This release offers a vivid picture of the diverse and varied spirits that characterized the twentieth century, as told in music. A milestone of twentieth century guitar literature, Nocturnal after John Dowland op. 70 (1963) by Benjamin Britten, joins hands here with two pieces, Fantasia per Laura (2010) and Suite per chitarra (2016), by Giancarlo Facchinetti (1936-2017), a composer from Brescia who ‘with his biographical and artistic story, sums up the fragmented and contradictory course of twentieth century music’.

Alongside the mainland represented by the works of Britten and Facchinetti, the former unanimously historicized and the latter undoubtedly on the way to being so, five well-known songs belonging to the tradition of pop music have been inserted, like a small and intricate archipelago. Seemingly isolated, far removed from the seriousness of the classical context just described, yet dense with their own poetic originality, thanks in part to the inventiveness of the musicians who have succeeded so well in making guitar arrangements of them, the songs surface like water lilies among the leaden atmospheres elicited by Britten and Facchinetti, like an invitation to free our mind and soul from the meditative introversion characterizing the Nocturnal, as well as the Fantasia and Suite. The pieces in our program alternate as if wishing to lead the listener through the meanderings of an emotional journey that culminates in the concluding Nocturnal.

Clair Obscur (Alpha 727), dedicated to German lieder with orchestra, explored the antagonism between light and shadow. Reflet conjures up the nuances and transparencies of French melodies. There is in reflection the idea of an echo, the shadow of a disquieting double, of a plural, diffracted sparkle… A clash of deceptive mirages, a kaleidoscope of senses and flashes of light, it interweaves in strange parallels the score of our lives, adorned with gold and illusions", writes Sandrine Piau. Berlioz, Gauthier, Britten, Hugo, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Duparc, Koechlin, Ravel, Mallarmé... the encounters between these composers and poets"create in me a firework display of colours and shimmers", concludes the French soprano, who is making her 14th recording for Alpha Classics.

REVIEW:

Here is a whole album that makes up a single, sublime musical utterance. One feels that every note is almost foreordained as the program opens with classic orchestral songs from Berlioz, Henri Duparc, and the less common Charles Koechlin, proceeding into darker, more mysterious realms with Ravel’s Three Mallarmé Songs, and ending with the youthful ebullience of Britten’s Quatre chansons françaises. Piau’s voice is delicate, soaring, and richly beautiful; one of the miracles of the current scene is its durability and versatility. Her support from conductor Jean-François Verdier, leading the Victor Hugo Orchestra, is confidently smooth, never intruding on the spell Piau weaves.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

Westminster Choir 100th Anniversary Recording

Music has the ability to illuminate aspects of the human condition in ways that only sound married to texts can achieve. One of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, William Sloan Coffin, often remarked that music in most cases was more powerful than the spoken word. This recording represents just that. All the music on this recording reflects, in sound, that serenity (and, yes, beauty) is within all of us if we choose to go there. This recording celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Westminster Choir in 1920 by John Finley Williamson, albeit a bit later.

“This Scordatura Album is the second In Memoriam album in honour of my son Dorian. It features two illustrious masterpieces written for cello in alternative, darker tunings: the Bach Suite with the top string lowered by a whole tone and the Kodály Sonata with the two bottom strings lowered by a semitone. Both pieces are fierce, resilient and profound and although painted in dark colours, they comfort us with their show of sheer musical power and luminous inventiveness.” Stark statement of repertoire filled with personal significance and universal beauty. Unparalleled preformance of Kodály's sonata for cello solo. Pieter combines intense energy and emotional connection in his interpretation of the pieces.

