KBACH's First Take

Arthur Sullivan is famous for the comic operettas he wrote with wordsmith William S. Gilbert. A new debut album from tenor David Webb features many excerpts from G&S, as they’re known, but also a few of Sullivan’s more serious efforts. The Academy of Ancient Music lends a distinctly Victorian tint to the instrumental accompaniment. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with Webb.More info is at Resonus Classics.

Cincinnati-based composer Rick Sowash has released a new album of his music for clarinet and piano on his RSP Classics label. The release, Full Circle, features clarinetist Christopher Bade with KBACH's Greg Kostraba at the piano. Greg talked with Sowash about his varied career, his love of writing for the clarinet, and the music on the new release. The album is available through Kickshaw Records.

The Apollo Chamber Players consistently explore contemporary American culture on their albums. We the People features recent commissions often with texts reflective of aspects of democracy and the experience of ethnically diverse groups in the US. The wide variety of textures includes narrator, electric violin, a student choir, and soloists. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with ensemble founder Matthew Detrick. 

The combination of clarinet, viola, and piano was established by Mozart in his "Kegelstatt" Trio, K.498. A new recording of that masterpiece with clarinetist Luigi Magistrelli also has three other pieces by composers following in Mozart's footsteps after his lifetime. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Magistrelli about the album and his large instrument collection.See album details at Brilliant Classics.

Susan Graham is one of America’s most recognized mezzo-sopranos. Her first recording of Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa was in the role of Erika and a new recording features her as the Baroness. From July 18 to August 19 Graham appears in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Santa Fe Opera. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with her about the roles and the special significance of Santa Fe. 

In his third installment of Mendelssohn's solo piano music, Peter Donohoe turns to the seldom-heard sonatas and some of the more virtuosic short works. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with him about Mendelssohn's relationship with other composers like Beethoven and Liszt.More details at the Chandos website.

Perhaps no composer is so associated with the splendor of Louis XIV's court as Jean-Baptiste Lully. Soprano Marie Lys sings the title role of Lully's opera Proserpine, the mythological daughter of Jupiter abducted to the underworld by Pluto on a new recording. She also has a solo album of Handel cantatas forthcoming. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Lys.Referenced recordings available from the Château de Versailles Spectacles website and Presto Music.Photo credit: Bernard Martinez.

Music by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George, has received a strong revival in the past decade. A new album from Romuald Grimbert-Barré combines concertos of Saint-George with a new work by Thierry Pécou illustrating aspects of the earlier composer's dramatic life during the royal and revolutionary eras in France, and his Caribbean heritage. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Grimbert-Barré. Details available at the Aparté Music website.Photo credit: Marc de Pierrefeu.

Prolific contemporary composer Reena Esmail has written a harp and percussion concerto in which Yolanda Kondonassis plays all the instruments. Called "Terra Infirma," it is a response to the recent Los Angeles fires in which Esmail was displaced. It has elements of poetry, choreography, and drama besides music. The album also has two other pieces by the composer and soloist. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Kondonassis. More details on the recording available at: Jensen ArtistsPhoto credit: Laura Watilo Blake

ASU associate professor of piano Cathal Breslin has released a new solo album with the complete ballades of Chopin. It's called Stories and Soundscapes and also features music of John Field and Linda Buckley. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Breslin.For more details or to purchase Cathal Breslin's album, visit bluegriffin.com.

Reynaldo Hahn has always been celebrated for his songs but his chamber music was neglected until the 21st century. The Tchalik family of musicians is now the first ensemble to record all his major chamber music with strings and piano. Some pieces on this second volume have never previously been recorded, including the unfinished piano trio. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Louise and Marc Tchalik. Details: alkonostclassic.com

Photo credit: Andrew FoxClassical music lovers are familiar with the legacy recording label Deutsche Grammophon. For the first time DG has released the symphonies of William Walton, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra led by Kazuki Yamada. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with one of the orchestra's leading violinists, Richard Thomas, fresh off the ensemble's tour.Find out more about this album

Alessandro Scarlatti wrote hundreds of cantatas for the soprano voice in the Baroque era. A small percentage use a string ensemble; some of those are featured on a new album by Francesca Aspromonte titled "Vieni, o Notte" (Come, oh Night) with the ensemble Arsenale Sonoro directed by Boris Begelman. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Aspromonte on First Take. Details

Violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua takes Mozart as a starting point on her new album, "Mozartiana." It features composers inspired by him, often incorporating fragments of his music into their own. Some are historical like F.X. Mozart (Wolfgang's son), Beethoven, and Hindemith, but there are also pieces newly written for the album. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Bevilacqua. View details at https://www.berlin-classics-music.com/en/album/885470044910-mozartiana/

Edward Elgar felt his dramatic depiction of a man on his deathbed followed by the soul in the afterlife was his greatest music up to that point. It was controversial for being explicitly Catholic in England which still looked with suspicion on the religion in 1900. A new recording features the Huddersfield Choral Society which first recorded the complete piece in 1945 and whose story has parallels with the recent film "The Choral," in which a fictional amateur choir produces Elgar's masterpiece during WWI. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with the conductor of the album, Martyn Brabbins. Details about the film similarities are found in the program notes online of the recording below.DetailsThe Choral

Harpsichordist Gabriel Smallwood has recorded pieces by the young J.S. Bach alongside less famous composers found in manuscripts that Bach would have known while growing up. The album "Juvenilia" gives a seldom-seen picture of how Bach developed his own musical voice. Michael Keelan talked with Smallwood on First Take. For more details, visit https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/juvenilia

Eugène Ysaÿe was one of the most prominent violinists in Europe during the Impressionist era of the late 19th to early 20th century. His original music is in that style but also uses the demanding techniques of virtuoso showpieces. A new album from violinist and Royal College of Music professor Natalia Lomeiko features the accompanied works of Ysaÿe, just as dramatic and impressive as his familiar solo sonatas. Michael Keelan talked with her on First Take.Details: https://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100429-ysaye/

Cellist Michelle Kesler is from Gilbert and attended ASU; she is now associate professor of cello at Brigham Young University. She and cellist Miranda Wilson have recorded six sonatas by French musician Michel Corrette, important for his descriptions of performance and teaching through most of the 18th century. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Kesler about the process of recording the album and why Corrette was significant to the cello. Details: https://www.msrclassics.com/catalog/ms1832/

Conductor Kevin Sherwin has arranged excerpts of Karl Goldmark's 1875 grand opera Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) for his ensemble The American Romantics. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Sherwin about the opera's significance, the process of arranging it, and stylistic considerations in performing music from the era based on the evidence of early recordings. Details: https://americanromantics.org/

The Chicago-based ATLYS Quartet recently released a recording of the Sonnenberg Suite by Ari Fisher, music inspired by the Sonnenberg Gardens in upstate New York. Greg Kostraba chatted with two of the quartet's members, violinist Jinty McTavish and cellist Genevieve Tabby, about the release, the genesis of the ensemble, and their innovative process of remote recording. https://atlysmusic.com/product-category/cds/