In my experience nothing beats this remarkable Haitink account.

On those very special occasions the excellence of the music and the quality of the playing and live atmosphere can combine to produce something quite special. So it is with this Profil disc.
 
Every year on 13 February a memorial concert is given in the German city of Dresden to commemorate the anniversary of the terrible World War Two allied air raid carried out in 1945. The night bombing left large tracts of the city in ruins and thousands of people dead. Traditionally a requiem mass has been given at the memorial concert. However, in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Dresden devastation Mahler’s Resurrection was presented. Performed at the Dresden Semperoper this massive score was considered to have the appropriate character to complement the solemn occasion. At these Dresden anniversary concerts it has been the tradition for the audience not to applaud before or after the performance. Instead the audience stand in quiet remembrance before leaving the hall. Incidentally, Haitink also performed the same Mahler score at Rotterdam in 1990 to mark the 50th anniversary of the destruction of the Dutch city by German bombers.
 
The opening movement originated as a symphonic poem entitled Totenfeier (Funeral Rites). It was composed in 1888. Between 1888 and 1894 Mahler laboured hard on his five movement symphony undertaking revisions in 1905. At the time Mahler was still carving out a name for himself as a conductor so work on the score was confined to his spare time, mainly during his summer holidays. Owing to the progressive nature of the writing, its unconventional design, the extended length and the massive forces Mahler must have hardly dared to imagine that he would ever hear it performed during his lifetime.
 
The first performance was given at Berlin in 1895 with the composer conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In this score Mahler attempts to explore the existence of humanity in its entirety using sung text in the final two movements. In the fourth movement the text is from the collection of German folk poetry known as Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), The fifth movement uses text from Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s ode Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection). Then Mahler uses his own words beginning with O glaube, mein Herz (O believe, my heart). It was the composer’s friend Oskar Fried who first recorded the symphony in 1924 with the Berlin State Opera. The complete version of the Resurrection was introduced in Dresden in 1901 by conductor Ernst von Schuch, general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Maestro Haitink’s stunning live account which was broadcast on the radio has so much going for it. The persuasive Haitink fashions the architecture and space of Mahler’s vast symphony splendidly, avoiding any sense of affectation. This reading feels completely spontaneous. Born in Amsterdam, maestro Haitink brought with him to Dresden a pair of renowned Dutch singers, Margiono and van Nes.
 
Right from the opening Allegro maestoso the weight, bite and sheer power of the Dresden orchestra is striking. There’s impressive pacing throughout with beautiful playing especially in the more lyrical passages. Although all sections impress I found the stunning playing of the brass and woodwind highly dedicated and perfectly in unison. The exquisitely scored second movement Andante moderato with its gentle Ländler feels so light, poised and elegant. It feels like a mid-nineteenth century dance hall in Vienna. As the music briskly develops in weight the sound produced is remarkable especially from the golden-hued Dresden strings. Towards the conclusion of the movement the swirling strings can make the listener dizzy. When attending a concert I love to watch as well as hear the section with guitar-like strumming by the violins and violas, and the delightful pizzicato from the cellos. Sounding like gunshots the timpani strokes announce the opening of the third movement Scherzo. The writing draws on the captivating melody from Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt ( St. Anthony’s Sermon to the Fishes). I love the way that Haitink underlines the acerbic sarcasm. In the section reminiscent of a klezmer band the schmoozing clarinet solo has the patina of Jewish folk music. The angry brass outburst is especially striking as is the potency of the pent-up energy released in Mahler’s agonised thrust. This puts a brisk halt to the bucolic frolicking.
 
Urlicht (Primeval Light) from one of Mahler’s own Wunderhorn songs is the title of the fourth movement. A real highlight is the entrance of Jard van Nes, rich and mellowed toned, commencing with the words O Röschen Rot! ( O red rose!). It’s a yearning declaration for respite from world weariness. I believed every word, such was her expressive power and clear diction. Van Nes also has an attractive timbre and supple projection. Following on closely is the rather brief and spiritually affecting chorale. This is intoned splendidly on the brass with woodwind playing of an elevated quality. The final movement Im Tempo des Scherzos, opening with Mahler’s terrible scream of anguish, is given such tremendous weight it feels terrifying before it decays into mere dust. In the ‘wilderness’ section the off-stage brass make a sure impression with the Dies irae chorale followed by blazing brass. The great drum-rolls at 10:06-10:24 are striking and shook me right down to my boots. A distinct martial quality to the brass fanfares is interrupted only by tetchy woodwind and angry percussion. Off-stage brass lingers in a lament interspersed with a flurry of birdsong on flute and piccolo. At 20:39 the Dresden chorus enter with the words Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du ( Rise again, yes rise again you will). It feels mellow and tender and makes a spellbinding impact. The text O glaube, mein Herz ( O believe, my heart) is sung at 27:28 to magical effect by Charlotte Margiono with her secure technique and appealing tone. Both Margiono and van Nes combine with the heavenly Dresden chorus for the words O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer! ( O suffering! All pervading or O all-piercing pain!). With singing of such quality from the impeccably matched soloists and chorus one might be excused for thinking they - and we - had been transported to paradise. The final section begins with the familiar Viennese string sound that soon develops in sheer weight. The massed forces, including organ and percussion battery, combine in a thunderous climax; the most remarkable that I have heard on disc.
 
Recorded live in 1995 for radio broadcast at the Dresden Semperoper the engineers have produced a warm sound that is clear and well balanced. Although a live recording I struggled to hear any significant audience noise and as I explained earlier there is no applause after the conclusion of the score. I found the substantial Profil booklet notes exemplary being especially highly detailed.
 
At this poignant 50th anniversary concert the magnificent playing was outstanding right from the high strings playing the softest pianissimo to climaxes of sonically massive proportions.
 
I have numerous recommended versions of the Resurrection but nothing beats this remarkable Haitink account.
 
