Classical 2024

Printemps 1731 : le violoniste Giovanni Battista Somis entreprend un long voyage, de Turin, sa ville natale, pour Paris, où il va se produire avec le fameux Concert spirituel au Palais des Tuileries, remportant un grand succès. Le Mercure de France rendit compte de cet évènement en des termes élogieux : « Le Sieur Sommis, fameux joueur de violon du roi de Sardaigne, y a exécuté différentes sonates et des concertos, dans la dernière perfection, et a été très applaudi par de nombreuses assemblées que la justesse et la brillante exécution de ce grand maître y a attirées. » Quels sont ceux qui pouvaient constituer ces « nombreuses assemblées » enthousiastes ? Le Mercure n’en fait pas écho. Mais cette lacune historique nous offre au moins le loisir de présumer la présence de quelques-uns de ses anciens élèves, désormais établis à Paris…

In the Year of the Dragon 2024, pianist Lang Lang celebrates his Chinese heritage with the release of a special digital edition of all his recordings of Chinese works. The album, entitled Year of the Dragon – Songs from China, features a wealth of solo pieces as well as ensemble and orchestral works, in which Lang Lang is joined by an array of other world-renowned artists. These include tenor Andrea Bocelli and soprano Lei Jia, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Long Yu, the Shanghai Opera House Chorus, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Tan Dun, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Alexandre Desplat.
The album’s 50 tracks span the complete original Dragon Songs album, Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolour, the Yellow River Concerto, River Waltz, as well as popular tracks from Piano Book. Further, the album includes two brand new recordings – Snowflakes and Moon is Bright Lullaby.

Claude Debussy (born Achille-Claude Debussy) was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His mature compositions, distinctive and appealing, combined modernism and sensuality so successfully that their sheer beauty often obscures their technical innovation. Debussy is considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Impressionism (although he resisted the label), and his adoption of non-traditional scales and tonal structures was paradigmatic for many composers who followed. The son of a shopkeeper and a seamstress, Debussy began piano studies at the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11. While a student there, he encountered the wealthy Nadezhda von Meck (most famous as Tchaikovsky's patroness), who employed him as a music teacher to her children; through travel, concerts and acquaintances, she provided him with a wealth of musical experience. Most importantly, she exposed the young Debussy to the works of Russian composers, such as Borodin and Mussorgsky, who would remain important influences on his music.

Conductor Seiji Ozawa was best known for his long tenure as the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at 29 years one of the most durable in the history of the American orchestral scene. Ozawa was noted for his advocacy of contemporary music, even early in his career, when such a thing was rare among American orchestra conductors of the top rank.

Ann Cnop has been passionate about music from a very young age. At the age of 7, she is inseparable from her violin and already feels at home on a stage. She spent her teenage years at the Mechelen City Conservatory where she took violin lessons with Frans Vos and chamber music lessons with Florent Van de Vondel.

My friend Clarice Assad called me out of the blue a few months after our album Confessions earned a GRAMMY® nomination. Clarice had written the title tracks on the album, which Laura Strickling sang magnificently. “Bob,” Clarice said, “I have an idea….” I have learned that anytime Clarice has an idea, I’m interested. “I wrote a piece for Takács Quartet and bandoneón virtuoso Julien Labro. It’s a wild piece. The five of them have been performing it all over the world on tour, and I think you would like it. Actually, I know you would like it. Julien also wrote a companion piece, and the third work is by Bryce Dessner. I think you know Bryce; he lives in Paris. What a trio!” I responded that it sounded wonderful. “I want you to record these three works, plus another piece I have in mind for violin and piano. When can we do it?” Hence began one of Yarlung’s most adventurous (and I hope you will agree, successful) collaborations in the label’s nineteen year history.

In 1984 Frank Zappa released an album titled Francesco Zappa, unknowingly becoming the first contemporary interpreter of the work of this unknown Milanese author, and effectively marking the beginning of his rediscovery. It was an incredible fate that of Francesco Zappa who, after a long life of success and honors in the Dutch and German courts, died in poverty and even experienced a kind of "damnatio memoriae" due to the contempt shown to him by Leopold Mozart.

Few (if any?) opera singers have also been Academy Award nominees, let alone for Best Actor. But then again, there is only one Lawrence Tibbett (1896–1960). Described as dashing, Tibbett had a career as a movie actor, radio show personality and host, with sponsors such as Packard, Firestone, and Chesterfield. He was also one of the first “crossover” artists singing Gershwin, Kern, and Porter, and was a staple at the Met. A cogent and articulate advocate for artistic causes (rare in his day), he founded the American Guild of Musical Artists with Jascha Heifetz. But first and foremost, Lawrence Tibbett was an opera singer and one of the greatest baritones of all time.

cclaimed as one of the greatest interpreters of Mozart, Portuguese pianist Maria-João Pires is an artist who combines exquisite stylistic refinement with a serious effort to plumb the intellectual complexities and spiritual depths of music. Refusing to conform to the traditional image of a concert virtuoso, Pires emphasizes the spiritual dimensions of music, always searching for hidden meanings which may elude the analytical performer. This remarkable reverence toward works of music, clearly manifested in her performances of Mozart, was made explicit by her remark that, as a performer, she acts as a channel for the composer's ideas.

Good things always come in threes. There was once the Concerto in Italian style, BWV 971, reconfigured according to the by then modern disposition advocated in Italy at the beginning of the 18th century (anthology "Concerti italiani", 2004, OP30301). More recently, the Goldberg Variations, reimagined for a small string ensemble, crowned a fabulous apotheosis in the land of the variation ("Variations on Variations", OP30575). Here are now three completely original orchestral suites by Bach, a new fool's game organised by a tongue in the cheek Rinaldo Alessandrini, once again surrounded by his dear friends from the Concerto Italiano.