PRESS RELEASE: PRIMAVERA IV the heart

PENTATONE OXINGALE SERIES 
PRIMAVERA IV the heart

PRIMAVERA IV the heart is the fourth of six albums in a momentous series encompassing  81 world premieres for solo cello. This digital album presents 13 new commissions for  groundbreaking, multi-GRAMMY nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz as part of THE  PRIMAVERA PROJECT. A collaboration between Haimovitz, artist Charline von Heyl,  and director Jeffrianne Young, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT is inviting 81 composers  to respond to two paintings, Sandro Botticelli’s enigmatic painting, Primavera (ca.  1480), and the prophetic large-scale triptych, Primavera 2020, by world-renowned  contemporary artist Charline von Heyl. 

Released previously:

PRIMAVERA IV the heart features compositions by Atar Arad, Tyshawn Sorey, Aaron Jay  Kernis, Justine F. Chen, Brian Current, Nina C. Young, Paul Moravec, Rob Mazurek,  Nkeiru Okoye, Analia Llugdar, Vincent Ho, Carmen Braden and Gordon Getty. 

Passing the halfway point of the commissioning cycle, this release presents an eclectic  mix of composers who gravitate to various themes in the paintings. Three approaches  to the Graces – by MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Tyshawn Sorey, Pulitzer Prize  winner Aaron Jay Kernis, and award-winning Justine F. Chen – offer three distinctive  interpretations of the Graces. Justine F. Chen’s Iridescent Gest highlights the ‘moto  perpetuo’ kinetic energy of the dancers; Tyshawn Sorey’s Three Graces offers a  dramatic, richly nuanced and complex arc through the interlocking gestures of the  graces; and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Grace reimagines the heart of each of J.S. Bach’s Six  Suites for Cello Solo, the Sarabande, in search of a timeless musical language. 

The album begins with legendary violist and composer Atar Arad’s Aviv, a suite of  miniatures traversing a wide range of styles, from Jewish modes to Scottish bagpipe  music, playful to mournful (“Once Upon a Time – Highland – Song – Humoresque – Elegy  – Spring Dance”). Canadian Brian Current’s Chlorisflora shatters our cello expectations  with a whole new sphere of timbres and extended techniques (including the use of a  paper clip), depicting the earthly flowers and vines that grow out of the nymphs. Nina  C. Young’s pentimento also expands the sound palette adding an electronic tableau to  haunting acoustic fragments that emerge from the layers of texture. Pulitzer-prize 

winning Paul Moravec’s Your Own Shadow contemplates the only words in Charline  von Heyl’s Primavera 2020, a three-note motive metamorphosing from a virtuosic  show piece to an ethereal melody in harmonics. Jazz trumpeter and composer Rob  Mazurek takes us on a Prokofiev-tinged theatrical voyage with Venus in Shadow World. 

Argentinian-Canadian Analia Llugdar’s Anima vento evokes the East Wind, the  breath of Zephyrus, with a wide-ranging spectral imagination. Juno Award-winning  Canadian Vincent Ho’s Blindfolded Cupid taps into vernacular music, unfolding with a  series of progressively more wound-up riffs. From the Canadian sub-Arctic, Carmen  Braden explores a range of emotions and subtext of the Primavera paintings with Her  Arranged Marriage to Oranges. Two returning composers, Nigerian-American Nkeiru  Okoye and Gordon Getty contribute new Primavera Project pieces: Okoye’s Breaking  Bread merges Spirituals with Bach mockpolyphony; and Gordon Getty’s Winter  Song, following his Spring Song released on PRIMAVERA II the rabbits, continues the  nonagenarian’s traversal of the seasons with the promise and comfort of nature’s  cycles.

ABOUT MATT HAIMOVITZ 

Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised  by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and  uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable  virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He brings a fresh ear to familiar  repertoire, champions new music, and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, as well as  creating innovative recording projects. In addition to his touring schedule, Haimovitz mentors  an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in  Montreal and is now the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School’s Mannes School of Music  in New York City.  

Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel  Philharmonic. He has gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages, with such  orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin  Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra  with Leonard Slatkin, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Kent Nagano. His  latest endeavor, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, encompasses 81 new commissions from a diverse  intersection of North American communities and has been featured in the most recent 59th  Venice Biennale Arte.  

Making his first recording at 17 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Haimovitz’s recording  career encompasses more than 30 years of award-winning work on Deutsche Grammophon  (Universal), Oxingale Records, and the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. His honors include the  Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Grand  Prix du Disque, and the Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana.” He studied with  Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from  Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller. 

ABOUT CHARLINE VON HEYL 

Charline von Heyl (German, b. 1960) studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg  and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and participated in the Cologne art scene in the 1980s  before moving to New York in 1995. She is a painter whose practice encompasses drawing,  printmaking, and collage. Von Heyl’s work takes inspiration from a vast and surprising array of  sources – including literature, pop culture, metaphysics and personal history.  

She has been the subject of several survey museum exhibitions, most recently held at the Hirshhorn  Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Museum Dhont Dhaenens, Deurle; and the Deichtorhallen,  Hamburg. Past survey exhibitions include the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; the Tate  Liverpool; Kunsthalle Nürnberg; Bonner Kunstverein; and the Institute of Contemporary Art  Philadelphia.  

Her work can be found in collections around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary  Art, Los Angeles; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San  Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunstmuseum Bonn;  and the Tate Modern, London. Charline von Heyl lives and works in New York and Marfa, Texas. 

ABOUT PENTATONE 

One of the leading classical music labels in the world, Pentatone presents a diverse range of  world-class artists, and is dedicated to premium quality productions captured in exceptional  sound. The label works together with today and tomorrow’s leading artists to provide timeless  recordings of core, fringe, and lesser-known repertoire, with Pentatone’s uncompromising  attention to the best possible quality in artistry, design and recording technology. 

The label was founded in the Netherlands in 2001 by three former Philips Classics executives,  with the ambition to offer classical music in the highest quality including surround sound. In its  first years, Pentatone engaged Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren in a GRAMMY winning recording of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf (released in Spanish with Antonio Banderas),  with Kent Nagano conducting the Russian National Orchestra. Another early success was a  recording of the official music performed during the wedding ceremony of the then Dutch crown  prince (now king) Willem-Alexander to Máxima Zorreguieta. The Music from the Royal Wedding sold more than 75,000 copies, thereby attaining the unique “triple platinum” status in the  Netherlands. 

During its first decade, the label released several award-winning recordings with violinist Julia  Fischer and several complete cycles: Beethoven’s symphonies conducted by Philippe Herreweghe,  Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed by Mari Kodama, and Bruckner’s symphonies under  the baton of Marek Janowski. Violinist Arabella Steinbacher left her mark on these years and  continues with several acclaimed recordings. Later, Pentatone recorded Wagner’s ten mature  operas, the only such label to take on this task in the 21st century. 

From 2013, with a new management team, the label focused on embracing the digital era and  expanding its repertoire. New artists and ensembles defined the label’s second decade, including  conductors Vladimir Jurowski, René Jacobs and Esa-Pekka Salonen, singers Piotr Beczala, Lisette  Oropesa, Javier Camarena, Ian Bostridge and Magdalena Kožená, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard  and Francesco Piemontesi, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, as well as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin,  the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Czech Philharmonic. 

In recent years, Pentatone has won multiple awards. In 2017, John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of  Versailles won Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album at the 59th GRAMMY Awards.  Two years later, the premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,  won a GRAMMY for Best Opera Recording. Pentatone was awarded Label of the Year in 2019 by  Gramophone Magazine and in 2020 by the International Classical Music Awards. Pentatone’s  third decade promises to be even more exciting and innovative as we expand our growing and  diverse roster of artists, producing the most thrilling recordings in the world.