Alan Gilbert wants you to turn off your cell phone

It's pretty rare when a performance by the New York Philharmonic is covered on the local television newscasts or in the tabloids. But the orchestra and music director Alan Gilbert's performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony made the news the other night.

Steven Mackey talks composition and intersecting with Lady Gaga

Steven Mackey had the kind of 2011 composers dream about. In May, violinist Leila Josefowicz and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel gave the West coast premiere of Mackey's Beautiful Passing.Two weeks later, Mackey strapped on his electric guitar and joined violinist Jennifer Koh and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group conducted by John Adams for the premiere of his Four Iconoclastic Episodes. September saw the world premiere of Mackey's Stumble to Grace, a piano concerto written for Orli Shaham and performed by Shaham and the St. Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson.
Mackey's year was capped in December by four Grammy nominations for the recording of his composition Lonely Motel. "It's the only time in my life that my professional life will intersect with Bon Iver not to mention Lady Gaga," said Mackey.

New Album Review: Liszt Lieder

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This album of Liszt songs sung by soprano Diana Damrau accompanied by pianist Helmut Deutsch comes to us at the end of the Liszt anniversary year. It’s one of those rare albums that present relatively unfamiliar music by a very well known composer in performances that may not ever be surpassed.

Liszt wrote approximately 80 songs, mostly setting German texts (Schiller, Heine, Goethe, Lenau are the noteworthy poets here) but also Italian (Petrarch), Hungarian, Russian and even English. It’s difficult to say why his songs aren’t more popular. Certainly his other works overshadowed them, but as Andrew Huth points out in his excellent liner notes, the songs are also quite difficult.

Some Enchanted Evening

David Daniels and Joyce DiDonato, photo by Nick Heavican/Met Opera

The Enchanted Island, a pastiche of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with music by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau and others, may not look like such a great idea on paper. But when you factor in some A+ list singers, a superstar conductor, spectacular staging and a clever libretto (setting new words to the old arias and recitatives), you have the makings of an enchanted evening.

Editor Craig Zeichner gives his Best of 2011 Acclaimed Albums list!

Click here to see the list!

The winding down of the old year is a time for retrospection. We reconsider the great books we’ve read, the films we’ve seen and, for music lovers, our favorite concerts and recordings. Over the course of the year we receive hundreds of new albums, so we are delighted to report that the classical music recording industry is very much alive indeed.

It’s impossible to speak of all the great music we’ve heard over the course of the year, but since ten is a solid round number, here’s ten albums that are Ariama's Acclaimed.

Click here to see the list!

A cold day in Toronto with Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould was the first pianist I heard play Bach. I liked what I heard. This was back in the LP era and you could buy the complete Well Tempered Clavier in what was at the time (the 70s) a six album boxed set. My choice of Gould's WTC was based more on economics than artistry. The boxed set was one of those great six for the price of three deals that high school students like me loved -- not that many of my classmates were rushing out to buy Bach.

New Album Review: The Sixteen - Exclusive Sampler

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Is there any choral ensemble with as broad a command of repertoire as the Sixteen? The Sixteen’s mastery of nearly 500 years of choral music is presented on this specially priced Ariama exclusive sampler featuring music from England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

This eclectic collection is a superb exploration of musical styles and a tribute to the Sixteen’s versatility.

Cantaloupe Label Sale

Cantaloupe Music is the cutting edge record label created in 2001 by the three founders of New York's Bang On a Can Festival. Cantaloupe features eclectic and innovative music by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Phil Kline, So Percussion, Evan Ziporyn and many others.
 
This week get 20% OFF Cantaloupe Music titles.  
Click here to see the full list >>>
    OFFER ENDS 12/20/11

   

New Album Review: J.S. Bach: Ouvertüren

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I grew up with Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s recording of the Bach’s Orchestral Suites for EMI. They were gorgeously played but hardly historically informed performances. Now period instrument bands enjoy interpretive hegemony in this repertoire, so this new set by the Freiburger Barockorchester isn’t the novelty it would have been some years ago.
The suites or “ouvertüren” as they are called in performance source materials are filled with some of Bach’s most colorful orchestral writing. Two of the suites (BWV 1068 and1069) are richly scored for an ensemble that includes trumpets, drums, oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo. The BWV 1066 is more modestly scored for oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo, while the BWV 1067 for flute, violins, viola and continuo. Each of the suites is comprised of dance movements that run a range of styles and moods.

FLAC Friday Sale on Classical Music Lossless Downloads

Each Friday, Ariama will offer six FLAC titles selected for their superior audiophile sound quality and artistic merit. Ariama’s editorial team will select titles from a pool of over 70,000, featuring music in a wide range of genres from such labels as BIS, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, LSO Live, Naxos, Ondine, Sony, Supraphon and others. Ariama's FLAC Friday sales end on Tuesday the following week.