Richard Hickox?s pioneering account of the 1913 version of A London Symphony (CHAN 9902) was Gramophone?s ?Record of the Year? and received many other awards including the Classical Brits ?Orchestral Disc of the Year?, a Rosette in the latest Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and a Grammy nomination. This release features the premiere recording of the reconstructed Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2. Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 16-18 January 2002 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Michael Common (Assistant)
Dyson: Quo Vadis / Hickox, Barker, Langridge, Rigby, Et Al
Chandos
CD
$43.99Apr 01, 2003
This is the world premiere recording of the complete version of 'Quo Vadis', Dyson's sumptuous choral epic of 1938. Dyson fervently believed in the English choral movement's need for practical, tuneful and lively music. 'Quo Vadis', with its colourful orchestration and fine melodies, demonstrates the effectiveness of this aesthetic approach. The soloists on this disc represent some of the finest singers around today. Recorded in: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea 11-14 December 2002 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Matthew Walker (Assistant)
Regimental Marches Of The British Army Vol 1 / Sharpe
Chandos
CD
$6.99Nov 01, 1991
Complete Tracks:
1 The Life Guards 1:12 2 (a) Grand March from Aida, (b)The Royals 1:56 3 (a) Radetsky March, (b) Rusty Buckles 1:29 4 The 3rd. DG's 2:18 5 Light Cavalry 1:17 6 God Bless the Prince of Wales 0:54 7 Royal Sussex 0:53 8 The White Lancers 1:00 9 My Boy Willie 1:11 10 Duchess of Kent 1:13 11 Begone Dull Care 1:11 12 (a) The British Grenadiers, (b) Hielan Laddie, (c) St Patrick's Day, (d) The Rising Of The Lark, (e) Milanollo 3:34 13 Dumbarton's Drums 0:37 14 Blue Bonnet's Over the Border 0:47 15 The Thin red Line 2:38 16 The Soldiers of the Queen 1:12 17 (a) Rule Britannia, (b) Speed the Plough 1:16 18 (a) John Peel, (b) Corn Riggs 1:18 19 (a) Ca Ira, (b) The Yorkshire Lass 1:29 20 Bonnie English Rose 0:55 21 (a) Widecombe Fair, (b) We've Lived and Loved Together, (c) The Maid of Glenconnel 1:17 22 The Kinnegad Slashers 0:29 23 Farmers Boy 0:40 24 Young May Moon 0:37 25 Light Infantry 1:45 26 (a) Huntsman's Chorus, (b) Italian Song 1:12 27 Ride of the Valkyries 1:02 28 Fare Ye Well Inniskilling 2:11 29 Light of Foot 1:57 30 (a) The Bold King's Hussars, (b) Haste to the Wedding 1:10 31 Scarlet and Green 1:31 32 (a) Scotland for Ever, (b) Cameron Men 0:59 33 New Fusilier 1:45 34 (a) The Attack, (b) The Rose 1:11 35 The Wellesley 0:42 36 The Hampshire 1:27 37 (a) Come Lasses and Lads, (b) The Days We Went A Gipsying 1:03 38 Men of Harlech 0:55 39 Lutzow's Wild Hunt 0:48 40 Marche Des Parachutistes Belges 3:03 41 Trumpet Voluntary 2:34
Ireland, Bridge: Suites, Etc / Garforth, English Co
Chandos
CD
$21.99Feb 27, 2008
All these works are small in scale and modest in their emotional range, but they make a highly enjoyable collection. John Ireland's wistful, slightly melancholy romanticism is well brought out by David Garforth, and the orchestra respond with warm, sensitive playing. Though the ECO are not a large ensemble they produce considerable depth of tone and their rich string sound has been well captured by the engineers.
Norman del Mar's performance of the Bridge Suite, also on Chandos, is most sympathetic and there is little to choose between his version and that of Garforth. But Del Mar's original 1978 recording is a little pale in comparison with the new issue, and though the strings of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta play well they sound fewer in number and less tonally opulent than the ECO players.
