Using the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Hindemith first completed Das Marienleben (The Life of Mary) in 1923 and it occupies a key position in his output, marking a transition from avant garde Expressionism to his mature neo-classical style. He regarded the cycle as "the best thing I have yet written", an affection retained through painstaking revisions over subsequent years. Hindemith responded to Rilke's imagery with truly moving music that ranges from tenderness and hushed emotion to sweeping dramatic power, the 1948 version transforming his youthful songs into "an organic masterpiece ranking with the great song-cycles".

In this live recording- the second in The Dale Warland Live series- selected works of two 20th century composers, one British and the other American, are performed with exquisite choral acumen. The program consists of Benjamin Britten’s acclaimed ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ and Daniel Pinkham’s ‘Christmas Cantata’ with brass and organ. In addition, Pinkham’s rarely performed ‘Company at the Creche’ is included with four other Christmas works. The distinguished career of choral composer and conductor Dale Warland spans more than six decades and has made a profound contribution to the music of our time. As conductor, composer and founder of the Grammy-nominated Dale Warland Singers, he is one of only three choral conductors inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Before he sprang to international fame as an operatic composer, Wolf-Ferrari had embarked on an important sequence of choral works. The very early Otto cori, Op. 2, set to Italian and German texts, contain some of the most beautiful music he ever wrote, revealing his love of Italian Renaissance music through grace, bucolic melancholy, humorous wit and sublime characterization. In ‘Talitha Kumi!’ Op. 3, the title derived from an Aramaic quotation from Mark’s Gospel, the voice of an Evangelist carries the biblical narrative of Jesus bringing the daughter of Jairus back to life against a rich orchestral backdrop.

The Russian National Orchestra continues its Shostakovich cycle with Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar”, together with bass Oleg Tsibulko, the Popov Academy of Choral Arts Choir, the Kozhevnikov choir and maestro Kirill Karabits. Inspired by Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem “Babi Yar” about a Nazi massacre of Jews just outside Kiev in 1941, Shostakovich based the Symphony on five of the author’s poems. The texts reflect on the peculiarities of daily existence in Stalinist Russia, providing a deep insight into life under Soviet reign. After the sombre, impressive opening movement, Shostakovich alternates between a satirical stance, humour, and portraying the hardships of the Stalinist reality, leading up to the innocent beauty of the symphony’s finale. One special aspect of this recording is the Russian National Orchestra’s collaboration with an Ukrainian bass soloist and conductor, underlining the shared cultural and political heritage of both countries. The Russian National Orchestra is among the most important orchestras in the world and has a vast, multi-award-winning PENTATONE discography. Kirill Karabits features on Tchaikovsky Treasures (2019) with Guy Braunstein and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Oleg Tsibulko, the Popov Academy of Choral Arts Choir and the Kozhevnikov choir all make their PENTATONE debut.

In 1891 Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé asked Debussy to compose incidental music for a theatrical version of his poem L’Après-midi d’un faune (The afternoon of the faun) and the resulting work, with its innovative melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic writing, is both impassioned and expressive. The four-hand arrangement was made by Ravel in 1910. Subtitled “esquisses symphoniques” – or symphonic sketches – La Mer, inspired by the natural phenomena of water, light and wind, is a masterpiece that doesn’t conform to structural convention. Of the evocatively enchanting Images, he wrote that it marked a departure for him, dealing with “realities” not impressionism.

Debussy completed his two books of Preludes in 1910 and 1913 respectively, and they contain some of his most visionary and poetic writing for piano. There are evocations of calm seascapes, delicate wind tracery, and snow-covered landscapes. Some moments are steeped in antiquity, such as La cathedrale engloutie, others in expressive portraiture, as in La fille aux cheveux de lin. There is even a cake-walk. The Preludes are performed here in the subtle and colouristic orchestrations of muchadmired Slovak-born composer Peter Breiner. Throughout it's history, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has played an important part in Scotland's musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Jun Merkl has appeared as a guest conductor with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, NHK Symphony, Tonhalle Zurich, and the Munich, Oslo and Czech Philharmonics among others, and at the Met, Covent Garden, Vienna State and Dresden Semper Operas.

