Amy Porter, Nikki Chooi, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & JoAnn Falletta – Lukas Foss: Symphony No. 1 & Renaissance Concerto (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:52 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Berlin-born Lukas Foss studied music in Paris before settling in Philadelphia in 1937. Though he freely explored diverse compositional styles, three of the works in this recording fall into his early neo-Classical period and exemplify his dictum that “to have a big foot in the future, you’ve got to have a big foot in the past.” Symphony No. 1 in G major is lyrical, bucolic and subtly jazz-influenced, while the Three American Pieces show Aaron Copland’s “open air” influence. Foss’s Ode expresses his feelings about the loss of American lives during the Second World War, and Renaissance Concerto is a “handshake across the centuries” ingeniously spiced with unexpected harmonic twists.
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Nikki Chooi & Stephen De Pledge – Gershwin, Ravel & Prokofiev Works for Violin & Piano (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:49 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atoll
Nikki Chooi was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and began his studies at age 9 at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Sydney Humphreys. He is a graduate of the Mount Royal Conservatory, received his undergraduate degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and completed further studies at the Juilliard School with Ida Kavafian and Donald Weilerstein.
As First Prize Winner of the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Nikki completed an extensive recital tour with Chamber Music New Zealand, performed as concerto soloist with Giordano Bellincampi and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and gave a recital as part of Australia’s Musica Viva Series.
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