Challenge Classics

Angela Brownridge, Frédéric Chopin, Angela Brownridge – Chopin: The Four Ballades (2017) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

February 11, 2024 0 Comment

British pianist Angela Brownridge presents the second of three Challenge Classics recordings exploring classical and romantic masterpieces. Following a disc of Beethoven Pianos Sonatas, here she performs some of the cornerstones of Chopin’s creative output – the Four Ballades, the Second Piano Sonata and Fantasie, Op.49.

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Fréderick Franssen – Horn Concertos (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 44,1 kHz]

February 10, 2024 0 Comment

Fréderick Franssen: From among the enormous choice of horn repertoire available in the early stages of my study of the instrument, my interest was piqued by the very earliest horn music. The music from that era did and still does exert its magic on me due to the pure beauty of its clear and transparent sound world. One of my first finds on this quest of discovery through the Baroque period was a concerto by an unknown hand, which appears on this album and comes from a very special collection – the ‘Wenster’. The library at the University of Lund in Sweden contains one of the largest collections of horn music from the first half of the 18th century, under the name of ‘Wenster’. The manuscript contains 18 works, with virtually all of the composers having some sort of connection to the city of Dresden, and it may have been transcribed by a travelling horn player during a visit to that city. The six works on this recording are all taken from this collection.

Fréderick Franssen (1977) plays the French Horn in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Besides the orchestra he performs as a soloist.

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Angela Hewitt – Faure: Piano Music (2013) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

February 7, 2024 0 Comment

Angela Hewitt’s recordings of French piano music have received the highest critical acclaim, her ‘tenderness, Gallic wit, verve, and—the most important ingredient of all—charm’ proving perfect for works by Chabrier, Debussy, Ravel and indeed Rameau and Couperin. Now she turns to a composer who is more serious and introspective, with a refinement that has led to him being relatively overlooked by performers. But in Angela Hewitt’s hands this music is an utter joy.

This album includes the major work Thème et variations, Op 73—one of Faure’s greatest works for piano—and a selection of Valses-caprices and Nocturnes. It ends with a more radiant piece from Fauré’s youth, the earliest piece included on this recording—the Ballade pour piano seul, Op 19, dedicated to Saint-Saëns.

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Fabio Antonio Falcone – The Art of Variation – Secular Cycles (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

February 4, 2024 0 Comment

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, although considered an isolated phenomenon, transformed Amsterdam into the centre of interest for keyboard music. Today, Sweelinck is considered not only one of the most famous organists, but also one of the leading composers of his time and the last great master of Dutch and Flemish polyphony. His work is not conceivable without Venetian and, most importantly, English models. Even though he was not widely travelled, Sweelinck remained amazingly well informed throughout his life.

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François Marié – Memories of Tomorrow (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

February 4, 2024 0 Comment

Belgian pianist Marie Francois is full of life, and her life is all about music – rhythms, tempo and melody. She realised this from an early stage, having lessons from the age of five from her grandfather, who patiently explained the main principles to her. She rapidly developed a drive and level of concentration that bore witness to her deep-rooted respect for the instrument.

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Fabio Bonizzoni – Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sonatas for Violin and Cembalo Obbligato Vol. 1 (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

February 3, 2024 0 Comment

A superb account of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas for violin and harpsichord obbligato by Ryo Terakado and Fabio Bonizzoni.

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Fabio Bonizzoni – Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sonatas for Violin and Cembalo Obbligato Vol. 2 (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

February 2, 2024 0 Comment

Fabio Bonizzoni: Performing the complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord is like embarking on a long hike; heavy, difficult, sometimes dangerous. Playing them is not an activity for lazy people: you need to enjoy making an effort. As in the mountains on difficult terrain, every step needs concentration, good balance, the ability to sense danger, to foresee the unstable stone. The complete cycle is like a long hike; one that leaves your legs tired and maybe painful the next day but at the same time one that enriches your eyes and soul with the beauty of ever-changing landscapes. It is like starting from a valley on soft grass and starting to ascend slowly, step by step, reaching the woods, seeing the type of trees changing. Eventually the forest is left behind and we are again on the grass, but more sparse now, and the first rocks are looming closer and closer. The snow is not far away either… There is not a moment or a view that is not memorable, that will not leave a significant imprint in our memory; a gem, a hidden flower, an unexpected harmony, a daring counterpoint, a melancholic melody. And as one does not need to be a geologist or a botanist to be moved by the beauties of the mountains, similarly one does not need to be a musician to listen passionately to these sonatas.

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Eva Saladin – Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli: Violin Sonatas Op. 3 & 4 (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

January 16, 2024 0 Comment

Born in 1624, Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli was brought up partly in Venice and ended up in Innsbruck as a member of the Court Band. His name crops up later as a violinist in churches and at court in Messina and finally in Madrid, where it is likely that he died in 1687. There were two important stylistic periods for violin literature in the 17th century. In the early decades, a corpus of instrumental music appeared in northern Italy, with the first solo music explicitly for violin being written by composers such as Castello, Fontana and – most of all – Marini. Towards the tail-end of the century, we see the flowering of a refined culture of instrumental music in Austria, dominated by virtuosi such as Biber, Walther and Schmelzer. Pandolfi Mealli was caught in the middle, not being a follower of either school, and may have been somewhat lost from view among all these star performers.

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Ewald Demeyere – Keyboard Variations (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

January 13, 2024 0 Comment

Ewald Demeyere performs Keyboard Variations by CPE Bach and Mozart on the harpsichord in what is an inquiring and original project. Demeyere shows us the two profoundly different styles from the composers in works dating from the same years.

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Einav Yarden – J.S. Bach & C.P.E. Bach: Father and Son (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

January 12, 2024 0 Comment

When I first discovered C.P.E Bach’s keyboard music, I remember being completely amazed by its versatility and originality, by its inventiveness, spectrum of expression and its boldness. I was equally astounded by how much he preceded his time, that only one generation away from his father’s High Baroque, and long before the Viennese Classical School fully flourished, he experimented so widely, pushed boundaries tirelessly, and in many ways laid the foundation for what was to become the Classical style. That he influenced Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven is clear and known, but one could also argue that he foreshadowed in certain ways the Romantic period.

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Elbipolis Barockorchester Hamburg, Jürgen Groß – More Bach (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

January 11, 2024 0 Comment

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Bach family with its many branches occupied an exceptional position in Central German music life. Over several decades, its members were guarantors of high musical quality at numerous princely courts as well as at ecclesiastical and municipal institutions.

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Ella van Poucke – Schumann: Complete Works for Cello (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]

January 8, 2024 0 Comment

Ella van Poucke. Winner of the prestigious Premio Chigiana 2017 and recently awarded the Grachtenfestival Prize, the 27-year old Dutch cellist belongs to the top rank of today’s generation of cellists. She is the first prize winner of the International Isang Yun cello competition 2015, the Leopoldinum Award 2015, Prix Nicolas Firmenich 2013, Elisabeth Everts Award 2014, Prix Academie Maurice Ravel 2012, Dutch Musician of the Year 2012, first prize winner of the 2008 Princess Christina Competition and recipient of the special prize in “recognition of an outstanding performance at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann 2014.

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Elena Malinova, Lucia Swarts – Out of the Shadow (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 44,1 kHz]

January 7, 2024 0 Comment

Even as a young child, Lucia Swarts was taught to be extra alert when women did not have the same opportunities as men. Many women did not have the same opportunities as men to compose and publicly share their musical ideas and lead public lives as composers, with some having their freedom limited by ill health or because family or society had different plans for them. Through the ages, female composers encountered considerable difficulties, often with fewer opportunities, support and education, even when they were members of the upper social classes. They were not in a position to enjoy worldwide fame, but several of them accomplished a great deal. Strong women, in other words.

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Daniel Rowland, Marcelo Nisinman – Extasis (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

January 1, 2024 0 Comment

Daniel Rowland: I remember so well the moment I first heard Marcelo play, in the beautiful and historic Holywell Music Room in Oxford, in the autumn of 2009. Marcelo’s version of a magical Piazzolla touched me deeply and I was utterly captivated and fascinated by it: by the depth, the honesty, the raw emotions, the almost unbearable tenderness, the sense of longing, of loss, the fiery passion… That day I decided to dive deeply into the world of tango, and to learn this language from Marcelo. We started playing together, and very soon became a quintet, with superb artists, brilliant musicians, virtuosos, friends, and like minded, inquisitive, musical spirits.

