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COMPOSITRICES (BON, VON BAYREUTH)
$20.17CDEVIDENCE CLASSICS
May 08, 2026EVDI158.2 -
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William Sterndale Bennett: Piano Concerto Nos. 4 & 6 and Con
$23.99CDLyrita
Jan 02, 2026SRCD448 -
Grace Williams: Violin Concerto, Elegy for string orchestra,
$23.99CDLyrita
Nov 07, 2025SRCD447 -
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Flemish Music Heritage - Ryelandt: Piano Sonatas III, Noctur
$16.99CDAntarctica
May 15, 2026AR 073 -
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COMPOSITRICES (BON, VON BAYREUTH)
CURIOUS BARDS: EX TRADITION
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 / Norrington, Stuttgart Radio Symphony
This release features Mahler’s First Symphony in a historically informed performance that features a large, modern orchestra and includes the Blumine movement, which was part of the original version of the symphony, the one preferred by the conductor, Sir Roger Norrington. With the inclusion of the Blumine, the listener can appreciate the return of pastoral motifs in the finale movement. Mahler’s First symphony, sometimes titled “Titan,” was written mostly in February and March of 1888, incorporating music that had been written much earlier. The first performance wasn’t well received, but after several revisions over the following years the work has become a staple in symphonic repertoire. Originally, Mahler called the work a “Symphonic Poem in two parts.” But finally he began to refer to the work as a symphony.
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA DIALOG
in between - Choral works by Jessica Ulusoy-horsley
William Sterndale Bennett: Piano Concerto Nos. 4 & 6 and Con
Grace Williams: Violin Concerto, Elegy for string orchestra,
Opera Treasury - Humperdinck: Hansel And Gretel / Eichhorn
Martinu: Openings / Seopal, Jitro Czech Girls Choir
Ravel: Bolero, Rapsodie Espagnole, Et Al / Munch, Boston So
Peggy Glanville-hicks: Sappho
Peggy Glanville-Hicks was an Australian composer whose teachers included Vaughan Williams, Egon Wellesz and Nadia Boulanger, who was married for a time to Stanley Bate, another neglected composer, and who spent twenty years in New York before moving to Greece and finally back to Australia. Her other works include the opera The Transposed Heads, commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra and recorded by them in the 1950s and in 1984 by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. I have listened many times to both recordings with increasing pleasure so that I have been very eager to hear the present discs.
Sappho is a setting of an adaptation by the composer of a verse play by Lawrence Durrell. It tells of the Lesbian (but not lesbian) poet Sappho in her latter years when she was married to a wealthy local merchant, Kreon. The various scenes show her with the twin brothers, Pittakos and Phaon, with her tutor, Minos, and with Diomedes, a drunken poet. Towards the end she is exiled to Corinth on a false charge of incest. Her final monologue, the only part of the opera to have been publicly performed, is the clear climax of the opera, with Sappho accepting the impermanence of personal relationships as well as of her own life. It mirrors similar scenes at the end of operas by Strauss and Janácek, albeit that it is very different in its musical style. That style derives to a great degree from the composer’s attempt to reduce the importance of harmony in music, and to throw the emphasis instead on texture and tone, melody and heterophony. The result may seem a little bland at first but the listener soon adjusts to the composer’s very individual style.
A quick glance at the cast list shows several distinguished Wagnerian singers. Very surprisingly that appears to have been a necessity due to the weight of some of the orchestration. The conductor’s note indicates that she believes that with adjustment to dynamics and some of the orchestration it could be performed on a smaller scale, and I have to say that this would be welcome. In fact the ideal might be to retain the Wagner-sized voices but allow them to sing at somewhat less than full power. That would permit a more nuanced approach to performance and a more natural delivery of the, admittedly somewhat flowery, text. I am full of admiration for the cast here, who have taken on a major new work with obvious enthusiasm, but it has to be admitted that for much of the time there is a lack of any attempt at light or shade in their singing. The many singers for whom English is not their first language cope well but it cannot be said that the result sounds idiomatic. Admittedly the results in the case of the English-speaking artists are not all that much better, and although I attempted to follow what was being sung without it after a while I found myself wholly dependent on the printed libretto to understand what was being said or even who was saying it.
Sappho is by no means as immediately attractive as is The Transposed Heads, partly due to an apparent preponderance of slow or slowish music, but enough is revealed through this very welcome issue to suggest that subject to the preparation of a performance edition that would make it kinder to singers and to a greater familiarity with the work it would certainly merit stage performance. In the meantime we should once again thank Jennifer Condon for her untiring efforts to make it possible to hear the work and all the singers and players who helped her in this. Congratulations also to Toccata Classics whose presentation of the issue, with essays on the work, the edition, Durrell and Sappho, together with the full libretto, does all that could be done to help the listener and encourage understanding of this important discovery.
-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1-5 / Uchida, Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic
JOE HISAISHI CONDUCTS THE END OF THE WORLD REICHT
Famous Baroque Concerti - Bach, Handel, Vivaldi
Peter Heise: Complete String Quartets
Flemish Music Heritage - Ryelandt: Piano Sonatas III, Noctur
LIVE IN LOS ANGELES: 1978-1981
We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years
Wagner: Transcribed Solo Piano By August Stradel, Vol. 2
Schubert: Symphonies 8 & 9 / Szell, Cleveland Orchestra
INDIAN BLUES
RAVEL PIANO CONCERTOS & FAURE BALLADE OP 19
BACK TO FUTURE / O.S.T.
BACKATOWN
Spanish Gypsies - Celtic & Spanish Music In Shakespeare's England
The subtitle of this album says more about its content than does the main one. There is much titular reference to Spain and to gypsies, but only in ‘The Spanish Jeepsies’ do the two come together. It seems that in Shakespeare’s time Spanish popular tunes were perceived as being of gypsy origin. More to the point, the programme is skilfully devoted to showing the influence of Celtic and Spanish idioms on English popular music – a difficult, labyrinthine process that it’s not particularly helpful to try to summarise here, but it is well covered in Lawrence-King’s annotation.
Charles I’s Consorte opened the way for courtly instruments to ‘fraternise’ with humbler ones, creating a variety of new sounds, and the Harp Consort take full advantage of this ‘social’ freedom. The eight players form a kaleidoscope of broken consorts drawn from the 18 instruments (plucked, bowed, blown and percussed) at their disposal, producing a remarkable spectrum of sound from the ethereal (‘Lady Louthians Lilt’) to the downright boisterous (‘The Wherligig’). Only five of the 23 items last for more than four minutes but one never has the impression of a trayful of canapes deputising for a good meal.
When it comes to putting together a coherent and well-researched programme of assorted small-scale items, only Peter Holman springs to mind as Andrew Lawrence-King’s peer. Excellent recording is the icing on this delectable cake, one that takes 71 minutes to enjoy.
-- John Duarte, Gramophone [11/2000]
