Guarnieri: Choros, Vol. 2 / Tibiriçá, São Paulo Symphony
Naxos
CD
$13.99$19.99Save 30%May 13, 2022
In his Choros, Guarnieri wrote music that conjures up the landscape and essence of Brazil. These very personal concertos reveal the composer’s refined instrumental combinations and elegant contrapuntal writing, while their dance rhythms are vivacious, drawing on the baião, maracatu and embolada. The Chorosin this second volume represent all stages of Guarnieri’s compositional development. Also included is the delightful and inventive Florde Tremembé, an early work with choro-like features. The first volume is also available on Naxos.
REVIEW:
This release, the second of two, contains Guarnieri’s Choros for clarinet (1956), piano (1956), cello (1961) and viola (1975). All four abound in high-spirited dancelike passages with syncopated Latin rhythms, alternating with music of pastoral lyricism, and usually end in a celebratory, carnival atmosphere.
The later pair, for strings, are slightly more modernist: the composer even employs a 12-tone row in the viola concerto, but his lightness of touch and Brazilian exuberance are not affected (Guarnieri hated 12-tone music and penned articles about how unnatural he found it – then wrote some to prove he could!) The program also contains an early work for chamber orchestra, Flor de Tremembé (1937), which is jazzy with echoes of Gershwin.
This disc is even more fun than Volume 1. The musicians are absolutely at home with Guarnieri’s idiom: Roberto Tibiriçá’s tempos are spot on, the soloists are terrific, the sound first rate. This Choros for Clarinet should be as popular as the Clarinet Concerto by Copland (who, incidentally, was the composer’s friend and benefactor in the US).
Kalliwoda: Orchestral Works / Bernius, Hofkapelle Stuttgart
Carus
CD
$20.99Jan 20, 2017
With this recording, Frieder Bernius once again honors the musical legacy of the Bohemian composer Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the longstanding court kapellmeister of Donaueschingen on 3 December 2016, the focus is on his instrumental compositions. In addition to the Symphony No. 1, op. 7 – a work that has not been available in a current recording for many years – the release includes the Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra op. 128 and the Concertino for Violin and Orchestra op. 15. It represents a convincing homage to a composer who found his place in the transition between the Classical form of a late Mozart and the Romance form of early Romanticism, between lyrically reflective melodies and “Sturm und Drang” dramatics as well as between homophonic orchestral tuttis and strict counterpoint.
Babbitt: Swan Song No 1, Soli E Duetini, Manifold Music, Etc
Bridge Records
CD
$18.99Oct 28, 2003
Milton Babbitt remains a controversial figure on today's musical scene, with his ideas more frequently discussed than his music is actually listened to. This recording contains the premiere recordings of five Babbitt works that span a quarter of a century. The CD opens with a performance of Babbitt's exquisite Quatrains, sung by the brilliant young American soprano, Tony Arnold. Set to a text by a Babbitt favorite - John Hollander - Quatrains is a work of great delicacy and subtlety. Manifold Music shows Babbitt adapting his language to the organ in a most original manner. Exploiting the instrument's potential for colorful registration, Babbitt's demanding score is a spectacular workout for the hands and feet of organ virtuoso, Gregory D'Agostino. My Ends Are My Beginnings has, since its composition in 1978, been regarded by many as one of the most difficult to play works for a solo woodwind instrument. The work's dedicatee, Allen Blustine (long-time clarinetist for Speculum Musicae), gives a heroic reading of this 17 minute solo. Soli e Duettini is one of three works with this title. This work, for two guitars, is played by dedicatees William Anderson and Oren Fader. (This premiere recording was previously issued on Bridge 9042). The final work is Babbitt's just completed Swan Song No. 1. It is a remarkable composition for the unusual combination of flute, oboe, mandolin, guitar, violin and cello. CD annotator Matthias Kriesberg writes: "The experience of hearing Milton Babbitt, who for so long played off the boundaries of musical dimensions against one another, now rein in the extremes so dramatically as to focus the ear on the centered drama of calm voices interacting, is certainly extraordinary. But should we really be surprised? After all, there is a long, rich history of composers who, having definitively proven their ability to wrest music in an entirely new direction, turned their attention inward, ever inward, to contemplate that place, in the words of W.B. Yeats, "where all the ladders start."
