The piano music of the Estonian composer Heino Eller (1887–1970), a total of 206 works, is not only the largest part of his output: it is also the largest body of works in Estonian classical music. But most of these pieces are unknown, even though the best of them are original contributions to the piano repertoire of the twentieth century, with Eller’s sensitive lyricism underpinned by gentle humor and an occasional epic tone. This seventh volume brings music from half a century of music, from 1912 to 1961 – mostly miniatures but each of them full of atmosphere and personality.

WORKS FOR FLUTE AND HARP

The Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble is – as the name implies – based in Stockholm, and consists of five of the city's leading musicians. Project-based and often inviting guest performers, the SSE is known for its imaginative programmes built around a particular event or concept and bringing together music from various genres and eras. For its first release on BIS the ensemble has taken Brett Dean’s Voices of Angels as their point of departure, a work scored for the same forces as Schubert’s ‘Trout quintet’ and inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s first two Duino Elegies: ‘Angels (it’s said) are often unable to tell whether they move amongst the living or the dead.’ Dean’s work from 1996 opens a programme which ranges from Bach to Sofia Gubaidulina, and includes various scorings for between two and six performers. The angels reappear in songs by Wagner and Gubaidulina performed by Christianne Stotijn, one of the ensemble’s guests on this disc – but it is also safe to assume that they are standing around the heavenly throne which Bach approaches in the chorale prelude ‘Vor Deinen Thron tret ich hiermit’ – here transcribed for strings. The same prelude is the subject of Gubaidulina’s Meditation, while the disc closes with a work by Gubaidulina’s friend Alfred Schnittke, namely his Hymn for cello and double bass.

Robert von Bahr, CEO of BIS Records, writes of this release: “When we finished the Bach Sacred Cantatas there was an emptiness with us all participants, which was - partly - alleviated by the fact that there were several records of secular Cantatas still to be recorded. And now we are at the bitter end of those as well, and there are no more Bach Cantatas to be recorded. After 23 years of a steady diet of Bach Cantatas, to be without them is brutal and cruel. All the better, then, that we have finished on a high point. Carolyn Sampson’s singing in the solo cantata BWV 204 beggars belief - it is as close to Heaven one can hope to come on this Earth. Big words, and yet too small for what she does. This is the crowning glory of a series that has transformed my life and given me so much more fulfillment that I could possibly have hoped for. Thank you, Masaaki and your faithful BCJ, for creating a musical treasure possible to be treasured by a grateful mankind.”

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REVIEWS:

This issue completes one of the great modern recording odysseys, being the final disc of complete surviving secular cantatas from Bach Collegium Japan. The Bach Collegium Japan sing and play as satisfyingly as they have done since their foundation in 1990 and the hero of the disc, as ever, is Masaaki Suzuki. His sense of the tempo giusto in this music is unerring, and his response to the sprightly dance measures is always infectious.

– MusicWeb International

We celebrate here, as always, many of Suzuki’s finest qualities of expressive lucidity, unforced coherence, and the quiet nobility of one serving the music as the most natural of reflexes.

Carolyn Sampson’s ever-inspiring contributions close the project with Ich bin in mir vernügt, a little-known solo soprano cantata compared to the Nos 51, 199, and 210s of this world. Just when one thought it impossible to hear Bach sung any better than in her recent performance of No 105 (arr. Schumann—Ondine, 8/18), she brings an Arcadian coloration to ‘Meine Seele sei vernügt’, placing her among the finest exponents on record of this composer’s peerlessly demanding soprano-writing.

– Gramophone

London Jewish Male Choir presents regaling performances of classic cantorial and liturgical songs, Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) songs, Chassidic pieces and modern Israeli compositions. Extensive information is included in English and German.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary by giving a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie with world-renowned artists: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-Yo Ma perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto together with Maestro Barenboim and the young musicians. Yo-Yo Ma, who played with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at their first concert 20 years ago, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, who made her debut with the orchestra only this year, were named as honorary members of the orchestra on the occasion of this event. “It is fascinating to experience how brilliant, concentrated and at the same time relaxed these three world stars make music together and listen to each other. A masterpiece of harmony“ (RBB24). The second part of the concert features Bruckner's 9th Symphony, transcendental music which the composer himself dedicated to “the dear God“. The symphony is unfinished not only because Bruckner died during the process of composition, but especially because it seems to perish in nothingness. The musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are excellently prepared and play technically and tonal flawlessly. A magic moment.