Hindemith's music for cello closely follows his evolution as a composer. With elements that look back to Schumann, Three Pieces, Op. 8 is among his earliest published works, while the solo Sonata, Op. 25 is indebted to Bach's Cello Suites and is one of the most intense and demanding of his chamber works. The ingenious variations on a frog he went a-courting are lighter in nature, contrasting with the weighty depths of the Sonata for Cello and Piano. Sebastien Hurtaud was first prize winner at the Adam International Cello Competition in 2009.

Following his extraordinary, critically acclaimed recording of concertos by Martinu, Hindemith, and Honegger, the charismatic Johannes Moser returns with a stunning new release, featuring two of the most distinguished 20th century cello concertos. Both works were originally composed for the great Mstislav Rostropovich. Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1 was premiered in October 1959, and is characterized by vitality, humor and virtuosity. Britten's "Symphony for Cello and Orchestra" op 68 was premiered in 1964, with Rostropovich once again as soloist. This new recording continues Moser's stunning exploration of 20th century cello concertos while at the same time building upon his masterful interpretations of cello sonatas by the same featured composers, Shostakovich and Britten.

Richard Strauss was appointed co-director of the Vienna State Opera in 1919 and soon set about composing a new ballet for the refurbished historic Redoutensaal in the city. At carnival in February 1923 the work was unveiled – a delectable series of eight arrangements of music by François Couperin called Tanzsuite. For the Divertimento, an orchestral suite that includes characteristic Straussian orchestration, and which was written many years later, Strauss rearranged six movements from the earlier work and added two further dances. About Jun MärklJun Märklis a highly respected interpreter of core Germanic repertoire and has become known for his refined and idiomatic explorations of the French Impressionists. His long-standing relationships with the state operas of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Semperoper Dresden and the Metropolitan Opera have been complemented by his music directorships of the Orchestre National de Lyon and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Among the more than 50 albums Märkl has recorded are the complete Schumann symphonies with the NHK Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn and Wagner with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra; and a highly acclaimed Debussy series with the Orchestre National de Lyon. He is currently working on a cycle of works by Saint-Saëns, R. Strauss and Hosokawa.

Classical Music

MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde • Hans Graf, cond; Jane Henschel (mez); Gregory Kunde (tenor); Houston SO • NAXOS 8.572498 (62:46) Live: Houston 11/19–22/2009


Just as I noted with some dismay the relative dearth of recordings of the original version of Das Lied for full orchestra ( Fanfare 35:4), this new CD arrives from Naxos. It’s also encouraging to see an American orchestra and its music director featured on a major label, since new recordings of orchestras in the U.S. increasingly originate from in-house labels like SFS Media and CSO Resound (though the lack of the former necessitated the latter).


Any performance of Das Lied lives or dies by its soloists, and taste in voices is a particularly individual foible. I’ve found that I have no tolerance for the type of ripe, chocolate-thick mezzo or contralto common to many recordings (and that, alas, includes such greats as Maureen Forrester and Kathleen Ferrier). Given those constraints, I find this performance to be one of the best I’ve heard.


Gregory Kunde is described in the bio included in the notes as a bel canto singer, but he proves more than adequate in the Heldentenor demands of “Der Trinklied” (hard to fake in a live concert recording). His sensitivity to the text, however, may be his strongest quality; the reiterations of “dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod” are each sung with a slight diminuendo and a touch of melancholy that are truly heartfelt. His lyrical side is heard to salubrious effect in “Von der Jugend,” while the two styles combine to make “Der Trunkene” a rousing, tipsy delight.


Jane Henschel, the voice of Maria Aegyptiaca for Eliahu Inbal, Simon Rattle, and Bertrand DeBilly in their respective recordings of Mahler’s Eighth, is a fine Mahler interpreter. Her performance of “Der Abschied” will stand up to most of the competition, but I am also taken with her handling of the fast section describing the handsome youths in “Von der Schönheit”: In a manner approaching Sprechstimme , she navigates the treacherous waters with aplomb, then immediately regains the more stately composure of the rest of the narrative. In “Der Einsame” she combines melancholy and resignation with quiet effectiveness.


