Andriessen: Miroir de Peine / Alexander, Porcelijn, Fischer, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra
Brilliant Classics
CD
$8.99$17.99Save 50%Jul 23, 2021
The opulent soundworld of a Dutch late-Romantic master, still too little known outside his native country. Rarefied spirituality and refined sensuousness are the hallmarks of Hendrik Andriessen's (1892-1981) idiom, which offers an ethereal synthesis of Franckian chromaticism with an individual interpretation of classical forms and church modes. Though he trained as an organist, his writing for other solo instruments is fluent and idiomatic. The concertos for violin, cello and oboe share the silken textures of his better-known orchestral music, and this album won glowing reviews when first released in 2000. The album’s headline work is Miroir de peine, a languorous song-cycle to Henri Vangeon’s poems of religious ecstasy describing the suffering of Christ from the perspective of the Virgin Mary. It has attracted the advocacy of great sopranos from Elly Ameling to Christiane Stotijn. This 1991 recording by Roberta Alexander won an enthusiastic welcome from the critics for the poise and beauty of her performance and the richness of the engineering. Andriessen esteemed Franck as ‘a musical philosopher in the truest sense of the word,’ who drew ‘intense sentiments from the intuitive side of his genius into an orderly gestalt.’ Much the same could be said of Andriessen’s own idiom throughout his career, as this half-century retrospective over his career confirms, from the solemn lushness of Magna res est amor of 1919 to the Chromatic Variations and Cello Concertino of 1970. The Violin Concerto (1968-9) is still essentially couched in a Romantic vein, but shaded with more 20th-century accents of tonal anxiety, akin to Vaughan Williams and Casella in the 1930s. Any listener for whom conservatism is not a dirty word will relish becoming acquainted with Andriessen’s powerful expressive voice in these beautifully prepared and engineered performances.
Anita Rachvelishvili became internationally known on the opening night of the La Scala season in 2009, when she sang the title role in Carmen opposite Jonas Kaufmann under the baton of Daniel Barenboim. This performance marked her debut in the role and was televised all over the world. She has since debuted this signature role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, State Opera in Berlin, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Canadian Opera Company, and Arena di Verona. The present album features some of the most popular and enduring opera arias in the mezzo Repertoire: two arias from Carmen, operatic favorites such as Saint-Saens Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (Samson et Dalila) and Verdi's O don fatale (Don Carlo), in addition to a rarity: the Cavatina of King Tamar, from Georgian composer Dmitry Arakishvili's opera The Legend of Shota Rustaveli, demonstrating her Georgian heritage.
Anne Warthmann, soprano is accompanied by Hyowon Chi, flute, Arthur Stockel, clarinet and Naji Hakim at the historic STAHLHUTH-JANN ORGAN at St. Martin’s Church, Dudelange , Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, in a program including the following world premiere recordings of Naji Hakim’s works : Abana for soprano and organ (2019) - Assalamu for soprano and organ (2019) - Our Lady's Minstrel (Prelude for clarinet and organ, Three poems for soprano and organ, Dance for clarinet and organ) (2013) - Adoration for soprano, flute and organ (2015) - Römisches Triptychon for soprano and organ (2010).
Another Night Before Christmas / Simon Callow, Gavin Sutherland
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Nov 15, 2011
The Christmas net is cast wide in this captivating collection of seasonal music. John Fox has crafted a delightful Carol Fantasia. Bryan Kelly’s Scrooge is an action-packed Dickens compression, brought to visceral life by esteemed actor Simon Callow, who also narrates Philip Lane’s Another Night Before Christmas, an update by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy of the classic poem. Lane’s Old Christmas Music is expressively rich, and spans the centuries. Smaller pieces from Liszt, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, Rebikov and more recent works, complete a delightful selection.