The album “Britten”, released by Animal Music, comprises three essential choral works by one of the most distinguished 20th-century composers, Benjamin Britten, in new recordings by the Czech vocal ensemble Martinu Voices conducted by its founding artistic director Lukáš Vasilek and featuring soloists Katerina Englichová (harp) and Daniela Valtová Kosinová (organ). Te Deum in C, A Ceremony of Carols and Hymn to St. Cecilia occupy a special place in Britten’s oeuvre. Writing music for choirs of all shapes and sizes enabled Britten to carry out his long-term goal, i.e. to create music that would be “useful” or, in other words, that could serve his community and fulfil the democratic potential of choral singing. Each of the three works was intended for different forces: one for choir and organ, one for choir and harp, and one for unaccompanied choir. The compositions very well illustrate Britten’s ability to create an entirely different world with each new composition. All three works come from an in-between stage in his life and career. Te Deum in C originated in 1934 when Britten’s personal and professional life had temporarily come to a standstill, the other two compositions were written, in part, during an Atlantic crossing when Britten and his partner Peter Pearse were returning from the US to Britain in 1942, having spent three years in America. The most popular of the three pieces is A Ceremony of Carols which has become a stock piece on the repertoire of school choirs, choir associations as well as professional ensembles and is regularly performed to this day. With “Britten”, Martinu Voices add another recording to their string of profile albums dedicated to diverse masters of choral composition – having previously released albums with music by Bohuslav Martinu (2018) and Jan Novák (2014). Lukáš Vasilek is one of the foremost Czech choir conductors. Apart from being the artistic director of Martinu Voices he is the chief conductor of Prague Philharmonic Choir and has collaborated, among others, with Jirí Belohlávek, Simon Rattle, Semjon Byckov, Manfred Honeck, Gianandrea Noseda, and world-renowned orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Symphonic Orchestra. In 2023, he conducted a remarkable concert performance of Britten’s War Requiem in which he combined the forces of the Prague Philharmonic Choir with those of three orchestras and three international soloists. On the cover, a portrait of Benjamin Britten by the famous photographer Cecil Beaton has been used. It was taken in 1942, around the time the composer was working on some of these pieces. The liner notes include a text on Benjamin Britten and his choral works by the British musicologist Dr. Lucy Walker.

The 37 songs in this recital, written by 27 composers – male, female, English, French, Swiss, German, Romantic, modern and contemporary – bear witness to the richness of Shakespeare’s works to which this recital is dedicated. Organised in the form of a play in five acts, including prologue and epilogue, the songs, which include several duets, are in turn cheerful and sad, light and profound, classical and jazzy – thus allowing, in Carolyn Sampson’s words, ‘a breadth of responses to these great texts’. Alongside well-known melodies, such as those by Schubert, there are musical adaptations by different composers of the same texts, as well as a contemporary reflection for the two voices by Hannah Kendall exploring the question of gender fluidity and identity through the elusive character of Rosalind from As You Like It.

After many acclaimed releases on BIS, including Album für die Frau, a collection of songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, A Soprano’s Schubertiade and Elysium, two Schubert recitals, as well as a number of themed recitals, some of which were named ‘Recording of the Month’ by MusicWeb International and ‘CD-Tipp’ by BR Klassik, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton are joined here by renowned British baritone Roderick Williams.

REVIEW:

Soprano Carolyn Sampson and baritone Roderick Williams are prolific singers who can handle almost any kind of repertory but have a strong connection to the English tradition from the Baroque to the 20th century. It would be hard to imagine better singers for this collection of Shakespeare songs, for on one hand, Shakespeare settings are about as traditional as one can get, while on the other, this is an exceptionally diverse collection. Listeners unaware that Haydn set Shakespeare should make it their business to hear Sampson in She never told her love, as soon as possible. There are settings of German Shakespeare translations by Schubert, Schumann, and Hugo Wolf, a French one by Arthur Honegger, and an entrancing English-language Fancy by Poulenc. This album represents, in short, an embarrassment of riches, and it is one of the finest Shakespeare song releases to come along in quite some time.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

CONTENTS:

