Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of Britain’s most illustrious composers, and this specially curated selection of works demonstrates the sheer breadth of his achievement. As a major 20th century symphonist he is represented by four of his nine symphonies, all in critically acclaimed recordings (‘A clear top recommendation’ wrote Gramophone of A Sea Symphony). Popular orchestral works such as the celebrated Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending are also included. Vaughan Williams’ chamber works are performed by the Maggini Quartet, his greatest contemporary champions; while the sublime Mass in G minor shows the composer’s high standing in the English choral tradition.
REVIEW:
More Vaughan Williams—and very welcome, too. While admirers may favour other performances, every take here on the composer’s exquisite scores is more than competitive. This curated selection of works is a measure of RVW’s achievements. As a major 20th-century symphonist he is represented by four of his nine symphonies, all in much-praised recordings, while winning orchestral works such as the celebrated Tallis Fantasia and The Lark Ascending are also included. Vaughan Williams’ chamber works are performed by the Maggini Quartet, his greatest contemporary champions; while the sublime Mass in G minor is a solid addition.
Igor Stravinsky is renowned for his legacy of glittering fairy tales in treasured favourites such as Petrushka and The Firebird. Another favourite is the ballet Pulcinella, a lovable melange of Baroque theatricality, heard here in it's concert suite form. The other works in this programme are surprisingly less known: the luminous and symphonic Song of the Nightingale, and The Fairy's Kiss based on Tchaikovsky's music, are both derived from stories by Hans Christian Andersen. An astonishing rarity, The Faun and the Shepherdess is an ancient Greek tale that was Stravinsky's romantically sensual gift to his young bride.
A fine Danish chamber ensemble brings together a unique compilation of chamber pieces by an overshadowed contemporary of Messiaen. The music of Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) is slowly being revived after decades of neglect, enabling us to discover a distinctive voice in the kaleidoscopic variety of 20th-century French music. Jolivet never followed some of his better-known contemporaries - Messiaen among them - down the path of serialism, yet his harmonic technique exercised a hidden influence on them (including the young Pierre Boulez). The Serenade (1945) for wind quintet, opening this collection of chamber music, casts a mystic air in it's opening Cantilene before breaking off into wild peals of instrumental laughter in the Caprice. The world of Poulenc and Stravinsky is not so far away, but there is a grounded density to Jolivet's writing which is entirely individual. From 1968, the Controversia for oboe and harp finds Jolivet at his most gesturally experimental, drawing on the combined talents and innovative techniques of Heinz and Ursula Holliger. The flurries and confrontations of the Controversia could hardly be predicted from the composer of the reflective miniatures which make up the Petite Suite (1941) for flute, viola and harp, in the mould of Debussy's late sonata. Indeed the collection as a whole serves as an illuminating demonstration of Jolivet's range and his evolution through a career spanning the turbulent aesthetic struggles of the last century. The Pastorales de Noel (1943) for flute, bassoon and harp fulfil a brief for picturesque and festive illustration, whereas the sonatinas for flute and clarinet (1961) and oboe and bassoon (1963) swoop and flutter with unpredictably Stravinskian fluidity between their instruments. Modal and exotic scales, Spanish rhythms, Debussyan sensuality: all these diverse elements and more keep the listener (and musicians) on their toes in this music. The album is enhanced by a new essay from Paul Griffiths, a pre-eminent authority on new and modern music. - Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) is considered one of the most interesting French composers of the 20th century. His vast oeuvre includes nearly all musical genres. Actively open to all musical genres (he never had a proper conservatory education) he developed a personal style that was distinctly avant-garde. - This new recording presents a variety of chamber music in which the flute plays a prominent role: Serenade for Wind Quintet, Sonatine for flute & clarinet, Petite Suite for flute, viola and harp, Pastorale de Noel for flute, bassoon and harp, and other shorter pieces: music of dazzling colours, vivid and vibrant, but also at turns serene and melancholic. - Played with astonishing virtuosity and "joie de vivre" by the Danish Ensemble MidtVest.
