Anu Fonts

Duke Ellington wrote Sacred Concert in the mid-1960's and performed the work with his orchestra and various soloists between 1966 and 1974 at churches around the USA and Europe. Ellington never wrote a score of Sacred Concerts, and it wasn't until 1993 when John Høybye and Peder Pedersen produced a score mostly meant for choirs, but including the full vocal lines and harmonies. Ellington's own performances were all different. The amount and order of the movements and everything about interpretation was agreed just be-fore the start of each show, and the musicians and soloists improvised in true jazz style.The movements of Sacred Concert are reflections and allusions of traditional gospel songs and the historic roots of soul music in America, and the songs sung by black slaves in the hellish working conditions of the cotton fields. The threads of freedom, brotherhood, God's mercy and praise run through each lyric.The album was recorded at the Kokkola Church in 2017, one long take at a time, making the improvi-sation sections genuine. The choir parts have been recorded post-production in a studio by Anu and Marzi.

This new release which is the third of a 5 volume series covering the complete Piano Works of Karol Szymanowski includes Four Studies for Piano Op. 4 & Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major Op. 21, and eight pieces from the Twenty Mazurkas for Piano Op. 50.

The fourth and fifth albums of this Szymanowski’s complete solo piano works series. This release introduces piano music from all of three Szymanowskis style periods. Pianist Anu Vehviläinen (DMus) works as a university lecturer at the DocMus Doctoral School of the Sibelius Academy, the University of the Arts Helsinki. She teaches piano, supervises artistic doctoral students’ theses, runs courses and develops the artistic education at the doctoral level. Vehviläinen’s artistic interest has focussed on Karol Szymanowski’s piano music.