Discography
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VIRKO BALEY: MUSIC FOR EMILY DICKINSON
Available now via https://listn.fm/virkobaley
Virko Baley was born in Ukraine in 1938 and came to the USA as a refugee in 1949, eventually making his home in Las Vegas. He has long been fascinated by the poetry of Emily Dickinson, as can be heard in the two moving works recorded here – one an orchestral song-cycle setting her texts, the other a suite for violin and piano inspired by those settings. They display an acute ear for orchestral colour, a fondness for dramatic gesture and a strong sense of lyricism, occasionally inflected by distant echoes of Baley’s eastern European origins, the richness of the song-cycle placing him downstream from Mahler and Berg and the restraint of the Songs without Words occasionally evoking Arvo Pärt.
Lucy Shelton, soprano
Cleveland Chamber Symphony
Virko Baley, conductor
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
Timothy Hoft, piano
Nongarian Dances (2021) by Matthew Reid
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin & viola
Matthew Reid, percussion & vocals
Released on May 6, 2022 available on streaming platforms:
featuring Karen Bentley Pollick on violin & viola in the debut recording of My Manchu Princess and orchestral accompaniments of the Neptunus Cyber Symphony for his earlier works Dance Suite and Daladans.
Our current collaboration was conceived during the global pandemic with the goal of maintaining our long distance cooperation despite having limited access to a live orchestra. Karen’s solo violin was recorded at Evergroove Studio in Evergreen, Colorado in August 2021 with audio engineer Brad Smalling, and combined with a virtual orchestra created from the Vienna Symphonic Library at the Neptunus Records studio in Siljansnas, Sweden. We present these compositions in the spirit of keeping dynamic new music created in our home studios flowing forth to catalyze future live performances.
Estrellitas de Esperanza by Miguel Fajardo
Released on August 6, 2021
Karen Bentley Pollick & Miguel Fajardo, violins
Recorded in San Pancho, Nayarit on March 13, 2021
A Quiet Madness by William Susman
Released by Belarca on January 20, 2021
Including Aria for violin & piano with composer/pianist William Susman
Reviews:
textura January 2021
Olivia Kieffer Earrelevant 5 February, 2021
Peter Alexander Sharps and Flatirons 22 February, 2021
New Music Buff 2 April, 2021
Guillaume Spellbinding Music 15 April, 2021
Sammy Holloman The Flute View 1 July, 2021
IVAN SOKOLOV: CHAMBER AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Ivan Sokolov, born in Moscow in 1960, has made his mark both as composer and as pianist. His early compositions were avant-gardist, but he eventually rejected radicality in favour of a more traditional musical language, one with its roots in Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Rachmaninov, flavoured, perhaps, with a hint of Shostakovich. Most of the works here were composed within the last few years and are couched in the unforced lyricism of his latter-day Romanticism.
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin, viola and piano
Ivan Sokolov, piano
Recorded at Immanuelskirche in Wuppertal, Germany September 24 – 27, 2019
Audio Engineer & Producer: Holger Urbach
Executive Producer: Martin Anderson
Released by Toccata Classics, London on August 7, 2020
Global Music Awards December 2020
Reviews:
Lynn René Bayley: Exploring Sokolov’s Chamber Music
Steve Arloff MusicWeb International
David DeBoor Canfield Fanfare Magazine Issue 44:4 (March/April 2021)
HERMANN GRÄDENER: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, VOLUME ONE
Released by Toccata Classics, London on November 1, 2019
The German-born, Vienna-based Hermann Grädener (1844–1929) is yet another composer whose music, esteemed in its own time, has since slipped between the floorboards of history. Yet this first recording of his two violin concertos – substantial works both, downstream from Brahms, and with a hint of Sibelius – prove him to have been one of the more important Romantics, with a strong sense of drama, a sure hand for musical architecture and a natural flair for extended melody.
Karen Bentley Pollick, violin
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Gottfried Rabl, conductor
FIRST RECORDINGS
Recorded on 15 – 18 June 2018 in the House of Records in Kiev, Ukraine
Engineer: Andriy Mokrytskiy
Assistant: Grigoriy Mokrytskiy
Producer: Alexander Hornostai
Executive Producer: Martin Anderson
TOCC 0528
https://toccataclassics.com/?p=18160
ArkivMusic: http://bit.ly/31jHma7
Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/31jbSk8
Reviews:
Ralph Graves The Unmutual Blogspot Hermann Graedener Violin Concertos Make The Grade
Jonathan Woolf Music Web International
Joshua Kosman San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Alexander Sharps and Flatirons
Daniel Kepl Performing Arts Review
Video Interview with Daniel Kepl
Global Music Awards November 2019
Silver Medal – Outstanding Achievement
Karen Bentley Pollick – Toccata Classics
Hermann Grädener: Orchestral Music, Volume One
Album and Instrumental Solo Performance
This article originally appeared in Issue 43:5 (May/June 2020) of Fanfare Magazine.
This article originally appeared in Issue 43:5 (May/June 2020) of Fanfare Magazine.
Horizons Music of Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė. Featuring ‘Serenity Diptychs’ for violin and electronics, recorded at Lithuanian Radio & TV Studios in Vilnius. Released on January 5, 2018.
Tightly Wound: Music for Strings by Dorothy Hindman with pianist Ivan Sokolov on ‘centro’ for violin & piano, recorded at the American Academy of Rome; and ‘Fantasia for Karen Alone’, a recording of the world premiere at Birmingham Museum of Art. The album received a Gold Medal for #1 Best Recording of 2017, and a Gold Medal in Composer/Album/US category in the 2017 Global Music Awards.
Flashes of Light Music of Ladislav Kubik with mezzo soprano Phyllis Pancella and pianist Hui-Ting Yang
Peace Piece Music of Ole Saxe with pianists Ivan Sokolov and Justas Šervenikas, and guitarist Volkmar Zimmermann
Music Spell with Don Slepian
Russian Soulscapes by Ivan Sokolov
Tanzen with Valse Cafe Orchestra
Estadio for Viola by Greg Simon
Bebop for Beagles by Benedikt Brydern
Homage to Fiddlers Music of Ivan Sokolov, Jan Vicar & Viktor Kalabis
<amberwood> Music of Ivan Sokolov, Jan Vicar & Ole Saxe
Dancing Suite to Suite Music of J.S. Bach & Ole Saxe
Konzerto & Succubus by Stuart Diamond
Ariel View with Bruce Hanifan
Wildlife: Impossible Animals by David A. Jaffe
Rosas de Pulpa, Rosas de Cal: Music of Valdo Sciammarella
La Mar Amarga: Music of Cindy Cox
Jerry Gerber: Kairotic Offerings
Le Jongleur de Notre Dame by Peter Maxwell Davies
Images from Earth by Michael Thomas Berkley
See other Arkiv Music CDs featuring Karen
Concatenation: ambient electro acoustic with violin extended techniques recorded in San Pancho, Mexico and New York City with Stuart Diamond on keyboard and Electronic Wind Instrument. September 13, 2020
Ode to K: in memory of Kathryn Gould Karen Bentley Pollick, violin recorded at the Chapel at Battle Mountain Vineyard on June 14, 2019. Electronics by Stuart Diamond.