Witold Lutosławski’s String Quartet no. 2 comes from a time when his style had entered a 'Sturm und Drang' period. + Dissonant harmonies, vivid juxtapositions in musical color, and complex textures fill the majority of his works from the 1960s, including this 1964 work. + Its compositional craft places it directly among the most important works in the genre’s history. + Paweł Mykietyn’s String Quartet no. 2 belongs to his creative evolution that began in 2004 and continues to this day. + Works created in this time are more or less widely considered to be the greatest Polish works of recent years.

In 2016 Alessandra Ammara won high praise for an album of Mendelssohn duets with her husband Roberto Prosseda. The following year her Piano Classics debut of Debussy inspired no less glowing reviews. The sequel elegantly completes her recordings of the Préludes and Images with their second volumes, coupled with the more innocent pleasures of the Suite Bergamasque. Thus the album spans Debussy’s first and penultimate published piano cycles, for while the Suite appeared in print only in 1905, it was composed back in 1890. In their titles, three of the four movements – a Prelude, Minuet and Passepied – invoke the formal elegance of a Baroque dance suite, but the elusive character and freedom of the music owes more to the poetry of Verlaine, who used the archaic ‘bergamasque’ term in his poem Clair de lune, which as the suite’s third movement became Debussy’s single greatest hit. In both the Images and Préludes, Debussy invested their second volumes with darker, gloomier tone-colors and higher contrasts with wild outbursts and even manic humor. The portraits of individual characters and landscapes are more sharply drawn, more charged with private intensity. They make accordingly greater demands upon the interpreter, nowhere more so than in the dark, wild magic of the ‘Feux d’artifice’ – Fireworks – which close out the Préludes. The three Images in Book 2 are linked by their association with the Debussy’s friend Louis Laloy, and by extension with their mutual fascination with China and the alien world of East-Asian culture. The bells in ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ ring from the church in Laloy’s home-town; the title of ‘Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut’ was proposed by Laloy himself, and the goldfish – ‘Poissons d’or’ of the triptych’s final panel – swim and shimmer through much Chinese lacquer artwork.

If you are a lover of Christmas music—carols, popular songs, and all manner of medleys and clever arrangements of such—and you miss this extraordinary recording by the first-rate Dallas Wind Symphony, then your holiday listening stands to be just a bit more dull, less festive, and more ordinary than it could have been. This is a terrific program, in exemplary sound, that not only celebrates the Christmas music tradition but exemplifies the best of the wind ensemble genre, with its unique sonorities and long tradition of both originality and sense of playfulness and humor on the part of composers and arrangers.

The program opens with the obligatory fanfare—suitably titled Festival Fanfare—a nifty arrangement by John Wasson commissioned by the Dallas Wind Symphony, not surprisingly a showpiece for horns, full of familiar Christmas tunes. A decent but kinda square Sleigh Ride follows, along with a straightforward arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring that beautifully exhibits the colors and rich textures of a first-rate wind band.

Among the highlights: my favorite, a celebration of the much-maligned minor mode—DWS saxophonist David Lovrien’s Minor Alterations: Christmas Through the Looking Glass, a “recasting” of favorite Christmas songs and carols (and even snippets of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker combined with Deck the Hall!) into a wonderful medley of minor-key madness (along with some melodic and rhythmic twists) that definitely calls for repeated listening. Another standout is The Christmas Song, with its fine alto sax solo by Donald Fabian, swingingly accompanied by the ensemble.

The big “classical” work is an arrangement simply called Russian Christmas Music, which apparently draws its sources from “Russian folk and Eastern Orthodox church music”. At almost 14 minutes, it’s by far the program’s most substantial entry, and it does show a wider range of technical virtuosity and different aspect of interpretive awareness than required in most of the other works, even if Alfred Reed’s arrangement begins to seem a bit long for the material after about 10 minutes. Never mind; any drift of attention is quickly recalled front and center with the concluding Christmas And Sousa Forever—the title giving away the concept. Wait until you hear how arranger Julie Giroux juxtaposes excerpts from such Christmas favorites as Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with The Stars and Stripes Forever (and a couple of other marches)—not to mention the way she accompanies Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with that famous piccolo solo! It’s tempting to use that well-worn line, “if you buy only one Christmas CD this season, this one should be it”—but I won’t; I’ll just say that if by chance it is the only one, you won’t be disappointed.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Although little known, the literature for two violins has an ancient history, that on one hand refers to the educational purpose of playing together and reciprocally listening to each other, and on the other hand refers to folk tradition. The compositions featured on this album truly move within all these different perspectives: they are in part folk music pieces, in part pieces with a didactic aim, but above all they are dialogs with a high chamber music value. Bartók and Prokofiev, with the Forty-four duets and the Sonata for two violins gifted us with two cornerstones of the literature for these instruments in the narrow space of two years, 1931 and 1932, opening this repertoire to new textures and new languages.