Shostakovich: The Human Comedy; The Nose; The Shot
Naxos
CD
$19.99Oct 10, 2025
Shostakovich was known for his fun-loving attitude during his early years as a composer. The colourful incidental music for The Shot - reconstructed by Mark Fitz-Gerald from the original piano scores - vividly evokes the raucous life of experimental youth theatre in Leningrad during the late 1920s. This carefree world had changed dramatically by 1934 when Shostakovich completed his music for The Human Comedy - a work that creates a charming atmosphere of Parisian escapism. Discarded movements from his first opera The Nose form an entire orchestral suite. The programme concludes with Mark Fitz-Gerald's reconstruction of the March of the Anarchists, transcribed by ear from the film The Vyborg Side.
Infinite Refrain – Music of Love's Refuge / Scotting, Navarro Colorado, Cummings, AAM
Signum Classics
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Nov 03, 2023
The first of its kind, this duet album is a musical journey that draws back the curtain which has obscured gay love-stories for centuries. In the 17th century, Venice offered a liberal safe haven of sorts to the gay community of greater Europe. There are accounts of outed artists escaping to Venice to live and work amongst its more permissive culture. Almost 400 years later, we reconnect with this uncommonly tolerant place and time to share a history that is yet untold. The album includes vivid and charming duets from Monteverdi’s 7th book of madrigals as well as his touching musical love letters (lettere amorose). Additionally, there are four modern-day premieres of works by the little-known composers Boretti, Melani, and Castrovillari; including a moving duet for the lovers Hercules and Theseus as they exit the underworld hand-in-hand. Solo arias by Cavalli and Stradella depict the yearning of hidden love, and the recording culminates with one of the most beautiful duets of all time, ‘Pur ti miro’ from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. This album is a recognition and celebration of gay love that spans the centuries.
PENTATONE's release of the Czech Philharmonic's complete Mahler Cycle under Bychkov brings together one of Europe's most historically resonant orchestras with a conductor internationally recognised for his structural command and interpretive integrity. The orchestra occupies a distinctive place within Mahler's geographical and cultural landscape - Mahler was born and brought up in Bohemia and completed his First Symphony shortly after spending a year in Prague. Mahler symphonies have been central to Bychkov's programming with the Czech Philharmonic since 2018, when he opened his tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director with performances of Mahler Symphony No. 2. Symphonies Nos. 1-5, released by PENTATONE beginning in April 2022, have received universal acclaim. The recordings have been selected as Gramophone Editor's Choice and BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month. As The Sunday Times writes, "This is turning out to be one of the truly great Mahler sets."
Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy & Vir
Delos
CD
$20.99Sep 19, 2025
Delos is thrilled to embark on a new journey with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and it's Music Director Stephane Deneve. What better statement of intent for their first album on the label than releasing the world premiere recording of three works by native St. Louisan and Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy®-winning composer Kevin Puts? Dedicated to the SLSO and Stephane, Concerto for Orchestra was written in response to the horrific school shooting that occurred in Uvalde in 2022. Silent Night Elegy is drawn from Kevin's acclaimed opera, which adapts Joyeux Noel, the award-winning film that tells the story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front on the first Christmas Eve of World War I. Inspired by Guillaume de Machaut, Virelai was commissioned for the opening concert of Stephane's tenure as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. This album celebrates the SLSO's dynamic partnership with Stephane and demonstrates the orchestra's commitment to artistic excellence and inclusive musical experiences.
Santtu conducts Strauss is a 2-volume album featuring four works by Richard Strauss conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, two of which are live recordings of Santtu’s 2021/22 opening concert and first concert as Principal Conductor at Royal Festival Hall. Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra are live recordings of Santtu’s opening concert of the 2021/22 season, and his first concert with the Philharmonia as Principal Conductor. The concerts received great reviews. Tim Ashley (The Guardian) said “With the Philharmonia on tremendous form, Rouvali proved a fine Straussian, measured in his approach, and careful in his attention to detail and colour”. Rebecca Franks (The Times) awarded 5-star reviews: “There were “wow” moments aplenty as the Philharmonia laced up its hiking boots and happily hit every waymark in Strauss’s mountain journey: the glorious sunrise, the resplendent summit, the violent storm with wind machine, thunder sheet and organ.”
Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra creates thrilling performances for a global audience and has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Kaija Saariaho and many others. The Philharmonia has an extraordinary 77-year recording legacy, and has recorded around 150 soundtracks, with film credits stretching back to 1947. In the 2021/22 season the Orchestra performs in Romania, Spain, Finland, Greece and Germany. Santtu-Matias Rouvali is a Finnish conductor and percussionist, and is currently principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Rouvali continues his relationships with orchestras across Europe, including with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Phillharmonic and the the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
REVIEW:
This is an Alpine Symphony where the thrills are just that much more thrilling, the sublime moments more sublime, the lyrical line more lyrical. I’d place this Alpine Symphony beside the Karajan, and it comes in much better sound. I consider every performance here nothing short of a triumph, so the strongest recommendation naturally follows.
Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. This CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert on October 17, 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. The programme of the Munich concert in October 1976 included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which can be seen as stroke of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through hardships to the stars" or "through darkness to light") and also a symphonic piece that he had written for his only opera "Fidelio": the Third Leonore Overture, with it's lone trumpet signal announcing the arrival of the minister Don Fernando - and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. Joachim Kaiser, Munich's leading music critic at the time, said: "Bernstein demonstrated to a spellbound Munich audience how much he is filled with Beethoven, the man is full of a freedom and fire that can be produced and reproduced. Even if Bernstein's leaps, crouches and crescendos may seem violent to anxious listeners, the inner rightness of the music - which sounds natural, powerful, wonderful and relaxed - is overwhelming." The live recording was made on October 17, 1976 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Voice of Freedom - Paul Robeson's Complete Columbia, RCA, HMV, and Victor Recordings
SONY CLASSICS
CD
$71.99Aug 30, 2024
Limited 14CD box set. The ultimate tribute to Paul Robeson, singer, stage and film actor, all-American football player, lawyer, and advocate for civil rights. Blacklisted and erased from American history, many of Robeson's recordings in the U.S. remained unreleased - until now. Special 14-CD edition, documenting his complete major-label discography, recorded 1925-1947. First release of Robeson's groundbreaking Victor recordings on CD, 16 recordings reissued for the first time, 5 previously unreleased. First restoration of Robeson's famous 1944 Othello stage production with Uta Hagen and Jose Ferrer from the original 33 master disc sides. His complete remastered Columbia albums (Songs of Free Men, Popular Favorites, Spirituals). First release of his historic 1958 recitals at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, New York, and Royal Albert Hall, with 30 previously unissued recordings. Richly illustrated 160-page book with essays by Shana L. Redmond and Susan Robeson, a wealth of photos and facsimiles from the archives of The Paul Robeson Trust, the Academy of the Arts, Berlin, and Columbia Records, plus complete discographical notes.
Down Came An Angel - Music for Christmas / Jacqueline Schwab
Sono Luminus
CD
$9.49$18.99Save 50%Sep 07, 1999
Before television or radio, the piano was the focal point of the home. Holiday recordings such as Jacqueline Schwab's DOWN CAME AN ANGEL evoke the spirit of days gone by. Best known for her solo piano soundtracks to Ken Burns's PBS documentaries, Schwab has a quaint, inviting touch on the keyboard and a wonderful appreciation of Appalachian musical tradition. The result is a warm, familiar Christmas sound filled with nostalgia. Schwab's piano shimmers with a delightful tone, like a parlor with a fireplace on a snowy day. Though the album is entirely instrumental, the traditional hymns, carols, and spirituals were meant to be sung. To that end, the producers have included lyric sheets, giving families the opportunity to gather around the piano once again to experience a Christmas tradition.
Still: Symphonies 2 & 3, Wood Notes / Jeter, Fort Smith Symphony
Naxos
CD
$19.99Dec 13, 2011
Committed recordings of works by a “golden age” American finally coming into his own on disc.
3553320.az_STILL_Symphony_2.html
STILL Symphony No. 2, “Song of a New Race.” Symphony No. 3, “Sunday Symphony.” Wood Notes • John Jeter, cond; Fort Smith S • NAXOS 8.559676 (61:39)
With this disc, Naxos and the present performers conclude their three-CD series of William Grant Still’s symphonies, plus other orchestral works. I reviewed the second volume (Symphonies 4 and 5, and the Poem for Orchestra—Naxos 8.559603) for another publication, and was quite beguiled. I feel the same way this time around. This music is impossible not to like, and conductor John Jeter and his orchestra from Arkansas, the state in which the young composer spent part of his childhood, are effective advocates.
