One of the outstanding composers of his day, Johann Adolph Hasse was seen as possessing "the same qualities of true genius, taste and judgment" as his librettist Pietro Metastasio. Didone abbandonata represents the once hugely popular 18th century genre of opera seria, exploring the same tragic story as Purcell's earlier Dido and Aeneas while expanding the heroine's conflicts between regal duties, love, and helplessness in the face of desertion.
Gramophones and radios brought the voice of America, its fashion, its carelessness and joie de vivre into every corner of Europe during the Roaring Twenties, and no composer could remain immune to the hot jazz influences of the Foxtrot, Shimmy and Charleston. This third volume of jazzy piano dances features composers from nine Central and Eastern European countries, from Misha Spoliansky’s hypnotizing Valse Boston ‘Morphium’ to Leonid Polovinkin’s extremely entertaining and refreshingly futuristic approach to the genre. Gottlieb Wallisch continues his ‘most surprising and consistently charming recording project’ (The New York Times on Volume 2, GP814).
Bottom line first: If you know and love the music of American composer Joseph Schwantner, you will find this brilliantly performed and vividly recorded disc irresistible. You need read no further. Those who are unfamiliar with the music of this magnificently gifted composer are urged to read on.
Schwantner long ago established himself as one of the preeminent composers of our time. Born in Chicago in 1943 and educated at Northwestern University, Schwantner has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 1970 Charles Ives Scholarship and the 1979 Pulitzer Prize, as well as commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the National Symphony, and many other world-class ensembles and artists. His style is immediately accessible and very eclectic, incorporating elements of French Impressionism, jazz-influenced harmonies, African drumming, and Minimalism. Schwantner often finds inspiration in poetry, the verbal imagery of which frequently becomes the basis for his titles—… and the mountains rising nowhere, Aftertones of Infinity, Chasing Light (included on this disc), etc. Early on he developed his own unique sound, distinguished by mildly dissonant harmonies scored in an open manner, often presented in glittering pyramid and cascade effects. He is also a master orchestral colorist. Schwantner’s early works were somewhat episodic and fragmented, relying almost entirely on successions of independent and seemingly unrelated sonic tapestries, held together by a recurring, structurally binding chord. More recently, his works have been more forward-moving and thematically based (though I would hesitate to describe them as melodic in the traditional sense), while still retaining the composer’s unique sound and compositional fingerprints.
My friend and Fanfare colleague Walter Simmons very accurately described Schwantner’s 1994 Percussion Concerto as “a tremendously exciting showpiece, involving the featured instruments in lots of activity, well organized into a coherent statement” (Fanfare 21:6). The emotional and musical heart of the work is the second movement, “In Memoriam,” a moving elegy to American composer Stephen Albert, a close friend of Schwantner, whose life was cut short in a car accident at age 51. The binding element of the movement is the bass drum, which plays a repeated rhythm representing the beating of a human heart. The emotional effect is overwhelming as the heartbeat fades and slows to silence. The two outer movements are more overtly flashy, though no less musically substantial, displaying the virtuoso potential of a virtual arsenal of percussion instruments. The work was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its principal percussionist, Christopher Lamb, who performs it on this disc and whose insightful, texturally clear, and colorful interpretation makes a wonderful companion to the more overtly virtuosic premiere recording by Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin (RCA 68692). I would not want to be without either recording.
Two recent works, both of which were inspired by the sunrise at Schwantner’s home in rural New Hampshire, complete the disc. The composer’s own wonderfully informative program notes, upon which I could not improve, provide eloquent and accurate descriptions of these works. Schwantner tells us that his Morning’s Embrace, composed in 2005, “draws its spirit and energy from the intensely vibrant early-morning sunrises I experience living in rural New Hampshire. The powerful kaleidoscope of hue and color piercing the morning mist and trees provided potent imagery for my musical imagination.” The work is a dazzling procession of orchestral color from dark to light, the effect of which is quite breathtaking.
Chasing Light from 2008, a similarly inspired work, concludes the disc. Again in the composer’s words, “One of the special pleasures of living in rural New Hampshire is experiencing the often brilliant and intense early-morning sunrises, reminding one of Thoreau’s words, ‘Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.’” He further states, “Chasing Light, like my earlier work Morning’s Embrace, also draws inspiration from the celebration of vibrant colors and light that penetrate the morning mist as it wafts through the trees in the high New England hills.” Like its companion piece, this four-movement orchestral tour de force is a feast for the ears.
The Nashville Symphony, conducted by its music director, Giancarlo Guerreo, plays the music as if it owns it, stepping up to give performances befitting the greatest orchestras in the world. The recording is rich and lucidly detailed, though I would have preferred a bit more orchestral presence in the concerto. Highly recommended and a Want List no-brainer.
