Two things propelled the re-emergence of the keyboard double concerto. One of them was the revival of interest in early classical and baroque music. The other was the emergence of the piano duo, those popular and virtuosic two-piano teams that captured a big audience and toured widely. Some of these duos became superstars: Vronsky & Babin, Gold & Fizdale, Whittemore & Lowe, Luboshutz & Nemenoff are still remembered as masters of their trade and it is due to them and others like them that this new piano-and-orchestra repertoire was created.

Bassoonist Eric Van der Veer Varner enjoyed a rich and varied musical career. Varner was the principal bassoonist with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra from 2004 through 2015, appearing as a soloist with them on numerous occasions, his playing with them described as being “of ineffable liquid beauty.” Previously, Varner held positions with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Michigan Opera Theater and Sarasota Opera Orchestra. He performed in numerous summer festivals, including the Bellingham Festival of Music, the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival and the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp.

The Trumpet Shall Sound! This retrospective set featuring Charlie Schlueter covers a wide range of moods and styles: Bravura and virtuosic, poignant and evocative, solo trumpet and chamber music, and trumpet featured as soloist with both orchestral and wind ensemble accompaniment.Charlie Schlueter was one of the world’s greatest orchestral principal trumpeters for over four decades, culminating in positions with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared worldwide as soloist, teacher and clinician, and many of Charlie’s former students in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Boston have gone on to have their own successful careers.

Born in Sofia in 1962, Emile Naoumoff was just five years old when he began studying piano. His parents brought the young prodigy to Paris at the age of seven into the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger, one of the greatest music teachers of the 20th century. Herself a pupil of Gabriel Fauré, she chose Emile to be her final disciple carrying her musical legacy forward, calling him the gift of her old age. Naoumoff’s 10 years studying very intensely with her were both rigorous and nurturing, inspiringly revealing his individual artistic and creative path. That excellence seeking placed Naoumoff into a musical circle of auspicious mentors such as Clifford Curzon, Igor Markevitch, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Françaix, Henri Dutilleux, Leonard Bernstein, Soulima Stravinsky, Aram Khachaturian, Sviatoslav Richter and, notably, Lord Yehudi Menhuin, who conducted the premiere of Naoumoff’s first piano concerto when the composer at the piano was just 10 years old.

This album, Il Circolo Respighi, was inspired by my discovery that Ottorino Respighi’s wife, Elsa (née Olivieri-Sangiacomo), was also his pupil and a talented composer herself. This revelation led to the idea of performing a recital featuring art songs composed by Respighi’s most influential teachers, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Giuseppe Martucci, by his students Vittorio Rieti and Elsa Respighi, and of course several of his own. In reflecting on the years 2020 and 2021, a period of disease, political upheaval and social change, it is interesting to note that the composers on this disc must have felt similar if not greater levels of uncertainty and angst during the tumultuous times in which they lived. This may be the reason so many of the songs here are focused on other times and places, real or imagined ― when times are hard, escapism is powerful.

Georg Eduard Goltermann was a German cellist and composer. Goltermann was born in Hannover. His father was an organist, and therefore he got an early introduction to music. He received cello lessons from Joseph Menter and in München and was noted there for his compositional talents. In 1852, after briefly touring Europe as a solo cellist, he became music director in Würzburg. In 1853 he accepted an offer to become deputy music director of the municipal theater Stadttheater in Frankfurt am Main, where he was promoted to Kapellmeister (Main Director) in 1874. He died in the same city.

From at least the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig Johann Krebs, Giovanni Pergolesi and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, works for multiple keyboards have attracted composers, performers and audiences – no more than in the 19th century when Franz Liszt and others brought immense attention to ensemble playing. The early 20th century saw the popularity of two-piano teams expand in Europe and America. Radio and recordings abetted the rise of audiences eager to hear the duos Appleton & Field, Bartlett & Robertson, Ferrante & Teicher, Gold & Fizdale, Labeque sisters, Luboshutz & Nemenoff, Pierce & Jonas, Vronsky & Babin and Whittemore & Lowe – prominent among the many. Each ensemble’s tours featured works such as the ones presented here.

“All my life, I have been inspired and surrounded by powerful women, whether they were singers, teachers, pianists, composers or writers. They are the people who have most changed and touched my life, and I feel a responsibility to give voice to them from many different perspectives”[Jake Heggie, November 2021]American composer Jake Heggie has made a significant contribution to the classical vocal genre; his works are multifaceted, fresh and bold, and have been met with widespread critical acclaim. His operatic and song works are often focused on issues concerning human rights, particularly those that bring awareness to underrepresented sectors of the population. Within his oeuvre, themes of women's suffrage, women's rights and the empowerment of women have remained prominent. This album contains three of Heggie's song cycles, all of which present feminist perspectives.

St. Ignatius Brass Ensemble, Nancianne Parrella Kent Tritle

Dancing in Dreams brings together French impressionism and the evocative compositions of tango composer, Astor Piazzolla. As the impressionistic style sought to capture ambiguous moods and emotions, and its composers frequently used titles that suggest this, it lends itself particularly well to depictions of dreaming.

Dr. Whitcomb is a frequent guest clinician and performer at universities and conferences throughout the country and abroad. His books, The Advancing String Player’s Handbook series, Cello Fingerings, and Bass Fingerings have received rave reviews from journals on string playing such as Strings magazine and the journals of ASTA and AUSTA. He has published numerous articles on cello and on music theory, and has presented many papers at national and international conferences as well.

Hailed by The New York Times as a "finely polished, stylistically nimble ensemble" and Opera News as "a wondrous ensemble", the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola is comprised of some of New York's finest professional singers. The core group of 19 singers has command over a wide range of repertoire, from Gregorian chant to contemporary literature. The Choir expands as needed for the Concerts at St. Ignatius, Park Avenue series. Each singer is a soloist in his or her own right in a variety of genres including early music, opera, oratorio, contemporary, and pop repertoire.

At some point in the late 1990s I had a life-changing musical experience: I came across Glenn Gould’s recording of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s A minor Württemberg Sonata and decided to listen to it. I must admit that my expectations were not high (after all, just how good could it be if I had never heard it?). To my surprise, for the next 15 minutes I stood rooted to the spot. By the time Gould played the opening bars of the third movement I had been converted.

Two things propelled the re-emergence of the keyboard double concerto. One of them was the revival of interest in early classical and baroque music. The other was the emergence of the piano duo, those popular and virtuosic two-piano teams that captured a big audience and toured widely. Some of these duos became superstars: Vronsky & Babin, Gold & Fizdale, Whittemore & Lowe, Luboshutz & Nemenoff are still remembered as masters of their trade and it is due to them and others like them that this new piano-and-orchestra repertoire was created. And this is the tradition that Joshua Pierce and Dorothy Jonas have revived and carried forward as the successors to those virtuosic piano duos of another era. It is logical that Pierce & Jonas have recorded – and, in some cases unearthed and revived – these masterpieces of 20th century two-piano-and orchestra repertoire. This 2-CD album containing seven of these works constitute the first volume; there will be six more in the forthcoming 2-CD second volume, making a bakers dozen of works in all, an extraordinary collection of original works for this medium by an extra-ordinary piano duo working in a grand tradition.

Peter Davison has composed music scores for Indie Features, the History Channel, A+E, Biography, PBS, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal, Discovery, Gaiam (Yoga/Relaxation music) and others. Over 30 CDs of his music are on Universal/Higher Octave, Gaiam, Davisounds and TSR/Baja. His CDs “Meditate” and “Exhale” were both in the Billboard Top 10 New Age Albums.