Anne-Sophie Mutter will be awarded the Polar Music Prize. The German violinist is one of three laureates for 2019, along with hip hop DJ Grandmaster Flash and the Playing For Change Foundation. Mutter was announced today for the annual award administered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The prize, which includes 1m Swedish Krona (c. £86,000/$110,000) for each winner, is usually awarded to one classical and one pop musician each year. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 11 June which will be broadcast live on TV4 at 8pm CET, and aslo throughout Europe on the channel's streaming service. Mutter said: ‘It is a huge honour to be in this illustrious group of musicians who have received the Polar Music Prize. I'm deeply honoured and humbled and I can't wait to come to Stockholm and meet the other recipients.' READ THE FULL Strad ARTICLE

In December 2017, with two sold-out concerts at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, the tour celebrating Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà's 20th anniversary came to an end. This tour of thirty-three concerts was, for the violinist, an opportunity to thank her Quebec fans for the support they had given her throughout her career. It was on that tour, during the concerts at Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, that Ovation was recorded. This new album features a retrospective program composed of works by the likes of Einaudi, Richter, Glass, Enescu and Saint-Saens and which have been landmarks of the first 20 years of La Pietà's career. The album also showcases a violinist at the top of her form and a concert where magic and perfection are in symbiosis. The KUSC: Los Angeles freebie this week is music from the HBO series The Leftovers by Max Richter, part of the Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà recording: Ovation 

In December 2017, with two sold-out concerts at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, the tour celebrating Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà's 20th anniversary came to an end. This tour of thirty-three concerts was, for the violinist, an opportunity to thank her Quebec fans for the support they had given her throughout her career. It was on that tour, during the concerts at Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, that Ovation was recorded. This new album features a retrospective program composed of works by the likes of Einaudi, Richter, Glass, Enescu and Saint-Saens and which have been landmarks of the first 20 years of La Pietà's career. The album also showcases a violinist at the top of her form and a concert where magic and perfection are in symbiosis. The KDFC: San Francisco freebie this week is music from the HBO series The Leftovers by Max Richter, part of the Angèle Dubeau, La Pietà recording: Ovation  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}

Rachel Barton Pine is much more than a fine violinist. She has some concerns about the future of classical music in American society, and she's doing something about it. On this episode of Performance Today, Rachel Barton Pine joins us in the studio and tells us about the next big phase of her career. Hour One includes;  David Baker : Blues (Deliver My Soul) Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Billy Childs : Incident on Larpenteur Avenue Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson : Louisiana Strut Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN Chinquinha Gonzaga : Balada Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Silvia Pine, violin Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN William Grant Still : Suite for Violin and Piano Movement 1 African Dancer Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, MN   Hour 2 includes; Ludwig van Beethoven : Violin Sonata No. 3 Op. 12 No. 3: Movement 3 Rondo Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Lambert Orkis, piano   p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} LISTEN TO THE Performance Today SEGMENT    

Sarah Brightman wants to be an agent for healing in the world right now. The British singer -- known for her work in ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals such as "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera" -- came out last November with "Hymn," her 12th studio album and first in five years. She worked on the spiritually based set with a variety of producers, mostly regular collaborator Frank Peterson, and recorded in England, Germany, Canada and the U.S., with choir accompaniment prominent throughout the 13 tracks. "Hymn" debuted atop the Billboard Classical Albums chart and hit the Top 10 in countries such as Australia and South Korea. It was accompanied by a PBS concert special, filmed in Bavaria, Germany, and also shown in theaters. It's the latest achievement in a recording career that's led to more than 180 Gold and Platinum albums in 40 countries and a more than a dozen other awards from the U.K. to Japan./ She's also received two special citations from UNESCO. Her duet partners over the years have included Andrea Bocelli, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Josh Groban, Tom Jones, Anne Murray and, in the oddball "Repo! the Genetic Opera," Paris Hilton. Brightman with Vincent Niclo and Narcis Iustin Ianau perform tonight Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the Fox Theatre. READ THE FULL Oakland Press ARTICLE

Welcome to Milton Court's evening with the Doric String Quartet and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, with a spot of Chopin. The evening began pleasantly enough with the Doric Quartet in the Schubert Quartettsatz. This fast-rising young ensemble looks as if it has stepped straight out of an Ian McEwan novel. Earnest, stylish and intense, they offset one another in the ensemble with an engaging flexibility and minute attention to detail, painting the music with vivid contrasting colours that – though ever so slightly verging towards mannerism – remains thoroughly memorable. The pianist Benjamin Grosvenor joined the ensemble for the rest of the concert, first with a rare performance of Chopin's Piano Concerto No 1 in a chamber version (arranged by whom we are not told, but available sheet music is by Kevin Kenner and Krzysztof Dombek), the quartet augmented by double bassist Laurène Durantel. Soon Grosvenor's playing, which has deepened, darkened and matured with the years, seemed to hold the strings in a generous embrace that lifted the entire ensemble towards a whole new kind of stratosphere. This was, to put it mildly, a night to remember. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} READ THE FULL Arts Desk REVIEW

