Erez Bahar

Israeli guitarist-pianist Itamar Erez, member of American- Turkish Sufi multi-instrumentalist Omar Faruk Tekbilek band, revisits some of his best compositions in an intimate setting in his album New Dawn, a duo with fellow Israeli percussionist Yshai Afterman, a disciple of master Israeli percussionist Zohar Fresco. Tough Erez is the composer of all the pieces, except Afterman solo, the two share equal leading roles, demonstrating an almost telepathic interplay.

There have been few recordings of all three of Grieg's beguiling violin sonatas, and with the exception of the sublime Augustin Dumay/Maria-João Pires recording, most of them have been negligible. There have been still fewer recordings of arrangements of his charming piano miniatures by Joseph Achron and nearly all of them have been negligible. So perhaps one can be forgiven for approaching this disc by violinist Hagai Shaham and pianist Arnon Erez coupling all three sonatas plus six song arrangements with more than casual curiosity: could this be the recording that finally puts the works on the musical map?

Brahms's two masterpieces for cello and piano are heard in new recordings by Emanuel Gruber and Arnon Erez. The Jerusalem Post wrote that Emanuel Gruber is "one of our great artists" citing "his extraordinary capacity for projecting the deepest meaning of the music". Awarded the Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he also won the Concert Artists' Guild Auditions early in his career. Arnon Erez has performed in major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Beethoven Halle in Bonn, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Musikverein in Vienna, Wigmore Hall in London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.