The Jasper String Quartet writes of their new release: “This Album marks the culmination of our decade-long journey with Aaron Jay Kernis’ music for string quartet. From the moment we put bow to string for Aaron’s Second Quartet, we realized his special voice and our connection to his music’s ability to capture both the complexity of the world and the simplicity of a moment. This depth fascinated us, inspired our playing and prompted us to dream of commissioning Aaron’s 3rd Quartet. Six years later, after performing and recording his first two Quartets and organizing the commission, we received the first movement of his Third Quartet “River”. As the movements accumulated in our inbox, so did our sense of excitement and dread. It was clear that this piece surpassed its two preceding quartets in complexity and difficulty. The route forward was clear enough, but still daunting. Practice, rehearse, repeat. Through the spring and into the summer the piece started to take shape. Coalescing first a little at a time - glimmers of cleverness, brilliance, atmosphere amid the musical and technical challenges. As those moments grew to sections and then movements that began to make sense, we started to build them into the larger arc. The quartet is subtitled “River”, an analogy for the constancy of change in our lives. The music too is constantly evolving, from moment to moment never predictable, never repeating itself. The flow of ideas isn’t one but four-dimensional, swirling constantly backward and forward in time and space. Yet there is a calculation of purpose, a consideration of form and care to structure that keeps the music grounded and allows a story to build out of the organic chaos…”

Lonely Motel: Music from Slide

Christmas celebrations are thought to go all the way back to the formidable feasting of the Vikings at midwinter, when in true Nordic fashion yuletide was ‘toasted in’. The celebration of the birth in Bethlehem is more subdued and spiritual, but it is of a far more recent date. We do not know if the Vikings celebrated yuletide with music, but music at Christmas has been a popular tradition since the Middle Ages. Today, practically all peoples around the world celebrate midwinter with special religious and cultural rituals; the precise times vary, but gifts, decorations, festivities, candles, bells and special Christmas music are apparently always part of this. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Christmas was the busiest time of the year for church composers. The congregation expected to hear new Christmas music in church which often involved instruments, choirs and soloists. Here you'll hear the Concerto Grosso - starting with A. Corellis version becoming template for the composers G.Torelli, A.Vivaldi, F. Manfredini and P. Locatelli following the trend of music concertos for Christmas Celebrations.

This is the third album with original Baroque style compositions by Federico Maria Sardelli, musicologist and author, and founder/conductor of Modo Antiquo, the early music ensemble with which he made numerous first performances and recordings of unearthed works by Italian baroque composers, notably the operas by Antonio Vivaldi. He is a satirist and comical actor. One of his foremost passions however is composing, in the style and spirit of his beloved Baroque era. His works are not exercises in formal writing but the recreation of the daring originality and vibrant passion of the time, alive through the spirit of discovery. This new release presents works for the keyboard, Suites de pieces pour le clavecin, in the style of Couperin, Rameau and Royer. They are played by Sardelli's colleague, friend and amazin harpsichordist Simone Stella.

David Mason’s beautiful verse-adaptation of Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, astutely portrays its characers amid the Puritan society of 17th century New England. My music-lyrically expressive and intricately orchestrated- dramatizes the psychological underpinnings of this story. Though Hester is shamed for adultery, her steadfast strength of character reveals a true moral sense, while the weakness of both her lover and estranged husband ultimately yield their self-destruction. This is a world premiere recording made possible by a generous grant from the Sorel Organization.

Ravel’s opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges captures an imaginative child’s world in which the creatures and objects around him come to life. Wittily portrayed in Colette’s inventive libretto and by Ravel’s meticulous orchestration, furniture, crockery and animals alike are at first provoked by the child’s appalling behavior, finally helping him after he bandages the squirrel’s paw he had previously pricked with his pen. The unforgettably enchanting Mother Goose translates well-known fairytales into music, including the gently melodic Sleeping Beauty’s Pavane, her conversation with the gruffest of beasts, and a final blessing in The Fairy Garden. Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Detroit Symphony, has made more than 100 recordings that in total have earned him seven Grammy® awards and 64 Grammy® nominations.

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Review:

The all-French cast articulate the text splendidly, with tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt doing his usual superb number as L'Arithmétique. Mezzo Hélène Hebrard as the Child sounds suitably young and fresh, soprano Annick Massis as the Fire negotiates her high coloratura with accuracy and élan.

– BBC Music Magazine

Brahms originally wrote the Piano Quintet, Op. 34, for string quintet before recasting the work as a two-piano sonata. However, the sheet music has not ever been recovered. So, finnish cellist Karttunen set about its reconstruction. The result has all the vigor and power of the music we know but now recast in a different sonority.

REVIEW:

Another triumph for a small independent label. Brilliant thought provoking re-evaluations of ‘standard’ works by Brahms. The double viola version of the clarinet quintet in Brahms’ own arrangement is especially rewarding featuring some of the most beautiful viola playing I have ever heard from Steven Dann. Life-enhancing stuff.

