JANOS STARKER CELEBRATION

JANOS STARKER CELEBRATION - Schubert & Boccherini String Quintets (DE 3344)

Recorded live at the El Paso Pro Musica Chamber Music Festival on February 28, 2004, this new release on Delos pays tribute to the artistry of cellist Janos Starker, now 80 years old, and his collaboration with four young string players in performances of two favorite chamber works: Boccherini's String Quintet in C Major, G.349, and Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, D. 956. Both works feature two violins, a single viola and two cellos.
In addition to Janos Starker, whose cello is featured in both pieces, the other participants are Soovin Kim and Kurt Nikkanen, violins; Kirsten Johnson, viola; and Zuill Bailey, cello. Each of the four is an outstanding musician with impressive lists of concert engagements. Zuill Bailey, in particular, is to be noted both for his virtuosic playing and his management and business skills as the organizing force behind the entire El Paso Pro Musica Festival.
The Boccherini piece, one of more than 100 quintets he composed, has been a favorite with Starker since his youth when he often used the last movement as an encore solo.
The Schubert Quintet, one of his last compositions, is perhaps the greatest work ever composed for this combination of instruments. Its wealth of lyric melody, tragic pathos, virility and positive ebullience is hard to comprehend in the work of a composer so near his premature death.
The musical performaces are exemplary, beautifully recorded with that extra sense of occasion and alertness often only achieved during a live performance.

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THE SOUL OF TANGO

THE SOUL OF TANGO - Music of Bacalov and Piazzolla - Gisèle Ben-Dor - Santa Barbara Symphony (DE 3345)

A fresh look at the music emanating from Latin America comes to us on this new Delos recording made during the 2004 Tango and Malambo Festival in Santa Barbara. Maestro Gisèle Ben-Dor, her Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra, and various soloists present two compositions by Astor Piazzolla and two by Luis Bacalov, both Argentine composers of international distinction. The principal piece by each composer on this disc is also a world premiere recording.
Piazzolla is known worldwide as the composer who turned the tango into a classical form. His early composition, Tres Movimientos Sinfónicos, Buenos Aires, is a full-fledged three movement tone picture of his native city, its trials, traumas and tango, richly and raucously orchestral with stunning bandoneón solos played by virtuoso bandoneónist Juanjo Mosalini.
One of Piazzolla's most popular tangos, Oblivion, is also featured as the last track on the album.
Luis Bacalov, younger than Piazzolla, has achieved fame as a film composer and won an Academy Award for his Il Postino score not long ago. The movie's main theme receives a lush interpretation on our recording. Bacalov's principal offering, never before recorded, is his recent and important four movement Triple Concerto for Bandoneón, Piano & Soprano, a masterful compilation of musical impressions of Argentine life. Juanjo Mosalini handles the bandoneón solos, Bacalov plays the piano part and Virginia Tola, outstanding young Argentine soprano, sings the alternately sad and bitter vocal solos to verses furnished by the composer himself.
Gisèle Ben-Dor and the Santa Barbara forces could hardly be bettered in vibrant performances of all this music, full of fire, energy and fierce committment.

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MOSCOW NIGHTS

MOSCOW NIGHTS - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone - Constantine Orbelian - MCO - Style of Five (DE 3339)

"Dmitri Hvorostovsky's ongoing collaboration with Delos has explored many worthwhile sides of the Siberian baritone's far-reaching musical interests" - Opera News

Hvorostovsky's newest release Moscow Nights confirms this judgement from Opera News and adds to his previous distinguished recordings, which have explored various aspects of Russian romantic and popular song literature, i.e., I met you, my love (DE 3293), and Where are You, my Brothers? (DE 3315).
The songs in Moscow Nights are a new collection of 17 songs and romances mostly composed and popular in the post-World War II period of the 1950s and 1960s. As in the previous recordings mentioned, Hvorostovsky's able partners include the Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Constantine Orbelian, and the traditional Russian instrumental ensemble Style of Five.
These songs were universal favorites with the Russian public, immensely popular and sung by all. A few like Moscow Nights became well known in the West. Most never got beyond the Russian border. Many are beautiful, endearing, and sentimental, and reflect the best popular art of Russian versifiers, poets and composers of the day.
A wonderful bonus is included: Shostakovich's Motherland Hears as sung by Hvorostovsky as a boy of 11 and newly recorded in the full glory of the mature Hvorostovsky's "burnished baritone."

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ORGAN VOICES

ORGAN VOICES - Organ of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels - Samuel S. Soria, organist (DE 3343)

This second Delos recording of the Organ of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles again features the Cathedral's principal organist Samuel S. Soria. The first CD of about a year ago was the premiere recording of the superb instrument that graces the new Los Angeles Cathedral. Results were so spectacular and well received they automatically called for an encore.
This new disc is more than an encore. Samuel Soria has chosen to differentiate this recording from the first by selecting repertoire that accentuates the various and diverse "voices" of his unique instrument. Thus we encounter compositions by composers as different a De Lamarter, Hurford, Lemare, Drayton, Reuchsel and McAmis, as well as the more familiar Duruflé, Franck, Dubois and Messaien.
Repertoire emphasizes specific qualities of this organ: its flutes, strings and chimes; its trumpet fanfare, Franch horn, and English horn stops. Add to this a plentiful supply of full organ outbursts that will test any sound system and you have a disc which helps define the portrait of this instrument, perhaps only sketched in on the original debut recording.