Anshel Brusilow Conducts The Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia
Sony Masterworks
CD
$23.98$47.98Save 50%Nov 10, 2023
The Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia was founded in 1965 by Anshel Brusilow, then concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Brusilow, who studied conducting and played under Pierre Monteux, George Szell and Eugene Ormandy, auditioned more than 1,000 musicians for the 36 full-time positions and conducted the ensemble from 1966 until 1968, when it was disbanded for want of adequate philanthropic support in the city for a second orchestra. But over the course of two-and-a-half 34-week seasons it had already performed more than 200 concerts and made six albums for RCA Victor.
Sony Classical is now issuing all these LP recordings by the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia on CD for the first time. The original LP releases were praised by High Fidelity, which called the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia “an orchestra of rare quality”. Reviewing its début release, Brahms’s D major Serenade, the US classical music magazine opined: “Brusilow could hardly have chosen a better work to show off the capabilities of his new orchestra – every first-chair woodwind and brass player has his chance to shine (and each does shine, brilliantly).” The Brahms was followed by a series of choice couplings: Tchaikovsky’s “Mozartiana” Suite with Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky (“Brusilow is thoroughly at home in this literature, and his players respond beautifully to his direction” – High Fidelity); symphonies by Haydn and Cherubini; a French programme of Ravel, Ibert and Françaix (“Perhaps a reflection of the Monteux influence … this record … carries true stylistic conviction in matters of phrasing, texture, and timbre” – High Fidelity); and Richard Strauss’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme as well as Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade.
The orchestra also premièred and recorded a new sacred choral work by Richard Yardumian, the Philadelphia-based composer championed by Eugene Ormandy. Come, Creator Spirit for mezzo-soprano, chorus (or congregation) and orchestra was the first mass setting by an established American composer in the English vernacular following the Vatican Council’s 1963 decision. The work was lauded for its integrity, spiritual fervor, and power to communicate the essence of devotion in all its nuances from praise to supplication.
Anton Rubinstein: Piano Music, Vol. 2 / Joseph Banowetz
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Jul 27, 2010
A. RUBINSTEIN Sérénade russe. 2 Melodies, op. 2. Souvenir de Dresde, op. 118. Romance and Impromptu, op. 26. Akrostikon No. 1, op. 37 • Joseph Banowetz (pn) • NAXOS 8.570942 (75:21)
Recently, I reviewed Joseph Banowetz’s first volume of music by Anton Rubinstein, declaring myself ripe for more at the end of it. Well, here is Volume 2, a mix of the new (five of the six movements of Souvenir de Dresde are world premiere recordings—No. 6 was recorded by Leo Sirota and is available on the Arbiter label—as are the Romance and Impromptu, the Sérénade russe, and the Akrostichon No. 1). Volume 1 contained music from 1871–90; this presents works written 1852–94. I also mentioned in my earlier review that only the Melody in F has gained the favor of the catalog, and here in fact it is, played with unaffected simplicity by Banowetz and bringing in tow its lesser-known companion, a Melody in B, a work of supreme delicacy. Rubinstein uses single-line melody to great effect, and Banowetz plays with supreme dignity and maturity.
The disc begins with a work minus opus number. The Sérénade russe was written around 1852, and was composed for a publication named L’Album Bellini. The melancholy feel of the work seems entirely Russian. Banowetz ensures that the lightenings of texture and mood register to maximum effect, and that the Lisztian arabesques contain hints of improvisation.
The sublime sweetness of the first movement of Souvenir de Dresde (1894) draws one into the work. This movement’s title is, in fact, “Simplicitus.” The music opens out into sequences of roulades (dispatched with remarkable ease by Banowetz). In contrast, the second movement, marked “Appassionata,” uses Brahmsian sonorities to bring a contrastive disquiet. Annotator Joshua Creek suggests that the opening of the third movement, “Novelette,” is pastiche Rameau, and it is easy to hear what he means. The movement is a delight. A light, almost Mendelssohnian Caprice leads to an extended Nocturne where the shadow of Chopin can be clearly felt. Drama is the characteristic of the final Polonaise. Banowitz does not quite project the full sweep of the piece, perhaps.
