With thoughtful arrangements by Tom Amend, vocals by Louisa Amend, and beautiful execution by some of Denver’s finest musicians in the jazz scene, Jazz Classics: 1950s takes us back in time to some of our favorite classic standards.

Including tracks like You Go To My Head, made famous by Billie Holiday, the well-known Take 5 by Dave Brubeck Quartet, Ella Fitzgerald’s Sweetest Sounds and Lazy Bird by John Coltrane, this album breathes new life into old classics. Recorded in stunning DSD256, these recordings showcase clarity, space and soundstage that will shine on any good audiophile system.

Louisa Amend, Vocals
Tom Amend, Piano
Seth Lewis, Upright Bass
Daryl Gott, Alto Saxophone
Braxton Kahn, Drums

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The Snowghost Sessions is Horvitz’s first trio record since the 1980s. And his first piano/keys-bass-drums record ever. Wayne describes the working vibe: “I’ve never felt so free of expectations in the recording studio in my life. Whitefish is a quiet town in a beautiful place, and it’s easy to focus and leave the outside world behind. The sessions were relaxed, creative, and without a specific goal. We didn’t set out to make a record, we just set out to enjoy the process. I brought in a pile of tunes and sketches, including some chamber pieces from my installation 55: Music and Dance in Concrete, and we started making music. The only thing I knew was, I wanted to work with Eric and Geoff, and I wanted to find an organic marriage between the idea of a piano trio and some ideas I’d been exploring with amplified and processed piano.”

“It was one of those moments when you have a good musical feeling that leads to realizing these are people you want to get to know better, and dig a little deeper. We had played all sorts of gigs over the years, and Eric had played a lot of my music. I think everyone was excited to go in without a lot of plans, and even though they were my tunes, we really collaborated on the process. It’s a nice thing to not be beholden to a fixed outcome for a project. I wasn’t even sure it was something that would ever see the light of day, but when I heard the rough mixes I knew I had something. As for trios – I like trio formats – but mostly I have had trios that were collectives. The piano trio, in the jazz sense of that term, is daunting, there is such a history, and even as a leader I always approach things as a composer and a collaborator, and the traditional piano trio puts one in the position of “principal soloist,” which isn’t the part of music I am most excited about.”

Most tracks are live, including the processing, with minimal overdubs; a few pieces involve multiple keyboards. “I also used my laptop, triggering samples mostly from the 55 project….For the electronics I just used old school pedals: 8 second delay, a tremolo pedal I love, a memory man, just garden variety stomp boxes…. Since electronics were involved it did leave a lot of options for how to mix. For example: do we keep the drums ‘natural’ or try to do something interesting with them in the mix.”

Some of the tunes do have an almost ambient feel, while others take the music into avant-jazz territory, but it’s mainly a subtle record of grace and beauty (Horvitz calls it “textural and contemplative”) – one that repays close listening.

Wayne Horvitz, Piano, Amplified Piano, Live Processing, Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Nord Lead, TX-7, & Mellotron
Geoff Harper, Contrabass
Eric Eagle, Drums & Percussion

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One of the constants of human nature seems to be pondering our relationship with nature: From Aristotle declaring that we are “rational animals”, Descartes separating our natural, material bodies from our God-like, immaterial, thinking minds, to Darwin mapping a direct line from the apes to us –from animal to animal – nature to nature.

Our concept of nature has often been reduced to an antithesis of the human, as reflected in this much cited definition of nature from The Oxford English Dictionary: “The phenomena of the physical world collectively; esp. plants, animals, and other features and products of the Earth itself, as opposed to humans and human creations”. Recently, sparked by the discourse of ecocriticism and environmentalism, this anthropocentric view of nature has been unmasked; we are nature, and failing to realize this is exactly what has led to a nature in crisis – and thereby, a crisis for humankind.

Kammerkoret Nova (Nova Chamber Choir)
Julia Selina Blank, Conductor

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William Skeen is one of the world’s premiere Baroque cellists. He serves as Principal Cellist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, and was Principal Cellist of the American Bach Soloists for nearly two decades. He is a founding member of the New Esterházy Quartet, the Cantata Collective, and La Monica. Mr. Skeen taught baroque cello and viola da gamba at the University of Southern California for two decades. Mr. Skeen has received two Grammy nominations. He continues to perform regularly with major orchestras and Baroque groups around the world.

San Francisco-based album producer Lolly Lewis founded her recording production company Transparent Recordings in 1980. Notable projects include Anthony Davis’s opera Tania, a premiere recording of orchestral music by Harlem Renaissance composer Florence Price with the Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and a Berlioz series with San Diego Symphony. In recent years, Ms. Lewis has been particularly focused on period instrument performance and has produced six albums with the New Esterházy Quartet. This new release of the Six Cello Suites was beautifully recorded by famed multi-GRAMMY®-winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California. It was mastered by RR’s own multi-GRAMMY®-nominated engineer, Sean Royce Martin.

William Skeen, Cello and Violoncello Piccolo

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The Detroit Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Jader Bignamini present Wynton Marsalis’ Blues Symphony.

The work is a triumphant ode to the power of the blues and the scope of America’s musical heritage. With a blend of influences from ragtime to habanera, the work takes listeners on a sonic journey through America’s revolutionary era, the early beginnings of jazz in New Orleans, and a big city soundscape that serves as a nod to the Great Migration.

Detroit being one of the most vibrant melting pots of musical cultures in the United States, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra seems the ideal advocate for this original contribution to the symphonic repertoire. The recording is also the first with Jader Bignamini, giving a new dimension to his music directorship.

