On a late spring morning in 1968, seventeen-year-old Roslyn Kind graduated from high school in Brooklyn and immediately began a new job later the same day. “I graduated to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ in the morning,” she recalls, “and that evening I was in RCA Studio B, down around 23rd Street in Manhattan, making my first recording.”

Kind’s two RCA albums Give Me You and This Is Roslyn Kind are fascinating time capsules from a period – 1968-69 – when American popular music was undergoing seismic changes. There is a bit of Broadway to be heard – “I Only Wanna Laugh” from the 1969 flop Jimmy, as well as a ballad from a 1965 Charles Aznavour revue, plus songs by Richard Maltby and David Shire, and Hal Hackady and Larry Grossman (who were about to see their musical Minnie’s Boys produced on Broadway). But most of the material reflects Kind’s own taste and current trends in popular music. There are songs by Lennon and McCartney, Mann and Weil, Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb, and Rick Evans of the then-hot one-hit-wonder (“In the Year 2525”) duo Zager and Evans.

During the 1813–14 carnival season in Naples, Simon Mayr wrote a much-admired opera semiseria called Elena. The post-revolutionary Napoleonic era saw great enthusiasm for the rescue opera genre and Elena is a perfect example, in which a complex plot, based on French models, sees an innocent falsely accused of a capital offence. Mayr’s subtle accommodation of Neapolitan opera and Viennese Classicism ensures a series of choruses and recitatives that drive the action forward, punctuated with arias, romances, ensembles, lyric richness and moments of witty buffo color.

REVIEW:

Franz Hauk continues his dedicated role championing the music of the German-born, Simon Mayr, now returning to his operas thought to number almost seventy.

First produced in Naples in January 1814, Mayr's Elena was well received and revived in 1816 at the much more influential venue of La Scala, Milan, and that was followed by Florence. At both theatres it is thought is was probably much revised. The story is complex—to say the least—and made even more so as you need to know the history that surrounds events that took place before the opera begins; all that is explained in the enclosed booklet. The opera calls for a dramatic soprano as the wronged Elena, here taken by the German-born Julia Sophie Wagner, who is enjoying a major career on both sides of the Atlantic. Her perky voice is perfect for her dual role where she has to masquerade as a young man when she returns to her homeland. But it is the many other characters who share the bulk of a work lasting around two and a half hours, though it does not seem that long! By this point the fine bass voice of Daniel Ochoa has taken over the score as Elena’s husband, Costantino, the two having parted as they fled from their execution, his long first act aria not far short of ten minutes. We are now introduced to Edmondo, who was part of the plot against Elena, here taken by the tenor, Markus Schafer, whose outstanding performances have graced many Mayr recordings. That leaves me to say how much I have enjoyed the bass, Niklas Mallmann, in the buffo role of Carlo; the bass, Andreas Mattersberger as Urbino, and Fang Zhi in the pivotal part of the Governor. He is joined in the opera’s final rejoicing with the fulsome Simon Mayr Chorus. For Hauk, the conductor, this is another major and unqualified success, his period instrument orchestra, Concerto de Bassus, both neat and with impeccable intonation. A fabulous release in every respect.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Classical Music

Classical Music

BACKHAUS

Sándor Balassa has stated that his music for piano ‘has to evoke genuine emotions, recalling the abundance of a springtime meadow, giving us a feeling of richness, and inspiring a sense of adventure in us and touching our hearts’. In this third volume, which includes piano versions of pieces for harp and cimbalom, the sheer diversity of Balassa’s imagination is amply illustrated, conjuring atmosphere and poignant recollections as well as demanding exceptional virtuosity. Balassa considers the closing Fantázia, Op. 97 to be his best piano work. István Kassai graduated as a pianist from the Budapest Academy of Music in 1982 studying in the class of Pál Kadosa. In 1984 he pursued a second diploma at the Conservatoire Européen de Musique under the close supervision of professor Yvonne Lefébure. He also undertook several master courses, including one led by György Cziffra, who had a great impact on Kassai’s artistic development. During his career, Kassai has won several first prizes in international competitions such as the International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 1972 in Czechoslovakia, the Piano Competition organized by Hungarian Radio in 1979, and the Paris International Debussy Piano Competition in 1982.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is a staple of operatic repertoire. The two-act opera is tenth on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide. Don Giovanni is based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional womanizer and seducer, and has a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. This release is a recording from 1985, conducted by Rafael Kubelik. One of the last century’s most revered conductors, Kubelik only made a few complete opera sets, and this opera is the only Mozart among them. Alan Titus performs as Giovanni. Opera magazine praises him as he “generates lively spirit in his scenes with Rolando Panerai, a Leporello into in 60s but still able to inflect his lines with verbal point as well as expressive colour: the Catalogue aria is quite masterful in its slightly seedy relish.”

