Home » Stories » Hilary Hahn discusses 'Paris' with Harmonious World Podcast

Stories for April 22, 2021

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    Shabaka Hutchings is cover feature on DOWNBEAT - May issue
     
    Posted At : April 21, 2021 12:00 AM

    Over the last half decade, Shabaka Hutchings has established himself as a central figure in the London jazz scene, which is enjoying its greatest creative renaissance since the breakthroughs of Joe Harriott and Evan Parker in the 1960s. Hutchings has a restlessly creative and refreshingly open-minded spirit, playing in a variety of groups-most notably, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka & the Ancestors-and embracing influences from the sounds of London's diverse club culture, including house, grime, jungle, and dub. "The common theme in my career as a jazz musician has been wondering if what I'm doing is the thing that I should be doing," says Hutchings, who studied classical clarinet at college at London's prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama. "Me learning about jazz, how to play and interpret, was always a case of just trial and error. I think where I've come to recently is I've stopped trying to think ‘Is what I'm doing valid? or ‘Is what I'm doing part of the jazz tradition?' and just see myself as a musician." Hutchings is featured on the cover of the May issue of Downbeat. SEE COVER IMAGE

  • Art of Time Ensemble's 'Ain't Got Long' is soulful and multi-faceted / THE JW VIBE
     
    Posted At : April 20, 2021 12:00 AM

    JWVIBE's Jonathan Widran writes.....It may not be necessary to fully appreciate its majestic sweep, but those who find themselves seduced and culturally and spiritually uplifted from the get-go by Ain't Got Long, the Art of Time Ensemble's soulful and multi-faceted sixth album, should probably know a little something about the groups' nearly quarter century history as they engage in the pin drop perfection of the collection's exquisite and colorful arrangements of Great American Songbook and other classics and the gorgeous vocal showcases of jazz great Madeleine Peyroux (Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "What'll I Do") and renowned Canadian performers Gregory Hoskins ("Calling All Angels," "After Mardi Gras"), Jessica Mitchell (Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)," Joni Mitchell's "River") and Sarah Slean ("Sad Song").  Playing on the name, this album is all about the art of timelessness.  READ THE FULL JW VIBE REVIEW

  • Whatever Art Of Time Ensemble's 'Ain't Got Long' is, Skope Magazine can't get enough
     
    Posted At : April 18, 2021 12:00 AM

    Skope's Sasha Lauryn writes....."A world in which people seek the uncertainties, and possibilities, of art" is the vision of one of the most innovative ensembles to be gracing the popular music landscape right now. With the recent release of their latest album, it's undeniable that Art Of Time Ensemble is bringing that vision to life. Led by the artistic direction and vision of Andrew Burashko together with arrangements by Jonathan Goldsmith who reinterpreted a wide array of songs that qualify as standards. Goldsmith stays faithful to the original melodies and form and then pushes the boundaries as far as possible in every conceivable way. After immersing myself in the deeply sensory sonic landscapes, mesmerizing motifs and hypnotic storytelling that their recent album ‘Ain't Got Long' boasts, I can say with certainty they do just that. The Canada based collective have been breaking archaic genre boundaries since 1998, as their eclectic mix of musicians has attracted captivated crowds on multiple tours. Honestly, I'm just waiting for them to announce their next road trip. This album features the phenomenal pipes of Madeleine Peyroux, Gregory Hoskins, Jessica Mitchell and Sarah Slean. Perhaps it's Andrew's perfect pairings of soundscape with singer or the astounding arrangements of the songs themselves that sets this album apart from anything I've experienced.

    Whatever it is, I can't get enough. READ THE FULL Skope Magazine REVIEW

  • The Catalyst Quartet Uncovers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and is the 90.1WRTI: Classical Album of the Week
     
    Posted At : April 19, 2021 12:00 AM

    WRTI's SUSAN LEWIS writes......The Catalyst Quartet uncovers music and the stories of the people who wrote it in its new recording series UNCOVERED. The first volume focuses on music by late 19th-century English composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The Catalyst Quartet, founded in 2010 by the Sphinx Organization, aims to "reimagine" the classical music experience. "Sometimes classical music is presented like a museum piece," says violist Paul Laraia. "We want to make sure everything we do has relevance to today," and so the ensemble's programs reach out to a diverse audience, with diverse repertoire. This new project, Uncovered, featuring music of composers who have been overlooked because of race or gender, begins with an album of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Black English composer born in the late 19th century, the child of an English mother and an African father from Sierra Leone. Ironically, Coleridge-Taylor, who was born in 1875 and died suddenly at the age of 37, was acclaimed during his short lifetime.  Raised in England, he started violin at 5, joined the Royal College of Music at 15, and at 23, had a triumphant premiere of his cantata, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, set to the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He toured the U.S., where he visited The White House at the invitation of President Teddy Roosevelt. He was so successful, the story goes, that New York musicians in the early 1900s began referring to him as "The Black Mahler;" others are said to have called him "The Black Dvorak."  And while Hiawatha's Wedding Feast remains familiar to many choral ensembles and you may recognize his melodies such as Deep River, much of his over 80 compositions, including operas, ballet music, songs, a symphony, violin concerto and chamber music are unknown today.   Volume 1: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor includes one quartet, and two quintets, one featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear, and one with clarinetist Anthony McGill. LISTEN & WATCH THE 90.1WRTI: Philadelphia INTERVIEW