-- MusicWeb International

The Heritage of John Philip Sousa, Vol. 6

Representing three generations of Spanish composers, these works reveal the diversity and depth of the Iberian musical imagination. Albeniz's Suite is a perennial evocation of Iberian Romanticism that transcribes naturally from piano to guitar, and Jose's original and inventive Sonata revives a reputation cut short by the Spanish Civil War. Dedicated to Segovia, Manen's Fantasia-Sonata is rich in Catalonian sentiment both elegiac and celebratory. Vojin Kocic's debut recording, 'and what a debut it is' (The WholeNote), can also be heard on Naxos.

The French composer Ange Flégier (1846-1927) enjoyed considerable frame in his own time but has now been completely lost from view. The extraordinary reception of his song Le Cor points to the predominant place held by the Melodie in his catalogue of more than 350 works. Flégier's songs, composed for his colleagues at the Opera de Paris, are large-scale and orchestrally conceived, sitting stylistically close to Faure in their unassertive dignity and to Duparc in their sense of scale. Many of them receive their first recordings or first modern recordings here.

Also Available: Beatles Go Baroque / Peter Breiner & His Chamber Orchestra

Classical musicians have always recognized the musicality and originality of The Beatles’ songs, Leonard Bernstein declaring the Lennon-McCartney composing team ‘the Schuberts of our time’. This sequel to Peter Breiner’s multi-platinum Beatles Go Baroque(Naxos 8.555010) takes the original concept even further, keeping 18th-century masterpieces such as Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Bach’s famously stylish and beautiful Violin Concerto No. 1 largely intact, elegantly combining them with The Beatles’ most enduring melodies to create a joyously genuine 21st-century mashup. Peter Breineris one of the world’s most recorded musicians, with over 200 albums released and multiple streams and downloads. Known as a conductor, composer, pianist and arranger, he has conducted, often doubling as a pianist, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth, Jerusalem, New Zealand, Moscow and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, to mention just a few. His compositions and arrangements have been played in concerts and broadcast worldwide, and some of the most prestigious ballet companies have used his music in numerous performances.

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REVIEW:

With considerable ingenuity, Peter Breiner intertwines original Beatles melodies with unchanged moments from two great composers of the Baroque era. But does this work in the same way as the original Beatles Go Baroque? Well, that will be a personal response. So let’s start from ‘square one’ and simply enjoy the disc as rather quirky light music that is immaculately played by a multi-national chamber orchestra. Breiner’s direction keeps the music bouncing along, while managing to retain respect for the original composer.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Classical Music

POWER OF FATE

My Mother Persia is a cycle of eight symphonic poems by the distinguished Iranian-born composer and conductor Alexander Rahbari. Three of the works on this album set some of the finest Iranian poetry and are cast for the tenor voice employing traditional sung forms. Rahbari's music utilizes the lavish sound world of the symphony orchestra but contains many of the essential elements- scales, rhythms, and colors- of Iranian music. Alexander Rahbari is a remarkable figure in the music world, taking a leading position in the cultural development of his country from a young age, winning numerous awards as a conductor and becoming closely associated with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant to Herbert von Karajan.

This release from Cologne-based ensemble Exquisite Noyse explores the diverse and colorful musical world into which the violin was born- anonymous dances, arrangements and improvisations, instrumental renditions of vocal works including beautiful and haunting madrigals, chansons and motets by Arcadelt, Janequin, Josquin and Verdelot. This music of the Renaissance is brought to life in a very special way. Exquisite Noyse performs on instruments of the violin family and a Renaissance triple harp, giving life to a pivotal and important repertoire. Their choice of music, instruments, and performance techniques conjure an image of the violin as a new technology in a world undergoing radical musical changel. The violin’s earliest voice leaps off the strings and across the centuries to new ears. The mission of Exquisite Noyse is to work with the repertoire, performance techniques and instruments of the Renaissance creatively and imaginatively in order to reproduce the surprising and fresh sound the violin family made when it was still a new technical achievement in a time groundbreaking changes in music.

Musici: a real legend in the history of classical disco, in Sixties and Seventies of twentieth century of the rediscovery of the great eighteenth century Italian instrumental repertoire that was too long neglected and put in a second plan than one of German-Austrian origin. This release presents one of the greatest classical works of the eighteenth century- the famous Albinoni Adagio in F minor recorded by Musici in 1961 with three incredible violin Concertos by Pletro Antonio Locatelli the most important predecessor of Paganini’s Italian virtuosity.

Jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott, also known as Little Jimmy Scott, was famous for his unusual timbre and his interpretation of ballads and love songs. He was successful during the golden age of jazz, then fell into obscurity during the 1960s. He launched a well-received comeback during the 1990s. Jimmy suffered from a rare condition called Kallmann’s Symdrome, which stunted his growth and prevented him from reaching puberty, which left him with a high, undeveloped countertenor voice. I Go Back Home is a feature documentary which tells the story of Jimmy Scott and the producer Ralf Kemper who launched his comeback. This outstanding soundtrack includes timeless favorites performed by Jimmy Scott as well as newly composed numbers.

