondness for setting vocal texts, Daniel
Asia didn’t begin to explore his deep interest in Judaism
and his Jewish identity in music until 1988, with his Celebration
for baritone, chorus, brass, and organ. This work subsequently
provided material for Asia’s Symphony No. 2, an evocation
of Jewish prayer, penitence, and praise. After producing
another two, purely abstract symphonies in the early 1990s,
Asia turned his attention to other genres for the next 15
years. Then, in 2008, came his Symphony No. 5, “Of Songs & Psalms”—not
only a return to the symphony, but also a return to exploring
facets of Jewish identity via the symphonic medium. Asia’s
Fifth, while hardly as histrionic as Bernstein’s, is similarly
a work of questioning and unease, at least in part. It also
gives Asia another opportunity to set poems by the American
Paul Pines, whose work has been coupled to Asia’s music many
times since the 1980s. The symphony was premiered in 2008
by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, George Hanson
conducting, with soloists Kelly Anderson and Robert Swensen.
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Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra
STRAVINSKY: The Firebird & Petrouchka
OPMC Classics
With this stunning set, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra launches its own recording label, OPMC Classics. In this triple-CD pack, under Artistic and Musical Director Yakov Kreizberg, the OPMC plays Stravinsky’s The Firebird, Petrouchka, Le Sacre du Printemps, and Pulcinella—all of which featured in the orchestra’s 2009/2010 season in Monaco.
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Ann Hallenberg & Philippe Herreweghe
BRAHMS: Works for Chorus and Orchestra
PHi Records
For the third album on his Phi label,
Philippe Herreweghe has brought together a splendid set
of artists in Warsaw’s Lutoslawski Hall. Ann Hallenberg,
whose voice won over the public of some of the world’s
most prestigious concert halls, takes on Brahms’ Rhapsody
for contralto solo and men’s chorus, while the rest of
the program leads the listener through his essential works
for chorus and orchestra.
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Café Zimmermann
J.S. BACH: Concertos I to IV
Alpha
Arte Verum
This complete set of instrumental works for
large forces by J.S. Bach represents, for Café Zimmermann and
for Alpha, the fruit of 10 years’ work and research. The great
care taken over each volume—in the choice of musicians and instruments,
of recording venue and acoustics, with the fullness and balance
of sound perfectly controlled by Hughes Deschaux and Aline Blondiau—has
made this six-volume set into an absolute reference. The CDs
come with full liner notes, and the booklets are available in
three languages: English, French, and German.
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