For Immediate Release
AVIE RECORDS UNVEILS AUTUMN 2023 RELEASES
The range of AVIE Records’ autumn 2023 releases runs the gamut: music from the 18th century to the present day; intimate solo instrumentals and enchanting chamber ensembles; large scale orchestra and choir; established, award-winning recording artists as well as dazzling debutants.

(Please scroll down for a chronological list of releases.)
Piano Pyrotechnics
Autumn 2020 offered Daniel-Ben Pienaar an opportunity, not because the world was in lockdown but rather for the benefit it provided. A professor at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Daniel-Ben was allowed overnight access to the RAM’s Angela Burgess Hall. Solitary, with a Steinway and a single pair of suspended omni-directional microphones, surrounded by silence and the darkness of the night, Daniel-Ben recorded this inspired eight-CD set of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas over a four-month period.
If the second solo album by young American pianist John Wilson had a title, it might well be “Virtuoso,” for that description permeates John’s musical selections as well as his dynamic interpretations. John follows in the footsteps of previous pianistic giants Sergei Rachmaninoff, George Gershwin and Earl Wild, all of whom have contributions on this new release – indeed the pedigree of these composer-arranger-pianists runs through John’s musical DNA.
A Baroque Biblical Tale
Apollo’s Fire founder and director Jeannette Sorrell is “a masterful musical storyteller” (Seen and Heard). The Maestra and her acclaimed baroque orchestra add to their distinguished AVIE discography that includes Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Messiah, with her own adaptation of the composer’s oratorio Israel in Egypt. This colourful orchestral showcase takes the listener on a biblical journey from the Israelites' lamentations on the death of Joseph, to the frogs, locusts, disease and darkness that plague the Egyptians, to Moses’ miraculous parting of the Red Sea.
Dynamic Debuts
Much Ado, the solo debut album by multiple award winning Korean-American violinist Danbi Um is as striking for the young musician’s choice of “old world” repertoire as much as for her virtuoso interpretations and the sumptuous sound she draws from her 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin. Danbi conjures memories of a musical Golden Age, a sensibility instilled in her by a roster of internationally renowned tutors. The title track by Eric Korngold’s Shakespeare-inspired suite sits alongside arrangements of works by Fritz Kreisler and Richard Wagner, gipsy-inspired music by Johannes Brahms, Jenő Hubay and Ernő Dohnányi, and music by Jewish composers Ernst Bloch, Joseph Achron and Leo Zeitlin.
Saxophonist Pat Posey, a member of Los Angeles-based, Grammy-nominated band Wild Up, goes to extremes on his solo debut album, they/beast. Introducing the tubax – a German-invented, modified version of the contrabass saxophone – Pat plays deep, dark renditions of
J. S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3, Melodies for Saxophone by Philip Glass, Bach-inspired Mo'ingus by Brooklyn-based composer-saxophonist Shelley Washington, and Pat’s own Hymn.
Valentine Michaud was the first ever saxophone soloist to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic. She and her regular collaborator, pianist Akvilé Silekaité, comprise the award-winning AKMI Duo. They debut on AVIE with Beyond the Wall, an album of contrasting 20th century sonatas linked by history and geography - works by Soviet serialist Edison Denisov, American modernist William Albright, Austro-Czech avant garde composer Erwin Schulhoff, and a young, rhapsodic Paul Hindemith.
Enchanting Chamber Music
American-Australian harpist Emily Granger made an indelible impression with her solo debut recording, In Transit. She follows with Something Like This, a beautiful collaboration with flautist Sally Walker, featuring original music for the duo alongside adaptations and arrangements. Woven among classics by J. S. Bach and Mozart are works by living composers including Australians Elena Kats-Chernin, Sally Greenaway, Lachlan Skipworth and Jessica Wells, and indigenous composer Christopher Sainsbury. 20th century works by Jacques Ibert and Witold Lutoslawski are juxtaposed with two of Erik Satie’s timeless Gymnopédies.
The Oregon-based Delgani String Quartet’s first AVIE appearance was on Icarus, an album of chamber works by award-winning composer Elena Ruehr. A leading musical light of the Pacific Northwest, the Delganis devote their new release to music from south of the border. Soul of Brazil blends classical and popular styles – the suave sounds of Grammy-nominated Clarice Assad’s vocals, new music and arrangements of songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim, and the Sixth String Quartet of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
1883 was a fruitful year for cello composition as Christoph Croisé's new recording reveals. That year marked Edvard Grieg's return to composition after a period of conducting the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Sonata in A minor, his only work for cello and piano. Also that year, Richard Strauss was writing for the same combination at the age of just 19, producing his Sonata in F. Gabriel Fauré embarked on a cello sonata in 1880; only the slow movement transpired and was published and premiered as the stand-alone piece Élégie in 1883. Cristoph's regular duo partner is pianist Oxana Shevchenko.
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Please see below for a chronological listing of AVIE’s autumn 2023 releases.

For further information, image or interview requests, contact Melanne Mueller, melanne@avierecords.com, +44 (0) 7788 662 461
AVIE Records
Release Schedule Autumn 2023
HAYDN
48 Piano Sonatas
Daniel-Ben Pienaar piano
AV2578 - 8 CDs
Release date: 25 August 2023

MUCH ADO - Romantic Violin Masterpieces
Achron - Bloch - Brahms - Dohnányi - Hubay - Korngold - Kreisler - Wagner - Zeitlin
Danbi Um violin
Amy Yang piano
AV2615
Release date: 1 September 2023

RACHMANINOFF, GERSHWIN trans. EARL WILD
John Wilson piano
AV2635
Release date: 15 September 2023

HANDEL
Israel in Egypt
Margaret Carpenter Haigh, Molly Netter sopranos
Daniel Moody countertenor
Jacob Perry tenor
Edward Vogel baritone
Apollo’s Singers
Jeannette Sorrell conductor
Apollo's Fire
AV2629
Release date: 6 October 2023

SOUL OF BRAZIL
Clarice Assad - Jobim - Villa-Lobos
Delgani String Quartet
Clarice Assad vocals, piano
AV2620
Release date: 13 October 2023

SOMETHING LIKE THIS
J. S. Bach - Greenaway - Ibert - Kats-Chernin - Lutoslawski - Mozart - Sainsbury - Satie - Skipworth
Sally Walker flute
Emily Granger harp
AV2626
Release date: 20 October 2023

BEYOND THE WALL
Albright - Denisov - Hindemith - Schulhoff
AKMI Duo
Valentine Michaud saxophone
Akvilé Silekaité piano
AV2641
Release date: 27 October 2023

they/beast
J. S. Bach - Glass - Posey - Shelley Washington
Pat Posey tubax
AV2638
Release date: 3 November 2023

1883
Fauré - Grieg - R. Strauss
Christoph Croisé cello
Oxana Shevchenko piano
AV2632
Release date: 10 November 2023

Information correct at of time of sending, subject to change