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Contemporary Music Recordings
Featured
Recording
Alexina Louie (1949- )
Obsessions (Their Own Words) (1993); Arc (1993); Thunder Gate (1991)
Shattered Night, Shivering Stars (1997); Love Songs for a Small Planet (1989/1995)
Russell Braun (baritone); National Arts Centre Orchestra; Mario Bernardi (conductor);
Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra; Martin Beaver (violin); The Camerata Singers of Ottawa
CBC SMCD5190
This commentator was shocked to hear (in the fall of 2000) Canadian actor Mike Meyers tell David Letterman that Canada was a land "with no classical music of its own." With outstanding discs like this one, CBC Records proves on a monthly basis the falsity of such statements. Alexina Louie, a Vancouver native, is an outstandingly talented, technically polished, imaginative and distinctive composer, who (like many of her Canadian colleagues) seems to have an attraction to musical environments of vastness with an underlying gentleness. Each of the five works presented here is for a different performing force. All the performances are wholly convincing and the sound by producer Randall Barnard and engineer Anton Kwaitkowski is always attractive, if studio-like.
Obsessions (Their Own Words) (1993) is a fifteen-minute solo cantata for baritone and orchestra, on words from letters of Monet and Van Gogh, written for a museum opening and performed well by Russell Braun, with Mario Bernardi and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Arc (1993) is a short and intense violin concerto, with an able performance by Martin Beaver (though I would like to hear a powerhouse fiddler like Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg take it up). Beaver also plays (and very well, giving the writer no occasion to wonder if another violinist would do better) the solo part on Thunder Gate (1991), written as a test piece for a music competition and thus very difficult. The other two works are (in this writer's estimation) the most characteristic of Louie's work in general: carefully applied musical color painting scenes of infinity. They are the orchestral work Shattered Night, Shivering Stars (1997), and the choral Love Songs for a Small Planet (1989/1995) in its version with string orchestra accompaniment. The Camerata Singers of Ottawa show great ability. A strongly recommended disc . . .
- Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide
... to read more click here
*** Click here to hear excerpts from this CBC disc ***
. . . also check itunes . . .
Check here for more information
Alexina Louie (1949- )
Obsessions (Their Own Words) (1993); Arc (1993); Thunder Gate (1991)
Shattered Night, Shivering Stars (1997); Love Songs for a Small Planet (1989/1995)
Russell Braun (baritone); National Arts Centre Orchestra; Mario Bernardi (conductor);
Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra; Martin Beaver (violin); The Camerata Singers of Ottawa
CBC SMCD5190
This commentator was shocked to hear (in the fall of 2000) Canadian actor Mike Meyers tell David Letterman that Canada was a land "with no classical music of its own." With outstanding discs like this one, CBC Records proves on a monthly basis the falsity of such statements. Alexina Louie, a Vancouver native, is an outstandingly talented, technically polished, imaginative and distinctive composer, who (like many of her Canadian colleagues) seems to have an attraction to musical environments of vastness with an underlying gentleness. Each of the five works presented here is for a different performing force. All the performances are wholly convincing and the sound by producer Randall Barnard and engineer Anton Kwaitkowski is always attractive, if studio-like.
Obsessions (Their Own Words) (1993) is a fifteen-minute solo cantata for baritone and orchestra, on words from letters of Monet and Van Gogh, written for a museum opening and performed well by Russell Braun, with Mario Bernardi and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Arc (1993) is a short and intense violin concerto, with an able performance by Martin Beaver (though I would like to hear a powerhouse fiddler like Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg take it up). Beaver also plays (and very well, giving the writer no occasion to wonder if another violinist would do better) the solo part on Thunder Gate (1991), written as a test piece for a music competition and thus very difficult. The other two works are (in this writer's estimation) the most characteristic of Louie's work in general: carefully applied musical color painting scenes of infinity. They are the orchestral work Shattered Night, Shivering Stars (1997), and the choral Love Songs for a Small Planet (1989/1995) in its version with string orchestra accompaniment. The Camerata Singers of Ottawa show great ability. A strongly recommended disc . . .
- Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide
... to read more click here
*** Click here to hear excerpts from this CBC disc ***
. . . also check itunes . . .
Check here for more information
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Here are some
of the many record labels that feature contemporary art music.
Tell us about any others you know of - we'd love to add them to our growing list.
Tell us about any others you know of - we'd love to add them to our growing list.
Contemporary Music Recordings
Albany Records
alt-classical.com
Atopos
Blipfonica
Bridge Records
Cedille Records - contemporary
Centrediscs (Canadian Music Centre)
EMC (Experimental Music Catalog)
ERM Media
empreintes DIGITALes
Fleur de Son Classics
Innova Recordings (The Label of the American Composers Forum)
itunes
Komplott
last.fm
Métier Records
Mode Records
MSR Classics - contemporary
Musica Omnia - 20th century
musicnow
Mythical Records
Novona Records
Naxos
New Albion Records
New Amsterdam Records
New Focus Recordings
New Music from Indiana University: Volumes 1 and 2
New Tertian Recordings
New World Records
Nonesuch Records
numusic.org
Passionato.com
Rhapsody.com
Toccata Classics
Trace Label (Paris, France)
Vienna Modern Masters
Zimbel Records
. . . other labels (thanks to Neue Musik @ University of Hamburg)
Check out the Pytheas Featured Recordings Archive
In addition
to individual record labels, contemporary recordings can be
searched
by the composer's name at such sites as:
by the composer's name at such sites as:
Amazon.com
ArkivMusic.com
CD Baby: Music Now
ClassicsOnline: 20th Century or Contemporary or by Composer
e classical: Contemporary
ArkivMusic.com
CD Baby: Music Now
ClassicsOnline: 20th Century or Contemporary or by Composer
e classical: Contemporary
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