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Daahoud Salim – Schulhoff: Forbidden Music (2016) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]

December 31, 2023 0 Comment

Schulhoff’s music remained a well-kept secret for many years, due in part to its apparent eclecticism. Fortunately, that situation has changed over the last twenty years or so. This CD from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam contains piano works from the period 1920-1931, an extremely fruitful period during which Schulhoff gave vent to his fascination for the new jazz and dance music without entirely losing sight of classical tradition.

He was a brilliant pianist himself, making frequent appearances in the concert hall and later in radio studios, renowned for his immaculate technique, fabulous memory and prowess as an improviser. The combination of classical foundations and more decorative jazz elements in Schulhoff’s music suits Daahoud Salim Alvarez down to the ground, as he studied both classical and jazz piano at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Schulhoff constantly faced the dilemma of respecting traditions while at the same time being keen to distance himself from them. This is illustrated, for instance, by his Concerto for piano and chamber orchestra – February 1923.

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Daniel Rowland, Maja Bogdanović – Pas de deux (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

December 30, 2023 0 Comment

This new recording “Pas de deux” presents many new pieces by composer friends – it’s a project that’s very close to our hearts. The great Sonata by Ravel is in a way our kaleidoscope, a looking glass that takes us both back and forward in time, and both of those simultaneously.

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Duo Morat-Fergo – W.A. Mozart: Piano Sonatas Arranged for Guitar Duo (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

December 30, 2023 0 Comment

Although being technically very different instruments, we are convinced that the romantic guitar and the fortepiano share the same aesthetics. This was proven to us for the first time when we finally recorded our Schubert album ‘A Sentimental Moment’ in 2018, with piano works arranged for our Viennese guitars. After this, it was natural for us to turn to a composer who has fired more interest than anyone else: Mozart. We do hope that these arrangements of Mozart’s piano sonatas can suggest how he might have expressed his genius on our instrument. The shorter duration of the notes, as well as the delicacy and richness of colours found in the sound world of the guitar, are quite close to those of the late 18th Century fortepianos that Mozart would have known, while the dynamic range of the guitar would be very much at home in the salons and smaller concert venues of that time. Listening to the sonatas played on two guitars might be exotic, but the plucked sound fits in with the family of keyboard instruments.

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Delta Piano Trio – Origin (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 44,1 kHz]

December 30, 2023 0 Comment

Quite often, a work becomes a journey of discovery towards a certain origin, translated into sound. Martin, Mansurian and Dvořák composed three such colourful works for piano trio – voyages of discovery taken here by the Delta Piano Trio through scintillating sound worlds. When an Irish-American benefactor asked him to write a work based on Irish folk songs, Martin grasped this as an exquisite opportunity to combine two of the quests occupying him at the time – music from distant cultures and rhythm. His Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises (1925) is a complex, mature and multi-layered score.

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Christoph Prégardien – Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, Schwanengesang & Winterreise (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

December 19, 2023 0 Comment

Is this an hommage to Schubert? Or just to a leading Lieder tenor of our time? Probably this box is both and it represents a clear reference for anyone who is a seasoned Lieder lover or a neophyte wanting to approach this genre.

I don’t say anything new when I state that the three Schubert’s Lieder cycles are the the pinnacle in the history of the art song. Not by chance any serious male singer wants to record at least one of these masterpieces.

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Camiel Boomsma – The Innermost Side – Unfold (2019) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

December 18, 2023 0 Comment

Camiel Boomsma: “Many of the pieces on this album I have been carrying with me for many years already. In choosing these works for the recording, I was very conscious of that fact. The longer you carry a piece with you, the more you see ‘who’ the piece is rather than what it is. Liszt’s music is like an unspoiled landscape. It’s raw, fragile, strong, uncontrolled, poetic and paradoxical. One of the very first works I discovered was Vallee d’Obermann. When I play this piece, I ask myself to open up to this and observe the story that unfolds.