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ELIOT FISK GUITAR | YEHUDA HANANI CELLO SONGSfrom BACH WITHOUT to BACHIANAS WORDS WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1510 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2014 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. THIS CD IS ABOUT SONG — a cornucopia of exquisite jewels from a multitude of cultures: Spanish, music in those heady early years. Little did I dream that half a lifetime later a series of coincidences Italian, German, Brazilian, Cuban, Jewish, Russian, Romanian-Gypsy, and the American heartland. would bring Yehuda and me together in music and in the brotherly affection reflected in the Like the miniaturized trees of bonsai, it is a universe in a nutshell, reduction to the very essentials. contents of this CD. The cello is a newcomer to the string family. It appeared on the musical scene in the early Over an arc that stretches from Bach-Guonod to Villa-Lobos’s famous Bachianas No. 5 1500’s. The guitar, however, is ancient. It is an incarnation of the kithara, the most popular (originally scored for the unthinkable combination of eight cellos and soprano!) we offer four gems instrument of classical Greece. Apollo played it and passed it on to Orpheus, the patron saint by Cui, Fauré, Lecuona and Monti; Bloch’s moving Prayer, then a set of eight Schubert songs, of all musicians. four of Robert Beaser’s Mountain Songs (originally for flute and guitar), and a two-movement Since this blending of sustained and plucked sounds makes for ideal pairing, it is surprising that Boccherini Sonata. In cheerful defiance of the present ubiquitous tyranny of the one-composer no literature has been composed for it. Hence, all the songs were arranged by us with the sense CD, these selections hark back to an earlier time, when titans like Casals and Segovia, our of adventure and rediscovery that accompanies such work: many Schubert songs were readily respective mentors on cello and guitar, walked the earth and romanticism was king. adaptable, and substituting guitar for keyboard in the Boccherini sonata yielded the extravagantly In the process of creating a repertoire for cello and guitar numerous small changes have and brilliantly improvised continuo by Eliot that would make any harpsichordist green with envy. been made in both parts; in several of the Schubert songs and in the final two Beaser Songs we It is glittering and ornate — a perfect fit for the Rococo interiors of the rooms where it was have transposed into keys more friendly to one or other instrument. Finally, I have freely realized originally performed. Also refreshing and liberating for the cello (and cellist) was the switching of Boccherini’s basso continuo to create a virtuoso guitar part. Yet it is our hope that in the “visions gears into country fiddling in Beaser’sMountain Songs. and revisions” heard here listeners will experience these beautiful works in new and wonderful ways. The entire project was inspired by Eliot’s verve and brio, exuberance and spontaneity (which —Eliot Fisk MAY 2014 do not make the life of a recording engineer easy) and suffused with deep friendship and shared artistic legacy. Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring —Yehuda Hanani MAY 2014 him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Starting in 1970 and continuing until 1982, I spent part of every summer at the Aspen Music Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Festival. The summers at Aspen afforded the chance to hear an astonishing array of musical talent, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, and that’s where I first heard Yehuda Hanani. Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico, In fact, his rendition of the Fantasiestücke of Robert Schumann for cello and piano was one of Belgrade Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Taipei and the most memorable of many great musical experiences I had performing and listening to great Seoul symphonies, among many others. He has been a guest at Aspen, Chautauqua, Marlboro, Yale at Norfolk, Round Top (TX), Blue Hill, Bowdoin, Great Lakes, and Grand Canyon festivals, thematic programming and has directed the innovative chamber music series Close Encounters Prades Festival (France), Finland Festival, Leicester (England), Ottawa, Oslo, and Australia With Music, based in the Berkshires, since 1990 in cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Chamber Music festivals, and has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Scottsdale, Kansas City, Omaha, Calgary, and at the Frick Museum in New including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Itzhak York City. He is especially sought after as an interpreter and elucidator of the music of Johann Perlman, Vadim Repin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Lark, Sebastian Bach, and his best-selling recording of the six suites (Townhall Records), critically hailed Avalon, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano, as well as members for its personal relationship with the score, has become a standard-setter. A three-time recipient of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Borromeo, and Emerson quartets. In New York City, Yehuda Hanani of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, Mr. Hanani’s studies were with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan School and with Pablo Casals. Of his recent Naxos CD with the National Symphony of Ireland Museum’s Grace Rainey Rodger Auditorium. Committed to extending the range of the cello Fanfare Magazine wrote: “Renowned cellist Yehuda Hanani, great virtuoso that he is, handles this repertoire, he has premiered live and on CD works of Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield, with astounding aplomb.…It should come as no surprise that he possesses Rose’s tonal amplitude Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Jorge Martin, William Perry, Kenji Bunch, Owen Leech, and and Casals’s intellectual discipline, breathtaking technique and limpid style….Commanding Bernard Rands, among other composers. He was the first cellist in the West to record the sonatas musicianship.” Aimed at outreach for classical music, his weekly program on NPR affiliate station of Nikolai Miaskovsky (Finnadar) and won a Grand Prix du Disque nomination for his pioneering WAMC Northeast Radio, “Classical Music According to Yehuda,” has gained thousands of fans for recording of the monunental Alkan Sonate de concert. He has similarly championed composers the direct broadcast and podcast. A recent addition to his concert activities and educational mission such as Leo Ornstein, Virgil Thomson, and William Schuman with performances and recordings is the founding of the Catskill High Peaks Festival, a teaching and chamber music festival in Hunter of their works and has been credited with helping to rediscover the life and works of Mendelssohn and Tannersville, NY. Soloist, chamber musician, master teacher, essayist, and ambassador for the student Eduard Franck, whose chamber music he has recorded (NAXOS) with violinist Shmuel arts, Yehuda Hanani illuminates and enlightens audiences on the essence of music. Ashkenasi and pianist James Tocco. He has collaborated with performers in many artistic realms, including actors Richard Chamberlain, Jane Alexander, and Sigourney Weaver, and choreographer One of the most exciting musicians before the public today, guitarist David Parsons. Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Eliot Fisk is famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. He is Music, he presents master classes internationally at conservatories and for orchestras, including also celebrated for his willingness to take art music into unusual venues the Juilliard School, University of Indiana at Bloomington, McGill University, the Peabody (including schools, senior centers, logging camps and prisons). After Conservatory, Paris Conservatoire, Berlin Hochschule für Music, Royal Academy of Music and forty-five years before the public he remains as his mentor Andres Guildhall School in London, Tokyo National University, the Central Conservatories in Beijing and Segovia once wrote, “At the top line of our artistic world.” Called “the Shanghai, and the New World Symphony in Miami. From 1995-2007 he directed the International devil’s guitarist” by one critic (for his playing of Paganini), he has performed with orchestras such Bach “Annalia” Festival at the University of Cincinnati. He has also been at the forefront of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony; the Orchestra of St. Lukes, performing and recording Vivaldi; the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, premiering a new concerto by Daniel for soprano and guitar. Other recent landmark premieres have included Fisk’s transcription for Bernard Roumain; and the American Composers Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, solo guitar of John Corigliano’s Red Violin Caprices and the epic solo suite Ein Kleines Requiem premiering Robert Beaser’s Guitar Concerto at New York City’s Zankel Hall. He also premiered dedicated to him by Austrian composer Kurt Schwertsik. Eliot Fisk was