Respighi: Church Windows; Brazilian Impressions; Belkis Queen of Sheba, Metamorphoseon; Roman Trilogy
Chandos
CD
$21.99May 28, 2013
The ‘Roman Trilogy’ is among Respighi’s best-known and best-loved works. Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome are comprised of four distinct sections, each again depicting a particular fountain, or pine grove, in Rome, at a particular time of day. The final chapter in the trilogy, Roman Festivals, is inspired by, as the title suggests, four Rome-based festivals.
Respighi based his Church Windows on Three Piano Preludes on Gregorian Melodies. The preludes were published in 1922, and orchestrated three years later, Respighi adding one further movement, making it a four-piece symphonic suite. Each of the individual movements was given an appropriate sub-heading, illustrating a biblical or religious scene that might have appeared in actual stained-glass windows. The first movement, for instance, is slow and stately, its constant forward moving accompaniment suggesting ‘the passing of a chariot beneath a brilliant and starry sky’, hence the name ‘The Flight into Egypt’.
Brazilian Impressions took its inspiration from the composer’s colourful and vibrant memories of a trip to South America. The opening movement is a deeply atmospheric nocturne, depicting dance rhythms and folksongs heard in the distance on a warm, tropical Brazilian evening. A less pleasant memory perhaps is recalled in the second movement, namely a visit to the Butantan Reptile Institute, the sliding movements and angry whirring of the rattle-snakes perfectly depicted in the music.
The ballet score for Belkis, Queen of Sheba evokes the wondrous journey undertaken in the year 1000 B.C. by Belkis, the Queen of Sheba, in response to an imperial message from Solomon, the King of Israel. The full eighty-minute ballet required an enormous orchestra including such unconventional instruments as sitars and wind machines, a chorus and vocal soloists, and a narrator to relate the story in verse. Two years after completing the ballet score, Respighi extracted a purely orchestral suite, which is recorded here.
Metamorphoseon, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930, consists of twelve variations, or ‘modes’. The day after the work’s premiere performance, The Boston Traveller wrote: ‘...a colossal achievement... His is a rare genius for melody, an absolute technical command and above all, brilliant orchestration.’
Review:
Sumptuous, meaty performances, featuring Tortelier's vigorous Roman trilogy. The Philharmonia's rich sonorities enjoy a spacious Chandos recording.
Copland: Old American Songs I & Ii, Etc / Willard White
Chandos
CD
$21.99Jun 01, 1991
Includes traditional folksong(s) from barbados. Soloists: Willard White, Graeme McNaught. Includes traditional folksong(s) from jamaica. Soloists: Willard White, Graeme McNaught. Includes traditional spiritual(s). Soloists: Willard White, Graeme McNaught.
Eccles: The Judgment Of Paris, Mad Songs / Curnyn, Crowe, Hulett, Early Opera Company
Chandos
CD
$21.99Apr 28, 2009
ECCLES The Judgment of Paris & • Christian Curnyn (hpd,1–3 cond); Roderick Williams (Mercury); Benjamin Hulett (Paris); Susan Bickley (Juno, mez3); Claire Booth (Pallas Athena, sop2); Lucy Crowe (Venus, sop1); Richard Sweeney (gtr, archlute);1–3 Emilia Benjamin (b vl);1–3 early op company • CHANDOS 759 (62:13 Text and Translation)
& Restless in Thought;1 Love’s but the frailty of the Mind;2 I Burn, I burn3
The Judgment of Paris, the tale of the famed competition between three Olympian goddesses that led to the Trojan War, was itself the subject of a competition. In 1700, a group of English nobility offered up a libretto by the famous William Congreve for competitive setting. Four composers were selected from those who replied to this ad in the London Gazette:
Several Persons of Quality having, for the Encouragement of MUSICK Advanced 200 Guineas, to be distributed in 4 Prizes, the First of 100, the Second of 50, the Third of 30 and the Fourth of 20 Guineas, to such Masters as shall be adjudged to compose the best; this is therefore to give Notice, that those who intend to put in for the Prizes, are to repair to Jacob Tonson at Grays-Inn-Gate before Easter-Day next, where they may be further Informed.
