Giuseppe Rosetta (1901-1985) studied in Rome under Respighi but soon returned to his Piedmontese birthplace of Vercelli. There he remained, leading and enriching the local musical culture as an organist, choir conductor and music teacher. He spurned fame and dedicated himself to his vocation and to God. His beautifully crafted music is accordingly modest in expressive ambition: elegant, reflective, at times melancholic, generally characterized by introspective, meditative qualities – nothing brilliant or demonstrative. Very little of it has been recorded, making this new album a valuable contribution to a wider appreciation of postwar Italian music. Rosetta taught composition to Angelo Gilardino, who eventually encouraged him to write guitar music, resulting in the Preludi per GIlardino of 1970. These are beautifully and idiomatically written for the instrument after close consultation with the guitarist. Also from 1970, the Canti della Pianura (Songs of the Plain) is a personal evocation of the countryside of the Po Valley where Rosetta lived and worked. The four movements correspond to times of day: the dawn (Mattutino), the afternoon (Meridiana), the evening (Vespertina) and the night (Serenata). The Fantasia dates from 1979, but Rosetta’s conservative idiom recalls the language of his teacher Respighi and contemporaries such as Casella and Pizzetti: he wrote out of time, vividly evoking a lost era of Romanticism on an instrument that sings naturally of nostalgia and regret. As a student of Gilardino, Gian Luca Barbero has become intimately familiar with the private musical world of Giuseppe Rosetta, and is himself a guitar teacher of renown in Italy. The present release marks his debut on Brilliant Classics within the label’s ever-growing library of guitar music.

Classical Music

Cincinnati Opera’s newest release is a live recording of the world premiere production of Blind Injustice, with music by Scott Davenport Richards and libretto by David Cote. Developed in collaboration with the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) and the Cincinnati-based ensemble Young Professionals Choral Collective, Blind Injustice explores the true stories of six individuals who were wrongfully imprisoned and ultimately freed by the OIP. The opera’s narrative was drawn from the book Blind Injustice written by OIP director and formal federal prosecutor Mark Godsey, as well as personal interviews with the six exonerees. The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra’s John Morris Russell conducts, with stage direction and dramaturgy by Robin Guarino. Hailed as “a powerful piece of music theater” by The Wall Street Journal and “a moving new work” by Opera News, Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere production of Blind Injustice explores the true stories of six individuals who were tried, convicted, imprisoned, and ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project. With a “rich soundscape” (NPR’s All Things Considered) featuring elements of opera, pop, jazz, and blues, Blind Injustice interweaves the exonerees’ individual stories to create a moving portrait of perseverance, grace, and forgiveness.

During his long and exceptionally fruitful creative life, Richard Strauss (1864–1949) composed only a few works for the cello. Only three have survived and small as that number may seem, those cello works are critical to the composer’s development. Daniel Muller-Schott sees the early Sonata for cello and piano op. 6 and the late tone poem “Don Quixote” op. 35 as marking the path that was to lead Strauss within the space of a few years from Romanticism to the Modern era in music. The cellist highlights this watershed in Strauss’s artistic development with his own transcriptions, expressly made for this album, of the Lieder “Zueignung” op. 10/1 and “Ich trage meine Minne” op. 32/1.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

“El ciego tañedor” or “the blind keyboardist”, Antonio de Cabezón was one of the most inspired masters of his day and a protégé at the court of King Philip II (whose favourite painting, reproduced on the cover of the booklet, came into his possession while Cabezón was with him in Brussels in 1555). Keyboard music was attaining a status equal to vocal polyphony at this time, and Cabezón’s sophisticated Tientos are at the forefront of a rapid rise in a new intensity of expression. Where the Tientos relate to vocal styles the Variations can frequently be traced to popular songs and dance tunes such as the Folía.

Impoverished young aristocrat Eugène de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, 'The Death Dodger', offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortune... Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comédie Humaine.

Classical Music

The music on this album represents profound and direct communication between two human beings. Jon Hemmersam & Asal Malekzadeh had never met prior to the recording of this album, but they had the deep desire to create something beautiful together. In an entirely improvised set, they combine the sounds of the acoustic guitar and the Daf, a Kurdish drum. "To me, the music on this recording represents some of the most profound and direct communication between two human beings you can possibly imagine. Asal Malekzadeh and I had never met or played together prior to this recording. We only had the desire and deep wish to create something beautiful together. I would call it an invitation from our destiny, to follow the path of One Truth, One Music, One Love." - Jon Hemmersam

Antonio Soler’s eminent position at the eighteenth-century Spanish court led to a series of important works, both sacred and secular. Of them, the best known are his keyboard sonatas, many of which were written for the young prince, Don Gabriel, son of Carlos III. The sonatas manage to absorb the influence of Domenico Scarlatti but also exude the prevailing modernist trends of Vienna. Some are designed in pairs, and many employ subtle echo effects, syncopation and exciting, athletic leaps that show his delight in repetition and contrast. This is Volume 3 of the complete Soler Keyboard Sonatas.

