Classical Music

At the time of his death in 2010, Almeida Prado was one of Brazil’s most internationally admired composers, one who created music of unique sonority and color, rooted in his native country. In Aurora (‘Dawn’) he employs his newly developed ‘transtonality’ to radiant effect, while the Concerto Fribourgeois features a collage technique. In his Piano Concerto No. 1 Almeida Prado explores a cogent structure in which the soloist opens up, rips apart or transforms the theme and variations, in a work that is both grandiose and luminous.

REVIEWS:

"The performances by Sonia Rubinsky sound like they are totally committed to the music. The range of her expressive control is remarkable. She has all of the requisite strength to deal with the many percussive moments in the music. The Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, under the expert direction of Fabio Mechetti, provides a well-considered and exemplary accompaniment. The recorded sound is very good."

--Fanfare

"The southern border of the vast Brazilian state of Minas Gerais lies roughly 100 miles north of (and is broadly parallel to) the road which connects the more renowned centres of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Its capital Belo Horizonte lies centrally and seems to be the home of the Minas Gerais Philharmonic, which on the evidence of this disc appears to be an impressive orchestral unit.

Aurora is both dramatic and monumental; the engineers have done a splendid job in taming its excesses and realising an ideal balance between the demanding piano part and the orchestra.

The Piano Concerto No. 1...embodies an arch-like structure, framed by brief panels labelled Apelo (Appeal) I and II in which contain the four-note thematic germ which drives the entire work. Apelo I inhabits murky depths whose severity soon yields to a sequence of rapid variations, performed with remarkable incisiveness and clarity by Rubinsky and the orchestra. The Piano Concerto No 1 makes a lasting impact – it’s difficult to imagine a more compelling or definitive account than Rubinsky’s.

The issue concludes with the Concerto Fribourgeois, commissioned in 1985 to celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of J.S. Bach[.] Rubinsky’s supreme commitment to this music provides yet more evidence of her devotion to Almeida Prado, whilst the recording rates highly in its depth and clarity.

I found all three of these very different works most enjoyable; they are each sufficiently colourful and invigorating to merit further reacquaintance.

--MusicWeb International (Richard Hanlon)

2008 brings us the long-anticipated sequel to 1999's second volume in Naxos' John Ireland piano music cycle. Since he began this project in 1995, pianist John Lenehan has grown more responsive to Ireland's impressionistic yet skillfully contrapuntal idiom, noticeably expanding his palette of nuances, colors, and articulations. Note, for example, how he focuses on On A Birthday Morning's emphatic melodic lilt and treats the thick chordal accompaniment as smooth, supportive padding. The Debussy-like passages throughout The Almond Trees and Amberly Wild Brooks (the second of the Two Pieces) are firmly etched and defined yet never at the expense of the long line, and that also applies to Lenehan's thoughtful animation of Equinox's swirling textures. As for the Piano Sonata, I waver between Lenehan and Eric Parkin. I admire Lenehan's ardent sweep and more generous pedaling in the outer movement's climaxes, yet gravitate toward Parkin's more luminous lyricism and superior legato touch in the slow movement. But that's splitting hairs. Besides, you can't disparage Naxos' price tag and first-class engineering, along with Lenehan's committed artistry. In all, a lovely release, warmly recommended.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Compared with his immense vocal composition output (most of which remains to be rediscovered), the quantity of instrumental music composed by Alessandro Scarlatti would almost seem hardly worth the mention. + Yet the selected compositions on this double-disc set are immensely important, in that they allow immediate assessment of Scarlatti’s style, then nearing creative decline, which appears to be suspended between the glorious contrapuntal tradition and beautiful melodies that look decidedly towards the future. + Enrico Casazza leads the Accademia della Magnifica Comunità.

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen has made a name for himself as one of the most prolific northern European composers in the past half century. He was known for his unique personality and was established as a major figure in Danish musical life. Gundmundsen-Holmgreen wrote of his compositional style: “I often write music that cannot make up its mind, and that is deliberate.” This is an accurate description, as much of his music is ambiguous and provocative. He repeats motifs and sound elements without mercy, and the violent clashes of expression within the pieces are memorable. This release presents the world premiere recording of Green Ground, a unique set of pieces which were written for and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet and Theatre of Voices with conductor Paul Hillier. The works use text from Henry VIII’s Songbook and take inspiration from Baroque canons.