Piano enthusiasts drawn to Shura Cherkassky's charismatic and capricious artistry will find the previously unpublished Cologne radio broadcasts contained on this release both valuable and fascinating. A 1970 Rachmaninov Paganini Rhapsody reveals Cherkassky's generally lyrical approach to the piano part, and his fondness for spontaneous dynamic inflections and rounding off phrases. For the most part, tempos are slow to the point of sedate (Variations 12 through 14 particularly drag), although there are moments when the performance perks up and Cherkassky's cream-coated filigree becomes energized, such as in Variation 15 and the group of four following the famous Variation 18. I suspect that the overly resonant acoustic contributes to the performance's less than incisive impression.

The solo selections date from between 1951 and 1953 and include a relaxed yet compelling, individually shaped Prokofiev Seventh sonata (a work Cherkassky otherwise did not record) that markedly differs from Horowitz's driving intensity. Cherkassky apparently coached Stravinsky's Three Scenes from Petrushka with the composer, yet I've never been convinced by the pianist's slow and clunky way with the Danse Russe, although his soft pedal effects throughout the Shrove-Tide Fair add appreciable color and character to a movement that others play with more bravura and power.

However, the Rachmaninov Polka de V.R. and Rameau/Godowsky Tambourin show off Cherkassky's tonal palette at its best, along with his scampering élan and effortless passagework in Chabrier's Bourée fantasque, another work new to the pianist's discography. For Cherkassky fans, the Prokofiev and Chabrier alone are worth the price of this disc.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Recording an album is always an amazing adventure, this time even more so, and we are very grateful to everyone who made this album possible. But why was it so special? Firstly, because of the choice of program, of little known, exciting works, and secondly due to the fact that this project was overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, there is the special significance that each of these works has attained precisely under the current circumstances. There is no doubt that the chronological sequence of the pieces tells a story documenting the development of musical styles over the course of the century in witness to contemporary events. But today, having experienced this music from the first lockdown through to the present day, the music itself and the sequencing have taken on a very significant relevance for us. From the melancholic, naïve and yet somewhat dreamy sounds of Lili Boulanger through the courage, tenderness and complexity of Grazyna Bacewicz, to Galina Ustvolskaya’s no-man’s land, where the absence of structured time reminds us of aimless days and hours without knowing what might happen the next day. And finally, Jennifer Higdon and her organized chaos that is nevertheless not hopeless, but a little rebellious, emotional, with deep insight into nature that seems to be a light and source of energy for humankind. Louise Chisson and Tamara Atschba.

With this SACD Aeolus is once more presenting world premier recordings.

In the music world the name of the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is mostly known for his numerous compositions for guitar. The fact that he also wrote a good hour of excellent organ music is proved by our new release with the Italian artist Livia Mazzanti. It is interesting to see that the composer wrote music for the organ for the first time only after his emigration in the USA - as an Italian Jew he felt constrained to leave country under the Mussolini dictatorship. It was when he received a Christmas card from his friend Edward Power-Biggs in 1952 that Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco had the idea of composing a miniature Fanfare for organ based on the letters of the organist’s rather unusual name. This fanfare in six bars, was played by Power Biggs and broadcast on the radio. Power-Biggs encouraged him to work out this fragment to an entire composition.

Thus originated as the first organ work Introduction, Aria and Fugue. By the way, you can listen to this fanfare on this website (sound sample 1). The extensive booklet to our SACD informs about the backgrounds and the origin of the remaining works (for instance music for the synagogue, two experimental serial works as well as other free pieces) and other biographical details.

Without Livia's painstaking efforts, this innovative new recording would not have been possible. She alone did all the hard work of rediscovering and preparing this music for performance. Among other things, she perfected an innovative registration for all these pieces in the years leading up to the recording itself. We must thank her for her attentive, sensitive reading of these unfairly neglected works, bringing them back from obscurity with her tireless devotion to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s witty compositions. Her musical intelligence and poetic imagination mean she is a peerless, bold, yet demanding performer.

