For his latest solo album in a growing catalog of increasingly critically praised recordings for Signum Classics, Alessio Bax returns with a program of rich and evocative works for piano by Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Scriabin. The Italian-born, NYC-based pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. “His playing quivers with an almost hypnotic intensity,” says Gramophone magazine, leading to what Dallas Morning News calls “an out-of-body experience.” “…a pianist of refreshing depth.” (International Piano) Alessio Bax plays Beethoven, released in 2014, was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice: “'Even when compared to legendary performances of this sonata (Kempff, Richter, Gilels, Brendel, etc), this performance stands its ground in music to test the technique and intellect of even the greatest pianists.”
Rachmaninov: Die Glocken, Op. 35 - Taneev: Johannes Damascenus, Op. 1 / Kitajenko, Gurzenich Orchester Koln
Oehms Classics
CD
$19.99Jul 31, 2020
Inspired by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the symphonic poem "The Bells" was written in 1913. In four parts, it describes the different features of bell ringing: children’s sleigh bells in the first section, the wedding bells of a young couple in the second, alarm bells for a misfortune in the third and mourning bells in the fourth one. In his work, Rachmaninov uses the text version by Konstantin Balmont (1867–1943), who freely rewrote the text by Edgar Allan Poe. Rachmaninov adeptly avoided onomatopoetically emulating the sounds of bells with carillons and similar percussion instruments. Between counterpoint and Russian church hymn: Escape from the world and faith in a moving cantata Taneyev had learnt his technique of composition from Bach’s and Handel’s polyphony and pursued the idea of combining counterpoint and Russian folk music. The cantata Ioann Damaskin (“Johannes Damascenus”), created 1883–84, refers to a longer poem by Aleksej K. Tolstoj (1817–1875). It deals with the flight of the world from John of Damascus (around 650– before 754) from the worldly crowds to the spiritual retreat. However, from this very long poem Taneyev selected merely 16 lines as the source for a church cantata without reference to the biographical background. It is purely about man’s path through life in darkness and fear and redemption at The Last Judgement. The counterpoint of the work, learnt from Baroque music, takes a special position in Russian late Romanticism.
On his final recording, the great actor Bruno Ganz narrates Tennyson’s poem, Enoch Arden, with its echoes of the everlasting stories of Odysseus and Robinson Crusoe. In a unique synthesis of words and music, Tennyson’s verse is further deepened by R. Strauss’ flamboyant musical depiction, played here by pianist Kirill Gerstein. Bruno Ganz; 22 March 1941 – 16 February 2019) was a Swiss actor whose career in German television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wim Wenders, earning widespread recognition with his roles as Jonathan Zimmerman in The American Friend (1977), Jonathan Harker in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and Damiel the Angel in Wings of Desire (1987).
Ever since its triumphal premiere on 12th September 1910 in Munich, Mahler’s 8th Symphony in E flat major has had the reputation of being, along with Arnold Schönberg’s “Gurre-Liedern”, the piece on the whole of the symphonic repertoire calling for the largest number of participants. This recording has a number of musicians much less than the average, but Gabriel Feltz sees it more like a great chance. He used flanking positions for the choir in relation to the orchestra and lager parts of the choirs were facing each other, which gives especially the first parts stereophonic effects. For Feltz these performances of Mahler’s 8th symphony on 3rd and 4th July 2018 were especially successful and fulfilling moments in his life as a musician.