Anita Rachvelishvili’s second album Élégie showcases her in the song repertoire to which she has a special connection despite being best known as a star of the world's greatest opera houses. Riccardo Muti has called the Georgian singer “without doubt the best Verdi mezzo-soprano today on the planet”, but here she reveals another side to her art. The repertoire is notable for its variety featuring five languages (Russian, Georgian, Italian, French and Spanish) and, correspondingly, five very different repertoire traditions. "I really love this repertoire. It gives one more colours and more possibilities for expressing emotions with the voice", says Anita Rachvelishvili. Echoing her debut album of operatic arias on Sony, she introduces listeners to a great if internationally neglected Georgian composer, in this case Otar Taktakisvili, heard in The Sun of October, a setting of the distinguished Georgian poet Galaktion Tabidze. As well as Rachmaninov's setting of the Pushkin poem Oh never sing to me again and Tchaikovsky's None but the lonely heart.
These three works represent the first recording for Naxos by the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, which is composed of elite conservatory students from across the United States and abroad. The chosen works reflect the richness and variety of the American repertoire. A work of immense poignancy and power, John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 is a commemoration of friends of the composer who died during the 1980s and '90s. Michael Torke's Bright Blue Music evokes rich lyricism couched in the composer's favorite key of D Major. The suite from Copland's Appalachian Spring is one of the great, quintessential American works.
Review:
Large-limbed, vivid, and intense, John Corigliano’s 1989 Symphony No 1 commemorates the Aids crisis, memorialising some of the composer’s friends who succumbed at a time when diagnosis meant death. It has also stood the test of time simply as good music, here performed superbly.
"The opening "Candide" Overture is particularly poignant, for it reveals a band full of life and spirit eagerly responding to Mr. Judd's forward-leaning and even accelerating tempo. But perhaps the most valuable item here is Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, "The Age of Anxiety," a strong work -- alternately atmospheric and excitable, and ultimately carefree -- that is not overrecorded. Jean Louis Steuerman is a deft piano soloist, and the orchestra again does itself proud under Mr. Judd's steady hand." - James Oestreich, NEW YORK TIMES
Sissle & Blake's Shuffle Along of 1950: Rare Archival Recordings
Harbinger Records
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Oct 19, 2018
Continuing with Harbinger Records’ acclaimed series of albums devoted to jazz pianist, composer, Broadway songwriter, and black music pioneer Eubie Blake, we proudly present the original demo to the proposed Broadway musical ‘Shuffle Along of 1950.’ Harbinger’s recording of Sissle and Blake singing the score to the original production of ‘Shuffle Along’ won the Grammy Award for its brilliant liner notes by Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom, authors of an upcoming biography of Eubie Blake to be published by Oxford University Press. They are repeating their assignment for this recording. Also included is a bonus track featuring remastering of the only surviving acetate of a historical “Salute to Ruth King.” Ruth King was a famous Cleveland DJ who celebrated black musicians. And such notables as Sissle and Blake and the legendary WC Handy, composer of St. Louis Blues, play for Ms. King. Several songs from the original ‘Shuffle Along’ are included as are new songs written especially for this production. Later, other musicians augmented the score, and these songs are also included in this rare recording.
H e (a) r - New Icelandic Music on Period Instruments / Nordic Affect
Sono Luminus
CD + Blu-Ray
$10.99$21.99Save 50%Nov 09, 2018
A New York Times 25 Best Classical Music Track Selection for 2018 - Loom
Titled H e (a) r, this album features 7 world premiere recordings, including a soundscape which lends its title to the album by the group’s artistic director; composer and violinist Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir. The work H e (a) r connects to ecology, acoustics and embodiment; drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection. Many of the instrumental works are a continuation of Nordic Affect’s longstanding collaboration with some of the exciting talent to emerge out of Iceland in recent years, many of which were featured on the 2015, release Clockworking. The title track was chosen for NPR's Songs We Love series and featured in various best-of-the-year lists, including Steve Smith’s for Night After Night, The Chicago Reader, and The New Yorker.
