Home » Stories » Rachel Barton Pine - Blues Dialogues is the WFMT: Featured New Release

Stories for February 23, 2019

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    On Bach Recomposed, Peter Gregson translates a landmark of the cello repertoire into his own musical language
     
    Posted At : February 22, 2019 10:14 AM

    Cellist and composer Peter Gregson is a man obsessed with sonic frontiers: "The job of the musician is to create stuff that's relevant to his time," he says. "You can get it wrong if all you do is stubbornly stick to your guns. I want to be able to adapt to changing landscapes." In Bach Recomposed, Gregson translates a landmark of the cello repertoire into his own unique musical language. The album is the latest addition to DG's lauded series that includes Max Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed. In creating Recomposed by Peter Gregson: Bach – The Cello Suites, young Scottish composer Peter Gregson has now translated a landmark of the cello repertoire into his own entirely unique musical language. Watch the attached video. 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}

  • Roberto Prosseda brings his musical mastery to UCLA / Hollywood SOAPBOX Q&A
     
    Posted At : February 21, 2019 12:00 AM

    Roberto Prosseda, the celebrated pianist known for his solo work and extensive playing with world-renowned orchestras, will bring his musical mastery to the Jan Popper Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles, tonight; Thursday, Feb. 21. Prosseda is a master interpreter of the catalog of Felix Mendelssohn, having recorded the composer's complete piano works over the course of 10 years for Decca. He will bring his expertise to UCLA with a special mini-recital that features Mendelssohn's Rondò Capriccioso, along with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Fantasia K 475 and Franz Schubert's 4 Impromptus op. 90. After Prosseda plays these special selections, he will join with students from UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music and lead a master class that goes over the following compositions: Claude Debussy's Bergamasque Suite (two movements), Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto #4 (first movement) and Johann Sebastian Bach's Chaconne. Prosseda has played with the likes of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic and Moscow State Philharmonic, among many others. He is also a go-to performer of the pedal piano, having offered more than 50 concerts playing the instrument. Recently Hollywood Soapbox Q&A'd with Prosseda about his upcoming recital. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style. READ IT

  • Lyn Stanley showcases her stylistic range and heartfelt intuition on epic Julie London tribute
     
    Posted At : February 21, 2019 12:00 AM

    Taking an extraordinarily bold step just five years into her recording career, Lyn Stanley showcases her stylistic range and heartfelt intuition as a vocalist on this epic, warmly produced, playfully titled 17 track tribute to legendary jazz and pop singer Julie London. While emotionally resonant, Stanley's voice isn't anywhere near as husky and smoky as her muse's, but she makes each song he own - beautifully conveying a sense of hushed intimacy on ballads like "Cry Me A River" and "I've Got a Crush on You" and subtle swing on various tunes, including "Blue Moon" and the lively opener "Goody Goody." READ THE FULL JWVIBE REVIEW  

  • Joyce DiDonato talks Songplay with US Radio
     
    Posted At : February 21, 2019 12:00 AM

    With her Warner Classics album; Songplay, Joyce DiDonato takes a new and creative angle on vocal music from the Baroque and Classical periods, as well as from the 20th century. The 14 tracks on Songplay succeed in being simultaneously familiar and unexpected. The album serves up music by Vivaldi in both its customary Baroque purity and swinging to the heady rhythm of a samba. It brings a tango sizzle to an aria by Vivaldi's contemporary Marcello, and it plays with the voice of Bach in George Shearing's ‘Lullaby of Birdland'. "Songplay, as a title, suggests exactly what this album is," says the pianist Craig Terry, who developed the concept for the album along with Joyce DiDonato. In conjunction with the album release, JD has agreed to sit down with radio stations throughout the US, today - February 21. Please watch for our tweets throughout the day updating the proceedings.

