Volume Five in Naxos' complete Sibelius piano music cycle is given over to miniatures, most of which fall within modest technical and registral parameters. Although they were intended for home consumption by amateur pianists, a sensitive and imaginative professional like Håvard Gimse can really make these pieces sound vital and characterful. He does marvelous things. For instance, his angular, push/pull rubato in the Impromptu (Op. 99 No. 4) and varied phrasing of No. 12's dotted rhythms underline the music's superficial resemblance to Schumann. The controlled vehemence he brings to the five Op. 101 pieces admirably downplays their sometimes-mawkish melodic invention. And Gimse is fully attuned to the quirky harmonic twists and turns permeating Op. 103 and 114 (these sets might be described as chips off the blocks that fashioned the composer's Sixth and Seventh Symphonies). In short, collectors who've acquired previous volumes of this excellent series need no further recommendation. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
ELGAR Quadrilles: Die junge Kokette; L’Assomoir; La brunette; Paris; A Singing Quadrille. The Valentine: Five Lancers. Polkas: Maud; Nelly; La Blonde; Helcia; Blumine. Menuetto. Andante and Allegro for Oboe and String Trio. Duett for Trombone and Double Bass. Fugue for Oboe and Violin • Barry Collett, cond; Innovation C Ens; Zoë Beyers (vn); Louise Williams (va); Richard Jenkinson (vc); John Tattersdill (db); Victoria Brawn (ob); Duncan Wilson (trb) • SOMM 252 (76:59)
Back in the 19th century, music therapy was important in a number of what were then called “lunatic asylums.” Gottschalk used to play, with great enthusiasm, at an institution in Utica, New York. And in 1879, the young Elgar was given a position as “Bandmaster” at the Powick Asylum, a couple of miles outside Worcester. His job was to compose dance music for the inmates—and this recording apparently gathers up all the quadrilles, lancers, and polkas that still survive, in editions by Andrew Lyle (who, along with Barry Collett, is also responsible for filling out the sketch score of A Singing Quadrille).
Given Elgar’s relative inexperience (he was no prodigy), given the utilitarian function of the music, given the seedy, hodge-podge orchestration (limited to friends and colleagues, his ensemble—according to Lyle’s scrupulous notes—consisted of a few violins sometimes supplemented by a viola, a cello, a bass, a piccolo, a flute, a clarinet, two cornets, a euphonium, a bombardon, and a piano) … given the circumstances, you wouldn’t expect to this to be first-rate music. And it isn’t. Nor, despite a measure or two here and there that look ahead, does it give us much sense of the composer to come. If, hearing it without identification, you were asked to guess the origins of the first dance in Die junge Kokette, you’d be apt to guess it a minor chip off Sullivan’s workbench before you’d assign it to Elgar; much of the rest is more anonymous still. Even so, the music—more vital, rhythmically, than much of Elgar’s early output—is dotted with attractive tunes and artful harmonic turns. There are also a fair share of whimsical musical references: The last dance in the set of lancers seems to hint at Gaudeamus Igitur, just as L’Assomoir (Elgar’s misspelling) sounds momentarily as if it were a cousin to Gounod’s Funeral March for a Marionette—and A Singing Quadrille is overtly, and very shrewdly, based on pre-existing material, including nursery rhymes. The disc is filled out with a few chamber works that were not written for Powick—the most interesting is the wacky 1887 “duett” (Elgar’s spelling again) for trombone and double bass, a cheeky minute or so during which the composer delights (as Stravinsky was to do much later in Pulcinella) in the sheer absurdity of the combination.
