What a shame that these works aren't better known by the chamber-music-loving public!

Listeners who are familiar only with Glazunov's symphonic oeuvre or incidental music could well be surprised at his string quartets. They are personal works, generally serious in tone and tersely argued, brilliantly conceived for the medium. The color and evocative imagery of his orchestral music is replaced by an ease—even a playfulness—with counterpoint that never descends into the merely academic. What a shame that these works (and similar compositions by Sergei Taneyev) aren't better known by the chamber-music-loving public!

The String Quartet No. 5 dates from 1908, toward the end of Glazunov's abruptly foreshortened compositional career. (Contrary to legend, he didn't cease composing because of "the political world changing around him" or any other such romantic nonsense. Glazunov stopped because of the extremely heavy responsibilities associated with the directorship of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he assumed in 1905 and held effectively until 1928.) It is one of his finest works, and a composition of great charm and subtlety, if perhaps a shade less immediately accessible than his String Quartet No 3, the so-called "Slavonic" (after its use of predominantly folk idioms).

The performing group on this release, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, was created in 1985 by Leningrad Conservatory graduates (yes, Glazunov's old stomping grounds). Despite their origins, this ensemble is in the modern "American" quartet mold of four equal voices whose balance inclines toward intense musical dialog rather than homogeneity of sound. This approach works very well in the Quartet No. 5, given its concentration on contrapuntal texture. Unfortunately, there are no currently competing versions I'm aware of on CD. An old Melodiya LP featuring the celebrated Shostakovich Quartet offers one of the finest "old style" quartets in this work, with a rich, plumy sound and extraordinary attention to dynamics; still I prefer the SPSQ's more linear reading.

Glazunov's Five Novelettes, composed in 1886, represent his other, more "public" side, offering delight to players and audiences alike without great intellectual effort. Each movement is ostensibly in a distinct nationalistic style: the first "In Spanish Style," the last "In Hungarian Style," and so on. But these are national styles seen through deliberately Russian folk-tinged glasses. While the third movement ("Interlude in the Old Style") does create a series of fine variations on what sounds like a Slavonic chant, the "Orientale" of the second movement is simply a pleasing scherzo in Glazunov's best Borodinesque manner.

Not surprisingly. The SPSQ has slightly more competition, here, and some of it is excellent. The Calvet Sring Quartet delivers a strongly nuanced 1931 reading of the "Olden Style" movement (Lys 298/9), while the Hollywood Quartet (Testament 1061, originally recorded in the 1950s) offers an energized, dynamic reading of all tlve pieces, wonderfully blended. The Shostakovich Quartet's superb tone is formidable again in several movements on another out-of-print LP (which, hopefully, someone will reissue, someday) -surely beauty of tone was on Glazunov's mind, given the expert performers at his disposal in turn-of-the-century Russia. But the SPSQ scores in the "Orientale" movement, whose trio is delivered over a vibratoless drone. I've not heard that interpretation before, but Glazunov, who was supposedly an expert on regional folk music, would probably have delighted in the effect.

All in all, this is a highly attractive CD of two rarely heard but compelling works, performed and recorded (in a closely miked environment) immaculately. Let's hope that the SPSQ continues with further explorations into the world of Glazunov's chamber music, for there are more gems out there.

Barry Brenesal, Fanfare, Issue 25:2 (Nov/Dec 2001)

Enrique Granados was one of the great composer-pianists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A deeply nationalist musician, his works primarily mine the rich heritage of Catalan and Spanish folk music for their inspiration. Today, Granados is best remembered for his evocative solo piano works; however his output also includes a great deal of orchestral music and six operas. Many of his piano compositions, due to their rich Spanish flavor, have been transcribed for the classical guitar - including the work recorded here by the young French virtuoso Guillaume Coppola, the Danzas espanolas. In preparing for this recording, Coppola carefully studied original manuscripts and critical editions. In this powerful and insightful recording, his piano shimmers with the colors and the warmth of Spain.

Although much of the repertoire on this disc was originally conceived for large orchestra, the chamber versions offered here shed new light on familiar territory. In 1918, Arnold Schoenberg founded his Verein fur musikalische Privatauffuhrungen (Society for Private Musical Performance), whose mission was to promote contemporary works. A great admirer of Mahler, Schoenberg created a chamber version of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen for the Society, while his student Erwin Stein penned a reduction of Busoni's Berceuse diagiaque. Reiner Riehn, who completed Schoenberg's chamber version of Das Lied von der Erde, wrote this arrangement of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder for chamber orchestra. The disc is completed by Mahler's rarely heard Quartettsatz for piano and string quartet. Contralto Sara Mingardo is accompanied by Musica Aurei conducted by Luigi Piovano.

• Rachmaninov's Two Suite's and the Symphonic Dances are crucial works in his oeuvre and major works in the two piano literature. • Pianist Frédéric D’Oria-Nicolas, noted for his sonorous piano sound and assured manner, has recorded several critically acclaimed albums for Fondamenta. • Pianist Alexander Kobrin concertizes internationally and recently joined the Artist Faculty of Steinhardt School for Piano Studies at New York University. • Booklet notes in French and English.