  • Lara Downes and Rhiannon Giddens launch 'Holes in the Sky' with Washington Performing Arts / WTOP
     
    Posted At : February 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    For centuries, the world of classical music has been a proverbial boys club: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Herrmann, Bernstein, Williams. Now, it's the ladies' turn with "Holes in the Sky," a pioneering national tour that launches this Saturday night at Sixth & I in Chinatown presented by Washington Performing Arts. "This is all music by women," pianist Lara Downes told WTOP. "I'm doing a bunch of solo stuff with everything from Billie Holiday and Nina Simone and Jodi Mitchell to world premieres by composers who are living and working today. It's very genre-fluid, all over the musical map." The project is spearheaded by Downes, whose "America Again" was named one of NPR's "10 Albums that Saved 2016" and whose follow-up "For Lenny" won the 2017 Classical Recording Foundation Award. The live show will also feature Grammy-winner Rhiannon Giddens, star of CMT's "Nashville" and recipient of the 2017 MacArthur "Genius Grant." READ THE WTOP Q&A & LISTEN

  • Pedrito Martinez Group plays 'Habana Dreams' on npr - Tiny Desk
     
    Posted At : February 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Something happens when you get a chance to see Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez perform. First of all, his smile radiates. It's hard to imagine someone happier than he is to make music in front of people; and as we saw during his turn behind Bob Boilen's desk, he mesmerizes with this almost otherworldly talent on congas. His hands can be a blur because they move so quickly. To the untrained eye, it's hard to see exactly what he is doing to draw out the sounds he does from his drums. I even know a little about playing hand drums and it still doesn't make it easier to fathom his remarkable talent. Pedrito Martinez has gathered around him musicians who are helping him make the music he hears in his head. As you'll hear, it's full of twists and turns and unexpected stops that resolve into grooves so ferocious it's hard to resist moving your entire body in appreciation. This particular performance at the Tiny Desk is highlighted by a stunning, unaccompanied conga solo that dazzled both neophytes and long-time fans of Afro-Cuban music. WATCH THE SEGMENT

  • What is post-classical music? / BBC Music Magazine
     
    Posted At : February 20, 2019 12:00 AM

    Defining ‘contemporary classical' music is fraught with complications: should we include film music, for example, and what about music that uses amplification? From Adès to Zimmer, the canon is thrillingly diverse, and features various nooks and crannies within which exciting sounds emerge. It's a soundworld that listeners are just as likely to encounter via curated streaming platforms as in major venues, on the small and silver screen, and in clubs as well as concert halls. Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons (2012) is a key example of this collision of classical-electro-ambient music, a strange juxtaposition of old and new, high versus so-called ‘low' art. It is akin to listening to a Cubist version of the Vivaldi classic, with fragmented melodies that are looped and overlaid, shared between laptop and strings. Richter is one of a new school of composers who combine multiple stylistic ideals. Various names have been given to this particular branch of contemporary music: alternative classical, neo-classical, post-classical. In a digital world, life becomes easier if we can define a searchable genre. But when a style is in its infancy, this can be restrictive. Critics of this soundworld claim that many of the pieces are unimaginative pastiche. Writing in The Wire, Philip Clark asked ‘how you would feel if visiting Tate Modern you found the Rothkos, Matisses and Picassos had been replaced by Athena poster art', in the context of Deutsche Grammophon's decision to include the likes of Richter, Karl Jenkins and Ludovico Einaudi alongside its starry back catalogue of 20th-century composers.   DG continues its commitment to this music with the recent re-release of Richter's 2004 The Blue Notebooks, with words adapted from Kafka's Blue Octavo Notebooks, and the upcoming release of Recomposed by Peter Gregson: Bach – The Cello Suites, which follows in Richter's footsteps. Post-classical music attracts a broad audience, in part because the music is becoming so widely accessible. Composers such as Ólafur Arnalds, whose atmospheric solo albums sit alongside his screen writing (such as the soundtrack to TV series Broadchurch) are attracting an increasing listenership. The late Jóhann Jóhannsson found popularity with his soundtrack to The Theory of Everything and his disc Orphée (DG, 2016), as well as gaining fans for his more experimental music, including a suite for string orchestra and a retro IBM computer. Another example is Dustin O'Halloran, who scored Amazon show Transparent, for which he won an Emmy Award. O'Halloran is also one half of duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen who performed at a BBC Prom co-curated with BBC Radio 6 Music in 2015 – another indication that boundaries are shifting. While historically post-classical music was the preserve of smaller, independent labels – such as FatCat and Erased Tapes – the last few years has seen greater interest from larger-scale organisations. In the spring, Sony Classical announced that it had signed German pianist-composer Volker Bertelmann – known to fans under the moniker Hauschka – with a collection of solo piano works in the pipeline. Hauschka is part of a group of performers who are re-energising interest in prepared piano, adding modern-day extras – ping-pong balls and pegs – to change timbres and bringing newcomers to the world of John Cage. In 2017, Decca Records launched Mercury KX, an imprint for post-classical music. ‘I felt that a new label, with no specific ties to any one genre, was the best way to achieve the best possible environment for these artists to thrive and to speak to their specific audience,' says Alex Buhr, Mercury KX founder. The freedom encourages experimentation with technology in ways that artists may not have been able to with more traditional routes. Mercury KX artist Arnalds has just started working with his Stratus Pianos: two self-playing, semi-generative player pianos that are triggered by a central piano played by Arnalds himself, using custom-built software created by the composer and audio developer Halldór Eldjárn. READ THE FULL BBC Music Magazine ARTICLE