Dripping, slow descending lines that one might expect to encounter in late Brahms begin the Romance from op. 26. Rubinstein’s offering turns out to be a simple but expressive song without words, its melody exquisitely shaped by Banowetz. The Impromptu makes for effective contrast in its playful, busy nature. Finally, Akrostikon No. 1 (written around 1856). Each movement is headed by a letter, which when put together spell “LAURA” (Laura Shveykovskaya, a young lady evidently admired by the composer). All five movements are remarkably stress-free, liquid outpourings. Any hints of disquiet in the fifth movement (Con moto) are dismissed in the quasi-improvised final movement, a clear Lied ohne Worte.
Once again, Banowetz has succeeded in alerting the record buying public of the importance of Anton Rubsinstein’s music while simultaneously providing playing of the utmost clarity and beauty.
Antonioni: My River - Music for Strings / I Solisti Aquilani
Brilliant Classics
CD
$8.49$16.99Save 50%Feb 16, 2024
The legendary pianist and conductor joins his clarinettist son and Italian musicians in music by one of Italy’s most powerfully individual living composers. Born in 1971, Francesco Antonioni studied in Rome with Azio Corghi and then in London with Julian Anderson and George Benjamin: a formidable pedigree of teachers testifying to the strength of both his technique and his creative voice, which became internationally known in 2001 with a string quartet written for the Venice Biennale. Since then, Antonioni has gone on to assemble a substantial catalogue of fastidiously crafted works for both the stage and the concert hall.
This collection features two pieces for string orchestra, Ballata and Sull’ombra, alongside his concerto for clarinet and viola, Lights after the Thaw. Premiered in 2009, Ballata arose from a commission of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, to be conducted by Benjamin, and takes its initial inspiration from an anonymous lullaby, and a ballad by the 14th-century composer Francesco Landini. These are songs about love, seen from two opposite points, near the beginning and the end of life, and their meeting-point in this modern Ballata is bittersweet and charged with tension.
The origins of Sull’Ombra are no less distinguished. Yuri Bashmet conducted the Moscow Soloists in the premiere in 2014. Antonioni found himself moved to write it by lines of John Donne, which themselves reminded him of poetry by Eugenio Montale. The shadows here are dark indeed, though always lit with imagination, and harmony that leads the listener on, just as the concertante Lights after the Thaw draws out the intrinsically songful character of both solo instruments, in search of a point of reference amid a pervasive melancholia. There is a refined ear for harmony and texture evident in all three works, which reward attentive listening by anyone interested in the music of today.
After the successful release of "Odyssey," pianist Danae Dörken presents her second album on Berlin Classics. Together with her sister - Kiveli Dörken - she invites the listener to embark on an emotional and psychological journey through a very personal selection of music that characterizes the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. This unique journey aims to become aware of the characteristics represented in each of us and create a balance between them. The technical brilliance present in their playing and the insightful, sensitive interpretations already make this album a highlight. Their deep personal connection and the decades of playing together at the piano are audible in every moment of these recordings and set this album apart.
A student of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, Hans Erich Apostel (1901-1972) was a composer who was strongly influenced by visual artists of his time. The piano works presented on this CD specifically take inspiration from the drawings of Oskar Kokoschka and Alfred Kubin. But you don’t need to know that in order to appreciate Apostel’s creativity on its own terms.
The Op. 1 Variations, recorded here for the first time, are generally sparse in texture and packed with the kind of quirky chromatic movement typical of early Ernst Krenek. Apostel’s style emerges fully formed in the 10 piano pieces collectively titled Kubiniana, composed in 1945. For instance, the fourth selection starts off with dour sustained notes in the bass register that suddenly break out into jagged lines darting upward, followed by declamatory repeated phrases and muddy bass rumbles: not a predictable moment in the course of a minute and a half. There’s a caustic march that Berg might have welcomed in Lulu, and a whimsical high-register study that one might describe as the dodecaphonic interloper that snuck into Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives.
