Defective Recollection is Canadian Composer Christopher Ludwig's 9th cd release and consists of his latest Art Songs for Baritone voice. This album features Baritone Cliff Ridley, Christopher Ludwig on Flute, Alina Khvatova on Violin, and Tatiana Khvatova and Danielle Marcinek on Piano.

This newly recorded cd contains settings of the composer's own poetry, as well as two settings of the Adages of Erasmus. The album is an artistic journey through the composer's childhood memories; a voyage attempting to make sense of the imperfect and confusing nature of the echos of past memory, image and emotions, as they ripple into the present and future.

Click Here to view the illustrated pdf booklet

Baritone - Cliff Ridley
Christopher Ludwig - Music, Flute
Alina Khvatova - Violin
Tatiana Khvatova, Danielle Marcinek - Piano

Full Length Audio Files

Track List and Credits - (Back of Booklet)

Baritone: 

Cliff Ridley (1 - 19)
Violin: 
Alina Khvatova (1 - 3)
Flute: 
Christopher Ludwig (18 - 19)
Piano: 
Tatiana Khvatova (1 - 4) Danielle Marcinek (5 - 17)
Lyrics: 
Desiderius Erasmus (1 - 2) Traditional Anglican (3) Christopher Ludwig (4 - 19)

Medicine Man is the 5th collaborative Art Song recording between composer Christopher Ludwig and baritone Cliff Ridley.  The texts come from poets whose backgrounds and themes spread across time, geography, texture and style.  Such an approach may on the surface appear to be whimsical and haphazard, yet in Medicine Man, the threads of poetic and compositional colour, mood and imagery are remarkably tight and interwoven.   The composer is able to realize this unified tapestry by utilizing consistent stylistic elements and an intuitive process nurtured over years of development and exploration in the Art Song Genre.  The long-standing partnership between musicians and composer allowed for the fullest realization of the literary and musical subtleties of Medicine Man.  The literary and artistic awareness of both musician and composer needed to be equally as keen, imagist and intuitive.  Medicine Man was created on top of a foundation of prose and is left to dwell in a world outside of regular discourse; in a world of music and prose that is both reality and escapism sculpted into a photograph "...grained with light".  This is the "face in sepia", where the listener is not merely a guest at the table but must create their own photograph with each listening.  The questions to be asked are, who is the Medicine Man and can we trust the treatment?

Click Here to view the illustrated pdf booklet

Christopher Ludwig - Music
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Alina Khvatova - Violin

Full Length Audio Files

Track List and Credits - (Back of Booklet)

Strings in the Earth and Air is the result of another collaboration by Baritone Cliff Ridley and Pianist Danielle Marcinek.  This recording is dedicated to the outstanding art songs of British/Irish Composer E.J. Moeran (31 December 1894 – 1 December 1950).  Moeran occupied a minor place in the music of his time, but his meticulously polished and ready technique is unsurpassed among his British contemporaries. This craftsmanship is evident in the clarity of his textures and processes, and in the superb sonority of his orchestral writing.

Composer - E.J. Moeran
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Danielle Marcinek - Piano

Track List and Credits

Figure 5 is the first of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams.  It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.  

Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano

No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)

Full Length Audio Files

Track List and Credits

Cliff Ridley (Baritone), Tatiana Khvatova (Piano)
Track No. 1, 3, 6, 12, 15

Program Notes

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William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview

The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums.  It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.

Winter Trees  is the second of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams.  It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.  

Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano

No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)

Full Length Audio Files

Track List and Credits

Program Notes

Click Here

William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview

The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums.  It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.

Pictures from Brueghel is the last of a monumental three album series dedicated to Christopher Ludwig's large scale setting of the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poet William Carlos Williams.  It was recorded at Quantum Sound Recording Studio and released in 2013 under the Ludwig Recordings Label.  

Christopher Ludwig - Music
William Carlos Williams - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Tatiana Khvatova - Piano
Anna Vavilova - Piano

No Physical Product (Digital Downloads Only)

Full Length Audio Files

Track List and Credits

Clif Ridley (Baritone), Anna Vavilova (Piano)
Tracks No. 1 - 14

Cliff Ridley (Baritone), Tatiana Khvatova (Piano)
Tracks No. 15 - 18

Program Notes

Click Here

William Carlos Williams Song Cycle Audio Interview

The following audio interview is an interview between SFU Professor Harvey De Roo, Composer Christopher Ludwig and Baritone Cliff Ridley on the three William Carlos Williams Albums.  It provides insight into this immense 56 song cycle, as well as art song in general.

Outward Voyage Audio Description

Outward Voyage is a near complete setting of Ken Cather's book of poetry put to music by Christopher Ludwig and performed by Cliff Ridley, baritone, and Danielle Marcinek, piano.  This third release was recorded in 2008.

Click Here to view the 12 page illustrated pdf booklet 

Christopher Ludwig - Music
Ken Cathers - Words
Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Danielle Marcinek - Piano

Full Length Audio FilesTrack Listing (Back of Booklet)

Gentle Lady, do not sing sad songs...In these well-programmed songs for baritone, "Gentle Lady", features two distinguished composers of the 20th century whose working lives were centered in Western Canada.  The essential lyricism of Jean Coulthard and the clarity and boldness of expression characteristic of Violet Archer seems somehow rooted in this dynamic geography even as these songs travel in both time and place, seeking a contrast of inspiration.

Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Danielle Marcinek - Piano
Sara Kalke - Flute

Cliff and Danielle's second release was recorded at St. Marks Anglican Church in Vancouver B.C. on March 31st and April 1st, 2006.

Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
Violet Archer (1913-2000)

Download the 12 page illustrated Album Booklet pdf file

A selection of songs that probe the mind and spirit, Ach des Knaben Augen (Ah the boy's eyes) is a musical window to the soul.  The recording begins with four of the the remarkably sensitive and intense settings of Hugo Wolf's spiritual songs, proceeding to the Four Serious Songs of Johannes Brahms written in 1896, the year prior to his death, and finishes with that important transition into the modern era, Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

Cliff Ridley - Baritone
Danielle Marcinek - Piano

Cliff and Danielle's first release, recorded at St. Marks Anglican Church in Vancouver B.C. in September 2005. Featuring 13 tracks all recorded in German with complete translations provided in the 12 page illustrated booklet.

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) Spiritual Songs
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Four Serious Songs
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Songs of the Deaths of Children

View a PDF Sample of the 12 page illustrated CD booklet