New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Baarn, The Netherlands, 12 January 2015… BEETHOVEN, Period. is the debut release on the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. Oxingale Records, the trailblazing artists' label founded in 2000 by Matt Haimovitz and composer Luna
Pearl Woolf, has joined forces with the Netherlands-based label PENTATONE, renowned for its discerning artistic quality and superior sound standards. The international release of BEETHOVEN, Period. will be followed by new albums and reissues from Haimovitz, Woolf, and their musical collaborators - published as Super Audio CD and as high quality downloads - on the new PENTATONE Oxingale Series.
"15 years ago, Luna and I founded Oxingale to pave a way for us to share music that we are passionate about, with an audience that we believed was seeking meaning and musical adventure," says Matt Haimovitz, continuing, "For us, classical music is a living, breathing art form. We started Oxingale to bring to life what has been in our minds and hearts, whether by composers working 300 years ago, newly inked works, or improvisations. The invitation to collaborate with PENTATONE is an affirmation. With our shared sense of artistic and sonic values, we look forward to bringing our vision and energy to a label which has shown an optimistic and uncompromising attitude in its contributions to culture and the future of classical music."
"There was never any doubt for PENTATONE to join forces with OXINGALE Records," says PENTATONE's managing director, Dirk Jan Vink. "We believe the works of Oxingale artists bring a fantastic addition to our catalogue. With PENTATONE's warm, dynamic and detailed sound capturing the superb works and performances of Oxingale's artists, we look forward to bringing you a range of prestigious work in prime quality."
The new collaboration launches on February 1, 2015 with the release of BEETHOVEN, Period., the complete collection of sonatas and variations for pianoforte and violoncello recorded on period instruments by Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist
Christopher O'Riley. Following later in the year are two more releases: Shuffle. Play. Listen, the groundbreaking recording, also with O'Riley, which saw Herrmann, Janacek and Stravinsky come together with Radiohead, the Cocteau
Twins and John McLaughlin; and an all-Schubert album featuring the Arpeggione Sonata and the Cello Quintet. Also forthcoming is a 3-CD box set of Haimovitz's solo cello recordings from the last 15 years, including 20 world premiere recordings and two newly released tracks: Orbit, by
Philip Glass and a new arrangement of the Beatles' Helter Skelter for solo cello by Woolf.
Grammy-nominated Matt Haimovitz is acclaimed for both his tremendous artistry and as a musical visionary - pushing the boundaries of classical music performance, championing new music and initiating groundbreaking collaborations, all while mentoring an award-winning studio of young cellists at McGill University's Schulich School of
Music in Montreal. Mr. Haimovitz made his debut at the age of 13, as a soloist with Zubin Mehta and the
Israel Philharmonic, and at 17 he made his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon with
James Levine and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Haimovitz's recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon and his own Oxingale Records. In 2000, he made waves with his Bach "Listening-Room" Tour, for which Haimovitz took Bach's beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and into clubs. Haimovitz's honors include the Concert
Music Award from ASCAP, the Trailblazer Award from the American
Music Center, the Avery
Fisher Career Grant, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Diapason d'Or.
Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, pianist
Christopher O'Riley is known to millions as the host of NPR's From the Top, now in its fifteenth year on air. A guest soloist with virtually all of the major American orchestras, O'Riley has also performed recitals throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. O'Riley strives to introduce new audiences to classical music with an almost missionary zeal by performing piano arrangements of music by Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Pink Floyd, and
Nirvana alongside traditional classical repertoire. A prolific recording artist, O'Riley has recorded for Sony Classical, Oxingale Records, RCA Red Seal, Decca, and Harmonia Mundi. He has received the prestigious Avery
Fisher Career Grant and an equally coveted four-star review from Rolling Stone magazine.
Matt Haimovitz and
Christopher O'Riley, two fearless musicians who have bonded over common musical passions of wide range and scope, reunite for BEETHOVEN, Period., an illuminating voyage back to the birth of the cello/piano genre with Beethoven's Sonatas for Pianoforte and Cello. Matt Haimovitz, praised as a musical visionary in pushing the boundaries of classical music performance, and O'Riley, acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances and known to millions as the host of NPR's From the Top, turn back the clock to record for the first time on period instruments - Haimovitz's Venetian
Matteo Gofriller cello of 1710 set up with gut strings and an early 19th century tailpiece, and O'Riley with an 1823 original Broadwood fortepiano.
The new recording on two SACDs is available internationally on February 1, 2015 on the PENTATONE Oxingale Series.
