Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis was Lithuania’s leading composer at the turn of the 20th century as well as an internationally admired artist. The piano scores from which these pieces are transcribed are Romantic in expression, influenced by the beauty of his country’s landscape and its folklore. With this selection of works, Joana Daunytė has expanded the repertoire of Lithuanian harp works, presenting a new perspective on the music’s national flavor. Joana Daunytė is a distinguished harpist performing solo and chamber music. A prizewinner at several international competitions, she has performed in Europe, Russia and the US. She has been recognized for her achievements in music by Valdas Adamkus and Dalia Grybauskaitė, former presidents of Lithuania, and by the government of Lithuania.

Now in his nineties, Herbert Blomstedt, former conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, is still a powerful interpreter of the symphonic repertoire. His program with the Wiener Philharmoniker is straightforward: it begins with Honegger’s brilliant Third Symphony and ends with Brahms’ Fourth. The eminent maestro, one of the orchestra’s favorites since his debut at the 2011 Salzburg Mozart Week, continues to enchant audiences with his enormous presence, verve and artistic drive. “A stirring, long-lasting listening experience. At the end, standing ovations and boundless cheers.” (br-klassik.de) / “Fortunately, they still exist, the magical moments when time stands still, when music reaches and touches people.” (Die Presse)

Shortlisted for the Gramophone Awards! Rusalka returns to Madrid “on an overwhelming level that will leave its mark”. (El Español) Mesmerizing soprano Asmik Grigorian, “already one of the most outstanding sopranos of her generation“ (Online Merker) stars with a “voice, at its zenith of maturity“ (El Pais) in the title role of Christoph Loy’s timeless and evocative staging of Dvorak’s tragic take on the Little Mermaid fable. Especially „the direction of dancers and extras in the second act is a virtuoso performance by Loy and his choreographer.“ (El Pais) “Musically, this Rusalka is of immense quality, no doubt due to the spectacular work of Ivor Bolton.“ (El Español)

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, one of the most played operas today, is performed on the Seebühne for the first time. “Enrique Mazzola leads the Wiener Symphoniker to a beguiling string sound and a flexibility that is so important for Puccini” (Der Tagesspiegel). “Barno Ismatullaeva manages the great aria of Cio-Cio-San touchingly beautifully” (SZ). Stage Director is Andreas Homoki, who together with Michael Levine’s magical stage set with its subtle landscape paintings brings Japanese flair to Lake Constance, supported not at least by Antony McDonald’s colorful costumes. “These are beautiful filigree images that director Andreas Homoki and his team [...] have created” (Der Standard).

Frederic Rzewski is most celebrated for his virtuosic variations for piano, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (8.559360). The Four Pieces began as a sequel to that breath-taking work, but whilst sharing certain similarities – Andean dance rhythms and tremendous drama – it occupies its own very distinct sound world, offering a compound of intense lyricism, shattering darkness, and hints of revolutionary fervor. The Housewife’s Lament is a set of variations on an anon. 19th c. tune with strong influences of Beethoven. The punning title Hard Cuts refers to cuts both budgetary and musical, and Rzewski’s signature elements appear throughout: folk rhythms, pointillist clarity, minimalism, and unique craftsmanship.

STABAT MATER SERENADE FOR STR

"Sinfonia Elegiaca is a must for all admirers of Panufnik…and enthusiasts of the composer will no doubt be interested in the Rhapsody as well." - Walter Simmons (First Edition)

Also available on Blu-ray

2014 marks a year of celebration recognizing the 150th birthday year of the German late-Romantic orchestral, operatic and lied master composer, Richard Strauss (1864-1949). Arabella (premiered 1933, Dresden) was the last of the half dozen Strauss works to feature a libretto by the great Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. This production, from the most recent Salzburg Easter Festival is, after Capriccio, the second of three Richard Strauss operas C Major is releasing in honor of the composer’s birth, life and work. The star-laden cast includes soprano Renèe Fleming, baritone Thomas Hampson, Albert Dohmen (Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, MET) and Gabriela Benacková (Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden). With Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, “the music of Richard Strauss is in the best of hands.” (ORF) “Thielemann gets the best out of the cast...especially Renée Fleming with her “luxurious” soprano …” FAZ

Richard Strauss
ARABELLA

Graf Waldner - Albert Dohmen
Adelaide - Gabriela Be?a?ková
Arabella - Renée Fleming
Zdenka - Hanna-Elisabeth Müller
Mandryka - Thomas Hampson
Matteo - Daniel Behle

Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
(chorus master: Wolfram Tetzner)
Staatskapelle Dresden
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Florentine Klepper, stage director
Martina Segna, set designer
Anna Sofie Tuma, costume designer
Bernd Purkrabek, lighting designer
Volker Michl, choreographer

Recorded live at Salzburg Easter Festival, 2014

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0br> Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 178 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Joaquin Rodrigo (1901 - 99) composed music for solo and piano duet throughout his long creative life. The earliest works on this collection of his complete music for piano dates from 1923 and the last from 1987.

