This release is Erwin Stein's chamber arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In 1921, Arnold Schoenberg organized a series of private concerts, performed by small ensembles. Schoenberg and Stein combined their ingenuity and created "sophisticated versions" of important orchestral works. These arrangements were usually for a few woodwinds, a string quintet, percussion and piano. Stein also added a harmonium, which was quite rare at the time but the organ adds a unique timbre to this arrangement.

String quartet-mates Bogdana Pivnenko, Taras Yaropud, Kateryna Suprun, and Yurii Pogoretskyi join forces with pianist Iryna Starodub to bring some of Ukraine's most brilliant twentieth-century music to the world.

Boris Lyatoshynsky was a leading member of a new generation of Ukrainian composers that emerged in the 1920s. His expansively conceived Ukrainian Quintet finds him at his most emotionally overt, with a heartfelt Lento e tranquillo second movement. Dedicated to Lyatoshynsky, Valentin Silvestrov’s Piano Quintet dates from the start of his Modernist odyssey of the 1960s, while Victoria Poleva’s withdrawn and secretive Simurgh-quintet is part of a style that embraces spiritual themes and musical simplicity, referred to as sacred (or 'holy') minimalism in the West.

REVIEW:

Violinist Bogdana Pivnenko and her team make a strong case for the Poleva's Simurgh-quintet, showing great sensitivity, yet also enough dynamic range to create a sense of momentum towards the ending. The pioneering nature of this disc will hopefully encourage more exploration of this repertoire.

-- Gramophone

 

Peter Garland is a composer, world traveler, musicologist, writer whose music is always informed by his well-traveled ear and strong sense of personal vision. (His music has appeared on five previous Cold Blue CDs.) After the Wars, a resonant, sometimes clangorous four-movement piano solo performed by new-music champion Sarah Cahill, displays a unique sense of grace and a sincerity of expression. Garland writes about the piece: “Each of the transparent and self-contained movements takes as inspiration a Chinese poem or Japanese haiku.... I explore the quality of resonance in the piano: not just the notes played on the keyboard, but the sense of echo and fade produced by a very deliberate use of pedaling, and the sustaining and release of piano keys after notes and chords are sounded. It creates a sense of timbral color and acoustic perspective (proximity and distance).... Each movement is like a single image, simply stated with relatively little temporal or thematic development—very much like the poems they are based on.” After the Wars is a 20-minute CD EP/single. MusicWeb Int’l wrote of it, “There is an interesting use of space and time in this work. On the surface, it’s quite simple, but the sounds develop over the span of the four movements as you slowly grow accustomed to the underlying structure…and after listening to this disc several times, I wanted to hear more.” Julien Cowley wrote in The Wire, “Pianistic shell bursts interspersed with wounded reflection …. Garland’s After The Wars… alternates ruggedness and delicacy, oppressive weight fringed with luminosity in a powerful evocation of desolation and scarred hope.” And Gapplegate Classical-Modern Review wrote, “Garland weaves a web of expressive, muted magic and we readily fall under its spell. Very recommended.”

Classical Music

It is only since the bel canto era in the 19th century that the tenor voice really took off as a leading character in operatic roles, often playing the heroic figure against a love-interest soprano and a villain baritone. This collection of some of opera’s most iconic arias takes us from the dark emotional crises of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Puccini’s Tosca, to the seductive Rodolfo in La Bohème and Donizetti’s show-stopping high Cs in La Fille du régiment. Tenor showpieces that are so famous they have taken on a life of their own include ‘Nessun dorma’, made immortal by The Three Tenors at the 1990 World Cup.

Fresh interpretation and technical brilliance imbue "Mendelssohn: Sonatas from Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood," the first period instrument recording of this repertoire. This debut recording by the New York City based Karr-Yang Duo features three relatively unknown Mendelssohn Piano and Violin Sonatas, including the duo's own version of the unfinished 1838 F major sonata, and the stunning albeit incomplete Fragment in D. As a whole, the works tell the story of Mendelssohn's development as a composer, spanning his artistic life beginning at the age of 11, through the teenage years, and into his mature period. In this recording, the sumptuous tone and refinement of a fully restored Conrad gRaf piano from 1825 converses in equal partnership with the warm, resonant sonority of the violin's gut strings and historical set-up, revealing Mendelssohn's full-blooded, lyrical, and colorful music at its fullest realization. The Karr-Yang duo bridges the divide between musicological research and communicative performance, and presents an album which will appeal to the period instrument aficionado as well as the Mendelssohn lover.

