Gault And Millau 2021

Songs Of Loss and Separation, the sprawling second album from TIMES OF GRACE is insistent in its bluesiness, bleeding distortion and emotion, weaving effortlessly between pensive, heavy, midtempo rock riffs and atmosphere.

This program is a loving tribute to A. Khachaturian, the towering musical figure from my native Armenia and to G. Gershwin, the musical genius from my adopted home, the United States.

Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of today’s most important American composers. The works heard here in their world premiere recordings are part of a growing legacy that one pundit has described as “The Power of Tower”.

This recording, from friends and collaborators Federico Bracalente and Daniele di Bonaventura, stems from an idea they had almost 10 years ago: to merge the sounds of their respective instruments, the cello and the bandoneon, into a single sound.

After appearing on a quartet of very different BIS releases, ranging from early baroque arias to orchestral songs by Alban Berg and Mahler’s ‘Resurrection Symphony’, the British soprano Ruby Hughes has devised a song recital, together with her regular Lieder partner Joseph Middleton. The process began in 2018 when the two gave the world première of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers, a set of five poems charting the interior and exterior worlds of pregnancy and motherhood.

After two volumes praised by the international press (Diapason d'Or, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik etc.) the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich presents the third release in its Tchaikovsky cycle, featuring the Sixth Symphony and Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky said he "put his entire soul" into the Sixth Symphony.

This album features the complete works for flute (to date) by Franco-Ukranian composer Dimitri Tchesnokov (b.1982), with the exception of his flute trio Tableaux feìeìriques. This programme is supplemented by some of Tchesnokov’s piano solos in a comparable style. The pieces presented here offer a contrast to the composer’s religious/mystical music (3 Chants sacreìs, Requiem, Ave Verum) and his historic/realistic works (Symphonie archaïque, Château de Grandval, Symphonie Ukrainienne).

Of Love and War, partly inspired by Eduardo Galeano’s novel Days and Nights of Love and War, draws parallels between the isolation and pent-up passions of wartime and the experiences of the current pandemic. Much of this repertoire was composed around the time of the First World War, but also embraces broader themes of beginnings and endings, night and day, love and loss.

Following up on the incredible success of his recording of "Being" Michael Torke has a new work, about to be released on Ecstatic Records, "Psalms and Cancticles". Featuring the talented singer Lydia Brown, this promises to be a new major work in Torke’s catalogue.

Clara Haskil (7 January 1895 – 7 December 1960) was a Romanian classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire. She was particularly noted for her performances and recordings of Mozart. She was also a noted interpreter of Beethoven, Schumann, and Scarlatti.