This debut album of L’Estro d’Orfeo ensemble takes its title Altri Canti d’Amor from a madrigal found in Claudio Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals. The program focuses on the music of the Italian Seicento and more precisely on the schools of northern Italy; mainly the Venetian school. It combines both instrumental and vocal pieces- the latter in instrumental versions- connected to the subject of ‘love’. Using instruments instead of the voice may initially seem perverse for such a title, but to the ensemble it suggests the idea of “other ways of singing about love.” This album thus reaffirms the great value and importance that instruments started gaining in the first half of the 17th century, where they ceased serving merely as accompaniments to the voice and gradually became the main protagonist of the musical scene, attaining a level of virtuosity that had never been explored before.

Winner of the of the 2005 German Music Competition, the 2005 Stuttgart International Cello Competition and the 2006 Adam International Cello Competition, New Zealand, as well as the recipient of a 2009 Borletti Buitoni Fellowship.

ALVAREZ / NORHOLD / EICHBERG: Music for Recorder, Saxophone,

about the release Elizabeth Hainen, Solo Harpist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is known internationally as one of classical music's great harp ambassadors. She has thrilled audiences throughout the world with programmes showcasing the diversity and virtuosity of her instrument. Her first recording for Avie features three concerti spanning as many centuries. Austrian composer Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was a highly regarded teacher who counted Hummel and Beethoven among his pupils, and whose Harp Concerto of 1773 straddled the Baroque and Classical eras. English harpist and composer Elias Parish Alvars toured Europe widely and settled in Vienna. His G minor Concerto, written in 1842, was a virtuosic vehicle befitting his own temperament - Berlioz called him the Liszt of the harp. Saint-Saëns wrote dozens of concertante works but only one for harp, the 1918 Morceau de concert. Elizabeth will be a featured artist at the 2011 World Harp Congress in July, performing the Parish Alvars Concerto with members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. critical acclaim "silky transparency" - The Washington Post "ability to blend and color the musical line [and] to find transparency in an almost timeless atmosphere." - Philadelphia Inquirer "a complete harpist who knows and uses her instrument's strength and brilliance and strikes its fire" - Miami Herald

ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS: ETTA JONES AS WE LOVED HER

Specially priced 2-CD set established a new high-w ater mark in the life of the extraordinary trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack Dejohnette. One of the most exciting releases in the history of the trio. Recorded on two night in Tokyo last year, this double album is an endlessly fascinatin g document that takes the full measure of the grou p's creativity.

Always Ready is the English translation of Semper Paratus, the U.S. Coast Guard motto. +On this album, The U.S. Coast Guard Band performs a wide variety of patriotic classics, some unique to their specific military branch. +This disc also provides timeless patriotic songs like America the Beautiful, marches like The Thunderer and concert works like Charles Ives’ iconic Variations on “America.” +Each of the nineteen tracks offers something different, while still maintaining the band’s core sound.

The London Philharmonic seemed to take Alwyn to its heart for these two eminently approachable symphonies in warm-hearted performances, recorded in crystalline detail yet with full-bodied sound.

The First Symphony was dedicated to Sir John Barbirolli and was composed in 1949. The first movement reveals a sure structural grasp (the music is always directional, always sure of where it is going); the second movement is a mercurial Scherzo revealing the LPO on magnificent, quixotic form. Accents are perfectly highlighted and there is a real sense of life coming from within. The Trio is an oasis away from the rhythmic verve of the Scherzo, making the rhythmic life the more effective when it bursts back upon the scene.

The hushed lyricism of the cello line towards the start of the Adagio ma con moto is a marvel here, phrasally tender and tonally lush. Surely this is the symphony’s peak, for it is here that Alwyn’s invention is at its most unforced. The finale, despite its ‘allegro jubilante’ marking, includes a fair few shadows that seem determined to rain on the music’s parade – things are not as clear-cut in Alwyn the symphonist as may be assumed from Alwyn the miniaturist.

