Violin Declamations from the Twilight of the Workers’ Paradise – Elmira Darvarova

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Nov 272017
 

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An empire in collapse. A daring escapee.
A deeply personal program of music from a time of turmoil — and hope.

Violinist Elmira Darvarova was communist Bulgaria’s worst-kept artistic secret. News of the young virtuoso’s talent had circulated in the West during the 1970s — even coming to the attention of Jascha Heifetz. An artistic collaboration with legendary cellist János Starker led to her daring escape from Bulgaria. She emigrated to the United States, where she eventually became the concertmaster of the MET Orchestra and founder of the New York Chamber Music Festival. Darvarova has extensively recorded both classical and world music, championing scandalously underexposed works by such composers as David Amram, Amanda Maier, Franco Alfano, and Joseph Marx.

Violin Declamations from the Twilight of the Workers’ Paradise is her most personal recording to date — a program of solo violin works from the waning years of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union by composers, including several that had been denounced as dissidents in their own countries, whose music was exposing the cracks in the “glorious workers’ revolution” — but also expressing glimmers of hope. The program includes four world premiere recordings. Darvarova also includes a detailed essay on the music and a first-hand account of artistic life behind the Iron Curtain.

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978): Sonata-Monologue for solo violin (1975)
Sylvie Bodorova (b.1954):Dža More – Gypsy Ballad (1990)
Grigory Zaborov (1935-1985): Improvisation (1978)
Afrodita Kathmeridou (b. 1956): Two Miniatures for solo violin (1978) — World Premiere Recording
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998): Praeludium in memoriam D. Shostakovich (1975)
Dmitri Smirnov (b. 1948): Two Fugues for solo violin, Op. 6 (1970)
Nikolai Badinski (b. 1937): Dialoghi per violino solo (1973) — World Premiere Recording
Elena Firsova (b. 1950): Fantasia for solo violin, Op. 32 (1985) — World Premiere Recording
Konstantin Soukhovetski (b. 1981): Postcard from the Edge (1990) — World Premiere Recording

Recorded on June 16 and 17, 2013 at Edith Chapel, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Recording Engineers: John C. Baker and Samuel Ward
Edited by John C. Baker
Mastered by Gene Gaudette
Produced by Elmira Darvarova and Gene Gaudette

Visit Elmira Darvarova’s Web site and Facebook page
Visit Urlicht AudioVisual’s Web site and Facebook page

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5984 (783583260442)

Digital release date: Nov. 27, 2017

CD available in January 2018

Latin Grammy Nomination for desde Estudios a Tangos

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Sep 232015
 

Urlicht AudioVisual is pleased to announce that desde Estudios a Tangos, featuring violinist Elmira Darvarova and legendary tango pianist and arranger Octavio Brunetti, has been nominated for a Latin Grammy®!

The CD was released in September of last year, just days after Octavio’s unexpected death following a brief illness. We are humbled that this disc commemorates a greatly missed champion of tango music at the peak of his abilities in a partnership with one of his very favorite musical collaborators.

desde Estusios a Tangos

Ástor Piazzolla
6 Études tanguistiquesIntroducción al ÁngelNight Club 1960Milonga del ÁngelVardaritoResurreccion del ÁngelRevolucionario

Elmira Darvarova, violin
Octavio Brunetti, piano

Recorded January 19, 2013 at Gill Chapel, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
Engineered and edited by John C. Baker
Produced by Gene Gaudette

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-CD-5991

Available from Amazon

World Premiere Recording of Vernon Duke’s Violin Concerto

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Nov 192014
 

Now Available Directly From Urlicht AudioVisual

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UAV-5990.cover.v4If you know the songs “Taking a Chance on Love”, “I Can’t Get Started”, “April in Paris”, “What Is There To Say”, or “Autumn in New York”, then you are already familiar with the music of legendary American songwriter Vernon Duke. As a popular songwriter, he collaborated with Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin, Ogden Nash, Sammy Cahn, John Latouche, and Yip Harburg, and wrote celebrated scores for Broadway and Hollywood.