The English composer Steve Elcock spent years writing music without ever expecting it to be heard: based in rural France, he worked as a translator, composing ‘for the drawer.’ A recent Toccata Classics recording of his Third Symphony and other orchestral pieces revealed him to be a major symphonic voice. The works on this first album of his chamber music show the same long-term control of harmonic tension, occasionally leavened by a mischievous sense of humor. The Clarinet Sextet and The Shed Dances are immediately appealing in their melodiousness and harmonic language, whereas the darkly aggressive String Trio No. 1 foreshadows the Third Symphony with its stark juxtaposition of contrasts, and An Outstretched Hand offers a disturbing comment on our troubled 21st century condition. The Veles Ensemble is a string trio based in London, its repertoire both exploring rarely heard masterpieces and bringing the classics to life. A special interest of the ensemble is in promoting new compositions and contemporary music.
The Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) studied both piano and composition with his great countryman Mozart, and was also a friend of Beethoven, of which aspects of these relationships we can hear all throughout his septets. We can hear, too, why Robert Schumann's generation praised him so highly. As heard in these recordings, here is a Classical master on the cusp of the Romantic era, original in instrumentation and technique and subtle in his harmonies.
Kozeluch: Klarinettenkonzerte / Klocker, Lajcik, Prague Co
Orfeo
CD
$20.99Sep 29, 2006
KOZELUCH Clarinet Concertos: No. 1 in Eb; No. 2 in Eb. Sonata concertante in Eb • Dieter Klöcker (cl); Milan Lajík, cond; Prague CO • ORFEO 193 061 (69:21)
With Jan Antonin Koželuh (1747–1818), we find that—like many Bohemian subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Jan Waczlaw Stamic (Johann Stamitz) and Anton Rössler (Antonio Rosetti)—the spelling of his name was altered and usually was written as Leopold Kozeluch, although there are instances where it is seen partially in Latin, i.e., Iohannes Antonius Kotzeluch. Kozeluch—to adopt the form generally used in the musical world today—was one of many Bohemians whose desire for fame and fortune took them to Europe’s great musical centers, including Mannheim, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Paris, and London. There is an 18th-century map showing lines radiating from Bohemia to these and other cities and the lines are so numerous that they resemble a spider’s web. It was Bohemia’s national musical fecundity that prompted Dr. Charles Burney, the well-known 18th-century traveler and writer on music, to refer to Bohemia as the conservatory of Europe.
Among the little country’s musical progeny was Kozeluch, termed in The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians “one of the foremost representatives of Czech [Bohemian, to be politically correct] music in 18th-century Vienna.” It appears that Kozeluch was a declared adversary and critic of Mozart, as contemporary accounts indicate that Kozeluch—with the help of Antonio Salieri—tried to establish himself as Mozart’s rival. Nine years after Mozart’s death, Friedrich Rochlitz noted in the Allemeine Musikalisches Zeitung, “Kozeluch expressed his mind too volubly,” and further on we read, “envy and obsessive criticism are not the way to surpass a great man.”
First and foremost, Kozeluch was a secular composer. His musical legacy extends to some 420 separate works, including arrangements of his and other composers’ works. The bottom line though, is a catalog of some 250 original compositions, including 11 symphonies, 22 keyboard concertos, and two for the clarinet, the last not listed in TNG.
There are four concerted works for clarinet that bear Kozeluch’s signature, but the Czech clarinetist Jirí Kratochvil maintains that one was written by Leopold’s cousin, Antonin, so it has been eliminated from this recording. Of the three works on this Orfeo release, the Sonata concertante in Eb is almost one-of-a-kind, joining a similar work by one Franz Bühler (1760–1823). The first concerto is indebted to the Mannheim School, while the second, written for the German virtuoso Josef Beer, is (according to Dieter Klöcker’s copious and erudite annotations) based upon the popular Clarinet Concerto No. 3 in Bb by Kozeluch’s countryman, Carl Stamitz, but the Kozeluch concertos are far superior to anything Stamitz wrote for the instrument and along with the concertos of Franz Krommer, run a close second to Mozart’s lone clarinet concerto.
Dieter Klöcker’s musical instincts are unfailing; he has continuously and consistently brought forth a great deal of lovely and neglected—not negligible—music for his chosen instrument and each new release is a musical epiphany. Much of the repertoire he has chosen, including music of Soleré, Bärmann, and Schacht, still exists in only his recordings and where other works have seen additional recordings since Klöcker’s premieres, his remain benchmark.