-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Hungarian composer Eugene Z�dor, a friend of B�la Bart�k, won renown in Vienna before having to leave for America in 1939 where he eventually became Mikl�s R�zsa's exclusive orchestrator in Hollywood. His music is often redolent of his native soil as depicted in the Variations on a Hungarian Folksong which, at times, approaches an almost Straussian opulence. Written in Vienna in 1936, the Dance Symphony is a sunny homage to the composer's adopted home. The Festival Overture is a much later work of almost cinematic brilliance. This is Volume 3 of the ongoing Naxos series of Z�dor's orchestral works.

Although Australian by birth, Alfred Hill spent much of his youth in New Zealand before embarking on studies in Leipzig, where he met Brahms, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky. + A prolific symphonist and operatic composer, he also wrote a sequence of seventeen notable string quartets. + His style evolved constantly, the influence of Dvořák leading on to the impressionism of his mid-period. + By the time of the String Quartets Nos. 12 to 14 his mastery of technique – in his younger days he had played in a prominent string quartet – ensure that the music is balanced, subtle, and full of playful wit. + This is the fifth of six volumes of the complete Alfred Hill String Quartets.

Bloch’s so-called Jewish Cycle—the Israel Symphony, Schelomo, Trois Poèmes Juifs and the String Quartet—earned the composer the kind of esteem in America that had been lacking in Europe. The Israel Symphony, premièred in Carnegie Hall in 1917, is the cycle’s centrepiece and originally intended as a gigantic three-part work, but later reduced in size. Powerful and evocative, it also fuses pastoral and sensuous elements in a rich tapestry. The award-winning Suite for Viola and orchestra or piano is a rhapsodic but cyclical tour de force, a ‘vision of the Far East’, in Bloch’s own words.

This album is, simply, a necessary addition to the Busoni discography, carried off with panache. A studio recording, sound is uncramped, gutsily close, and incisively detailed. Sine qua non for the Busoni aficionado, and enthusiastically recommended to all who care for the literature of the piano.

- Adrian Corleonis Fanfare (From review of Capriccio 10896 which contains the same performances.)

Always among the most innovative of composers, Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) wrote several works that deliberately blur the distinction between chamber orchestra and chamber ensemble. Among these, the First Chamber Symphony compresses the classical symphonic format into a tensile single movement scored for only fifteen players, while the Suite draws its seven instruments into a maelstrom of vitality whose inspiration lies in the dance styles that were popular during the 1920s. The Zahir Ensemble is one of Spain’s most exciting modern music groups, whose passion and technical accomplishment have gained them an ardent following.

Works for violin and piano occupy a special place in the compositional output of Nikolay Medtner (1880-1951). He wrote a large number of pieces for piano and voice. Where his chamber music is concerned, however, his emphasis was on the genre of the violin sonata. Medtner wrote three sonatas for violin and piano. They are written, like his one great piano quintet, on an almost symphonic scale. There are also the pieces for violin and piano that Medtner produced while he was working on a violin sonata. Presenting these works is Russian violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky. A soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and winner of international music contests, he represented Russia at the Eurovision Young Musicians 2002, which made him a household name in his home country. He is joined by esteemed pianist Ekaterina Derzhavina.

Although Shostakovich's chamber music is dominated by the fifteen string quartets, he also left his mark on the piano trio, the piano quintet and the accompanied sonatas.

RODRIGO: Retablo de Navidad (Complete Orchestral Works, Vol.

I vividly remember seeing Penderecki conduct the New York Philharmonic in a particularly wrist-slashing concert consisting of his De Natura Sonoris No. 2 (I loved it when the percussion section appeared to attack a filing cabinet with a hacksaw), this Viola Concerto, and as a cheery finale, Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Symphony. It was winter, and snowing heavily. By the end of the concert there were about a dozen people left in the hall, which came as no surprise. The Viola Concerto struck me as uniformly grey and dismal, and it still does. Try as I might, and as well played as it is here, I’m not convinced that this is one of the composer’s more compelling efforts.

The Second Cello Concerto, on the other hand, is terrific, a large piece recognizably in the composer’s later, neo-romantic style. It’s still dark-ish, but far more varied in texture, timbre, and expression than the Viola Concerto, and it’s very well played here. You also always can count on Wit and his Polish forces to deliver the goods, particularly in Penderecki, and they don’t disappoint. You may also like the Viola Concerto more than I did. This isn’t a top recommendation in this series, then, but I have no qualms about the quality of the music making or the engineering.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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This is a compelling addition to the already impressive series of Naxos CDs devoted to the music of one of Europe's most important living composers. These two substantial works by Krzysztof Penderecki date from the early days of the period where he was, in his own words, "saved from the avant-garde snare of formalism by a return to tradition". In other words, any listener not enamoured of the post-war hardcore European modernism in which Penderecki more than dabbled - as his renowned Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima or the notorious De Natura Sonoris I and Fluorescences testify - can safely read on.

Nevertheless, neither the Viola nor the Second Cello Concerto can be construed as especially easy listening. The music is a heady mixture of neo-Romanticism and early modernist elements, employing a language that both Shostakovich and Bartók would have recognised, yet going beyond the relatively mainstream idiom of his 'Christmas' Symphony. In character both works are certainly darksome, a sense of menace never far off - perhaps a reflection of difficult times in communist Poland. The bleak, eerie strings-only opening of the Second Cello Concerto is particularly memorable: the work was written for and premiered by Mstislav Rostropovich and is as relentlessly Cimmerian as any Penderecki, or any other composer for that matter, has written. Confrontational, multi-climactic and superbly scored, this is one of Penderecki's key works. The Viola Concerto is notably shorter and less spectacular, but is nevertheless stylish and accessible, providing also a convenient route into the sterner challenges of the Cello Concerto.