Hans Graf accompanies with sensitivity and well-gauged tempos that neither drag nor rush; he allows Henschel the breathing room in “Von der Schönheit” while charging “Der Trinklied” with the kind of momentum needed to convey the angst of the narrator. The Houston Symphony plays as to the manner born. I haven’t heard too much Mahler from this source, but on the strength of this recording, I’d like to hear more. The sound production is another sterling effort by Michael Fine, placing the soloists front and center without undue spotlighting, and revealing plenty of inner voice detailing from the orchestra. Altogether, this is a real bargain at reduced price (texts and translation are available on the Naxos website). Highly recommended.


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot


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Time was when Naxos recordings of core repertoire would be considered cheap and cheerful, but hardly designed to compete with the best in the catalogue. That has long since changed, with a growing number of discs that, while still sold at the super-budget price point, are every bit as desirable as established or more expensive performances. Certainly, Antoni Wit’s Mahler Eight must be at or near the top of the list of recommendations for that work, proof that great Mahler recordings don’t all emanate from Vienna, Berlin or Lucerne.
 
The Houston Symphony Orchestra and their Linz-born music director Hans Graf are both unfamiliar to me, as are the soloists, but as I’ve already hinted that’s hardly an issue where this label is concerned. Indeed, listening to a number of more illustrious recordings in preparation for this review I was reminded of just how difficult it is to alight on an ideal – or near ideal – version of this elusive score. Either the mezzo isn’t up to the sustained demands of that long goodbye or the tenor is overstretched by Mahler’s taxing tessitura; and even if the soloists are up to snuff, the articulation and pacing of the music itself may be problematic. And then there’s the recording quality which, while not the key issue, plays an important part in one’s perception of – and response to - this multi-hued score.
 
Of my selected comparisons two – Raymond Leppard on BBC Radio Classics 9120 and Bernard Haitink on Philips 468 182-2 – feature the limpid tones of Dame Janet Baker. The clarity and directness of her vocal style is always pleasing, and while I don’t share Tony Duggan’s out-and-out enthusiasm for Baker/Leppard and the Alfreda Hodgson/Jascha Horenstein version on BBC Legends 4042-2, I like them rather more than my colleague Marc Bridle does. In particular, Baker’s Der Abschied with Leppard – recorded at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1977 – has a high goose-bump count, and while she sings with characteristic commitment for Haitink she lacks the intensity of feeling that makes the Leppard disc so memorable.
 
Kathleen Ferrier for Bruno Walter (Decca 466 576-2) and Christa Ludwig for Otto Klemperer (EMI 5 66892 2) are her main rivals, although Ferrier’s artless, somewhat old-fashioned, delivery doesn’t appeal to me. Heresy, I know, but I’ve often wondered whether Walter’s link to Mahler and Ferrier’s early death have given this recording a lustre it doesn’t always deserve. And among more recent recordings Cornelia Kallisch sounds warm but all-too-often uninvolved on Michael Gielen’s otherwise admirable version (Hänssler 93.269). Of the men, John Mitchinson – for Horenstein and Leppard – struggles with Mahler’s near-falsetto writing, while Haitink’s James King – placed quite far back - is rather more secure, if a little too generalised for my tastes. Walter’s tenor, Julius Patzak, is full-bodied but a trifle staid, heldentenor Siegfried Jerusalem and the agile Fritz Wunderlich – for Gielen and Klemperer respectively – both fresh and virile.
 
How does the Houston recording fare in this mixed company? In Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde Gregory Kunde sounds pleasing enough, although his voice is less appealing under pressure; at first I felt the orchestra was rather backwardly balanced, but it suits the intimate scale of this performance. The real revelation, though, is Graf, whose reading of the score is very impressive indeed, becoming more insightful as the piece unfolds. He can’t quite match Klemperer for sheer amplitude and nuance, but he does find an astonishing lucidity that works especially well in the trembling loveliness of ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’.
 
In that song mezzo Jane Henschel sings most hauntingly of the loneliness and the transience of life, her delivery discreet but always subtly inflected. In many ways she is the antithesis of Baker, who sometimes strives a little too hard for effect, notably in her recording for Haitink. And while Henschel doesn’t efface memories of Ludwig here, I was captivated by her glowing, unforced response to Bethge’s texts, notably Von der Schönheit. I particularly liked her honeyed lower registers, but again it’s Graf’s lightness of touch and natural rhythms that beguile the mind and ear.
 