Nothing here is especially deep: If the title of L’Assomoir refers to Zola, the music assuredly doesn’t. As a result, you might not want to listen carefully to this whole disc straight through. Still, in small doses, or as background music, it’s got plenty of charm—and this is obviously the place to turn if you’re interested in getting to know it. Yes, Collett recorded most of this music with the Rutland Sinfonia a quarter-century ago. But that disc, which I’ve not heard, is long out of print; and the remakes, based on the new Elgar edition and featuring a snappy group drawn from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, are as idiomatic as you could want. Add to this the fine engineering and the presence of three first recordings (the Menuetto, the Andante and Allegro, and A Singing Quadrille), and you have a disc that should attract the more avid of Fanfare’s Elgarians.
This third and final volume dedicated to Enescu's piano works shows the unique blend of influences he acquired during his teenage years in Vienna and Paris. These start with his Brahms-like treatment of the piano as a symphonic instrument in the Scherzo and Ballade to the infusion of French late-Romanticism and Faure in the Impromptus. The crowning achievement of these early compositions is the Suite dans le style ancien, Enescu's first public solo piano opus, a stylised evocation of Bach seen through the prism of turn-of-the-century Paris.
Gala des Etoiles / Coleman, Teatro alla Scala [Blu-ray]
Opus Arte
Blu-Ray
$39.99Oct 28, 2016
A very special dance occasion in honour of a celestial alignment of events, the Gala des Étoiles celebrates the Ballet Corp’s time-honoured tradition of a Grand Gala at La Scala as it coincides with Milan’s tenure as host city of EXPO 2015. Symbolically espousing the spirit of the Universal Exposition by bringing together outstanding international talent, La Scala’s étoiles – Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle and Massimo Murru – extend Milan’s red carpet to a veritable constellation of guest dancers from around the world, including rising stars and luminaries of the ballet universe.
Janáček: Cunning Little Vixen / Crowe, Bell, Leiferkus, Jurowski, LPO
Opus Arte
DVD
$34.99May 28, 2013
The tale of a quick witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest that is by turns joyful and violent, The Cunning Little Vixen is an unsentimental parable of death and rebirth that lives through the instinctive and immediate world of nature, animal and human, which Janacek loved so much. Melly Stil's production for Glyndebourne find the "delicate balance between whimsy and mysticism" (Daily Telegraph) at the heart of the opera, which Vladimir Jurowski conducts "with lustrous style: you can hear the birds in the score, feel the sunshine and thrill to the starlit night sky in the final scene." (Opera Today)
Melly Still, stage director
Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, June 2012
Bonus: - Creating Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 119 mins
No. of DVDs: 1
REVIEW:
The leading roles in this performance are sung by Lucy Crowe as the vixen (whose name is Sharp Ears), Sergei Leiferkus as the forester who tries to domesticate her, and Emma Bell as the fox that Sharp Ears meets after escaping back to her forest, marries (at a ceremony conducted by a grasshopper), and bears more children than she can count (only eight of which we see on stage). It is also important to observe that costume designer Dinah Collin chose to capture animals by a combination of suggestion and connotation. Both vixen and fox are identified primarily by their tails (which is also how we in the audience learn of Sharp Ears’ ultimate fate); but the rest of the costume tends to portray them as Gypsies, which is to say characters not quite at home in their own land.
The instrumental side of the score is provided by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Music Director at Glyndebourne and Principal Conductor of the LPO. He conducts with a keen sense of how Janáček tends to direct the flow of his music through the modulation of energy levels. While Jurowski is Russian, he also seems to have informed himself of the extent to which Janáček evokes Czech folk idioms, allowing the score to establish its unique position between symphonic music and indigenous source material.
Most importantly, however, this is an opera that takes a fairy-tale-like narrative and serves it up as a visual and auditory feast; and this Glyndebourne production delivers exquisitely on both visual and auditory levels.
English pianist Leon McCawley leapt into prominence at the age of nineteen, when he won both First Prize in the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, and Second Prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition. He has led a glittering career that includes recitals all over Europe, at Lincoln Center in New York, and appearances with the Cincinnati Symphony, Dallas Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra as well as several appearances at the BBC Proms. He has worked with Gatti, Paavo Järvi, Kurt Masur, and Simon Rattle, among many others. On this, his fifth disc for SOMM, the pianist turns to Rachmaninov's Complete Preludes.