The Antegnatis were a family of organ builders who produced some of the best-known instruments of the 16th century, many of which can be found in churches across northern Italy. In total, they constructed an estimated 400 organs. Costanzo Antegnati was perhaps the most influential member of the family, and his set of 12 ricercars – the centrepiece of this recording – was published alongside his treatise on organ tuning and registration. The compositions were of such high quality and popularity that they were subsequently included in the Intavolatura d’organo tedesca, the most extensive manuscript source of keyboard works known today, containing a good 1,770 pieces by composers from Italy and Northern Europe. Interwoven between Antegnati's pieces are works by other composers of the same period. Notable among these is Anton Holzer's three canzoni, of which this is the first complete recording, and Agostino Soderini's Canzon La Ducalina, a fascinating short piece in which the keyboard writing closely follows the pronunciation of a virtual text and at times sounds like poetry being recited. Federico Del Sordo is a renowned continuo player who has devoted himself for more than 15 years to the study of the alternatim repertoire. For this recording, he performs primarily on a 17th-century organ installed in a Brescia church by Graziadio Antegnati III; variety is added to the set by the inclusion of harpsichord and clavichord performances.

BÉRIOT 12 Scènes ou Caprices, op. 109. 9 Studies. Prélude ou Improvisation, op. posth • Bella Hristova (vn) • NAXOS 8.572267 (68:02)


With the recent rash of recordings of his works, by now the music of Charles-Auguste de Bériot should have become almost as familiar to collectors as it has been to violinists, both teachers and students. Although probably few pupils work through his Méthode (1858) at the beginning of their academic careers, they encounter his concertos halfway through, and if they’ve persisted, study his 60 concert studies as a sort of gateway, beside Dont’s op. 35 and Gaviniès’s Matinées , to the transcendental technical studies of Paganini and Ernst. Unlike Dont’s more patterned études, however, Bériot’s take the form of character pieces: even the simple melodies and scales in the Méthode recall music for the salon more vividly than music for the studio.


From the outset, it’s clear that Bériot cut the Douze Scènes ou Caprices from the same cloth. The opening study, “La séparation,” begins almost as bleakly and hauntingly as does Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and includes a buzzing middle section in double-stops that draws upon the violin’s less familiar timbral regions as effectively as do some of Bartók’s duos. At least Bella Hristova plays the study that way, taking maximum advantage of the rich and dramatic possibilities for characterization it offers. If No. 2, “La polka,” doesn’t attain the same level of portraiture, it exceeds the First Study in brilliance and complexity, and Hristova proves herself more than equal to its demands. No. 3, “Le lézard,” brings snaky (lizard-like) chromatic lines, while No. 4 (“Le départ”) frames passagework with a lament. No. 5, “La fougue,” contains a mix of scalar and arpeggiated lines that climb chromatically in the middle section, punctuated by explosions of double-stops. No. 10, “Marche russe,” may not sound particularly Slavic, but it relies on the usual stock characters to carry its drama forward.


The Nine Studies, while not bearing titles (except for the last, written “in imitation of the old masters”), also express severally a range of moods that should qualify them for parlor performance, even if the first four remain as intensely patterned as the 60 Concert Studies (the Fifth, Melody, the Sixth, “Gulnare,” and the Seventh, March, offer more developed character studies). The posthumous Prélude ou Improvisation , written, as the notes state, largely without bar lines, might, except for its length (nine minutes and then some), be welcome in an occasional appearance on the concert stage in place of, say, Kreisler’s Recitativo e Scherzo.


Bruce R. Schueneman’s insert notes point out the similarity of Bériot’s arsenal to Paganini’s; and a cursory examination of the scores may perhaps make them seem more similar than they appear upon closer examination: in Bériot’s studies, the difficulties have all been wrought in conformity with positions achievable by a normal hand, while Paganini’s notoriously require the skill of a contortionist. Nevertheless, Bériot tailors these difficulties to his intended performers, and both the easiest and the most difficult of his works (and some, especially the studies, reach a very high level of difficulty) make a brilliant, thoroughly violinistic effect. Marc Pincherle likened Vivaldi to Kreisler in writing music that achieved a maximum of brilliance with a minimum of effort; he might have included Bériot.


Bella Hristova’s consistently elegant and richly characterized performances camouflage the difficulty of these studies, though they seem to reach at least the level of the 60 Concert Studies. The engineers captured the tonal splendor of her 1655 Nicolò Amati in St. John Chrysostom Church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, on February 12–15, 2009. Collectors of all kinds should find this compilation uncommonly interesting; but to violinists, it should be irresistible. It would be sad to learn that Hristova didn’t choose to record this repertoire only because a contract to do so had been offered and didn’t feel as sympathetic to the composer as she seems. In any case, strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Classical Music