Kunde may be overstretched as the drunkard but his delivery has a youthful charm that’s entirely apt; that said, Jerusalem and Wunderlich negotiate those treacherous vocal lines with aplomb, their innig moments more finely calibrated. In terms of sonics the Naxos disc may not be as weighty or tactile as Gielen’s, or as atmospheric as Leppard’s, but at least it isn’t as rough and ready as Horenstein’s. As for the much-lauded Philips sound for Haitink, it isn’t nearly as refulgent as I remember it. The EMI recording for Klemperer is big and bold and, in its GROC version at least, hardly shows its age at all.
 
And despite initial caveats about the Naxos soundstage I have to say the convulsive gong shudder at the start of Der Abschied is just electrifying, ushering in half-an-hour of sublime music and even more sublime singing. For me, Ludwig is sans pareil here, a perfect match for Klemperer’s stoicism, but I can assure you Henschel is just as commanding of mood and line. This is an abendrot like no other, the trembling air suffused with the scents of loveliness and decay. The Houstonians really do capture the evanescence of this music very well indeed; as for Graf, he maintains a sensible and steady pulse throughout, achieving a rare blend of poise and penetration as well. Thankfully the audience is very quiet, and there’s no applause at the end to break this deep, deep spell.
 
Is there an ideal recording of Das Lied von der Erde? Probably not, but as the talents of this newcomer are so prodigious and its faults so minor I’d say this one comes pretty close.
 
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

Also available on standard CD

George Gershwin’s Concerto in F was a response to demands for a ‘proper concerto’ after the success of Rhapsody in Blue, avoiding programmatic content while providing a feast of tunes both uplifting and nostalgic. Originally intended as music for a film, his up-beat Rhapsody No 2 describes the bustling Manhattan cityscape while under construction. Sourced from his hit musical Girl Crazy, I Got Rhythm Variations was Gershwin’s last full score. Pianist Orion Weiss is one of the most sought-after soloists and collaborators of his generation of young American musicians.

With Erik Satie, the connection between the beguilingly simple music and the sometimes very strange titles remains enigmatic: What is one to imagine by "Withered Embryos", "Penultimate Thoughts" or "Automatic Descriptions"? Steffen Schleiermacher does not even attempt an interpretation. In what is now the 8th installment of his Satie recording, he lets the associations work that the title, texts and playing instructions trigger. The result is music of that captivating clarity that Satie's avant-garde contemporaries admired so much in the eccentric maverick. The "cycles" collected here are mostly in three parts and all of them are surprisingly short, some move only in the five-tone range and seem to be almost children's pieces... And sometimes Satie borrows from deceased colleagues - and misleads both pianist and audience again: The motif of the "famous mazurka by Schubert" is - of course - neither by Schubert, nor is it a mazurka... "Sports et Divertissements" is completely out of the ordinary: Satie composed the total of 22 miniatures on commission as musical accompaniment to a collection of copperplate engravings by a famous fashion illustrator of his time. The pictures illustrate the leisure pleasures of the better-off, from tennis to sailing, and indeed one finds many a correspondence in the music - not without the usual eye-twinkling: the collection opens with an "unappetizing chorale"... For all the supposed simplicity of the music, Satie's manuscripts are true masterpieces of calligraphy, which, together with the curious playing instructions ("without blushing of the finger" - "from the tip of the eyes and held back in advance"), do not pass an artist like Steffen Schleiermacher by without leaving a trace. Incidentally, Satie expressly forbade the reading aloud of his bizarre texts - under threat of legal consequences...

Korngold’s breathtaking precocity is everywhere in evidence in these two chamber masterpieces. The Piano Trio was composed when he was just twelve years old but its symphonic breadth and brilliantly demanding piano writing reveal myriad tonal colors and a mischievous reinvention of conventional Viennese form. Audacious yet rooted in lyricism, the String Sextet was written almost five years later and possesses memorable themes as well as a refined, theatrical intimacy.

Spectrum Concerts Berlin is one of Germany’s most significant voices in the world of chamber music and has specialized for Naxos in the music of expatriate German/Austrian composers. Their recording of Schulhoff’s String Sextet (8.573525) was a MusicWeb International ‘Recording of the Month’ in December2016: ‘This is sometimes quite difficult music... [But] it is given a terrific performance here by a group of string players’.