In addition to composing her own music, Ms. Markan Sigfúsdóttir has toured the world with indie band amiina and recorded and collaborated with a range of other bands and artists. Her compositions have been performed in Iceland, Australia, Europe and the US. A continuation of the solo work 2 Circles, found on the Clockworking album, is Point of Departure by composer, cello player, and singer Hildur Guðnadóttir. Hildur has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary music. Her output has encompassed four solo albums, and numerous works for theatre, dance performances and films. H e (a) r also features Reflections and Impressions by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Emerging Artist Award and 2018 Martin E. Segal Award. Anna Thorvaldsdottir frequently works with large sonic structures that tend to reveal the presence of a vast variety of sustained sound materials, reflecting her sense of imaginative listening to landscapes and nature. A new collaboration is presented through Warm life at the foot of the iceberg by the Estonian Mirjam Tally. Sound is central to the Estonian MirjamTally’s creations. Her music is a flow of playful contrasts where a sense of humour and poetic use of sound are blended to mix. Her music has been performed in over 20 countries and earned her various accolades, including the 2018 Swedish Manifest prize.
REVIEWS:
“Loom” begins with a thin thread of sound that is patiently roughed up and smoothed out in ways that seem both generous and brittle, with the light seeming to enter right where the texture appears most broken.
-- New York Times
The music is exceedingly beautiful and engaging. Not everything is new-lyric and that is good, just like a meal is best if it is not about one taste in unrelenting sameness. The space for the extended technique sort of Modernity is used creatively and wisely and it frames and brackets the tonal washes properly and bracingly.
Berlioz: Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie / Gielen, Vienna Radio Symphony
Orfeo
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Apr 02, 2021
Hector Berlioz‘ Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie was a sequel to his Symphonie fantastique, the second part of the Episode of the life of an artist, which had premiered in 1830 at the Paris Conservatory. The piece that is made up of six sections was written and composed during his travels to and in Italy; for this he made use in part of material that he had already prefabricated for the prestigious Rome Prize. Berlioz and the Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, whose rejection he had tried to compensate in the Symphonie fantastique, got married in 1833. (It should be noted that marriage by no means turned out to be the fulfillment of all dreams.) In his memoirs about Lélio’s premiere performance in December 1832 at the Paris Conservatory, Berlioz noted the following phrases about his future wife: “... the passionate character of the work, its ardent melodies, its exclamations of love, its outbursts of anger [...] must have made an unexpected and deep impression on her sensitive nature and poetic imagination. [...] When in the monodrama the actor Bocage, who recited the role of Lélio (that is, myself), pronounced the following words: ‘Oh, if I could only find her, the Juliet, the Ophelia for whom my heart is searching!’ […] she thought to herself: ‘My God! ... Juliet, Ophelia ... there’s no doubt, he means me ... And he still loves me as before …’” Michael Gielen conducts the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Singakademie with Herbert Lippert and Geert Smits as highly acclaimed soloists and Joachim Bissmeier as narrator in an absorbing live capture that took place on 7 Dec 2000 at the Vienna Concert Hall.
Romance showcases Lang Lang’s innate yet sophisticated feeling for nuance and reflection. Carefully selected from his Sony Classical discography, the selections achieve a fulfilling programmatic unity through subtle contrasts in mood and style. The slow, yearning repeated note themes of Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3 and Chopin’s “Aeolian Harp” Etude naturally lead into Hans Zimmer’s captivating main soundtrack theme from the film Gladiator. Similarly, the juxtaposition of Chopin’s C-Sharp Minor Nocturne, Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 and the Adagio from Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 2 No. 3 and Bach’s Air on the G String illuminates the common ground between four proudly individual composers. Romance casts fresh light on Lang Lang’s lyrical gifts, revealing the artist behind the phenomenon.
Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff are two brothers who had an important impact on the development of German jazz. Emil studied clarinet at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, but he is more widely known for his saxophone playing. After he was a member of the illegal ensemble Hot Club, (jazz was banned in Germany at the time) he was imprisoned by the Gestapo and forced into the Hitler Army. After the war he performed in the Frankfurt All Stars and the Jazz-Ensemble des Hessischen Rundfunks before forming his own quartet in the 1960s. Albert is most known for his technique of playing multiphonics. A trombone player, he led a hard bop quintet in the late 50s, and performed frequently with his brother. This release is a compilation of concerts and studio sessions, recorded in the height of the brothers’ career, between 1956 and 1963.
Chandos Records has signed an exclusive contract with the Brodsky Quartet in time for the celebrations of its fortieth anniversary in 2012. Formed in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet quickly emerged at the forefront of the international chamber music scene. It has performed more than 2000 concerts and made more than fifty highly acclaimed recordings. This is the Quartet’s first release on Chandos, and includes many of the encores it has performed over the years, notable for their novelty and diverse range of styles and emotions. All the pieces have been arranged by past or current members of the Quartet, and together form an entertaining and original collection.
