Kuhlau: Fantaisies & Divertissements for Solo Flute

Kerry Turner made his mark on the global music community through his association with the illustrious American Horn Quartet. Turner’s compositional goal is to communicate to the listener a vivid picture through his highly melodic musical language. Many sources provided the inspiration for the works on this album, ranging from the spiritual, to the literary, and even Turner’s powerful response to the music of J.S. Bach.

It was African-Americans with little or no formal music training that mostly drove America’s ragtime revolution. During Ragtime’s height, (c.1890-1920), thousands of pieces were written, most notably by Scott Joplin (1868-1917) and Joseph F. Lamb (1887-1960). German pianist Marcus Schwarz specializes in Ragtime-era music and in the rediscovery and revival of long-neglected composers. Included in this recital are works by three talented Ragtime-era female composers, including two by the melodically gifted and chromatically inclined May Frances Aufderheide (1888-1972).

Frederick Delius and Arnold Bax both made significant contributions to the part-song repertoire, each leaving a compelling testament to his highly individual creative personality. Delius's earlier choral songs are nostalgic for the worlds of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Grieg, while the brooding contours of On Craig Ddu results in one of his most remarkable creations. The allure of landscapes and elemental forces was powerful for both composers; the subtle tensions and gorgeously layered harmonies of Bax's settings also evoking historical remoteness and other-worldly enchantment.

One of Spain’s most internationally admired living composers, Lorenzo Palomo is the natural successor to Joaquin Turina. His orchestral music shares a sense of rhapsodic freedom with Turina’s, perfectly exemplified by the Sinfonia Cardoba. This rapturous portrait of the city conjures its architecture and spirit with dance rhythms and vivid, poetic lyricism. Written for the unique combination of guitar, violin and orchestra, Fulgores skillfully blends these three voices in music that possesses a wealth of tonal color and expressive beauty.

William Mathias wrote some of the most imaginative, communicative and joyful choral music of the mid- to late 20th century. These qualities are perhaps most clearly represented in his substantial catalogue of works for choir and, in particular, his settings of sacred texts, notably the invigorating A Babe is Born and the hauntingly beautiful Ave verum corpus, one of his last compositions. This selection also includes the both serious and entertaining sequence of Riddles and the rapt, ecstatic A May Magnificat. More Mathias choral music can be heard on prior Naxos releases.

With his versatility as a performer, noted virtuoso and Professor of Music Franco Gulli (1926-2001) in his career dealt with all the classics of the violin repertoire from Vivaldi to the contemporary composers. On this CD, IDIS offers Mr. Gulli’s interpretations of two classics of the 20th c. violin repertoire: Béla Bartók’s 2nd Violin Concerto, recorded in 1959 and played with incredible poetry and beauty of sound; and a 1957 recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto no 1 in D Major op 19, where Gulli is accompanied by the iconoclastic conductor Sergiu Celibidache.

Also available on Blu-ray

Der fliegende Holländer is considered to be the first ‘true’ Wagner opera. The story of the phantom ship and its haunted master becomes a sensually charged drama with love and tragic sacrifice at its heart, and this original 1841 version leaves the ultimate redemption of its central characters unresolved. Wagner originally conceived the opera for Paris, so it is fitting that this production from the Theater an der Wien is driven by French director Olivier Py’s unique vision, with a staging that dispels many of the misconceptions surrounding Wagner’s art.

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REVIEW:

Played out in stylish black and white on Pierre-André Weitz’s ingenious, frequently revolving set, actors and set elements come and go to sometimes dizzying effect. There’s a dreamlike quality to the action—something only has to be mentioned and it magically appears. The graveyard that springs up at the Dutchman’s feet, the waves that appear at the end, the skull and skeletons, are all theatrical coups. It’s sometimes brain-taxing, yet never less than theatrically engaging and dramatically compelling.

As the Dutchman, Samuel Youn sings with incisive power and great attention to text. Ingela Brimberg’s Senta is viscerally felt with thrilling top notes, if occasionally strident, while Bernard Richter’s warm-toned tenor is spot on as Georg. Lars Woldt’s grasping bully of a Donald raises a nasty misogynist flag about the world in which his daughter is bartered and sold. François Roussillon’s astute video direction manages to focus the action without losing the appropriate sense of scale. Sound—especially orchestral detail—is excitingly meticulous.

– Limelight (Australia)

Includes work(s) by Antonín Dvorák.

Classical Music

Shaped equally by her roots in China as well as European influences, Ying Wang, with her struggle for an individual musical language, embodies in an exemplary way the challenges of finding a point of balance between two cultures. Ying Wang mediates between the two cultures. She has achieved quite personal solutions in her works, integrating dramatic impulses and meditative sensual sonorities. She regards as especially fruitful the transferring of techniques for the creation of electronic sounds to acoustical instruments. Restriction and freedom are important criteria in "Wave in D", where Wang, out of extremely limited tonal material, draws a rich assemblage of differentiated sound colors from the possibilities of the traditional instrument and the electronics. In "Tun Tu" baritone saxophone and electronic sounds interact and come together in an imaginary sound landscape. The distorted sounds of the instrument, embedded in a cosmos of mysterious electronic colorations, seem at first almost improvisatory, but "Tun Tu" is rigorously organized. In "Coffee & Tea" Ying Wang reflects on contrasts between the cultures of Asia and Europe and uses coffee and tea as metaphors.