The first concerto of Kozeluch is included with works by Krommer and Crusell on a well-played ASV CD of 18th- and early 19th-century concertos played by Emma Johnson (ASV 763). A search of the Sanctuary Classics Web site reveals that the 1997 disc is still available, so if one is in search of a broader picture of the late-Classical and early-Romantic clarinet concerto repertoire, then this would be the way to go. But the decision of Orfeo and Klöcker to issue an entire disc of Kozeluch is wholly in keeping with the way they go about things and should not be overlooked by those with the slightest curiosity. I should also point out that Klöcker plays a clarinet fitted with the Oehler fingering system (standard, I believe, in the German-speaking countries) and a wooden mouthpiece with the reed held in place in the old-fashioned manner by string, the combination of these most surely accounting for his unusual tone quality.
Both recordings are lively, well played, and equally well recorded, with Klöcker’s Orfeo offering a more distant perspective and therefore a hint of concert hall realism. Violinist Milan Lajcík and his colleagues in the Prague Chamber Orchestra are more than up to the tasks offered by these works. The orchestral support is beyond reproach, with unforced directness, poise, and verve that is totally void of metrical stiffness. Another star in the crowns of both Orfeo and Dieter Klöcker.
Stamitz: Quartets for Clarinet / Campbell, Maytan, Swantek, Mahave-Veglia
Audite Musikproduktion
SACD
$21.99Feb 26, 2013
Carl Stamitz's Clarinet Quartets Op. 8 and Op. 19 are amongst the earliest compositions for clarinet and string trio and document the increasing significance of the clarinet in the second half of the eighteenth century. These quartets demonstrate Stamitz's profound understanding of the instrument and also allow an illuminating insight into his idiom. With his sensitive interpretations, Arthur Campbell manages to emphasise the cantabile quality of the clarinet, which dominates all the quartets recorded on this SACD.
Arthur Campbell was born in Canada and studied at the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA, where he was taught by the renowned clarinetist and pedagogue Robert Marcellus. He has won numerous international and national competitions, including the International Clarinet Competition and the National Music Festival of Canada. An internationally sought-after clarinet virtuoso, Arthur Campbell has toured throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Asia. He regularly presents international master classes at universities, conservatoires and conventions. Arthur Campbell was appointed professor at the Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan, where he has been teaching a class of clarinet students from across the globe.
The Halle and Sir Mark Elder follow their previous highly acclaimed DeBussy albums, with a stunning orchestral collection including a world premiere recording. This collection features works from across the composer's career, from his early winning of the Prix de Rome, as a result of which he composed the delicate cantata La Demoiselle elue in 1887. Recorded following the highly acclaimed Proms performance and featuring stand-out soloists Anna Stephany and Sophie Bevan, hailed by reviewers. The enigmatic Nocturnes date from 1897-9 and show the composer at the height of his orchestral powers, in music that is highly evocative of mood and which displays deft instrumental writing. Mastery of instrumental writing is further evidenced in the technically demanding Premiere Rhapsodie, which calls upon the full range of emotions from the soloist; here the Halle's Principal Clarinet, Sergio Castello Lopez. The album features a world premiere recording of Colin Matthew's orchestration of the piano piece Les soirs illumines par l'ardeur du charbon, unknown until it's discovery in 2001. This arrangement follows Matthews' universally acclaimed orchestrations of the DeBussy Preludes.
The title "Zan Tontemiquico" is drawn from a poem by Tochihuitzin, a prince and poet who lived at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The poem was written in Náhuatl, which was spoken in the present Mexico before the arrival of Spaniards. In a free translation the title means "We only come to dream." This, closing the album, programme piece for orchestra, superbly performed by the Aukso ensemble directed by Marek Mos, is preceded by two compositions dedicated to the musicians of the Silesian Trio. The Titanic Trio is inspired by a whole range of cultural associations, not only musical, present in the legend of the Titanic, including the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz. The deprived of the programme references Trio Concertante, recorded together with Aukso, is calligraphically economical, yet at the same time emotionally rich music - consisting of strongly separated sound plans. The works present the main characteristics of the pieces by Mikolaj Górecki: musical erudition, allusiveness, atmosphere, and stylistic diversity.
Michael Collins has been recording for Chandos what one might call thematic ‘mood’ albums; virtuosity has been covered [CHAN10615] and here is lyricism. Burgmüller’s Duo is a single movement, but tripartite piece, dating from 1834. It assuredly lives up to the disc billing, being profusely lyric, but in its central panel cleverly evokes the operatic by means of declamatory piano statements above which the clarinet spins vocalised curlicues of decidedly virtuosic pretension. It hardly aspires to anything especially deep, but makes for a good palette refreshing opener.