With its reputation for technical excellence, it was only a matter of time before the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala recorded one of the most testing choral works in the a cappella repertory: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. With his beloved Russian homeland in turmoil in 1915, Rachmaninoff turned inward: to his deep personal faith and to his country’s glorious sacred music tradition. The result was one of the composer’s most honest and moving works, an aggregation of the Orthodox offices of Vespers, Matins and First Hour that moves from confession to celebration. Nine of Rachmaninoff’s movements are based on traditional orthodox chant; the rest are freer in form but imbued with the same scented spirituality that lies at the heart of the Russian Orthodox choral sound. Rachmaninoff’s work is reflective and deeply moving. It offers praise, meditation, penitence and proclamation. Like the composer, the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala – founded by Eric Ericson in 1957 and now under the stewardship of Stefan Parkman – take the text as their starting point. Captured in atmospheric sound at Bälinge Church in Sweden, the choir brings exceptional bend and balance to the score with a rich tutti sound and beautifully plaintive solos from Annika Hudak and Patrik Wallin. Footprint is proud to release this wholly distinctive and devotional interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s masterpiece on record, the first from a Scandinavian choir for many years.

This set of George Enescu’s solo piano music traces a fascinating musical arc from his precocious years in Vienna and Paris, where he absorbed Brahmsian and French late-Romantic influences, notably in the Impromptus, to the brilliantly mercurial Piano Sonata No. 3. Whether in the Pieces impromptus, eloquent character pieces, or in the oceanic Piano Sonata No. 1, Enescu remains, in Pablo Casals’ words, “the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart,” his unique musical language embracing Bach as well as the abiding vitality, and melancholy, of his native Romanian folk music. As a First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest, the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the First European Union Piano Competition, Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert series throughout the world, having made notable appearances in Bucharest, Venice, Saint Petersburg, Washington, DC, New York, London, Paris, Leipzig, and all major cities of Spain. He is the only pianist from Spain to win the Enescu and Iturbi competitions in their respective histories, and was recently invited to a private reception with the King and Queen of Spain at the Royal Palace after winning the coveted Bucharest prize.

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Excerpts of reviews for the previously released volumes in thi set:

Enescu: Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 1

His technique is excellent here. The concluding Sonata 1 is shot through with harmonic twists and driving rhythms, handled expertly.

– AMG

Enescu: Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 2

De Solaun is a wonderful pianist, especially in the colorful worlds of the Second Piano Suite.

– AMG

Enescu: Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 3

De Solaun never makes heavy weather of Enescu’s demanding writing, but lets expression lead at all times, no matter how intense the virtuosity.

– BBC Music Magazine

The four works in this second of three volumes devoted to Enescu's piano music range over a period of more than 30 years. The earliest is the joyful, ebullient Suite "Des cloches sonores", Op. 10 which covers a wide expressive range including use of the melancholy Romanian song, the doina. The Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 24 is a mercurial, puckish works, both spiritred and contemplative, and the Piece sure le nom de Faure is a charming souvenir from one composer to another.

Violist Jutta Puchhammer's album Pieces de concours pour is a treasure trove of late romantic French viola music. Originating as exam compositions for students enrolled at the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris from 1896-1938, this album demonstrates Puchhammer's peerless virtuosity as a performer, as well as the expressive range of her instrument, which was largely dismissed by the mainstream of eighteenth and nineteenth century composers. Many of the compositions on Pieces de concours pour share the Classical form of Sitt's concerto, such as Henri Marteau's Chaconne in ut majeur, or the French romantic aesthetic of Busser's Appassionato, such as Paul Rougnon's Concertino Romantique. Romanian-born composer Stan Golestan's Arioso et Allegro marks an interesting departure from these other works, as it reflects the new aesthetics of the twentieth century. Arioso et Allegro is dominated by pentatonic scales, which may suggest the influence of indigenous Asian musics - as they do in Debussy's piano piece Pagodes - Eastern European folk music, or American jazz, which took France by storm in the 1920s and 30s.

Medtner's legacy for solo piano is now widely esteemed alongside Rachmaninoff and other giants of the Russian 'silver age': melodists to their core, romantics at heart, yet rigorous craftsmen to their fingertips, who took their muse seriously and refined their inspiration to distil a peculiarly Russian spirit of melancholy in sound. However, around a third of Medtner's output, measured by opus numbers, was dedicated to voices, and this section of his music has received much less attention. Ekaterina Levental has dedicated herself to correcting this imbalance. The Uzbek-born, Dutch-resident mezzo-soprano has given all of Medtner's songs in concert with the pianist Frank Peters; together, they now embark on a recorded cycle. Medtner lacked nothing for self-sacrificing dedication to his art, and he chose to set the finest poets of his Russian homeland: Pushkin, Fet, Lermontov and others, and then Goethe and Eichendorff in German. Unlike Rachmaninoff he continued to write songs even after emigrating and settling in London. 'Medtner's musical vocabulary is very rich and expressive,' Levental and Peters explain in their own booklet note, which is printed together with English translations of the lyrics. 'Some songs immediately captivate you, others require a certain effort from the listener. Anyone who takes up the challenge, makes a discovery. Every song is a treasure and an intimate, spiritual confession from the composer to his listener.' In the category of 'immediate appeal' surely fall the two songs of Op.13: the ardent vocal response to Pushkin's Winter Evening perfectly underscored by the stormy piano part. No less unmistakably Russian in expression is the complementary Epitaph, triumphant even in it's mournfulness and like many other of the songs here not as stern as much of Medtner's piano music. Any listener looking for the composer's personal voice, behind the virtuoso keyboard fireworks, should start here.