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Ensemble K and Simone Menezes
K-ACCENTS
“The original chamber music of Copland’s Appalachian Spring is the highlight here — the enchanting penultimate section, a set of variations on the Shaker melody ‘Simple Gifts,’ has rarely sounded so ingeniously seductive.”
- BBC Music Magazine
Founded in 2020 by the Italian-Brazilian conductor Simone Menezes, Ensemble K describes itself as ‘Klassique, Kosmopolite, Kontemporain, Kréatif, Konnecté.’ And it’s true! It is engaged with both musical and social realities.” - Le Monde
“This invigorating debut album from Menezes’s France-based collective could be just the pick-me-up you need in the depths of this particularly dark midwinter: effective chamber arrangements bring out the folk colors of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and, in particular, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which really sounds like country music here. And everything truly dances.” - Presto Classical, January 2021
“The sound journey invited by its first recording is refreshingly unique. Its poetic breath finds its source in the shimmering and glistening of timbres, particularly those of the woodwinds and accordion — the airy sound capture reflects this ideally. Innocence and candor are combined [in Copland’s Appalachian Spring] with a sense of form and a sharpness of contrasts (in tempo, attack, and atmosphere) that is very appealing. A brilliant entry into the world of recordings.” - Diapason
“With her Ensemble K, recently created in 2020, conductor Simone Menezes offers a profound interpretation of musical works by Borodin, Debussy, Copland, Villa-Lobos, and Lacaze, emphasizing their influences.” - France Musique