Wood Notes, a work from 1947 that is receiving its first recording here, is a suite of four movements: “Singing River,” “Autumn Night,” “Moon Dusk,” and “Whippoorwill’s Shoes.” The titles suggest that the music will be picturesque, and, in the best sense of the word, simple, and indeed it is. If there is such a thing as an American Pastoral school of composers, Still would be its dean. The Currier and Ives prints that have adorned the booklet covers in this series have been very appropriate, as they project an innocence that is also one of the strongest characteristics of Still’s music. Imagine Delius at his least Impressionistic, Dvo?ák at his least academic, and Jerome Kern at his most classical, and that might give you an idea of what Still’s music sounds like. (Nevertheless, Varèse was one of his teachers!)
The Second Symphony, premiered with great success by Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1937, is “a vision of an integrated society.” In terms of form, this is a bit more ambitious than Wood Notes, but Still’s writing is so unpretentious, tuneful, and relaxed that one can’t help asking what makes this work more symphonic than the other. The mood is sometimes wistful and often hopeful, and Still, when he is not embracing the listener outright, is at least holding his hand, or throwing his arm around his shoulder. Not surprisingly, African-American elements, both traditional and more popular (jazzy), are prominent in this work.
The “Sunday Symphony” dates from 1958. Again, naming its movements will give the reader an idea of what the music sounds like: “Awakening,” “Prayer,” “Relaxation,” and “Day’s End and a New Beginning.” Only 18 minutes long, this symphony is as suitelike as its predecessor, every bit as ingratiating, and even more uncomplicated. Appropriately, “Prayer” is the longest movement, and it builds to a soulful climax. “Awakening” and “Relaxation” both chatter away companionably, and the last movement brings the symphony to its resolute and affirmative conclusion.
I don’t get the feeling that this music makes exorbitant demands on an orchestra. The Fort Smith Symphony, a lean-sounding ensemble in the manner of Howard Hanson’s Eastman-Rochester group, puts Still’s music across capably and with sympathy. (I would have liked to have heard Stokowski and the Philadelphians play the Second Symphony, though!)
It is tempting to call this music naive, but I think to do so would say more about our lack of innocence as listeners, than about any lack of sophistication on the part of William Grant Still.
FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle
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For much of his life William Grant Still was invariably referred an army going into battle with a lovely central section describing t to as the “Dean of African-American Composers”. Though his music partakes of many African-American elements, it also demonstrates his varied training under Chadwick and Varese and the many years he spent writing music for jazz bands, radio, music and television. Today Still can be seen simply as one of that number of American nationalist composers who came to maturity between the wars.
In the late 1920s Still began a musical trilogy that would portray the African-American experience in the U.S.: Africa, a tone poem describing the original homeland; the Symphony No. 1 ( African-American) describing the years leading to the Emancipation Proclamation; and the Symphony No. 2 ( Song of a New Race) describing a future where African-Americans would take equal part in the destiny of their country.
The Symphony No. 2 is a major work, blending jazz, blues and gospel elements with a nationalist feeling akin to that of the Eastman School. All of the movements are relatively slow (cf. Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 3). The slow movement proper is the most beautiful and expressive, while the “moderately slow” finale shows Still’s great technical skill as he joins thematic elements of all four movements into an emotionally satisfying conclusion.
Wood Notes is a suite evocative of nature in the American South. Each of the four pieces begins with simple, almost trivial material, which Still then transforms into something far more poignant than one would have expected.
While numbered as the third, The Sunday Symphony was the last of Still’s five symphonies to be written. It describes the typical Sunday of a churchgoer (Still was quite devout) and while not as profound as the Symphony No. 2 it is equally sincere and more compact in expression. The opening movement is full of energy, somewhat reminiscent of Gershwin, but with modal elements and scoring reminiscent of the Big Bands. In the Prayer movement Still develops the main melody for English horn to a poetic coda in his best style. Relaxation is very simple, while the last movement alternates resolution worthy of wilight and the thoughts of the worshipper as he prepares for th e coming day.
