Violinist Siwoo Kim and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra perform the new contemplative violin concerto by American composer Michael Torke. GRAMMY award-winning Pacific Quartet dives into rarely-heard gems by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. In another rare reveal, violinist Geneva Lewis and pianist Clare Hammond join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to perform music by the notoriously self-critical composer Grace Williams. Francesco Tristano continues what he calls his “great life project” to record Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete catalogue: in this latest release, he features Bach’s seven Toccatas. And finally, we continue to add to the plenitude of new Christmas music with the new album from Christopher Gray and the St. John’s College Choir Cambridge.
New Releases Nov. 25: Works to Cherish
Violinist Geneva Lewis and pianist Clare Hammond are soloists join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for another released this calendar year celebrating the music of Grace Williams. The Welsh composer held herself and her art to the highest standards, withdrawing and destroying scores which failed to live up to her ideals. Her Violin Concerto was only performed a few times, and in fact she herself was critical of the work, writing on the manuscript “second movement worth performing, first and third not good enough.” About the Sinfonia Concertante, a very complimentary review in Seen and Heard International said “one suspects that in the 1940s this music would have been regarded as the height of modernity.” The reviewer also “wonder[ed] yet again at the composer’s apparent willingness to consign so many of her earlier works to oblivion.”
Francesco Tristano’s latest album, the third in the pianist’s “great life project” to record Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete catalogue, features the seven Toccatas, BWV 910-916. The Toccatas probably date to around 1707-1715, though no autograph manuscript has survived and their precise origins remain unknown. It is not clear if the Toccatas were written to provide training materials for his pupils, were meant to be performed as a cohesive group, or were simply studies in style. Bach – in his early 20’s but by then thoroughly immersed in the music of Northern Germany – was studying with composer Dietrich Buxtehude and became captivated by Buxtehude’s “stylus fantasticus,” a free and unrestrained compositional method. The young composer began writing more ambitious, virtuosic pieces in which the strictness of Italian and German masters like Frescobaldi, Reincken, or Froberger would be combined with a contrapuntal ingenuity far beyond the norm to form the keystone of his creativity. As with the other albums in this series, the booklet is adorned with a new series of vividly contrasting photographs by Tristano’s artistic collaborator Breno Rotatori.
The latest album from the prolific American composer Michael Torke’s features violinist Siwoo Kim and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra performing Torke’s violin concerto Last. Torke describes the work as “twelve slow, moody compositions for solo violin and strings, that are almost like 2nd movements of violin concertos.” Each movement – with names such as “Last Night”, “Last Month”, “Last Year” – is roughly four minutes in length, allowing the listener to dip in and out at will, or even listen in a different order. Torke’s program note reads: “The Stoics recommend we live in the present: to fret over the past or stress about the future is counterproductive because these lie beyond our control. But I think there are other ways to respond to the past. We can cherish and even mourn what is no longer present. For me, our past populates our present, whether it be last year, last month, last week, or last Sunday.”
GRAMMY Award-winning Pacifica Quartet presents a landmark recording featuring the Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s complete string quartets and rarely heard chamber works. The album traces the composer’s remarkable evolution from a prodigy of post-imperial Vienna to a pioneering film composer in Hollywood. “It’s amazing to see how well the music is written,” says Pacifica Quartet cellist Brandon Vamos. “It has emotion that really reaches a listener , and we hope people will realize the greatness of this music.” Collaborating with pianist Orion Weiss, violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Eric Kim, the program includes the String Quartets Nos. 1–3, Piano Quintet in E Major, and String Sextet in D Major.
The St John’s College Choir Cambridge presents their second album led by their new music director Christopher Gray. At the center of the program are the atmospheric Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël by Francis Poulenc, and the heartfelt Three Carol-Anthems by Herbert Howells who directed the St John’s Choir during the Second World War. Other selections include the carol John Rutter wrote for the Choir in 1985, “There is a flower,” and the haunting “Peace on Earth” by Errollyn Wallen, appointed Master of the King’s Music in 2024. “My aim with this album has not been to break new ground with repertoire, but to ensure that classics remain fresh for the current generation” – Christopher Gray
