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February 20 , 2006
Coming soon on ECM New Series
The ECM New Series 2006 schedule is already off to a strong start with the Hilliard Ensemble’s beautiful performance of Nicolas Gombert’s "Missa Media vita" and motets, and Stephen Stubbs’ s leader debut for the label,"Teatro Lirico"which features innovative renderings of early 17th century music.
The following albums are due in the weeks and months ahead:
György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente
Coinciding with György Kurtág's 80th birthday on February 19, ECM releases an outstanding new recording of one of the Hungarian master’s most personal works: Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, composed in a creative rush in 1985/86, is a stunning array of 40 musical miniatures of poetic compression on texts from Kafka’s letters and diaries which circle around the central metaphor of the “True path” in life and art. An emotional tour de force delivered with both subtleness and virtuosic commitment by two of the most accomplished musicians of our times.
ECM 1965 Release date: February 13
Rolf Lislevand: Nuove musiche
Nuove musiche, Rolf Lislevand’s debut for ECM, bears all the earmarks of a manifesto. His vibrant and literally unheard-of readings of early 17th century music from Italy are as immediately compelling as any 'new music'. Improvisation, an essential component of all baroque music, here ventures to the realms of Spanish flamenco or Celtic folk, overturning the conventions of historically informed performance: Yet Rolf Lislevand, one of today’s foremost baroque lutenists and his ensemble develop their rhythmically infectious renderings directly from the music’s own elements.
ECM 1922 Release date: March 10
Michelle Makarski: To Be Sung on the Water
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), the “maestro delle nazioni”, as he was called by his contemporaries, always strived for a “singing” and melodious character in his music. His “piccolo sonate” for unaccompanied violin, normally set in three movements, are pieces of serene beauty in which the transition from late baroque to pre-classic styles is clearly palpable. Michelle Makarski whose innovative programming on her former ECM records has won her much critical acclaim combines three of these sonatas with two intriguing works by American composer Donald Crockett.
ECM 1965 Release date: March 10
András Schiff: Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. II
International press reactions to the first volume of András Schiff’s Beethoven cycle were unanimous in their praise and almost all the critics expressed their high expectations for the edition as a whole. “If the first volume (superbly recorded and annotated by ECM) is anything to go by, this Beethoven cycle will not only provoke and illuminate but give the lie to those who wonder if there is room for yet another” (Gramophone). Volume II, again recorded live in Zürich on two different pianos, offers four masterly works of not yet thirty-years-old Beethoven, including the famous Grande Sonate Pathétique.
ECM 1942 Release date: March 10
Tigran Mansurian: Ars Poetica
Ars Poetica is a concerto for choir a cappella, a work of more than 45 minutes based on texts by Yeghishe Tcharents (1897-1937), the foremost Armenian poet of the 20th century whose works were banned by the Stalinist regime. Tigran Mansurian had long admired Tcharents and between 1996 and 2000 selected ten of his poems “dealing with the relationship between life and poetry”. This world premier recording of Ars poetica was made in Yerevan with the participation of the composer.
ECM 1895 Release date: April 4
Giacinto Scelsi: Natura Renovatur
The first New Series CD entirely devoted to the music of Giacinto Scelsi is a special event. No one understands Scelsi’s music better then Frances-Marie Uitti, who collaborated closely with the reclusive Italian composer for the last 13 years of his life, and played a significant role in bringing his work to international attention. Scelsi subsequently dedicated his piece “Ygghur” to Uitti; it is one three compositions for cello alone that she plays here. Scelsi’s orchestral music also gets a hearing, through the sensitive direction of Christoph Poppen, as the Munich Chamber Orchestra plays “Ohoi”, “Natura Renovatur”, and “Anâgâmin”. Orchestral or solo, these are authoritative, luminous performances that get to the heart of what Scelsi called the ‘sphericity’ of sound.
ECM 1963 Release date: April 4
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