The Fourth Symphony dates from a decade later. It begins in a gentle and undemanding fashion – the tonally-ambiguous melodic lines give the music a fluidity that is certainly most appealing. Climaxes are impressive (as in the First Symphony, there is no doubt as to the LPO’s dedication); the extended Scherzo (longer than the first movement, in fact) is marvellously sprightly. This gives way to the tranquillity of the finale, a tripartite Adagio-Allegro-Adagio structure, the final Adagio section of which contains the most moving music on the disc. Well worth exploring.

Booklet notes by the composer (for Symphony No. 1 only) are enlightening. Alwyn lists as his influences here as Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Richard Strauss’s Don Juan as well as Schoenberg, Szymanowski and Scriabin (the latter in particular Prometheus and the Poem of Ecstasy). Actually for all its fluidity of invention, the music is not quite as exciting as that heady list might imply – but it is tremendously involving taken on its own terms. At its best it can seem an exhilarating and rewarding journey.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

Alwyn' approach to writing for the piano was essentially that of a romantic, born out of the tradition exemplified by Liszt and Rachmaninov, through to the impressionism inherent in the music of Debussy and Ravel. Influences aside, however, Alwyn fou.

William Alwyn composed prolifically in virtually all genres, orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental. Like his contemporary Samuel Barber, Alwyn was an unashamed Romantic who preferred his music to appeal to the heart rather than to the head.

There are several descriptive scores in William Alwyn’s prolific output, including The Moor of Venice Dramatic Overture which examines the turbulent central character in Shakespeare’s Othello. The Serenade and the orchestral version of Seven Irish Tunes receive première recordings here, both covering a wide range of moods. Following his acclaimed recording of the Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Naxos 8.570704), David Lloyd-Jones here completes the set, the second of which is scored for strings, and concluding with the Concerto Grosso No. 3 which is a tribute to Sir Henry Wood.

William Alwyn composed some fifty works for the orchestra, including five symphonies, a sinfonietta, concertos for flute, oboe, violin, piano, harp, three concerti grossi, and many other descriptive shorter pieces.

The four previous Alwyn volumes from Naxos have done well and here the standard has not slipped.

Not content with generosity and higher bargain price Naxos offer us two more pieces of Alwyn not previously recorded. These make this disc an essential purchase.

The tangily-titled overture The Innumerable Dance derives its name from fragrantly verdant verse in Blake’s ‘Milton’. You need to remember that between 1933 and 1938 he wrote a massive work for soli, chorus and orchestra on Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell; something we need to hear. The music of the overture has some kinship with Delius and Moeran; you must remember that this is very early Alwyn. Its fly-away delicacy is also redolent of Holst. It is most transparently orchestrated and its triumphant celebration of Spring places it with two more complex works: Bridge’s Enter Spring and John Foulds’ April-England.

Aphrodite in Aulis is referred to as an Eclogue inspired by the George Moore novel of the same name. Moore is now desperately unfashionable and his writing is pretty indigestible. In Alwyn’s dreamily Delian music summer breathes easily; indeed the whole piece communicates as a single sweetly arched sigh.

The Oboe Concerto was premiered by Evelyn Barbirolli on 12 April 1949 in London. It’s a two movement work of meditative and dreamily contented Delian inclination. Its kinship is with the much later Arnold Oboe Concerto written for Leon Goossens.

Alwyn put aside these moods as the years passed and so we come to a piece that music-lovers who discovered Alwyn in the LP age will already know. The Magic Island Prelude appeared on an early Lyrita (SRCS63 still available in a new coupling as SRCD229) with the Third Symphony. Here the manner we know from the symphonies is apparent but cross-cut with ‘exotic’ Hispanic voices from Ravel. If Alwyn’s vision of the magical island is more grandiose and less enchantingly delicate than I would have expected this piece remains atmospheric.