Top 10 for Feb

  • Soundtracks :

    Valley of the Boom

     Valley of the Boom explores the dot-com era during Silicon Valley's unprecedented tech boom of the 1990s and subsequent bust.
  • The Comet Is Coming :

    Summon The Fire

     The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Life Force Of The Deep Mystery In a world narrative dominated and controlled by powerful, wealthy individuals with vested interests in skewing the truth, what trust can be placed in our governments, our leaders and our sources of information to guide us to evolve as a species? The great weapon is art.
  • Joni Mitchell :

    TMCP-Joni 75 - A Birthday Celebration

     An incredible array of artists and musicians honor?one of the world's most revered artists, Joni Mitchell, on her 75th?birthday on "Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration.
  • Gernot Wolfgang :

    Vienna and the West

     Albany Records just released composer Gernot Wolfgang's chamber music CD VIENNA AND THE WEST.
  • VOCES8 :

    Enchanted Isle

     Voces8 releases Enchanted Isle, a new album of music reminiscent of rolling hills, green valleys, rugged mountainsides, and sleepy villages.
  • Craig Swanson :

    The French Suite Kit

     I have dreamed about The French Suite Kit ever since I first heard Glenn Gould talk about the possibility of a "New Listener" who would take some measure of control over their participation in the listening process.
  • Various :

    A Day In The Life: Impressions of Pepper

     Impulse! has brought together some of the great progressive jazz musicians of our time to pay tribute to The Beatles'Sgt.
  • John Coltrane :

    1963: New Directions

     A selection of Coltrane's 1963 Impulse! recordings, derived from the original albums Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Dear Old Stockholm, Newport ‘63 and Live at Birdland In the brief, bright arc that is the career of John Coltrane, 1963 marks a point of transition between past jazz masterpieces and future work, which would transcend the boundaries of the music itself.
  • Pablo Aslan :

    Contrabajo

     At the suggestion of bandoneonist, arranger, and composer Raúl Jaurena, I set out to create a body of work for bass and string quartet, in order to feature the bass not only as foundation and a melodic instrument, but as a driver of rhythm.
  • Cecilia Bartoli :

    Antonio Vivaldi

     Almost 20 years after her historic Vivaldi album, Cecilia Bartoli turns to the composer once again for her brand new solo recording, Antonio Vivaldi.

Rachel Barton Pine - Blues Dialogues is the WFMT: Featured New Release

Posted: November 16, 2018 12:00 AM | By: Admin
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Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, a longtime advocate for music by black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's frequent recital partner, joins her on Blues Dialogues, their third album together on the Chicago-based label Cedille. World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes, based on American fiddle tunes, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata/tone poem written as a response to a fatal shooting by police. Another premiere is Wendell Logan's violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's 1935 composition, In a Sentimental Mood.

Rachel Barton Pine - Blues Dialogues is the WFMT: Chicago 'Featured New Release'

Crossover Media Projects with Rachel Barton Pine

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Blues Dialogues - Music by Black Composers

    Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Cedille Records' best-selling artist and longtime advocate for music by Black composers, performs a program of blues-influenced classical works for solo violin and violin and piano by Black composers of the 20th and 21st centuries on Blues Dialogues: Music by Black Composers, her newest Cedille Records album. Pianist Matthew Hagle, Pine's longtime recital partner, joins her on their third album together on Cedille and Pine's 21st for the Chicago-based label.

    'Blues Dialogues' features several world-premiere recordings: Noel Da Costa's A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin, Dolores White's expanded, four-movement version of her Blues Dialogues for solo violin, and Billy Childs's Incident on Larpenteur Avenue, a single-movement violin sonata exploring the events and impact of the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer.

