Baroque Guitar Recital

Vojin Kocic, winner of the 2017 Heinsberg International Guitar Competition, presents a recital that not only covers a wide historical range but also includes some of the most challenging works in the guitar repertoire, of which Ponce’s La Folía variations is considered a veritable Everest to be conquered. Following a long and distinguished tradition, Kocic’s own arrangement of Bach’s Second Violin Partita is crowned by the greatest of Baroque instrumental masterpieces, the monumental Ciaccona. Regondi’s prodigious talent is reflected in his scintillating Introduction et Caprice, while Pasieczny’s Phosphenes was composed as a test piece for a guitar competition.

Tenor John Mark Ainsley with Timothy Roberts on harpsichord, spinet & chamber organ and Paula Chateauneuf on theorbo and baroque guitar, in an award-winning recording of eighteen songs and keyboard works by John Blow (1649-1708).

This album was recorded live at London's Wigmore Hall in January 2012, and it would be interesting to know whether its release was planned ahead of time or motivated by ongoing affection for the performances. Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses and Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires have often played as a duo, and the easy conversational quality they have achieved is fully evident here. But the beauty goes beyond the usual chamber music competences. Meneses is rightly renowned for his rich tone, which remains undamaged even in the upper reaches of the Schubert Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, a work written for a defunct six-stringed instrument somewhere between cello and guitar; it lies a bit high for the cello, but Meneses is untroubled by that. The real star of the show, though, may be Pires, who contributes some deeply mysterious Brahms Intermezzi and calibrates her role with astonishing precision in the duo works, emerging into full duet partnership in the final Brahms Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38. Beautiful and more, with a dark, melancholy strain unifying the whole, this is chamber music reminiscent of the golden age. Deutsche Grammophon's engineering team also deserves notice for the startling live presence, undiminished by intrusions of noise.

Classical guitarist Michael Butten presents an album devoted to John Dowland, brilliantly recorded by the classical guitar expert recording engineer John Taylor.

The confidential, almost secretive, musical world of François Couperin is known through the innumerable emotional connections made in his harpsichord works, but he was also able to produce the same sensations when writing for the viola da gamba. Paolo Pandolfo has brought together on one new album on Glossa these works of Couperin’s full maturity, demonstrating the composer’s spiritual and mischievous tendencies in equal measure (as well as his own mastery of the subtleties of the gamba).

… one of the great names in classical music, whose mere name was enough to sell out houses worldwide. ~Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide