Recent RSF-funded recordings

Composer: Mark Rimple January
Furious Artisans

Mark Rimple is a powerful force for good in the early music world. He is a member of Trefoil and Musica Humana. It is a great thrill to see the incomparable, world renowned countertenor Drew Minter on this disc.

Rimple is also a brilliant composer, and therefore, a force in the new music world. This disc promises to bring new music listeners to the early music world. Moreover, perhaps more than any other composer at large today, Rimple’s new CD (on Furious Artisans) could help early music listeners branch out into the wonderful world of new music. Early music was once new, and in fact, much of the early music we love was controversial in its day.

In the spirit of Ezra Pound’s rallying cry, “make it new”, Rimple is working with some very old things, and making them new. Rimple’s compositions use the ancient instruments, ancient vocal technique, ancient forms. The joke here is in that the novelty of early instruments and the novelty of very recently developed compositonal techniques mirror one another and mutually enhance one another. Moreover, early music performance practice can be particularly well suited to bring off the music of compsoers whose music is ill-served by the Russian Romantic performance practices that still prevails today.

“Mark Rimple’s lute solos had the interpretive specificity of a great vocal performance.”

​The Philadelphia Inquirer

“His technique as a lutenist is fluid and confident, adding a kinetic lift to the ensemble. His considerable assets as a countertenor include a centered, clear tone, effortless upper notes capable of pinpoint agility…”

​The Chicago Tribune

“…Rimple proved a deft lutenist”

The New York Times

Leon Fleisher: All the Things You Are

​New Yorker review

Leon Fleisher was the co-director, with RSF founder Dina Koston, of the Theater Chamber Players. This disc was released in 2013 and won rave reviews in the the New Yorker Magazine and elsewhere.

Dina Koston was widely celebrated for her programming for the Theater Chamber Players. She would find the route from Fleisher’s unparalleled Brahms to Ligeti, Crumb, Dallapiccola, etc.

In this Bridge Records release, Fleisher performs works by Koston, and bridging from there back to Kern, and to Bach/Brahms. This RSF project continues Dina’s strategy–bridging from standard repertoire to the new works that are related in surprising ways to the great tradition.

Matthew Greenbaum
on Furious Artisans

Momenta String Quartet
Cygnus Ensemble
Miranda Cuckson

George Walker
Great American Concert Music
on Albany Records

George Walker is a national treasure.

This disc includes a stunning performance of the great new music specialist Robert Pollcok, in a performance of Walker’s Piano Sonata # 5. Also on this disc is the renowned pianist Leon Bates doing Sonata # 3, which Bates commissioned. Soprano Alison Buchanan sings Walker lieder, with the composer at the piano.

“George Walker’s album of concert music is great indeed. The third piano sonata is played exquisitely here…That Walker is also a first-rate pianist is evident in the style of composition. …If you don’t already own any of George Walker’s music this is a fine first purchase.” (American Record Guide)

“…George Walker is one of the most accomplished, fiercely individual composers this country has ever produced.” (Fanfare)

Geroge Crumb, Vol. 16
Bridge Records
2015 Grammy Nominee: Best Contemporary Classical Composition
American Songbook VII: Voices from the Heartland

Richard Festinger
New York New Music Ensemble

DIARY OF A JOURNEY ­
THE COMING OF AGE
LAWS OF MOTION and
A DREAM FORETOLD.
​Naxos International

Charles Wuorinen
Metagong

Albany Records continues its series devoted to the music of Pulitzer Prize winning composer Charles Wuorinen with this disc, which includes the world premiere recordings of two major chamber works from 2008, as well as new recordings of two Wuorinen classics.