KEEP HYMNS ALIVE BLOOD SONGS

Greetings from Florida: Postcards from Paradise is a new genre-blending song cycle from composer Scott Lee featuring jazz vocalist-guitarist Camila Meza. The album explores the tension between an imagined Florida and the reality experienced by those who are drawn to the state: retirees, tourists, immigrants, and nature lovers. Eight poems by Cuban American poet Carolina Hospital serve as lyrics, each reflecting a different side of Florida, from tourism and retirement to climate crisis and ecological loss. Written for Camila Meza and chamber ensemble, the music blends contemporary classical elements with jazz idioms and pop song structures. Meza's jazz/pop vocals and driving guitar glide over top of noisy, pointillistic grooves performed by a top-notch chamber ensemble of Floridian musicians who deftly execute Lee's complex scores. Together, the poems and music invite listeners to look beyond the postcard and experience Florida in all it's complexity, fragility, and beauty.

The first LP released on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records imprint in 1963, Jimmy Scott's Falling in Love is Wonderful exists as one of the most mythic albums in vocal jazz. Due to contract disputes with his former label, Scott's Tangerine debut was shelved shortly after it was released - much like it's Atlantic Records follow-up, The Source - and went un-reissued for decades. Ultimately, Scott, a favorite of his contemporaries like Ella Fitzgerald, never became the star he should have been, but this album remains his masterpiece: A loving, tender collection filled with Scott's masterful work around a ballad.

The first LP released on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records imprint in 1963, Jimmy Scott's Falling in Love is Wonderful exists as one of the most mythic albums in vocal jazz. Due to contract disputes with his former label, Scott's Tangerine debut was shelved shortly after it was released - much like it's Atlantic Records follow-up, The Source - and went un-reissued for decades. Ultimately, Scott, a favorite of his contemporaries like Ella Fitzgerald, never became the star he should have been, but this album remains his masterpiece: A loving, tender collection filled with Scott's masterful work around a ballad.

Award winning trumpeter/composer Dave Scott started his professional career in L.A. after graduating from University of Southern California. His penchant for performing and composing for the standard/classical quintet format was obvious already from the earlier stage. The Dave Scott Quintet here is the original group consisting of some of the finest instrumentalists Dave formed when he first moved to New York in 2000. “Scott allows plenty of space throughout the set for the other band members. He doesn’t dominate with his own instrument as some leaders are apt to do. This is exquisite musicianship from all and together they generate a unique and varied tapestry of sound. The album is full of surprises and is well worth repeated listening.” (Brian Payne – Jazz Journal on SCCD 31864 “In Search of Hipness”)

Trumpeter Dave Scott’s 5th SteepleChase release here finds him leading his other New York ensemble “The Dave Scott Violin Band” which features some of America’s finest instrumentalists including Sarah Bernstein on violin. Dave Scott’s compositions allow each musician to fully engage in individual expression and the band as a whole to create distinctive tapestry of interactive improvisation. The group performs regularly in the New York City area.

Sent to press just days before his untimely death in August 2015, John Scott's last recording is Dancing Day, a programme of works for Christmas, made with his beloved Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys of Fifth Avenue, New York. Recorded in the home of the choir in Manhattan, the recording is centred around two works for treble voices and harp performed annually by the boys of the choir under John's direction - Benjamin Britten's inimitable A Ceremony of Carols and John Rutter's companion piece Dancing Day. Completing a compelling disc that features medieval texts and themes are further works for treble voices - Britten's A New Year Carol and Patrick Hadley's I sing of a maiden. The boys are joined by the men of the choir for works by Matthew Martin, Philip Ledger and William Mathias. Also included is John's own arrangement of the simple traditional Dutch carol King Jesus hath a garden, penned whilst organ scholar of St John's College, Cambridge.

Classical Music

Harris Goldsmith writes in his note: "This 1948 version is almost completely without mishap. Indeed, there is ample reason to consider it the finest of the Maestro's achievements with this monumental Masterpiece [the Requiem]. The pacing resembles that of the November 23rd, 1940 performance in it's nobility and unhurried breadth.

Continuing their ongoing series with Resonus, the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor John Scott release this compelling programme of choral works by Henry Purcell which also features the acclaimed New York period ensemble Concert Royal. Recorded on period instruments, this collection of sacred works by Henry Purcell features some of the composer’s best-known choral works framed by the large scale works O sing unto the Lord, Z44 and the Te Deum in D major, Z232. Completing this collection is the organ Voluntary in G major, Z720, in a striking performance by John Scott.

