image recordings: Purchase

"This is a disc that invites listeners to consider a new perspective on J.S. Bach's PARTITA IN D MINOR, by offering it the context of four new worksby composers who looked to the past for inspiration. Alongside the iconic Bach PARTITA I hope it will be possible for listeners to hear these distinctive American voices in a fresh and approachable way. The range of these pieces runs the whole palette, from Kevin Puts' stunning mix of 'Bach meets Appalachian fiddle' in ARCHES to the searching lines and driving power chords of Randall Woolf's NO AXE TO GRIND, and the brilliant and crazed passion of Daniel Ott's DOUBLE ARIA to Mark O'Connor's CAPRICE NO. 6, all brightness, radiance, and energy." --Tim Fain

This is dark, passionate, brooding music. Radio personality and virtuoso pianist Christopher O'Riley gives stunning performances.

This electrifying disc was recorded in the historic Methuen Memorial Music Hall outside Boston, Massachusetts. O'Riley is one of the most sought after of American pianists, and here he matches his unique gifts with the mystery and dazzling virtuosity of Scriabin's music. This release coincides with the premiere performances of chorographer Martha Clarke's latest theater piece, Vers la flamme. In this popular and controversial work, Christopher O'Riley appears live onstage with the actors and dancers as he performs this all-Scriabin program.

An artist whose poetic gifts and captivating virtuosity have made him one of the most important and versatile pianists performing before the public today, Christopher O'Riley enjoys a thriving concert career. His singularly broad repertoire ranges from music of the English Renaissance and French Baroque periods to the new works of today's leading composers to such non-classical forms as the tango. He also plays many of his own arrangements and transcriptions.

Mr. O'Riley is the host of the award-winning weekly NPR radio show FROM THE TOP.


His performing schedule regularly takes him to major cities throughout America, highlighted by frequent engagements at both Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Internationally, he has appeared in cultural capitals worldwide from London, Paris and Vienna to Hong Kong and Melbourne.


Mr. O'Riley's recordings reflect the originality of his programming. Among his highly acclaimed solo releases is an all-Stravinsky disc on Elektra Nonesuch, featuring "Three Movements from Petruchka" and Mr. O'Riley's own transcriptons of "Apollo" and "Histoire du Soldat." He is also heard on a recent RCA Victor Red Seal release of French repertoire for flute and piano with James Galway.


The illustrious group of conductors with whom he has collaborated includes Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Leonard Slatkin, John Williams, Neeme Järvi, Edo de Waart, Yoel Levi, Hugh Wolff, Andrew Litton and Ransom Wilson.


Christopher O'Riley is the recipient of an Artist's Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Russel Sherman.

This is atmospheric French flute music. It transports the listener to a shimmering, mellow world of 1900 Paris.

Ransom Wilson hails from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts and The Juilliard School . For post-graduate work, he was an Atlantique Foundation scholar in Paris for a year, studying privately with Jean-Pierre Rampal. His other flute teachers have included Alain Marion, Sandra Taylor, Lawrence Morgan, Philip Dunigan, Severino Gazzelloni, Julius Baker, Christian Lardé, and Arthur Lora. He has appeared with major orchestras around the world, and has played in recital with many of the greatest musicians of our time.

He has recorded 30 albums as both flutist and conductor, and was three times nominated for the "Grammy" award. Other awards he has received include the Alabama Prize from the New York Times Foundation, and the Award of Merit in Gold, from the Republic of Austria. He is an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is Professor of Flute at Yale University, as well as Music Director of the orchestra at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He recently taught a week long master class at the Paris Conservatory, as well as classes at International Summer Academy in Nice, and at The Juilliard School in New York City

Our first release, this disc won the prestigious WQXR/CHAMBER MUSIC AMERICA 2001 Record Award. Ravel's colorful music is represented in all its dark, swirling passion.

Recorded at the historic Methuen Memorial Music Hall outside Boston, MA, the Borromeo String Quartet's first recording project for Image Recordings, featuring the Quartet and String Duo of Maurice Ravel, was honored with the Chamber Music America/WQXR Award for Recording Excellence in 2001.