Guided by the expert but still underrated Antoni Wit, the excellent Warsaw Philharmonic give surely award-winning accounts of these demanding scores. The Russian soloists are majestic too: intuitive, expressive and virtuosic. This is Grigori Zhislin's first recording for Naxos, but he knows the Viola Concerto very well by now: a friend of Penderecki's, he gave the Russian premiere of the composer's Violin Concerto, and then took up the viola at Penderecki's request in order to be able to give the premiere, a quarter of a century ago, of his new Viola Concerto! Some may recall Tatjana Vassiljeva's only other recording for Naxos, her 'Cello Recital' (8.555762) almost a decade ago, on which she performed the Sonatas of Britten and Debussy among other works. Naxos released that in their occasional 'Laureate Series', in which they showcase award-winning newcomers. The surprise is that it took them so many years to re-record someone of Vassiljeva's great talent.

Sound quality is very good. The booklet notes are informative, albeit focused on a step-by-step guide to the music. Despite the short running time, for anyone new to Penderecki, but perhaps familiar with Shostakovich's symphonies and concertos, this disc is an ideal place to begin what should be a thrilling exploration.

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

The music for Egyptian Nights is not well known... Quite a bit of it is melodrama—words spoken (in Russian) over music. One such, the finale of Act I, is quite moving. It is followed by the entracte—close to five minutes of the best music.... You are unlikely to find a more beautiful recording of Eugene Onegin than this one. The German orchestra is better than any other that recorded it, and the Russian conductor understands the music. The sound is gorgeous. There are 76 minutes here, and as far as I can determine, that is every note of the music—for the first time... Boris Godounov is the oddest music here, but very attractive... Both this music and the Eugene Onegin were written for stage plays at the time but never used... I had never heard most of this music before, and I found it really beautiful. It’s a very unusual 29 minutes, and it has Prokofieff’s special genius and originality. As for Hamlet... I would put this ahead of any other account. Again, the orchestra is part of the reason; but Jurowski is excellent—as is the sound. There are ten numbers lasting about 28 minutes— no narrator. There are four songs for Ophelia (mezzo-soprano) and a delightful song for the gravediggers. It may be three discs, but what you get here is certainly worth it. -- American Record Guide

This is an excellent Delius collection, as interesting for the repertoire as for the high quality of the performances. There are some real novelties here, including the American Rhapsody (later to become Appalachia in its expanded version) and the first recordings of Three Small Tone Poems, only one of which--Summer Evening--is at all well known. Sleigh Ride appears under its original title, Winter Night, as the centerpiece of the triptych, while Spring Morning wasn't even published until the late 1980s. So what we wind up with is three quarters of a Delian Four Seasons, with Spring Morning a wholly characteristic essay in the composer's early "Grieg meets Debussy" style.


As for the remaining items, The Walk to the Paradise Garden receives a beautifully flowing, ecstatic reading from Lloyd-Jones, while Two Pieces for Small Orchestra ("On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "Summer Night on the River") benefit from fine wind playing and tempos that never let the music meander excessively. A Song before Sunrise and Delius' last completed (with Eric Fenby's help) orchestral work, Fantastic Dance, complete this well-planned, career-spanning collection. Naxos' sonics rank with the finest work on the label, as is usually the case with its Glasgow recordings. Strongly recommended both for the novelties as well as for the more popular items.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

On 9 October 1943, NBC Radio in New York broadcast the world premiere of a one-act opera by Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952), L’incantesimo, (The Spell), with Italian libretto by playwright Sem Benelli (1877-1949). The broadcast was a belated form of recognition, because by that time Montemezzi was widely famous in the United States. Conducted by Arturo Toscanini, this opera ran in New York for 25 seasons - an extraordinarily long-lived success, with such major names as Serafin, Stokowsky, De Sabata and Bruno Walter conducting quality editions of the work to widespread critical approval. In the New York Times, the respected critic Olin Downs echoed the general enthusiasm, praising the music, action and style as eminently suited to performance on the radio, adding that the work's lyricism was as strong as in L’Amore dei tre re, although perhaps less immediate than Puccini's. Montemezzi's moderately modern music follows a middle path between a freely declamatory approach for the main characters and more markedly melodic passages for tenor and soprano which might easily pass for short concert pieces or in the great narrative scene of the description of the hunt. Nonetheless, Montemezzi's real capacity for invention lies in his orchestral writing which evokes Wagnerian “infinite melody” and, in certain sections, the imaginative symphonic approach of Richard Strauss with its variety, wealth of color, modulation, rhythmic phrasing, and solo instrumental gesture.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The decision by the Vaughan Williams estate to release for publication and performance a tranche of his early chamber and orchestral works has proved to be popular with recording companies and performers. This is the third recording of the 1903 Piano Quintet I have heard and I suspect that is not a complete list. The "concern" of the Estate trustees one imagines was that the late-developing Vaughan Williams' reputation would in some way be tarnished by the public's knowledge of these apprentice works. Instead, one is able to enjoy this attractive and appealing music in its own right as well as marvelling at how, in just a few short years, Vaughan Williams went from being rather derivative to wholly personal.

Take the 1903 Piano Quintet that opens the disc. This is the same year Vaughan Williams started working on his Sea Symphony - for all the occasions of awkwardness that beset the completed work his originality blazes out. In the Quintet, Brahms is a benevolent shade. Vaughan Williams uses the same instrumental line-up as the Schubert Trout Quintet with a double-bass thickening the bottom line as opposed to a second violin as in the more traditional piano quintet ensemble. Then fascinatingly, as in the second subject of the opening movement, there is a glimpse of 'Music-yet-to-come' with a tentative violin-led theme gently reiterated by the piano. It is as though the 'original' Vaughan Williams is peeking out almost not daring to have the effrontery to be himself in the presence of the older master. The London Soloists Ensemble give an excitingly powerful and dramatic account of the score, excellently recorded at Champs Hill by veteran producer/engineer Michael Ponder. This music was first recorded on a very fine 2 CD set from Hyperion by the Nash Ensemble. That compilation collected together in one place most of the early chamber works including three of the four recorded here plus several other substantial pieces. If that set is already in your collection, excellent and near complete as it is I am not sure the new disc will add substantially to your knowledge. However, in its own right this is very fine. The London Soloists offer a more dynamic and full-blooded approach than the Nash Ensemble with all the parts beautifully integrated but solo lines brought forward with character and panache. First amongst equals violinist Lorraine McAslan is a dynamic presence in the two main works to which she contributes. What I especially like is the high romantic style of her playing; flamboyant, dramatic and skilful as required. Vaughan Williams was never the greatest of composers for the keyboard but here John Lenehan makes light work of the frequently thick writing.