Three composers, Tedeschi, Galeotti and Mortari, with three completely different musical styles: what they share is the sound of the harp and the rediscovery of its late-Romantic, early-modern Italian repertory, which is mostly still unknown, or very nearly so. Completing with highest honors her diploma and post-grad work at the Conservatory of Parma, prize-winning harpist Eleonora Valpato was until January 2011 was First Harp Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago de Chile. Since 2009 she has played with Nicholas Vaiente in the unusual harp and marimba ensemble Step Two.

Siberia is known for its vast distances and the unfathomable dimensions of its unspoiled landscapes of rivers and lakes, forests and mountains, and tundra and taiga. The city of Krasnoyarsk is at the center of Eurasia between Moscow and Beijing and has a surprisingly vibrant musical life. In 2019, the city commissioned two works by Enjott Schneider, one of Germany’s most multifaceted composers. For the “Asia-Siberia-Europe Festival”, Schneider composed “Spirits of Siberia” for trumpet, strings, and percussion. In this work, trumpet virtuoso Reinhold Friedrich embodies the world of shamanistic mysteries. In the piece’s four movements, the soloist conjures the Siberian flora and fauna with mystical sound worlds that take us far beyond the reality of our normal physical senses. “Leporello & Giovanni” was commissioned by the Trans-Siberian Art Festival. The double continent of Eurasia is symbolized in this double concerto by double bass and contrabass balalaika played by two of the world’s finest virtuosos: Artem Chirkov, the principal double bass player of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, and Mikhail Dzyudze, whose innovations have brought the balalaika from folk music into the classical concert halls of the world. The music moves against the background of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, with the soloists energetically personifying the complicated relationship between Don Giovanni and his servant Leporello.

Featuring composers such as Piazzolla, Brouwer, Arcas, and Barrios, this album is an exciting adventure through pieces with latin musical roots. Guitarist Luciano Tortorelli is a professor of classical guitar and also performs frequently in concertos. He is one of Italy’s foremost guitarists. Tortorelli also performs an original piece on this album: Dobru noc Brno, which was composed as an homage to the Brno Guitar Festival.

Clarinetist Stephan Siegenthaler brings Max Reger's complete works for clarinet back to life, 100 years after his death. Reger barely had 20 productive years of composition however you'd never know it looking at his vast oeuvre, comprised of all genres with the exception of opera. Siegenthaler, born in Switzerland has studied music and performed all throughout Europe including Germany, Geneva and Bratislava.

 

REVIEW:

 

All chamber works of Max Reger for clarinet, one with string quartet, the others with piano, are comprised in this compilation. The music is not easy and one has to listen carefully until getting the point, even though the artists on this CD come up with very fine performances.

 

– Pizzicato

London Early Opera continue their programme themed around a typical evening’s entertainment at the 17th & 18th century Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, with a second collection of works by George Frideric Handel and contemporary composers of the day (John Stanley, Thomas Gladwin, John Lampe and Johann Adolph Hasse). Featuring performances by soloists Claire Bessant, Mary Bevan, Benjamin Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, Charles MacDougale, Nicky Spence and Greg Tassell, the programme evokes the carnival of music and entertainments that amused visitors in these London gardens for nearly 200 years. The booklet notes feature images and expert commentaries on the Vauxhall Gardens by author David E. Coke and as well as conductor and musicologist Bridget Cunningham.

A beautiful collection of songs, Only a Singing Bird features Michael Head's best-known works, The Ships of Arcady and The Little Road to Bethlehem, as well as his beautifully-imagined, nostalgic song-cycle, Snowbirds. NYCoS National Girls Choir is joined by it's patron and world renowned mezzo soprano, Karen Cargill for this incredible new recording.

The fourth installment in Naxos’ Soler keyboard sonata cycle introduces 25-year-old pianist Mateusz Borowiak, who has begun to make a name for himself on the competition and European festival circuit. While his playing is sensitive and stylish with regard to ornaments and phrasing, Borowiak is not afraid to exploit the modern concert grand’s dynamic range and potential for tone color. Listen, for example, to the effective crescendos and sudden contrasts in the C minor No. 48’s introductory measures, to the cross-rhythmic accents that punctuate the G major No. 45’s broken octaves, or to the shaded precision of the C major No. 50’s two-handed unison passages. Sample the A major No. 53’s differentiated detached and sustained articulation, not to mention those impressively calibrated trills. The intimate yet full bodied sonics are remarkably lifelike, as if Borowiak is working his magic just a few feet away from you. In short, this disc, along with numerous live performances posted on YouTube, clearly positions Borowiak as a piano talent to keep on your radar.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The music of Buxton Orr (b. Glasgow, 1924), was hardly over-exposed during his lifetime but has encountered even more neglect since his death in 1997. This CD takes a step in the right direction, presenting Orr’s mildly modernist, elegant and honest music in first recordings of four of his chamber works for strings.