Fantastic storylines abound in opera, but these grand musical settings of much-loved fairytales embrace the imaginary, giving free rein to dreams. The Royal Opera's acclaimed Hansel and Gretel combines the directors' characteristic wit and knack for dark comedy with the story's enduring charm. Glyndebourne's recounting of the quick-witted fox's escape into nature balances the opera's whimsy and mysticism. Opera North's enchanting staging of Jonathan Dove's 21st opera is a wittily inventive feast for the eyes and ears, shining new light on Collodi's original tale, by turns magical and dark. "What an inspired and exciting opera this is. Gorgeous characters, a busy story rich in incident and an exhilarating mix of music. Delight follows delight." (The Stage - The Adventures of Pinocchio) "Not only was the production a great one to attend as a first opera, but the [video] is perhaps as good an introduction to opera as one could hope for, a success on almost every front." (Musicweb International - Hansel und Gretel) "Lucy Crowe's glowingly sung Vixen... Tom Pye's Hockneyish designs are evocative of a world of childish wonder, with animal costumes which cleverly suggest human characteristic." (The Daily Telegraph - The Cunning Little Vixen)
Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony started life as a single-movement tone poem called Todtenfeier (‘Funeral Rites’). Completed in 1888 – one year before Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration – it echoed the composer's vision of seeing himself lying dead in a funeral bier surrounded by flowers. Deciding to use it as his opening movement, Mahler didn't finish the complete five-movement symphony until more than six years later, the longest time he spent on any work. The huge scale of the work apart, its weighty subject matter may well have contributed to the slow progress: Mahler himself outlined a scenario making references to the ultimate meaning of life and death (first movement), recollections of lost innocence and the desperation of unbelief (second and third movements), the return to naïve faith (fourth movement) and final redemption from the last judgement (finale). To convey this he took recourse to the human voice: incorporating a solo alto in the 4th movement Urlicht, he went on in the finale to risk comparison with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by introducing a choir, as well as a soprano and alto soloist.
Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä have received praise for their previous Mahler recordings (‘Vänskä and the orchestra are among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music...’, allmusic.com). The team is here joined by soloists Ruby Hughes and Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale in the deeply moving close to the vast and tumultuous panorama that is his Second Symphony.
REVIEW:
[Vänskä] adopts a nicely relaxed approach – and pace – for the second movement. The strings play very stylishly and the recording differentiates very well indeed between the various string parts. The third movement is also largely a success; the sardonic humour comes across quite well – as is in keeping with the original Knaben Wunderhorn song on which the movement is based. The orchestra points the music very effectively with special praise for the woodwind in this regard. The wild premonition of the finale (8:03) is projected with dramatic force and urgency. Sasha Cooke sings "Urlicht" very well indeed.
The huge finale is unleashed in dramatic fashion and the vivid impact of the bass drum stroke is typical of the quality of the BIS recording. Vänskä handles this vast musical fresco pretty well. The drama is projected strongly, not least in the huge march episode that follows those two apocalyptic percussion crescendi (9:21). The grosse Appell is impressive (17:16): the distant brass is very well handled in the recording and the solo piccolo and flute distinguish themselves. When the choir begins to sing (20:01) their sound is hushed but distinct, which is as it should be. Ruby Hughes’ silvery voice rises gently and sweetly from the midst of the singers at the end of the first long phrase. Miss Hughes does very well, too, in the ‘O Glaube’ duet with Sasha Cooke.
The performance is highly accomplished. Vänskä has a good choir at his disposal and two excellent soloists. As for his orchestra, they play the music marvellously. There are many idiomatic touches such as string portamenti while accents – so crucial in Mahler – and dynamics are scrupulously observed.
Elgar: Symphony No. 1, Op. 55 & In the South, Op. 50 "Alassi
ICA Classics
CD
$14.99Aug 26, 2016
This new release from ICA Classics presents the first recording of Antonio Pappano conducting Elgar with his Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. For this program, Elgar’s First Symphony is paired with his Concert Overture ‘In the South,’ which was inspired by the conposer’s holiday in Alassio during 1903-1904. Both of these works had been out of the orchestra’s repertoire for more than a century until Pappano stated that he was “on a mission to bring this music back to its place of birth,” knowing that his performers had “natural Italianate passion and lyricism,” which would be perfect for these works. Pappano’s 2012 London season opened with Elgar. Reviewers had only positive things to say: “…His surging striving account caught all the nervous energy of this elegia work… Now he should take the symphony… to his own orchestra [in Rome].”
Italian organist and composer Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925) was born into a family of musicians. His father was organist at Salo Cathedral. He studied at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna and the Milan Conservatory before becoming director of music and organist at Como Cathedral. Later, he became the professor of organ and harmony at Naples Conservatory. He wrote more than 150 works for various genres, most of which remain largely unknown, except for his organ works. Organist Marco Ruggeri performs the works on the present release on an illustrious Lingiardi organ which resides in the Reggio Emilia province.
