For the Record, Op. 9: World Premiere Recording of Music by Amanda Maier; plus Ehnes Quartet and more

November 17, 2016, 1:00 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!

Amanda Maier: Violin Concerto in D minor, Vol. 1
Gregory Maytan, violin
Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Andreas Stoehr conducting

Looking for 19th-century repertoire by female composers? Swedish violinist Gregory Maytan has a made a world premiere studio recordings of Amanda Maier’s Violin Concerto, Piano Quartet and Swedish Tunes & Dances. Maier was a Swedish composer, married to composer Julius Röntgen, and close friend of Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms and many other great musicians of the time. This short video has samples of each work:

Schubert: String Quartet No.14; Sibelius: String Quartet Op.56
Ehnes Quartet:

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Richard Yongjae O’Neill, viola
Robert DeMaine, cello

Led by James Ehnes, the Ehnes Quartet has just released its recording of Schubert's String Quartet No.14, "Death and the Maiden," as well as Sibelius's String Quartet Op.56, "Intimate Voices."

Pièces de Councours
Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, viola/alto
Élise Desjardins, piano

Here is a collection late romantic French viola music that you probably have never heard, including 18 of 27 pieces written from 1896-1938 for the "Concours" or final examinations for viola students held at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris. It's kind of a "find" for violists, who often find a lack of repertoire from this period. Here are some notes from the recording, about the repertoire it contains: "...although composed in 1910, Henri Büsser’s Appassionato in Cis Dur reflects the aesthetic heart of French Romanticism as established by better-known composers such as Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet. Heinrich Sitt’s Concertino Op. 46 (1899) is emblematic of nineteenth century classicism, namely in the way it conveys the hallmarks of the traditional concerto structure as established by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Many of the compositions share the Classical form of Sitt’s concerto, such as Henri Marteau’s Chaconne in ut majeur (1905), or the French romantic aesthetic of Büsser’s Appassionato, such as Paul Rougnon’s Concertino Romantique (1897). Romanian-born composer Stan Golestan’s Arioso et Allegro (1933) marks an interesting departure from these other works, as it reflects the new aesthetics of the twentieth century. Arioso et Allegro is dominated by pentatonic scales, which may suggest the influence of indigenous Asian musics – as they do in Debussy’s piano piece Pagodes (1903) – Eastern European folk music, or American jazz, which took France by storm in the 1920s and 30s.

Early Musings
Davis Brooks, violin

Here is the culmination of a four-month teaching and recording project between violinist Davis Brooks and ten young composers who are students or recent graduates of the University of Alabama, where Brooks is Music Endowed Chair in Music Composition. It is a collection of new works for solo violin composed by American and American-based composers, almost all of whom were born after 1990. Styles range psychedelic rock to classical, with some electronic music thrown in there, too. Here is a sampling:

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our Thursday "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.

Replies

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

For the Record, Op. 9: World Premiere Recording of Music by Amanda Maier; plus Ehnes Quartet and more

Replies

Laurie's Books

Subscribe