Julien Lieb Questions

Morton Feldman & Milton Babbitt - Clarinet Quintets (Lieb, Phoenix Ensemble, innova 746)
Avant-Garde, Contemporary Classical | EAC (FLACs) NO LOG, SCANS | 1:02:38 | 247 MB
Filefactory | Innova | (7z) | Released 2009

"When you think of two American composers exhibiting extremes in method and aesthetics, 20th century giants Morton Feldman and Milton Babbitt are certainly a good example. There are no two men with more opposite views on music and expression. You might think therefore that listening to their music side by side would automatically turn off 50% of the audience. You’d be wrong.

The New York based Phoenix Ensemble has paired Feldman's Clarinet and String Quartet and the world premiere recording of Babbitt's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, and the result shows their deep musical connections. Each benefits from the other’s perspective on texture, color, and time-flow.

Feldman's suspended transparency next to Babbitt's equally striking gnarliness complement one another, and provide a compelling case for the importance and influence of these composers to the American music
scene in recent decades.

The Phoenix Ensemble, with the approval and guidance of Mr. Babbitt, provides a first look into his largely unknown masterwork, and an equally enlightening performance of Feldman's poignantly expressive music." (label info)

Sandrine Piau’s first recital for the ALPHA Label, with Susan Manoff (Chimères – Alpha 397), proved an enormous hit (Diapason d’Or of the year, Choc of the year, and Gramophone Editor’s Choice). Her new project is a recital with orchestra celebrating French song of the period when it moved from the private salon to the concert hall. Planned in partnership with the Palazzetto Bru Zane, this programme evokes anticipation, desire, pleasure, memory, in short all the vagaries of love experienced by a romantic heroine… To verses of the poets Hugo, Lamartine, Gautier, and Verlaine, Sandrine Piau has selected song settings by Saint-Saëns (L’attente, Papillons), Massenet (Extase, Aimons-nous), and Vierne, as well as by the rarely-heard Dubois, Guilmant, and Bordes…

In this album, his third for naïve, Julien Martineau once again spotlights the mandolin: its remarkable repertoire, nobility of character, and natural ability as a partner. Together with pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell, he has devised a programme truly Beethovenian in its inventiveness, honeycombed with influences and associations. Beethoven wears the crown, with four youthful pieces he wrote for this unusual duo combination and the Allegretto of his Symphony No. 7 in a transcription by Hans Sitt.