Award winning director Damiano Michieletto has brought together these two short operas, both of which are set in a poverty-stricken Southern Italy village in the early 1980s where the Mafia has a stranglehold. Music Director of the Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts this star studded cast which includes charming Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, vivacious Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio, and exhilarating Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko. These two works are prime examples of verismo opera- a genre of opera which focuses on the everyday struggles of the common man rather than on mythical or historical legends. Extra features included in this set are Introduction to Cavalleria Rusticana, Introduction to Pagliacc, an interview with Antonio Pappano on the music, and a cast gallery.
Elgar & His Peers / Higgins, London Symphonic Concert Band
SOMM Recordings
CD
$20.99Jul 21, 2017
A unique collection of music arranged or expressly composed by Elgar for Military Band. Featuring music by some of his peers, notably Sir Thomas Beecham and Vaughan Williams, this new release includes two first recordings that are real gems: Elgar's With Proud Thanksgiving from 1920 and The Queen Alexandra Memorial Ode from 1932 with the London Symphonic Concert Band and the Joyful Company of Singers conducted by Tom Higgins.
In January 1920 Elgar began arranging, for Chorus and Military Band, a much-shortened version of ‘For the Fallen’ from his Spirit of England. These were wartime settings of verses by Laurence Binyon. This new version had been commissioned to be performed at the unveiling of the Cenotaph in London on 11 November 1920 and was arranged, for Military Band, by Frank Winterbottom. As it was, the ceremony at the Cenotaph was curtailed and Elgar’s music never performed. Although he arranged With Proud Thanksgiving for orchestral accompaniment, this is the first time the listener can hear how Elgar originally conceived the piece. Twelve years later Elgar set, for similar forces, a poem by John Masefield, the Poet Laureate, written to commemorate the unveiling of the memorial to the dowager Queen Alexandra who had died in 1925. Unfortunately, the arrangement for Military Band has been lost and conductor Tom Higgins has made his own arrangement especially for this recording. Arrangements of Pomp and Circumstance Marches two and five are also included as is the version for Military Band of Elgar’s Severn Suite from 1930 and his arrangement of two Bach Chorales originally performed from the top of the tower of Worcester Cathedral in 1911. Elgar’s contemporaries are represented by Vaughan Williams his well-known Sea Songs and the complex and challenging Toccata Marziale. The disc is completed by the premiere recording of Sir Thomas Beecham’s March from 1946 and Walton O’Donnell’s charming Three Humoresques from 1923.
Schreker: The Birthday of the Infanta - Suite / Falletta, Berlin Radio Symphony
Naxos
CD
$19.99Oct 12, 2018
Franz Schreker was a prominent figure in early 20th-century Austro-German music, his reputation as an opera composer rivaling that of Richard Strauss. The Prelude to a Drama is the concert overture of Schreker’s acclaimed opera Die Gezeichneten, a lurid drama involving murder and madness. Conceived as a theatrical pantomime, The Birthday of the Infanta adapts Oscar Wilde’s tragic tale of an ugly dwarf who dies of a broken heart, while the Romantic Suite fully explores the composer’s colorfully detailed and translucent orchestration and lyrical expressiveness. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra dates back to the beginnings of music broadcasting in 1923. Since then it has developed its position to become one of Berlin’s top orchestras, and today is ranked in the highest echelon of German radio orchestras. JoAnn Falletta became the first female conductor to lead a major American ensemble upon her appointment as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999.
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REVIEW:
Falletta obtains excellent playing from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with enormous climatic moments, opportunities for which are readily at hand in his late-Romantic, opulent orchestral scores. The sound quality from the German Radio is way beyond today’s norm. Unreservedly recommended.
