Few things small enough to fit in the palm of the hand can inspire wonder about the limitless potential of human creativity. A collection of early Renaissance devotional objects- elegantly precise boxwood carvings of miniature rosaries, prayer beads and altarpieces, on display as part of a major international exhibition- served as the direct inspiration for this musical program. These objects draw viewers into a private and intimate world of meditation; religious scenes carved with precision and poetry evoke a bygone world of intense spiritual devotion- sometimes tormented, sometimes luminous, but always fascinating. The music in this program is designed to elicit similar sensations in listeners. Originating in northern European circles, contemporary with those who produced these boxwood carvings, these spiritual pieces are not intended for grand cathedrals or public ceremony, but for personal meditation, private chapels and rooms, family houses and assemblies. Like the beads and rosaries, their craftsmanship is precise, superb; rich in subtle details, they lead us to wonder, and to contemplation.

Quite by chance Georg Philipp Telemann became godfather for the title of this album. In the year of his 250th anniversary, the Pfeiffer Trumpet Consort concentrated on the oeuvre of one of the most prolific composers of music history. A variety of his compositions are still unpublished until today, an incentive for us to perform works which have never before been heard in this way. Telemann was an outspoken friend of the trumpet, who used this instrument in many of his pieces- whether it be his spiritual and secular oratorios, cantatas, orchestral works, chamber music, or solo concerts. Another special attraction for the ensemble was the adaption of music of the English renaissance originally written for keyboard instruments, which we consider suitable to present here with trumpets, organ, and timpani in an all new sound. Splendid arrangements emerged, giving the listener the chance to discover the richness of this centuries-old music in a new and entertaining way. The Pfeiffer Trumpet Consort presents with this album a varied program with many unknown treasures, making an important contribution to the Telemann Year.

Until well into the second half of the eighteenth century it was the harpsichord which served at the very forefront as a sounding body for experimental and avant-garde. At the latest with the generation around Beethoven, the “modern” fortepiano had become the key instrument for this task. With the renaissance of the harpsichord toward the end of the 19th century, the interest of living composers in this instrument gradually awoke. A first peak was reached in the 1920s, when Manuel de Falla and Francis Poulenc created the first significant works with their respective concert pieces. Fortunately, music continues to be diligently composed for this “old” instrument. The performance of a recital on this release in 2004 is intended to document the liveliness and timeliness of new harpsichord music, even if the most recent piece from 1999 was written at that time.

On the dark side of fame awaits the slide into obscurity. That’s certainly true for a number of operas that, while popular and highly lucrative during their composers‘ lifetime, soon followed their creators into the shadowy realm of oblivion. Operas, for example, that only ever get mentioned in connection with some much more famous sibling. Giuseppe Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni – premiered half a year before Mozart’s masterpiece – is such an example, as is Ruggero Leoncavallo’s La Boheme and George Bizet’s Djamileh, widely considered the predecessor of Carmen. Other operas just do not stand out among other works by a composer – Jules Massenet’s operas for example are hardly a footnote of music history, his opera Therese, a thoroughly forgotten work, however, is. Two examples for works that are scarcely performed or even known outside of what is now the Czech Republic are also included in this collection of Opera Rarities on ORFEO: Antonin Dvorak’s last opera Armida and Zdenek Fibich’s Sarka.

REVIEW:

Containing radio performance recordings of six works by Dvorak, Massenet, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Gazzaniga, and Fibich mentioned often in histories of music but almost never on the bill, this is a box certainly precious for those who love opera.

– Classical Music Daily (Giuseppe Pennisi)

Each recording in this 40-disc set has been selected by Chandos Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, son of the label founder, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.

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Founded by Brian Couzens in 1979, Chandos quickly established itself as one of the world’s leading classical labels. The ‘Chandos Sound’ has become a benchmark for quality, renowned alike among artists and critics around the globe.

From its inception, Chandos has specialised in recording British music, and in bringing lesser-known (and unknown) music to public attention. Released to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the label, this handsomely packaged 40-disc set comprises 40 complete recordings from Chandos’ extensive catalogue.

Each of the four decades is represented, and each recording has been hand-picked by the Managing Director, Ralph Couzens, because it represents a turning point, or ‘Landmark’, in the development of the label.

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Excerpts from select reviews of previously released volumes included in this set:

Prokofiev: Symphony No 6, Waltzes Suite, Etc. / Järvi, Royal Scottish National Orchestra - NLA


This 1984 recording put the somewhat neglected Sixth Symphony of Prokofiev back on the musical map; it remains on balance the finest available.

– ClassicsToday.com

Vaughan Williams: London Symphony; Butterworth: Banks of Green Willow / Hickox, LSO

Conductor and orchestra respond with an unquenchable spirit, generous flexibility and tender affection that suit VW’s admirably ambitious inspiration to a T, and Chandos’s sound is big and bold to match. Quite simply, an essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.

– Gramophone

Ravel, Debussy & Massenet / Bavouzet, Tortelier, BBC Symphony

Bavouzet gets the tempo changes in Ravel's G Major Concerto absolutely right, following up with one of the most songfully flowing and elegantly shaped accounts of the Adagio on disc, and concluding with an absolutely scorching finale. The Massenet encores are both novel and delightful.

– ClassicsToday.com

Awards: Diapason d'Or Choc from the French magazine Classica This Guide to Period Instruments endeavours to answer the questions that every lover of early music has about the instruments used in these periods of music history. Text and recorded excerpts describe the origin and the development of every musical instrument from the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century and place them in their historical context. There is a completely new presentation booklet, over 200 pages long and abundantly illustrated, as well as eight CDs of recorded examples of the instruments that shed new light upon major periods of music history. These excerpts have been drawn from the Ricercar catalogue for the most part and are completed by new recordings made for the purpose as well as by material made available to us by other specialist recording labels. This Guide to Period Instruments is a perfect synthesis of the music lover's thirst for knowledge with the sheer pleasure of hearing these historical instruments.

Born in Ontario in August 1919, Tommy Reilly studied violin from the age of eight, and began playing harmonica at the age of eleven. Though he had played in England in 1935 – 37 and continental Europe in 1937 – 39, it was not until his arrest (while studying violin at the Leipzig Conservatory) and subsequent internment 1939 – 45 in prisoner-of-war camps that he developed his virtuosity on the harmonica, basing his ideas of phrasing and interpretation on the playing of Jascha Heifetz. Returning to London in 1945, Reilly began parallel careers as a concert soloist and recitalist, a popular BBC radio and television performer, and a studio musician-composer. He performed with most of the major European orchestras and toured all over the world as a concert soloist. Inspiring the composition of more than thirty works by other composers, Reilly also transcribed a great deal of repertoire for the instrument, in addition to composing his own works. In 1967 he designed a concert harmonica, later manufactured by Hohner and marketed as the Silver Concerto Chromonica. In 1992, he became the first harmonica player to be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. His other awards included the Gold Medal of the Deutscher Harmonika-Verband, and a Golden Badge from the British Association of Composers, Authors and Songwriters. Sir Neville Marriner and Igor Stravinsky were among those who admired his playing.