Fabio Álvarez – Philip Glass: Mad Rush (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Fabio Álvarez – Philip Glass: Mad Rush (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

In New York it is impossible, almost forced, not to end up trapped by the music of Philip Glass. His operas sound at the Metropolitan Opera, his portrait by Chuck Close on the 86th Street subway and that “Mad Rush” of the city that never sleeps. This project was born influenced by the performer’s musical moment and circumstances after having lived in the Big Apple for 7 years. This “Mad Rush – Philip Glass” project has brought together some of the most representative pieces by one of the most influential composers on the current music scene, recently awarded the XIV BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera “for his extraordinary contribution to musical creation and opera, with a great impact on the history of music in the 20th and 21st centuries”, according to the jury. Trained in the US at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, Fabio obtained his Master of Music with the highest qualification under the tutelage of the renowned pianist and pedagogue Philip Kawin, having previously obtained his Piano Performance Undergraduate´s Degree at Musikene, Conservatorio Superior de Música del País Vasco with Ricardo Requejo and Emmanuel Ferrer-Lalöe.

Eduardo Raimundo, Mario Pérez, Francisco Escoda – Mosaicos: Trio Musicalis (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Eduardo Raimundo, Mario Pérez, Francisco Escoda – Mosaicos: Trio Musicalis (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Mosaicos is a cross-section of today’s musical creation in our country. The Musicalis Trio is contributing to the ongoing configuration of our artistic history, helping generate a new and valuable repertoire for the instrumental combination of clarinet (especially the bass clarinet), violin and piano. On this map of Spanish stylistic diversity at the commencement of the 21st century we travel from the sonic exaltation of Parra to the timbral speculation of Sánchez-Verdú, passing on the way the luminosity of Torres, the eclecticism of Greco and the lyricism of Paús. The added value of the members of the Musicalis Trio starts with their rigorous and enthusiastic interpretation of this music, demonstrating their exceptional capacity of adaptation to each language.

Alberto Rosado, David Apellaniz, Aitzol Iturriagagoitia, José Luis Estellés – Fin du temps (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Alberto Rosado, David Apellaniz, Aitzol Iturriagagoitia, José Luis Estellés – Fin du temps (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

This album provides the recording of two chamber music works, possibly the most important of the 20th century: The Quartet pour la fin du Temps (Messiaen) and Quatrain II (Takemitsu), both for an unusual instrumental group: clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The Quartet pour la fin du Temps was inspired by the tenth chapter of the Book of Revelation and it is dedicated to the Angel of the Apocalypse who lifts his hand toward Heaven and says: « There shall be time no longer, but at the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be consummated ». This quote refers to the notion of eternity: the Quartet does not evoke the “end of Days”—which is considered the disappearance of human civilization—, but rather the “end of Time” or the beginning of Eternity. This religious backdrop is accompanied by a great wealth of images that fed Messiaen’s creativity and it finds inspiration in multiple and varied sources such as Hindu rhythms, the Greek metrics, the singing of birds and brief elements borrowed from other composers. Very knowledgeable about and admiring of Asian cultures and musical traditions, Messiaen, in turn, attracted composers from the Far East. Toru Takemitsu admired his work and his harmonious language, which influenced his own style. Takemitsu composed Quatrain for clarinet, violin, cello, piano and orchestra, and Quatrain II in 1976-1977 with the same instrumentation of Messiaen’s Quartet, but without an orchestra. An homage to Messiaen, in the same way that Messiaen’s Quartet is based on numeric symbolism, Quatrain is organized around the number four: four in the sense of plenitude, balance, symmetry, four as the lines that make up a stanza in a quatrain, four instruments used, four sections into groups of four bars…

David Mata, Aldo Mata, Patricia Arauzo – Turina Piano Trios (Complete) (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

David Mata, Aldo Mata, Patricia Arauzo – Turina Piano Trios (Complete) (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]

This integral represents a great journey through the artistic career of the distinguished Andalusian composer Joaquín Turina. From the romantic flavor of the Trio in F, a youthful work, but it already shows a commendable panache. The Trio no.1, dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Infanta Dña. Isabel de Borbón, awarded at the Spanish National Music Competition. The Trio Nº2 was composed in 1933. Its premiere took place on November 17, 1933 at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) by the Dutch Trio. And the last, Trio Círculo, a work that has always conquered both the public and the performers: it describes the evolution of the day from dawn to twilight. The players are international soloists, as well as members of RTVE Orchestra, professor in Conservatory Superior of Sevilla and Musikene.

