Peter Tchaikovsky/Victor Kissine "Piano Trio"

Peter Tchaikovsky/Victor Kissine

Piano Trios

Gidon Kremer: violin

Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė: violoncello

Khatia Buniatishvili: piano

Two compositions bracketing the history of Russian chamber music. A revelatory account of Tchaikovsky’s piano trio op.50, juxtaposed with Victor Kissine’s “Zerkalo” of 2009, a work dedicated to performers Kremer, Dirvanauskaite and Buniatshvikli, and inspired by two lines from Anna Akhmatova: “The mirror dreams only of the mirror / Silence watches over silence.” Issued on the eve of a major tour with dates in both Europe and Japan, and with Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and Lithuanian cellist Giedrė Dirvanauskaitė hailed as two of the most gifted players of their generation, this newest project from Gidon Kremer is certain to be one of the events of the season.

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Craig Taborn "Avenging Angel"

Craig Taborn

Avenging Angel

Craig Taborn: piano

“Avenging Angel” is Craig Taborn’s distinguished contribution to the great solo piano tradition at ECM, a powerful, purposeful and rigorous album, which rises to the challenges of the format and transcends them. The disc explores the textural dimensions of sound, builds new structures, uncovers a rugged lyricism. Recorded in the optimal acoustics of the recital room at Lugano’s Studio RSI, with Manfred Eicher producing, it’s Taborn’s first disc under his own name for ECM, following on from inspired sessions with Roscoe Mitchell, Evan Parker, David Torn and Michael Formanek.

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience, here is the link to the page on Amazon where you can preorder:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SQAF70?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B004SQAF70

Thomas Zehetmair / Ruth Killius

Manto and Madrigal

Thomas Zehetmair: violin

Ruth Killius: viola

Violinist Thomas Zehetmair whose recent Paganini recording from St. Gerold met with overwhelming critical acclaim last year and violist Ruth Killius have shared many years as musical collaborators in the Zehetmair quartet. The couple’s spectacular duo performance at last autumn’s ECM festival in Mannheim raised the expectactions for their new programme, a carefully composed anthology of contemporary pieces for violin and viola. Next to Bohuslav Martinů’s virtuosic and accessible “Madrigals”, written in 1946 in American exile, the central piece here is “Drei Skizzen” by Heinz Holliger, a triptychon with the instruments tuned in the scordatura of Mozart’s fomous “Sinfonia concertante” for violin, viola and orchestra. It was commissioned by the duo as an encore piece for their frequent renderings of Mozart’s masterworks on the concert platform. Its first movement “Pirouetts harmoniques” is entirely based on shimmering harmonics, whereas the second one is an exuberant perpetuum mobile. The cycle concludes with a six-part chorale that requires both string players to hum an extra voice. This idea, which is realised by the duo to a most stunning effect effect, was itself inspired by Giancinto Scelsi’s solo piece “Manto” for a “singing viola player”. The programme is complemented by compositions by Nikos Skalkottas, Béla Bartók and short pieces by Rainer Killius and Johannes Nied.

You should be able to find this album in fine record stores but for your convenience, here is the link to the page on Amazon where you can order:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038QBP7U?ie=UTF8&tag=various02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0038QBP7U