DORNEL Suites, op. 1: No. 1 in a; No. 2 in A; No. 3 in 3; No. 4 in D; No. 5 in G; No. 6 in e • Musica Barocca (period instruments) • NAXOS 8.570826 (69:06)


We know very little about the life of Louis-Antoine Dornel, who lived from 1680 until approximately 1756 or 1757 (Naxos’s tray liner gives an incorrect date of 1765 but gets it right in the insert notes). He had appointments as organist at Ste Madeleine-en-la-Cité in Paris and the abbey of Ste Geneviève, as well as music master of the Académie Française, where he was required to write an annual motet for the feast of St Louis. His motets received praise in the Mercure de France , but none of them have survived.


The six works recorded here were published as Dornel’s op. 1, entitled Livre de symphonies contenant six suittes en trio pour les flutes, violins, hautbois, & c. avec Sonate en Quatuor . Each starts with either a prelude or a two-movement overture followed by four, five, or six dance movements. Dornel’s relative obscurity compared with his more-recorded late Baroque contemporaries apparently has nothing to do with his ability as a composer. The music here is inventive and enjoyable. However, I did find it better to listen to these works in a couple of sessions rather than straight through.


Part of the reason for this “ear fatigue” can, I think, be attributed to the interpretation. Musica Barocca’s playing is not at fault; the performances are excellent. But I question the decision to entrust the two solo lines to voice flute, a type of alto recorder. Although the score mentions flutes, violins, or oboes, there is, of course, no reason why interpreters cannot choose other solo instruments. But I found the voice flute to be a bit overwhelming after listening to a couple of these works, and would have welcomed some variety. Also, judging from scores I downloaded from the Internet, it appears that some of these works had to be transposed to be played by the voice flutes; the insert notes make no mention of this fact.


The recording does not include the Sonate en quatuor that was published as part of op. 1; there was not enough room on the disc for it. However, the Sonate can be found on a disc entitled “The Sultan and the Phoenix” on Signum, which includes works by seven other French Baroque composers. This is the first complete recording of the six suittes en trio ; I find only one of the suites available elsewhere on a Glossa recording. The music is worth getting to know, and the recording will provide enjoyment. But there is room for another recording using different solo instruments and with all works recorded in their original keys.


FANFARE: Ron Salemi

ECARTELE is an imaginary soundtrack for a feature film dating from the 1970s about the meeting between two of the major thinkers of the 20th century – the Nobel Prize winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the psychoanalyst and creator of the theory of archetypes, Carl Gustav Jung. The album relates in musical terms the story of the unusual friendship between the two scientists and explores the mysterious grey area between physics and the psychology of the unconscious. The title of the album (from the French ‘écarteler’) refers both to the medieval tradition of quartering execution victims and to the Jungian concept of ‘quaternio’ – the intersection of two pairs of concepts that are polar opposites. Thus, in the exchange between Jung and Pauli, two other people play an important role: one is the young English doctor Erna Rosenbaum, who belonged to C.G. Jung’s circle in the late 1920s, and the other is the mathematician, astronomer and theologian Johannes Kepler, whose work was a powerful source of inspiration for Pauli. The album tracks are short, episodic, minimalistic and narrative – a musical screenplay and soundtrack for a film that was never made... In order to achieve a tonal range that is both modern and cinematographic, the composer Damian Marhulets uses electronic sounds as well as working with the four string players of the famous Szymanowski Quartet and Marina Baranova on prepared piano.

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The Magma Duo took their name from one of their favorite pieces: In de magmakamer (In the magma chamber( by Reza Namavar, that was written especially for them. Although equally at home with music by Beethoven and Frank, their first album features only 20th and 21st century music, ranging from the popular Poulenc Sonata recording to recording premieres of Aleksey Igudesman’s irresistible 2nd Violin Sonata and the Namavar piece. The Magma Duo’s fiery musical temperament makes for a spellbinding album, that will engage listeners regardless of their musical tastes. In 2014, the Magma Duo won the first prize in the senior category of the “A Feast of Duos!” international competition for violin-piano duos in Sion, Switzerland. According to judges, the Magma Duo convinces through its ‘energetic playing which evokes reactions.’

Nashville-based Cristina Spinei (b. 1984) is a Latin Grammy nominated composer, who has consistently remained in high demand by choreographers, musicians, and film directors. Spinei is frequently commissioned by ensembles such as the Bohemian Trio, Denison University Orchestra, Gallim Dance, London Central School, the Metropolis Ensemble, New York Chamber Music Festival, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet, to name a few. The works on this release were all composed for dance, and include four string quartets, a duet for cello and percussion, and a piece for string orchestra. All of the pieces pulse with rhythmic energy and convey the American minimalist tradition. On the piece “Bootleg Sugar Lips,” which is included in this album, one reviewer writes: “[Bootleg Sugar Lips] was solidly minimalist in its aesthetic with a keen sense of large-scale form… Spinei was effective in creating enticing patterns and then drawing attention to a particular part, thereby creating a sense of large-scale melody and individual voices within a full texture…” (David Pearson of I Care if You Listen)

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Listen to the Naxos Podcast to learn more about this release

Patrick Hawes has emerged in recent years as one of England's most popular and inspirational choral composers. "The nine pieces that form Revelation are the result of my deep love of the Book of Revalation and its powerful imagery. Where else do you get thunder, lightning and demons as well as a gentle lamb? Another of my favorite New Testament texts is the Beatitudes from St. Matthew's Gospel - these are quite simply, some of Christ's most comforting and beautiful words." Quanta Qualia had such a profound impact on the audience at the 2015 Elora Festival that the choir insisted on its inclusion in this recording.