Wynton Marsalis is a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and a leading advocate of American culture. Jader Bignamini has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, America’s fourth-oldest, has a history as varied and exciting as that of its hometown.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Jader Bignamini, Conductor

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Järvi has of course conducted Mahler’s works many times in his career. But has waited for the right moment to record the complete cycle in the studio. The right moment not only in his life as a musician but also in his relationship with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. The maturity and power revealed in the orchestra’s recordings for Alpha Classics have been hailed by the music press since 2019.

“Mahler truly opened up a new universe with the Fifth, in which he initiated an incredibly personal style of music-making.” says Paavo Järvi. “It is the very nature of its opening — a military funeral — and of its tragedy, in conjunction with the very idea of beginning a symphony in this way, which signals that something completely different is in store for us”.

Ivo Gass, Horn Solo
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
Paavo Järvi, Music Director

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Organised Delirium is pianist Tamara Stefanovich‘ personal exploration of the sonata form, centered around Boulez’ Piano Sonata No. 2 which she studied in close collaboration with the composer, reigniting her passion as a performer. Boulez’ Piano Sonata No. 2 represents a restructuring of music after its destruction during World War II.

Boulez’ iconoclast piece is paired with twentieth-century sonatas by Eisler, Bartók and Shostakovich, each questioning the use of the term ‘sonata’, while the program closes with a return the sonata’s origins by way of Domenico Scarlatti. Appearing in the context of Boulez’ centenary, this adventurous album reveals a strong kinship to Stefanovich’ PENTATONE debut Influences (2019), and deepens our understanding of the sonata, its history and its many shapes.

The New York Times lauded Tamara’s recent concert performance of Boulez’ Piano Sonata No. 2, stating that “Ms. Stefanovich’s performance was staggeringly brilliant”. Praised by The Guardian as “fearless, dazzling, exceptional”, Tamara Stefanovich is one of today’s most adventurous and sought after pianists. After Influences (2019), Visions (2022) and Nicolaou: Etudes & Frames (2023), she now releases her fourth Pentatone album.

Tamara Stefanovich, Piano

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“Discovering Mahler’s music is akin to discovering life itself. Experiencing it, is to be drawn into his world and values. What emerges from his music, his letters and, the testimonies of those who knew him is the duality of this man. Being a creator and interpreter all at once, he invents the sounds which re-create the world of nature and humans.”- Semyon Bychkov

The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with a Double Album of Mahler: Symphony No. 3, the composer’s Third Symphony. Working together with mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and Pueri Gaudentes.

In this monumental work, Mahler combines a text from Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra with the folk song inspirations of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, culminating in eternal bliss in the closing Adagio. To Bychkov, this longest Mahler symphony offers his “least hysterical” music, and hearing it for the first time as a 10-year-old choirboy kindled his life-long fascination and love for this composer. With this recording, it comes full circle.

Catriona Morison, Mezzo-Soprano (tracks 4 & 5)
Prague Philharmonic Choir (track 5)
Lukáš Vasilek, Choirmaster
Pueri Gaudentes (track 5)
Libor Sládek & Jan Kyjovský, Choirmasters

Czech Philharmonic
Jan Mráček, Concertmaster
Jan Perný, Trombone Solo (track 1)
Walter Hofbauer, Post Horn Solo (track 3)
Conducted by Semyon Bychkov

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The album is available at NativeDSD in Stereo DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64 and DXD plus Auro3D FLAC and Dolby Atmos TrueHD, Auro3D and DTS:X Immersive Audio.

Leopold Godowsky visited Java on a journey through the Far East that began in Japan on October 13, 1922, and ended in Honolulu on May 25, 1923. A trip that took the pianist- composer to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Java and the Philippines.

Japan and China only half pleased him; too crowded, too many people. Only in Java, which with forty million inhabitants he also found a tad too crowded, did he truly fall under the spell of Asia. Everything about the island charmed him. The princely cities of Solo (Surakarta) and Djokja (Yokyakarta), the cratons, the markets, sawas, volcanoes, the sunrise from the rim of the crater of the Bromo, the five hundred Buddha statues on the Borobudur, the wajang puppetry, the oldest district of Batavia, Kota Tua, the gardens of Buitenzorg. But what really overwhelmed him was that he found a highly refined culture that derived its eloquence from an instrument that, like the piano, is a percussion instrument: the gamelan.

In Java, Leopold Godowsky did not compose a note, but the gamelan music lingered in his ears for weeks, months, years, eventually resulting in his finest work, the Java Suite, fifty minutes of music that can be listened to like a travelogue.

Tobias Borsboom, Piano

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1) The young alumnus of the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, Patricia Gil Jiminez was asked to write a work for clarinet and electronics. The piece is a top addition to the contemporary repertoire!

2) The Ghent composer Johan Duijck (former conductor of the “Flemish Radio Choir” and the “Choir of Saint Martins in the Fields”) was asked to create a new composition for the special combination of 3 clarinets, piano and large mixed choir.

3)Last but not least, the Flemish composer Erik Desimpelaere was commissioned for a concert work for clarinet and orchestra.

Julien Chun-Yen Lai
Martim Barbosa
Yebin Seo
Sabine Meyer
Reiner Wehle
Desguin Quartet
Zemlinsky Quartet
Ghents Madrigaalkoor
Panagiotis Marios Giannakas
Seoyoung Lee
Flanders Symphony Orchestra

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