The German-born Christian Friedrich Ruppe (1753-1826) made his career in the Dutch city of Leiden, where he had originally arrived in 1773 as a student of mathematics and literature. In 1784 he married Christina Chalon (1748-1808), the daughter of the lead violinist the of the Nederlands Theater in Amsterdam. In 1890 he was appointed as music director of the city’s renowned and ancient university, and from 1802 he taught theory of music there, having in 1788 become organist of the city’s principal Lutheran Church. In 1796 an orphanage choir was founded in Leiden on Ruppe’s initiative, consisting of girls and boys from the Holy Spirit or Poor Orphanage and Children's Home near the church. During the following church year he then composed a pair of cantatas on anonymous Dutch texts, designed for the orphanage choir. Despite their musical richness and evident beauties, the scores remained in the archives of the orphanage, only to be rediscovered in 1987. Two centuries after their first performance, they received the recordings reissued here by an accomplished team of experienced Dutch early-music performers. While comparing the cantatas to the music written by Handel for the Foundling Hospital would not flatter Ruppe, his music nonetheless exhibits many charms of its own: unfailingly graceful phrasing, for one, fresh melodic charm and sympathetic writing for voices. There appears to be a clear Haydnesque imprint to both works, but operatic models are more evident in the sinfonia that opens the Christmas Cantata as well as the style of the dramatic recitatives which move along each development of the familiar story. The work concludes with a trumpet-and-drum chorus in the style of oratorios such as Messiah and The Creation, rising to the grand harmonization of an Easter chorale designed for singing by the choir and entire congregation.

Phineas Finn, a handsome young man of 23, comes to England to make his fortune in parliamentary politics. But despite all his aspirations, Finn is haunted by ethical questions as his personal convictions conflict with his duty towards his party. Loyalty versus honour, love versus money, and privacy versus prominence: our eponymous hero faces a variety of dilemmas as he navigates his way through the House of Commons. The second installment of Trollope’s celebrated Palliser series, Phineas Finn is a delightful and humorous look at the complexity of human relationships and the politics surrounding the Second Reform Bill of the 1860s.

One has no problem naming famous String Quartet ensembles; however, String Trios simply cannot make the same boast! Even on the repertoire of the side, composers have produced many more significant quartets than they have string trios. Thus, it was something of a minor miracle when three musicians such as violinist Arthur Grumiaux, Georges Janzer (V�gh Quartet violist) and Janzer's wife, the cellist Eve Czako, finally met to perform works of Mozart and Beethoven. The resulting June 8, 1966 Schwetzingen Castle recital is a most memorable concert that will welcome repeated listening.

HANDEL Suites, HWV 426–429 • Philip Edward Fisher (pn) • NAXOS 8.572197 (61:55 )


Handel’s keyboard suites—though still not as established in the repertoire of the average pianist as Bach’s are—are steadily gaining popularity with many performers. Just last issue (in Fanfare 33:6), I had the pleasure of reviewing two new recordings of some of this repertoire. Here, we have Volume 1 of what looks like a complete recording of the so-called “Eight Great Suites.”


Philip Edward Fisher certainly has the mechanical capabilities to play this music in a convincing manner, as the virtuosic opening preludes to both the first and third suites, in A Major and D Minor, respectively, can attest. His free way with them pays dividends, as it feeds off the very nature of their origins—improvisation. Fisher does have one eccentricity to his playing in terms of this freedom, though, one that if he did not overuse might be more convincing. He enjoys starting many movements slowly, then accelerating into the full tempo in the second measure of the movement. This most notably occurs, to my ears, in the Gigue to the A-Major Suite, not only the first time, at the onset of the piece, but all four times, as he plays every single repeat of this movement! How this is supposed to be dance-like, I’m not sure. Fisher’s tone, in addition, tends to have a bit more weight than does Gould’s or Perahia’s. He has a keen sense of voicing and tonal shading, as well as tempi which tend to be moderate, except occasionally. The Air to the D-Minor Suite, which he, along with many others, plays just too slowly for me, is an example. For a better overall approach, I prefer Perahia, who is able to lend unity to this movement through the slow accelerando from the onset of the piece—one that continues through all of the variations, bringing a beautiful sense of momentum. Fisher’s E-Minor Suite comes off the best, as he plays it in the most unaffected way: a light and bouncy, virtuosic fugal Prélude, followed by a soft and flowing Allemande, an aggressive and assured Courante, a pensive Sarabande with little ornamentation and played at a gently lilting tempo, and a lively, quirky, and lightly ornamented Gigue. Fisher seems to let the music speak for itself here—something that many performers can do a little more of from time to time.


All in all, this is a very fine disc, to be warmly recommended, not only for its low price, but also for its often assured and inspired playing. In addition to this disc, I would highly recommend those performances by Murray Perahia (Sony 62785), Evgeny Koroliov (seemingly only available for download on Amazon and iTunes, or check out amazon.de for the actual disc), and Racha Arodaky (AIR 001-2009). Here’s hoping that Fisher will grace us not only with the complete “Eight Great Suites” of 1720 in the following volume(s), but all 16.


