Karisa Chiu, finalist of Cedille Reocrds’ 2021 Emerging Artist Competition, joins forces with Zhu Wang to explore Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, as well as Chinese and Korean heritage. JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic explore Spain through the eyes of three French composers: Claude Debussy, Jacques Ibert, and Maurice Ravel. The latter is also honored in a three-hour compendium from L’Orchestre Nationale de France that celebrates the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth. Also on this week’s releases, an album in honor of Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday, and a new release from the ensemble led by lutenist Thomas Dunford.
New Releases Sept. 23: Coming Home
Karisa Chiu (Photo: Cristina Cutts)
Georgijs Osokins, a proud advocate of the rarely celebrated musical heritage of the Baltic states, presents an album of works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who turns 90 this year. For Arvo features Pärt’s complete solo piano works as well as Osokins’s own transcriptions of several other famous pieces, including Fratres. This album marks Latvian-born pianist’s first solo recording on Deutsche Grammophon. In preparing for the recording, Osokins was able to learn both from his mentor Gidon Kremer, a renowned Pärt specialist, and from the composer himself and those close to him. “In Georgijs,” says Kremer, “I see not just a remarkable pianist, but a true kindred spirit, someone deeply attuned to the spiritual core of Arvo’s music, and capable of carrying that voice forward for generations to come.”
In their newest release, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and Jupiter, the ensemble led by lutenist Thomas Dunford, present a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell. Repertoire includes Dowland’s Lachrimae and vocal works from his First and Second Book of Ayres, as well as selections from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen. Baritone Huw Montague Rendall makes a guest appearance in Purcell’s “Strike the Viol,” and Jupiter Vocal Ensemble members Laurence Kilsby, Jess Dandy, and Alex Rosen join Desandre as soloists on other featured tracks.
Rising American violinist Karisa Chiu — Cedille Records’ 2021 Emerging Artist Competition Finalist — and renowned Chinese pianist Zhu Wang unite for Chiu’s debut album, HOME. Influenced by her Chicago upbringing, pandemic discoveries, and Korean and Chinese family roots, the recording reflects the various interpretations of “home” in the 25-year-old violinist’s life. “This album is not only a story of what home means to me, but an invitation for you to reflect on the things in your life that define home,” says Chiu. Featured works include Sibelius’s Five Pieces, Op. 81; Augusta Read Thomas’s Incantation, and violin sonatas by Debussy and Fauré.
Music director JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in works by three French composers who saw Spain as a paradise of warmth, fragrance, and color, whether real or imagined. Debussy’s Images, Ibert’s Escales, and Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole show the considerable impact Spanish culture had on French composers in the early 20th century. “I have personally always been drawn to 20th century French repertoire, and the Buffalo Philharmonic has a gift for playing this music with an extraordinary sense of color, from the most subtle and muted to a blazing brilliance that paints a breath-taking landscape of sound.” –JoAnn Falletta
Daphnis et Chloé, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Ma Mère l’Oye anchor this new three CD box set of orchestral works by Maurice Ravel, recorded by the Orchestre National de France and its Music Director, Cristian Măcelaru at the Ravel Festival in Paris earlier this year. The festival marked the 150th anniversary of the French composer’s birth and celebrated the orchestra’s history. Ravel’s music remains central to its repertoire, and has been ever since its founding, in January 1934. Notably, Le Tombeau de Couperin is presented in a version respective of the order of the original piano suite and is also supplemented by David Molard Soriano’s two unpublished orchestrations. La Valse, Une barque sur l’océan, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Alborada del gracioso, Rapsodie espagnole, and Boléro complete this near three-hour compendium.