David Antich, Mediterrània Consort – Handel: Complete Recorder Sonatas (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

David Antich, Mediterrània Consort – Handel: Complete Recorder Sonatas (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Six sonatas are aimed for recorder, while the other ones are aimed for oboe, recorder flute, and violin. As it was customary at the time, the autographs did not always explicitly state for which instrument they were aimed. Yet, in many cases, it can be deduced only from the tessitura, the key, or the music’s nature. Four of them (HWV 362 in A minor, HWV 365 in C major, HWV 369 in F major, and HWV 360 in G minor) appeared in the aforementioned editions by Walsh and Chrysander. In Walsh’s edition, the Sonata HWV 367a in D minor was transposed to B minor for transverse flute (Sonata HWV 367b). The autograph of this sonata and the autograph of the Sonata HWV 377 in B flat, preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, set the grounds of Thurston Dart’s edition of 1948, titled Fitzwilliam Sonatas, which randomly redistributed the original material.

Camerata Gala – Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major (Arr. C. Domínguez-Nieto for Chamber Orchestra) (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Camerata Gala – Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major (Arr. C. Domínguez-Nieto for Chamber Orchestra) (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Mahler’s 4th Symphony and the lieder of Des knaben Wunderhorn are symphonic scores with a hue similar to that which can be found in chamber music. This is due to the fact that Mahler’s orchestration is not too dense. Domínguez-Nieto’s conception of the work, recorded here for the first time, exploits, with utmost respect for the composer’s original orchestration, its chamber music overtones to its maximum. Gustav Mahler’s 4th Symphony, as well as the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), is based on Arnim and Brentano’s collection of children’s stories of the same name. The fantasy that emanates from this piece of literature finds in Mahler a natural catalyst, who manages, with each musical impulse, articulation, nuance, glissando, harmonic or any other of the myriad of details that inhabit his scores, to transport us to the dreamy and magical world of children’s stories, thus developing a fragile balance between utter fiction and overwhelming reality. With his 4th Symphony, Mahler brings to an end his so-called Wunderhorn period, marked by the reverie and imagination which can be found in such tales.

Conductus Ensemble, Andoni Sierra – Membra Jesu nostri (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Conductus Ensemble, Andoni Sierra – Membra Jesu nostri (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Masterpiece that shows the immense talent of a musician who is fundamental to understanding the evolution of German music throughout the 17th century and, very particularly, that of religious music. Music of spiritual edification, music of mystical inspiration -almost an exercise in contemplation or adoration- that, following the words that the composer himself writes on the cover of the manuscript of the score, must be sung with the humblest devotion, wholeheartedly. (“humble Totius Cordis Devotione decantata”). In 1680 Buxtehude composes the cycle entitled Membra Jesu nostri, when Bach was not yet born. It was still almost 45 years before he wrote the first of two of his known passions, the St. John Passion. But with the composition of that music sheet, Buxtehude marks a before and after in the repertoire of music related to the Passion of Christ.