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REVIEWS:

Some of the most unique and hilariously raucous new music we heard all year.

– Time Out Chicago

Trying to describe the opening quartet in words—or any of his music in words—is inevitably going to fail because the music takes so many unexpected turns and practically none of them fit a verbal narrative. This is a wonderfully imaginative recording, albeit one that’s pretty far off from center.

– The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

Under any circumstances, a new record by the Kronos Quartet or Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices is worth attending to. Put the two together and that’s even more true. And now, for a couple of pieces by Danish composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, base a half hour of it on “a famous old ground that (was) used by Johan Pachelbel in his well-known canon.”

In the words of notater Andrew Mellor, on top of that ground, the resultant “discourse becomes ever more complicated and outlandish and, in this case, fractious, flailing, scared and animalistic.” And, as outrageous as it is to put old Pachelbel on the run this way, it’s also exhilarating and crazily compelling. This is why it is ALWAYS necessary to keep up with what the Kronos Quartet and Hillier’s Theater of Voices do.

– Buffalo News

A few years ago Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra released a glorious disc containing Haydn symphonies Nos. 88, 101 and 104. Well, they’ve done it again, and their achievement is even more impressive in that this time they have chosen three relatively unknown, middle-period symphonies. None have nicknames, and few get played in modern concerts. I did see Leonard Slatkin–a champion of little-known Haydn–give a superb performance of No. 67, but other than that you’ll be lucky to hear any of these symphonies live.

This doesn’t mean that the music lacks anything in the way of interest. No. 67 is one of Haydn’s most original creations, with a slow movement that features a delicious coda played by the strings “col legno” (with the back of the bow), a trio of the minuet for two muted solo violins–one of them retuned–and a finale with a central “development” that starts as a string trio in an adagio tempo. It’s an amazing piece, and this performance relishes every striking detail.

Symphony No. 57 starts with a surprisingly unsettling slow introduction whose eerie grace notes return, purged of their unease, in the fleet main theme of the finale. No. 68 places the minuet second because the slow movement is probably the longest that Haydn ever wrote. It lasts more than twelve minutes in this performance (fourteen under Harnoncourt), but it’s so full of variety that the time passes without a thought. The finale is a “variation” rondo whose episodes constitute a veritable concerto for orchestra.

In short, each symphony has something special and characteristic to offer, and each gives McGegan and his ensemble an opportunity to display their individual and corporate musicianship and virtuosity. The strings play with precision and warmth. McGegan clearly knows when to sound “authentic,” and when to let his players sing. The solo winds and horns are excellent, ensemble balances invariably what they ought to be to let each work communicate vividly. The live sonics, a touch close and maybe very slightly edgy, actually suit the boldness and panache of the music. Haydn lovers rejoice.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Kemel Belevi’s music is steeped in the colors and atmosphere of the eastern Mediterranean, and his aim is ‘to create beautiful music’ based on melodies and rhythms that have been absorbed from the folk music of Greece, Turkey and the Middle East. Belevi’s own arrangements of works such as the evocative Suite Chypre and the richly varied Cyprian Rhapsodies have significantly extended the repertoire for two guitars. The Duo Tandem are drawn towards this composer’s skillful modernity and his celebration of traditional heritage reimagined within the sound world of the classical guitar.

Classical Music

The Fifth House Ensemble of Chicago chamber-music group aims for the stratosphere with Excelsior, its adventurous debut album on Cedille Records. The title refers to an experimental, extreme-altitude U.S. Air Force project of the Cold War era. Excelsior presents world-premiere recordings of works by Caleb Burhans, recipient of commissions from Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Library of Congress; prolific, award-winning composer Alex Shapiro; and Jesse Limbacher, winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. The disc also includes a work by Mason Bates, Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence. Commissioned by Fifth House Ensemble, Burhans’ 30-minute title track depicts Captain Joseph W. Kittinger’s 1960 record-setting free fall and parachute landing from a height of more than 19 miles above the earth. Excelsior transports listeners through a seamless, ethereal blend of acoustic and electric instruments and voice, propelled by suspenseful, repeating motifs.