Finzi’s wartime Bagatelles are a clarinet staple. Collins’s subtly coloured, variegated tone is a perfect fit. He’s rhythmically sharp in the Prelude, and elegantly relaxed in the Romance, though I have to admit I do prefer John Denman’s slightly brisker tempo. Collins however plays the Carol with disarming simplicity, the tone remaining richly rounded, and he brings a very vocalised sense to the Forlana with its echoes of the composer’s great setting of Hardy’s For Life I Had Never Cared Greatly and specifically the lines ‘Conditions of Doubt/Conditions that leaked slowly out.’
Heinrich Joseph Baermann was an elite clarinettist of his time. His Clarinet Quintet of 1821 was rediscovered in 1922 and claimed to be a very early work by Wagner. Pamela Weston has arranged the Adagio from the Quintet for clarinet and piano, and most effectively, as it’s a lovely movement, rich and warm. Paul Reade’s Suite from ‘The Victorian Kitchen Garden’ comes from music for a TV series, and can be accompanied either by piano (as here) or harp. The five gentle scenes are atmospheric and engaging, the second (called ‘Spring’) having requisite jauntiness and the third – ‘Mists’ – just the right sense of stillness. I know Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel gets trotted out often in one of its manifold arrangements, especially when mining pathos in TV war documentaries – the Barber Adagio de nos jours – but I can certainly take the composer’s clarinet/piano version nicely. Nine minutes doesn’t seem a second too long.
And finally then to two very different French Clarinet sonatas. The Saint-Saëns was composed at the very end of his long life. It’s suffused with easy going charm and lyrical content. Collins drops to the chalumeau register in the slow movement where the piano’s rolled chords remind one very distinctly of César Franck. Collins conveys the quietude and ending-without-regret quality of this work very adeptly. The Poulenc too was a very late work, composed the year before his death and dedicated to the memory of Honegger. Again this is a convincingly argued performance. It’s a touch more measured than, say, Richard Horsfield and Ian Brown in the Nash Ensemble’s performance, but Collins and Michael McHale balance the introversion of the Romanza with the freewheeling dynamism of the finale well.
The warm recording comes courtesy of Potton Hall, an elite venue of choice for chamber recitals.
On the occasion of Erik Satie's 150th birthday, Fumio Yasuda embarks on a quest for hidden works of music and adapts rarely performed compositions for his piano trio: pieces that are well worth their discovery! Following a tour through Spain and France, Yasuda recorded this album in Bordeaux in October, 2016. In the early 20th century, Erik Satie was part of the Dadaist circle of artists in Paris. He worked with René Clair, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Léonide Massine, Man Ray and, most importantly, Jean Cocteau. Fumio Yasuda selected Satie's music for René Clair's filme masterpieces "Entr'acte" as well as the works "Dance de travers" and "Airs à faire fuir" from "“Pièces froides" and several additional compositions to arrange and interpret them in a completely new style. Satie has an entirely different view from many of his colleagues: He is convinced that a composer has no right to waste the time his audience dedicates to him. And so he develops his idea of background music - and calls it "Musique d'ameublement" (which translates approximately as "Music as furniture", or "Musical furniture"). Music is meant to be in a room just like a table or a chair. Satie rejects finesse and virtuosity. "Everyone will tell you that I'm not a musician. And they're right." Satie has a very special place in the history of music. Without seeming obtrusive, Fumio Yasuda bows to Erik Satie and shows his respect fo rthe great master, who so often is little appreciated since his compositional style is misunderstood or his oeuvre reduced to a few popular pieces. For many listeners, some pieces will be a new discovery, thanks to Fumio Yasuda's selection.
Concertos For Oboe, Clarinet And Orchestra / Eleanor Weingartner, Miguel Salazar
Urtext
CD
$16.99Jan 15, 2021
This release features a program of classical works for a unique instrumentation- oboe, clarinet, and orchestra. The first piece, Double Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Orchestra by Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, sets both soloists as equals. The following works- Rosetti’s Concerto No. 3 in C Major for Oboe and his Concerto in Eb Major for Clarinet, brilliantly showcase each artist individually. Eleanor Weingartner, an American clarinetist living in Mexico has been principal clarinet of Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra (OSN) since 1990. With the OSN she has played in concert halls throughout Mexico as well as in important venues in Europe and the United States and has participated in many OSN recordings for Sony, among other labels. Miguel Salazar studied music at the University of Guadalajara and later at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. He has previously held positions with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, and is currently principal oboe of the Queretaro Philharmonic Orchestra.
