Rhodes has forged a career through a resolutely unconventional path. As a child, he used his love of music as a form of escapism against a traumatic life of abuse. After turning down a music scholarship at the age of eighteen, Rhodes didn’t play the piano again for another decade, instead working in the City while battling drug and alcohol addiction, as well as spending time in mental institutions. The birth of his son was the catalyst he needed to quit his day job and to pursue the career he had always dreamed of.
OZAWA around the world Beiju commemorative special project Seiji Ozawa, the maestro who has dominated the world's musical circles, will reach the age of 88 on September 1, 2023.
To commemorate his birthday, Seiji Ozawa has released a box set of all the albums he left for RCA and Columbia Records as a Japanese original project.It is a compilation of many famous performances with famous orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Saito Kinen Orchestra, and Mito Chamber Orchestra. As a bonus disc, the live concert in Japan with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986 is released on CD for the first time. We praise the achievements of Maestro OZAWA.
OZAWA around the world Beiju commemorative special project Seiji Ozawa, the maestro who has dominated the world's musical circles, will reach the age of 88 on September 1, 2023.
To commemorate his birthday, Seiji Ozawa has released a box set of all the albums he left for RCA and Columbia Records as a Japanese original project.It is a compilation of many famous performances with famous orchestras around the world, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Saito Kinen Orchestra, and Mito Chamber Orchestra. As a bonus disc, the live concert in Japan with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986 is released on CD for the first time. We praise the achievements of Maestro OZAWA.
Our collection is called “Caprice” in honor of Thierry Lancino’s Cinq Caprices, adapted for flute and piano especially for this recording. The collection is an homage to Pierre Boulez and his life-changing, challenging, ironic, and capricious "Sonatine pour flute et piano", written in 1946. Both Paavali Jumppanen and I had the great good luck to work with Pierre Boulez in our formative years, so when we started to perform together it was obvious that the Sonatine would be a central part of our repertoire and that a recording would follow.
The Messiaen celebrations come to an overwhelming climax with this superb 32-CD set of his complete works. The limited edition, from Deutsche Grammophon, is a one-of-a kind deluxe edition. The crowning gem of this box set is a performance of the two piano Visions de l'Amen with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod, recorded in Paris in 1962.
Peter Hill’s latest CD for Delphian (DCD 34141) features the premiere of Messiaen’s recently discovered La Fauvette Passerinette, along with music by nine other composers who form part of the Messiaen ‘landscape’, from Ravel and Stockhausen to Dutilleux, Murail and George Benjamin. The CD has been selected as a record of the year in The Sunday Times, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, and Instrumental Choice in BBC Music Magazine.
When, in 1931, Messiaen applied for his post as organist at La Trinité, he wrote to the curate to reassure him that he knew that ‘one must not disturb the piety of the faithful with wildly anarchic chords’. It is not known whether that curate was at La Trinité 20 years later, but it is hard to think of a more appropriate characterisation of the effect of Livre d’orgue than ‘wildly anarchic’, while Alexander Goehr has recalled how Messiaen’s organ-playing during the mid-1950s sounded like electronics. Michael Bonaventure’s playing may not have that effect, but he does get Messiaen’s music to lift off the page, even in the most rigorous pages of the Livre d’orgue. The organ of St Giles, Edinburgh, generally has the power and range of colour needed, with the fierce chords at the opening of ‘Les mains de l’abîme’ fizzing with tension. Slightly more power from the pedals would be welcome, notably in the dazzling central section of the fifth of the Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité. Generally, though, this is a delight for the ears.
Anatol Ugorski — "Anatol Ugorski - The Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon" - Technical perfection, musical intelligence and courage are the hallmarks of Anatol Ugorski’s personality. Since his meteoric rise to fame in the 90’s, Ugorski’s interpretations, informed by his personal beliefs have stimulated discussion around the performer’s relationship with the score. Now his complete recordings on Deutsche Grammophon are presented together for the first time, including the first international release of his Scriabin Sonatas 2, 3, 5 & 9 as well as rare Chopin recordings.