Pablo Aslan has taken a slightly different musical approach with the music of Argentina--which implies the tango but is open to other genres as well. In 2016 he was invited to play a concert with Paquito D'Rivera and the Escher String Quartet, and that opened up the possibilities for this type of ensemble. Once you hear Contrabajo, you'll agree that this is both a lovely and expressive way to play this music. With help from D'Rivera's clarinet and bandoneonist Juarena on a couple of tracks, Aslan and the Cuarteto Petrus (cellist Gloria Pankaeva, violist Adrian Felizia and violinists Pablo Seravi and Hernan Briatico) work from a palette of such lush colors that this music rises above its genre boundaries and creates a sort of duality between what you hear and what you actually feel.  READ THE FULL Vinyl Anachronist REVIEW

Saturday 30th March is possibly the day after we will have left the EU, but it is definitely the day of Edington Arts' first concert of 2019.  Organisers say, "What's more, starting at 2.30pm and finishing with tea and cakes at about 4pm, it will also be our first afternoon concert in the Priory Church. "To help you banish the Brexit Blues, our artists for the afternoon will be the former royal harpist Claire Jones, returning by popular demand, accompanied this time by her percussionist husband Chris Marshall.  He made a fleeting appearance last time, which left us wanting more! "Everyone who was at Claire's first Edington Arts concert in 2016 will remember the beautiful playing by this hugely talented harpist, and her lively personality.  The addition of percussion to the mix will give us an even broader range of classical and contemporary music, much of which they have recorded, and performed all over the world.   READ THE FULL White Horse News ARTICLE

Let me preface this review by saying that the cello is my second favorite instrument (after the piano) and that I absolutely love it when artists have no musical boundaries. The latest album from the Croatian duo 2Cellos, Let There Be Cello, achieves perfection in both areas. I had seen some of their videos, but this is the first album I've heard and I am completely hooked. I spent most of last evening watching 2Cellos' YouTube videos and am just blown away by Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser's mastery of their instruments as well as their fearless combinations of musical styles from classical to hard rock to movie themes and beyond. For example, how often do you find a medley of Beethoven and Led Zeppelin that really works??? This album also features two original compositions, which are also compelling. From driving rhythms to elegant, soulful ballads, these two young artists can do it all and do it all well. If you are new to 2Cellos' music, you have to check it out! READ THE FULL MainlyPiano REVIEW

2018 marked 150 years since Gioachino Rossini's death in 1868. Messa per Rossini was composed in his memory by Verdi and 12 other notable Italian composers. Verdi himself composed the concluding Libera me, which he later used in his own Messa da Requiem. Conducted by Riccardo Chailly, this rare performance represents the work's triumphant return to the spiritual home of Verdi and Rossini: the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. For February 11, 2019, Riccardo Chailly wTeatro Alla Scala - Messa per Rossini is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release' p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px}

After twenty award-winning years of globe-trotting, Angèle Dubeau and her all-female string ensemble La Pietà share a collection of favorites from their 2017 tour, and it's WCRB: Boston - CD of the Week. In 1997, the Canadian violinist Angèle Dubeau pulled together a women's string ensemble and named it La Pietà, after the famous girls' orphanage where Vivaldi once taught. Dubeau was born in Québec, and after her studies at Juilliard and in Romania, she couldn't possibly have imagined that she and her string ensemble would tour 25 countries and sell 300,000 albums. The special brand of energy she looks for in her players has given the group its signature exuberant sound, polished with the remarkable precision of great chamber musicians. Her open-minded curiosity about the world's many styles of music has kept the group fresh. READ THE FULL WCRB ARTICLE

Mendelssohn, who died at 38, was a superb pianist as well as a great composer and conductor, and as a reminder of his keyboard skills (and those of the young Polish-Canadian Jan Lisiecki - whom I spoke to recently for a Gramophone Podcast), DG has released album of the two piano concertos and two of his finest solo works. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} Acclaimed 23-year-old Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki joins forces with the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to release Mendelssohn on Deutsche Grammophon on February 1. The album explores a pair of early Romantic masterpieces: Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos in G minor and D minor, complemented with a selection of Mendelssohn's most brilliant pieces for solo piano: the Variations sérieuses, the Rondo capriccioso and the "Venetian Boat Song" from the Songs without Words. SEE THE FULL Gramophone: Listening Room PICKS