 

Blind from birth, Rodrigo studied composition in Paris with Paul Dukas and became a pianist of considerable ability. Whilst his main contemporary Manuel de Falla delved deeply in to Spanish traditional music, Rodrigo created a kind of neo classical style imbued with a Spanish flavour, drawing heavily on 18th century musical styles and mannerisms. The more conservative style of his music compared with de Falla’s appealed greatly to the post civil war authorities of Franco’s Spain.

 

Many of the works for piano are short, and look back to the single movement sonatas of Scarlatti, and the keyboard music of Rameau, Couperin and Soler. However some of the works display considerable virtuosity such as Preludio al galo manañero which is a brilliant and highly effective composition.

 

The third of the CDs in this set features the composer and his wife, pianist Victoria Kamhi performing his music for four hands – it is a fascinating document and the listener can hear the composer adding personal touches to his music.

 

Other information:

- The first volume in an edition of Rodrigo’s music approved by the Rodrigo Foundation.

- Unusual repertoire that adds another dimension to the composer of one of the most famous concertos in the repertoire, the Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra.

- Detailed booklet notes included.

- Fascinating historical recordings of the composer as pianist.

 

Track list:

 

Disk 1

·         1 Tres evocaciones: I. Tarde en el parque

·         2 Tres evocaciones: II. Noche junto al Guadalquivir

·         3 Tres evocaciones: III. Mañana en Triana

·         4 Danza de la amapola

·         5 Sonada de adiós

·         6 A l’ombre de Torre Bermeja

·         7 Preludio de añoranza

·         8 Suite para piano: I. Preludio

·         9 Suite para piano: II. Siciliana

·         10 Suite para piano: III. Bourrée

·         11 Suite para piano: IV. Minué

·         12 Suite para piano: V. Rigodón

·         13 Cancion y danza

·         14 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: I. Toccata a modo de pregón

·         15 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: II. Sonata

·         16 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: III. Sonata en fa sostenido menor

·         17 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: IV. Sonata en Re

·         18 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: V. Sonata como un tiento

·         19 Sonatas de Castilla con Toccata a modo de Pregón: VI. Sonata en La

·         20 El álbum de Cecilia: I. María de los Reyes (sevillanas)

·         21 El álbum de Cecilia: II. A la jota (jota de las palomas)

·         22 El álbum de Cecilia: III Canción del hada rubia

·         23 El álbum de Cecilia: IV. Canción del hada morena

·         24 El álbum de Cecilia: V. El negrito Pepo

·         25 El álbum de Cecilia: VI. Borriquillos a Belén

 

Disk 2

·         1 Serenata española

·         2 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: I. El vendedor de chanquetes

·         3 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: II. Crepúsculo sobre el Guadalquivir

·         4 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: III Seguidillas del diablo

·         5 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: IV. Barquitos de Cádiz

·         6 Cinco piezas del Siglo XVI: I. Diferencias sobre el Canto del Caballero (Antonio de Cabezón)

·         7 Cinco piezas del Siglo XVI: II. Pavana (Luys de Milán)

·         8 Cinco piezas del Siglo XVI: III. Pavana (Luys de Milán)

·         9 Cinco piezas del Siglo XVI: IV. Pavana (Enriquez de Valderrábano)

·         10 Cinco piezas del Siglo XVI: V. Fantasia que contrahaze la harpa a la manera de Ludovico (Alonso Mudarra)

·         11 Cuatro piezas para piano: I. Caleseras (Homenaje a Chueca)