• Ireland: Full fathom five
• Vaughan Williams: Dirge for Fidele
• Moeran: The Lover and his Lass
• Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Arise, "Sea Murmurs"
• Smith, J C: You spotted snakes
• Tippett: Songs for Ariel
• Arne: Under the Greenwood Tree
• Gurney: Under the greenwood tree
• Parry: Sonnet LXXXVII
• Ireland: When daffodils begin to peer
• Haydn: She Never Told Her Love, Hob. XXVIa:34
• Schubert: An Silvia, D 106
• Schubert: Ständchen 'Horch! Horch! die Lerch!', D889
• Schubert: Trinklied D888
• Schumann: Schlusslied des Narren, Op.127 No. 5
• Wolf, H: Lied des transferierten Zettel
• Cornelius: Komm herbei, Tod, Op.16 No. 3
• Frances-Hoad: Rosalind
• Poulenc: Fancy
• Britten: Fancie
• Honegger: Deux Chants d'Ariel
• Bridge: Blow, blow, thou winter wind
• Dring: Take, O Take Those Lips Away
• Dankworth: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
• Horder: Under the greenwood tree
• Coleridge-Taylor: The Willow Song
• Beach, A: Fairy Lullaby
• Williams, Roderick: Sigh no More, Ladies
• Sullivan, A: Orpheus with his Lute

Between 2010 and 2014, the British Emperor Quartet released the three discs gathered here, with all of Benjamin Britten’s published music for string quartet – as well as his one work for string quintet, the Phantasy in F minor. Their performances of the three numbered quartets, undisputed masterpieces of 20th-century chamber music, were variously described by the critics as ‘stupendous’ (Classic FM Magazine), ‘a wonderful homage’ (Ensemble), and ‘a complete cosmos of colors and nuances’ (Fono Forum), and the discs received top marks and distinctions in magazines such as Fanfare, Diapason and International Record Review.

Britten wrote his String Quartets Nos 1, 2 and 3 in 1941, 1945 and 1975 respectively, but his natural facility in writing for strings was evident from a very early age. The Emperor’s set includes a number of youthful works, from the String Quartet in F, by a fourteen-year old schoolboy, to Simple Symphony, composed in 1934 and the work which may be regarded as his breakthrough. The box set includes the original booklets, with insightful liner notes by Britten specialist Arnold Whittall.

REVIEW:

The Emperors bring energy, commitment, real understanding of the idiom and finesse to all these works. Perhaps they are more at home with the early works than with the final quartet, but that is a strange and hermetic work, and I found their performance compelling enough.

-- MusicWeb International

These remarkable recordings of Britten’s elusive string quartets have appeared before, but are very welcome in this compilation, giving listeners the chance to appraise a lesser-known aspect of Britten’s compositional genius. The Emperor Quartet have the full measure of the pieces.

-- Classical CD Choice

The term sinfonietta is generally used to describe a work that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. It only came into common usage during the first half of the 20th century, which is when the three works included on this disc were in fact composed. Worth noting is also that Sergei Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten wrote their respective sinfoniettas while they were still in their teens – early attempts at multi-movement works for ensemble. Prokofiev revised his Sinfonietta twice, with the 1929 version recorded here, and went on to become one of the great symphonists of his time. Britten chose a different path, with operas forming the most important part of his legacy. Perhaps symptomatically, his Sinfonietta – his Op. 1 – was initially composed for wind quintet and string quintet, a scoring which he later expanded into the version heard on the present recording. Like Britten, Francis Poulenc was not naturally inclined towards large-scale orchestral works, and his Sinfonietta is indeed his only symphonic piece. The most recent of the works on the disc, it is in a neo-classical vein with sparkling dance rhythms as well as lyrical moments. The three works are here performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, a team which has released several highly acclaimed albums on BIS.

REVIEWS:

Poulenc's Sinfonietta would be the composer's only work in the symphony genre, borrowing, sometimes more obviously than not, from the neo-classical stylings of Stravinsky and nearly quoting Mozart. Poulenc mostly stayed away from larger forms, finding success with his songs, chamber music, and religious works, but this Sinfonietta displays the composer's charm and gift with melodic phrasing.

The Sinfonietta, Op. 5, by Prokofiev (heard here in its final revision from 1929, which the composer assigned as his Op. 48) is a youthful work, even in its revised form. A light and airy neo-classical work that, along with his Classical Symphony, can trace to the mature Prokofiev symphonic writing.

While the sinfoniettas of Poulenc and Prokofiev are light and airy works, the Sinfonietta, Op. 1, by Britten has a more mature sound, even though he was only 18 when it was written. The harmonic structure of the work is influenced by the Second Viennese School through his teacher and dedicatee of the work, Frank Bridge. Originally written for wind quintet and string quintet, Britten later revised it for chamber orchestra, which is what is presented here.