Visions Of Childhood / April Fredrick, Kenneth Woods, English Symphony Orchestra
Nimbus
CD
$20.99Feb 05, 2021
Kenneth Woods writes: “Given that this programme was to be an exploration of childhood, the obvious place to start is with birth. Richard Wagner wrote his Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present for his wife, Cosima, just after the birth of their son, Siegfried. Nowhere else in music is there so tender an evocation of those fragile, precious and fraught first days and weeks of life. Engelbert Humperdinck’s great children’s opera, Hänsel und Gretel, a quasi-Wagnerian setting of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, tells the story of two children in peril… “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”) is one of Schubert’s simplest and most popular songs, composed in 1817,when Schubert was just 20, to words by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart… Gustav Mahler’s 100-minute Third symphony and his Fourth grew out of the musical material in the short, beautiful song which forms the final movement of the Fourth Symphony, “Das himmlische Leben” (“The Heavenly Life,”), and which concludes these Visions of Childhood. First, however, we hear his song “The Earthly Life” (“Das irdische Leben”) which forms a sort of bleak mirror image to that song. As with the Humperdinck, I have essentially stuck as closely as possible to Mahler’s own orchestration, which is a model of clarity and economy, but also full of extreme, even grotesque, colors. Finally, we come to another combination of song and variations by Schubert, both known as “Der Todund das Mädchen” (“Death and the Maiden”). The song is based on a poem by Matthias Claudius and was written in 1817, the same year as “The Trout.” It has only two verses – one in which the Maiden pleads with Death to pass her by, and one in which Death assures her that he is a friend.
Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto & Chamber Music with Clarinet
Delos
CD
$18.99Apr 20, 2018
This delightful and lighthearted album features virtuoso clarinetist David Shifrin performing Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto in a newly arranged accompaniment for chamber orchestra. The dramatic work unfolds unpredictably in short, contrasting episodes that allow the soloist to explore a range of moods and colors. We are then treated to Nielsen’s charming Six Humorous Bagatelles, written for his children. From the simply put “Hello, Hello” to the final “Musical Clock,” these endearing pieces radiate good humor and adventure. Nielsen’s early Fantasy Pieces with their varying moods and harmonic twists reveal Nielsen’s romantic side, and his Serenata in Vano for wind quintet shows off Nielsen’s affinity for wind instruments and his quirky, playful sensibility. “If there is a bel canto school of clarinet playing, Shifrin is surely its finest exponent.” (The Los Angeles Times)
Two of the greatest practitioners of High Romantic art song were, not surprisingly, also exceptional opera composers: Richard Wagner (1813-1883) and Richard Strauss (1864-1949). While the former cultivated all-encompassing music dramas to the near exclusion of everything else, the latter worked successfully in genres ranging from chamber music to grand symphonies. German lieder attained a relative highpoint in the work of Franz Schubert, whose 600+ individual songs and organic song cycles deserve pride of place. However, that achievement must not overshadow the later evolution of the genre in generations from Mendelssohn to Schoenberg. Great lieder are distinguished by psychological commentary provided by purely musical means, whereby details of range, harmony and chromaticism, and the role of the accompaniment provide deeper reflection on (often) quite superficial love poetry. Such opportunities for richer exploration increased in the late 19th century as poets—along with philosophers and psychologists—probed deeper into the human psyche.
Like his friend and contemporary Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Medtner enjoyed a privileged and affluent upbringing, and was also exiled from Russia following the revolution in 1917. Unlike Rachmaninoff, Medtner could point to an ancestry that was part German, and his father’s passion for Germanic culture ensured that Goethe and Beethoven exerted as much influence on the young Medtner as Russian composers and writers, in particular Beethoven’s piano sonatas and string quartets. Medtner moved first to Germany, then France, before settling in London in 1935. The earlier songs in this programme, Opp. 36 and 37, were written against the backdrop of the revolution, shortly before he fled Russia. Opp. 45 and 46 (written to Russian and German texts, respectively) were composed in France. Praised for her ‘formidably striking’ and ‘stunning silvery’ sound, the rising star soprano Sofia Fomina has performed in Toulouse and Baden-Baden, at Bayerische Staatsoper, Seattle Opera, Hungarian State Opera, Paris Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Her Pamina for Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2019 received rave reviews. Alexander Karpeyev has performed throughout Europe and toured in the USA, Canada, and Russia as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. A prize-winner of several international competitions, he also completed a doctorate on performance practise in the music of Medtner, based on the Edna Iles Medtner Collection at the British Library.