REVIEW:

All of the performances are passionate, committed and of the highest quality as is the recording which does not get between the performers and the listeners. The music needs to be ‘Listened to’ and, more than once. It is not fashionable, it does not always come out to meet you half way but it is approachable and emotional and has its own strong rewards.

The reason why the disc has taken over a decade to emerge, and I do recall it being mentioned many years ago, is that the company which originally recorded it lost interest and abandoned the project. Well done Toccata for picking up these most valuable pieces

-- MusicWeb International

On this new recording, Coro Victoria offers a portrait of Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) through a cross-section of his sacred output (his works in Spanish are all lost). The group also illustrates the variety of interpretative practices of the period. The concluding O quam suavis est Domine is sung by a single soprano while the vihuela accompaniment supplies the remaining five parts. Church choirs sang this music in the liturgy, but minstrels also played it during processions, and there was free traffic between sacred and secular contexts. Coro Victoria was founded by it's director, Ana Fernández-Vega, to recover and preserve a native, historically informed tradition of singing Spanish polyphony from it's Renaissance-era high noon, exemplified not only by Victoria himself but also his contemporaries such as the Seville-born and bred Alonso Lobo (indeed, Victoria considered Lobo his equal). He is now best known for a haunting, six-voice setting of the Requiem, and his magnificent motet for the obsequies of King Philip II, Versa est in luctum shares the Requiem's tone of mourning and remembrance, established by a dense mesh of overlapping counterpoint. Coro Victoria also presents other sides to a composer whose style is far more various than is commonly assumed. As well as the beautifully handled techniques of canon and counterpoint in Marian motets such as Ave Maria and Ave Regina coelorum, distinguishing features of Lobo's style are his jagged melodic lines, a far cry from Palestrina's smooth curves, and his more animated conclusions, both vividly demonstrated by Vivo ego, dicit Dominus. There is also a complete, portmanteau setting of the Mass, drawn from his Missa O Rex gloriae, Missa Petre ego pro te rogavi and Missa Simile est regnum caelorum, with the Credo filled in by the separate Credo Romano, which is underpinned by a figured bass and continued to be popular long after his death. These polished performances should renew wider interest in Lobo's music.

Classical Music

The Lord's Prayer is the most universal prayer in Christendom, prayed by believers of all denominations. What would be more natural, then, than to bring together several settings of this prayer on a CD with the outstanding Salzburg Bach Choir? the CD was recorded in a relatively modern church in the Salzkammergut (Salzburg Province, Austria), equipped with interior wooden ceilings and walls, resulting in a very special acoustic. Alois Glassner, choral conductor and Professor of Music, University of Vienna, has been the choir's artistic director since 2003.

This panoramic survey of Argentine tangos shows the genre in all its rich variety of moods and virtuosity. It salutes Angel Villoldo, the father of tango, whose El choclo (‘The Corncob’) is one of the most famous tangos of all time, and charts the music’s evolution towards the romanticism and lush harmonies of Augustín Bardi. Improvisatory styles, syncopation and jazz harmonies were introduced by such great composers as José Pascual and Orlando Goñi, whilst Enrique Francini developed his personal qualities of dissonance and rhythmic flair into the 1960s. This survey is the first in a series that will document around one hundred rare and classic tangos, all performed by the Argentine pianist Mirian Conti.

 

REVIEW:

 

Tangorama: a wonderful aural trip to the southernmost South American nation

Tangorama, Vol. 1 is the first of an upcoming series of tango albums lovingly selected and superbly played by the terrific Argentine-American pianist Mirian Conti. This first in the series features over two dozen gems that trace the development of the Argentine tango from its humble origins rooted in Afro-Argentine and Cuban-influenced dance forms birthed in the bars an dives on the shores of the River Plate to the sophisticated compositions of mid-20th century composer-performers that inflected the form with European harmonies and counterpoint while retaining the syncopated underpinning of the original dance form.

 

– Rafael's Music Notes (Rafael de Acha)

Argentine-American pianist and recording artist Mirian Conti has recently released her new solo album, Tangorama, performing a collection of 25 vintage tangos, written over the span of half a century. Tango originated in Argentina and Uruguay in the late 1800’s as immigrants poured in from all parts of Europe. They brought their music with them: waltzes, polkas and mazurkas, which blended with Cuban habanera and African candombe music and rhythms to create early forms of tango music and dance. These early years, from about 1895 to 1925, are known as Guardia Vieja, the Old Guard, when tango began to develop structure and identity. One of the early composers was Angel Villoldo (1861-1919), generally considered the father of the tango. Three of his tunes are included on this disc, all in early tango 2/4 duple meter. In 1903 Angel composed the well-known El Choclo, one of the best of the early tangos, which became a popular hit song again in 1952 as “Kiss of Fire”. Mirian performs these piano arrangements with a light, graceful touch and a delightful sense of rhythm, timing and phrasing. Another early tango is the famous La Cumparsita, the most popular tango ever written. It was composed in 1917 by Geraldo Matos Rodriguez (1897-1948), and originally written for a marching band. The tune is driven by the bold arrastre sound of slurring chords mixing with crisp staccatos.