The dance theme continues with the Elizabethan Dances which start with courtly echoes from the Court of the First Elizabeth to which we return for the allegro scherzando which is splashed with the sort of playfulness to be found in Bridge’s Roger de Coverley. This contrasts with rapturous and even exotic dances (trs. 2, 4, 6) with the psychological reach of a Prokofiev waltz or the tension-charged dances from Barber’s Souvenirs. These dances were preceded in 1946 by a Suite of Scottish Dances.

The disc ends with the Festival March premiered by Sargent conducting the LPO on 21 May 1951. This is an inspired and dignified but not very personal piece of jobbery assuming the loose-fitting panoply of Elgar and Walton in much the same way as Howard Ferguson did for his 1953 Overture for an Occasion.

Alwyn’s short orchestral works can be heard on both Chandos (conducted by Hickox) and Lyrita (Alwyn). These are full price items and the couplings differ from the present one so there is little point in comparison. All I need say is that the recording is natural without being distanced and that the performances evince commitment and a sympathy for the composer’s varying styles. Clearly if you have already launched out on the Naxos route for the Alwyn symphonies you will need to have this. In any event Alwynites will want this for the unique experience of hearing more than sixteen minutes of previously unrecorded orchestral Alwyn.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

A perceptively played and admirably recorded performance of two substantial piano works by William Alwyn.

This is a perceptively played and admirably recorded performance of two substantial piano works by William Alwyn, who died last September at the age of 79. The 11 Fantasy-Waltzes are notable for their variety within an integrated conception, and this is also true of the 12 Preludes, both works encompassing a wide range of modern piano-writing techniques. John Ogdon is naturally a match for the technical demands of the music and, since he tells us in the sleeve-note that he recorded the 58-minute programme in the presence of the composer and his wife, we may take it that a high degree of authenticity to the composer's intentions has been achieved. With excellent sound balance and documentation, this is a disc to treasure.

-- Gramophone [11/1985, reviewing the original LP release]

William Alwyn was a consummate film composer, as capable of creating powerful marches as he was atmospheric waltzes. In these exciting arrangements by Martin Ellerby for wind band, the full variety of Alwyn' inspiration can be appreciated.

‘Why has this intense, brilliantly orchestrated, claustrophobically gripping masterpiece been so neglected since its 1977 premiere?’ asked Richard Morrison in The Times of the concert performance in the Barbican that preceded this recording.

Miss Julie is Alwyn’s last large-scale work, written in 1973-76. Alwyn set his own libretto, based on Strindberg’s 1888 play of the same title. The naturalistic drama and lifelike characters of that play appealed to Alwyn from an early age – in fact, he previously attempted to compose an opera on Miss Julie in the 1950s. That attempt failed because of differences with his then-librettist, Christopher Hassall. Alwyn believed that in opera, the action should be self-explanatory, arias should serve a dramatic purpose (as opposed to sheer vocal display), characters should sing to each other and not to the audience, ensembles should be minimized and the text should be set to vocal lines that reflect natural speech patterns. These views were distilled over his extensive career as a film composer, which taught him that music could do more than establish characterization, suggest mood, and heighten atmosphere: in some cases it could also communicate the unspoken thoughts of an onscreen character even when these were at odds with what he or she was presenting visually.

Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra support an outstanding cast featuring Anna Patalong in the title role in this acclaimed revival of Alwyn’s neglected masterpiece.

REVIEW:

Alwyn’s orchestral writing is always characterful, his vocal lines are unfailingly singable. Though his richly coloured writing reveals a whole range of 20th-century influences – Strauss, Janácek, and Ravel especially – it’s the world of Puccini that’s most strongly evoked at the work’s dramatic flashpoints. Anna Patalong as Julie nailed her character’s dangerously unhinged brittleness from the start. Benedict Nelson as Jean, the valet with whom she is so desperate to run away, sings the role with tremendous verve.

– The Guardian (UK)

Piano music featured prominently for the most part of Alwyn' career. The composer himself was no mean pianist, as evidenced in the varying technical demands made on the pianist in the works included here. The major work on this recording, Fantasy Waltzes.