The English composer Edmund Rubbra described the string quartet as 'the purest and most lucid texture available to a composer', his essays in the form enlivened by Beethovenian vigour and song-like beauty.

Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the twentieth century’s outstanding pianists, but the large body of purely orchestral music he composed is no less an expression of his musical character. His great strength was that he managed to preserve intact a vision he had discovered very early in life. This contemporary of Schoenberg, Scriabin, Ravel and Ives was unconcerned with musical fashions and had no wish to be a pioneer. Instead, and over a period of half a century he refined and deepened a language which derived naturally from his late-nineteenth-century Russian background.

With this four-disc box set, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui present a comprehensive collection of Rachmaninov’s music for orchestra – from the Scherzo in D minor, his first surviving piece for orchestra, completed just before his fifteenth birthday to the canonical works: the Symphonies and the Symphonic Dances. The recordings were made between 2008 and 2015, with the three symphonies (previously released on separate albums) described as ‘eine formidable Gesamteinspielung’ on the website Pizzicato. But there is much more to Rachmaninov’s orchestral music besides the symphonies, and this box offers the listener opportunity to explore the young composer’s fascination with Gypsy themes (in the excerpts from the opera Aleko and Capriccio bohemien) as well as his lifelong preoccupation with death, in the form of the four notes of the Dies irae plainchant motif. This is heard again and again in Rachmaninov’s music, up until his very last work, the Symphonic Dances, where, at the very end of the third and final dance, this symbol of death is finally laid to rest.

REVIEWS:

It would be difficult to imagine a more compelling or indeed idiomatic account of the First Symphony than Shui’s...this is a first-rate set, with sound to match.

-- HiFi (UK)

“Living people can dance, the dying cannot”, Prokofiev wrote to explain the problems he faced when writing music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet. His original score was rejected as ‘undanceable’ by the Bolshoy Theatre and his initial scheme for a happy ending for the lovers was, fortunately, vetoed. The revised score, however, proved a masterpiece of expressive beauty and drama, with melting love music and huge bravura, and it remains one of the most loved ballet scores of the twentieth century.

Spanish Composer Joaqui?N Rodrigo (1901-99) Was One of the Foremost Guitar Composers of the 20th C. His 1939 Concierto de Aranjuez, with It's Evocative Andalusian Color, Indelible Melody and Subtle and Effective Orchestration, Is Assuredly One of the Genre's Best-Loved Works. The Passionate and Vital Concierto Andaluz Is Scored for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra, Whilst in the Concierto Madrigal Rodrigo Employs Variation Form to Brilliant Effect.

Capriccio's Encore series features re-releases of the most famous recordings from the Capriccio back catalogue. These legendary recordings are of artists like Sandor Vegh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys' Choir. The series spans highlights from the baroque era to the contemporary era. This album showcases the Moscow Virtuosi, led by Vladimir Spivakov in a famous recording of Schnittke's Hieronymus Bosch Fragments.

Left unfinished at the death of the composer, Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony has exerted an enormous fascination on musicologists as well as musicians – a kind of Holy Grail of 20th-century music. Recognized as an intensely personal work, it was initially consigned to respectful oblivion, but over the years, Alma Mahler, the composer’s widow, released more and more of Mahler’s sketches for publication, and gradually it became clear that he had in fact bequeathed an entire five-movement symphony in short score (i.e. written on three or four staves). Of this, nearly half had reached the stage of a draft orchestration, while the rest contained indications of the intended instrumentation. Over the years a number of different completions or performing versions of ‘the Tenth’ have seen the light of day. One of the most often performed and recorded of these is that by Deryck Cooke. Cooke himself insisted that his edition was not a ‘completion’ of the work, but rather a functional presentation of the materials as Mahler left them. Cooke’s performing version of the symphony is the one that Osmo Vanska has chosen to use for the seventh installment in his and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Mahler series, a cycle characterized by an unusual transparency and clarity of sound as well as musical conception.

REVIEW:

From the outset, Vänskä’s handling of the opening Adagio is sublime, its long themes opening up in endless waves thanks to the clean-toned Minnesota strings and the conductor’s perfectly judged balance between purposeful progress and emotional repose. BIS’s engineering is immaculate, simultaneously spacious and detailed, and presented with convincing weight and clarity. The contrast between the pristine pianissimo strings and the moment the Adagiofinally heaves its heart into its mouth is overwhelming.

