MSR Classics | What’s New from Newtown?

Recent Releases

Spring, that beloved season of hope and renewal, is in full swing. Fresh blooms are everywhere, temperatures are on the rise, and the Red Sox are showing promise for a good year. In celebration of all this goodness, we invite the curious music listener to explore the new material from MSR. From time-honored favorites to exciting discoveries, there's plenty here to engage and enlighten. Read on below for brief introductions to What's New from Newtown.

Brand new in the catalog, LUMINOUS is an attractive, smartly conceived and beautfully played program of piano music, broad in range of style and structure. Performer Nnenna Ogwo uses her many gifts to conjure the soul of each work. Right behind Luminous comes NARRATIVE, an immensely enjoyable program of music by women composers for flute and piano. Featuring flutist Virginia Broffitt Kunzer and pianist Tammie Walker, this program is sure to help get the featured music better situated in the Flute & Piano repertory. More recent additions to our shelves are A BEETHOVEN ODYSSEY, VOLUME 8 featuring the brilliant pianist James Brawn; ALAN HOVHANESS: MOUNTAIN FANTASIES FOR PIANO featuring the also brilliant Haskell Small; and WHYTE NOYSE - COMPLETE CONSORTS OF WILLIAM WHIYTE from the New York-based Abendmusik ensemble. Each of these three releases is a gem, consisting of music and performances of nuance, subtle expression, individuality, poetry - the string of adjectives could go on and on. In the door last week was MUSIC OF BARBARA HARBACH, VOL.16 - ORCHESTRAL MUSIC VII. Combining a mastery of what one might call the American classical idiom with subject matter of great import, Harbach creates music that can be enjoyed on multiple levels - it is fun, it is lyrical, it can get dark. Most of all, her music is deeply affecting and memorable. The London Philharmonic Orchestra under David Angus are captured to perfection by Floating Earth. Also hot off the replicator is DREAM GARDENS, a 2-CD set featuring curious, lyrical chamber music by American composer Robert Mueller. The nine works on the album benefit from a range of instrumentation of varying combinations of flute, oboe, English horn, bassoon, alto saxophone, violin, viola, cello and piano. Oboist Theresa Delaplain plays a particularly large role in the performances. Can you imagine the sounds? The colors? The moods? It is all quite enchanting. The performances, nuanced and polished, are captured by Candlewood Digital with warmth and clarity. This music beckons repeated hearings. Right behind this is THE BOW AND THE BRUSH, a brilliantly conceived collection of 14 newly commissioned works for unaccompanied violin inspired by visual art. The brainchild of Dan Flanagan, who himself composed two of the 14 works, the program is a showcase for the gifts of his collaborating composers, and for his own stunning musicianship. Surely the composers have spared him no technical or interpretive challenge, all of which he handles with confidence, subtlety and bravado. The 20-page CD booklet provides ample information on the music, musicians, artists and artwork, and a handy QR code links to the featured artwork.

FINES FACULTATIS COGNITOS TRANSGREDERE

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

[William H. Murray]

New Releases