Karg-Elert: Music For Piano & Organ / Konttori-Gustafsson, Lehtola
Toccata
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Jun 16, 2017
This recording revives long-forgotten sonorities that once would have been very familiar: the sound of piano and organ being played together. It also presents a Sibelius premiere: the arrangement by Sigfrird Karg-Elert of the suite from ''Pelleas and Melisande''. As the popularity of domestic music-making grew through the nineteenth century, it brought first the piano and, then, often the harmonium into well-off living rooms across the western world. Composers naturally responded, with original works and arrangements: Sibelius' Andante catabile was written after a visit to relatives who had both instruments in their salon. Karg-Elert, by contrast, was one of the world's outstanding virtuosi on both harmonium and organ and composed with his concert public in mind. Annikka Konttori-Gustafsson has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and Lied pianist in her native Finald, of course, but in concert halls across the world, performing a wealth of Finnish music and French twentieth century repertoire. Dr. Jan Lehtola is one of the most successful and progressive Finnish organists of his generation. He has given more than 150 world and regional premieres and can be heard on more than 30 commercial recordings.
Stravinsky in Hollywood, a film by Michael Capalbo, tells the story of an "old school" European artist knocking heads with the brash New World. The documentary uses a combination of existing archival footage (some never before seen), interviews with Stravinsky and his assistant Robert Craft, and premieres several big studio film scenes of the 40s with music Stravinsky wrote for them.
Given the tremendous success of American violinist Joshua Bell, it's only natural that players across the Atlantic would want a piece of the action with similar re-creations of the semi-popular violin recitals of a century ago. British violinist Charlie Siem both achieves the requisite fireworks and somewhat reinterprets the classic formula in this pleasing collection, named for a popular song (actually called Underneath the Stars) once arranged by Fritz Kreisler. The version here is by Josef Pasternack, but Kreisler is one of the chief models for what Siem is doing here. Another is his teacher, Shlomo Mintz. Siem is a bit lacking in the sheer emotion that Kreisler (and Bell) bring to a piece like Kreisler's own La Gitana (track 8), but in more athletic pieces like the Carmen Fantasy by the underrated Jenö Hubay (track 5), and the Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 4 (arranged by Marco Jovic), he's sensational. One extra attraction here is a group of more-or-less forgotten works that Siem has resurrected; in addition to the Hubay there's Ole Bull's Saeterjentens Søndag (Solitude on the Mountain, track 2), and Elgar's exuberantly sentimental Salut d'amour, Op. 12. Another is a compositional contribution by Siem himself, Canopy (as a "bonus" track 13). It was recorded separately from the other tracks and stands apart from them artisically, but it stands about halfway between Kreisler and Philip Glass, and it's a new direction in violin virtuoso music. An enjoyable outing from a young virtuoso to watch, with suitably understated support from the Munich Radio Orchestra under Paul Goodwin.
American Originals is the latest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including Rosanne Cash, Dom Flemons, Over the Rhine, Joe Henry, Aoife O'Donovan and the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. The first-ever Cincinnati Pops album to be recorded live in concert, American Originals breathes new life into the first chapter of the Great American Songbook and the music of Stephen Foster. The 94th Cincinnati Pops album includes inspiring new renditions of My Old Kentucky Home, O Susannah, Camptown Races, Aura Lee, Slumber My Darling, Hard Times, and Beautiful Dreamer, among other classic tunes. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, The fresh arrangements and unique talents who performed them set each in a new light.
The Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of many great cultures and travel route between Orient and Occident, is the point of departure of this enthralling album by the Pera Ensemble. On this release, the Pera Ensemble has dedicated itself to the Early Baroque - the period of transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period itself. The program consists entirely of Italian music adapted together with Ottoman music. This album contains numerous world premiere recordings.
An instant success, Charles Hubert Hastings Parry’s oratorio Judith premiered in Birmingham in August 1888. The work consolidated his reputation as a composer of large-scale orchestral and choral writing. With its vigorous choruses and dramatic solo roles, the work is of persistent quality. Yet somehow, the work has been largely neglected for the last century. On this release, the work is presented by the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the London Mozart Players led by William Vann. Soloists Sarah Fox, Kathryn Rudge, Toby Spence and Henry Waddington round out the recording with enthusiastic performances.
REVIEWS:
Every aspect of this performance sounds like a labour of love. Rudge’s soaring, expressive singing as Meshullemeth gives the piece its real heart, and she’s accompanied with intense sympathy by the conductor William Vann, who avoids any suggestion of bombast or sentimentality, and builds Parry’s great paragraphs so eloquently and with such assurance that you’d think he’d been conducting this music all his life.
– Gramophone
You don’t have to be Parry’s champion Prince Charles to feel a thrill as the soprano Sarah Fox rings out as Judith, the Crouch Enders exult, the tenor Toby Spence sonorously conveys the vacillating king Manasseh and Parry creates sequences of stirring clamour.
