"Dutilleux's quartet has to be one of the finest post-war works in the genre. In seven movements (plus interludes) that play without a break, this seventeen minute work conjures up a bewildering variety of nocturnal moods, colours and atmospheres. Yet it is always strongly coherent, the writing unified by the composer's tendency to treat the four instruments of the string quartet as if they were one super-stringed instrument. The performance on this disc is absolutely stunning–the precision of the Arditti Quartet is matched by an imagination and colouristic range that's second to none."

Recensie op Amazon.com

This double SACD concludes the five-volume edition of Petr Eben's complete works for organ performed by Gunther Rost. It mainly features Eben's latest and most extensive cycle for organ and speaker as of now, The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. The cycle's texts are taken from Jan Amos Comenius' book of the same title. The speaker is the renowned German recitor Gert Westphal († 2002), who already appeared in Job, the series' second volume. Recorded in 2002, this production can safely be considered the great recitor's last one.
Furthermore, the SACD also features Gunther Rost's interpretation of Momenti d'Organo, Campanae Gloriosae and Ten Chorale Preludes performed at the Jann organs in Waldsassen basilica, as well as the concluding chorale fantasy Amen - es werde wahr.

Vol. 4 of Gunther Rost's complete recording with Eben's organ works (again a co-production with the Bayerischer Rundfunk in multi-channel technology) contains along with the more frequently played Four Biblical Dances and the two Hommages à Dietrich Buxtehude / à Henry Purcell Eben's Little Chorale Partita on "O Jesu, all mein Leben bist Du" and the two Versetti (Ad Offertorium / Ad Communionem super "Adoro Te"). The SACD had been recorded in 2005 in the Fulda cathedral.

The third volume of the Petr Eben series with Gunther Rost was produced in cooperation with the Bayerischer Rundfunk. In this production for the first time multichannel technique was used for making an SACD. The Graz organ professor chose the Schuke organ in the Wuerzburg university church for this recording. Besides Eben's best known piece, the Sunday Music, it includes the Two Chorale Fantasies, the Laudes and A Festive Voluntary-Variations on Good King Wenceslas.

Job, the great cycle for organ and reciter by Petr Eben, is based on the book of Job from the Old Testament. The present recording was made in 2002 with Gunther Rost in the Zurich Tonhalle, Switzerland, on the Steinmeyer-Kleuker organ. The reciter, Gert Westphal, gives the biblical words special emphasis. Incidentally, the recording was made shortly before Westphal died in 2002.

There have been several recordings recently of the works of Petr Eben (b 1929). I reviewed his Faust in January / February 2002 and Mutationes in September / October 2002, both played by Halgier Schiager.
In this new release Gunther Rost plays Faust and Mutationes on the 62-stop, four-manual Goll organ in St Martin's Church, Memmingen, near the Lake of Constance. The organ sounds splendid and seems well suited for Eben's work, with its demands for rapid stop changes and many colors.
Eben's work is episodic and programmatic, with quick alterations not only in mood but in style. Rost is by far the best player of this music I've heard. He manages the shifts in style so skillfully that it sounds easy to do, though it certainly could not be. I enjoy this record and I expect to hear more from this fine organist.

The single-artist retrospective, that standby in the world of the visual arts, gets undertaken all too infrequently in music. We hear a composer’s most popular works repeatedly, and the new works when they first appear. But to hear a thorough overview of one career–with the opportunity to detect both stylistic shifts and recurrent concerns–is a rare pleasure. The chance to take such a long view is only one of the many delights offered by "The John Adams Earbox"

“Pahud’s playing is always crisp and stylish, whether in virtuoso display or in more tender passages where the flute traces a line of filigree delicacy.”

The Daily Telegraph

Giya Kancheli, born August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi, is a Georgian contemporary classical composer resident in Belgium.

Giya Kancheli, born August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi, is a Georgian contemporary classical composer resident in Belgium.

Giya Kancheli, born August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi, is a Georgian contemporary classical composer resident in Belgium.