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Folk Music from Peru
Claudio Abbado: The Last Concert / Berlin Philharmonic
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REVIEW:
The Symphonie Fantastique is dark and youthfully overwrought in general, and it's marvelous. There are also many fine moments in the Mendelssohn, where Abbado did not let the work's overfamiliarity worry him in the least; the gossamer overture got the concert off to a strong start, and it never really declined. Strongly recommended.
– All Music Guide
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 / Gilbert, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
Richter: Requiem… / Valek, Czech Ensemble Baroque
The mixture of styles in Richter’s work can be heard throughout this programme, from the Pergolesi-like opening of the Synfonia and use of orchestral sonorities from Mannheim to the operatic virtuosity of his vocal writing. Superb playing from the Czech Ensemble Baroque delivers a purity of sound which is pretty much the ideal for our idea of how this music should have sounded in the 18th century – it would certainly he hard to imagine the composer having much to complain about.
The Synfonia con fuga is assumed to come from Richter’s time in Mannheim, and as a ‘church sinfonia’ in everything but name its inclusion here suits very well indeed. The work is more than just a filler, with its vibrant inventiveness and colourful sequences it goes beyond galant frippery while stopping short of C.P.E. Bach’s striking waywardness.
Both De Profundis and the Messa de Requiem are from Richter’s 20-year tenure in Strasbourg, and both works are highly representative of the opulence possible during one of the most significant periods in the cities history. His church ensemble was at that time the second largest in France, and the richness in sound from these works is very fine indeed. Psalm 129, De Profundis clamavi was commissioned for funeral masses, and the symbolism of its C minor key of mourning, resolving finally into a more hopeful C major in the final Requiem aeternam are just two elements in an impressive and often highly expressive work.
The Messa de Requiem was reportedly composed for the composer’s own funeral, and the booklet notes open with a quote from Christian Friedrich Schubart, describing how Richter passed away with the score in his hand. This may or may not be true, but we can hardly disagree with the claim that it “encapsulates the quintessence of his legacy.” With added trumpets and timpani this is the kind of larger scale requiem which it is not hard to imagine in a line leading towards the grand examples by the likes of Verdi. Set pieces such as the operatic soprano solo Quid sum miser and dramatic Confutatis maledictis of the Dies irae are innovative sounding in this context, and the work’s transitional feel is heightened by their contrast with more antique contrapuntal music which Richter took from Johann Joseph Fux much earlier in his career and held onto throughout.
This is a substantial Requiem, and within its high-Classical idiom has plenty of heartfelt and beautifully poignant moments. The power of the work is rendered with the utmost refinement and musicality by all concerned, with all soloists very strong, and soprano Lenka Cafourková ?uricová deserving of mention as the topping to a very unified and superbly balanced musical cake. Supraphon has made this into nicely presented release, the booklet containing all Latin texts and translations into English, German, French and Czech. If seeking beyond the more familiar choral music of Haydn and Mozart results in unearthing these kinds of glories I for one would welcome digging ever deeper into the archives of the obscure and unpublished.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
Weinberg: Chamber Symphonies & Flute Concerto
Discover Japanese Taiko with ARC Music
Scheibe: Sinfonias / Andrew Manze, Concerto Copenhagen
This CD of works by comparatively unknown composer Johann Adolph Scheibe was well received on its original release, and is now available at mid-price for the first time. This is the only available recording of this repertoire. Scheibe is an interesting representative of the period between baroque and classicism. He broke with what he believed to be the starchy superficiality of the baroque style and strove, in his work, for a new directness and simplicity. His music, with its emphasis on melody, anticipates classicism and even hints at romanticism. Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 8-9 February and 16-17 August 1993 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Peter Hanke Sound Engineer(s) Peter Bo Nielsen
Rachmaninov: Complete Works For Cello / Ivashkin, Et Al
Rustem Hayroudinoff follows up the critical success of his recent disc of Rachmaninov's complete Preludes for solo piano with this recording of Rachmaninov's complete works for cello and piano. He is joined on this disc by Alexander Ivashkin, one of today's most distinguished cellists, who has made an enormous contribution to the Chandos catalogue with his benchmark recordings of his native Russian repertoire. Recorded in: St Michael's Church, Highgate, London 2-4 April 2003 Producer(s) Rachel Smith Sound Engineer(s) Jonathan Cooper Michael Common (Assistant)
Munch in Boston: The Early Years
Dvorak: Orchestral Works & Concertos
Collectors and admirers of Dvorak’s music bearing the hallmark of the Czech performance tradition can now add another comprehensive album to put alongside the previous complete Supraphon CDs mapping his chamber, piano, and symphonic works. The acclaimed recording of the symphonies, conducted by Vaclav Neumann, is now followed by Supraphon’s 8-CD box set featuring Dvorak’s orchestral pieces and concertos. In addition to the celebrated Slavonic Dances, it contains a number of rarely recorded symphonic works (the Hussite Overture, My Home, A Hero’s Song), as well as splendid compositions for chamber and string orchestras. Besides recordings made under the baton of Neumann, it provides scope to other great Dvorak conductors – Mackerras, Belohlavek and the rising star Jakub Hruša. The set of orchestral works is rounded off by recordings of concertos, ranging from the virtually unknown Cello Concerto in A major, written by the young Dvorak, to the most frequently performed, the Cello Concerto in B minor. Supraphon has again carefully put together top-quality and time-honoured recordings of works performed by world-renowned soloists.