Toscanini's remains one of the half a dozen greatest opera sets ever recorded. Whether it is the clarity of the ensembles, the extraordinary care taken over orchestral detail or the alert control of dynamics, Toscanini is supreme.

The Falstaff remains, as it always has been, one of the half a dozen greatest opera sets ever recorded. The Requiem is certainly among the three or four most satisfying accounts of that work ever put on disc. As each has here been remastered on CD to give clearer, more immediate sound than I have ever heard before from the originals on LP, joy at the reissue is doubled. With the Aida some caveats have to be entered. In spite of the conductor's vital contribution, this set suffers both from an indifferent cast and a less successful recording and, in this case, the transfer to digital sound seems to have added an unwanted edge to voices and instruments. Even so, here is further evidence of Toscanini's complete understanding of a composer with whom he had worked and whom he understood better than any of his successors.

Toscanini's Falstaff is, and will probably remain, unsurpassed. It is a miracle in every respect. How he loved Verdi and how he strained every sinew to fulfil this amazing score's variety in line, feeling and colour. Whether it is the clarity and discipline of the ensembles, the extraordinary care taken over orchestral detail (most arresting in the whole of the final act's first scene) or the alert control of dynamics, Toscanini is supreme, yet nothing is done for effect's sake; everything seems natural, inevitable, unforced, as though the score was being created anew before us with chamber music finesse – and the atmosphere of a live performance, caught at a 1950 broadcast, adds to the feeling of immediacy. Nobody dares, or seems to want to interrupt the magic being laid before them. Toscanini in his old age is matching the subtlety and vitality of the composer's own Indian summer – or one might say spring, so delicate and effervescent does the scoring sound.

The other overriding impression of Toscanini's reading is the perfect relationship of tempos, not always precisely Verdi's, and the way he accommodates his singers, quite putting to flight any idea of him as a strict taskmaster. If, vocally, the main glory is the wonderful sense of ensemble gained through hours of hard rehearsals (now to be heard on non-commercial discs), individual contributions are almost all rewarding. Indeed, Valdengo's Falstaff, under Toscanini's tutelage, has not been surpassed on disc even by Gobbi. Flexibility, charm, exactness, refinement inform his beautifully and wisely sung portrayal (extraordinary for a singer in his mid thirties) – listen to the whole of the monologue at the start of Act 3 and you'll hear what a great singer working with a great conductor can make of a great role – mainly by observing what the composer has written. He is no less pointed and subtle in his encounter with Frank Guarrera's imposing Ford, and Guarrera himself, again with Toscanini's help, reminds us how much the writing in the Jealousy aria relates to Otello's music. Another great joy of the set is the women's ensemble, their contribution the very epitome of smiling chatter. The Alice, Meg and Nannetta (Stich-Randall – none better) all sound, as they were, fresh and youthful, and Cloe Elmo's Quickly is as rich and ripe of voice and diction as any on disc, though a trifle coarse at times. The Fenton is sweet and Italianate in tone, but not as stylish as others. The smaller roles are all very much part of the team. ...I have no space to dwell further on the sheer pleasures to be found in these sets. They are a repository of the very best in Verdi conducting, worthy of study by aspiring (or established) conductors. More important than that, they should be a source of revelation to a new generation of collectors who may have a dim and/or wrongheaded view of what Toscanini was about.

-- Gramophone [5/1990]

From a 1960 live performance in the Teatro Col�n Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ponchielli's La Gioconda's libretto was written by composter Arrigo Boito who adapted it from a play by Victor Hugo. A quintessential operatic tale of thwarted love and devotion this performance features the American soprano Lucille Udovich, noted mezzo-soprano Mignon Dunn, longtime Metropolitan Opera member bass Norman Scott, and tenor Flaviano Labo with the Teatro Col�n Orchestra and Choir conducted by Carlo Felice Cillario.

Strongly expressive, moving and often gripping.

The three works recorded here were written between 1949 and 1970, thus spanning more than twenty years of Leighton’s creative life.

