Alexander Bensch

“He surrendered neither the smoothness nor the dynamic fluidity that the modern piano allows, and he gave his sense of fantasy free rein, and creating an almost confessional spirit .

The Russian cellist Alexander Zagorinsky graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1986 and worked as probationer-assistant to Professor Natalia Shakhovskaya until 1988.

A funny thing happened to Joey Alexander over the past five years, a whirlwind period during which he became the most brilliantly precocious talent in jazz history—that is, a renowned festival and concert-hall headliner; the youngest musician ever nominated for a Grammy Award in a jazz category; and a media favorite who’s earned a profile on 60 Minutes, a front-page profile in the New York Times and other premier coverage.

The harpsichordist and conductor Alexander Grychtolik and the top Belgian ensemble Il Gardellino present here on PASSACAILLE an attempt to reconstruct the Passion oratorio BWV Anh. 169, which Bach began around 1725 but then
abandoned or had to abandon. This recording is intended to show that with Picander's free Passion poem, the composer must also have planned his own contribution to the then extremely popular genre of the freely composed Passion oratorio. Numerous detailed questions about the work will probably remain unanswered forever. In the spirit of artistic experimentation, however, this version is intended to explore a new aspect of Bach's Passion aesthetics.

The pianist, two days in the studio, alone at the piano. A retreat in Zurich. Focus is on the now, the recording is running. Preparation time for the new compositions: about a year.

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the first commercial release of Composers at the Savile Club, pianist Alexander Karpeyev’s vivid and varied recital celebrating the 150th anniversary of the venerable London club.

He discovered his fascination with singing at the age of 10. His uncle played Frank Sinatra for him back then. Thoma wanted to sing like Franky Boy. 20 years later, Alexander Thoma dares to enter the studio. With vocal coach, band and arranger Peter Reiter-Schaub, they took on swing and jazz classics.

Alexander’s Lost World is a series co-produced with David Adams Films and Sky Vision. Following the course of the River Oxus (Amu Darya) for the first time, Adams takes viewers on an extraordinary 1,500-mile (2400 km) journey through war-torn Afghanistan and Central Asia.Explorations The Ancient Greeks have long been credited for bringing ‘civilization’ to the East. In fact it appears to be the other way round. Alexander the Great discovered a highly developed civilization (a lost world) that pre-dated even the Persians.

Little is known about the cellist and composer Johann Stiastny, and what is known contradicts each other in the sources. It begins with his name: František Jan Št’astný, also known as Jean Stiasny or, indeed, Johann Stiastny, was probably born in Prague around 1764, as the son of oboist Jan Št’astný (and as younger brother of cellist Bernard Václav Št’astný). Fétis gives his birth year as 1774. He was a member of the Prague Theater Orchestra, a cellist in Mainz and Frankfurt, and a music director in Nuremberg. Given the English dedicatees of some of his works, it seems likely that he traveled – in addition to Paris – as far as London.