The first Scherzo is nimble and fleet of foot, Vänskä’s insistence on delicacy over grotesquery tying it neatly to the first movement. Again, incident is brought out with considerable imagination and there’s some superb solo work from the Minnesota principals. This is musical storytelling at its finest.

In Vänskä’s hands the “Purgatorio” movement is a gossamer reflection of the younger composer in the carefree days of the Fourth Symphony upon which the clouds occasionally darken. Building his argument, Vänskä urges the fourth movement second Scherzo along while ensuring plenty of contrasts. “The devil is dancing this with me; madness, seize me and destroy me,” Mahler wrote at the top of this movement, ending with, “You alone know what it means. Ah! Ah! Farewell my lyre! Farewell, farewell, farewell, farewell. Ah! Ah!”.

Linking the two final movements is a dramatic coup. The sudden impact of the muffled drum – inspired by a funeral procession that Mahler and Alma witnessed from the window of their New York hotel room – is heart-stopping, as is the following progression in which the musical spools of Mahler’s life seem to gradually unravel towards that final page where Mahler scribbled, “für dich leben! für dich sterben! Almschi!” (To live for you! To die for you! Almschi!). Over 25 unmissable minutes, Vänskä interweaves the moving with the mercurial in a riveting demonstration of musical storytelling.

As this Minnesota cycle enters the final furlong, this Tenth is a major achievement.

– Limelight (Clive Paget)

Rodrigo’s music for solo guitar is not extensive but represents an important pillar of the repertoire, ranging from vignettes to sonatas over a six-decade period. The 1933 Toccata was rediscovered in 2005 and has since provided an ambitiously virtuosic vehicle for today’s guitarists. Rodrigo flecked his works with elements of fantasy, flamenco and bird song while Un tiempo fue Itálica famosa, one of his very greatest works in the genre, is superbly impassioned. The tender Pastoral, originally for piano, is here transcribed for guitar by Jérémy Jouve whose first volume in this series (8.570286) received a three-star review (“The young French guitarist plays brilliantly”) in the Penguin Guide.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Incomparable composer and pianist John McCabe, who passed away in February 2015, had recorded Nielsen's Piano Music on LP for Decca's Ace of Diamonds back in 1975. More recently, the SOMM label was approached by John's wife, Monica McCabe, to ask if they would consider issuing it on CD. From an early age, John loved to explore little-known works and considered Nielsen's Suite, Op. 45 a true masterpiece. The piano music of Nielsen, whose 150th anniversary is celebrated this year, is overshadowed by his six symphonies but his piano music has always had a special place in the hearts of music lovers worldwide. These recordings have been unavailable for many years; now newly re-mastered, they are given a new lease on life and serve as a timely reminder of McCabe's unique interpretations.

I first came across the Los Angeles-based Pacific Trio following its 2009 release of American Composers on the Marsyas label. On this new Capriccio release the Pacific Trio - founded in 1979 - has turned to piano trios by three composers who were products of the Austro-German conservatory system. Having Jewish heritage ensured their names were listed in the infamous Lexikon der Juden in der Musik (Encyclopaedia of Jews in Music) leading to their music being banned by the Nazis. At various times all three composers managed to immigrate to America where they continued their careers without fear of persecution.

Brahms was so impressed with Zemlinsky’s Trio for clarinet, cello and piano in D Minor from 1896 that he recommended the work to his publisher Simrock. Shrewdly Brahms suggested that the clarinet part be also written for a violin so a standard piano trio could play the work and increase its scope. The score reminded me slightly of Brahms but without the glorious melodies. Although the three movements have different tempi the overall mood is warm and agreeable with a controlled passion, never unruly but with a rather windswept disposition.

Bloch’s Three Nocturnes for piano, violin and cello were written in 1924 at Cleveland where he was founding director of the newly established Cleveland Institute of Music. Neo-classical in style each nocturne is a character piece said to portray a particular feature of the night. Beautifully drafted and agreeable this work seems over all too soon. Especially delightful is the colourful and rather alluring opening Nocturne - an Andante that sounds distinctly like raindrops. The second reminds me of a Berceuse and the third marked Tempestoso is spiritedly rhythmic somewhat evocative of wind and rain.