Sechzig Schemen Nach Zeichnungen Von Alfred Kubin comprise a continuous half-hour suite of 60 aphoristic character pieces that include marches, tangos, folk-like melodies, enigmatic clouds of clusters, and the like. Despite their brevity, these masterful miniatures flow easily from one to the next in a unified arc.
Thérèse Malengreau’s cultivated pianism serves Apostel’s sound world to a proverbial tee. She commands a luscious tone, a wide dynamic range, and a diverse palette of articulations. Furthermore, Malengreau possesses uncanny rhythmic equilibrium that manifests itself through her sense of timing and spacing. A good example of this can be found in the Marcia Moderato, which is the second of the Kubiania pieces. The attack and release of each phrase is pinpointed with the utmost care and specificity, so much so that you can hear the rests between the notes. In this sense, Steffen Schleiermacher’s interpretation on MDG sounds more generalized by comparison. BIS’s exemplary sonics plus Malengreau’s detailed and scholarly annotations add further value to a release that will readily appeal to those interested in obscure yet worthy and substantial keyboard rarities.
Après un rêve - Belle epoque: Nights at the Piano / Emmanuel Despax
Signum Classics
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Aug 18, 2023
“Après un rêve” is an ode to the French Belle Époque repertoire, depicting the beauty of dreams and the night. The album is an opportunity to hear and perhaps discover rarely played / rarely recorded wonderful works (Chaminade Nocturne, Duparc Aux étoiles, Poulenc Les soirées de Nazelles), alongside central pillars of the repertoire, and includes a world premiere of Despax’s arrangement of Après un rêve. The album is attributed to his grandfather, Jacques Charpentreau, a French poet who adored this repertoire and frequently drew inspiration from the night in his works. Despax has curated some of his poetry, as well as works by other poets he admired to complement this music, taking the listener on an immersive poetic and musical journey through this noctur- nal landscape.
REVIEW:
Despax has recorded Bach, Brahms, Chopin, but the works here particularly suit his sensibility. In Maurice Ravel’s haunting masterpiece Gaspard de la Nuit, he masters the ferocious challenges with ease, delicacy, strength.
This fun new album is a collection of sixteen Brazilian children’s songs. Pulinho Garcia performs this music wonderfully. “Garcia provides constant evidence of his mastery of the art of the Brazilian song.” (Jazz Improv Magazine) This release includes free downloadable activities and lesson ideas for parents and teachers on GLP’s language learning website.
Arensky & Shostakovich: Piano Trios / Bellarti Trio
DUX
CD
$10.99$21.99Save 50%Nov 18, 2022
The Bellarti Trio was formed in 2004. The members of Bellarti Trio met during their studies at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music and immediately realized that in spite of their different backgrounds they represented the same values in music making. Since then the trio has made regular performances and continuously broadened their repertoire. On this release they present a program of works by Anton Arensky and Dmitri Shostakovich.
A student of Rimsky-Korsakov and the teacher of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, Anton Arensky holds a distinguished place in the history of Russian music as both an academic and a composer. For his 1900 ballet Egyptian Nights, based on Pushkin, he chose an exotic theme – the dangerous love of the handsome Amoun for Queen Cleopatra – and sought authentic melodic material in scholarly texts. With his gift for orchestration and color, Arensky fashioned a sensuous and vivid score, featuring a brilliantly conceived series of dances. This was a world premiere recording on its initial release on Marco Polo 8.225028, recorded in1996. Gramophone wrote: ‘The playing is suitably colorful, the recording responsive to that’, as did Fanfare: ‘The Moscow Symphony Orchestra clearly revels in this repertoire, and it plays with spirit and enjoyment.’
