53
NAXOS OF AMERICA | NAXOS OF CANADA | NEW RELEASE GUIDE
CLASSICAL AUDIO
8225848 | 636943584828
1 CD | SRP
US
$16.99
CA
$20.99
MARCO POLO
COMPOSER: Various
ARTIST: Koo Kwokkuen
SCENES FROM CHINA AND
PIANO MUSIC OF WANG
LISAN
8225849 | 636943584927
1 CD | SRP
US
$16.99
CA
$20.99
MARCO POLO
COMPOSER: Various
ARTIST: Koo Kwokkuen
DANCES FROM CHINA
· In recent years, music written for the
piano in China has relied heavily on
folk-song for its thematic material.
It has continued the tradition of
program music, in a country where
abstract art is a foreign concept.
·
In common with other cultures
much of Chinese folk-music is based
on a five-note scale, which can be
represented on the black notes of
the piano. These notes compose the
pentatonic scale, therefore it is the
pentatonic folk-tune that has come
to dominate contemporary Chinese
music and it's foreign imitators.
· Folk-dance has always been of
importance in peasant communities.
China, with its wide variety of climate
and terrain, has an equally wide
variety of regional dances.
·
On the present record a number
of these are collected in versions
designed by modern Chinese
composers for the piano. Included is
part of the famous Mermaid Suite,
a revolutionary ballet that formed
part of the limited repertoire opern to
trained dancers in 70's.
·
A number of pieces recorded here are
based on dances from the remote
ateas of China.
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
01-04. Symphony No. 1
05. Balakirev - Tamara
TRACK LIST:
SYMPHONY NO. 1
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
COMPOSER:
Mily Balakirev; Sergei
Rachmaninov
ARTIST:
London Symphony Orchestra
·
Valery Gergiev (conductor)
LSO0784 | 822231178422
1 Hybrid SACD | SRP
US
$14.99
CA
$17.99
· This new release in the LSO Live cycle of Rachmaninov's complete symphonies features his Symphony No. 1. The piece was composed in 1895 at his Ivanovka estate in
Tambov, Russia. The premiere was a disaster due to poor conductor performance and under-rehearsal, but the score was rediscovered after the composer's death and
has since been frequently performed.
·
English composer and professor Robert Simpson calls the First Symphony "a powerful work in its own right... convinced, individual, finely constructed, and achieving a
genuinely tragic and heroic expression." Valery Gergiev is able to shine with this work, displaying his impeccable transparent interpretation.
·
Also included on this release is Balakirev's Tamara. A member of Russia's "Mighty Handful," this work is considered by most scholars to be Balakirev's best work. The score
drips with exotic and oriental influences, which were popular in nineteenth century Russia.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
LSO0779
822231177920