  • Todd Mosby discusses 'Aerial Views' with Harmonious World Podcast
     
    Posted At : April 19, 2021 12:00 AM

    Acclaimed guitarist Todd Mosby joins me for the latest episode of Harmonious World. We all need perspective right now, and there's a lot of that in Todd's latest album - Aerial Views . Todd's comment about creating music that musicians will love to perform on is very apt and I finish with Aether, one of my favourite tracks of 2021. Harmonious World Podcast gives many thanks to Todd for allowing me to feature clips from Aerial Views  alongside our conversation. LISTEN

  • It's 'The Joe Lovano Show' on 'SOMETHING came from Baltimore'
     
    Posted At : April 18, 2021 12:00 AM

    'SOMETHING came from Baltimore's' Thom Gouker......Yeah!  This was a big thrill for me.  I was nervous interviewing one of my favorite artists of all time, Joe Lovano, so I decided to ask him 20 goofy questions to see how he handled them.  He easily accepted the challenge and spun junk questions into gold. It's very impressive and that it why I suggest that you check out the Youtube interview, we chatted for 1 1/2 and must of it make it to tape. "Garden of Expression" is the sent album with the trio Lovano/Crispell/Castaldi, the first was the 2018 release "Seeds of Change" Do we have to explain who Joe Lovano is?????  This is copied from Wiki. Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. He has earned a Grammy Award and several mentions on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano with whom he records and performs. Lovano was a longtime member of a trio led by drummer Paul Motian. LISTEN

  • Catalyst Quartet is on a mission with UNCOVERED Vol. 1 / LIMELIGHT Magazine - Recording of the Month
     
    Posted At : April 18, 2021 12:00 AM

    LIMELIGHT Magazine's Clive Paget writes......Superlative soloists and compelling chamber music from a quartet on a mission. One of the revolutions set in progress by last year's Black Lives Matter protests has been the refocusing of the classical music industry's attention of composers of colour, many of them historical figures formerly the preserve of the curious collector and rarely programmed live. New York-based Catalyst Quartet was founded in 2010 by the Sphinx Organization, an outstanding Detroit-based social justice organisation dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) build programs and projects accordingly and this excellent release of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is the first in a projected series of "Uncovered" CDs focussing on composers overlooked because of race and/or gender (others releases will include music by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still, Florence B. Price, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and George Walker). CLICK HERE FOR THE LIMELIGHT PAGE

Top 10 for Apr

  • Vijay Iyer :

    Uneasy

     Uneasy, with Tyshawn Sorey and Linda May Han Oh, is Vijay Iyer's second trio album on ECM and his seventh appearance as a leader on the label.
  • Sons of Kemet :

    'Hustle' from Black To The Future

     Saxophonist, composer, philosopher and writer Shabaka Hutchings returns with a brand-new album from his Mercury Prize nominated outfit Sons of Kemet.
  • Dustin O'Halloran :

    Silfur

     Dustin O'Halloran's debut Deutsche Grammophon album, Silfur, explores the shifting perspective of music through time and place in new pieces and reimagined earlier works.
  • Eydís Evensen :

    Bylur

     Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen has confirmed details of her debut album, BYLUR, which will be released on 23rd April, 2021 by XXIM Records, Sony's new imprint for innovative, post-genre instrumental music.
  • Moby :

    'Porcelain' from Reprise feat. Jim James

     Musical pioneer Moby announces his new album Reprise, out May 28th on Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Jacob Muhlrad :

    Time w/Swedish Radio Choir

     Those who peep through the window of Jacob Mühlrad's studio in Stockholm will see the composer busy behind his computer screen, perhaps blasting some Drake or FKA Twigs as he works on his own music.
  • Anoushka Shankar :

    'Sister Susannah' from Love Letters P.S.

     Seven-time Grammy® Award-nominated sitarist, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar announces a stunning new digital release Love Letters P.
  • Jon Batiste :

    We Are

     WE ARE represents a completely new sonic chapter for Jon Batiste.
  • Clark :

    Playground in a Lake

     On 26 March 2021 the ambitiously multifaceted musician/composer Clark presents his chillingly affecting ninth studio album Playground In A Lake, on which he broadens horizons and tries new things, with profound results.
  • Joey Alexander :

    SALT

     Three-time GRAMMY Award-nominated pianist Joey Alexander follows his major-label debut album, WARNA (Verve Records), with three new singles "SALT" (March 19: LINK), "Under the Sun" (April 23), and "Summer Rising" (May 28) set for global release on Verve.

Hilary Hahn discusses 'Paris' with Harmonious World Podcast

Posted: March 3, 2021 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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Interview with Harmonious World podcast

Hilary Hahn's new recording pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. Released by Deutsche Grammophon on 5 March 2021, Paris sees the American violinist resume her productive partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck. The three-time Grammy Award-winner's album presents the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, commissioned by Mikko Franck. It also includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923.

