Üsé Meyer

The French pianist Marcelle Meyer made these recordings of music by Francois Couperin, Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti and Rossini in Paris between 1946 and 1955. Celebrated for her performances of French piano music, notably perhaps that of Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel, Meyer was none the less a zealous champion of the eighteenth-century harpsichordists. Bach's keyboard music played an important part in her daily studies and, together with Couperin, Rameau and Scarlatti, occupied a significant place in her public recital programmes.

With "Il trionfo della morte" by Bonaventuro Aliotti from 1677, the French ensemble Les Traversées Baroque presents an important example of an early oratorio. The form of the oratorio developed after the Catholic Church in the Council of Trent (1545-1563) severely restricted the use of music in church services. Some religious congregations then began to perform new forms of music in their prayer and assembly rooms, the "oratorios". An important center for the development of the oratorio or "Dialoghi sacri", as this musical form of theological approach was called, was Sicily.

Ulf Meyer & Martin Wind, featuring Billy Test and Alex Riel - Time will Tell: expressive musical testimony of a supergroup. Some supergroups arise out of pure calculation - others out of sheer coincidence or happy coincidence. The latter proves the quartet around Ulf Meyer (guitar), Martin Wind (double bass), Alex Riel (drums) and Billy Test (piano/organ/Fender Rhodes). Their album "Time Will Tell" is a musical and mental self-reflection worth listening to, presented in nine tasteful compositions - from easygoing swing numbers to intense, emotional blues ballads.

The present album, number nine in Eric le Sage’s valiant Schumann edition, is devoted to the trios with piano, a favourite formation of the 19th Century that combines the economy of chamber music with the prestige of instrumental music. He is accompanied by regular partners Gordan Nikolitch and Christophe Coin with a guest appearance from Paul Meyer on clarinet for Op. 56.

Daishin Kashimoto, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Zvi Plesser and Éric Le Sage, who have been close musical partners for years, joined forces once again at the Salon de Provence Chamber Music Festival to record this programme devoted to Viennese composers of the early twentieth century. The most famous and innovative of these are represented: Schoenberg with his Kammersymphonie no.1, Mahler with two lieder transcribed for flute and piano, Zemlinsky’s Clarinet Trio and several pieces by Berg. A disc that encapsulates both the exhaustion of a bygone Romantic age and the avant-garde promises of a modern world still to be built…

Following the success of the Grammy award-winning album ‘The Goat Rodeo Sessions’, Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile return with their sensational new album ‘Not Our First Goat Rodeo’. ‘Not Our First Goat Rodeo’ combines the talents of the four solo artists, each a Grammy Award- winning talent in his own right, to create a singular sound that’s part composed, part improvised, and uniquely American. The music featured in this stunning album is so complex to pull off that the group likens it to a goat rodeo — an aviation term for a situation in which 100 things need to go right to avoid disaster. Both the first album and the new recording also feature the voice and artistry of singer-songwriter and fellow Grammy Award-winner Aoife O’Donovan, who joins the group as a guest on ‘Not Our First Goat Rodeo’.