·         12 Cuatro piezas para piano: II. Fandango del ventorrillo

·         13 Cuatro piezas para piano: III. Plegaria de la Infanta de Castilla

·         14 Cuatro piezas para piano: IV. Danza valenciana

·         15 Preludio al gallo mañanero

·         16 Zarabanda lejana

·         17 Bagatela

·         18 Air de ballet sur le nom d’une jeune fille

·         19 Deux berceuses: I. Berceuse de printemps

·         20 Deux berceuses: II. Berceuse d’automne

·         21 Tres danzas de España: I. Rústica

·         22 Tres danzas de España: II. Danza de las tres doncellas

·         23 Tres danzas de España: III. Serrana

·         24 Pastoral

 

Disk 3

·         1 Cinco piezas infantiles: I. Son chicos que pasan

·         2 Cinco piezas infantiles: II. Después de un cuento

·         3 Cinco piezas infantiles: III Mazurka

·         4 Cinco piezas infantiles: IV. Plegaria

·         5 Cinco piezas infantiles: V. Gritería final

·         6 Gran marcha de los subsecretarios for piano with 4 hands

·         7 Atardecer for piano with 4 hands

·         8 Juglares for piano with 4 hands

·         9 Sonatina para dos muñecas, for piano with 4 hands: I. Empieza el día

·         10 Sonatina para dos muñecas, for piano with 4 hands: II. Alegres peripecias

·         11 Sonatina para dos muñecas, for piano with 4 hands: III. Recogimiento

·         12 Sonatina para dos muñecas, for piano with 4 hands: IV. Vuelta del cole

Milégé is a group of young talented musicians who derive inspiration from the diverse cultural musical traditions of the different tribes of Uganda, which they fuse with contemporary elements. The group writes: “We derive our name Milégé from the ankle rattle, a bell worn round the ankle to create rhythmic sounds that compliment dance performances. The rattle exists across the entire continent of Africa in different forms and in other parts of the world. Milégé is a symbol of unity, celebration and heritage. This album is very special to us, this will be our first album after nine years of the band’s existence amidst countless hurdles. It is for this reason that we chose the album name Afwoyo which means thank you in Thuphadola, a luo dialect from the Japhadola tribe of Eastern Uganda.We are thankful for the love and support from all those who have believed in our sound and have waited patiently for this authentic piece of work. We hope that this music will bring healing, hope and inspiration to the world!”

Initially enjoying popularity first in Germany-speaking lands and then in France, the genre of the piano duet (four hands, one piano) went on to blossom in England during the 20th century. On this album Emma Abbate and Julian Perkins present the complete works for piano duet by each of the composers selected. Palm Court Waltz, the Sonatina and Theme and Variations from Lennox Berkeley display Gallic traits, the consequence no doubt of his studies in France and his keen interest in the music of Satie, Ravel and Poulenc. While showing an evolution in the composer’s approach to tonality, every hint of seriousness is constantly balanced by elegant playfulness and diaphanous textures. Less well-known than Berkeley, Richard Arnell and Stephen Dodgson nevertheless contribute to the general atmosphere with their unabashedly tonal music that shows the neoclassical influence of Hindemith, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Dodgson’s suite Tournament for Twenty Fingers, which gives its title to this disc, is especially full of fun while ending with a homage to the Czech composers Dvorák and Janácek. An outstanding talent, Constant Lambert held jazz in high esteem and his Trois Pièces – written to be played entirely on the piano’s white keys – form a high-spirited and heartfelt tribute to its rhythmical vitality and inventiveness.

PRAETORIUS Nun komm der Heiden Heiland. In dulci jubilo. Vom Himmel hoch. Puer natus in Bethlehem. Conditor alme siderum. Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ. Resonet in laudibus. A solis ortus cardine • Manfred Cordes, dir; Bremer Barock Consort • cpo 777 327 (67:33 Text and Translation)


Straightforward, “musicologically correct” recordings of Michael Praetorius’s music are more present in the imagination than they are thick on the ground. While several of his simpler arrangements of chorale tunes can be found scattered among a myriad of seasonal albums, the more complicated concerted works, which, while based often on the same familiar tunes, stake a greater claim for his brilliance as a composer, are much harder to find. So this present, absorbing account of eight of his concerted motets is especially welcome. Performed as well as they are here, one quickly forgets that it is quite “out of season” to be reviewing them in early spring.


Most of his motets—or at least most of the ones that people bother to record—are built on famous hymn and chorale tunes penned much earlier, ranging from the ubiquitous In dulci jubilo to the most famous Lutheran melodies from the previous century, including Vom Himmel hoch and Nun komm der Heiden Heiland. Puer Natus in Bethlehem and Gelobet seist du Jesu Christ derive from less familiar source material, but are no less compelling. In some cases, Praetorius built his compositions on versions of the texts that interleaved the Latin original.


