Album Notes

We admit it: we're addicted to chamber music.

From the perkiest Mozart to the juiciest Brahms, from the crunchiest Shostakovich to the sexiest tangos of Astor
Piazzolla, we love it all. We need our chamber music fix every day. We couldn’t survive without it, and frankly, why should we? We have an Aural Fixation, and today we are sharing our obsession with you.

Dear Listener, you are about to join us for an unforgettable CD that we recorded as part of our 15th season: As the World Turns.

Our world spins faster and faster. Not that long ago, to get from the old world to the new, it took a while. But today, ships have given way to jets; the telegraph to the telephone, to the cell phone, to the Internet; radio has given way to the television, and now to the pod cast. As the world turns, it gets faster and faster, smaller and smaller. And, hopefully, as the world shrinks, we can begin to see its bigger picture and make connections between peoples and cultures. Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are, of course, beloved staples of the repertoire, as fresh today as when they were written in 17th-century Italy. They beautifully depict the events and weather of each season—the seasons as he experienced them in Venice. Astor Piazzolla, the great tango master, took inspiration from Vivaldi in creating his Four Seasons of Buenos Aires—the changes in seasons (and people and feelings) that one would experience halfway around the world in the modern day. And Daniel Paget, in his fabulous arrangement of Neapolitan tunes aptly entitled One Hundred Roses, combines the past and the present, the old world and the new. The world is turning indeed!

Let's indulge our aural fixation... together, baby.

–Stephanie Jutt and Jeffrey Sykes, Artistic Directors