A thoroughly enjoyable hour of lighter music that will be nearly unknown to many listeners but should be accessible to a wide audience. BIS' engineers make good use of the Lahti Symphony's magnificent Sibelius Hall home.

-- AllMusic.com (Keith Finke)

All in all this is a splendid release, very enjoyable from beginning to end, offering 3 wonderful pieces not often encountered. It is expertly played, conducted and recorded. Very highly recommended.

-- Classical CD Review

On his second album for Alpha Classics, rising star violinist Kerson Leong juxtaposes the Violin Concertos of Bruch and Benjamin Britten. This unusual pairing is a reflection on the journey from one extreme of expression to another. Bruch’s In Memoriam is the perfect bridge between them. “The Britten expresses a raw and exposed experience, while the Bruch is comforting and uplifting. After the last few years in which the world has experienced much difficulty and uncertainty due to pandemic, war, and crisis, recording this album in London in January 2021 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Patrick Hahn was a profoundly cathartic moment. It is in the spirit of catharsis that I offer this album.” - Kerson Leong

REVIEW:

The clincher for me was the lead work on the disc, Britten’s Violin Concerto, which actually has enjoyed a rash of recent recordings by “name” players, but none that has managed to make sense of the piece for me – or even particularly to like it. Leong changed that for me, and when an artist can overcome my resistance and make me hear a work in a different perspective, one that illuminates its beauty and elucidates its soul, that is worthy of a Want List entry.

-- Fanfare

Kerson Leong’s splendid account of the Bruch comes hot on the heels of [other recordings, but] Leong’s take on the piece is more outgoing in expression. Leong’s generosity of phrase and tone, for instance, comes unashamedly from the chest in the songful reaches of the slow movement, and in the finale where the big tune bears down on the G string he really tugs at our emotions.

The bonus addition here is Bruch’s littleheard but substantial tribute to Joseph Joachim, In memoriam, which is as turbulent as it is reflective, as befitting the legendary violinist’s fighting spirit, and gives Leong further opportunity to sing from the heart. My thoughts occasionally turned to Elgar and the more than a hint of nobilmente that it proffers.

But it is the coupling of the Britten Violin Concerto (gratifyingly becoming more and more core repertoire these days) which...sets this disc apart. The inspiration here was another violinist, Antonio Brosa, but more self-evidently, through the Spanish inflections in its material, it’s a meditation on that most divisive of civil wars – something which clearly distressed and exercised Britten, the pacifist. This is the composer at his most elegiac and unsettled (is it major or minor?) and Leong is clearly at one with its inner tussles – but also with all the extraordinary sparks of originality which make it unmistakably Britten: like the powerful coda of the first movement which pits the soloist’s abrasive pizzicato against deeply meditative strings only to have him grow more and more prayerful with the music’s ascendancy.

The kinship with Shostakovich is startling in the trenchant Scherzo, which Leong digs into with great resilience, but again the entry of the tuba with violin and piccolo in extremis high above the stave is pure Britten, as is the emotive orchestral climax.

But Leong really makes his mark with the concluding Passacaglia, a form so beloved of both Britten and Shostakovich as a metaphorical anchor in times of great stress. Suddenly psychological ambiguities are set aside and in the wake of one war Britten becomes contentious objector of all. The tragedy catches in his throat and the music of those closing pages – movingly projected by Leong – chokes on the soloist’s final utterances. With outstanding collaboration from Patrick Hahn and the Philharmonia Orchestra I can’t recall a better account of the piece than this.

-- Gramophone

Embark on a musical journey celebrating humanity's relentless pursuit of innovation and exploration. This recording, a tribute to pioneers like Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong, showcases new compositions and transcriptions, some crafted exclusively for the Navy Band. Immerse yourself in monumental pieces reimagined for winds, created by composers and arrangers with strong ties to the Navy Band. Join us in navigating uncharted waters and be the first to experience the thrilling intersection of tradition and innovation!