New Enchantments
Robert Schumann composer
Iván Enrique Rodríguez composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau composer
Max Grafe composer
Sato Matsui composer
Cornelia Sommer arranger & bassoon
Fairy tales have deeply and consistently fascinated humanity throughout the centuries. Enter NEW ENCHANTMENTS, bassoonist Cornelia Sommer’s exploration of magical archetypes that features music by living composers along with new arrangements by Sommer herself across six world premiere recordings.
Sommer has also written a prize-winning dissertation on the subject of fairy tales in music, adding further depth to this performance that showcases her musical virtuosity, great feeling for nuance, lyrical storytelling, and profound expertise to illuminate every last detail. Enriching and engrossing, this album could not be more aptly titled.
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Track Listing & Credits
# | Title | Composer | Performer | |
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Märchenbilder, Op. 113: I. Nicht schnell | Robert Schumann, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 3:22 |
02 | Märchenbilder, Op. 113: II. Lebhaft | Robert Schumann, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 3:43 |
03 | Märchenbilder, Op. 113: III. Rasch | Robert Schumann, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 2:55 |
04 | Märchenbilder, Op. 113: IV. Langsam, mit melancholischem Ausdruck | Robert Schumann, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 4:18 |
05 | Mamá María: Cuento de Hadas para Fagót y Piano | Iván Enrique Rodríguez | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 6:36 |
06 | Un conte de fées: I. L’entrée noble | Jean-Philippe Rameau, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Bethanne Walker, baroque flute; Cornelia Sommer, baroque bassoon; Rachell Ellen Wong, baroque violin; Jonathan Salamon, harpsichord | 1:45 |
07 | Un conte de fées: II. Sarabande naïve | Jean-Philippe Rameau, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Bethanne Walker, baroque flute; Cornelia Sommer, baroque bassoon; Rachell Ellen Wong, baroque violin; Jonathan Salamon, harpsichord | 2:12 |
08 | Un conte de fées: III. Un voyage fantastique | Jean-Philippe Rameau, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Bethanne Walker, baroque flute; Cornelia Sommer, baroque bassoon; Rachell Ellen Wong, baroque violin; Jonathan Salamon, harpsichord | 1:51 |
09 | Un conte de fées: IV. Sérénité | Jean-Philippe Rameau, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Bethanne Walker, baroque flute; Cornelia Sommer, baroque bassoon; Rachell Ellen Wong, baroque violin; Jonathan Salamon, harpsichord | 1:27 |
10 | Un conte de fées: V. Réjouissance | Jean-Philippe Rameau, arr. Cornelia Sommer | Bethanne Walker, baroque flute; Cornelia Sommer, baroque bassoon; Rachell Ellen Wong, baroque violin; Jonathan Salamon, harpsichord | 2:07 |
11 | Rumpelstilzchentanz | Max Grafe | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Kathleen McLean, bassoon | 3:30 |
12 | Hanasaka Jiisan: I. Koko horé wan wan! | Sato Matsui | Lucian Avalon, oboe; Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 2:55 |
13 | Hanasaka Jiisan: II. Inu no shi | Sato Matsui | Lucian Avalon, oboe; Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 3:03 |
14 | Hanasaka Jiisan: III. Aenai tomoé | Sato Matsui | Lucian Avalon, oboe; Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 6:12 |
15 | Hanasaka Jiisan: IV. Mafuyu no hana Zakari | Sato Matsui | Lucian Avalon, oboe; Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 4:58 |
16 | Fantasy on Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” | arr. Cornelia Sommer | Cornelia Sommer, bassoon; Hilda Huang, piano | 9:24 |
Recorded September 27-28 & 30, 2021 at Oktaven AudiO in Mount Vernon NY
Session Producer & Engineer Ryan Streber
Editing & Mixing Ryan Streber
Mastering Melanie Montgomery
Executive Producer Bob Lord
VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson
VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Morgan Hauber
Publicity Aidan Curran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci
Artist Information
Cornelia Sommer
Dr. Cornelia Sommer is a bassoonist, arranger, and educator dedicated to sharing music with diverse audiences and expanding the bassoon’s repertoire. Originally from Seattle, she joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Second Bassoon in Fall 2023. Sommer’s recent performance and research projects have focused on music inspired by fairy tales. NEW ENCHANTMENTS: FAIRY TALE MUSIC FOR BASSOON is her debut album and is supported by grants from the Presser Foundation and the International Double Reed Society.
Iván Enrique Rodríguez
Described by San Francisco Classical Voice, Boston Classical Review, and New York Concert Review as fiery, gripping, lyrical, eloquent, with a strong feeling for musical drama, and a gifted colorist with an abundance of emotional energy and the means to communicate it, Puerto Rican composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez’s (b. 1990) music has been performed in Puerto Rico, the United States, throughout North/South America and Europe in important venues and landmarks such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Harpa in Reykjavík, Iceland, Jordan Hall in Boston MA, among others around the world.