In the latest episode of Harmonious World, Hilary Robertson joins the three-time Grammy-winning violinist. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT

Crossover Media Projects with Hilary Hahn

  • Hilary Hahn

    Paris

    Hilary Hahn's new recording pays homage to the rich cultural heritage of a city that has been close to her heart throughout her career. Set for international release by Deutsche Grammophon on 5 March 2021, Paris sees the American violinist resume her productive partnership with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and its Music Director, Mikko Franck. The three-time Grammy Award-winner's album presents the world premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara's Deux Sérénades, commissioned by Mikko Franck. It also includes Ernest Chausson's Poème and Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1, which received its first performance in the French capital in 1923.

  • Hilary Hahn

    6 PARTITAS BY ANTON GARCIA ABRIL

    Following the widely celebrated release of Hilary Hahn Plays Bach on Decca Classics last fall, Hilary Hahn returns with a world premiere recording of Antón García Abril's 6 Partitas, commissioned by Hahn for solo violin-her first-ever solo commission and her first of a set of pieces from a single composer.  Each movement has a different theme, displays its own personality, and is deeply tied to the performer for whom the work was written-so much so that García Abril chose to name the movements after Hahn in acrostic: HEART, IMMENSITY, LOVE, ART, REFLECTIVE, YOU.

    There is a longstanding tradition of great composers writing six polyphonic works for the violin. Perhaps due to the creativity that arises when a composer is limited to a single unaccompanied instrument, and the challenge of creating a set of diverse but cohesive material within that framework, these pieces rank amongst the most iconic, progressive compositions in the repertoire. Hahn commissioned these 6 Partitas from García Abril both to continue this tradition as well as to amplify this important contemporary composer outside of his home country. Likewise, García Abril found inspiration in Hahn's technical proficiency and interpretational skill, writing her personality and mastery of the violin into the music itself.

  • Hilary Hahn

    Plays Bach - Sonatas I & II, Partita I

    When Hilary Hahn plays Bach came out on Sony in 1997, critics were astounded that a performer would choose solo Bach for her debut album; they were further confounded by her elegant approach to this music's technical and interpretive challenges at such a young age. Bach expert Nicholas Anderson wrote in BBC Music Magazine at the time, "Bach's six unaccompanied solos - three each of partitas and sonatas - have long been regarded as the pinnacle of violin writing and the most elusive of goals for the aspiring performer... Hahn's affection for Bach's music becomes apparent at almost every turn; and the concluding movement of the C major Sonata is a tour de force. I long to hear more." Stereo Review wrote, "I would go so far as to say that I've never heard this legendary, impossible piece of music played on a higher level, technically and musically, than it is on Hahn's debut CD. This is simply a magnificent performance, completely true in all its parts and possessed of a depth and wisdom that belie the performer's age. Unlike most of the violinists who play this music, she is truly its master, and that frees her to play it with soul."

    Now 38, she completes her recording of the Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin in an album that will be released on Decca Classics on October 5, 2018. The new album includes the first partita and first and second sonatas.

  • Hilary Hahn

    Retrospective

    An artist portrait curated by Hilary Hahn herself, Retrospective features recordings from albums she made as a Deutsche Grammophon artist as well as almost 30 minutes of new, unreleased material from a live concert of Mozart's Violin Sonata K. 379 and new recordings of three tracks from her Encores album. Commissioned through Hahn's social media platforms, the Retrospective artwork and packaging were designed using portraits submitted by her fans. 

  • Hilary Hahn

    Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 - Violin Concertos

    After touring together for many years, Paavo Järvi joins Hilary Hahn's on her new DG album, Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 - Violin Concertos. This is Hahn's first recording with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi and is the violinist's first orchestral offering since her 2010 pairing of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Jennifer Higdon's Pulitzer-prize winning violin concerto, which was written for Hahn. With this new album, she returns to core violin repertoire on the heels of the Grammy-win for 'In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores,' Mozart 5, Vieuxtemps 4 are two concertos that have been part of Hahn's repertoire since she was ten years old. 

    24 NEW  90 TOTAL
    SYND: Classical 24, CBC
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice, MOOD, Spafax
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, St. Louis, Portland, Houston, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Austin, Memphis, Louisville, Albuquerque, Columbus OH, Madison, Honolulu, Canada
    Online: ClassicallyHip, Taintradio

  • Hilary Hahn

    In 27 Pieces

    Throughout her career, Hilary Hahn has been an advocate for new music - most notably commissioning a concerto by Edgar Meyer and a Pulitzer Prize-winning concerto by Jennifer Higdon. Her recent album, Silfra, was a genre-bending experiment with prepared-pianist Hauschka. Prior to that, she released an album of sonatas by Charles Ives. More than ten years ago, Hahn began her most ambitious project, "In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores," to expand and enrich the violin repertoire. She commissioned more than two dozen composers to write short-form pieces for acoustic violin and piano and toured these new works internationally over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons in countries such as Turkey, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Austria and Spain.