Violist Sarah-Jane Bradley has her own moment to shine in the undated Romance for Viola and Piano - it was found amongst the composer's papers after his death. Liner writer Paul Conway speculates it may have been written for Lionel Tertis. It is no reflection on the excellent Bradley, who gives a fine and eloquent performance, to say that this is the least interesting work on the disc. Whereas the other works might have been with-held on the grounds of being juvenilia, I suspect this remained in Vaughan Williams' bottom drawer simply because he knew it was not one of his finest or indeed very characteristic works.

McAslan, Bradley and Lenehan are joined by guest players Anthony Pike on clarinet and Tim Jackson on horn for the Quintet in D from 1898. Here the Brahmsian influence is even more undigested - indeed I would be amazed if any 'innocent ear' listener was able to identify this as a work by Vaughan Williams. Yet in many ways I enjoy this work more than the later piece. This is romantic music with a capital R. Big sweeping gestures made with a young man's confidence. The addition of the two wind instruments adds considerably to the tonal range. The clarinet writing - played here with melting beauty by Pike - is so directly influenced by Brahms' late chamber works as to be all but plagiaristic. I like the way Vaughan Williams delays the horn's first entry, so that when it does the elegiac melody has all the more impact. There are weaknesses and oddities in the work; the second movement Intermezzo [track 6] is as close to a salon waltz as anything the composer wrote. The cello has a relatively uninspiring part, rarely having much of an independent existence other than to reinforce the piano's bass line. Then there is an oddly directionless and rather weak fugato in the finale that seems to spring more from the exercise manual than any compositional imperative. But balance that against the third movement Andantino which is simply beautiful - deliberate reference to Brahms' 4th Symphony and all. Would we be listening to this music if it was not written by a composer who went onto far greater things? I do not know for sure but this is a very enjoyable and easy listen.

Initially I thought the inclusion of the much later - and relatively well known - Six Studies in English Folksong from 1926 to be at best rather anachronistic. I still wonder if it was included to showcase the great talent of the ensemble's clarinettist Anthony Pike. Two things disarm my doubts; the quietly simple genius of the work and Pike's exceptionally beautiful playing. By hearing this brief work at the end of the programme it reinforces the compositional journey Vaughan Williams made and just what a liberating force the discovery of English Folksong was for him. Gone are the profligate, almost verbose - but enjoyable - gestures of the earlier works. Here is the very essence of both composer and original songs existing in perfect accord. The piano writing is a model of minimal intervention, simply supporting the melody or reinforcing a harmonic point. John Lenehan's accompaniment is quite superb - again aided by the excellence of the recording. The work exists in other versions - notably that for cello and piano. I think I prefer this version most, the purity of the clarinet's tone in some way matching the simple directness of the original songs. Many fine recordings exist of both versions but I do not think I have heard a better one than this; five of the six songs are in effect slow and lyrical and Pike floats his tone with effortless perfection. There is a little key action to be heard but nothing to disturb the gentle sense of rapture the players evoke.

An unusual typo from Naxos calls Vaughan Williams ‘Waughan Williams’ at one point but that aside the English-only liner is interesting and succinct. With a generous playing time and as a single disc survey of early Vaughan Williams chamber music coupled with a superb Six Studies, this disc is hard to beat.

-- Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

Taking its name from Evan Ziporyn’s Hive, which grew out of the composer’s experience as a beekeeper, this album brings together an engaging selection of pieces for solo clarinet and clarinet ensembles of various sizes. From Piazzolla’s popular tangos to Harbison’s Bach/Stravinsky-inspired Trio Sonata, Schuller’s Duo Sonata and Barker’s Single Six, both jazz-inflected yet classical in spirit, to Persichetti’s lyrical Serenade, Clarinet Hive is an endlessly fascinating showcase of the clarinet’s expressive and virtuosic potential, as well as its wide range of subtle sonorities.

Born in Hanau near Frankfurt-am-Main in 1895, where he was something of a musical prodigy, Hindemith entered Hoch’sche Konservatorium where he studied violin, composition and conducting. He supported himself by playing in local dance bands and theatre groups. He soon made his mark as a performer and became deputy leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra at the age of nineteen, becoming its leader three years later.

His early compositional style earned him the reputation of something of an enfant térrible. Whilst his music is modernist in outlook, he rejected some of the modern trends in music, including the teachings of Schoenberg, who he admired, in favour of a more individualistic outlook. In 1921 he had his String Quartet Op. 16 and his Kammermusik No. 1 performed at the Donaueschingen festival of contemporary music. This was followed by further performances of his music the following year at the International Society of Contemporary Music festival which served to bring Hindemith and his music to the attention of a wider audience.

The music presented on these two CDs seems to have been performed as part of the centenary celebrations of Hindemith’s birth during the 1995 Schwetzingen Festival. This is a well planned and executed concert which brings together two of his better known pieces with two of his less well known theatrical works.

Der Dämon or "The Demon" is described as "A Dance-Pantomime" and is set in two scenes, revolving around the said Demon's seduction of two sisters. In the first scene he seduces the first sister, leading the second sister into a Dance of Grief and Longing. The second scene deals with the second sister's advances towards the Demon and his rejection of her. I really enjoyed this performance. This is a work known for its more jazzy elements, and the Ensemble Varianti highlight this aspect far more than the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt under Werner Andreas Albert on CPO (999 220-2) whose performance is more symphonic.