The Symphony for Strings Op.3, one of Leighton’s earliest significant works, was first performed by Gerald Finzi and his Newbury String Players following Bernard Rose’s recommendation. Finzi, to whom Leighton dedicated his Veris Gratia Op.9 (1950), commented that he had “seldom come across an early work of such achievement” (in Diana McVeagh’s Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music publ. Boydell & Brewer). The music of this substantial work composed by a young man of twenty is still indebted to that of composers from older generations. One certainly thinks of Vaughan Williams and Finzi but also of Herbert Howells; but the music already displays a remarkable flair for telling string textures and considerable formal mastery. The first movement opens with a slow introduction soon giving way to the main body of the movement characterised by crisp rhythms and assured contrapuntal writing. The slow movement is mostly calm and expressive with a tenser central section, whereas the sunny third movement completely dispels the tension of the preceding movement and concludes the work in high spirits although the very ending is rather subdued and somewhat inconclusive. One can but wonder why a fine work of such calibre has remained unrecorded, let alone unheard, for so many long years. It clearly belongs to that glorious legacy of magnificent British works for string orchestra. One hopes that this recording will encourage many string orchestras to take it into their repertoire.

I have always had a soft spot for the Concerto for String Orchestra Op.39 simply because it was the very first work by Leighton that I have ever heard. Composed some twelve years after the Symphony for Strings, this is a considerably more mature work. In the intervening years, many things had happened to Leighton. He studied with Petrassi in Rome as a recipient of the Mendelssohn Scholarship. Petrassi, no doubt, introduced Leighton to dodecaphony and serialism and, more importantly, taught him how to use these techniques in a supple way in order to meet his personal expressive and formal needs; Petrassi was never a strict serialist. During that same period, Leighton also composed some early major works such as the Fantasia Contrappuntistica Op.24 for piano, the masterly Cello Concerto Op.31 that I consider one of his finest and most gripping achievements as well as the two string quartets and the Piano Quintet Op.34. The music of Op.39 is clearly mature, vintage Leighton throughout, although echoes of Bartók and even Shostakovich may still be heard from time to time. It now fully displays Leighton’s tense, rugged lyricism that can be best heard in the outer slow movements framing a short, nervous Scherzo. This is a most impressive and powerfully expressive work. I had not heard it for too many long years and I had forgotten what a beautiful work it was.

Although scored for the same forces as Poulenc’s celebrated Organ Concerto, the Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani Op.58 is a strikingly different piece. This major mature work displays many features that one has now come to regard as typical Leighton hallmarks. It is an intensely expressive, often sombre piece of utterly serious music that I find hard to resist. Its three movements are laid out in a similar pattern as those of the Concerto for Strings: two long slow outer movements framing a shorter central Scherzo. The dark-hued opening Lament unfolds contrapuntally with considerable cumulative force, the music being punctuated by an ominous, hollow gesture played by the timpani. The music gathers considerable momentum in the course of the first movement and the tension is eventually released in the short, nimble but nonetheless tense Scherzo. The final movement is a typical Leighton structure in the form of a Chorale with Variations eventually capped by a brief restatement of the very opening of the first movement.

These recordings are presented as premiere recordings, which is only partly true for collectors will certainly remember that the Organ Concerto was once available on Hyperion A66097 played by Christopher Rathbone with the Southern Pro Arte conducted by Charles Peebles. The Concerto for Strings was once available on Pye Virtuoso LP (TPLS 13005) played by the LPO conducted by John Snashall. Neither of these long-deleted LPs has ever been re-issued. Thus the “real” premiere recording is that of the Symphony for Strings. This is just a mere “grumble” about an otherwise magnificent release.

I now hope that the second volume - to include the masterly Second Symphony “Sinfonia Mistica” - will soon be released.

Leighton’s strongly expressive and often gripping music is superbly served by excellent performances and very fine recording. This magnificent release is a must for all Leighton fans, but also for all those who still need to be convinced that contemporary music can also be moving.

-- Hubert Culot, MusicWeb International

This disc substantially duplicates the repertoire on an all-Copland program produced by DG with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. However, where DG included the Short Symphony, Naxos offers the Clarinet Concerto. While the Nashville Chamber Orchestra doesn't offer quite the tonal refinement and polish of Orpheus, it basically plays just as well, and its slightly weightier, gutsier, more rustic sonority arguably suits the music even better. In the famous rehearsal disc that accompanied Copland's own recording of the original chamber version of Appalachian Spring, he can be heard exhorting his players not to sentimentalize the music: "...it's a little too much on the Massenet-side," he tells them. Obviously Paul Gambill understands this point, for he offers interpretations ideally poised between warmth and simplicity, full of those clean and clear sonorities that Copland made his own.

