BYU-based recording label
Brigham Young University’s record label, Tantara Records, has recently received international acclaim for its CD “Mendelssohn,” featuring the American Piano Duo, consisting of Jeffrey Shumway and Del Parkinson, and the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kory Katseanes.
With features in both “Gramophone” and “International Piano,” two prominent United Kingdom magazines, Tantara Records experienced its first recognition overseas.
“This is a bit of a breakthrough for us,” said Ron Simpson, general manager of Tantara Records. “The validity of a CD isn’t proven in the act of recording or releasing, but in its subsequent evaluation.”
The highlight of the CD is the world premiere recording of the original first movement of Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Major for Two Pianos and Orchestra. Through painstaking research, Steve Lindeman, a BYU associate professor of music, found that Mendelssohn had made major revisions to his original composition. The revised version had been heard and recorded before, but the original had been hidden for years.
The two scores existed separately for years and were hidden during World War II for safekeeping. They were later housed by the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin where Lindeman discovered the original score.
According to the September 2005 issue of “International Piano,” the original first movement “has been unearthed and brought to life in a new recording” that “offers a rare glimpse into the young composer’s life and compositional process, as well as the development of the concerto genre.”
The CD contains recordings of both the original first movement and the revised version.
For more information, contact Ron Simpson at (801) 422-6395.
Writer: Brian Rust
