As one of the great pianists of the 20th century, WILHELM BACKHAUS (1884–1969) needs no introduction. He recorded almost continuously from 1908 until his death, but this set, focusing on his earliest recordings, completes APR’s coverage (see also APR 6026, APR 6027 and APR 5637) of all his solo and concerto output for The Gramophone Company/HMV, except the electrically recorded Brahms titles, which are available elsewhere. These early discs reveal Backhaus as an exciting young virtuoso, rather than the sober purveyor of German classics he was to become.

This album brings together all of Kodaly's extant pieces for organ, plus works by his contemporaries. They are performed on the Chancel Organ at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, Atlanta by the acclaimed Welsh organist Iain Quinn, professor of organ at Florida State University.

REVIEW:

The disc opens with Ernő Dohnányi’s quite substantial Fantasie in C minor which is listed as a world premiere recording. As is my preference when encountering unknown music, I listen before I read any of the detail, so my surprise as to why this work should sound so unlike this composer’s other music is easily explained, as it is a student work by a fifteen year old. For sure, there is talent and confidence and no little skill but this does sound rather like a test or exercise piece where some Bachian passages jostle with imposing hymn-like melodies and some rather broad-brush Romantic gestures.

Sandwiched between music by familiar composers are a couple of pieces by less well-known names. Bedřich Antonín Wiedermann's Pastorale dorico is another modest, rather unassuming work with a conservative outlook that belies its 1942 composition.

Kodály's set of nine Epigrammák are in fact transcriptions for solo organ made by Gábor Trajtler of songs by Kodály written originally in 1954. These are consciously unaffected and simple pieces. As a sequence they come across as a bit unvaried, but I cannot imagine a better case being made for them than here by Iain Quinn

Just in time the work around which the whole disc was planned arrives. This is Kodály’s quite wonderful Csendes mise. There is an immediate substance and stature to the music here. There is a variety of expressive and musical style that makes for a compelling experience – and this is most definitely a work that benefits from being heard complete.

The disc is completed by another unfamiliar name and work: Miloš Sokola’s Passacaglia quasi toccata na téma B-A-C-H. Dating from 1963 this work makes for an interesting and energetic ‘recessional’ piece for this program

— MusicWeb International

Bridge Records is pleased to present this previously unissued performance by the Stuyvesant Quartet. The recording is the only known "in concert" recording by this stellar quartet of players associated with Toscanini's legendary NBC Symphony Orchestra, and was made at the Library of Congress's Coolidge Auditorium in 1946. This release is part of Bridge's ongoing series devoted to the Stuyvesant Quartet's historic recordings.

REVIEW:

— Fanfare

This recording brings together four Hungarian composers who, each in their own way, contributed to the development of a new national musical style at the beginning of the twentieth century. They managed to write music that was respected internationally and that both nurtured them and raised the general standard of music in Hungary.

Leó Weiner’s (dubbed the ‘Hungarian Mendelssohn’) and Erno Dohnányi’s string trios were composed during their student years, yet both works have become significant milestones in the limited repertoire for this instrumental combination. Elegant and occasionally reminiscent of Brahms, they also incorporate subtle touches of local folklore. Zoltán Kodály, alongside Béla Bartók, one of the most important Hungarian musicians of the century, composed relatively little chamber music, but his Intermezzo, also an early work, evokes the folk music that the composer had begun to collect for his ethnomusicological research. The least familiar and youngest of the composers represented here, László Weiner, met a tragic fate. His Serenade, composed while he was studying with Kodály, reveals the exceptional talent of a composer whose body of work remains small. Less ‘Magyar’ than the other works presented here, his Serenade recalls the intense and concentrated atmosphere of Viennese ‘modernist’ works.