William Alwyn’s musical style is in the main of a romantic nature firmly grounded in tonality, notwithstanding some forays into modernity, calling on dissonance and freedom of form when he felt the need. This approach can be keenly felt in the works included on this album, all of which were completed when he was aged between eighteen and twenty-five. The medium of the string quartet held a long and lasting fascination for Alwyn, which began during the earliest years of his composing career. He was to compose a total of sixteen string quartets between the years 1920 and 1984. Alwyn considered that the string quartet was the ‘most intimate of mediums’ and reveled in the challenge to provide interesting material in which to balance the four instruments. The sixteen string quartets that he was to compose can be divided into two groups; the first thirteen quartets were composed between 1920 and 1936, and the last three quartets were composed between 1953 and 1984.

Although best known for his film music, William Alwyn composed five symphonies (among other concert works). Symphony No. 1 unsurprisingly marries symphonic form to an engaging dramatic narrative. The first movement's slow, quiet introduction is pregnant with anticipation of the conflict to come, while the moving Adagio features one of those irresistibly hummable movie-style tunes. And connoisseurs of classic film cannot help but conjure cinematic images as they listen to Alwyn's triumphant, brassy Allegro jubilante finale. But even without such associations, the First is a fine symphony in its own right.


The three-movement Symphony No. 3 is even more compelling. Alwyn states that he used a "new kind of 12-note system", but the resulting music is certainly not atonal. Indeed, much of it has a modal quality similar to Vaughan Williams--a similarity that extends to the music's formal plan, warlike character, and sometimes even the orchestration (the brass writing in the first movement, and the woodwind/string interplay of the finale's "scherzo" section)--all of which are reminiscent of that composer's Sixth Symphony. But Alwyn's own voice predominates, and the symphony is enjoyable for its powerfully argued rhetoric and taut thematic construction. Conductor David Lloyd-Jones certainly believes in this music, as he demonstrates in these winning performances with the excellent Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Naxos provides first-rate sound.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 21-22 October 1992 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 11, 14 January 1993 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant)

William Alwyn's Fourth Symphony is an epilogue to his first three, conceived as a cycle. It's a tough work, its Romanticism tempered by an edgy modernism. Interest is added by a powerful rhythmic pulse (especially the first movement with its throbbing drums and the hard-driving Scherzo), blazing trumpet climaxes, brilliant orchestration, and a sense of gravity. David Lloyd-Jones and his orchestra bring all of these elements to the fore in an interpretation bristling with energy, including a fast-paced headlong dive into the Scherzo that adds to the excitement. In effect, the conductor's energetic pace tightens the work and takes some of the gloss off its Romanticism. Not that he short-changes the lyrical sections; moments of repose are strategically placed within the work. The last movement is, in the composer's words, "a calm epilogue", and Lloyd-Jones gives such important sections their full due. He knows that Alwyn dared to write long-lined melodies at a time when the music establishment frowned on anything hummable, and there's plenty of poetry in this three-movement symphony.


The Sinfonietta is symphonic in scope, ambitious in its materials, and usually lasts about 25 minutes (close to 23 on this disc). It opens with an unforgettably dynamic passage for cellos and basses that recalls Bartók, then alternates the vigorous and the lyric with Romantic fervor. The gentle Adagio embeds a quote from Alban Berg's Lulu, another composer Alwyn admired and refers to when he writes "... any composer who is honest acknowledges the debt he owes to genius."


The final movement is a complex fugue followed by a peaceful ending, as if to bring rest to the preceding turbulence. Lloyd-Jones is only a couple of minutes faster than his rivals on disc, but it all comes out of the last two movements, producing a more flowing Adagio and a finale that doesn't lose its clarity because of the swifter speeds. Oddly enough, the opening of the work, electrifying in Alwyn's own account, is a bit tamer here.