• Gaudete Brass makes its Cedille Records debut with Chicago Moves, an album of new and diverse American works for brass quintet. All were composed in the last six years, and all but one were written expressly for the Chicago-based ensemble of young brass virtuosos and receive their world-premiere recordings on the new CD.

In the music of Bach, the Italian violist Simone Libralon has found a lifelong companion, who ‘unfailingly touches that emotional chord we need in the varied and contrasting moments of human experience - a safe haven reserved for intimate spirituality.’ His own approach to the suites which Bach wrote while Capellmeister at Weimar, however, is inflected not only by lived experience but also scholarship and a lively sense of performance style: ‘I’ve always thought of the sound of Bach in keyboard-related terms: fresh and light like a harpsichord, with the depth and solemnity of the organ, but sensed throughout as a continuum that conceals great compositional and conceptual complexity.’ His new recording of the Suites is accordingly personal and unique; he omits most of the marked repeats and brings a refreshingly flowing pulse to movements which are often interpreted as monuments of reflection such as the Sarabande of the Fifth Suite (here lasting less than a minute and a half). However, his decisions always arise from a sense of each movement’s inner character, and his account of the Sixth Suite’s Prelude is as spacious as Rostropovich’s. In doing so, he further demonstrates the imperishable quality of music which absorbs and reflects an almost infinite multiplicity of interpretations while conveying the different character of the artists who channel Bach’s inspiration.

TENET Vocal Artists, NYC’s prëeminent early music ensemble, releases a Christmas disc of music spanning medieval to modern day repertoire. TENET’s pristine, one-on-a-part singing lends itself well to both well-known and rarely heard songs and carols featured in this recording. New compositions and fresh arrangements make "Love Enfolds Thee Round" a stand-out among holiday recordings, Each member of the ensemble is well featured, creating an intimate sound-world to celebrate the holiday season. Preëminent New York City-based early music ensemble TENET Vocal Artists has won acclaim for its innovative programming, virtuosic singing and command of repertoire that spans the Middle Ages to the present day. Highlights of recent seasons include performances of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christ-mas Oratorio and motets, Handel’s Messiah, a three-year cycle of Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories, music by, for, and about 17th century Italian women, and programs exploring medieval repertoire. TENET's highly praised Green Mountain Project gave performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and other Vespers for a decade, culminating in a finale performance in Venice, Italy in January 2020. TENET Vocal Artists performs at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caramoor, Columbia University, Yale University, and numerous venues in and around New York. Further afield, TENET Vocal Artists has appeared at the Festival Casals de Puerto Rico, Berkshire Bach Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Costa Rica International Music Festival, Montreal Baroque Festival, and at venues throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe.

Classical Music

Fadhilee Itulya is from Kenya. He began his professional music career in 2008 when he was featured on the Nairobi Alliance Française compilation album “Spotlight on Kenyan Music”. He draws inspiration from a style of Kenyan guitar music called omutibo from the Luhya people of Western Kenya that is driving, syncopated, and gets people to dance like nothing else. His music has elements of acoustic folk, pop / dance and World music – making for a melange of good time music that is grounded in culture, community and care for the environment. Fadhilee counts Habib Koite (Mali), Ayub Ogada (Kenya) and Richard Bona (Cameroon) among his musical influences. His debut album Kwetu (meaning home in Swahili) features 14 vibrant tracks and includes Isukuti percussion and chants, showcasing the roots percussion style of Western Kenya. Besides his performing career, Fadhilee hosts a monthly concert series called 'Fadhilee's garage,’ and is the founder of Utam Festival (Kenya).

This album features the complete works for flute (to date) by Franco-Ukranian composer Dimitri Tchesnokov (b.1982), with the exception of his flute trio Tableaux feìeìriques. This programme is supplemented by some of Tchesnokov’s piano solos in a comparable style. The pieces presented here offer a contrast to the composer’s religious/mystical music (3 Chants sacreìs, Requiem, Ave Verum) and his historic/realistic works (Symphonie archai¨que, Cha^teau de Grandval, Symphonie Ukrainienne). The 11 Haïkus are interspersed throughout the recital, maintaining a feeling of spontaneity and lightness, while the pieces alternating with the haikus create contrasting images and moods. The influence of the Far East is present in several of the compositions, among them Rhapsodie Japonaise, based on traditional modes like Hirajo¯shi and Insen; Quelque part aÌ Tsushima (Somewhere in Tsushima), evoking the sound of the koto; and La Fete du Dragon, conjuring the fireworks and cheerful colors of China with the pentatonic mode. From the composer’s Slavic roots comes Une Histoire vraiment bizarre (A truly bizarre story), a trip to a magical forest from old Russian fairy tales, where Little Red Riding Hood meets strange characters like the forest ghost, Leshy.

