July 21, 2014
AVIE RECORDS UNVEILS RELEASES FOR 2014-15
AVIE Records
AVIE Records

AVIE Records’ schedule of releases for 2014-15 attests that the independent classical label continues to go from strength to strength. Maintaining its unique business model – under which artists maintain ownership of their recordings – AVIE’s season launches in September with the Mount Everest of operas, Wagner’s Ring recorded live at the Seattle Opera’s acclaimed 2013 production, and continues with a robust schedule that includes a number of artists who have been leading lights on the roster throughout the label’s 12 years. In addition, AVIE continues its association with SFS Media, the ground-breaking label of the San Francisco Symphony and its Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas.

September
For forty years, Seattle Opera has built an international reputation on its highly acclaimed live performances of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. For the first time, the company’s legendary Ring will be available in another format when AVIE releases a vibrant live recording from the company’s 2013 production. Commemorating the three-decade tenure of Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins, each of the Seattle Ring’s 14 CDs will be enclosed in colour cardboard wallets housed within a sturdy box together and five perfect-bound books – one for each of the Ring’s four librettos in original German with English translations, plus a commemorative full-colour booklet containing essays by Jenkins and numerous photos documenting the acclaimed 2013 Seattle Ring.

Stephen Darlington and The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford continue their exploration of music from the Eton Choirbook with Courts of Heaven, the third in their acclaimed series which, according to Darlington, “has proved a thrilling encounter with the remarkable world of the liturgy of Eton College Chapel in the late 15th century.” Sumptuous music of great complexity ranges from the rich sonority of Robert Wylkynson’s and John Hampton’s respective Salve reginas, to the contrapuntal intricacy of John Fawkyner’s Gaude virgo salutata and Edmund Turges’ Gaude flore virginali. This music was rooted in the daily devotional life of the College, and the boys and men of Christ Church Cathedral choir maintain this tradition with a special affinity for the repertoire.

Czech pianist Lada Valesova made an indelible mark with her AVIE debut Intimate Studies (AV 2142). “You have to take your hat off to someone who can plan a recital CD with the imaginative insight of the investigative musicologist and then execute it with such musicianly sensitivity,” declared International Piano magazine. For her follow up Lada turns to the lyrical, wistful genre of the dumka, conjuring the Slavic musical soul in works by compatriots Dvo?ák and Martin?, the Ukrainian Mykola Lysenko, Russians Balakirev and Tchaikovsky, and Franz Liszt.

October
Ensemble Epomeo follows its critically acclaimed debut recording of the complete string trios of Hans Gál and Hans Krása, which garnered a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, by turning to music of Eastern European and Russian composers written in the latter half of the 20th century. Each work bears a distinct personal compositional stamp, with the juxtapositions revealing enlightening contrasts: the Polish Penderecki's dramatic and lyrical String Trio of 1990 – 91, the Russian compositional giant Schnittke's String Trio of 1985, the haunting Trio of the increasingly recognized and respected Mieczieslaw Weinberg from 1950, and the ever-enigmatic Hungarian Kurtág, whose continuously evolving signs, games and messages represent a collection of highly individual miniatures.

Following last year’s release of Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, which was given “a heartfelt and graceful performance,” according to The Times, Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony turn to another of the composer’s frequently underrated choral works, the Mass in C. Joining MTT and the orchestra are the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and soloists soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Kelly O’Connor, tenor William Burden and bass-baritone Shenyang. Recorded live in the orchestra’s home Davies Symphony Hall in January 2014, the Mass is coupled with an impassioned performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Emanuel Ax, whose recording of the Fourth Piano Concerto with MTT and SFS was “impeccable,” receiving a double-five star rating from BBC Music Magazine.

November
Five years ago period-instrument pioneer Monica Huggett was joined by baroque oboist extraordinaire Gonzalo X. Ruiz and her Ensemble Sonnerie for a recording of Bach’s Orchestral Suites which provocatively replaced the usual flute solo with oboe in the Second and rearranged the Third and Fourth according to evidence unearthed by the musicians. The result earned them wide-spread acclaim, chart-topping success and a Grammy nomination. Monica and Gonzalo reunite, this time with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, with a similar twist in scholarly arrangements of familiar keyboard concertos for oboe and oboe d’amore.

The San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet has enjoyed great success with their performances and recordings of Beethoven’s late quartets, “the best, bar none, I’ve yet to encounter,” according to Fanfare magazine. For their fourth AVIE release, the Cypresses lend their signature sound to the composer’s middle period – the three Op. 59 “Rasumovsky” Quartets, Op. 74 “Harp”, and Op. 95. “Serioso”.

January
AVIE welcomes the charismatic American violinist Rachel Barton Pine to the label with her traversal of Mozart’s five Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante in which she is joined by the young viola virtuoso Matthew Lipman. The orchestra is none other than the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by their founder, Sir Neville Marriner. The release is timed to coincide with Mozart’s birthdate, 27 January.

The first AVIE release of music by American composer Elena Ruehr, recipient of a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship, was Averno, which assembled large-scale vocal and choral works inspired by three distinctive American poets – Louise Glück, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. Her follow-up, Lift, scales down to solo and chamber works for violin, cello and piano. The title track inspired by the Pakistani student and education activist Malala Yousafzai.

February
Pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar is a completist. For AVIE he has surveyed Mozart’s Complete Sonatas, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier, and has scaled the heights of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. He now tackles what is arguably the greatest canon in solo piano repertoire, Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas. The 10-CD set will come with a 5,000 word essay by the Royal Academy of Music professor.

March
Augustin Hadelich’s first major concerto recording was praised by Gramophone for his “magnificent performance of Thomas Adès Violin Concerto”, and for “tremendous energy” and “emotional expression” in Sibelius, whilst BBC Radio 3’s CD Review noted that the “emotional intensity and rhythmic complexity of the deep dark soundscapes common to both works mean that each work somehow illuminates different aspects of the other ... and it all makes perfect sense”. Augustin returns with another daring coupling , the Mendelssohn with Bartok’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Hailed for their Handel interpretations, including six recordings for AVIE, The Brook Street Band is no less astute performing the works of Bach. They follow their recording of Trio Sonatas with his Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, paired with a work for the same combination by the German master’s son, C. P. E Bach.

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These and other great recordings to be released throughout the 2014-15 season continue to bolster AVIE’s catalogue which has grown to nearly 350 titles in 12 years, earning the label its well-deserved reputation as “adventurous” (The New York Times), “enterprising" (Gramophone), and “admirable” (The Sunday Times). AVIE continues to maintain its unique business model based on artist ownership and promote its signature qualities: musicians ranging from established stars to developing young artists, a range of repertoire from early music to the present day; and genres encompassing chamber, choral, instrumental, orchestral, opera and vocal works. In addition to a strong distribution network that makes AVIE’s CDs available in over 30 countries, the label actively pursues making its music available digitally for downloading and streaming in high quality.

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For further information, image or interview requests, contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@avierecords.com, +44 (0) 20 8698 6933 or +1 917 907 2785

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