Max Grafe
Max Grafe writes music characterized by “jagged declamations and muffled filigree” (Gramophone) that engages with the dramatic, collaborative nature of performance in the context of a highly personal, distinctive approach to musical modernism. Grafe’s music has been commissioned and programmed by a wide range of ensembles — including the New York Philharmonic, the New York New Music Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, ensembleNEWSRQ, and Duo Entre-Nous — and has been featured at numerous music festivals across the country, including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and RED NOTE New Music Festival.
Sato Matsui
Born in Chitose, Japan, Sato Matsui is a Paris-based composer whose style draws influence from traditional Japanese sonorities as well as her training as a classical violinist. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of IMAGO, a chamber music ensemble in Paris that specializes in both traditional repertoire and original creations with a strongly cross-disciplinary approach. Matsui holds her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Juilliard School and her Bachelor’s degree from Williams College.
Hilda Huang
Hilda Huang began her international performing career upon receiving first prize at the Leipzig International Bach Competition. She is a modern performer of historical music who brings together traditions of performance on piano, harpsichord, fortepiano, and organ. Hilda Huang has singular distinction of earning the top prizes at the Leipzig, Würzburg, and Tureck International Bach Competitions. After making her recital debut on the Steinway & Sons Prizewinners’ Concert Network at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in partnership with the Leipzig Bach Archive and MDR Leipzig, she has performed at the Leipzig Bach Festival, BASF Gesellschaftshaus, and the Montréal Bach Festival.
Kathleen McLean
Kathleen McLean is one of the most acclaimed orchestral bassoonists in North America. Internationally recognized, McLean was the associate principal bassoon of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 2009 and is a sought-after chamber and orchestral musician, recitalist, and teacher.
Rachell Ellen Wong
Recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant — the only early music specialist in the respected program’s history — and Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is a star on both the modern and historical performance violin stages. She has performed in numerous countries spanning five continents, and her reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances with renowned ensembles such as the Academy of Ancient Music, Jupiter Ensemble (led by lutenist Thomas Dunford), Bach Collegium Japan, Ruckus Early Music, Les Arts Florissants, and others.
Bethanne Walker
Bethanne Walker (flute) began her historical performance studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was introduced to the Baroque flute by her teacher, Timothy Day. One afternoon, Day brought a Baroque flute out from a dusty shelf, and he requested she return the next week with a Telemann Fantasie. She immediately fell in love with the fragile expressivity and vulnerability of the instrument and knew it needed to be a part of her life.
Jonathan Salamon
Jonathan (Jon) Salamon is a harpsichordist, pianist, and composer based in New York NY. He has performed at festivals in the United States and abroad including the International Baroque Institute at Longy, Cambridge MA, and at the Virtuoso & Bel Canto Festival in Lucca, Italy, among others. Salamon has performed in masterclasses for artists such as Jordi Savall, Pierre Hantaï, Luca Guglielmi, Peter Sykes, and Ketil Haugsand. While in-residence at Yale, he played continuo for the Yale Baroque Opera Project, assisted in tuning at Yale’s Collection of Musical Instruments, and was a frequent collaborator on chamber music concerts.
Lucian Avalon
Lucian Avalon, 25, has enjoyed an eclectic musical career spanning from Zimbabwean marimba to classical oboe. He is currently working on his doctoral studies at the Manhattan School of Music with James Austin Smith, and he recently completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Elaine Douvas. Previously, he attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, studying with Daniel Stolper, and received the IAA Young Artist Award. Avalon is currently an Apex Ensemble Fellow and was principal oboe of NYSOS 2020. He was the winner of the NSAL 2018 Texas Woodwind Competition and a Juilliard Concerto Competition 2018 Finalist. He performed in 2019 with The Juilliard Orchestra at the BBC Proms, has performed with the NYC Ballet, Santa Fe Opera, and New World Symphony, and has been an Aspen Music Festival Fellow for three summers. Avalon also trained as a figure skater, becoming a USFS Moves Gold Medalist in 2013.
Notes
NEW ENCHANTMENTS features six world premiere recordings for bassoon inspired by the magical world of fairy tales. Three pieces are Sommer’s arrangements of classic fairy tale music, and the other three pieces are commissioned works based on tales from the composers’ own cultural heritages. The album is a companion to Sommer’s scholarly work on fairy tale music; in her dissertation, she defines three major archetypes present in fairy tale music: magic, a distant setting, and simplicity. On NEW ENCHANTMENTS, these archetypes come alive in the delightful musical language of each composer. This album was made possible by grants from the Presser Foundation, The Juilliard School, and the International Double Reed Society.