Bambú Ensemble – Enescu, Shostakovich & Campos: String Octets (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Bambú Ensemble – Enescu, Shostakovich & Campos: String Octets (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Bamb’u Ensemble was expressly created as a string octet and its players are trained in the careful cultivation of the distinguishing features of their literature – from Mendelssohn or Gade to more contemporary offerings. On this album, therefore, they demonstrate an intuitive and eloquent ability to deliver (or “pronounce” – in the rhetorical, Ciceronian sense of pronunciatio) not only the cyclical-thematic density of the massive symphonic structure in nine interconnected themes that is the magnificent Octet composed by a precocious and utterly inspired Enescu, but also the exceptional academic exercise in counterpoint that displays the skill and brilliance of the young Shostakovich, and the nocturnal garden of multiple textures woven around a single motif created by Javier Mart’inez Campos, transferring the concept of counterpoint from the thematic or motivic to the terrain of experimentation in timbre and sound. Listening to their album, therefore, is an adventure which will undoubtedly open up the map of any music-lover’s imagination – come aboard the good ship Bamb’u and, like Marco Polo on his travels, embark on a voyage of marvels upon the ocean of music.

Azumi Nishizawa – Debussy: Hommage (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Azumi Nishizawa – Debussy: Hommage (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Fascinating journey through the music that unites Debussy with Spanish composers. Places are sounds: Granada. The city was a recurring source of inspiration for Debussy, and yet the composer never visited it; his knowledge of it was gained only indirectly through literary accounts, images, and musical sources heard in Paris. All of these materials served to unleash his imagination in regard to its sound, which according to Falla represented ‘the truth without authenticity, as not a single note is borrowed from Spanish folklore and yet, even in its smallest details, it wonderfully expresses Spain’. A common element links all the composers in the present program: the city of Paris. From the end of the nineteenth to the early twentieth century, the French capital was a fundamental goal for many Spanish composers, who at some point in their lives went there for study or work purposes.

Asier Polo, Eldar Nebolsin – Brahms: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-2 & Lieder (Arr. for Cello & Piano) (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Asier Polo, Eldar Nebolsin – Brahms: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-2 & Lieder (Arr. for Cello & Piano) (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

The music of Brahms, regardless of tastes, trends or aesthetic currents, is already part of the whisper of history. It does not need defenders, it does not concern detractors. It just stays. This recording that is presented here breathes nobility. Nobility in the message of Brahms’s work and nobility in an interpretation that also starts from an absolute devotion to the music of two performers in a moment of full artistic maturity. There are no hesitations here either, the ideas are clearly and emphatically exposed, everything emerges and develops as if there were no other possibility of interpretation. Pure music that demands a total surrender and that parts from the deep knowledge of the Brahmsian language that the interpreters display at all times.

Asier Polo – J.S. Bach: Cello Suites (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Asier Polo – J.S. Bach: Cello Suites (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

“J. S. Bach’s Cello Suites are somehow hypnotic. An austere work, an instrument, a performer, a single voice and yet we begin to listen to them and are introduced into a path which inevitably leads us inwards, and makes us aware of our absolute solitude facing the universe and the unknown.

Asier Polo – Boccherini, Vivaldi & Haydn: Cello Concertos (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Asier Polo – Boccherini, Vivaldi & Haydn: Cello Concertos (2020) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

This recording covers approximately five decades of literature for violoncello and orchestra- the fifty years between the two concertos by Vivaldi (ca. 1720), Haydn (ca. 1763) and Boccherini (publ. 1770). The Concerto for violoncello and strings in C minor RV 401 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is a beautiful and enigmatic work. The autograph is written on an unusual type of paper, and virtually all the features of the document stand out from the rest of the 27 concerts for cello written by the Venetian author. Its dating around 1720 is still a hypothesis, as well as its purpose. Even more uncertain is the origin of the Concerto for two cellos and strings in G minor RV 531.

Anton & Maite Piano Duo – Essenz (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Anton & Maite Piano Duo – Essenz (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

ESSENZ is Antón & Maite Piano Duo’s debut album. Recorded and produced by the Ibs Classical label. It was born with the intention of highlighting the important Central European heritage in the consolidation of the four-hand piano genre.

