06 Suite For Solo Cello IV. CancióN

05 Suite For Solo Cello III. Polka P

04 Suite For Solo Cello II. Memorias

03 Suite For Solo Cello I. Meditacio

02 M.M.P. For Flute And Cello

01 Sonata For Solo Violin, Op. 1

Organist Eric Plutz - "BACH -The Gamut From A To G"
A somewhat complex description about the album is that Princeton University Organist Plutz realized that a compelling single program of J. S. Bach’s Preludes / Toccatas / Fantasias & Fugues for organ could be formed by performing them in diatonic order – one for each key: A, B, C etc.
In Western music that sequence is known as ‘the Gamut.'
This album therefore aligns with Bach’s own deep sense for order and was recorded on the Princeton University organ at the Princeton University Chapel (the third largest college chapel in the world).
In simpler words - something beautiful and wondrous to listen to.
Close your eyes, turn up the volume and be enveloped by the luscious sound of Bach's music, Princeton's organ & chapel and Eric's magnificent touch on the keys.

Prelude In A Major

Sometimes there's nothing truer than the old saying "You can't see the forest for the trees". 
We get so busy - engineering music sessions, recording artists, mixing the recordings, scheduling releases, and immediately discovering more new music we want to release - that we forget to take a moment to enjoy what we have.
Case in point. "Passages" by Kristin Ditlow. 
Lo and behold - it has taken on a life of its own with other people reminding us of how wonderful the recording is and how special Kristin Ditlow is as an artist.
Here is a review:
Dr. Debra Jan Bibel
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2023
"A professional golfer depends on the caddy as an advisor and sounding board. It is an important but poorly appreciated collaboration. An operatic and classical vocalist [and many a popular singer] has the piano accompanist to set drama or sensitivity to the score and often to serve as coach. Pianist Kristin Ditlow has had a career not only as a soloist and more lately operatic conductor but as an accompanist and coach to vocalists and choral groups. Her training has been extensive, from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Westminster Choir College to the Eastman School of Music, where she earned her doctorate. Her work has taken her from the Curtis Institute of Music, Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, New York City Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and Festivals in Europe. She is presently Professor of Opera Coaching at the University of New Mexico. This 2-CD album, Passages, is a retrospective representation of her work and travels with spirituals, operatic melodies, classical pieces from Liszt the composer and Liszt the arranger, her own arrangement of a Inner Mongolian, China, shepherd song, and Bela Bartok's Peasant Songs (for her work in Hungary). From the beautiful opening of Deep River as scored by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ditlow's passion, clarity, and warmth in her renditions are manifest. Besides the later Schumann songs, we hear her arrangement of Malagueña and Gershwin's The Man I Love from arranger Percy Grainger. This collection reminds us of the role the coach and accompanist plays in support of vocalists on stage and in the recital chamber."
Wow. 
We couldn't have said it better - we couldn't and didn't say it that well when we released the album.

Liebeslied

It's always so much better when someone else tells us how much they like our recording - rather than us telling you.
Michael Hix adds to Christopher Graupner Catalog
Feb 7 
Written By Ralph Graves
Three of the four cantatas receive their world recording premiers with this release. With some composers, that would be a significant addition to their recorded catalog. But Christoph Graupner was incredibly prolific. About 2,000 of his works survive, a little over 1,400 of them sacred cantatas. 
As welcome as these recordings are, they only add a fraction to Graupner's recorded repertoire.
Baritone Michael Hix presents four cantatas featuring the bass voice. Accompanying him is a small ensemble -- two violins, viola, cello, and harpsichord. These are intimate performances, and they work well. 
Hix sings in a clear, straightforward manner. These are sacred cantatas. So the excessive ornamentation common to 18th Century operas was discouraged. Hix focuses on the texts and conveys their meaning through his expressive singing. 
The earliest cantata is Mein Herz soll nach des Höchsten Willen (My heart shall be serene in your highest will) GWV 1113/13. It was written in 1713. The latest is Halte an, am Glaubenstreit (You noble jewel of younger heights) GWV 1121/22, composed in 1722.
Graupner worked at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt. During this period finances were unsettled. Many court musicians were dismissed (the remaining, including Graupner, were simply not paid). These stripped-down cantatas show how resourceful Graupner could be with, well, limited resources.
Recommended.
My Faith Stands Firm
Christoph Graupner: Cantatas for Bass Voice
Michael Hix, baritone
Affetto AF2301
CD Review Christoph Graupner Michael Hix Baroque Era choral music
Ralph Graves
Ralph has been a classical music programmer and host at WTJU since 1982. He’s also a published author and composer.

Aria - Wanke Nicht, Bedrängte See

“Le cor français authentique” brings a style of purely French musicianship on a truly French horn playing an all-French repertoire in the hands of a master musician, Douglas Lundeen, who has researched the horn in its various incarnations throughout the ages, playing on a design of the French horn which would have been a standard for the 19th century and beyond. The valve was first introduced on the horn c. before 1814 by a German hornist/instrument builder Heinrich Stölzel, as a means of changing the length of the instrument while playing in order to fill in the gaps between the natural harmonics.
Indeed, up until the later 1940's, English horn players played on instruments of French design and manufacture. These instruments were built with trumpet-like piston valves and fitted with natural horn crooks. They also maintained the slender dimensions of the pre-valve instrument, which had reached its highest degree of perfection and virtuosic refinement in France in the first half of the 19th century. The singular sound of this instrument, as heard on this CD, harkens back to some of the best viruosic players of the golden age of the design.

The repertoire of Planel, Tomasi, Bozza, Gounod, Dukas, Saint-Saens and others are presented as these composers intended and “heard” their works to be played on this French valved instrument. The technical competence required for each track is unique, as some of them were regarded as a test of the highest level of performance. The Saint-Saens and Gounod tracks are included as examples of the pure vocal treatment of the horn by two of France’s greatest composers. The Dukas track was the first conservatory test-piece for horn to specifically exploit the newly “legitimized” valve instrument. Tomasi describes what he composed in this way: “I write for the public at large. Music that doesn’t come from the heart isn’t music.”
Listening to this album will give you an entrée into a world of the French horn which has seldom been heard, and certainly not in one collection such as this, played by one of the instrument’s best and most studied master.

Track Listing:

1. Légende
Robert Planel (1909-1994) 6:56
2. Chant Corse
Henri Tomasi (1901-1971) 4:02
3. Sur les Cimes
Eugène Bozza (1905-1991) 7:52
4. Souvenir
Paul Bonneau (1918-1995) 4:19
5. Dans la Montagne
Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944) 10:54
6. Six Mélodies pour Cor a pistons
et Piano
Charles Gounod (1818-1893) 4:15
No. 2, Andantino
7. Villanelle
Paul Dukas (1865-1935) 6:58
8. Romance, op. 36
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) 3:55
9. Ballade pour Cor et Piano
Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968) 7:52
10. Chassacor
Roger Boutry (b. 1932) 4:25

Le cor francais authentique (TheTruly French Horn) mp3 version

Dans la Montagne

AFFETTO Records specializes in the classical music genre, ancient to modern, choral, instrumental, solo and ensemble, as well as organ.

Dans la Montagne

Affetto Records

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