What you may not know is that he was born Vladimir Dukelsky, admitted to the Kiev Conservatory at age 11, where he studied composition with Reinhold Glière and met his older colleague and lifelong friend Sergei Prokofiev. His family escaped Russia during the revolution and arrived in America in 1921, and within a year had befriended a musician named Jacob Gershowitz (you know him as George Gershwin), who persuaded him to Americanize his name and write for musical theater.

Duke gained fame and fortune as a songwriter, but continued to compose concert works and Russian poetry under his original name. His “serious” music, stylistically similar to that of his friend Prokofiev as well as Shostakovich, also contains flashes of the American style of Roy Harris, Peter Mennin, and their mid-twentieth century contemporaries, balanced with elements of the late Russian romantic style. And it is of such fine quality and compelling listenability that the neglect of these works is scandalous.

Urlicht AudioVisual is pleased to announce the world premiere recording of Duke’s Violin Concerto, along with Capriccio Méxicano and Hommage to Offenbach. Also featured are Duke’s Violin Sonata (commissioned by Roman Totenberg) and the Etude for Violin and Bassoon.


Diana Burgin, the daughter of Ruth Posselt (1911-2007), the distinguished violinist who performed the premier of Duke’s Violin Concerto, shared the following of her mother’s recollections about the work and its premiere:

Duke wrote [it] at the suggestion of Jascha Heifetz and completed the piano score in 1941. The full score was not finished until shortly before the premier performances, given in March 1943 at Symphony Hall in Boston by my mother, violinist Ruth Posselt with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and my father Richard Burgin at the podium. Duke had met my mother in late 1939 and greatly admired her playing. He attended her premier performances of violin concertos by Walter Piston (1940), Paul Hindemith (1941) and Samuel Barber (1942), which together had established her reputation as a major champion of contemporary American violin music. When Duke approached Posselt about introducing his concerto with the BSO, she responded with enthusiasm. [In a rather bitter prior episode for Duke, Heifetz had declined to premiere the work as it wasn’t “completely to (his) liking”; more to the point, Heifetz probably just didn’t want to pay the commission.] My mother received the manuscript of Duke’s concerto in early 1942, and that summer, played it (with piano) – “two times through” – for Koussevitzky, Duke and others at the conductor’s home in Tanglewood. The concerto aroused great enthusiasm, and Koussevitzky programmed the work for the BSO for the spring of the 1942-43 season.

Duke’s four other works for violin are equally appealing and listenable, including the late Hommage to Offenbach, a humorous and endearing three-movement suite for violin and piano that was discovered in the Library of Congress by violinist Elmira Darvarova while researching other works for this CD. Ms. Darvarova, a student of Yfrah Neaman, Henryk Szeryng and Josef Gingold, created a sensation as James Levine’s hand-picked concertmaster for the MET Orchestra – the only woman to have ever held that seat – and founded the New York Chamber Music Festival, now seen as the official “kick-off” of the New York concert season, in 2010.

She is accompanied at the piano and on the podium by dynamic American maestro Scott Dunn, arguably the foremost authority on Duke’s music for the concert hall, and a specialist in music by composers whose music straddles “traditional” concert works and music for film, television, and popular musicians. In addition to his position as Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, he has recently also led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and Oregon Symphony.

New York Philharmonic Assistant Principal Bassoonist Kim Laskowski is one of the most versatile musicians on the East Coast scene, whose playing can be heard on numerous television, radio, and film scores, and holds two platinum records for CDs recorded with the rock group 10,000 Maniacs.

The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien is gaining international renown through its recordings and broadcasts, and defines itself in the grand Vienna orchestral tradition. Their eclectic repertoire runs the gamut from the central “classical” repertoire to contemporary works to music for Hollywood and European film. Their broadcast concerts and programs are heard not only on Austria’s ORF but throughout Europe.