The Kammermusik No. 2 is in reality a mini piano concerto and marks the first in a six-part series of solo concertos which Hindemith completed in 1927. It has a highly virtuosic obbligato piano part and is in itself quite dramatic; it is believed that Hindemith composed his The Four Temperaments in order to stop George Balanchine re-working the Kammermusik No. 2 as a ballet presentation.

Herodiade which is a Ballet – Orchestral Recitation after Mallarmé, is the latest work presented here and displays greater maturity. It is available in two versions, one with recitation, and one purely orchestral. The one presented here has the wonderful Gisela Zach-Westphal whose declamation is far more dramatic than Ann Gicquel for Albert on CPO (999 220-2), although I do prefer his more orchestral sound and he does present both versions.

The final work on the disc is a spirited performance of the Kammermusik No. 1 with its famous finale entitled 1921 and siren-call ending. This was the piece that really announced Hindemith on the world-stage. Both of the Kammermusiks are given performances here that bring out the chamber music aspect more than in the other versions I have, Albert on CPO (999 301-2, 999 138-2) and Chailly on Decca (473 722-2). Even so, each version has a lot to offer.

These four works all have a significant role for the piano and here Florian Henschel is on top form, especially when you take into account that he was a late replacement for Sviatoslav Richter. His playing is strong and impassioned and he seems to make light of some fiendish sounding piano writing. As mentioned above, the Ensemble Varianti are excellent and really bring out the different colours in the music. As for Gisela Zach-Westphal she makes this disc worth buying just for her part in Herodiade. Whilst I knew that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau also liked to dabble in conducting, especially towards the end of his singing career, this is the first disc I have of him in this role. He manages to keep a tight control on his forces whilst not losing any excitement from the music. First rate performances.

The sound is clearly from a live event; you get the applause and one or two coughs. There is also a slight string twang that I am sure is not in the score. Despites this, these are performances that are full of thrilling and energetic playing. I would have loved to have attended this concert. The booklet essay is exemplary; it is detailed and informative and fills in a couple of blanks in my knowledge of this composer.

– MusicWeb International (Stuart Sillitoe)

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco settled in California in the 1940s. Like many another musician cast adrift by the fascism that held sway in Europe from the 1930s to the mid-1940s he found a niche in the artistic life of the States. Hollywood embraced his music for films although none of the great films featured his work – he did however score several of the Lassie films. He moved in the same stratosphere as Heifetz and Piatigorsky; indeed the former commissioned his The Prophets Violin Concerto (No. 2 of 3) and then went on to record it (RCA); as did Perlman.

Among the operas, concertos, oratorios and solo piano music (Naxos, Somm SOMMCD 032) there are two guitar concertos, a serenade for guitar and orchestra, a concerto for two guitars and orchestra and many pieces of chamber music involving the instrument. The first concerto was written partly in Mussolini's Italy and partly in America. If the middle of the three movements of the op. 99 First Concerto sometimes drifts close to Tatiana's Letter Song it is delectable sentimental stuff. The flanking movements are sanguine and proud. They will certainly appeal to anyone who likes Rodrigo's Aranjuez. It's a lovely concerto and well worth tracking down in this very generously timed disc. I hope there is a volume 2 with the Second Concerto, the Serenade and the Concerto for two guitars.

Golondrinas (Swallows) suggests a relaxed saunter along the corniche - a summer evening with the swallows of the title diving and soaring. It's a virtuoso piece as is the eager and bustling La Primavera. The Platero suggests a delicate spray of lilies. The Rondo has some of the aristocratic elegance of the finale of the op. 99 concerto. The three movement op. 133 Suite is a work of beguiling emotional suggestion. This enchanting disc ends with the three movement op. 143 Guitar Quintet. The writing is full of interest with some incidental echoes of Ravel and of Russian nationalism. Again it is cheerful, subtly allusive, dynamic, poetic, playful and at times sweetly eerie. Unlike the much younger Brouwer this music has no truck with dissonance. Its milieu is impressionistic poetry. The string quartet writing is most inventive and by no means a dull stooge to the guitar.

After you have rifled Rodrigo's guitar treasury you must try this. This composer is no Rodrigo epigone but his music shares the Spanish composer’s mood and gift for beguiling invention. You can add this composer's name to that of Manuel Ponce as someone whose guitar music needs to be explored. By the way, do not overlook Ponce's Concerto del Sur for guitar and orchestra. Like so much else from that era including these works by Castelnuovo-Tedesco - it was written for Segovia – recorded by him and also by Alfredo Moreno with Enrique Batiz.

These recordings were originally issued in 2004 on MusicMasters. I hope that there is more to come and if not that Nimbus might find funding for a collection of this composer's concertante works for guitar. It's that good.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

It’s fantastic!

George Antheil was, probably, his own worst enemy. Having taken Paris by storm, both as composer and virtuoso pianist, he failed, unlike Stravinsky, to moderate his language and adopt the neo–classical style which came into vogue during his stay. However, when Copland arrived in France, to study, he said that “… George had all Paris by the ear". It was probably Ezra Pound’s call that Antheil was "possibly the first American–born musician to be taken seriously" and regarding him as the great Messiah of a 'New Music' which coloured the composer’s attitude. From our historical position, the fact that he failed to move with the times is no longer seen as a problem. True, some still find it difficult to equate Antheil’s early works with the more sober works he wrote after his return to the USA, but a man has to eat, and with a wife and son to support he had to work. The later works are, certainly, more conventional than the pieces from his Paris years, but there are still many fine pieces to be found, both in his concert music and operas as well as his music for film. I particularly like his score for Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper (1952) and Ben Hecht’s Angels Over Broadway (1940). I cannot help but mention that before returning permanently to America, Antheil wrote a detective story, Death In the Dark, which was edited and published T.S. Eliot. The plot concerns the murder of a concert agent!
 
