DCD 015 - Holiday Special, Part 1

This is the first of two special programs featuring music for the holidays. In this podcast, we journey from England to Mexico to Latvia and finally land back home in America. All the selections come from releases available through DCD Records -- and if you listen carefully to the program, you might not hear the sound of reindeer, but you will hear about our special gift to you.

Christmas is my favorite season, and I really enjoyed putting this two-part program together. I hope these selections bring you pleasure.

- Ralph Graves
President, DCD Records

This program we play the following:

Rutter: What Sweeter Music
Good King Wensceslas
St. Clement’s Choir; Peter Richard Conte, music director ; Kenneth Cowan, organ
DTR

Garcia: Hermoso amor, Romance a 4
Convivium Musicum Gothenburgense
Sven Berger and Andreas Edlund, conductors
Musica Rediviva

Ritmane: Christ is Born / Kristus ir Dzimis
New York Latvian Concert Choir; National Opera Chamber Orchestra; Andrejs Jansons, conductor
NYLCC

The Holly and the Ivy
O Holy Night
Inner Voices
Laurel Records

DCD 014 - From the Renaissance to the 20th Century

This program we continue our general survey of the music carried at DCD Records, ranging from the renaissance to the modern age (hence the title of the podcast). In addition to a variety of works from different labels, we also present a selection from the best-selling album at DCDRecords.com for September, 2006.

- Ralph Graves
President, DCD Records

This program we play the following:

Chopin: Polonnaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 "Heroic"
Howard Karp, piano
UW-Madison

de Wert: Noli timere
Rutgers Collegium Musicum; Andrew Kirkman, conductor
DTR

Bloch: Scherzo Fantasque for Piano and Orchestra
Micah Yui, pianist; The London Symphony Orchestra; David Amos, conductor
Laurel Records

A selection from the DCD Top of the Charts for September, 2006

DCD 013 Ethel Smythe's Chamber Music

Troubadisc has released a four-volume set surveying the chamber music of Dame Ethel Smythe (1858-1944). This remarkable English composer forged a musical career at the turn of the Twentieth Century despite crushing adversity. Facing an enormous amount of discrimination because of her sex, she managed to turn out an impressive body of music -- and have it published and performed, to boot.

Renate Eggebrecht, co-founder of Troubadisc Records, has long been a champion of women composers, so its not surprising that she would turn her attention to Smythe. The intimate nature of chamber music gives us a unique perspective on this sometimes larger-that-life figure. After all, we're talking about someone who was not only friends with luminaries such as Clara Schumann and Virginia Wolf, but was a driving force of the Women's Sufferage Movement at a time when such activity was met with active hostility and sometimes violence. And, as you'll hear in this podcast, she was a gifted composer with a talent for melody.

- Ralph Graves
President, DCD Records

This program we feature the following:

Smythe: String Quartet No. 1, Op, 1

Smythe: Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 5

Smythe: "Chrysilla" from Four Songs for Mezzosoprano and Chamber Orchestra

Smythe: "Before the Squall" from Three Moods of the Sea