Armida was composed as a vehicle for the legendary soprano Isabella Colbran – Rossini’s lover at the time. She changed the composer’s view of what was possible with bel canto – her dynamic force inspiring Rossini’s dramatic intensity. This acclaimed Rossini in Wildbad performance features soprano Ruth Iniesta in the title role and tenor Michele Angelini as the heroic Rinaldo.

Albert Roussel’s chamber works are relatively unknown, yet he composed a significant body of masterful works. The majestic Violin Sonata No. 1 and the dynamic neo-Classical Violin Sonata No. 2 are coupled with the String Trio, Roussel’s last completed work. Violinist David Bowlin and pianist Tony Cho are both highly regarded soloists and faculty members of Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where the album was recorded.

REVIEW:

All three chamber music works are characterized by skillful craftsmanship. The First Sonata is the most extensive of all Roussel's chamber music works and is markedly serious. The Second Violin Sonata is only about half as long, but just as determined. The String Trio, his last completed work, is a striking example of his late style.

The musicians offer the works with an extremely positive commitment that immediately engages the listener. Each of the three pieces has its own character that makes it unmistakable and the performers bring this out skillfully. They form lively narratives in tones that breathe life into the largely unknown in a delightful way. In terms of design, they explore the music in all directions and know how to integrate the details into the overall picture, creating a cohesive form from the first to the last note. We can be grateful that they have taken on the works in such a convincing way.

-- Pizzicato

Volume 62 of the Liszt Complete Piano Music Series focuses on transcriptions of religious works by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, von Goldschmidt, and Liszt himself. Prize-winning pianist Martin Cousin returns to the series (he is the pianist on Volume 61 / 8.574545) for this selection of spiritual and mystical pieces.

Highly regarded as a teacher and composer, Robert Fuchs was an established part of Vienna’s musical landscape. This second volume of his six violin sonatas fuses his trademark lyricism with folk-derived melodies. Violinist Hyejin Chung and pianist Warren Lee present yet more Romantic rarities for violin and piano – works by Schubert (8.573579), Seitz (8.573801, 8.573965) and volume 1 of Fuchs’s violin sonatas (8.574213) are also available.

Valentin Silvestrov is Ukraine’s leading composer and one of the most distinctive musical voices of our time. This album brings together the two superlative works of Silvestrov’s early maturity – Postludium for Piano and Orchestra and the Symphony for Violin and Orchestra ‘Widmung’. Recorded in the presence of the composer. The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee can also be heard on 8.574123 in Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 7, Ode to a Nightingale and Piano Concertino.

REVIEW:

If you don't know [this] 86-year-old composer's music, a new album by conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra makes a sonically satisfying place to start. It contains a pair of symphonic works that embody two recurring ideas for Silvestrov: that an end can also be a beginning, and that sweet, nostalgic music can thrive alongside concussive eruptions.

In Postludium for Piano and Orchestra, the composer essentially offers an ending, a "postlude," that becomes something brand new by mixing the avant-garde with old-school romanticism. The piece convulses in orchestral earthquakes of low brass (complete with aftershocks), but eventually gives way to delicate music that yearns for the long-ago beauty of Mozart.

The more expansive work on the album is a 44-minute symphony for violin and orchestra titled Dedication. Who's it dedicated to? Lyndon-Gee, writing in the album's booklet, treats it as an homage to the "life-force" of the human race — which encompasses not only tragedy, but also love and renewal. And yet for Silvestrov, he says, "Everything is a postlude to that which is slipping, inevitably and unceasingly, from between our fingers."

In Dedication, the violin — played with unwavering detail by Janusz Wawrowski — is not battling against the orchestra for domination, as in a typical concerto. Instead, the two protagonists complement each other, breathing as a single organism in Silvestrov's colossal exhalations of sound. Great waves of percussion crest over a spiky violin, a reminder that Silvestrov's early works from the 1960s were considered too avant-garde for Soviet-era officials.

Silvestrov has created his own sound world, charged with turbulence and bittersweet fragments of melody that can seem like quotes from other composers, but aren't. Near the end of Dedication, an elegiac theme, reminiscent of Mahler, emerges in the strings, struggling to rise ever higher through a dark cloud of roiling harmonies.

-- NPR Classical (Tom Huizenga)

Cellist Gerald Peregrine and pianist Antony Ingham are joined by violinist Lynda O’Connor for more poetic 20th-century and traditional miniatures from the British Isles. Includes works that Peregrine presented during his more than 2,000 ‘Covid Care Concerts’ performed at health care settings during the pandemic. Volume 1 can be heard on 8.574035.

For centuries, babies and children all over the world have been rocked to sleep with a song to calm them. Whether parents sing or play, or press play, they know that music so often soothes with success. Composers have written lullabies for different reasons—sometimes as standalone songs or pieces and sometimes as part of a larger work. Here is a variety of restful tracks to foster the sweet dreams of all!