All four completed works were presented on stage individually, in events that, according to Congreve, a social snob of the first water, were “crammed with beauties and beaux, not one scrub being admitted.” This was followed by all four Judgments being offered as a single evening’s entertainment, with subscribers choosing the order of winners. John Weldon, organist of New College, Oxford and a former pupil of Purcell’s, scored something of an upset victory, having little previous theatrical experience. Eccles, the favorite, musical director for the Lincoln’s Inn Fields company and one of the king’s 24 musicians-in-ordinary, came in second, ahead of Daniel Purcell, the late composer’s younger brother. Placing last was Gottfried Finger, a Moravian composer and viol-player who a few professional musicians felt made the best showing of all. According to Roger North, James II’s attorney general and an inveterate concertgoer, Finger complained, perhaps unreasonably, that he had hoped to be “judged by men, and not by boys.” Sadly, his Judgment of Paris is lost, though all three of the others have survived; they were presented in 1989 at Proms concerts, where Eccles was given the palm. I can’t speak to the versions of Weldon or Daniel Purcell, though a bundled recording of all three works would have made for some fine comparisons. In any case, the opera of Eccles is by no means easily dismissed. Choral pieces are handled with distinction. Melodies are usually unadorned, and not infrequently possess a popular cast. The work is technically assured, rhythmically varied, and theatrically alive.
The judgment section of the piece, following the exposition, supplies a good illustration of the composer’s gifts. In it, Eccles differentiates among the three goddesses who seek the golden apple from Paris, providing each with a distinctive ritornello and brief, introductory song. Juno receives a majestic march; Pallas Athena, a graceful chaconne, whose accented second beat seems to sweep all before it; Venus, a minor-key sarabande that utilizes two recorders and a flute in the melodic line to emphasize what the period perceived as femininity. (At least she comes off better than in Tannhäuser.) Congreve shrewdly leaves out all efforts at bribery up to this point, however, leading to confusion in the mind of Paris, and a second, intensified round of presentations by the deific trio. In the fey “Let Ambition fire thy Mind,” Juno delivers a darkly martial, minor-key piece. She promises to Paris the delights of ruling an empire without toil or care. (The concluding verse, given to the divided chorus, with the violins running semiquaver figures, is especially effective.) The theme itself proved catchy enough upon publication to survive as a popular solo fiddle tune of the day. Boswell wrote of his almost obsessive affection for it. Ironically, a friend of mine who was part-timing as a Celtic fiddler once asked me if I knew why an old piece he played was given the odd name of “Let Ambition fire thy Mind.” After that, “Hark, hark! the glorious Voice of War” seems a small step down in energy and character, though it grants Pallas the first appearance of trumpets in the opera, alla battaglia. Venus restores an edge to the competition with “Nature fram’d thee sure for Loving,” a haunting minor key tune whose sensuous intimacy proves Handel wasn’t the only one capable of musically ravishing an English Baroque audience.
The recording concludes with three “mad songs.” These were very popular on London stages at the time, involving a female singer whose unrequited or suddenly terminated love leads to insanity. This chaotic madness is then revealed in a series of rhetorically balanced and logically contoured poems. I confess to little love for the genre, as you might guess from my remarks, but these three of Eccles are at least pleasant, if unmemorable. I find the best of the lot to be “I burn, I burn, my Brain consumes to Ashes,” and that’s at least in part due to its performer, Susan Bickley. If this recording were to offer its own golden apple to one of its three female soloists for articulation, tone, and dramatic interpretation, she would win, hands down. Bickley is one of those mezzos who shade up to a soprano, and her upper range is bright and ringingly glorious in its sound. Claire Booth’s slightly dull tone is not always well supported, and though she enunciates well, I find her far too restrained in lines that brim over with ardor for and joy in war. Lucy Crowe’s sweet tone and refined phrasing makes her an excellent choice for Venus, though, and if she’s rushed a bit in the opera, there’s more expressiveness in her mad song, “Restless in Thought disturb’d in Mind.”