It should come as no surprise that, as a major musical capital, Nashville offers a large pool of excellent professional performers from which to draw, and as with its full-sized symphony, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra obviously employs some major talent, particularly among its strings. Copland's music is full of complex rhythms, often combining them with stratospheric violin writing. At such moments as the "Danza de Jalisco" from Three Latin American Sketches, or the initial allegro of Appalachian Spring, the Nashville players offer impressive accuracy of both rhythm and pitch. Quiet City benefits from some smooth-as-silk trumpeting from Scott Moore, while Laura Arden (principal clarinet with the Atlanta Symphony) turns in a masterful performance of the Clarinet Concerto. She commands a lovely, liquid tone in the lyrical opening movement (her pianissimo playing at the end is exquisite) and captures the finale's jazz elements without ever turning raucous.

The version of Appalachian Spring offered here is billed as the "Original Ballet Suite". It is not. The "original" ballet suite is the full orchestral version most familiar to music lovers, dating from just after the premiere in the mid-1940s. More than a decade later, in 1958, Copland published a new orchestration of the suite in which he returned to the chamber instrumentation used in the full-length ballet, allowing the option of a few extra strings (which I assume are used here), and this is what Naxos gives us. Gambill conducts this piece as well as anyone ever has; he's particularly adept at sustaining the flow of the slower sections without letting the music sag, and he gets an astonishingly full sound from his ensemble (listen to the focused tone of the basses when they first enter in the "Simple Gifts" variations). Sonics of ideal transparency and presence set the seal on a disc that's practically perfect from just about any perspective. [12/14/2002]

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Frank Bridge is today recognized as one of the most gifted figures in British musical life before World War I. His Piano Quintet, a work of personal significance prompted by the absence of his fiancee, is notable for its passionate, lyrical, and forceful language, the Rachmaninov-like technical demands of the piano part calling for a virtuoso pianist. Debussy described Cyril Scott's exotic harmonic language as "an intoxication for the ear", and the First Piano Quintet is a multi-faceted work that mirrors Scott's flamboyant public persona while maintaining a genuinely poetic inner beauty.

Classical Music

Classical Music

On Slow Motion Miracles, Sachal delivers a full set of multilayered gems steeped in a variety of styles, including indie pop, hip-hop, electronic, Brazilian, Afro-beat, old-school jazz and new-styled jazz. The album is produced by Michael Leonhart, best known for his work with Steely Dan and its co-founder Michael Fagen. Slow Motion Miracles is Sachal's most accomplished recording as an artist.

PAGANINI: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 2

PAGANINI: Music for Violin and Guitar, Vol. 1

Classical Music

Trombonist Deb Scott makes her Parma debut with her new Navona release Playing Favorites, accompanied by pianist Ron Petti. She performs a variety of her favorite pieces that appeal to her background in jazz and to her considerable technical skill. She writes: “What I love about each one is its ability to engage a diverse audience making for enjoyable and exciting musical moments.” The central piece on the album is Stephen Lias’s River Runner, written in response to a paddling trip he took with Scott through Big Bend National Park’s Santa Elena Canyon. Across the piece, Lias explores nature landscapes and the excitement of adventure, culminating in the visceral and kinetic third and final movement “Rock Slide.” The album includes many additional pieces, as well. Derek Bourgeois’ crowd- pleasing Trombone Concerto, written for Christian Lindberg, appeals to pop, jazz, and classical audiences. William Goldstein’s emotional Colloquy for Solo Trombone uses elements of jazz to explore opposing feelings of positivity and angst against a backdrop of Americana. Finally, the album closes with Variations on "The Carnival of Venice" composed by Jean-Baptiste Arban. This arrangement by Donald Hunsberger was actually composed for trumpet and originally performed by Wynton Marsalis.

...Rutter distils even more drama from dynamic contrasts than Dutoit, the balance between voices and instruments in his performance sounds natural, not carefully achieved, his boyish-sounding sopranos (above all the touchingly ethereal Caroline Ashton in the Pie Jesu) seem as incontrovertibly right for the colour of this work as the solitary, silvery violin that the Rutter edition employs in the Sanctus... [F]or truth to Faure's luminous conception Rutter's version is still unapproached, and it still heads my list.

-- Michael Oliver, Gramophone [1/1989]

The two canticles for Anglican Evensong, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, are presented here in diverse settings by American composers including Craig Phillips, Roland Martin, Leo Sowerby, and more. (Gothic)