FANFARE: Scott Noriega


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The modern concert grand lends itself well to the idiomatic flair and delightful variety characterizing Handel's keyboard suites, yet surprisingly few pianists champion them on disc. Philip Edward Fisher is an exception, and his first volume in what promises to be a complete cycle adds up to an absorbing listen.

Naxos' close, dry pickup imparts an analytic, Glenn Gould-like clarity to Fisher's touch, although there's plenty of nuance and tonal shading. You hear this right away in the First suite's Prelude, and also in the Gigue, where Fisher states the main theme's first four repeated notes before accelerating into a faster basic tempo--an oddly convincing gesture.

In contrast to Sviatoslav Richter's straightforwardly plain dispatch of the Second suite's Fugue and Presto movements, Fisher generates more textural variety by elongating accented notes and pressing slightly ahead in sequential passagework. And listeners familiar with the E minor suite's Courante as a courtly allegretto by way of Keith Jarrett or Ragna Schirmer will be surprised by Fisher's relatively subjective deliberation. How the remainder of this cycle will fare next to Schirmer's more warmly engineered traversal of all 16 suites remains to be seen, but so far Fisher and Handel appear to be a provocative and often inspired match.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Considered by some to be the ‘Cinderella’ of his symphonies, the Sixth Symphony of Anton Bruckner was composed in 1879 – 81. It may well demonstrate a reaction to the severe criticism of the first Viennese performance, in 1877, of his Third Symphony, which Eduard Hanslick described as a vision of how Beethoven’s Ninth befriends Wagner’s Walküre and ends up being trampled under her horses’ hoofs’. Much the shortest of his mature symphonies, the Sixth also reverts to a more classical form than its predecessors. This recording was made in 2012, during the first season of Juanjo Mena as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, and just a month before their acclaimed performance of the work at the BBC Proms. Classical Source commented: ‘Mena didn’t miss a trick and the result for the whole symphony was a revelation, and you don’t get many of those. This was a thrilling, delightful performance.’

Margie Butler: Carolan's Draught - Celtic Harp

In recording these, the earliest revelations of Schubert’s boundless lyricism in his early romantic compositional voice as applied to instrumental chamber music, we sought to pay homage to the original intent as well as the authentic sounds.

The Sonatinas, (a posthumous title), were written for music of the chamber, a time of gathering, sharing, and delighting in the discoveries, creations, and talents of others. The Sonatinas are a revealing view into the birth of Schubert’s romantic voice. Whether the sturm und drang of the G Minor and its Haydn-esque representation of drama, the early Beethovenian poise, manner, and delight in the D Major, or the unabashed dramatic and unapologetic severity in the A Minor, (Lord Byron’s Manfred was written the same year!), these works show us young Schubert’s boundless expressive spirit.

The piano is an Érard concert grand, built in Paris circa 1835. It is in immaculate condition, superbly conditioned by Frits Janmaat at Maison Érard in Amsterdam. Parallel-strung, and with dampers beneath the strings, the registers have clear distinction; the action is agile; the rich tonal depth is special. The violin is a rare find, built by Franz Kinberg after the Second World War and set up for late Classical and early Romantic historical instrument performance. The gut-strung violin is paired with an extraordinary bow made by John Dodd, London, circa 1800. This pre-modern, transitional bow is a perfect example of the bows still in favor in Vienna at the time the Sonatinas were composed.

REVIEW:

 These are wonderful works whose considerable depths certainly belie the “sonatina” designation and whose structure and emotional heft Gajić and Carrettin explore with remarkable sensitivity and thoroughness—and with instrumental sound that is, in and of itself, a real joy to hear.

– Infodad.com

This program is a loving tribute to A. Khachaturian, the towering musical figure from my native Armenia and to G. Gershwin, the musical genius from my adopted home, the United States. These two composers are bridged here by the phenomenal pianist/ composer and Hollywood superstar, Oscar Levant. Some of the works on the album have been my loyal recital companions since childhood, the others have become such upon my immigration to America as a young adult. The release includes a world premiere recording of Oscar Levant’s jazzy Sonatina.

REVIEW:

Pianist Raffi Besalyan presents a collection of works from his native Armenia and his adopted U.S, and indeed, he offers vigorous performances of music by Aram Khachaturian and George Gershwin. Most interesting are the points where the two composers meet. Highly newsworthy is the world premiere of the Piano Sonatina by Gershwin specialist Oscar Levanty. The Sonatina has a unique post-Gershwin language and makes one wants to hear more of Levant’s original music. One is left with the impression of an odd kinship between Khachaturian and Gershwin that no one else has quite caught. The presence of some of Earl Wild’s Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin also works; the pieces bring a bit of the Russian virtuoso school, Besalyan’s specialty, to the proceedings. The whole thing is brilliantly performed and benefits from superb engineering at Sono Luminus’ Virginia studios. A satisfying cross-cultural essay.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)