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Vernon Duke

Violin Concerto (1940-41)1
Sonata in D for violin and piano (1948-49)2
Etude for violin and bassoon3
Hommage to Offenbach2
Capriccio Méxicano2

Elmira Darvarova, violin

Scott Dunn, 1conductor and 2piano
1ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
3Kim Laskowski, bassoon

Produced by Elmira Darvarova, Scott Dunn, and Erich Hofmann
Executive producres: Kay Duke Ingalls and Gene Gaudette
Co-executive producer: Nancy Burgin

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-CD-5990

CD release via Urlicht Direct
Download via mEyeFi and eMusic: November 18, 2014
Available in the US through retail, Amazon, and iTunes December 2, 2014

Poulenc | Pascal Rogé et ses amis

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Sep 222014
 

Pascal Rogé is today’s unrivaled master of French piano music. With a legacy of recordings spanning nearly four decades, many acknowledged as benchmarks, Rogé is one of the most critically acclaimed and best-selling pianists of all time.

Poulenc has figured in Pascal Rogé’s repertoire since his earliest years. His desire to revisit the chamber music of Poulenc has led to this unique collaboration with friends from the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, MET Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France, along with his wife Ami Rogé. This cross-continental collaboration — recorded at the church in Paris where his mother was organist and at the acoustically superb Lawrenceville School chapel — brings together four of Poulenc’s sonatas for solo instruments and piano along with other chamber works. Audiophile engineers George Vasiliev and John C. Baker capture these performances in state-of-the-art sound, setting a new standard in this highly listenable and frequently played recital repertoire.

Poulenc | Pascal Rogé et ses amis

Sonata for flute and piano (1956) — Michel Moraguès, principal flute, Orchestre National de France
Sonata for oboe and piano (1962) — Liang Wang, principal oboe, New York Philharmonic
Élégie for horn and piano (1957) in memory of Dennis Brain — Howard Wall, horn, New York Philharmonic
Sonata for clarinet and piano (1962) — Pascal Moraguès, 2ème principal clarinet, Orchestre de Paris
Sonata for Piano Four Hands (1918, rev. 1939) — Ami Rogé, piano
Sonata for violin and piano (1942-3 rev. 1949) to the memory of Federico Garcia Lorca / Bagatelle for violin and piano (1932) — Elmira Darvarova, past concertmaster, MET Orchestra

Pascal Rogé, piano

Recorded 2013 in Paris and Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Engineered by George Vassilev and John C. Baker
Edited by George Vassilev and Gene Gaudette
Produced by Gene Gaudette

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5986

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Distributed in the US and Canada by Entertainment One
Distributed in the Europe and Asia by Also Distribution and its affiliates.

Piazzolla – desde Estudios a Tangos

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Aug 142014
 

Over the last two decades, Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) has emerged as one of the twentieth century’s most popular composers. Piazzolla revitalized and reinvented Argentina’s tango, taking it from the dance floor onto the world’s concert stages and transforming it into tango nuevo (`new tango`). One of the most prolific composers ever, Piazzolla wrote over 3000 works and performed extensively around the globe, collaborating with musicians ranging from jazz god Dizzy Gillespie to legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Octavio Brunetti has been called `the inheritor of [Ástor] Piazzolla’s mantle` and today’s most prominent pianistic interpreter and arranger of Argentinian tango. `PIAZZOLLA — desde ESTUDIOS a TANGOS` teams Brunetti with violinist Elmira Darvarova — the first woman concertmaster of the MET Orchestra — in their second CD collaboration.

Included is the world premiere recording of Piazzolla’s six solo `Etudes tanguistiques` in new versions for violin accompanied by piano by Octavio Brunetti, along with his new, atmospheric and colorful arrangements of six of Piazzolla’s most popular tangos. The popularity of Piazzolla’s music continues to increase with each passing year, and this new release will bring the tuneful, dramatic Etudes Tanguistiques, previously seen as `serious` virtuoso solo studies, to a far broader audience.

desde Estusios a Tangos

Ástor Piazzolla
6 Études tanguistiquesIntroducción al ÁngelNight Club 1960Milonga del ÁngelVardaritoResurreccion del ÁngelRevolucionario

Elmira Darvarova, violin
Octavio Brunetti, piano

Recorded January 19, 2013 at Gill Chapel, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
Engineered and edited by John C. Baker
Produced by Gene Gaudette

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-CD-5991

CD release date: September 9, 2014

Amanda Maier Meets Johannes Brahms (Extended Edition)

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Oct 012013
 

UAV5994.cover.273Amanda Maier was greatly admired by Johannes Brahms for both her virtuoso artistry as a violinist and her ambitious, challenging compositions, including her own Violin Sonata. Brahms gave Maier an early edition of his own Third Violin Sonata — and made numerous revisions before publication based on Maier’s advice.