Classical Music

Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony present passionate performances of two rarely recorded masterpieces by Morlot's countryman, French composer Olivier Messiaen. One work celebrates Messiaen’s love for his wife, the other his commitment to his faith. Together they make up an album of sacred and transcendent beauty, showing the two sides of one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. A quarter-century since his passing, Olivier Messiaen stands securely among the major French composers of the 20th century. From a broader perspective, he was one of the most original musicians of any period, the creator of a singular and often astonishing body of work. Adhering to none of the modernist styles or movements in vogue during his lifetime, Messiaen followed his own sensibilities throughout his career, forging a unique musical language out of bird calls, scales and chords of his own invention, rhythms derived from an ancient Hindu treatise, numerical symbols, and a strongly felt affinity between sound and color. The Seattle Symphony is one of America’s leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world- the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall- in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year. The Seattle Symphony has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season. The orchestra has made nearly 150 recordings and has received three Grammy Awards, 23 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. In 2014 the Symphony launched its in-house recording label, Seattle Symphony Media.

Gabriel Prokofiev's famous first Concerto for Turntables reached a global audience when performed by Mr. Switch at the 2011 BBC Proms, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski. It has since been performed 55 times worldwide, with the 5th movement being performed 20 times as part of the BBC's Ten Piece's project. The aim of the piece is to demonstrate the main DJing techniques, with each movement showing off a specific one. Prokofiev's Cello Concerto was composed in 2012 and is the third concerto he composed. It was the most conventional of his concertos, with the other two (at that point) being for Bass Drum and Turntables. Despite this, Prokofiev still manages to explore influences of electronic and dance music in the concerto, whilst also exploring the traditional lyrical side of the cello.

‘I find myself increasingly occupied with matters of the human soul, its sublimation and spiritual abyss. Certainly my opera The Ocean Betrayed betrays this preoccupation. This music has been to Hades and back, with Monteverdi and myself.’ Hans-Werner Henze. Henze originated this storyline by following his fascination that he had of the work of the enfant terrible of post-war Japanese literature, Yukio Mishima (1925 - 1970), whose novel “Gogo no Eiko” forms the basis of the opera. This novel, like almost all of the author's creations, sketches a suffocating scenario of hopelessness in which the struggle for normality is doomed to failure. Henzes free-tonal score ties in with musically-dramatic principles of composition following the tradition of Richard Strauss. In symphonic interludes, the luxurious orchestra gives the eponymous hero a voice: the angry “betrayed sea.”

REVIEW:

Despite his stylistic adventurousness and position as a political outsider, Henze was the last composer in the German operatic tradition (think of it as Late, Late German Romanticism), and his score beautifully exploits the lush forces of the Vienna Philharmonic. Since, as he noted, “Mishima’s novel is teeming with references to all things French”, he adopts a French musical style, mixed with Japanese elements of rhythm and exotic percussion. The vocal lines are compelling, and conductor Simone Young reveals both the work’s dense beauty and the sustained, gut-wrenching brutality of the final scenes.

Josh Lovell’s sweetly smooth lyric tenor establishes a chilling contrast between Noboru’s youth and his malevolent nature and explains Ryuji’s easy affinity with the boy. Erik Van Heyningen’s powerful bass voice is a bit mature for the gang leader (“Number One”), but Henze’s writing demands it, and his vocal authority reflects his power over the others. Vera-Lotte Boecker is a magnificent singing actress; her lean and supple sound is perfect for the sensuous Fusako, and she glides effortlessly through the coloratura of the 13th scene, as Fusako imagines a happy future for the newly formed family. Bo Skovhus shouts a bit on fortes, but his singing in the gentler sections is appropriately ingratiating.

-- American Record Guide

This ‘2-for-1’ reissue brings together the best performances by Neeme Järvi of the music by Bartók, taken from his extraordinarily prolific recording career with Chandos Records. The four works span Bartók's career and include some of the greatest music he ever wrote.

The Concerto for Orchestra has remained one of Bartók’s most popular orchestral works since its triumphant premiere in 1944. Its title signals that each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuoso way. According to Bartók himself, ‘the general mood of the work represents, apart from the jesting second movement, a gradual transition from the sternness of the first movement and the lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life-assertion of the last one’.