Septura head homeward with a recording of British music from the first half of the twentieth century- a golden age in England’s otherwise checkered compositional history, and a period in which brass instruments, in the form of the brass band, established their place at the very heart of British musical culture. From the many composers of the period whose music endures we have chosen four of the finest: iconic works by Elgar, Parry, Finzi and Walton, reimagined for the unique sound of the brass septet. Septura brings together London’s leading players to redefine brass chamber music through the uniquely expressive sound of the brass septet. By creating a canon of transcriptions, arrangements and new commissions for this brand new classical configuration, Septura aims to recast the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium. Currently ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the group is recording a series of albums for Naxos, each focused on a particular period, genre and set of composers, creating a ‘counter-factual history’ of brass chamber music.
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REVIEW:
The lineup of three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba is unexpectedly expressive in Elgar’s Serenade in E minor (originally for strings). If you like English pastoral music, and the sound of brass, this album is irresistible.
Humperdinck: Hansel & Gretel / Davis, Damrau, Allen, Silja
Opus Arte
DVD
$39.99Jul 28, 2009
Diana Damrau and Angelika Kirchschlager star in the acclaimed 2008 production of Humperdinck’s famous fairytale opera, in the company of two of Britain’s most revered musical figures: Thomas Allen, playing the role of the Father, and the legendary conductor Colin Davis. Directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser combine their characteristic wit and a dash of deliciously dark comedy with the opera’s fairytale charm. Humperdinck’s music mixes catchy folk-like songs with sumptuous instrumental colour, making the result as tunefully approachable, musically memorable and visually delightful as opera gets. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in full Surround Sound.
Hansel: Angelika Kirchschlager Gretel: Diana Damrau Gertrud: Elizabeth Connell Peter: Thomas Allen Witch: Anja Silja Sand man: Pumeza Matshikiza Dew Fairy: Anita Watson
Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Children’s Chorus The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Conductor: Colin Davis Stage Directors: Moshe Leiser & Patrice Caurier
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 12th and 16th December 2008.
Plus Illustrated synopsis & animated cast gallery. Interview with Colin Davis. Fairytales feature. Cinema trailer.
Reviews ‘Angelika Kirchschlager’s tousled, boyish Hänsel and Diana Damrau’s Gretel are dramatically convincing and vocally superb, while their parents, excellently sung and played by Elizabeth Connell and Thomas Allen, earn our sympathy as well as our censure. Pumeza Matshikiza’s goblin-like Sandman is truly magical and Anita Watson’s feather-dusting Dew Fairy another amusing creation. Colin Davis, unafraid to relish the icing on the cake, draws a warm, effulgent sound from the orchestra.’ Evening Standard
REGIONS: All Regions PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9 LENGTH: 138 Mins SOUND: 5.1 DTS SURROUND / PCM STEREO SUBTITLES: ENGLISH/FRENCH/GERMAN/SPANIS/ITALIAN LANGUAGE: German NO OF DISCS: 2
It seems a paradox that over the years we have gone to such great lengths to become familiar with the music of Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan-Willliams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge, and Arthur Bliss, yet we still know far less of the music of Stanford, their composition teacher at the Royal College of Music! There has been renewed interest in the music of Stanford recently, and with the kind support of the Stanford Society, SOMM now turns the spotlight on Stanford’s Partsongs in the second of a series of recordings with the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, which has achieved an enviable reputation under the direction of Paul Spicer. The eight Partsongs Op. 119, set to poems by Mary Coleridge, appear on CD as a complete set for the very first time!
![Gala des Etoiles / Coleman, Teatro alla Scala [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3113149.jpg?v=1786835562&width=400)
![Gala des Etoiles / Coleman, Teatro alla Scala [Blu-ray]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/3113149.jpg?v=1786835562&width=800)
![PUCCINI, G.: Manon Lescaut (Highlights) [1950]](http://arkivmusic.com/cdn/shop/files/2818204.jpg?v=1786733716&width=400)