The rest of the cast is top notch. Benjamin Hulett displays an attractive lyric tenor voice, notable for its sensitive deployment of color in “O Ravishing Delight.” Baritone Roderick Williams does a particularly fine job with the phrasing of his only song, “Fear not, Mortal, none shall harm thee.” This is my first exposure to the early opera company, an ensemble of 22 performers; effectively 18, if you disregard the brief appearance of the four trumpets. They deploy two bass violins and a bass viol instead of cellos and double basses on this release, along with a lowered A pitch of 392 Hz. The resulting sound is mellow, if not dark, vitiated by a few rushed tempo choices, notably Venus’s second song. Balance between singers and orchestra is good, with excellent choices for continuo.
It’s great to have this major work by Eccles easily available on disc. Perhaps we can now get the other two extant versions of the opera, as well—or possibly his opera Semele, set to another text by Congreve. Regardless, there’s much to enjoy, here.
Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 6 / Bavouzet
Chandos
CD
$21.99May 19, 2017
"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."
--The New York Timeson Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022
The highly acclaimed series of Haydn’s complete piano sonatas with multi-award winning pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has now reached Volume 6, its halfway point. This set opens with the most imposing of Haydn’s early sonatas, No. 11, and follows it with two lesser-known ones, both from the late 1770s, that were published without the composer’s approval: Nos. 34 and 35. Each of Nos. 36 and 43, the last two featured here, opens a new group of six sonatas, and a new world in Haydn’s compositional style. Future volumes will continue to explore the huge variety of style and expression found in Haydn’s sonatas.
As usual the pianist conveys his personal views in the booklet notes, praising ‘the generally very short phrases typical of Haydn, the abundant touches of humor, the surprises, the embellishments,’ and adding: “The five sonatas in this program are not among the most well known. But what treasures they conceal!...I am delighted to dedicate this disc to Professor Erno Nemecz with whom I have shared a love for Haydn’s music for thirty-five years.”
REVIEW
Six volumes into Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s tour through the complete Haydn Piano Sonatas, listeners will have a pretty good idea of what to expect...a witty, urbane, slightly French-accented take on repertoire that has long cried out for a contemporary champion. This is Haydn for, and of, a new generation.
Wisely ignoring chronology, each volume is a musical lucky dip, throwing together a diverse grouping of works. Volume Six is built around the spacious Sonata in B Flat Major, No. 11. The more sedate E-flat Major Sonata No. 43 feels, by contrast, rather anonymous, despite Bavouzet’s frisky ornaments. This gives way with calculated shock to the expansive grace of the central Minuet and Trio. Bavouzet makes his slow movements sing in silky tone and legatos, but it’s the livelier, comic movements where he really comes into his own. I defy anyone to listen to the irrepressible finalRondofrom the Sonata in A Flat Major No. 35, or the slinky, near-jazz of the C Major Sonata’s first movementAllegroand not find themselves grinning with delight at such irreverent, instinctive musicianship.
This release by the award-winning Center City Brass Quintet showcases the depth and variety of music by the German-born composer Kurt Weill, beginning with a suite of songs from his best-known Threepenny Opera. This is followed by a collection of cabaret and art songs composed in Europe, and concludes with songs composed in America for the Broadway stage in collaboration with the likes of Ira Gershwin and Moss Hart. (Chandos)
Each recording in this 40-disc set has been selected by Chandos Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, son of the label founder, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.
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Founded by Brian Couzens in 1979, Chandos quickly established itself as one of the world’s leading classical labels. The ‘Chandos Sound’ has become a benchmark for quality, renowned alike among artists and critics around the globe.
From its inception, Chandos has specialised in recording British music, and in bringing lesser-known (and unknown) music to public attention. Released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the label, this handsomely packaged 40-disc set comprises 40 complete recordings from Chandos’ extensive catalogue.
Each of the four decades is represented, and each recording has been hand-picked by the Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.
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Excerpts from select reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:
Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Waltzes Suite, Etc. / Järvi, Royal Scottish National Orchestra - NLA
This 1984 recording put the somewhat neglected Sixth Symphony of Prokofiev back on the musical map; it remains on balance the finest available.
– ClassicsToday.com
Vaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow / Hickox, LSO
Conductor and orchestra respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.