In general, Alwyn's the best conductor of his own music on disc, but his Lyrita recordings are hard to find. Lloyd-Jones' series of the five symphonies, of which this is the concluding volume, is an excellent alternative. The engineering on this disc has a split personality due to different dates, producers, and engineers. The Symphony is acceptable but a touch opaque; the Sinfonietta has more presence, better dynamics, and a stronger bass. If you are unfamiliar with Alwyn, try this disc--the music, performances, and price make it an unbeatable buy.
--Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com

ALWYN: Symphony No. 2 / Overture to a Masque / The Magic Isl

Naxos' many highly-praised recordings of William Alwyn' music have done much to revive excitement among today' listeners for this British composer who is best known for his 200 or so film scores.

Alexander Alyabyev enrolled in the Russian army when he was 25. As a calvary officer he took part in campaigns against Napoleon that took him all the way to Paris; he was badly wounded in the arm and transferred to the National Guard, where he became one of its best officers. Alyabyev had made himself a name in music salons as a composer of romanzas and brief pieces for piano prior to the Napoleonic War. After his retirement he was able to devote himself entirely to music and chose to live in Moscow. He was also known to be addicted to gambling and card games. Toward 1825 he was involved in a card game brawl where someone was killed. He was placed in jail for three years and finally sentenced to exile. From 1825 until the end of his life, Alyabyev remained under constant police supervision and was forbidden to perform in public. Alyabyev’s early works show his admiration for Beethoven, and he also wrote a great deal of salon music. His style was generally conservative and is often compared to early Schubert, particularly in view of his important art song output. In fact, Alyabyev is often nicknamed “the Russian Schubert.”

Emotions are running high in Guiseppe Verdi's eighth opera: two men are battling to win the same woman and the Incas are fighting for their freedom in the face of oppression by the occupying Spanish forces. This cultural conflict provides an exotic backdrop for the unfolding of a captivating love-tragedy, bursting with passion and heroism.

Albert Nadeau - I am Black Born in 1952, Albert Nadeau was a French-Caribbean singer, organist and songwriter from Martinique, known for blending local Caribbean rhythms with funk, soul and reggae inflections. After fronting the local group Les L�opards, he recorded a small but potent set of tracks in the late 1970s that showcased his raw, emotive voice and taste for groove-driven arrangements. At the heart of that period stands "I Am Black" from his 1977 solo LP. The track is a slow-burning tropical-funk/reggae cut built around a loping groove, organ-based chords and Nadeau's gritty, passionate lead vocal. Musically it sits between biguine-tinged island rhythm and 1970s funk/soul. Though it never entered the mainstream charts, 'I Am Black' - admired for the way it bridges Caribbean musical tradition with the Black Power and soul currents of it's era - has in recent years become one of the most sought-after Caribbean songs. Brother Mudada - Forward Ever Brother Mudada, born Alan Fortune, is a veteran Trinidad & Tobago calypsonian who began his career in 1961. He is known for socially conscious music that reflects calypso's tradition of political and cultural commentary. Over the decades, he earned major recognition in the Caribbean, including winning the Calypso Monarch title in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 2004 and later receiving a national honor, the Hummingbird Silver Award, for his contribution to music and culture. One of his most influential songs is "Forward Ever", a calypso anthem centered on perseverance, resilience, and collective struggle. The lyrics encourage listeners to "struggle on," using patience, wisdom, and understanding like weapons in life's battles, and remind them to help others along the way. The song's message and Mudada's delivery have helped solidify his standing as a cultural voice for determination and unity within Caribbean society.

The four men on this ‘Swiss songs after 1900’ CD - Emil Frey (1889-1946), Walter Lang (1896-1966), Marcel Sulzberger (1876-1941) and Max Zehnder (1901-72) - can stand for a whole generation of Swiss composers who practiced varying forms of Modernism, but succumbed to long-term obscurity. Marcel Sulzberger must be regarded as the first-ever Swiss to compose atonal music. His works are occasionally reminiscent of the music of Arnold Schoenberg, but his main influence always remained Debussy. Edward Rushton is an internationally active composer, song accompanist and chamber musician.

Amadeus et l'Impératrice : Mongeroult - Mozart

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