The tango period known as Guardia Nueva, or New Guard, lasted roughly from 1925 to 1955. This included the Golden Age of the 1940’s, which was the hey-day of the big tango orchestras. Generally coinciding with the explosion of the Big Band era, tango began developing and maturing in form and complexity. Alfredo Gobbi (1912-1965) was a violinist and composer who wrote El Andariego in 1951. The tune features a smoother 4/8 meter, slower tempo, heavy rubato, and delicate staccato passages. From 1955 to 1970, tango went through an Avant-Garde period of development and began moving in new directions. Julian Plaza (1928-2003) was an outstanding musician and composer who wrote Melancolico in 1960 and Nostalgico in 1962. The tunes are intoxicating with dramatic tango rhythms, melodies and dissonant harmonic structures. Mirian presents them with beautiful dynamics and phrasing, meticulous keyboard technique and solid intuition.

This music was recorded on 15-24 September 2020 on two Yamaha Disklaviers, one each at Conti Studio in Buenos Aires and at Yamaha Artists Service in New York. Mirian Conti and G. Richard Glasford were the producers, and Aaron David Ross was the engineer. Joseph Patrych performed the mastering. A 28-page booklet is included, with photographs and commentary in Spanish and English. The sound quality is excellent.

--MusicWeb International (Bruce McCollum)

MOONBOW is Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson’s second album, the first to be released on a major label. The music, performed by leading members of the Icelandic contemporary music scene, was recorded in Kaldalo´n and Norðurljo´s, the two recital halls of Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall. While Gunnar’s first album, Patterns, contains pieces from his study and freelance years in The Hague, MOONBOW is a selection of more mature works from a fruitful period in the composer’s life after moving back to Iceland in 2009, with all the experience from the Netherlands in his pocket. The album features a trio, a quartet and a quintet, flanked by two larger ensemble pieces. The works are diverse, not only in terms of instrumentation but also in terms of musical subject and give a good insight into Gunnar’s distinctive and personal sound-world.

REVIEW:

Kristinsson’s style blends elements of tonality, atonality, New Simplicity (especially in its obsessive repeated patterns) and postmodernist techniques. Patterns IIb (2016) is a fine example of that, with its louring atmosphere despite its use of an Icelandic folk song and euphonious chiming percussion: it was based on a piece of 2004 scored for quartets of gamelan and Western instruments. Roots (2019), by contrast, takes the overtone series as its abstract inspiration. The evocative titletrack, Moonbow (2017), played with relish here by the excellent Siggi Quartet, is more straightforwardly descriptive, reflecting in sound the lunar rainbow (or ‘moonbow’). As such, it is the most directly communicative, and put me in mind at some removes of Saariaho’s celebrated aurora borealis-inspired Lichtbogen (1986).

Sono Luminus provides sound to match Kristinsson’s often coruscating textures and the performers’ clean, luminous virtuosity. You will not regret investigating this music.

– Gramophone

Edward MacDowell (1860-1908), an exact contemporary of Gustav Mahler, was widely considered the most important American composer of his day-a time when American music was based primarily on European models. Antonin Dvorák called on American composers to turn to indigenous sources, such as Negro spirituals and Indian tribal music, for inspiration. MacDowell flatly rejected this, commenting, What Negro melodies have to do with Americanism remains a mystery to me." Thus, in the Piano Concerto No. 1 we hear the comfortable old echoes of the Grieg A minor and, in the finale, Dvorák's own concerto. MacDowell's second concerto displays a noticeably higher degree of originality, though here too the European influence is clear, in this case Saint-Saëns. The dark and portentous opening creates a mood of anticipation before the piano enters to launch the drama of the first movement. The finale is brisk and exciting, with some wonderfully bravura piano writing, with which soloist Stephen Prutsman unreservedly flaunts his brilliant technique. He's just as fine in the brief Witches' Dance, which is rather tame and far less spooky than we have come to expect after the likes of Berlioz. The soothing sounds of MacDowell's gentle Romance for Cello and Orchestra close this interesting program. As on many other Naxos recordings, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (led here by Arthur Fagen) delivers performances of international caliber. Fine sound, too." - ClassicsToday.com (Victor Carr, Jr.), January 15, 2001