For this CD a program of some of the most popular Danish folk songs is selected, and Michael Bojesen arranged them anew for recorder and choir. Even if you do not know the Danish language you will feel the atmosphere of the Danish homeland. Recorded in DXD soundformat.

The soprano voice occupies the highest-sounding line of music (in Italian ‘sopra’ means ‘over’ or ‘above’) and it is subdivided into various types. The coloratura is the virtuoso, suited for rapid ornamentation such as in Mozart’s Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). Puccini’s Mimì (La Bohème) is an example of the lyric soprano, full of drama and well-rounded sound. More powerful than the lyric but retaining her softer qualities is the spinto, exemplified by Madama Butterfly, while the dramatic soprano, with her huge reserves of stamina, can be heard in works by Wagner. This quintessential collection of best-loved arias confirms that the soprano, in all her variety, sits at the very heart of the operatic experience.

The music in this album spans a forty-year period from 1948 to 1988 and reflects Dutilleux’s stylistic development as a composer. He considered the Sonata to be the first main work in his catalogue and it represents a turning away from tradition and embraces the transformative musical explorations of the day. The Three Préludes are pieces of concentrated atmospheres, ‘a kind of study of timbres’, in the composer’s words, and each are dedicated to a renowned pianist: No. 1 to Arthur Rubinstein, No. 2 to Claude Helffer, and No. 3 to Eugene Istomin. Dutilleux’s lively music for the ballet Le Loup (‘The Wolf’) is heard here in a première recording of the original piano solo version.

REVIEW:

The pianist here is the veteran Jean-Pierre Armengaud, who has recorded a great deal of French piano music and also works as a musicologist. He studied under Geneviève Joy and was also given advice by Dutilleux and, not surprisingly, his performance is much like hers. If it sounds rather more full-blooded that may well be because the excellent new recording is rather better than that provided for Joy in her own recording of 1988 on Erato. Dutilleux also approved of his performances of the Prèludes. His performance of the piano version of Le Loup is sparkling and convincing and sounds like idiomatic piano music. The sleeve notes, in English and French are really helpful and this is a valuable issue.

-- MusicWeb International

Mozart: Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail

Feted for his Savoy operas with librettist W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan also regularly produced music for important royal or national occasions. In 1897, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, he was commissioned to write a ballet for the Alhambra Theatre in London. Conforming closely to the theatre’s established style, this single-act ballet was a spectacular pageant, featuring ‘specialty’ dances, startling dramatic effects and grand tableaux, notably military ones. Significant research and reconstruction of the score has made this recording possible.

Fazil Say is one of the world’s most prominent pianists but he is also a much-admired composer with a substantial catalogue of works. He combines both these accomplishments in his two Violin Sonatas, the first of which is suffused with Turkish motifs and dances, such as the horon. The second sonata takes as its theme the abuse of nature and the need to resist despoliation. His Violin Concerto is subtitled ‘1001 Nights in the Harem’ and is full of rich melodies and atmosphere, and features an array of Turkish percussion instruments. One of the most creative and versatile artists of his generation, German-born Friedemann Eichhorn’s artistic activities range from performing early Baroque music on period instruments to classical and contemporary works with renowned orchestras and chamber music partners. Among many other pieces, Eichhorn rediscovered and first recorded the complete violin concertos by French virtuoso Pierre Rode. He studied with Valery Gradow, Alberto Lysy and Margaret Pardee and graduated from the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, the International Menuhin Music Academy and The Juilliard School. He also earned a PhD in musicology at the University of Mainz.