Cavalli: Il Giasone / Alarcon, Sabadus, Hammarstrom, Cappella Mediterranea
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REVIEW:
The top-notch cast really savor the score’s lyricism, balancing all the cross-dressing camp with something disarmingly heartfelt. Dominique Visse is an irrepressible Delfa, taking ‘her’ pleasure wherever possible, and there are fine cameos from the veteran tenor Raúl Giménez as the cuckolded Egeo (cruelly styled as Peter Ustinov’s Poirot in Death on the Nile), Willard White’s Oreste and Migran Agadzhanyan as a nervily energetic Demo.
– Gramophone
Verdi: Messa da Requiem
GUIDO D'AREZZO: Ode to Phyllis / Ut queant laxis
Schubert: Schwanengesang, Songs After Seidl / Christoph Pregardien, Andreas Staier
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A superb, satisfying Schwanengesang that’s up there with the greatest
There are singers who seek to imbue Schubert Lieder with more gravitas, often accompanied by a sense of the world about to end. Christoph Prégardien is not of that ilk. For him, it seems, Schubert was a life-affirming optimist. In this world you can endure the slings and arrows and still be certain that the future will be better. So this marvellous Schwanengesang is essentially a honey-toned, sunny experience.
-- Gramophone [4/2009]
Bach: Complete Organ Music, Vol. 1
Oboe Passion: Arias & Concertos By J.s. Bach & Sons
Your response to CD 1 will depend a little on whether you fancy the idea of 13 of Bach’s cantata arias for soprano and oboe obbligato taken in isolation and played back to back. It can be a bit much in one sitting, but the programme has been nicely ordered to provide contrast and is packed full of beautiful music. Nienke and Pauline Oostenrijk have performed these works many times before, and their familiarity with and love for these pieces radiates warmly through your speakers. Nienke’s soprano voice is a touch darker than choirboy purity, though it can take on this character at some moments. She uses vibrato in a natural fashion, not throwing it in like an opera diva’s wide wobble, but also not cramping her own style in an attempt to fit some abstract early music performance ideal. There are one or two moments where Bach’s technical demands test her accuracy just a little such as in the energetic Flößt, mein Heiland from the Christmas Oratorio, but there are lovely little touches as well, such as the echo in Liebster Jesu, Mein Verlangen which appears to have been dropped in during post production, the soloist taking up a position somewhere at the back of the church to provide the effect. The soprano voice and oboe are balanced nicely against the continuo harpsichord or organ and, where applicable, strings or other instruments. There are lovely numbers throughout the programme, but my highlights include the pointillist organ and recorders and scrunchy harmonies of Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen, as well as the gorgeous opening track Ich Bin Vergnuegt Mit Meinem Gluecke and the moving Seufer, Tränen, Kummer, Not. There are a few similar collections around, including a very fine but much more large scale and operatic sounding one on the Archiv label with Magdalena Kozená, a comparison with which would be like comparing chalk with marble.
The J.S. Bach oboe concerto overlaps with a couple of recent releases I’ve looked at, from ECM with Heinz Holliger, and with Alexei Ogrintchouk on the BIS label for the BWV 1055 reconstruction. Pauline Oostenrijk’s recording doesn’t really replace either of these, but it is very fine in a fairly laid back sort of way. Her oboe d’amore playing is truly lyrical in the central Larghetto, and the playing is lively if not particularly urgent in the outer movements.