The ballet The Miraculous Mandarin is heard here in its complete form. Set in a seedy urban underworld, it tells the tale of a prostitute, the three thugs that control her, and their mysterious encounter with the eponymous Mandarin. In portraying this scenario Bartók creates an astonishingly vivid score with some of the most colourful music he ever wrote.

The Wooden Prince, an earlier ballet, could not on the surface be further from The Miraculous Mandarin. Lacking its daring modernism, it instead shows the influence of Debussy, Strauss, and Wagner. However, its outwardly sunny character obscures a strange and surreal undertone.

The Hungarian Pictures are skilful and imaginative orchestrations made in 1931 of five earlier piano pieces. Each with its own distinct character, these pieces give the impression of being an authentic folksong arrangement, although this is true only of the last of the five. - Chandos

The seductive, addictive potential of this music can be heard and felt straight away. His film music, an important pillar of his livelihood, embodies almost everything that characterizes Schnittke's music as a whole. It heralds a musical personality which, precisely because of its conscious use of tradition in the twentieth century, represents a solitary exception. Curious – not greedy for the old – he collected discarded or worn-out remains of music history, cleaned and polished them, and placed them in strikingly new contexts. The principle of drawing from and making use of the past was not well received in the strongholds of the avant-garde, but was all the more enthusiastically embraced by film viewers and concertgoers. 25 years ago Schnittke had encouraged the young conductor, arranger, and film music expert Frank Strobel to condense the music of his film scores into suites and to republish them for concert use. Since then, Strobel has arranged around a third of Schnittke’s over 60 pieces of film music and successively recorded them with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

During the first decades of the last century, Paris took over from Vienna as the center of the art-music’s universe. Ideas and styles exploded like fireworks from the French capital, and among the first figures sending them into the wider world was Claude Debussy. His Première Rhapsodie began life as a competition piece for clarinet, first performed in 1911, and while the later orchestral version is now more commonly heard, it is instructive to revisit the composer’s original, more subtly allusive first thoughts. Seven years later, by now dying of cancer, Debussy completed the last of three works in which he returned to the traditional form of sonata which he had avoided through much of his career in favor of tone-pictures such as the Préludes and suites for piano. The Violin Sonata counts among his most concise and refined works in an output touched throughout by those qualities, demanding the greatest subtlety and passion from its interpreters. In the same year as the Première Rhapsodie, Stravinsky had scored his career-defining succès de scandale with the premiere of Le sacre du printemps, and by 1918 he was established as a darling of the Parisian avant-garde when he composed L’histoire du soldat for a septet of instruments and narrator. The following year he arranged five self-contained numbers from the score into a suite, further reduced for a spiky instrumental trio and featuring the marvelously sly tango as well as the Rite-like final Danse du soldat. Milhaud’s Suite and Bartók’s Contrasts date from two decades later, but they are still infused with the absinthe and lemon of 20s Parisian culture. Heard together, the five works paint a portrait of a world of dazzling colours and restless momentum, sometimes bewildered by its own precosity, taking what it wanted from old cultures and always breaking new paths.

Inspired by Miles Davis’s legendary album Sketches of Spain, this project intend to conjure up Spain ‘as if through a prism - as a concept rather than a place’. Guitarist Jacob Kellermann and conductor Christian Karlsen worked with hyped young composers Francisco Coll and Pete Harden, who have each contributed a concertante work for guitar and ensemble. With Turia, Coll has returned to his roots – the dried-out river that once flowed through his (and Rodrigo’s) hometown Valencia. He has described it as his most ‘flamenco-colored’ work so far, intended to ‘evoke the light and the respective shadows’ of Spain. Turia is followed by two classics of Spanish music: Manuel de Falla’s Homenaje for solo guitar and Evocación by Isaac Albéniz, here in Karlsen’s atmospheric arrangement for ensemble. The last word on the disc goes to British composer Pete Harden. His affinity to jazz and non-classical tradition shine through Solace and Shimmer, which is based on the same chords that underpins Rodrigo’s Adagio. Kellermann enjoys strong support by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (in Concierto de Aranjuez) and the seven members of Norrbotten NEO.

REVIEW:

Kellerman has everything the Concierto de Aranjuez needs: excellent technical skills, singing tone, impulsiveness. His nail tone is relatively soft, not hard-edged; his timbral contrasts are heard more with vibrant fingertip tone. And the London Symphony has the horsepower as well as the fine soloists— especially the wonderful English horn in II—to make this a reading to remember.