Antonio Salguero, Pedro Gavilán – Clarinet Sonatas 20th Century (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Antonio Salguero, Pedro Gavilán – Clarinet Sonatas 20th Century (2018) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

A journey through the most important sonatas written in the 20th century with the clarinet as the protagonist, by five great composers. The Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) proposes us in his Sonata for clarinet and piano a neoclassical atmosphere in the clear formal definition of his themes and in a certain harmonic freedom, yet he offers a more scholastic work, more solid and resounding that is already clearly evident from the beginning of the work: in the underlying sonata form of the first movement, Allegro deciso. This CD includes a final perspective of the neoclassical conceptual model, offered by the Austrian (later an English citizen) composer and conductor Joseph Horovitz (1926) in his Sonatina for clarinet and piano composed in 1981. Quiet, as if emerging from a dim light, Sonata en re by Nino Rota (1911-1979), composed in 1945, comes to us to finally offer us a musical image brimming with Mediterranean light. Kindness, beauty, simplicity and pleasant repose merge into a piece of scholastic organization in which solid formal structures guarantee the listening and understanding of a fundamentally melodic discourse, always well articulated. Sonata for clarinet and piano by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), how much tenderness enclosed in the beautiful notes of this score! An irrepressible need to listen carefully, once again, the slow section of the first movement invades all of us who know the work, but its beauty is not only collected in that fantastic moment of 16 bars in which it seems to come together in the most delicate moments of Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet or of Pavane pour une infante défunte by the same author, the simple and naive way of these notes, full of grace, in the Renaissance sense of the word: “as if it was not difficult to write this passage “. A different world, despite the proximity in time, is what Edison Denissow (1929-1996) offers us in his Sonata for clarinet, composed in 1972. We have reserved for the end the comment of the penultimate work of this album this piece which is a very successful work that collects innumerable possibilities of expression of the clarinet, far from those exhibited in the rest of the chosen pieces. Glissandi, quarters of tone, frullati, trills, tremolos, etc.

Antonio Galera – Prélude (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Antonio Galera – Prélude (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

A prelude generally precedes something but, in music, it is also a sort of separate piece that itself reveals all its relevance. Some examples are very clear in this album by Antonio Galera which contains more than just preludes. By adding them to the album, Galera creates a kind of implicit and explicit context of historical review about the meaning of a term which is at the same time an announcement, a complement of what is to come (Johann Sebastian Bach and Dmitri Shostakovich) and a unit (Chopin, Scriabin and Rachmaninov). It even serves as a starting point for a more complex formal conception considering thematic or structural aspects (Cesar Franck). Yet, there is another vision of the prelude as a pretext, as a composition whose lack of formality is worth the paradox. This form gives it the possibility of going beyond its possible technical approach, knot and denouement, and its own mechanism. This is what happens in Debussy’s Preludes which, further than the use of the term as a mean for their writing, appeal to a more or less detailed description of their content. Liszt would have done it with his Études d’Exécution Trascendante, despite the fact that the former is, in effect, a Prelude, and the latter is a Study in F minor. Interestingly, these Preludes by Debussy could be placed alongside other works by the author himself in which he does not use this name, but Images or Estampes, in which the vignettes composing them are linked by a generic title, a much more evocative one than the so little significant Preludes.

Antonio Oyarzabal – La muse oubliée (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Antonio Oyarzabal – La muse oubliée (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Pianist Antonio Oyarzabal takes us on a journey through the work of thirteen different female composers, most of them pianists. Their pieces have been a real source of motivation and inspiration for him. Here he pays tribute to the names and work of these women, unfairly and sadly neglected, in the shadow of compositions written by men. It is a musical journey that takes us on different paths: from Jacquet de la Guerre’s French Baroque style to the avant garde proposals of Ruth Crawford Seeger in the beginning of the XXth century; from Lili Boulanger’s languor to Germaine Tailleferre’s constant joviality; or from the more popular Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn to the almost completely unknown Mana Zucca or Lūcija Garūta. All of this is expressed by the extraordinary sensitivity of a performer who, through long and intense research, has dived deep into the life and historical context of these thirteen unique artistic voices, in order to provide them with the relevance they deserve.