Over a period of some twenty years, from the late 1720s, Handel composed a series of virtuoso arias using only the words ''Allelujah'' and ''Amen'' as his texts. They were probably for use in private worship, and take their place in the tradition of ''Divine Song'' established by Purcell and other compoesrs. Here they receive their first recordings, set in a context of contemporary sacred song and instrumental music, with the accompaniment provided by the beguiling soun dof two theorbos and chamber organ. They are heard here in the extraordinarily dramatic timbres of a male-soprano voice - perhaps as close as modern listeners can come to the vocal acrobatics of the castrati who so amazed their own audiences. Robert Crowe has worked for over 25 years as a male soprano, was a 1995 National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition and has sung over 70 leading roles in operas and dramatic oratorios in the United States and across Europe.

KROPFGANS: Lute Concerto / Lute Sonatas / Divertimentos

Vol.2 in the Toccata Classics cycle of the complete string quartets of Matthews (b. 1943). The American critic Reilly described the music on Volume One as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartok, Britten, and Tippett’.

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These orchestral songs by the English composer Michael Csanyi-Wills - best known for his film music - all deal with the subject of loss. In Three Sogns: Budapest, 1944 Csanyi-Wills uses documentation from his own family history to shadow the fat of Hungary's Jews under the Nazis. One of them, "The Last Letter", sets a text written by his great-grandmother before she disappeared. Mortality is an omnipresent theme in A.E. Houseman's Shropshire Lad poems: Csanyi-Wills sets six songs, three for baritone and three for tenor. Elegy for Our Time sets an anguished lament by Jessica d'Este, sparked by death of her granddaughter in a car crash. Csanyi-Wills responds to the stimulus of these dark texts with music that is hauntingly lyrical and elegiac.

This recording of Mozart’s Mass in C minor features Harry Christophers in his role as Artistic Director and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society - America’s oldest continuously performing orchestra and chorus. Mozart’s Mass in C minor needs little introduction - one of the best-known and most widely performed of the composer’s mass settings, it is generally considered to be one of his greatest works and, as such, is often referred to as the ‘Great Mass’. It is a remarkable union of musical vision and religious text and draws on Mozart’s skill for drama that made his operatic works such a phenomenal success.

IDIS presents this new release of rare recordings from the 1950s that include works of Debussy and Ravel.

Alexandre Tansman’s fundamental style is Stravinskyan Neo-Classicism animated by the dance-rhythms of his native Poland and energized by a masterly command of counterpoint. The substantial body of music he produced for his own instrument, the piano, has never been systematically examined in recordings. This first installment presents works he wrote soon after his 1919 arrival in Paris, the city that was to remain his home – except for the years of WW II, spent in American exile. Tansman’s music is a special area of academic study and musical exploration for the American pianist Danny Zelibor.

REVIEW:

It is always surprising to be treated to first recordings written as far back as the 1920s and there are three on this disc. It was fascinating to hear them and to read the helpful notes. These highlight what to listen out for among which was an indication that there are echoes of Scriabin among others in Tansman’s experimental 7 Préludes and so there are. In fact that feeling often occurs when Tansman is at his most dreamy creating a state in which fantasy plays a strong role.

The works on this disc seem all the more impressive when one is reminded that they were written when the composer was in his twenties and had another fifty plus years of composition ahead of him. He never wasted any of those years, producing a huge volume of works. He was definitely one of those composers who ‘hit the ground running’ for these early works do not betray any struggle to find his style. His ensuing compositional life was more one of development and refinement.

I’ve always been impressed by Tansman’s works and this disc proves no exception. Danny Zelibor is obviously an enthusiast and can write authoritatively about the music he plays. He gives us compelling performances that will surely win over new fans for this thoroughly decent and principled human being and superlative composer. Toccata continues to shed new light on undeservedly obscure composers and deserve support and thanks from all music-lovers.

-- MusicWeb International

The two-act comic opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) by Gaetano Donizetti was written hurriedly in only six weeks. It has endured massive success in its life, and remains one of Donizetti’s most performed works. The recording featured here is from 1952, and features the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della RAI, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Soloists featured here include Alda Noni, Cesare Valletti, Sesto Bruscantini, Afro Poli, and Bruna Rizzoli.

Albert and Emil Mangelsdorff are two brothers who had an important impact on the development of German jazz. Emil studied clarinet at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, but he is more widely known for his saxophone playing. After he was a member of the illegal ensemble Hot Club, (jazz was banned in Germany at the time) he was imprisoned by the Gestapo and forced into the Hitler Army. After the war he performed in the Frankfurt All Stars and the Jazz-Ensemble des Hessischen Rundfunks before forming his own quartet in the 1960s. Albert is most known for his technique of playing multiphonics. A trombone player, he led a hard bop quintet in the late 50s, and performed frequently with his brother. This release is a compilation of concerts and studio sessions, recorded in the height of the brothers’ career, between 1956 and 1963.

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