The delicious sound of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta suits Johann Christian Bach’s Mozart-influenced Concerto in F perfectly. This gentle approach obtains maximum tenderness in J.C. Bach’s Larghetto, but I was glad to hear the orchestral articulation and dynamics firming up for elder brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Concerto in E flat. It’s perhaps a little far -fetched to read too much Sturm und Drang into this concerto, which is more pleasantly diverting than filled with the ‘violent mood changes’ which Oostenrijk claims for it in her booklet notes, but there is plenty of that empfindsame expression which characterises C.P.E. Bach’s melodically strong compositional style.
This is a fine brace of re-releases packaged in an attractive SACD hybrid single-thickness double jewel case. The SACD layer is a recent re-mastering, but doesn’t add a huge amount to already more than decent stereo recordings.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International
Gabon: Traditional Songs & Dances
Outstanding / Timba MM
Bruckner: Symphony No 4 / Tintner, Royal Scottish National
Ibert: Piano Music - Petite Suite, Histoires / Hae-won Chang
Chopin: Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Richard-Hamelin, Nagano, Montreal Symphony Orchestra
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Richard-Hamelin and Nagano render both Chopin concertos with such freshness and breathtakingly lithe phrasing that they seem a virtual revelation. Highly recommended.
– Audio Visual Club of Atlanta
Fuchs: Piano Concerto "Spiritualist", Poems of Life, Etc / Falletta, London Symphony
Kenneth Fuchs is one of America’s leading composers. He celebrates his unique fifteen-year recording history with conductor JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra with this stunning release of three new concertos and an orchestral song cycle. Kenneth Fuchs has composed music for orchestra, band, voice, chorus, and various chamber ensembles. His music has achieved significant global recognition through performances, media exposure, and digital streaming and downloading throughout North and South America, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia. The London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, has recorded five discs of Fuchs’s music for Naxos American Classics. The first, released in August 2005, was nominated for two GRAMMY® Awards (“Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra” and “Producer of the Year, Classical”).
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REVIEW:
Now stretching back over the past fifteen years, JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra have been recording the major works of Kenneth Fuchs.
All of the present disc comes from the past six years, the most recent, Poems of Life, completed in 2017. The opening Piano Concerto, in the conventional three movements, was composed at the request of Jeffrey Biegel, who is the soloist on this disc. Often testing his technical virtuosity, the finale calls for prodigious dexterity in the fast flowing finale.
We can admire the London Symphony for the multitude of colours they provide, just as if the play the music regularly, and our gratitude to the conductor, JoAnn Falletta, the composer’s unstinting champion.
– David's Review Corner (David Denton)
Symphony 8
Beethoven: Missa solemnis / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Originally founded with the aim of performing the choral works of Bach, the Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki are now taking another great leap, after their recent release of Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Described as ‘refreshingly open-hearted, spontaneous and natural’ their interpretation received a 2017 Gramophone Award. Joined by an eminent quartet of vocal soloists, the team now applies its expertise in period performance to Beethoven’s masterpiece.
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,/br> REVIEWS:
The performance has warmth, energy and an exact feeling for tempo. The Japanese chorus rise fearlessly to Beethoven’s demands. A memorable musical and emotional experience.
– Sunday Times (UK)
This recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Op. 123 offers a revelatory performance that is so clear in its textures, lively in its tempos, meticulous in its execution, and detailed in its parts that this monument of western choral music seems to have shaken off all the mossy accretions of nearly two centuries. Highly recommended.
– All Music Guide
The Trio Sonata In 17th Century Germany - London Baroque
On two previous discs, London Baroque has explored the genre of the trio sonatas as it unfolded in 17th Century France and England. Both these issues met with great acclaim. The ensemble has now arrived in Germany, or more correctly: the German-speaking world of the time, as the programme also features works from the Low Countries and Austria. The great masters of the period, Buxtehude and Biber - are both among the ten composers represented here. But included are also other, less well-known names, such as Johann Schmelzer and Johann Rosenmüller. The great variety of styles and forms found on the disc fully reflect the diversity among the composers, while also serving to remind the listener of the fact that the trio sonata genre was just becoming established during the period.
