The Whole Music Experience

Since 2012 marks a special year, in celebration of global music, I'm hosting a top 5 CDs thus far.  I am posting YouTube videos for 4 of the top albums. Support these artist. 1. The Toure-Raichel Collective, The Tel Aviv Session, Cumbancha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A0VXjKwYHs&feature=related 2. Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat, Twinklings of hope, Kirkelig Kulturverksted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-TlFCIoRUI 3. Ahmad Jamal, Blue Moon, Jazz Village (Harmonia Mundi) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUvkO4A5Vo 4. Gregory Porter, Be Good, Motema http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvpIgHBSdo 5. Alexander Melnikov, Shostakovich Piano Concertos & Sonata for Violin and Piano, Harmonia Mundi

Shostakovich Piano Concertos Alexander Melnikov Mahler Chamber Orchestra Harmonia Mundi Russian composers came to my attention during the past decade, with the wild piano concertos of Rachmaninoff to the playful and provocative works by Prokofiev.  Now I am listening to early piano concertos by Dmitry Shostakovich as they appear on Shostakovich Piano Concertos and Sonata for Violin and Piano op. 134 as performed by Alexander Melnikov (piano), Isabelle Faust (violin), Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet), and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra directed by Teodor Currentzis.  The music here runs the gamut from playful and spirited, to solemn to disturbing ( Sonata for Violin and Piano). The program on the recording contrasts the kinetic energy of a young Russian composer, Piano Concertos 1 & 2 with the dark and dissonant Sonata for Violin and Piano, op.134 , which I just could not sit and listen to without feeling extremely tense. While I understand intellectually tha...

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov Beethoven Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin Harmonia Mundi If someone wanted to become intimate with the Romantic musician-composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), spending time with the composer’s scores would certainly open a door. Many classically-trained musicians and scholars delved into the German composer’s scores, though barely decipherable given the composer’s messy handwriting and equally messy palette of raw emotions Beethoven brought to his sonatas and other work. And the musicians would also discover when researching the composer that he started out as a violinist and even mastered the instrument, though piano turned out to be his forte (pun intended). Hungarian pianist and Beethoven interpreter Andràs Schiff recorded the entire cycle of the German composer’s piano sonatas for ECM Records, with the last recording of the series released in 2009. Now, German violinist Isabelle Faust and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov...