REVIEWS: BBC Music (5/98, pp.62-63) - Performance: 4 (out of 5), Sound: 3 (out of 5) - Louis Lorite is...satisfying in both the Preludes and the 'Grande Polonaise', which is judicious and stylish, and he gives the 'Polonaise-Fantaisie' a sense of gravitas..."
Clarity and truth were the words I used to describe the original Chandos sound, and here it strikes me as even more vivid. I particularly enjoyed the wide range of dynamics and colour emanating from the keyboard without a trace of clanginess in the treble or boxiness in the bass. The playing of this huband-and-wife duo cannot be overpraised throughout the whole programme, which is all to the good since according to the current catalogues none of the three works is now otherwise generally available in the UK. The journey starts darkly: Shostakovich's late sonata plainly did not come from a happy mind. But Schnittke's piquant Shostakovich-influenced Violin Sonata No. 1 progressively lightens the gloom, before his whooly winning retreat into the musical past. Pastiche this last work may be, but the product of a very knowing craftsman all the same.
Barber: 3 Essays for Orchestra, Vanessa Intermezzo, Music for a Scene from Shelley, Etc. / Jarvi, Detroit SO
Chandos
CD
$21.99Apr 01, 2001
Recorded in: Orchestra Hall, Detroit 8 & 9 November 1991 (Three Essays for Orchestra), 24 & 25 April 1993 (Excerpts from Vanessa and Music for a Scene from Shelley, 16 January 1994 (Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance) Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Executive) Charles Greenwell (Three Essays for Orchestra) Ralph Couzens (Excerpts from Vanessa; Music for a Scene from Shelley and Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance) Charles Greenwell (as for Ralph Couzens) Leslie B. Dunner (Associate) Sound Engineer(s) Dan Dene Robert Shafer
Kodaly: Symphony In C, Etc / Yan Pascal Tortelier, Bbc
Chandos
CD
$21.99Apr 01, 2000
Kodály's orchestral output was relatively limited. Best known for his educational material, he wrote only nine works for orchestra. On hearing Kodály's orchestral music, one cannot help but notice similarities to Bartók in the use of Hungarian folk melodies, rhythms and dance forms, as well as his application of quartal harmonies, that is, harmony using the interval of the perfect fourth as its basic unit, instead of the third or fifth. Though overshadowed by Bartók as a serious composer, Kodály's music is neither derivative nor insignificant. Bartók was more of a modernist with respect to form, using mathematical and architectural strategies to generate new forms. Kodály strove to frame Hungarian music with classical and baroque forms, as in his Concerto for Orchestra. This is a good overview of Kodály's orchestral music. Yan Pascal Tortelier metes out a steady tempo without being too rigid to accommodate the fluid exoticism of the 'Dances of Marosszek.' The BBC Philharmonic is a tight rhythmic ensemble, essential to a good performance of the dance rhythms found in Kodály, Bartók, or Stravinsky. This is particularly evident in the woodwinds' nimble performance at the end of the Allegro con brio from 'Marosszek.'
Saint-Saens: La Princesse Jaune, Suite Algerienne / Travis
Chandos
CD
$21.99Aug 01, 2000
Recorded in: Auditorium of Swiss Radio, Lugano, Switzerland 13 January 1996 (La Princesse jaune, live recording); 1 June 1999 (Suite algérienne) Producer(s) Gian Andrea Lodovici Carlo Piccardi Sound Engineer(s) Lucienne Rosset (La Princesse jaune) Jochen Gottschall (Suite algérienne)
A perceptively played and admirably recorded performance of two substantial piano works by William Alwyn.
This is a perceptively played and admirably recorded performance of two substantial piano works by William Alwyn, who died last September at the age of 79. The 11 Fantasy-Waltzes are notable for their variety within an integrated conception, and this is also true of the 12 Preludes, both works encompassing a wide range of modern piano-writing techniques. John Ogdon is naturally a match for the technical demands of the music and, since he tells us in the sleeve-note that he recorded the 58-minute programme in the presence of the composer and his wife, we may take it that a high degree of authenticity to the composer's intentions has been achieved. With excellent sound balance and documentation, this is a disc to treasure.
-- Gramophone [11/1985, reviewing the original LP release]
Bax: Concertante For Piano, Etc / Fingerhut, Rigby, Handley
Chandos
CD
$21.99Feb 01, 1999
Arnold Bax was a 20th-century English composer perhaps best remembered for his early tone poems, many of which are based on Celtic legends and fairy tales. His style is unabashedly late-romantic and can be compared to Rachmaninov or Delius. Like both of those men, Bax was fortunate enough to have private income, which allowed him to spend his early adulthood living on the western coast of Ireland, where he steeped himself in the native folklore, learned Gaelic and made a name for himself as a poet. Bax's most creative period was around the time of World War One, in which he did not serve because of a heart condition. 'The Bard of the Dimbovitza,' a song cycle based on a then-popular collection of specious Romanian folk song lyrics, was composed in 1914 but later revised, while the 'In Memorium' of 1916 is one of a number of elegiac pieces Bax wrote for victims of the war. In 1918 Bax deserted his wife and children to live with the pianist Harriet Cohen and thirty years later he wrote the 'Concertante for Piano (Left Hand) and Orchestra' for her. Conductor Vernon Handley, a long-time champion of Bax's music, delivers committed performances lushly recorded by Chandos.
Few operas benefit as much as does Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro from being sung in the language of the audience. Even in this age of super-titles, there is no substitute for the direct communication from singers to audience in this brilliantly conceived social comedy. Thus, this new recording may well be one of the most important releases in Chandos’s admirable “Opera in English” project...this is a very well paced, lovingly shaped performance that binds into a persuasive whole. Chandos’s recording is, as is usually the case, on the reverberant side, but not unpleasantly so. An excellent essay accompanies the set, along with a complete English printed text. Henry Fogel, FANFARE
Armand-Louis Couperin was the nephew of François Couperin, and part of a family which was the dominant musical dynasty in France for around two hundred and fifty years. The music of the younger Couperin is difficult to categorize, since he was writing at a time between the decorative aesthetic of the high baroque and the beginning of the true classical style. Sophie Yates relishes the music of this period, for to her, contained in the rococo period are the elements of the baroque, classical and even romantic styles in embryo, making, she says, 'a rich and unpredictable mixture of delights.'
This CD combines Shostakovich's most popular symphony with other orchestral hits, including the thrilling 'Festive Overture' and the witty arrangement of Vincent Youman's 'Tea for Two'. The conductor and the soloist in the Piano Concerto No.2 are the composer's son and grandson, giving the performance great authority and representing a unique perspective on the music. Neeme Järvi's Shostakovich CDs with the Scottish National Orchestra are some of the most famous recordings of the digital era. 'Most probably the finest Shostakovich disc ever issued and without doubt my choice.' - Fanfare 'Neeme Järvi's understanding of the bleak world inhabited by Shostakovich's symphonies continues to impress. Chandos' sound is superb as always.' - American Record Guide
'La Sophie' - Popular Harpsichord Music / Sophie Yates
Chandos
CD
$21.99Aug 01, 1996
Recorded in: St Bartholemew's Church, Orford, Suffolk 11-13 December 1995 Producer(s) Gary Cole Sound Engineer(s) Gary Cole Richard Smoker (Assistant)
REVIEW
Yates shows lots of vivacity as well as the crisp neatness we have come to expect of her. The finale of the Italian Concerto, for example, simply bubbles with joyousness, as does the exuberant bravura A major Sonata by Scarlatti. She is admirably precise in the Rameau gavotte and variations, direct and simple in Le coucou, brings real brio to the Courante of the Handel suite (she treats its Allemande rather freely); her performance of the unusually shaped C major Sonata by Scarlatti – a quiet pastoral followed by rural bagpiping and then noisy revelry – is excellent. But to me one of the highlights of her recital is Duphly’s superb melancholy rondeau: I have heard it played with greater gravitas, but it is entirely convincing in her hands; and the much-employed low register of her Goujon-type harpsichord sounds very fine.
Coates: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 / Wilson, BBC Philharmonic
Chandos
CD
$21.99Oct 04, 2019
John Wilson’s first album in a series of recordings of the orchestral works of Eric Coates, using his own definitive editions of the scores. includes the suites The Jester at the Wedding and London, and the miniature overture The Merrymakers. Infectiously idiomatic playing from the BBC Philharmonic! Eric Coates was born on August 27th, 1886, at Hucknall. Coates showed an interest in music at an early age, studying first the violin and then the viola with George Ellenberger, a pupil of Joachim, and harmony with Dr Ralph Horner in Nottingham. At the age of twenty he arrived in London determined to make a career in music despite some family misgivings. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied viola with Lionel Tertis and composition with Frederick Corder. Eventually, in 1919, when neuritis in his left hand made playing the viola more and more difficult, Eric Coates turned exclusively to composition. Eric Coates' work is in the tradition of polished melodic light music started by Sir Arthur Sullivan and continued by Edward German.
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REVIEWS:
Wilson is relishing every second of the music. The BBC Phil is in great nick, and Stephen Rinker’s engineering brings sound of clarity and fidelity, every detail, dynamic, and subtlety captured perfectly.
– ClassicalSource.com
Volume 1 implies we are to get more like this and they can’t come soon enough. Eric Coates is surprisingly undervalued, even with the resurgence of interest in light music. There are some very familiar pieces here – The Merrymakers, By a Sleepy Lagoon, London Suite – alongside the ballet The Jester at the Wedding and two symphonic rhapsodies. All engaging and here splendidly played by the BBC Phil under one of the real champions of light music, John Wilson.
British Film Classics' represents some of the greatest film music ever written in some of the finest recorded performances. The repertoire juxtaposes some much-loved film scores with unexpected and original items, to form a highly satisfying and enjoyable collection. This 2CD set is available for the price of one full-price disc, in an attractive slimline double package. The moods range from the sumptuously romantic, such as the music of 'Lady Caroline Lamb', to the swashbuckling brilliance of Walton's Shakespearean scores and the high-adrenaline excitement of Ron Goodwin's '633 Squadron'. Many of the great classic scores of the 1940s are included and are, in some cases, taken from the only modern versions available.