The key to performing Still’s music is to concentrate on his obvious sincerity and technical ability, while not letting his tendency towards sentimentality to overwhelm all else. John Jeter realizes this and wisely brings out the positive elements, demonstrating complete control of his players (especially regarding rhythm) and deriving enthusiastic performances. The Fort Smith (Arkansas) Symphony has some troubles with ensemble, but the overall sound is lush, as much of the music requires. This disc completes the Naxos series of the Still symphonies. While there are other impressive recordings of the first two symphonies, Jeter faces no real competition with the last three, and the entire set can be recommended to all fans of American music.
Track Listing 1. Four 2. Four - (alternate take) 3. St. Thomas 4. St. Thomas - (alternate take) 5. I Remember Clifford 6. I Remember Clifford - (alternate take) 7. 52nd Street Theme 8. 52nd Street Theme - (alternate theme) 9. Bluesongo - (bonus track) 10. Jungoso
Personnel: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Thad Jones (cornet); Herbie Hancock (piano); Bob Cranshaw, Ron Carter (bass); Roy McCurdy (drums); Candido (congas).
Producer: George Avakian.
Reissue producer: Orrin Keepnews.
Engineers include: Ray Hall.
Recorded at RCA Victor Studios, New York, New York between May 14, 1962 and April 14, 1964. Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.
This CD is what too few "previously unreleased" collections are: a well-documented, well-annotated recording with a purpose and a point of view. In a thoughtful essay, producer Orrin Keepnews discusses what these early Sixties recordings of Rollins reveal about the tenorist's approach to repertoire and improvisation and, more pragmatically, about his relationship to the recording studio and to record companies in general. Each of the first four tunes can be heard in two different versions. "Four" was recorded both with a trio (with Roy McCurdy on drums and Bob Cranshaw on bass) and a quartet (with Herbie Hancock on piano and Ron Carter replacing Cranshaw on bass)
The versions of "I Remember Clifford" and "52nd Street Theme" were recorded with Hancock on piano and Thad Jones on cornet added to the basic trio. "Bluesongo" and "Jungoso" are trio pieces with Rollins, Cranshaw, and Candido on congas. Keepnews explains that these two cuts, which were originally released on the album WHAT'S NEW in 1962, have not been reissued anywhere else recently (unlike the balance of the material from WHAT'S NEW) and have consequently been included here.
American Classics - Fuchs: Canticle To The Sun, Etc
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%Jan 29, 2008
Fuchs’s distinctive voice, flair for orchestral colours and sheer lyricism shine through.
Kenneth Fuchs is fortunate indeed to have not one but two discs of his music recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. The first, in 2003, was nominated for two Grammys in 2005 and the second, recorded in 2006, should do well too, such is the quality of both the music and music-making. Holding it all together in the orchestral pieces and the mixed quintet is conductor JoAnn Falletta, who made such a strong impression in her recent disc of Respighi (review).
United Artists, the first item on the disc, was written specifically for the LSO as a gesture of thanks for their earlier recording of Fuchs’s works (Naxos 8.559224). At its core is a four-note motif, presented first in the Coplandesque opening fanfare. But this isn’t derivative music; indeed, the composer’s distinctive ‘voice’ is evident from the outset, and his flair for orchestral colours and sheer lyricism shine through in this atmospheric opener.
Quiet in the land is another of those vast musical landscapes that might provoke comparisons with Copland, yet Fuchs’s evocation of the Midwestern Plains just as the Iraq war was beginning is rather more complex and ambiguous in its sentiments. As the composer writes in the liner notes, ‘I wondered how quiet the spirit of our land might be’.
Even without this programme the opening bars hint at harmony, subtly undermined by vague discord - just listen to that quiet, agitated figure that begins at 1:30, beneath the more lyrical and expansive melody above. It is such lucid, ‘hear-through’ writing, yet it’s full of warmth. The members of the LSO manage to bring out both these aspects of the score, blending precision with feeling. And what a haunting close, too.
