On January 25th, ECM released two new albums:


Giya Kancheli
Themes From The Songbook

Dino Saluzzi: bandoneon
Gidon Kremer: violin
Andrey Pushkerev: vibraphone


A very special album for Giya Kancheli’s 75th birthday... When starting out on his career as a creator of symphonic and chamber music, the Georgian composer also wrote much incidental music for the theatre and the cinema. Though still little-known in the West, the film music was widely heard across the former Soviet Union and the themes here (there are 20 on the album) enjoyed great popularity.

ECM decided to invite Dino Saluzzi to revisit Kancheli’s music for stage and screen, in his personal and highly creative way. Simultaneously Gidon Kremer, an old friend and champion of Kancheli’s music, also expressed an interest in doing something special for Giya’s birthday. With both Kremer and Saluzzi on board, the project took on new dimensions. Finding links between the worlds – Kancheli’s, Kremer’s, and Saluzzi’s - is a task adroitly handled by Pushkarev. The vibraphonist, who works often with Kremerata Baltica, prepared arrangements realized with Kremer in Riga, and also worked in Oslo with Saluzzi, intuitively supporting Dino’s very relaxed approach to the material.

Nine of the featured themes derive from Kancheli’s collaborations with internationally acclaimed theatre director Robert Sturua. There are also themes from films by Revaz Chkeidze, Sergei Bodrov, Revaz Gabriadze, Lana Gogoberidze and others.

To sample a few tracks please click here: http://player.ecmrecords.com/kancheli


Erkki-Sven Tüür
Strata
Symphony No. 6
“Noesis“– Concerto for Violin and Clarinet

Carolin Widmann: violin
Jörg Widmann: clarinet
Nordic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anu Tali

“My pieces are abstract dramas in sound, with individual characters and an extremely dynamic chain of events; unfolding in a space that is constantly shifting, expanding and contracting.” Thus Erkki-Sven Tüür, characterizing his highly energetic recent works, and his new “vectorial” approach to writing music. The fifth New Series release dedicated exclusively to music by the Estonian composer presents world premiere recordings of two large-scale pieces for orchestral forces.

“Strata” and “Noёsis” are played by the Tallinn-based Nordic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of charismatic Estonian conductor Anu Tali. Both orchestra and conductor make their New Series debuts here. Gifted siblings Jörg and Carolin Widmann are the soloists on “Noёsis”. While Carolin has won unanimous critical acclaim for her renderings of Robert Schumann’s violin sonatas and for her 20th-century music recital “Phantasy of Spring”, Jörg Widmann counts among the pre-eminent young composers of our time, as well as one of the finest contemporary clarinetists.

Upcoming performances of music by Erkki-Sven Tüür in USA:
February 24, 25, 26 & March 1 – New York, NY - NY Philharmonic with Paavo Järvi conducting NY premiere of “Aditus”
http://nyphil.org/attend/season/index.cfm?page=eventDetail&eventNum=2105&performanceNum=3532&seasonNum=10&mI=0&sI=0

February 24 – Washington, DC - Portrait Concert with New Tallinn Trio at the Phillips Collection
http://www.phillipscollection.org/programs/music/2010-11.aspx

May 13 & 14 – Cincinnati, OH – NA premiere of piano concerto w/ Awadagin Pratt / Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Paavo Järvi conducting
http://cincinnatisymphony.org/Content.php?id=230


Starting January 25th, you should be able to find these albums in fine record stores but for your convenience, here are the links to the pages on Amazon.com where you can pre-order:
Giya Kancheli: http://www.amazon.com/Themes-Songbook-Giya-Kancheli/dp/B003T2OX8G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1294672906&sr=8-1
Erkki-Sven Tüür: http://www.amazon.com/T%C3%BC%C3%BCr-Strata-J%C3%B6rg-Widmann/dp/B0038QGXIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1294673113&sr=1-1