– Gramophone
Ravel, Debussy & Massenet / Bavouzet, Tortelier, BBC Symphony Bavouzet gets the tempo changes in Ravel's G Major Concerto absolutely right, following up with one of the most songfully flowing and elegantly shaped accounts of the Adagio on disc, and concluding with an absolutely scorching finale. The Massenet encores are both novel and delightful.
The Central Band of the RAF perform works by and under the baton of Nigel Hess. The works include “New London Pictures,” “The Old Man of Lochnager” based on a children’s book by Charles, Prince of Wales, and “Shakespeare Pictures” which originates in incidental music composed for productions of Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar.
This recording forms part of our ongoing Italian series, fronted by the conductor Gianandrea Noseda. In the series so far, we have examined the music of many prominent Italian composers of the twentieth century, such as Respighi, Wolf-Ferrari, Casella, and Dallapiccola, as well as the great nineteenth-century master, Verdi. Noseda and his Italian forces here turn to the choral works of Goffredo Petrassi, an Italian composer who, despite being a relatively late bloomer, developed into one of Italy’s most significant composers of the mid- to late twentieth century.
In the English-speaking world, his contemporary Luigi Dallapiccola may be better known, but Petrassi was just as highly regarded in his home country. His music, inspired by Stravinsky and Hindemith, is dynamic and colourful, although perhaps emotionally reserved by the standards of his countrymen.
Petrassi’s talents showed themselves early. In 1913, aged nine, he became a chorister in the capital, where his encounter with Renaissance and baroque art and music left a lasting impression, one reflected later in several fine, large-scale choral works in which Petrassi combines polyphony with modern harmonies.
Here we have two such choral pieces: Psalm IX, in two parts, for chorus, string orchestra, brass, percussion, and two pianos, and the premiere recording of a Magnificat for soprano, chorus, and orchestra.
Both are performed by the Orchestra and Chorus, Teatro Regio, Torino under their Music Director, Gianandrea Noseda, for entirely idiomatic interpretations. Since he became an exclusive artist with Chandos in 2002, Noseda has recorded works by Prokofiev, Karlowicz, Dvorák, Smetana, Shostakovich, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Mahler, and Bartók, as well as the Italian series discussed above.
- Chandos
Review quote:
The performances by the forces of Teatro Regio, Turin, are committed and persuasive ... Excellent sound makes this a thoroughly recommendable release and I hope Chandos and Noseda go on to give us more choral Petrassi, such as Coro di morte and the late Orationes Christi.
Vol. 4 in Barry Douglas’s monumental, well-regarded solo piano Brahms project prominently features the composer’s first published work, his C major Sonata, op. 1.The influence on Brahms of his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert is obvious, not only in the virtuoso demands on the performer but also in the opening, which recalls both Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata and Schubert’s ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy.Two other impeccable and impressive works, the Schumann Variations, op. 9, and the Paganini Variations, Op. 35 (Book 1) are included, along with several short keyboard character pieces.
Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245 / Temple, Crouch End Festival Chorus, Bach Camerata
Chandos
SACD
$21.99Apr 21, 2017
For its very first excursion on Chandos, the Crouch End Festival Chorus presents a landmark recording of J.S. Bach's St. John Passion sung in English - the first for over forty-five years. With communicative zeal, beautiful articulation, and focused energy, this choir of more than 100 voices lends precision and power to the performance alongside the instruments of the Bach Camerata, one of the finest UK baroque orchestras, all under the inspired direction of David Temple. The essence of the work is the conveying of a human story underpinned by the universal themes of love, betrayal, loss, and hope. The performance in English allows the drama and visceral energy of the work to go straight to the heart of the English-speaking listener. The narrative is immediately understood, and the power of the storytelling imbues Bach's music with extra freshness and meaning. Thanks to an array of superb soloists and orchestral musicians, the new recording brings those qualities together in a performance which will present a well-loved piece in a completely new light, and appeal to existing and future generations of music-lovers alike.
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REVIEW:
One will struggle to find more committed, well-balanced, agile and crisp singing than that of the Crouch End Festival Chorus, who are on top form throughout. Frankly none of the soloists could be bettered, nor the superb continuo team. Congratulations to all concerned on producing such a buoyant, absorbing, and sonically thrilling recording.