Antheil visited America in 1927 to display his musical wares to an unsuspecting American public and this is what it heard! He wrote the Jazz Symphony for Paul Whiteman’s second Experiment in Modern Music concert of December 1925 – the first, held on 12 February 1924, had introduced Rhapsody in Blue to the world. For some reason it wasn’t given in that show and the Carnegie Hall concert of 1927 was its premiere, when it was done by W.C. Handy’s Orchestra with the composer as piano soloist. Antheil revised the score of the Jazz Symphony in 1955 and made it a much less spectacular and exciting work. Hearing it in its original form is a revelation, for it is wild and exuberant, great fun and it’s easy to understand that it received an ovation when it was given in Carnegie Hall, at this concert. This is an excellent performance, hard-driven, up-front and in-yer-face, hysterical and brilliantly realised. It’s worth buying the disk for this piece alone.
 
Antheil’s two Violin Sonatas were written for Ezra Pound’s mistress, Olga Rudge. The second is fascinating for it contains a part for drum, supposedly written for Pound to play. As it stands, it starts as a wild ride for the two instruments, then the piano launches into an almost insane cadenza. After this the drum takes over the accompaniment for the rest of the work. As with most of the other music recorded on this disk, it’s a wild, typical 1920s piece, but the performance here is a bit too polite. I once turned pages for a performance of this work given by Thomas Halpern and Yvar Mikhashoff and they threw all caution to the wind, giving a marvellously showy and fantastically over-the-top performance – just what the work needs. All that kind of extrovert display is missing here. A real shame, given the music-making of the couplings.
 
The short 1 ^st String Quartet is a very compelling work, cogently written, well laid out for the instruments, and it’s much more mainstream European music than the other works recorded here. The performance, by the Mendelssohn Quartet, is strong and forthright.
 
The Ballet Mécanique made Antheil’s name and confirmed his status as ‘The Bad Boy of Music’ - the title of his autobiography which is well worth a read. It caused a riot at its premiere in Paris and Aaron Copland wrote to Israel Citkowitz, “… the boy is a genius. Need I add that he has yet to write a work which shows it.” At Carnegie Hall, Copland, together with Colin McPhee, was one of the pianists in the performance of the Ballet where, again, it caused a riot. In 1952 Antheil revised the score, but all this did was to water down a fascinating score into a less-than-interesting one. Here it is, in all its 1920s gaudy splendour, colossal, noisy, outrageous, a tough listen – without a doubt – but a rewarding one. Anyone who heard, either in the hall, or on the radio, the weak performance given at the 2009 BBC Proms won’t know what’s hit them when they hear this! It’s fantastic!
 
Great performances, in general, brilliantly bright sound, good notes all go to making this indispensable to anyone interested in American music and the musical experiments of the 1920s.
 
-- Bob Briggs, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Havergal Brian was one of the most remarkable of twentieth century symphonists, whose reputation for the gargantuan (Symphony No. 1 ‘The Gothic’; Naxos 8.557418–19) has tended to overshadow the more concise nature of his later music. His Symphony No. 20 for instance, written in 1962, is compact, thematically sophisticated, and deeply expressive. Both it and No. 25 (1966) abandon Brian’s previous practice of one-movement symphonies in favour of the more classical three movements. Symphony No. 25 has beautiful melodies channelled within a wholly logical structure and is one of Brian’s most distinguished late works.

KREISLER String Quartet in a 1. ZIMBALIST String Quartet in e 1. YSAŸE Harmonies du soir 2 • 1,2 Fine Arts Qrt; 2 Otis Klöber, cond; 2 Members of Europe PO • NAXOS 8.572559 (71:36)


Two of the works on this disc—Zimbalist’s String Quartet and Ysaÿe’s Harmonies du soir —are premiere recordings. While it’s conceivable that someone reading this review could have heard Ysaÿe in concert toward the end of his career—he died in 1931—it’s more likely that readers will be more familiar with the great violinist as a composer, many of whose works, particularly his six sonatas for solo violin, have survived him to become standard repertoire pieces.


With Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) and Efrem Zimbalist (1890–1985) the situation is somewhat reversed. More than a few readers, I suspect, will have heard them play, at least on record if not in person. Their compositional output, however, was either slim in the case of Zimbalist or, in Kreisler’s case, consisting of a collection of salon pieces, cadenzas to other composers’ concertos, and a number of hoaxes perpetrated under the names of actual Baroque composers.


Kreisler did, nonetheless, make at least one attempt at writing a serious, multimovement, classically-styled work, the String Quartet in A Minor heard on the present disc. He wrote it in 1919, and it displays both considerable craft and familiarity with the musical trends of the time, which is to say it’s a beautifully written piece with nary an original idea. The first movement, titled Fantasia, is a dead ringer for César Franck’s 1889 D-Major String Quartet. The second movement, a scherzo, is positively Mendelssohnian. The lovely Romanze returns to a Franck-Fauré-Debussy idiom, while the finale, titled “Retrospection,” takes on the character of some of Kreisler’s lighter salon pieces. It’s a sort of Caprice viennois flirting with a Fuchs serenade.


Zimbalist thought enough of his 1931 E-Minor String Quartet to revise it in 1959. It too, like Kreisler’s quartet, is a model of superbly crafted string writing, but differs considerably from it in style. Where Kreisler synthesized his score from the musical vocabularies of composers and their works that were roughly contemporaneous in 1919 when he wrote it, Zimbalist looks back for his inspiration to the closing decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th, and specifically to his Russian roots in the music of Arensky, Glazunov, and Sergei Taneyev. In other words, Zimbalist’s quartet is a throwback to an earlier period and style, one that is very romantic and very Russian sounding.


