KBACH's First Take

Composer Jeff Beal is familiar to audiences through his soundtrack scores for shows like Monk, House of Cards, and HBO's Rome. A new album with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra includes two concert pieces by Beal, "Four Score," a gift to the album's conductor (Leonard Slatkin) for his 80th birthday, and "Body in Motion," a violin concerto for Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Michael Keelan talked with Beal a...

Pianist Susan Tomes has an extensive and distinguished discography as a chamber music pianist and is the author of several books about music. Her new solo album “Women and the Piano” stems from the biographies she researched to produce her 2024 book of the same name. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with her about the discoveries she made investigating the lives and music of these artists. More infor...

The Sturm und Drang movement swept through the arts in the late eighteenth century, bringing drama and heightened emotion. Conductor Ian Page is in the midst of a large recording project with his ensemble The Mozartists to document that artistic movement. Each volume features symphonies alongside vocal works in the Sturm und Drang style by composers both familiar and obscure to modern audiences. K...

Cellist Camille Thomas was personally invited by Philip Glass to play his two cello concertos ahead of the pioneering American composer's ninetieth birthday this season. A new album includes the concertos with the Brussels Philharmonic alongside arrangements of Glass's piano music. Michael Keelan talked with Thomas. Find more details at Deutsche Grammophon.

Anna Besson teaches flute at the Brussels and Amsterdam conservatories. Her new album with her ensemble A Nocte Temporis contains all the Mozart flute quartets along with Hoffmeister's arrangement of Mozart's piano sonata, K.311 for the same instrumentation. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Besson about playing historical flutes. More information is at Alpha Classics.

Connor Chee is a Diné (Navajo) composer and pianist who plays his own music on a new album, "Sandpaintings." The title refers to a form of Native art with healing properties, rich in symbolism and cultural references. The music reflects those visual representations in a carefully designed cycle. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with Chee. See more at Wild Saguaro Records.

Béla Bartók composed 44 short duos for two violins, initially for use in an educational method. Their musical rigor makes them suitable for concert performance, and a new recording with violinist Alexandra Preucil and violist Antoine Tamestit intersperses the duos with the original field recordings of the folk source material made by Bartók over a century ago. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with bo...

Arthur Sullivan is famous for the comic operettas he wrote with wordsmith William S. Gilbert. A new debut album from tenor David Webb features many excerpts from G&S, as they’re known, but also a few of Sullivan’s more serious efforts. The Academy of Ancient Music lends a distinctly Victorian tint to the instrumental accompaniment. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with Webb. More info is at Resonus C...

Cincinnati-based composer Rick Sowash has released a new album of his music for clarinet and piano on his RSP Classics label. The release, Full Circle, features clarinetist Christopher Bade with KBACH's Greg Kostraba at the piano. Greg talked with Sowash about his varied career, his love of writing for the clarinet, and the music on the new release. The album is available through Kickshaw Records.

The Apollo Chamber Players consistently explore contemporary American culture on their albums. We the People features recent commissions often with texts reflective of aspects of democracy and the experience of ethnically diverse groups in the US. The wide variety of textures includes narrator, electric violin, a student choir, and soloists. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with ensemble founder Matt...

The combination of clarinet, viola, and piano was established by Mozart in his "Kegelstatt" Trio, K.498. A new recording of that masterpiece with clarinetist Luigi Magistrelli also has three other pieces by composers following in Mozart's footsteps after his lifetime. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Magistrelli about the album and his large instrument collection. See album details at Brilliant...

Susan Graham is one of America’s most recognized mezzo-sopranos. Her first recording of Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa was in the role of Erika and a new recording features her as the Baroness. From July 18 to August 19 Graham appears in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Santa Fe Opera. KBACH’s Michael Keelan talked with her about the roles and the special significance of Santa Fe. 

In his third installment of Mendelssohn's solo piano music, Peter Donohoe turns to the seldom-heard sonatas and some of the more virtuosic short works. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with him about Mendelssohn's relationship with other composers like Beethoven and Liszt. More details at the Chandos website.

Perhaps no composer is so associated with the splendor of Louis XIV's court as Jean-Baptiste Lully. Soprano Marie Lys sings the title role of Lully's opera Proserpine, the mythological daughter of Jupiter abducted to the underworld by Pluto on a new recording. She also has a solo album of Handel cantatas forthcoming. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Lys. Referenced recordings available from the...

Music by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-George, has received a strong revival in the past decade. A new album from Romuald Grimbert-Barré combines concertos of Saint-George with a new work by Thierry Pécou illustrating aspects of the earlier composer's dramatic life during the royal and revolutionary eras in France, and his Caribbean heritage. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Grimbert-Ba...

Prolific contemporary composer Reena Esmail has written a harp and percussion concerto in which Yolanda Kondonassis plays all the instruments. Called "Terra Infirma," it is a response to the recent Los Angeles fires in which Esmail was displaced. It has elements of poetry, choreography, and drama besides music. The album also has two other pieces by the composer and soloist. KBACH's Michael Keelan...

ASU associate professor of piano Cathal Breslin has released a new solo album with the complete ballades of Chopin. It's called Stories and Soundscapes and also features music of John Field and Linda Buckley. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Breslin. For more details or to purchase Cathal Breslin's album, visit bluegriffin.com.

Reynaldo Hahn has always been celebrated for his songs but his chamber music was neglected until the 21st century. The Tchalik family of musicians is now the first ensemble to record all his major chamber music with strings and piano. Some pieces on this second volume have never previously been recorded, including the unfinished piano trio. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Louise and Marc T...

Photo credit: Andrew FoxClassical music lovers are familiar with the legacy recording label Deutsche Grammophon. For the first time DG has released the symphonies of William Walton, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra led by Kazuki Yamada. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with one of the orchestra's leading violinists, Richard Thomas, fresh off the ensemble's tour. Find out more about this...

Alessandro Scarlatti wrote hundreds of cantatas for the soprano voice in the Baroque era. A small percentage use a string ensemble; some of those are featured on a new album by Francesca Aspromonte titled "Vieni, o Notte" (Come, oh Night) with the ensemble Arsenale Sonoro directed by Boris Begelman. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Aspromonte on First Take. Details

Violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua takes Mozart as a starting point on her new album, "Mozartiana." It features composers inspired by him, often incorporating fragments of his music into their own. Some are historical like F.X. Mozart (Wolfgang's son), Beethoven, and Hindemith, but there are also pieces newly written for the album. KBACH's Michael Keelan talked with Bevilacqua. View details at htt...