Rohan de Saram, Druvi de Saram, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra & Anatole Fistoulari – Prokofiev: Works (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:06 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
All recordings featured on this album are live studio recordings made in 1971 and 1972 for radio broadcast in Holland. Written for the great cellist Rostropovich and considered one of the most difficult cello concertos, Prokofiev’s Cello Concerto, Op. 58 is not often recorded and thus this FHR album is a welcome issue.
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Rohan De Saram – Bax, Ligeti, Dallapiccola & Cassadó: Works for Solo Cello (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:10 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
The present album features four works which have come to the forefront of repertoire for solo cello from the modern era. Arnold Bax’s Rhapsodic Ballad is his only solo piece for this instrument. It is dramatic, inventive and full of atmosphere. Likely the most often performed of his earlier works, Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello has for over a decade been used as a test piece for the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. Dallapiccola’s composition was written for the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó. It is a substantial, powerful work, and an early serial composition of the composer, full of colourful effects and humour.
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Rohan de Saram & Junko Yamamoto – Requiebros (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:02:09 minutes | 577 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
Gaspar Cassadó’s Requiebros, dedicated to his teacher Pablo Casals, was one of the few pieces which Rohan de Saram studied with him and heard him perform many times.
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Neil Heyde, Rohan de Saram, Maggie Teyte, Alfred Cortot – Richard Beaudoin: Digital Memory and the Archive (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:46 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © New Focus Recordings
Composer Richard Beaudoin continues his deep investigation into the realm of microtiming with his follow up to his Microtimings on New Focus, Digital Memory and the Archive. Featuring music for solo and two celli by Neil Heyde and longtime Arditti Quartet cellist Rohan de Saram, Beaudoin engages in an inquiry about the intrinsic nature of subtle expressive differences, building a rich approach to composition which embeds timings from iconic performances into the fabric of his music.
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Rohan de Saram – Crumb: Dream Sequence (Images II), Sonata for Solo Cello & Vox Balaenae [Live] [Remastered 2022] (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:56 minutes | 837 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © First Hand Records
The sad news of George Crumb’s death was announced on 6 February 2022, shortly after these recordings from a concert in Holland in 1978 were discovered in the KRO-NCRV archives in Hilversum. They included the first European performance of Dream Sequence (1976), one of his most beautiful and original compositions. George was always a pleasure to work with, highly professional, considerate, open to suggestions and relaxed. On one fraught occasion, when Rohan’s cello mysteriously disappeared for several hours, making rehearsal impossible, many composers could throw a tantrum (!) but not George. He remained completely calm and slightly amused by the ensuing Tati-esque comédie. He was also a master calligrapher. His scores, all hand-drawn, are works of art, the notation often original, and models of musical practicality.
The label First Hand Records offer these three recordings from long ago in tribute and gratitude to a remarkable musician, composer and friend.
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