However, the surprisingly sparse discography of the nearly 1,000 hymns and concerted motets by this earlier (1571–1621) contemporary of the great Heinrich Schütz makes it difficult to assess his full range. The most direct competition for the present disc would seem to come from a now 10-year old Sony anthology on two CDs of concerted motets with Musica Fiata conducted by Roland Wilson (Sony 62929). But Praetorius composed multiple responses to the most familiar hymns, and none of the five similarly titled items is actually duplicated between the releases. Moreover, the two recordings present Praetorius on two different scales: the earlier disc opts for grander polychoral versions, fleshed out with a full 17th-century orchestra of strings, trumpets, cornettos, and sackbuts. Cpo’s Bremen release scales the works to medium grouping of four recorders, four violas da gamba, harp, and an organ positive, accompanying a seven-voice choir. Even these pointed differences, though, do not prevent comparisons, because the different repertoire items present shared challenges of ornamentation, textural clarity, and rhythm. Now over 10 years old, the Roland Wilson release was undercut by a muddier soundscape, with recessed strings and a longer echo in cavernous surroundings. The occasionally resplendent solo singing was inconsistent, falling short of the madrigalesque incisiveness of Manfred Cordes’s assembled singers for cpo. Even on its lighter, 17th-century scale, the brass tended there to overwhelm the male voices. And, while Wilson often succeeded in conveying the monumentality of some of this music—though surely not as powerfully as Paul McCreesh in his fabled “Praetorius Christmas Mass” recording (Archiv 439250)—it often lacked engagement and rhythmic excitement, qualities Cordes supplies in abundance.


Immediately one is struck here, by not only the strength and thoughtfulness of the solo vocal work, but also by Cordes’s sonic imagination, particularly the different colors massaged from his foregrounded gambas and harp. The recorders are also more adept and well tuned than Wilson’s. This pays dividends in the more complicated numbers like the thrillingly canonic In dulci jubilo setting and in the Vom Himmel hoch and Puer natus in Bethlehem , both of which are straightforward multi-verse settings of the complete hymns.


The recording opens with a fascinating, nine-minute “variation concerto” on the hymn tune Nun komm der Heiden Heiland , but listeners may be drawn more immediately to the hypnotically over-layered canons of Resonent in laudibus/Joseph lieber, Joseph mein or the aforementioned In dulci Jubilo . The recording is caught in the natural but not overly reverberant acoustic of the Stiftskirche in Bassum, a small town about 25 kilometers south of Bremen. Of much more than seasonal interest, this disc draws a glowing recommendation.


FANFARE: Christopher Williams

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It’s dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, most of them recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. The 8th recording was made on the organ at Gewandhaus in Leipzig with the transcription of Bruckner’s 7th Symphony by Erwin Horn.

From 1950 and onwards, Allan Pettersson was mainly occupied with working on the monolithic symphonies for which he is best known. But before that, while still a student at the Conservatory in Stockholm and later a viola player in the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, he composed two sets of songs: Six Songs and Barfotasånger (Barefoot Songs). Of these two, the second would become especially important for the composer, who returned to it throughout his life, quoting various songs from it in his symphonies. In Barfotasånger he set his own poems, full of autobiographical detail and using a highly personal, archaic language. Several of the songs reflect his childhood, as the youngest of four children growing up in a poor working-class neighborhood in Stockholm. All but two of them are in a minor key, in an idiom which alludes to folk songs, hymns and popular songs. They are here brought to sometimes painful life by Peter Mattei, one of the great singer-actors of our time, supported by Bengt-Åke Lundin, with whom he first collaborated almost 30 years ago, on an album of songs by Wilhelm Stenhammar.

This month Chandos Movies, one of the best known film music labels in the industry, turns its spotlight on one of Britain's most prolific film composers. While some may not be familiar with the name Stanley Black, most people of a certain generation could hum a tune or two of his! Stanley Black produced music for projects as diverse as 'The Goon Show', 'Summer Holiday', 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and 'Jack the Ripper'. He was an enormously versatile composer who could produce music from the wildly romantic through the comedic to the bloodcurdingly gruesome with equal élan. The BBC Concert Orchestra obviously relishes this music and performs it with great zest and enthusiasm. All these film scores have been specially arranged by Stephen Hogger for the concert hall and this is their first commercial recording.