REVIEW:
The Russian soprano’s lovely voice soars above the staff with ease – no wonder as she is a busy operatic coloratura soprano. But unlike many an opera singer, she is perfectly at home in the intimate world of art song, where her attention to the nuances of expressing the text are greatly in evidence. She is just as comfortable in the lyrical songs in 6 Stikhotvoreniy A. Pushkina (6 Poems by A. Pushkin), Op. 36 as in the rapturously dramatic Arion and in the intensity of Telega zhizni (The Wagon of Life.)
Sofia Fomina is perfectly partnered by the protean pianist Alexander Karpeyev, a Medtner specialist who would be the ideal artist to create an album of piano music by the prolific Medtner.
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 / Jarvi, Residentie Orchestra The Hague
Chandos
SACD
$6.99$13.99Save 50%Jul 27, 2010
Neeme Järvi has been recording for Chandos for several decades now, especially with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with which he has made more than 100 CDs. Many of these recordings have received tremendous critical acclaim and include several Gramophone Award Winners.
This is his second Chandos recording with the Residentie Orchestra The Hague, of which he is chief conductor. The first, of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony (CHSA5080) was released in April to excellent acclaim. Gramophone wrote: ‘Järvi is too good a musician not to take his players with him. Indeed the Dutch musicians display a certain daredevil nonchalance as they breeze their way through the epic 635-bar finale.’
Mahler’s Seventh Symphony is perhaps the least well known of all Mahler’s symphonies. Its five movements were written over a period of two years, 1904 – 05, and scored and revised in 1906. The symphony has no programme, but the two serenade movements were influenced by the German romanticism of the poetry of Eichendorff, and elements of the fairytale, the macabre, and the sentimental permeate these movements.
Even though the symphony is imbued with a richness of melody, and bold and original harmonies, it is perhaps the most enigmatic of all Mahler’s symphonies. It begins with a striking funeral march, which develops into a powerful allegro, though the music is at the same time full of ‘dream-like’ elements. These dream-like fantasy elements pervade the serenade movements, which are separated by an exciting central scherzo, and the symphony ends with a vigorously contrapuntal finale. Perhaps the symphony can be seen as a journey from darkness to light, from the B minor gloom of the beginning, to the blaze of C major at the end. The journey is fascinating and very rewarding.
Posthumous Songs of Alexander Zemlinsky / Kimbrough, Baldwin
Centaur Records
CD
$17.99May 21, 2021
This selection of Posthumous Songs covers the period 1889-1909, with one song from 1933. Here one senses Zemlinsky's earliest development and years of musical study, as he tests his skills on some of the finest German poets. That he was fully up to the task is immediately evident upon listening. The American baritone, Steven Kimbrough, studied at the University of Birmingham, Alabama, and at Princeton Theological Seminary (graduated in 1962). He had further studies in Italy. Kimbrough is well known as a recital and concert singer through many appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and with symphonies in the USA and abroad. He is the foremost interpreter of the "turn-of-the-century" school of Viennese composers (most of whom were effaced by Hitler's Third Reich), as is demonstrated by his many highly praised recordings. He has presented in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere a recital of their songs under the title "Forbidden Composers."
SOMM Recordings’ historic complete survey of Charles Villiers Stanford’s String Quartets by the Dante Quartet reaches its end with a third volume focusing on Nos. 1 and 2, and the first recording of No. 6. Already acclaimed as a composer of choral music, Stanford came relatively late to the string quartet form, composing his first two at the age of 39 in 1891. Six more followed over the next three decades, including the Op. 122 String Quartet, No. 6 in 1910. This final volume features the early String Quartets, Opp. 44 (No. 1) and 45 (No. 2) which share a concern for meticulous use of individual instrument voices and a leaning towards lyricism. Allusions to Beethoven and Mozart are contained within Stanford’s own beautifully crafted music. Heard here in its premiere recording, the Sixth String Quartet is a work of rich contrasts, restless energy and some of Stanford’s most expressive writing for the medium. Volume I (SOMMCD 0160) was admired as “an excellent disc in every respect” (MusicWeb International), applauded as “most enterprising and thoroughly likeable” (Classical Ear) and acclaimed “a really worthwhile release” (Gramophone). Volume II (SOMMCD 0185) was described as “essential listening... SOMM and the Dantes have broken important new ground with impressive commitment” by Gramophone and by Limelight as being “played with great élan and sensitivity by the excellent Dante Quartet”.
