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Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
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Release Date: 18-AUG-2009

In the age of sterile, hopelessly unimaginative "crossover" projects, cellist Matt Haimovitz earned a solid reputation with his passionate, earnestly invigorating advocay of the Bach Cello Suites in non-traditional venues for classical music. But his exciting project here on Anthem goes even several steps further: rather than rely on a safe brand-name composer, Haimovitz has put together a program of mostly unfamiliar music celebrating both American composers and the unfettered capacity of his instrument. Lou Harrison's prelude from "Rhymes with Silver" is spiked with a taste of baroque linearity but commands with its uncontrived, openhearted melancholy. A sense of musical playfulness dominates in Golijov's Omaramar, a Gardel-inspired fantasia, while one of the disc's most stunning showpieces is Haimovitz's take on a pioneering early piece by Tod Machover, With Dadaji in Paradise, which seemingly explores every inch of the instrument's landscape (Haimovitz can also be heard playing "hypercello" on the latter's intriguing recording the Hyperstring Triology). Two of the pieces were inspired by the atrocity of 9/11: David Sanford's effective Seventh Avenue Kaddish—where the soloist functions, as Haimovitz sees it, as a kind of "professional mourner"—and Toby Twining's microtonally obsessed 9:11 Blues. For all of the in-your-face, upfront emotional directness that is becoming Haimovitz's signature, he clearly also relishes the mind games of Steve Mackey's labyrinth of variations in Rhondo Variations. The title track, meanwhile, stands as a brilliant tribute not only to one of his musical heroes but succeeds in undoing what Haimovtiz has referred to as the electric guitar's "testosterone monopoly." Anthem is not only for fans of the cello and new music but for anyone tired of stale, preformulated patterns. —Thomas May

Shuffle.Play.Listen unites ground-breaking, Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz with pianist Christopher O Riley, host of NPR and PBS s popular weekly radio and television series, From the Top, in a collaboration that blurs the boundaries between classical and pop music. Two performers, each a superstar in his own right, come together to plumb the virtuosic and lyrical possibilities of their instruments in an expansive 2-CD set from Oxingale Records.

Disc 1 features Igor Stravinsky s neo-classical Suite Itallienne, Leos Janacek s Fairy Tale, Bohuslav Martinu's Variations on a Slovak Folksong and Astor Piazzolla's Grand Tango, all interwoven with an arresting new arrangement of Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo film score, celebrating the composer s 100 birthday this year.

Disc 2 kicks off with Empty Room from the 2011 Grammy winning Album of the Year by Arcade Fire, and follows up with tracks by Blond Redhead, the Cocteau Twins, Radiohead, and more Arcade Fire, as well as supergroup A Perfect Circle s hit song 3 Libras and a jaw dropping rendition of John McLaughlin s Dance of Maya. All the arrangements for cello and piano were made with O Riley s signature passion and finesse, and realized with Haimovitz s uncompromising artistic depth. The pair display their considerable improvisational skills in several tunes, including their 9-minute un-cut interpretation of McLaughlin s Lotus on an Irish Spring.

Inside the package, New York Times best-selling author Dan Levitin (This is your Brain on Music), interviews Haimovitz and O Riley on the making of Shuffle.Play.Listen.

One of the most anticipated collaborations of the 2011-2012 season, Haimovitz and O Riley will tour extensively in major concert series and university residencies throughout throughout the US. In addition, each continues to tour exhaustively as a solo artist in recital and as concerto soloist.

Shuffle.Play.Listen embraces a new kind of listening public who mix Wagner with Lady Gaga on their iPods, exploring new sounds and moving comfortably between genres. While Classical lovers will be drawn to CD1, more adventurous listeners will thrill to CD2, and both will want to shuffle, play and listen!

In this album, the common thread of voice and cello conjures a contemporary musical world rooted in the traditions of a millennium. Soprano Eileen Clark and cellist Matt Haimovitz perform the recital ranging from an Hildegard Von Bingen arrangement to John Tavener's "Ahkmatova Songs", from a first recording of Luna Pearl Woolf's "Epithalamion" to Heitor Villa-Lobos' beloved "Bachianas Brasileirsas No. 5" in which Haimovitz has overlaid all the parts in the eight-cello orchestra. Also included in this chant-infused collection is original improvisation on Pablo Neruda's eponymous poem, "Ode to the Lemon." The album features original artwork in a striking multi-panel eco-friendly package with accompanying booklet of the poetry.

The breadth and beauty of the poetry set in these pieces inspired a fine-art book entitled Lemons Descending: Music, Poetry, Etchings, from Oxingale Press. With this recording as its seed and poetry letterpress printed on hand-made paper, the book features the etchings of Michael Kuch, whose interpretations create a visual counterpoint to the compositions. The limited edition book may be viewed at the Library of Congress, Yale University, Stanford University, and other libraries around the world.

Matt Turner: Infiltrator 1. Bite 2. One 3. Air 4. His Royal Heinous 5. Mobile 6. Opt 7. Silent Scream 8. After 9. 'Trane 10. My Red Hat 11. Toonster Rag 12. Dragon 13. Infiltrator 14. In Purple 15. Whisperish A collection of improvisations for unaccompanied cello and piano. Always striking, sometimes stark, sometimes lush, and sometimes grating. Musicians: Matt Turner (cello, piano)

Matt Turner, Jeff Song, and John Mettam. TRACKS: 1. Never, Never Now; 2. Misfortune Cookie; 3. Malachi; 4. All Alone; 5. Skreeow; 6. Monkey Talk/Chim Chim; 7. The View From Little Rock; 8. Fire; 9. Northern Revival; 10. Drifting; 11. Push; 12. The Gift; 13. Adios Muchachos