The piano works of the largely self-taught Australian composer Raymond Hanson are unparalleled in 20th-century Australian music. Ranging over four decades they exemplify an iconoclastic spirit whose spontaneous writing is accompanied by a visionary wit and dynamism. This premier complete collection of Hanson’s piano oeuvre includes the Piano Sonata, Op. 12 – one of his greatest works, full of restless motoric rhythms and reflective contrasts – and many world première recordings, all performed by the award-winning pianist Tonya Lemoh. Australian/Sierra Leonean pianist Tonya Lemoh is known for her focus on unusual and exotic repertoire. She made her name on the international scene with her ground-breaking recording for Chandos of solo piano works by Austrian composer Joseph Marx. Praised by Gramophone magazine and All Music Guide, her concert appearances and recordings have since consistently garnered critical acclaim. Lemoh has won several international awards, including First Prizes in the ‘21st century Art Competition’ (International Association of Art and Education in the 21st Century, Helsingor 2003), and the Royal Academy of Music (Aarhus) Concerto Competition, and a Diplôme d’honneur in the International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition.

This album features folk songs from the Tajik and Russian ethnic minority groups living in the western and northwestern areas of Xinjiang, China. These folk songs have an earthy beauty that is theirs alone. Many of the Tajik songs featured here are accompanied by the Rewap – an ancient stringed instrument made from mulberry trunks. The sound is similar to that of an acoustic guitar, but the tone is brighter and more elastic. Many of the Russian songs feature the Bayan (a type of accordion) and the Balalaika.

Germany’s oldest Mozart festival celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021. The present jubilee boxed set presents previously unpublished treasures from the archive of the Bavarian Broadcasting. All live recordings from the Baroque Imperial Hall at Würzburg Residence are digital remasters.

Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No. 13, Op. 113 in 1962. The climax of his ‘Russian period’ and, in its scoring for bass soloist, male chorus and orchestra, among the most Mussorgskian of his works, it attracted controversy through its settings of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (the ‘Russian Bob Dylan’ of his day)—not least the first movement, where the poet underlines the plight of Jews in Soviet society. The other movements are no less pertinent in their observations on the relationship between society and the individual. This is the final release in Vasily Petrenko’s internationally acclaimed symphonic cycle.

‘Cristiano Porqueddu is a master guitarist,’ says the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, ‘and one of the foremost representatives of the new generation of soloists. He brings sound to life, and then turns it into art.’ Like many of the other composers in this remarkable collection, he has composed more than one piece for Porqueddu and now pays tribute with a piece which draws inspiration from the guitarist’s homeland of Sardinia. Diálogo del Olivo y el Nuraga (‘Dialogue of the Olive Trees and the Nuraghe’) imagines a wordless exchange between two ancient features of the Sardinian landscape, the trees which have provided food and fuel and money for its people for centuries, and the Stone-Age towers which dot the island. Each of the works here tells a vivid story: Porqueddu’s own Sonata III is subtitled ‘The Rite of Fire’ after an ancient Sardinian legend which imagines Saint Anthony and his piglet descending to Hell in order to procure some firelight. Angelo Gilardino draws on his personal memories of sights and sounds experienced when visiting the island in his Sardegna Suite (including another piece evoking the nuraghe). Francesco Morittu is a native-born Sardinian guitarist-composer, whereas Mark Delpriora is an American guitarist who heads the guitar faculty at the Manhattan School of Music; both have contributed intensely atmospheric pieces, which capture the island’s wildness as well as its sense of isolation. Born in 1988 in the Italian province of Velletria, Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart is the youngest composer featured in the collection with a suite inspired by three works of the Sardinian painter Giuseppe Biasi, who also contributes the artwork for the collection’s cover.