C Duncan – Architect

The fifth album of Philzuid features works by Béla Bartók, Anders Hillborg and Claude Debussy. Chief conductor Duncan Ward takes you on a journey filled with innovative sounds and with folk music. Bartók developed his own tonal language through elements taken from folk music whilst Anders Hillborg’s surprising tonal language shows the influence of Scandinavian folk music and of Klezmer. Claude Debussy, however, turned Romantic tonality on its head with harmonies and melodies that owed part of their development to Javanese gamelan music.

Liya Petrova presents here the first instalment of a double diptych, featuring two rarely recorded works: Walton’s Violin Concerto (1938) with a prestigious British orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Duncan Ward, and Respighi’s Violin Sonata (1917) with her regular keyboard partner Adam Laloum. The shimmering harmonic palette and the vigorously phrased lyricism of these two works respond almost instinctively to each other and make them a natural coupling.

Long a Chicago club mainstay, Duncan sings and blows harp in the time-honored 1950s style of that city's rich blues tradition. Backed by the Rockin' Johnny Band, Duncan runs through a set of originals and old favorites that proves that there's still a few of the old timers left who can deliver the goods. Duncan's harp is replaced by Martin Lang on three tracks and Eddie Taylor Jr. takes over the guitar chores on two tunes, and is particularly effective on "Tribute to Jimmy Reed." Although some of Little Arthur's originals skirt the issue of copyright and his timing is suspect in spots, this is one fine album of journeyman blues sung and played with a whole lot of feeling.

Following his beloved and best-selling 2018 album of music from popular films, Renaud Capuçon returns to the magical world of cinema in Les Choses de la Vie – Cinema II. The violinist has dedicated this sequel to 19 titles written by French film composers or for iconic French films. This includes, among others, Michel Legrand’s “The Windmills of Your Mind” featured on the 1968 soundtrack to The Thomas Crown Affair; Joseph Kosma’s “Les Feuilles mortes”, or “Autumn Leaves”, heard in the 1946 film Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night); and themes from the scores to The Shape of Water (2017) by Alexandre Desplat, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) by Maurice Jarre, Memories of Me (1988) by Georges Delerue, and Les Choses de la vie (1970) by Philippe Sarde, which inspired the project’s name.

Philzuid's sixth album includes works by Louise Farrenc and Robert Schumann. This brave and welcome attempt to rewrite or at least re-evaluate music history features live recordings of Louise Farrenc's Third Symphony and Robert Schumann's Third (Rhenish) Symphony under chief conductor Duncan Ward. Female composers in the 19th century were not expected to pursue a career, let alone compete with the great symphonists of the period; Schumann, however, had all eyes and ears on him whenever he premiered a new work or took up a new position.

Born Caroline Catharina Müller in the Netherlands, she moved with her family to Germany in the late '70s. In 1980, she became a member of the girl quartet Optimal, who issued two singles. During one of the band's concerts in Hamburg, she was approached by songwriter/producer Dieter Bohlen who had just taken the continental charts by storm with his duo Modern Talking…