Amanda Maier Meets Johannes Brahms brings together their mutually infuential violin sonatas along with Brahms’ Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano. Elmira Darvarova, the frst female concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is joined by rising Canadian piano star Bryan Wagorn and, in Brahms’ Horn Trio, New York Philharmonic principal hornPhilip Myers in a rare solo appearance.

This release contains the only recording of the Maier Sonata currently available. The download edition also includes a bonus work not available on CD: Clara Schumann’s 3 Romanzen for piano and violin, Op. 22!

Amanda Maier Meets Johannes Brahms

  1. Brahms: Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40
  2. Maier: Violin Sonata in b minor
  3. Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in d minor, Op. 108
  4. Bonus tracks in the download edition ONLY — Clara Schumann: 3 Romanzen for piano and violin, Op. 22

Elmira Darvarova, violin • Philip Myers, horn • Bryan Wagorn, piano

Recorded January 6 & 7, 2013 at Bristol Hall, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ
Engineered by John C. Baker
Produced by Gene Gaudette

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5984

HD download release date: October 15, 2013

Buy the CD Edition here .

Also available in download formats:

  • Download editions are delivered in .zip format and contain all music files with
    • full metadata,
    • complete liner notes in .pdf format,
    • and .cue sheets and mini-covers for portable players!
  • FLAC is for audiophile portables and home theater systems and requires a FLAC-compatible player
  • iTunes users: download the mp3 to your iTunes directory, unzip, and enjoy!
  • We accept PayPal for download sales. Downloads are delivered by the secure Payloadz service; after purchase, you will receive an e-mail with a direct download link.

Download the High Definition FLAC edition here — $10.99

Download the CD quality FLAC edition here — $9.99

Download the mp3 (VBR 48kHz maximum quality) edition here — $8.99

Gary Karr, Elmira Darvarova & Harmon Lewis Play Handel & Barthélémon

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Jul 162013
 

The two composers on this disc lived and worked in London. Rather than performing a servile role in the aristocratic courts of Europe or working as music directors in churches, they joined many of Europe’s finest musicians in London, where they were offered independence and respect. One composer is in the pantheon of greats. The other has unjustifiably become an historical footnote, and the man who is arguably the world’s greatest virtuoso double bassist is out to right this wrong!

Double bassist Gary Karr, one of the greatest living string virtuosos, presents the world premiere recordings of trios by late Baroque composer François-Hippolyte Barthélemon, coupled with his edition of string trios by Barthélemon’s friend and colleague Georg Frideric Handel. Karr is joined by his longtime keyboard collaborator Harmon Lewis and MET orchestra past concertmaster Elmira Darvarova. A must-have recording for fans of double bass, baroque music, and just plain terrific music-making!

George Frideric Handel: Sonata in g minor, Op. 2 No. 8
I. Andante • II. Allegro [energico] • III. Largo • IV. Allegro [con fermezza]

François-Hippolyte Barthélemon: Duetto I in C Major
I. Allegro moderato • II. Andante con variazioni • III. Allegretto

Barthélemon: Duetto II in A Major
I. Allegro moderato • II. Adagio • III. Rondeau. Allegretto

Handel: Sonata in E Major, Op. 2 No. 9
I. Adagio • II. Allegro • III. Adagio • IV. Allegro

Gary Karr, double bass
Elmira Darvarova, violin
Harmon Lewis, continuo

Produced by Gary Karr

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5993

CD release date: July 16, 2013