– American Record Guide

Classical Music

Forced into exile from his native Italy by the onset of Fascism, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco sailed to the US in 1939. He arrived at dawn one muggy summer morning, and immortalized the moment, a turning point in his life and his music, in the finale of his Third Violin Concerto. The piece was commissioned from him by Jascha Heifetz, both to give himself an impressive new commission from a young and talented but not too radically inclined composer and as a way of helping a fellow émigré find his feet in a new and strange land. Castelnuovo-Tedesco certainly wrote with Heifetz’s technique in mind as well as his predilection for big cantabile melodies. Despite its concerto title, the piece was conceived for violin and piano like a sonata. The moods of the work, cast in traditional three-movement form, mirror the composer’s own, shifting from initial confusion to nostalgia to ebullience. However, Heifetz did not care for the piece, especially the finale, and it lay unplayed until this pair of Italian musicians gave its first performance of modern times in 2016. Writing in the booklet, Fulvio Luciani considers it ‘one of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s major works’; this is its second recording, but Luciani and Motterle enjoy a familiarity with the music unrivalled by any other living interpreters. As well as several attractive miniatures dating from the composer’s pre-war years in Italy, Luciano and Motterle also present the first recordings of his postwar arrangements of piano music by Chopin and Brahms. They are acts of love on the part of a pianist that engage with the violin, and the outcome is remarkably fresh and persuasive.

Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Todd Levy, who holds the principal chairs with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Opera, presents Rhapsodie, an astonishing array of classic 20th century works for his instrument. The rich palette of colors and immense versatility of the clarinet is on full display in impressionistic Debussy and Ravel, Cubanisto-style Bernstein, pastoral Finzi, the folk idioms of Bartok, klezmer inspiration by Bela Kovacs, blues-infected Libby Larsen and genre-bending Paquito D’Rivera. Todd’s technical wizardry is flawless throughout and is matched by his collaborators, pianists Jeannie Wu and Elena Abend, and guitarist Rene Izquierd. Todd Levy has received critical acclaim throughout his career. “It takes but a single solo at a Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert to fall under the spell of principal clarinetist Todd Levy’s fluid tone and expressive phrasing. In his new CD, Brahms/Schumannn… the Avie label has given the classical music world compelling evidence of an artistic treasure that belongs to Milwaukee.” (Milwaukee Magazine)

Classical Music

Does music add substance to words or is music inspired by them? Songs of departure and farewell are deeply rooted in the great tradition of British choral music, nourished by ancient myths of testing journeys, wayside transformations and homecomings. The transcendent nature of music and the power of poetry to challenge and alter perceptions of reality – harnessed by English composers over many centuries – flow through a programme that invites contemplation of life and death, of love and loss, creation and eternity. In a journey covering six centuries of musical history, The Sixteen performs a cappella anthems with powerful texts by writers as varied as Edmund Spenser, Christopher Fry and W.H. Auden.

Each Christmas season at Brigham Young University over 500 vocalists and instrumentalists celebrate the season in song. + With a strong belief in the spiritual character of music, the BYU students and conductors have achieved performances that are alive, fresh, and heartfelt—performances that overcome boundaries and draw people together. + The music on this CD was recorded during the live performances of the December 2013 "Celebration of Christmas" concerts. + The BYU Singers, BYU Concert Choir, BYU Men’s Chorus, BYU Women’s Chorus, and BYU Philharmonic Orchestra inspire listeners with their spirit, talent, and performance artistry. + These musical organizations are known for their unity, due in part to the superb technical proficiency achieved under choral conductors Ronald Staheli, Rosalind Hall and Jean Applonie as well as Philharmonic conductor Kory Katseanes. + As one critic observed, “The spiritual element is present in each piece the choirs sing.”

Classical Music

Composed between 1929 and 1931, Ravel's two piano concertos reflect his enthusiasm for jazz, though one that was thoroughly absorbed into his own idiom. The Concerto in G major, originally conceived as a Basque rhapsody, is lightly scored but sports a vivacious percussion section, galvanizing motor rhythms and a slow movement of astonishing beauty. The Concerto for the Left Hand, commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein who had lost his right arm in the First World War, is a single movement tour de force, as is Tzigane, a gypsy violin showpiece of dazzling virtuosity.