Wine Dark Sea / Junkin, University of Texas Wind Ensemble
Reference Recordings
CD
$18.99Mar 11, 2016
‘I doff my hat to these terrifically talented Texans’; that was my enthusiastic sign-off to this ensemble’s previous album, Shadow of Sirius, the latest of Naxos's Wind Band Classics. That series is particularly valuable, as it showcases the talents of American college groups. UTWE is high among them, so I was delighted to hear they would feature in this new disc from audiophile label Reference Recordings. In the past RR releases have certainly lived up to their name; indeed, Organ Polychrome impressed me so much that I made it one of my top picks for 2015.
The label’s in-house recordings – denoted by the album prefix RR – are masterminded by Keith O. Johnson. Something of a legend he uses both hand-made and carefully modified equipment to produce some of the most life-like recordings available today. The releases with the prefix FR are recorded by other production teams and licensed to Reference. Manfred Honeck’s Pittsburgh Beethoven 5 and 7 and Bruckner Fourth fall into that category. However, as good as those SoundMirror productions are they can’t beat a ‘Johnson Special’.
Now, back to the music. John Mackey, composer of the title piece Wine Dark Sea, came to my attention with his short but brilliantly plumed Kingfishers Catch Fire; that was one of the stand-out items on the Sirius album I mentioned earlier. As for Frank Ticheli he swum into my ken with An American Elegy, a deeply affecting response to the Columbine shootings in 1999. Landscapes, the collection from which it comes, is yet another of those Naxos Wind Band releases. I’ve also enjoyed The Shore, which finds the composer in confident choral mode.
Dan Welcher, whose Spumante opens with the popping of a cork, is new to me. This engaging piece, commissioned by the Boston Pops, is rather more subtle than its effervescent title might suggest. The arrangement is assured, the playing is crisp and the recording is immaculate. There are moments here that remind me of Leonard Bernstein’s overture to Candide; then again, Lenny looms so large in the history of 20th-century American music that he’s impossible to ignore. That said, Welcher casts the net wide, citing William Schuman, Samuel Barber and Walter Piston as his primary musical influences.
I’ve not encountered the music of Donald Grantham before, but his Louisiana-inspired J'ai été au bal (I went to the dance), with its artful use of Cajun tunes, is an ear-pricking, toe-tapping delight. The music’s panoply of colours and rhythms is superbly caught; even more astounding is the virtuosity of this band, whose stylish playing would put many a professional to shame. Would that we had such fine ensembles here in the UK; alas, the parlous state of music education in our schools seems to have extended to many of our universities as well. That's not to say there aren't any talented groups performing at this level, just that we don't have nearly enough of them.
Next up is Ticheli's clarinet concerto, with Eastman/Juilliard graduate and chamber-musician Nathan Williams as the soloist. The composer talks of his ‘playful allusions’ to the music of Gershwin, Copland and – of course – Bernstein, all of which are skilfully done. Williams is a lively and communicative player with a fine technique. He certainly impresses in the limpid loveliness of Song for Aaron, so redolent of Copland's signature pieces. As for the Bernstein riffs – with a nod towards West Side Story – they find composer, soloist and band at their deft and rhythmic best. There are some highly individual slips and slides here – all so confidently voiced – and the vigorous sign-off left me wanting more.
In his candid booklet notes John Mackey admits that he writes the music and his wife Abby comes up with the titles; that's a novel approach, but the wonderfully evocative results speak for themselves. Wine Dark Sea – a Jerry Junkin/UTWE commission – was to last 30 minutes, hence the decision to go for something both epic and programmatic; well, Homer’s Odyssey qualifies on both counts. The first movement, with its opening fanfares and thrilling echoes, certainly has the necessary boldness and sweep. The music’s compelling character – savor that snapping side-drum and Stygian bass one – is superbly realized in this very sophisticated recording. It’s a beguiling, velvet sound, just like the best of analogue but with an extraordinarily wide dynamic range.
Mackey’s score is most inventive, with much for the band to explore and execute, and I was struck by just how magnetic the outer movements are. Not only that, the music has muscle and sinew, its more rarefied moments complemented by passages of startling weight and trenchancy. By contrast the central movement, with its atmospheric harp part, is beautifully spun. The restless finale has undeniable tension, and the work builds to an emphatic close. Indeed, Wine Dark Sea is genuinely symphonic in its scope and impact; it's a fine piece, and it deserves to do well. As always the instrumental blend is faultless, there's passion aplenty, and the recording is first rate; really, what more could you possibly want?
Music of variety and substance, stylishly played; another Rolls-Royce recording from Reference.