Ysaÿe’s Harmonies du soir is an unusual hybrid of a piece scored for string quartet and string orchestra. Written in 1924, it’s a fairly late entry in the composer’s catalog, described in Roy Malan’s program note as “a sensuously chromatic journey through thickly textured emotions and colors finally leading, by restlessly climbing motifs, to a glorious sunrise in C.” To my ear, the piece resembles early Schoenberg; Transfigured Night could well be its mother. The only documented public performance was given by the Columbia University Strings in New York in 1979.


As noted, the Zimbalist and Ysaÿe pieces are firsts on disc, and while both are quite attractive, I’d be surprised to see seconds anytime soon. Luckily, both scores find themselves in excellent hands with the Fine Arts Quartet and, in the Ysaÿe, joined by the string section of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Europe led by Otis Klöber.


Kreisler’s quartet has been previously recorded, most notably by Kreisler himself with an ensemble that also included violist William Primrose. That recording, however, appears to be available only in a 10-CD EMI set that gathers a multitude of concerto and sonata recordings featuring Kreisler in his capacity as violinist.


The performances on the current Naxos CD are top-notch, as is the recording. The three works are appealing enough and certainly of sufficient interest to warrant recommendation, especially given a release so affordably priced.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Ranging from 1927 to 1959, the year of Martinů’s death, these four works reveal his unceasing versatility in chamber repertoire. La revue de cuisine, heard here in a recent reconstruction of the original complete score, is a supreme example of Martinů’s jazz style. In Les rondes he evokes his Moravian folk heritage. The Harpsichord Concerto is resourcefully scored and brilliantly crafted, whilst Chamber Music No 1 (‘Les fêtes nocturnes’), one of his last works, sees no cessation of his invention nor of his delight in atmospheric colour.

R E V I E W S:

ClassicsToday:
Canteloube's setting of folk songs from France's Auvergne region is a sure-fire hit. The music is catchy, full of delightful oboe and wind solos, snappy percussion, and imitations of traditional native instruments, including bagpipes. And unless you're genetically resistant to rustic humor, the texts are charming. But, especially in the songs with full orchestra, they're art songs, not folk music, and thus they ask for a trained soloist. The rub is that singers also must project the rawness of the real folk singer, a trait rarely found in opera singers turning to folk material. Here, Véronique Gens, a favorite in Baroque and Mozart recordings and a soprano endowed with gorgeous, full-bodied tonal resources, finds the right blend of trained sophistication and folkish naiveté.


Gens is predictably fine in lullabies like the popular "Brezairola" and "Baïlèro", her lovely soprano soaring, its bright touch of silver shedding rays of light on the infant objects of affection. In songs like "Lo calhé" (The Quail) and "La delaïssádo" (Deserted) I first thought her a bit too cultivated, but by the second hearing she seemed just right, hitting the swinging rhythm of "Lo calhé" with vigor and aptly characterizing "La delaïssádo". Apprehensions of oversophistication went out the window with "Malurous qu'o uno fenno" (Unfortunate is he who has a wife), where Gens really gets down and dirty. And she closes the program with a bouncy "Lou diziou bé" (They said), wonderfully bringing out the mockery of the words and portraying the narrator and the faithless Pierre with humor.


Jean-Claude Casadesus and the Lille Orchestra offer fine support, the unnamed wind soloists really digging into their parts with gusto. I wouldn't part with the incomparable charm of Victoria de los Angeles, the appropriately folkish Netanya Davrath, or the first and still best interpreter of these songs, Madeleine Grey. But Gens wraps most of their strengths into one full disc (but with plenty of room for 3 or 4 more songs). Would that the engineers have matched her. Oddly enough, sometimes they do, capturing vivid presence and good voice/band balances. But in other songs, especially those with full orchestral strings, she's often too closely miked, the orchestra veiled. Bottom line: this bargain Naxos disc of 21 songs is the one to have if you want a well-chosen, representative selection. [2/18/2005]--Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com

MusicWeb
"Véronique Gens has easily one of the most exquisite voices in the business today; moreover anything she does is uncommonly intelligent and musically informed. With this recording Naxos enters the echelons of upmarket performances. In this material, Gens outclasses Kiri te Kanawa in terms of vocal beauty and is in an altogether different league interpretatively. She is even a match for the venerable recording made by the late Victoria de los Angeles. Indeed, she may even have an edge over her competitors, for Gens is a native of the Auvergne. She would have grown up well aware of the history and traditions of regional culture...This recording is so distinctive that I've little doubt it will be the definitive Chants d'Auvergne for many years to come." - Anne Ozorio, MusicWeb

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Dona nobis pacem 1. Sancta Civitas 2 • David Hill, cond; 1 Christina Pier (sop); 2 Andrew Staples (ten); 1,2 Matthew Brook (bar); 2 Winchester Cathedral Choristers; 2 Winchester College Choristers; Bach Choir; Bournemouth SO • NAXOS 8.572424 (64:39 )


This release presents two of the great English composer’s most heartfelt statements of personal conviction: the 1936 Dona Nobis Pacem, his strongest statement on the depravity of war, and the visionary Sancta Civitas (1923–25), his clearest confession of personal faith. ( Pace Bertrand Russell, Vaughan Williams prefaced the score of Sancta Civitas , which drew heavily on Revelations , with Plato’s quote of Socrates from Phaedo , “A man of sense will not insist that things are exactly as I have described them. But I think he will believe that something of the kind is true of the soul and her habitations,” and reportedly considered it his favorite choral work.) It is a combination that seemed odd at first, as others have opted for more stylistically consonant combinations, but as an overview of the soul of the man it is perfect. The horror of war and the destiny of the soul are themes to which Ralph Vaughan Williams returned continually throughout his life and these two works are the purest statements of those preoccupations.