From the New York Philharmonic's in-house label come three separate and distinct albums of orchestral fare that highlights the trumpet, including eleven complete concertos, all featuring the orchestra's longstanding and recently retired principal trumpet chair, Phillip Smith, in performances stretching across the more than thirty years this most distinguished and honored musician occupied the position, 1979-2013. Album 1, available on CD and digital download, is a 21-track offering that boasts highlights from four of Gustav Mahler's nine symphonies, as well as works by Bernstein, Copland, Stravinsky, Ives, Bach, and others, in whole or on part. Album 1 also includes a 32-page booklet containing photos, notes and essays. Albums 2 & 3, available as digital downloads only, boast complete concertos by Vivaldi, Molter, Haydn and Zwilich, among several other important trumpet-centric concerted works. "For the past 36 years, Philip Smith has presided over orchestral trumpet playing, with a resonant, clarion sound and a reputation for never missing a note." (The New Yorker)

OehmsClassics acknowledges the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss with this release highlighting music for horn from Richard Strauss and his father._x000D_ Franz Joseph Strauss, although far outshown by his prodigy Richard in posthumous fame was one of the best hornists of his time._x000D_ Also included on this release is Hasenöhrl's (1885–1970) cheekily-named Till Eulenspiegel – Differently This Time, Op. 28._x000D_ Hornist Xiaoming Han is currently principal Horn of the German Radio Philharmonic.

Classical Music

Kassel, the city in the heart of Germany, internationally known as the city of the world art exhibition "documenta", which takes place every five years, also attracted international attention in the field of music when the then General Music Director Ádám Fischer initiated the "Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel" in 1989. With the "Festspielorchester", an orchestra of its own quality and characteristics was created. In addition to the concertmaster Rainer Hocke of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the oboe and clarinet groups of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra were formed, whose instruments have special characteristics and thus a specific sound. The same applies to the horns, which play an important role in Mahler's music. The special string sound of musicians such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Prague, the orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera as well as the brass, especially trumpets, from German orchestras, supplemented by musicians from Brno, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as well as from Frankfurt, Hanover, Cologne and Düsseldorf, gave Mahler's music a particularly adequate sound. Of course, the Kassel State Orchestra, with a total of 20 musicians, who took turns, played a major role in the festival orchestra.

The first (almost) complete recording of Nielsen's comic masterpiece, plus a previously unreleased fairy-tale rarity, under the inspirational baton of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra's founder-conductor. Launy Grøndahl knew both Carl Nielsen and Knud Jeppesen personally: he conducted their music with unrivalled sympathy and passion. His 1954 recording of Maskarade is full of native wit and simple joys, while Aesop's fable of The Eagle and the Beetle is dramatized as a typically Danish morality-tale of revenge on the high and mighty. Volume 5 is in preparation for a 2021 release and will have Grøndahl conducting 4 Danish symphonies and two orchestral suites.

Luciano Berio’s Coro has been described as the work that ‘exemplifies all the qualities that made him one of the leading composers of our time’. The work’s full title is ‘Coro for voices and instruments’, and the 40 voices and 44 instrumentalists do indeed make up a single choir – instrumentalists and singers sit together, with each singer paired with a particular player, and used both as soloists and combined in mass effects. Composed in 1976, Coro is also a strikingly ‘global’ work: Berio’s use of texts (mainly translations of folk poetry) attributed to peoples – ‘Peruvian’, ‘Croatian’, ‘Sioux’ – turns the work into a chorus of cultures. The texts are laid out in 31 separate sections of varying length, but the overall effect is cumulative, not episodic. The only named author is the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who became a powerful posthumous voice following his death in 1973 in the wake of General Pinochet’s military coup. Along with other text fragments, his words ‘Come and see the blood in the streets’ keep returning during the course of the work, and the sense emerges of human individuals needing to be alerted to social and political developments demanding a collective response. Under its artistic director Grete Pedersen the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir has made acclaimed recordings of music ranging from Norwegian folk songs and Hildegard of Bingen to Bach, Brahms and Xenakis. Joined by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra it now takes on one of the major choral works of the past 50 years. The album closes with Berio’s smaller scale Cries of London, performed by members of the choir.

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REVIEW:

Luciano Berio is quite rightly viewed as one of the most interesting and adventurous composers of his time. More so than many of his works from the 1960s, Coro struck me as being closer in style and spirit to some of the work of György Ligeti, particularly Ligeti at his best. It is the massed choral sound — and the astonishingly brash, almost metallic sound of the instrumental ensemble — that strikes one the most and stays in the mind. Needless to say, this is exactly the sort of work for which Bis’s SACD sonics are ideal.

– Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)