Anna Urpina – Baroque Modern (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Anna Urpina – Baroque Modern (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]

Dieses Album erlaubt es uns, die Vielseitigkeit der jungen Künstlerin Anna Urpina zu schätzen, deren Ziel es war, sich jeder Partitur aus einer historisch informierten Perspektive zu nähern. Die Kompositionen aus dem 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Castello, Biber, Corelli und Telemann) sind mit Barockvioline (mit Darmsaiten) und -Bogen neben dem Cembalo aufgenommen. Außerdem ist die Stimmung einen halben Ton tiefer (415 Hz) als im heutigen Repertoire üblich (442 Hz). Auch die Techniken der Epoche wurden angewandt, ebenso wie die barocke Flexibilität bei Verzierungen und Improvisationen. Die Verwendung eines einzigen Tasteninstruments zur Belebung des Basso continuo ermöglicht einen direkteren Vergleich zwischen den Werken der beiden historischen Epochen, da die Partituren des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts (Webern, Pärt, José Luis Turina und Guix) mit moderner Violine und Klavier aufgeführt werden. Um die Kontraste und Konstanten, die die acht Kompositionen miteinander verbinden, so gut wie möglich hervorzuheben, wurden die Stücke nicht chronologisch geordnet, sondern aus jeder Epoche eines zusammengestellt, wodurch eine anregende hybride Erzählung entsteht.

Alejandro Algarra – Chopin & Rachmaninoff: Complete Preludes (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Alejandro Algarra – Chopin & Rachmaninoff: Complete Preludes (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Señalado por la crítica como uno de los principales jóvenes talentos del panorama nacional español, el pianista Alejandro Algarra desarrolla una prolífica carrera como concertista, siendo habitual invitado de festivales, concursos, cursos y certámenes pianísticos de relevancia, nacionales e internacionales.Ha sido galardonado en concursos entre los que destacan el Concurso de Piano “Ciudad de Albacete”, el Concurso Internacional de Piano “Ria de Vigo”, el Premi “Amparo Fandos” de Torrent, el Concurso Internacional de Piano “Frechilla-Zuloaga”, el Barcelona Piano Academy, o el Concurso Internacional de Piano de Ibiza.Acaba de lanzar su trabajo discográfico “Chopin-Rachmaninov, Complete Preludes” con la prestigiosa productora discográfica IBS Classical. Es catedrático de Piano en el Real Conservatorio Superior de Música “Victoria Eugenia” de Granada.

Alberto Urroz – D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Alberto Urroz – D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

The musical richness of Scarlatti’s sonatas has already produced memorable performances at the harpsichord as well as at the piano, and both options will remain open for sure in the future. Eva Badura-Skoda, in her recent 2017 book The Eighteenth-Century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons, underlines once more the option to consider both the harpsichord and the piano, even the modern piano, as suitable instruments to play Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas. Just like Johann Sebastian Bach’s works for keyboard, Scarlatti’s pieces, Badura-Skoda says, can sound convincing in any instrument, provided that each performer may have the training, the taste and the sensitivity to recreate the proper language, sound and aesthetic for that music. Alberto Urroz, one of the most brilliant pianists of his generation, faces in this recording the challenge to explore his own selection and version of some of Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas, inviting us to enjoy a repertoire that is always attractive and inspiring, from which every great performer knows how to extract new nuances, subtleties and perspectives. (Maria Gembero-Ustárroz)

Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Kimbo Ishii, Juan Carlos Garvayo – Dvořák: Works for Cello (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Kimbo Ishii, Juan Carlos Garvayo – Dvořák: Works for Cello (2019) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]

It is the part the cello must interpret by assuming or acquiring a human nature. Dvořák transforms it into a warm lyrical baritone. He repopulates it with harmonics and nuances. And he shows us that the best way to overcome cello “limitations” is none other than to transcend it. Dvořák turns the cello into a meta-cello. Just as in a Mephistophelian pact, he achieves the feat of “animating” it. And the soul is in the score. You have to know how to find it. No one better to do it than Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas, from his sensitivity, spontaneity and affinity to an instrument he would never have wanted to explore if Bach and Dvořák had not persuaded him otherwise.