REVIEW:
The present disc is one of many recordings originally on Marco Polo that have been re-released on Naxos. Acoustically, Egyptian Nights could use an up-to-date recording, but one cannot cavil about Dmitri Yablonsky’s powerful performance, which derives the maximum excitement from the score. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra plays equally well and the whole production is a feast for any fan of Russian music of the time.
A selection of delightful miniatures for violin and piano in original versions and arrangements by some of Armenia's most admired composers. This album marks the Naxos debut of acclaimed violinist Nikolay Madoyan. A selection of Armenian piano music can be heard on Naxos 8.573467. Works by Arutiunian, Bagdasarian, Barkhudarian, and Komitas can also be heard via albums on the Grand Piano label.
Comprising professors and band directors, the Taiwan Wind Ensemble is a leading international exponent of the wind repertory, not least in its exciting series of commissions. On this disc it presents a selection of music of orchestrations and originals from around the world. There are a variety of overtures and evocative dances from Bach to Bernstein, as well as Alfred Reed’s richly colorful Armenian Dances. They are complemented by Taiwanese composer Chia-Ying Chiang’s mysterious and beautiful recent composition A Chasing After The Wind, which takes its title from Ecclesiastes.
Lebanese-born, Canadian-Armenian-American soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian is as celebrated for her beauty, dynamic presence, and style as for her strikingly multidimensional voice. With this deeply personal project, she gathers a selection of haunting and poignant lullabies that draw on the memories and experiences of the Armenian people. 29 tracks trace an arc from the Ottoman Empire through the Genocide and beyond, with songs and transcriptions by the country’s beloved folk composer Gomidas Vartabed, Parsegh Ganatchian who joined the diaspora in Lebanon, and Ganatchian’s contemporary Mihran Toumajan. For Isabel, these evocative songs span two centuries and five generations. Sung by her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother, and now to her own children, Isabel’s Armenian Songs have an appeal to children of all ages.
REVIEW:
The arrangements are enlivened by their variety, featuring not only flute and harp but the less familiar and quite haunting duduk. All this said, there are a lot of lullabies on the program, in similar tempos, and one wonders whether an "Armenian Songs for Children and Others" program, with other examples of the abundant folk-influenced material in the Armenian tradition, might have been a bit livelier. Certainly, though, listeners with children are invited to try the album out.
Arnold Mendelssohn: Motetten zur Weihnacht - Deutsche Messe
SWR
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Sep 25, 2012
Today, the name of Arnold Mendelssohn scarcely ranks as a footnote in most musical textbooks; however, he played a seminal role in the revival of German church music. His love of polyphony, combined with his characteristic warm, late Romantic harmonic language imbues Mendelssohn's scores with a sense of otherworldly timelessness.
Arnold: Complete Symphonies & Dances / Andrew Penny
Naxos
CD
$25.98$51.99Save 50%Oct 22, 2021
Recorded in the presence of the composer, Andrew Penny’s survey of the Complete Symphonies and Dances by Sir Malcolm Arnold has long been considered to contain benchmark recordings. Born in 1921, Sir Malcolm Arnold quickly established himself as a fluent and versatile composer, a gifted tunesmith and a brilliant orchestrator. His music is typically lucid in texture, rich in melody and clear in draughtsmanship yet there are frequent signs of a complex musical personality and dramatic tensions not far beneath the surface. The Dances are light-hearted, vivid and jaunty, yet the nine symphonies explore the composer’s darker side, painting a picture of his private ‘journey through hell’ as he struggled with physical and mental health issues. They are masterworks which exert continued appeal and stimulate repeated listening.
REVIEW:
These are performances of uniformly high quality made in the presence of the composer and recorded with more realistic balances and cleaner textures than any of their rivals. While all of these readings are first class, highlights include a superb Symphony No. 5 and interpretations of Nos. 7 and 8 in which conductor Andrew Penny sets tempos that allow Arnold’s fanciful orchestrations to register with maximum color and impact.
