April 6, 2018 Trois excellents musiciens canadiens pour un chef-d’œuvre en forme de trio et quelques arrangements de Bach signés Mozart : c’est l’album Mozart Divertimento and Preludes to Bach de Jonathan […]
March 25, 2018 Virtuose polnische Musik für Klavierduo Das polnische Klavierduo ‘Ravel Piano Duo’ hat bei Dux schon 2015 ein Album veröffentlicht, das ein Programm mit wenig bekannter Duo-Musik des […]
March 23, 2018 James Jolly’s weekly playlist of new releases and archive favourites, including a ‘new’ recording from Alfred Brendel and magnificent Schumann from the Elias Quartet Two major Romantic […]
We’re thrilled that the latest release from the PENTATONE Oxingale Series is here for your listening pleasure on all digital platforms. Click here for streaming and downloads of MOZART DIVERTIMENTO […]
Available now! Mozart’s brilliance at the keyboard is well known, but it was his joy in play¬ing the viola – and the musical dialogue and kinship of […]
October 19, 2017 For their latest CD release, called Troika, cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley knew they wanted to include the sonatas of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff. They included shorter works by each, […]
Available now! Matt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each of […]
August 1, 2016 Heitor Villa-Lobos called Bach “…a kind of universal folkloric source, rich and profound.” He mined a particularly rich Bachian vein throughout his career, as have so many […]
August 1, 2016 Matt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each […]
Available Now! The fifth album to be released in the PENTATONE Oxingale series since PENTATONE and Oxingale Records joined forces in February 2015 combines two great masterpieces of […]
Haimovitz gives thoughtful and well-considered performances of these seminal works in resonant sound that captures his baroque cello and cello piccolo (Suite 6) in terrific sonics. I won’t harp yet again on the felicities of recording solo and small ensembles in surround sound—often more than the largest Mahler symphony, these sorts of settings benefit from the finest sound, allowing the most subtle of expressions to come across as if one was sitting directly in the presence of these artists in the most intimate of listening spaces.
“In Matt Haimovitz’s impressive almost-two-and-a-half hour recording, we are taken on a journey through the dances most of us may have heard on separate occasions, one suite a a time, or programmed as stand-alone movements, but rarely had the opportunity to experience in such a neat unit. This rarity is a very special must-have for this reason. The album is full of Haimovitz’s personality, with distinctive expressive flourishes and quirks.”
“Haimovitz brings a beguiling lightness to the line that propels the listener from the sunny serenity of the Prelude to the moto perpetuo of the final Gigue, despite the deceptively complicated harmonic structure of that Suite as a whole. This, in turn, allows the almost preternatural control he displays in the Sarabande of the Fifth Suite to unravel it with all the desolation of a melodic line that has no hint of that previous complexity, and create the impact it should – as a profound statement of emotional isolation.”
Given his commitment to connecting with his audience, Haimovitz chose a unique way to share this passion with his listeners. He has commissioned preludes to the Six Solo Suites, created by contemporary composers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. “It’s a way to bring these suites into the 21st century,” he says, “to have living, breathing composers grapple with the materials, Bach’s musical building blocks, and find their own take on it.”
The six composers bringing contemporary vitality to Bach are Philip Glass, Luna Pearl Woolf, Du Yun, Vijay Iyer, Roberto Sierra, and Mohammed Fairouz. Haimovitz has encouraged them to draw on folk melodies, just as Bach did in his day. As we spoke, the pieces were still being written, and Haimovitz’s excitement and anticipation is contagious.
Matt Haimovitz makes us take conscience about how this music is still alive, breathing and refusing to be encased in a stylistic protective shell.
Matt Haimovitz nous fait ainsi prendre conscience que cette musique est bien vivante, qu’elle respire et qu’elle refuse de se laisser emmurer dans une coquille protectrice stylistique.
November 12, 2015 Matt Haimovitz’s attitude toward his 1710 cello is that “it’s survived 300 years, and if you take good care of it I’m not going to be afraid […]
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