The recording venue – St Luke’s in London’s Old Street – is very well captured by the engineers, with no hint of brittleness or edge. The musicians seem ideally placed, too, which is particularly welcome in Fire, Ice, and Summer Bronze for brass quintet. Subtitled an ’Idyll ... after two works on paper by Helen Frankenthaler’ the first movement yokes together two eternal opposites – fire (the restless first section) and ice (the more muted second section).
There seems to be an underlying creative tension in some of these pieces, perhaps an attempt to reconcile musical and emotional extremes. For instance, in Summer Bronze the music is strangely mercurial – now lyrical, now dissonant, now both. But it’s that other dichotomy, between outward virtuosity and inner feeling, that these seasoned players – always secure, always poised – convey so well.
Based on a painting by Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm does contain some jazzy snippets, but the emphasis seems to be on sonorities, with long, lyrical melodic lines and, at times, a quirky bass. It is a strangely ‘in-between’ piece; to use the autumn analogy, summer is not quite done, yet winter is on its way. In his notes Fuchs describes how the two states are drawn together and, indeed, how one becomes the other: ‘An unusual aspect of this composition is that in its final section the flute, oboe, and clarinet metamorphose into their lower – perhaps autumnal – counterparts, the alto flute, English horn, and bass clarinet.’ It’s a remarkable sleight of hand, deftly constructed and seamlessly executed.
Canticle of the Sun – a hymn tune based on 13th-century texts by St Francis of Assisi – is built on a four-note motif. Written for the LSO’s principal horn player, Timothy Jones, this 20-minute gem has a radiant, all-embracing optimism that is just irresistible. Indeed, it is not unlike a stained glass window, all those fragments of high colour glowing in the light behind. But at the centre of it all is Jones’s supple and passionate playing, surely as seductive a performance of this piece as we are ever likely to hear.
As with Respighi’s Church Windows, Falletta displays a sense of line and phrase that is most welcome in this music. And while I’ve grumbled about the sound on some Naxos releases I’m prepared to eat humble pie on this one. The engineers have done an exceptional job capturing the sound of the LSO at St Luke’s; what a pleasant change from the dry-as-dust Barbican.
Early days, I know, but this could be one of my discs of 2008.
David Hackbridge Johnson: Orchestral Music, Vol. 4
Toccata
CD
$20.99Jun 05, 2026
David Hackbridge Johnson, born near London in 1963, is an all-round musician - not only a prolific composer but also a conductor, violinist, singer, pianist, jazz drummer and poet. Both works in this album, recorded under the baton of the composer, have extra-musical stimuli. The Piano Concerto evokes the Kafkaesque fantasy world and tragic fate of the Polish-Jewish writer and artist Bruno Schulz, a victim of Nazi oppression - and it also marks the early death of another uniquely gifted individual, since it was written for Jonathan Powell, whose last recording it became. The Symphony, taking it's lead from earlier composers like Bax, Britten and Vaughan Williams, is a response to the English landscape, as seen through the paintings of a number of artists whose work Hackbridge Johnson esteems - it's colours and moods changing as kaleidoscopically as nature itself.
Paul Watkins presents three enduring masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire, Johannes Brahms’s two cello sonatas and the Clarinet Trio. Joining Mr. Watkins are two musicians of the highest caliber, the pianist Ian Brown, his established duo partner, and clarinetist Michael Collins. Completed in 1865, the Cello Sonata No. 1 is somewhat reserved in character, with an elaborate fugal finale that pays homage to Bach. Some twenty years later, Brahms composed his more adventurous, expansive and extroverted Cello Sonata No. 2. The Clarinet Trio, op. 114 was written for clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, an artist who inspired Brahms to compose a series of works for the clarinet considered some of the supreme masterpieces in the instrument’s repertoire. “Perhaps no clarinetist around today is capable of floating a purer, smoother and more beautifully contoured melodic line than Michael Collins, and he is often heard at his best in [Brahms’s] four late masterpieces.” - BBC Music Magazine “Paul Watkins [is] unquestionably, in my opinion one of today’s foremost cellists.” - Fanfare
All selections are performed twice on this box set. All selections on CD 1 are sung in their original languages. The same works are repeated on CD 2, where the German language songs are sung in English. The Hebrew and English language works on CD 2 are again sung in their original form.