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REVIEW:
The Dante Quartet play splendidly throughout the album, with noticeably clean articulation and gratifying intonation. Unerringly accomplished, these Dante performances, combined with spirited interpretations that breathe vitality and enthusiasm, would pass the most rigorous examination. The engineering team, recording in St Nicholas Parish Church, Thames Ditton, has provided first class sound quality. Stanford biographer Jeremy Dibble has written the booklet notes. Lovers of British music, and Stanford in particular, need not hesitate in acquiring this superb album.
Framed by Edward Elgar’s deeply personal Violin Sonata and the bravura fireworks of his Mazurka, this programme is a fascinating look at British music for violin and piano at the turn of the last century. Popular pieces such as Delius’s haunting Serenade can be found alongside premiere recordings such as that of Frank Bridge’s attractive Con moto or Cyril Scott’s contemplative Versperale.
Now celebrating his twentieth year of distinguished operatic achievements, this collection of arias from mostly “Verismo” operas features tenor Marcelo Alvarez delivering high-impact accounts of both popular and lesser-known selections by masters such as Puccini, Leoncavallo, Giordano, Mascagni and Massenet. + You will also hear – possibly for the first time – a fascinating array of choice rarities by Verismo-era composers (Gomes, Cilea, Zandonai, and Halévy) who were prominent in their day, but whose music has since fallen into comparative neglect. + Maestro Constantine Orbelian – leading the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra – provides the necessary and important support. + “Marcelo Alvarez gave his usual passionate and thrilling performance ... taking advantage of his beautiful voice by phrasing the musical lines with elegance.” - Ingrid Haas
Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2; 10 Preludes, Op. 23 / Emre Yavuz
Tyxart
CD
$20.99Nov 06, 2020
Two giant works: the lesser played 1913 version of Op. 36, Piano Sonata No. 2, an epic piece in the truest sense of the word and Op. 23, 10 Preludes, an intimate cycle, both challenge the physical and psychological limits of the player and the listener. With the help of the Bösendorfer Concert Grand 280VC – Vienna Concert this recording dives deep into the rich, orchestral sound world, as well as the dark nature of these works, loaded with fine details, technical and emotional extremities, candid moments and explosivity. Emre Yavuz was born in 1990 in Izmir, Turkey. His talent for learning at a rapid pace was evident at an early age, eventually leading to a musical education. He started his education in music in 1998 under the “Educational Act for Prodigy Children”, studying with Kamuran Gündemir in Ankara. He continued his studies with Fazil Say and Sanem Berkalp at the Bilkent University, where he also studied composition. Later studying with Roland Batik in Vienna, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hannover, and with Arie Vardi in Hannover and Tel Aviv. Starting at an early age Yavuz played with major orchestras performing concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. With his interpretations of Chopin he won prizes in Sicily in 2007, and in Vienna in 2010. He became the first piano student of the Vienna Conservatory to graduate with full grades upon his final recital, performing works by Beethoven, Saygun and Rachmaninoff. In 2013 he performed Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 under the conduction of Zubin Mehta. Emre has competed in a number of competitions, winning prizes internationally.
Rarely heard on recording, the songs of Florent Schmitt receive fresh exposure in this significant new survey of these neglected works including a number of world premiere recordings. The qualities that appeal in many of Schmitt’s larger works are found in abundance in this selection that spans his entire creative life: his music’s gorgeous sensuality, biting wit, laconic charm, and unleashed savagery. Pianists Fabienne Romer and Edward Rushton along with an outstanding lineup of soloists, explore this rich seam of complex compositional techniques, revealing a composer of extraordinary individuality along with a fascinating affinity with the darker side of human existence.