Overtures

Featuring the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, this new release includes compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725). La Gloria di Primavera, the work featured on this album, has been called a “feast of vocal invention, supplemented by wondrous instrumental writing…” The performances on this album were recorded live in Berkeley, California, at First Congregational Church in October of 2015.

•For their second OehmsClassics recording, the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Austria decided on the Mendelssohn First and Third Symphonies. Recorded live at the Vienna Musikverein, these performances further reveal the growing sense of appreciation conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada is receiving. He is soon to be appointed Principal Conductor of the hr‑Sinfonieorchester, Frankfurt, Music Director of the HoustonSymphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the LondonPhilharmonic.

Robert Schumann: Works for Piano (Recordings 1956-1959)

Volume 55 in the critically acclaimed Liszt Complete Piano Works series features transcriptions of pieces by his contemporary Eduard Lassen, performed here by award-winning pianist Andrey Ivanov in his recording debut. Andrey gave his first concerto performance at the age of nine. In 2006, he was selected to study at the Central School of Music in Minsk, graduating to the Moscow Conservatoire. He won first prize at the Belgrade and Minsk International Piano Competitions and went on to perform in Moscow, St Petersburg, Belgrade, Brussels and Amsterdam. He is currently studying at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Pascal Nemirovski.

The unconventional structure of Gian Francesco Malipiero’s music takes us on a journey through unexpected, sometimes incredibly beautiful vistas. The Sixth Symphony is a rich and songful celebration of string sonorities and moods, while the heroic Ritrovari and evocative Serenata mattutina display Malipiero’s expertise in writing for unusual chamber ensembles. The Cinque studi, heard here in their premiere recording, demonstrate an astonishing range of contrasting moods- a kaleidoscopic sonic tour with no more than a small orchestra, which juxtaposes orchestral strings with a wind group of a single flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon and two horns, and a percussion group of cymbal, bass drum, tambourine, celesta, and piano.

This diverse programme features eight premiere recordings of Australian music for two pianists, including seven works recently commissioned by the acclaimed Viney-Grinberg duo. Demonstrating the innovative potential of this medium, these pieces range from duets on a single piano to Mill Life in which 22 pianos are overdubbed and piled on top of each other. Other highlights include Visible Weapon, pairing virtuoso velocity with electronics, and The Art of Agony – a musical picture frame for Percy Grainger’s spoken voice.

Band Music - WARREN, G.W. / MELILLO, S. / DYKES, J.B. (One N

Classical Music

Mauro Giuliani was both a virtuoso performer on the guitar and one of the great figures in early 19th-century composition for the instrument. His variations, studies, sonatas and other works have entered the repertoires of generations of subsequent performers. The six dazzling Rossiniane for solo guitar are fantasias on themes taken from the great Italian composer’s operas. They offer a compendium of the guitar as a miniature orchestra revealing refinements of technique and expressiveness never before achieved on the instrument.

The Legacy of Aaron Copland is an eclectic collection of works written by the great American composer Aaron Copland. Regarded as the "dean of American music", Copland's works are said to evoke the limitless American landscape as they achieve a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles. (Altissimo)

Features music of Irving Berlin, Leroy Anderson, Frank Loesser, and more, arranged for wind ensemble.