The latest Tactus CD from I Solisti Laudensi features works by six Italian composers (two by Vivaldi) active from the Baroque to the 20th c., in transcriptions for organ and strings accomplished in the 19th c, as well as a 20th c. piece for identical forces by the 20th c. composer Cardenio Botti. Founded in 1970, the I Solisti Laudensi ensemble’s many standout appearances have taking place at festivals and in concert halls throughout Italy and across Europe.

� A legend in British concert halls, Sir Malcolm Arnold was also in demand as a composer of film music in Hollywood and beyond. � Including an overture for the New York premiere, the score for The Roots of Heaven adds drama and atmosphere to the story of one man's crusade to save African elephants from extinction. � David Copperfield was Arnold's last film score and one of his most expressive and memorable, summed up as 'truly amazing' by director Delbert Mann. � Classics Today.com has described this recording as 'a treat for Arnold fans and movie buffs alike. ' � Recorded at the Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, 4-7 April 2000 by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Stromberg. � The score restorations were realized by John W. Morgan, who, with Mr. Stromberg amongst others has, since the early 90s, worked in reconstructing and re-recording the great symphonic film scores composed during Hollywood's Golden Age of the mid 30s to the late 50s.

Includes work(s) by Jean Sibelius.

Classical Music

Composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Adès has been described by The New York Times as ‘among the most accomplished all-round musicians of his generation.’ His ‘Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face’ reflects the glamor of the opera’s subject in the grand manner of Liszt or Busoni, while ‘Still Sorrowing’ and ‘Darknesse Visible’ explore John Dowland’s haunting lute works. Heard here in its world premiere recording, competition piece ‘Blanca Variations’ is lyrical and flowing in character, and ‘Traced Overhead’ is a vivid description of ascent and flight. Adès captures and transforms Polish style in his ‘Mazurkas,’ and the spirit of Satie and Ravel in a ‘Souvenir’ from the film ‘Colette.’

REVIEW:

There is Lisztian panache in the 2009 “Concert Paraphrase,” some almost Japanese sounding Dowland-lute-influenced expression with dampened strings on “Still Sorrowing” (1992) and the epically stretched and trilled impact of the companion piece “Darkness Visible.” The world premiere recording of “Blanca Variations” shows us a thoughtful, pensive side, lyrically robust. You can hear a kind of Modernist post-Scriabin on “Traced Overhead” (1996). Then there are haunting, mysterious post-Chopin explorations and playfulness on the “Mazurkas for Piano” (2009). “Souvenir” (2018) closes out the program with a kind of heartbreaking lyricism. It sounds like peak experience filtered in somewhat melancholy memory.

The music has some teeth, some bite. It challenges the player with original ornateness yet never seems to lose the center of its melodic-structural thrust.

It’s a vital set of works played with obvious relish and sympathy. Anyone who lives to hear the ivory-ebony towers of sound possible in our times will no doubt find this one as fascinating as I have.

– Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review

Surging sounds of the sea, over them the whistling or even the calling of birds - or so it might seem. An instant later, we only hear the ebb and flow of choral sounds, with individual male voices whistling rubato glissando tones over them. These sounds are typical of Martin Smolka's style. He evokes magically realistic sounds with his compositions.

While the unifying thread which links these works is that of loss, the underlying focus is an uplifting celebration of life and love. Gabriel Jackson's Requiem combines traditional solemnity with poems which embrace wide-ranging spirituality, resulting in images of light and radiant optimism. Contrasting poignancy of expression is heard in personal tributes from John Tavener and Francis Pott, while Bob Chilcott uses Pachelbel's famous Canon to set Oscar Wilde's Requiescat. Vasari Singers' Great British Anthems (8.572504) was described as 'essential listening' by Gramophone. Founded in 1980, Vasari Singers is among the leading chamber choirs in Britain, performing music ranging from Renaissance to contemporary. The choir performs regularly in London as well as visiting many of England's cathedrals to sing services, with recent trips to Canterbury, Salisbury, Bath and Ripon. The choir and Jeremy Backhouse are deeply committed to contemporary music and have commissioned over twenty works since 2000, including works by Francis Pott and Gabriel Jackson.

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven's general link with the theater in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers- insertion arias. Konig Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, it's triumphant mood honoring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standard Bearer of female heroism Leonore Prohaska is commemorated with a Soldier's Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthisson's poem Opferlied ('Sacrificial Song'), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethoven's four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.

Alexandre Tansman’s guitar music was almost exclusively created as the result of his friendship with the legendary Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia. The true extent of this catalogue has only recently become apparent, with unknown works emerging from archive sources. Performed after careful research into the original manuscripts, Andrea De Vitis’s programme brings together pieces that reference Tansman’s favorite musicians from history, in particular Bach and Chopin- masterfully intertwining personal affections with sophisticated techniques to create some of the most important guitar repertoire of the 20th century.