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos w/BBC Symphony Orch

    Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos, recorded with Maestro Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The album marks her 36th recording and fourth album on Avie records (AV 2375). Pine's previous three Avie albums, Mozart: Complete Violin Concertos with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other works for solo violin; andTestament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, all debuted at the top of the Billboard Classical charts (positions 3, 3, and 1, respectively).

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices

    Rachel Barton Pine has released - Bel Canto Paganini: 24 Caprices and other Works for Solo Violin. A musical tightrope that samples virtually all of the most challenging techniques possible on the violin, this, Pine's 35th album will mark her third release on Avie records and makes her the first American-born female violinist to record this repertoire. In tribute to Paganini's legendary cultivation of his devilish reputation, the album was released in stores in May, the same month as his death

    6 NEW  134 TOTAL
    SYND:     Classical 24, TRH, CBC
    Direct: SiriusXM, MOOD, AccuRadio 
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Seattle, Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, Portland, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Austin, Denver, Memphis, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Buffalo, CO(Statewide), NE(Statewide), MN(Statewide), IA(Statewide), IN(Statewide), WI(Statewide), VT(Statewide), TX(Statewide), SC(Statewide), WV(Statewide)
    INTER: Canada, Ireland, Brazil
    Online: beyondcriticism.com, The Listener's Club , BroadwayWorld

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Testament: Bach Sonatas/Partitas for Solo Violin

    RACHEL BARTON PINE   RELEASES TESTAMENT:
    COMPLETE SONATAS AND PARTITAS FOR SOLO VIOLIN BY JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
    ON AVIE RECORDS

    Pine Is The Only American Gold Medalist of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, Germany
    Album Release Coincides with Bach's March 21 Birthday

    In celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's March 21 birthday, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine releases her recording Testament: Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach.

    The album – her second on Avie Records – is available for sale on April 1.

    Johann Sebastian Bach's contributions to classical music are universally acknowledged and celebrated as among the most significant and profound. His contrapuntal writing continues to set the standard by which any musical composition is judged. Among the greatest examples of his mastery of counterpoint, the Six Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin are a cornerstone of every violinist's study and repertoire. 

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Mozart Violin Concertos | Sinfonia Concertante

    In connection with Mozart's birthday on January 27, Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine debuts on AVIE records performing the five Mozart Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364 with Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The two-album set will be released January 13 and also features the recording debut of violist Matthew Lipman.

    79 NEW -  177 Total
    SYND:     Classical 24, Performance Today, CBC
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice, Spafax, MOOD, Bloomberg
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Portland, Detroit, Baltimore, Denver, Pittsburgh, Austin, New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, Madison, Honolulu, Canada
    Online: ClassicallyHip, Taintradio, Daily Beast, Classical Candor, Classicalite

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Mendelssohn & Schumann Violin Concertos

    Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine performs early Romantic concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann with Christoph-Mathias Mueller conducting Germany's Göttinger Symphonie Orchestera on the new album Mendelssohn & Schumann Violin Concertos (Cedille Records CDR 90000 144). Following critically praised and commercially successful recordings of the violin concertos of Brahms and Beethoven, the internationally acclaimed musician interprets two more major works of the violin literature. 

    30 New 'ON' /   89 Total
    SYND:     PRI/Classical 24
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice, MOOD
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Seattle, St. Louis, Cincinatti, Denver, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Detroit, Austin, Memphis, Madison WI, Tucson, Louisville, Buffalo NY, Omaha, Honolulu

  • Rachel Barton Pine

    Capricho Latino

    Violinist Rachel Barton Pine's 'Capricho Latino', on Cedille Records, takes listeners on a rare tour of Latin-flavored music strictly for solo violin. With 14 works from the late-Romantic era to present day, and written by composers from Latin America, Spain, and greater Europe, the disc includes world premiere recordings by Isaac Albeniz, Roque Cordero, Cesar Espejo, Luis Jorge Gonzalez, Jose White, Jose Serebrier, and Astor Piazzolla. Additional composers include: Manuel Quiroga: Eugene Ysaye, Francisco Tarrega, Joaquin Rodrigo, and Alan Ridout in 'Ferdinand the Bull', narrated by Hector Elizondo

    3 New 'ON' this week: 96 Total
    SYND: The Romantic Hours, PRI/Classical 24, APM/Performance Today
    Direct: SiriusXM, Music Choice
    Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Wash DC, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Denver, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Purto Rico
    Online: Taintradio, KIHT, WGOE