A child prodigy, Korngold wrote his Trio for piano, violin and cello in D major, Op. 1 in 1909/10 when he was a mere 13 years old. In 1910 he had written a ballet Der Schneemann (The Snowman) that had been performed at the Vienna Court Opera. Despite the assiduousness of the Pacific Trio everything feels too similar in mood with the different tempi of each of the four movements insufficient to hold the attention. As the product of a boy, albeit a genius, it’s perhaps not surprising there is little emotional depth to the writing.

The engineers provide warm well balanced sound while the dedicated and well prepared players deliver amenable performances displaying satisfying unity and a pleasing timbre. It’s bold of the trio to present three rarely heard works on a single CD but to increase the desirability of the release by not including one well known repertoire score is an opportunity missed.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

Pianist Alexandra Silocea joins with fellow Romanian cellist Laura Buruiana in two Russian staples of the repertory - the Sonatas of Prokofiev and Shostakovich - along with a much rarer offering by compatriot George Enescu: The single-movement Sonata in F minor, an early work that only recently came to light. Silocea has distinguished herself on previous AVIE releases in repertoire ranging from Debussy and Ravel to Liszt and, notably, Prokofiev. Among Buruiana's distinctions is first prize in the New York-based Young Concert Artists competition in 2003, and a PhD summa cum laude from the National University of Music in Bucharest, where she devoted her thesis to the Enescu F minor Sonata.

The “Livre du Saint Sacrement” is a summation of Messiaen’s musical and theological persona, a statement of faith and a profound summary of his entire organ “oeuvres.” In this work he employs the significant compositional techniques of his life’s work as an organ composer: modes of limited transposition as the basis for his harmonies, Hindu rhythms, Greek rhythms, plainsong, birdsong, “communicable language,” and serialism. As always these compositional elements are used to explore the mysteries of Christian faith, in this, his most massive work. Born in Avignon to Pierre Messiaen, a Shakespeare scholar, and the poet Cecile Sauvage, Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) exhibited a rare musical talent from an early age. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age eleven, where he won five First Prizes- notably in classes with Marcel Dupre, Maurice Emmanuel, and Paul Dukas. In 1930, he was appointed Organiste Titulaire of Sainte Trinite Church in Paris, a position he held until the early 1970s. At the outbreak of WWII, he became a French army hospital attendance, and in 1941 was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in Silesia (where he composed Quartet for the End of Time). Upon his repatriation in 1942, he was appointed professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory. During his lifetime, Messiaen was famed as an organist and pianist and frequently performed his own difficult compositions in concerts around the world. Colin Andrews is an internationally famous concert artist, with extensive experience in the music of Messiaen. One of only four organists to have recorded Messiaen’s complete organ works, Andrews was recently named “Membre d’Honneur” of the Association Grand Orgue Trinite Messiaen, based at Messiaen’s church in Paris.

The final volume in this revelatory song series charts a twenty-year period during Bohuslav Martinu’s life. The early The Three Virgins, H 73 exudes an impressionist atmosphere enhanced by Martinu’s advanced harmonic language whilst the New Slovak Songs, H 126 was the result of a highly successful rapprochement between Czech and Slovak art, reflected in music of beauty and inventiveness. Nursery Rhymes, H 283bis, though composed in perilous times, is full of wit and joy. American Record Guide wrote of Volume 3: ‘[Jana Hrochova] has a golden tone and crisp diction, and Koukl plays with warmth and clarity.’

Recorded with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO), under the baton of Mihhail Gerts, Mihkel Poll's new album features the Everest of piano repertoire - Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3 along with the Concertino by pianist's compatriot, Eduard Tubin. The release follows the album featuring Artur Lemba's Piano Concerto No.1 recorded equally with ERSO under Neeme Jarvi. This is Mihkel Poll's third album released by DUX Records. Born in 1986 in Estonia, Mihkel Poll studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Prof Ivari Ilja, recently receiving the PhD in Music, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Prof Ronan O'Hora. He has also attended the masterclasses by prof Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy. Mihkel Poll has won several prizes in important international competitions including 1st prize at the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Italy, 1st prize at the Tallinn International Piano Competition in Estonia and 1st prize at the Ferrol International Piano Competition in Spain.

Classical Music