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SHOSTAKOVICH COMPLETE SONGS VOLUME FIVE

SHOSTAKOVICH Complete Songs, Vol. 5 - Famous Vocal Cycles (DE 3317)

With the issuance of this CD, Volume 5 of the Shostakovich Complete Song series, Delos has fulfilled its promise to release this historic edition, five plus hours containing all of Shostakovich's extensive song literature, well recorded, well sung and extensively annotated.
Under the authoritative direction of Yuri Serov, pianist and editor, many outstanding soloists have participated in probing the depths of Shostakovich's offerings, light and dark, profound and frivolous, personal and political. On Volume Five these include mezzo-soprano Marianna Tarassova, tenor Konstantin Pluzhnikov, and bass Fyodor Kuznetsov, all heard on previous volumes, and one new artist: soprano Svetlana Sumatchova.
The two great vocal cycles on this Volume 5 CD make for a fitting conclusion to the entire project. From Jewish Folk Poetry, a vocal cycle, Op. 79 (1948), in eleven songs exemplifies Shostakovich in the middle of his career, identifying musically, almost uncannily, with the folk texts and highly emotional content.
Suite to words by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145 (1974), one of the composer's final works, is an eleven-song conversation between two geniuses, somber, eloquent, musing on the meaning of life, death and eternity. The bass voice of Fyodor Kuznetsov is the interpreter of this cycle as he also sings a "finis" to the entire Shostakovich five-volume series.

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STARKER plays HAYDN

STARKER PLAYS HAYDN Cello Concertos (DE 3341)

To celebrate the 80th birthday of the great cellist and musician Janos Starker, Delos has brought together two of the gems of its historic catalog, and released them on one newly edited CD.

Janos Starker, partnered by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz, plays the two great cello concertos composed by Franz Joseph Haydn: Concerto No. 1 in C Major and Concerto No. 2 in D Major. No. 1 is the more familiar of the two, but No. 2 is equally felicitous, and both are considered major milestones in concerto literature.
Starker was at the height of his powers when these concertos were recorded and certainly lives up to his reputation as the "king of cellists." Schwarz and the splendid Scottish orchestra provide ideal knowledgable support.
As a famous critic observed, "Starker remains one of the wonders of the musical world, an artist who finds innumerable ways to shade and color lines."

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Delos Diary

One of the most valuable contributors to Delos' reputation for its top quality recorded releases has been Shirley Fleming.
Her notes, which accompany many Delos CDs, have been exemplary for their graceful writing, readability and accuracy.
Shirley Fleming's distinguished career in the classical music world as writer, editor, and critic is legendary. Publications, such as Musical America, High Fidelity and American Record Guide, have all been enhanced by her writing, editing and critical skills. For Delos, she approached every editorial assignment with care and integrity and consistently supplied written notes as understandable to the average layman as to the trained musician.
When asked to rework her notes into a new format called "Young People's Notes," she revised her copy with practical skill and submitted new versions, ideally edited for children and young people just becoming familiar with classical music.
Shirley Fleming, a dear friend, a beautiful and talented woman and a wonderful personality, died on Thursday, March 10 in Augusta, Georgia, at the age of 75.
Unhappily, when we want new notes, beautifully written, that meet our deadline and fulfill our needs, we can no longer simply reach for the phone and say, "Let's call Shirley!"

Dmitri Hvorostovsky at Carnegie Hall

Here are a few excerpts from what can properly be called a rave review in the March 21, 2005 issue of the New York Times by Anthony Tommasini, following Delos artist Dmitri Hvorostovsky's March 18, 2005 recital at Carnegie Hall:

"…the splendid recital at Carnegie Hall on Friday night by the Siberian-born baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky…was a reminder that for some artists being a Russian singer really means something.
"… in sets of Russian songs by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff, the charismatic Mr. Hvorostovsky sang peerlessly, bringing to his performances an authoritative feeling for the style, a deep sense of culture and an instinctive ability to match vocal and linguistic colorings.
"…the high point was the performance of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death." … Mr. Hvorostovsky was lost to himself, caught up in every moment of the music and the stories, singing with such conversational power that you would have thought he was speaking.
"…with his final encore, he was back on message, singing a hauntingly beautiful solo performance of a soulful Russian folk song. He didn't say what it was or what it was about. It didn't matter."

Delos Diary

This March and April the sounds of Delos are dazzlingly diverse. Releases include music for full orchestra with solos for bandoneón, piano, soprano… also music for string quintet, flute with piano, and classic Spanish guitar.
Preparing such a wide bounty for CD publication is more complex than you might think. Editor's ears have to shift gears back and forth, copywriters and graphic artists scurry about searching for biographical data and suitable artwork and photos, album notes must be written and checked for accuracy, and printers must be cajoled into meeting release date schedules.
When, finally, the packaged CD, in its pristine and impenetrable plastic wrap, is plopped into your hands, you realize that its release is finally beyond your control, and the disc is out there in the cruel world, waiting to be sniped at or adored… or sometimes simply ignored.
This particular foursome definitely should not be ignored. There's a lot of content to delight any classical music fan. You can cry with Schubert, applaud Starker, tango to Piazzolla, meditate with Trevisani and Massenet's Thaïs, and revel in Segre's Albeniz and Granados… and all this in the next 60 days.

Janos Starker Celebration - Schubert & Boccherini String Quintets
Soovin Kim, Kurt Nikkanen, violins; Kirsten Johnson, viola; Janos Starker, Zuill Bailey, cellos

The Soul of Tango - Music of Luis Bacalov & Astor Piazzolla
Gisèle Ben-Dor, conductor; Santa Barbara Symphony; Juanjo Mosalini, bandoneón; Luis Bacalov, piano; Virginia Tola, soprano

The Virtuoso Flute - Music of Donizetti, Sarasate, Boehm, Massenet, Doppler, Borne, Bazzini
Raffaele Trevisani, flute; Paola Girardi, piano

Spanish Guitar Music from the 1500s to Our Time
Emanuele Segre, guitar