This CD duplicates one of the finest RVW choral discs ever produced, the 1992 Richard Hickox recording of these two works. (And I say that as a great admirer of the late-1960s recordings of these works by Boult and Willcocks, respectively.) The Hickox, which seems to have come and gone quickly in the U.S., is still very much available from English sources, and for little more than the cost of this Naxos disc. So this new release is competing with a legend and without the usual Naxos price advantage.


As it happens, comparison finds this a close thing, as Naxos offers superb performances, matching, in many ways, the strengths of the earlier EMI. As with the Hickox, the central asset is the alert and impassioned conducting of the conductor. In fact, David Hill’s generally quicker tempos reveal an appealing vigor and backbone in the works altogether fitting to the rugged verse of Walt Whitman and the apocalyptic vision of St. John of Patmos. Listen, for instance, to the noble, steady pacing of RVW’s “Dirge for Two Veterans,” or to the ecstatic “Nation Shall Not Lift Up Sword Against Nation.” The Hickox excels in shear orchestral virtuosity, in the rich underpinning of the organ, and in atmosphere and gravitas—I prefer, for instance, Hickox’s unhurried ascent to the majestic final chorus of the Sancta Civitas . Hill’s recording impresses with his thrilling choruses, nuanced and exemplary in diction (though Hickox’s choruses hardly disappoint, either), in the clarity and spaciousness of the recording of the multilayered Sancta Civitas —much like Britten’s later War Requiem in its use and positioning of multiple choruses and ensembles—and in two of his soloists. Yvonne Kenny is brilliant for Hickox, but Christina Pier, a new name to me, provides similar purity of tone and contained power with a pleading quality that is very moving. Philip Langridge is, as always, a superlative artist in the Hickox, but Andrew Staples more easily sings the tenor’s 21 syllables in their uncomfortably high tessitura.


For some collectors, however, the deciding factor may be the bass-baritone soloist. Matthew Brook, who sang a very fine Friar Tuck in the recent Chandos Ivanhoe , is somewhat miscast here. There are several issues: His grainy, rather gruff vocal quality does not lend itself naturally to the nobility of much of the writing; parts of “Reconciliation” lie uncomfortably high and he strains for them, and softer sections of “Oh Man, Greatly Beloved” and “I Was in the Spirit” are almost crooned. Though Brook’s response to text is intelligent throughout, some consonants are oddly elongated for emphasis. And comparison is not kind, as he is up against the nonpareil skills of the young Bryn Terfel in the Hickox. The Welshman’s refulgent tone, shaping of phrases, and projection of the text are simply stunning. (The texts, by the way, are not printed, but may be downloaded from the Naxos Web site.)


Still, as a whole, this new Naxos release has many virtues and no debilitating liabilities, and ought to be acquired by anyone with an interest in this repertoire. It is powerful, lucid, beautifully sung, and vividly recorded. Of course, the Hickox should be in every Vaughan Williams collection. If I had to choose one, therefore, it would be the Hickox, but choosing is not my recommendation.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames


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These are beautiful works, and they receive very good performances. David Hill digs into the war music of Dona nobis pacem quite effectively (save for the missing tam-tam at the climax of Beat! beat! drums!), the choirs sing very cleanly, and soprano Christina Pier is the best of the three soloists on this disc. The two men, while not bad, have what you might call "oratorio" voices--good as regards declamation, but not especially attractive as pure singing. Still, they get the job done, and in Sancta Civitas the interplay between the various on-stage and distant choirs is particularly well judged. The latter really is a masterpiece, a gorgeous work that, perhaps because it's not as physical and hard-hitting, gets less play than its disc mate.

Naxos' engineering is very good in terms of balances between chorus and orchestra, but the soloists sometimes sound as if they are operating in a different acoustic, with an odd halo around the voice. On the whole, though, this disc represents good value, and is at least as successful as the competition on EMI (mostly) and a few other labels.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL::


Igor Stravinsky memorably described Rachmaninov as ‘six-foot-six of Russian gloom’, and that description fits admirably, and at the same time magnificently, with this music. It arose out of Rachmaninov’s admiration for Tchaikovsky. For Tchaikovsky’s only Piano Trio, his Op. 50, had been dedicated ‘to the memory of a great artist’: Nikolai Rubinstein. Rachmaninov gave his Trio élégiaque of 1893 the same dedication; now the ‘great artist’ was Tchaikovsky himself. The young Rachmaninov was already making his mark on Russian musical life, as both prodigious pianist and talented composer. The dedication of the Trio is a reflection of the strong impression he had made on Tchaikovsky, the composer of the previous generation whom Rachmaninov most admired.


The Trio is arguably the finest achievement of Rachmaninov’s earlier career: the period before his breakdown following the disastrous premiere of the First Symphony. It was preceded by another piece of the same name and for the same instrumental combination; but in every way, in both scale and conception, the earlier work is a pale imitation of the later.


Naxos couple these two trios in a sensible combination that gives commercial value as well as artistic integrity. The performers seem ideal, and so too the recorded sound from that favourite venue for Naxos: Potton Hall in Suffolk. The Trio No. 1 is a work of sensitive emotion and admirable intellectual command, but the music lacks the vision and with it the truly epic commitment of the Op. 9 Trio of 1893. The latter is still an early work, and it is true that Rachmaninov returned to it fourteen years later to revise it in the light of a more sophisticated technique. Be that as it may, there is a complete integrity of design and an associated command of structure, and its every bar conveys an eloquent immediacy of emotion.


Of course the performers need bring their own vision to chamber music that is built on such an ambitious scale. This Russian trio of Grohovski, Wulfson and Yablonski combine to achieve eloquence of line and intensity of expression, a performance that is founded upon techniques of the utmost assurance. Their interpretation is captured in an acoustic whose warmth serves the music well. Make no mistake; this is one of the most successful recordings of chamber music one could wish to encounter, and to have it available at budget price is a cause for celebration.

Terry Barfoot, Music Web International