This dynamic young group has won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award. The group has a busy performing schedule at major concert halls throughout the world, and audiences invariably rise to their feet spontaneously at their concerts. This disc will give you an idea why!

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY...QUOTES

"So rich in detail and variety one might have thought an entire orchestra was playing."
The Washington Post

"It is impossible to imagine a better performance. This quartet combines every 20th-century virtuoso ensemble virtue with an old-world sense of color, character, and style."
The Boston Globe

This music is emotional, intense, exciting, moody, and virtuosic. Performed here by two of America's most respected musicians, both members of New York's famed Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Contemporary music and vocals that combine traditional orchestral instruments, digital processing, electric guitar, electronic and acoustic drumsets, and text, creating a richly varied and genre-bending fusion of elements both ancient and futuristic.

Classical electronica, fusing the orchestra with drum machine, electric guitar, and almost psychedelic clouds of twisted digital audio.

Two of Beethoven's most dramatic and exciting works, played by the premiere young string quartet is America.

Following the wild success of their first CD for us, the Borromeo Quartet has gone back into the studio and produced another stunning CD. Their interpretations of these two Beethoven quartets are second to none: dramatic, profound, and polished.

This recording is the first by the Borromeo Quartet with its two new members, and we're delighted to say that the excitement continues!

REVIEWS:

"The Borromeo String Quartet's second disc for Image Records features two quartets from the Beethoven cycle, Op. 59, No. 3, and Op. 95 ("Serioso"). The performances are on the exalted and eloquent level we have come to expect from this ensemble, and the recorded sound is superb."

Richard Dyer, Globe Arts/
Entertainment
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"These performances are astonishing, not just for their technical accuracy, perfection of ensemble and attack, and beauty of tone, but they are interpretively revealing of details I thought I knew, but had never really heard brought out before...These four musicians bring a whole new dimension to the meaning of "team work"....

"...I don't know what your engineers have done, but these CDs make my speakers disappear. It's as if the musicians are in the room with me...I don't think I've heard another recording that captures the sound of a string quartet as naturally, as realistically, and as sumptuously as this one does. Bravo to all concerned!"

J. Dubins Vancouver, Washington

The genius of Bach is shown at its most imaginative in these virtuosic and moving works, perfect for quieting the restless soul.

Recorded in August 2002, this spectacular 2-CD set is a celebration of Joseph Silverstein's 70th birthday. Over the course of a distinguished career spanning half a century, he has been hailed by colleagues, critics and audiences alike as a "complete musician," with an uncommon breadth of artistic experience and selfless dedication to his art.


Bach's monumental and spiritually uplifting Sonatas and Partitas are unarguably a catalogue of violin technique, at some point testing every aspect of a violinist's playing. Joseph Silverstein brings a uniquely brilliant yet mature vision to these timeless masterworks!

REVIEWS:

GRAMOPHONE
"Silverstein's intimate playing...serves as a gateway into a Bachian world that exists, as it should, beyond temporal form and style. It is what musicians dream of: playing that identifies with the music so that listeners don't say, 'that's Silverstein', but instead, 'that's Bach'. The effect is cumulative, too, so that the music sounds like one large work rather than six distinct sonatas."

SEATTLE TIMES
"At 70, Silverstein can still match bows with the best of them. This Bach set...is classic playing in the grand style, yet it is full of intimate moments that feel deeply personal. The wisdom of decades behind that violin has surfaced here, in Silverstein's unerring instinct for the right ornament, the right pause, and the bravura flourish where it is needed.

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE
"Joseph Silverstein's admirable new recording...reflects his interpretive maturity as well as the beautiful state of his playing...He builds his performances mainly out of well-articulated short phrases, rather than the long singing line of later Romantic style...The sound is utterly realistic within a nicely resonant acoustic."


PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
"His renditions...are deeply thought-out, carefully nuanced, rhythmically strong and phrased with the humanity of a singer (or comparable, perhaps to a grand choir, in the case of the fugal movements). They are intensely personal in the slow movements, exquisitely joyous in the dances...and grandly communicative in the great Chaconne...In all, these discs are a lasting testament to Silverstein's consummate musicianship and lifelong mastery of the instrument."