Ivan Fischer makes his DNO debut. He conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Pierre Audi, artistic director of DNO and the Holland Festival, directs his firest new DNO production since Saint Francois d'Assise (2008). For Parsifal Audi once again joins forces with the British scultpr Anish Kapoor. Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester previously sang the role of Amfortas at the Opera National de Paris and the Bayreuther Festpiele. Kurt Rhdl made previous DNO appearances as Hagen/Hunding in Der Ring de sNibelungen and as Heinrich in Lohengrin. Kurt Rydl has been an honorary member of the Wiener Staatsoper since 1999. Falk Struckmann has frequently sung the role of Amfortas, but now makes his first DNO appearance in his role debut as Gurnemanz. The title role is sung by Christopher Ventris, who previously appeared at DNO as Steuermann in Der fliegende Hollander. Petra Lang previously sang Brangane in Tristan und Isolde and Venus in Tannhauser at DNO. ''There were no weak links in teh cast. Amfortas sounded suitably pained, very wobbly vibrato for it, but this very much worked. Gurnemanz was stoic and powerful. Klingsor was a rounded and full bass. Kundry has a truly bewitching voice, very powerful. Parsifal was definitely the stand out, always rising above the orchestra, his voice conveyed each emotion perfectly but was always perfectly clear and pure. Ivan Fischer's interpretation is calm, subdued, crystal clear, chamber-like. It is generally brisk, but extremely flexible, and follows Wagner's tempo changes to the letter. Nonetheless, one cannot help but be carried along with the waves of music, so that the final chords are absolutely overwhelming. The Concertgebouw, characteristically played stupendously. Beautiful phrasing, incredibly unity, and they just sound so incredibly beautiful. (Operalively.com)

Using a polyphonic musical language that draws on medieval Byzantine chant, Petros Petridis can be considered one of the most important proponents of the Greek National School. The Requiem for the Emperor Constantine Palaiologos mourns the end of the Byzantine Empire with elegiac lyricism culminating in an ultimately uplifting finale. The Third Symphony is a musical tribute to France, Petridis’s adopted home, while the Concerto Grosso enriches an older form with contemporary color. All of these works are eminently representative of this composer’s significant aesthetic and creative achievements.

This third volume of Erik Satie’s complete solo piano music using Satie scholar Robert Orledge’s new Salabert Edition focuses on music composed between 1892-1897, including theatrical scores such as the revolutionary uspud, and the Danses gothiques and famous Vexations written while the composer was hiding from a tempestuous love affair. The period closes with Satie composing in what he called “a more flexible and accessible way withthe final Gnossienne and the six Pieces froides.” Recognized at once as a great interpreter of Liszt’s music, Nicolas Horvath became in recent years one of the most sought after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, like the First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, sometimes over twelve hours, such as Philip Glass complete piano music or Erik Satie’s Vexations.

Michael Praetorius saw his most important mission as a composer in the promoting and spreading of the German-language chorale. His collection Musae Sioniae consists of altogether nine volumes and is virtually a complete edition of the Lutheran chorales in every setting imaginable. The Christmas hymns in Musae Sioniae, today just as popular as in that time, were of particular importance for Praetorius. He took greatest care in handling them and presented them often in many different settings. Most of the Christmas hymns selected for this album are also to be heard in different settings, from ornate bicinia and tricinia (in which only two or three of the same voices are used) to magnificent polychorals with two or three choirs, the choral texture so masterful that even the most complicated counterpoint is clearly audible.

This is the third volume in the series of orchestral music by Milanese-born Elisabetta Brusa (b. 1954). Sharing its neo-tonal language with her Nittemero Symphony, which can be heard here, the imposing, vividly immediate and approachable Symphony No. 1 is her first work for large orchestra. The symphonic poem Merlin evokes the great magician of legend through rich orchestral colors and powerful rhythms. Volume 2, described by Gramophone magazine as ‘a collection not to be missed’, can be heard here.

Classical Music

Although Paderewski is more readily associated with his career as a legendary virtuoso pianist, his modest output of 70 orchestral, instrumental and vocal works deserves to be more widely known. Prominent among his vocal output is a series of early songs that reveal natural flowing patterns while exploring both melancholy and folk idioms. The Douze Mélodies, written at the end of his compositional career, is the most original and striking Polish set of songs of the period, notable for dissonance, chromaticism and a palette of rich and unusual musical colors, to which this orchestral arrangement adds a whole new dimension. Little known, the early Suite in G major offers youthful warmth and brio.