Last year Kenneth Woods and the Stratford-upon-Avon based Orchestra of the Swan made musical history when they completed the first-ever recorded cycle of the Symphonies by Hans G�l. By dusting off the Austrian �migr� composer's gorgeously melodic and finely crafted scores, which remained relatively dormant throughout the 20th century, Woods has introduced a new generation to G�l's wide-ranging and extensive oeuvre. On this set, the four symphonies (each originally released alongside those of Robert Schumann), are re-mastered and presented all together for the first time, opening the door to further exploration and discovery.

Bach, J.S.: Orchestral Suites for A Young Prince (Including

Late 18th century Italian composer Luigi Boccherini produced a vast catalogue of compositions, several of which were chamber works featuring the flute. Australian flautist Sally Walker, whose first appearance on AVIE was in collaboration with harpist Emily Granger on the album Something Like This, has taken a deep dive into the provenance of Boccherini's works for her instrument to produce a 90-minute, 2-for-the-price-of-one volume of music that is infinitely elegant, virtuosic and beautifully refined. The relatively rare yet imaginative Six Quintets, Op. 19, for two violins, flute, viola and cello vary in their configuration, some intimate, others on a grander scale reminiscent of the composer's orchestral music. Also included are the first "Divertimento Notturno" from the Sextet, Op. 38 for violin, viola, bassoon, flute, horn and double bass; and, as a "bonus" the Quintet G.443 for flute, oboe, violin, viola and cello, a work attributed to Boccherini. Although it's authorship is contested, as Sally says, "it is such a beautiful work that we wanted to include it anyway."

As responses to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons go, the world-premiere of The Irish Four Seasons by Ailbhe McDonagh instantly ranks amongst the most evocative and ear-catching. Presented alongside the "Red Priest's" monumental opus, in the debut recording by leading Irish violinist Lynda O'Connor, McDonagh's The Irish Four Seasons resonates with a shrewd synthesis of Baroque style and Irish culture. O'Connor explains, "Irish and Baroque music are similar in many ways. The freedom to ornament, similarities in structure and the prominence of reinterpretation are apparent in both styles". O'Connor and McDonagh are frequently referred to as musical soulmates. In their most recent collaboration, they bring to bear Ireland's huge musical heritage. Arranged over four movements - Earrach (Spring), Samhradh (Summer), Fomhar (Autumn), and Geimhreadh (Winter) -The Irish Four Seasons introduces new Irish airs inspired by Vivaldi's memorable melodies, creating an exciting and emotive work that proudly takes it's place alongside the Baroque evergreen. Supported by her new, hand-picked ensemble Anamus under the baton of David Brophy, O'Connor brings these programmatic works - old and new alike - to palpable life.

TO-N and Leon Botstein have helped rescue a growing list of works from oblivion, rediscoveries that bring us wonderful music we might never have encountered otherwise and remind us there is more to music history than the standard fare. This album unites three German-speaking Jewish composers, born within a few years of one another in the first decade of the 20th century. All three were lucky enough to escape the Holocaust and start anew after the traumatic interruption of the war years. Their works recorded here were all written during the 1940s: in Jerusalem, Bombay (Mumbai) and Mexico City, respectively. They show three young composers striving to find their own voices, while at the same time trying to adapt to their new environments.

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This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

"Attentive, loving, sophisticated accounts of the ultimate peak of the trio sonata genre.
With their boldness of invention, their expressive range and their extraordinary variety of three-part textures, Handel’s six Op 2 sonatas represent to my mind the ultimate peak of the trio sonata as a genre. Yet for some time there has been no complete recording of the set in the catalogue. Monica Huggett and her colleagues fill the gap admirably. These are polished and sophisticated performances, with much exquisitely turned detail, precisely echoed between the two violinists, who play as if identical twins. There is a great deal of subtle timing, graceful shaping...and delicately moulded detail...you won’t often hear this music more attentively, more lovingly played."
- Stanley Sadie, GRAMOPHONE

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If it's Hansel-in-English you're looking for, this set clearly is your choice...Here we get a lovely pair of kids in Suzanne Mentzer and Heidi Grant Murphy, their voices so utterly un-alike that the listening experience is vivid for that alone--but besides that, their interplay is credible and they both make wonderful sounds. Mentzer's dark-hued mezzo is suitably boyish, while Murphy's little-girl tone is charming. Judith Forst, hardly in the first bloom of her career, is a vicious Witch, smacking her lips and exuding spite and malice--and her diction is quite good too, unlike Murphy's, just to offer one comparison. Janice Taylor's portrayal of the mother is very fine, but her tone is wobbly; Robert Orth is a sympathetic, burly father; and Anna Christy's double-duty as Sandman and Dew Fairy is impressive. Conductor Andreas Delfs favors slowish tempos, bringing out the rich, symphonic aspects of the score and always making clear that Humperdinck was heavily influenced by Wagner. The Milwaukee Orchestra is excellent, with playing both atmospheric and grand from the brass section in this live performance (no audience is discernible). I guess it's nice to hear the opera in English even if much of it can't be understood, but--not to pick nits--why would a child say toil" when he can say "work"? The sound is better than good--rich and colorful." --Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

This release ably serves two purposes—to display the virtues of the new Caivillé-Coll-style Goll organ recently installed in St. Martin’s Church, Memmingen, and to showcase the talents of organist Jane Parker-Smith. The repertoire has been selected for its accessibility and its potential for virtuoso display. Composers Marcel Lanquetuit (1894–1985), Joseph Boulnois (1884–1918), Henri Mulet (1878–1967), and Joseph Jongen (1873–1953) are squarely in the Franco-Belgian tradition of Franck, Widor, and Vierne. Jeanne Demessieux (1921–1968), a student of Marcel Dupré, enters the world of Messiaen, and English composers Percy Whitlock (1903–1946) and York Bowen (1884–1961) present a parallel English ecclesiastical tradition, while German composer Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943) is in the Bach-Busoni orb. This selection allows Jane Parker-Smith to show, at one extreme, her prowess in a series of pastel-colored works requiring sustained slow tempos and concomitantly revealing registrations (Boulnois’s Choral in F??Minor, Mulet’s Rosace), and, at the other, her ability to tackle the large-scale Lisztian utterances of Jongen’s Sonata eroica and Middelschulte’s stunning Passacaglia.

The success of an organ recording depends both on the prowess of the performer and on the interface between the instrument and its surrounding space. In this case, it is a felicitous marriage. The results are warm, transparent, and, where need be, highly resonant without blurring any details. The quality of the recording rivals that of the Loft label’s best production.

The advent of the CD freed organ recordings of the limitations imposed by the LP tape to disc transfer. A 16 Herz C organ pedal could not be cut at all, let alone at a realistic level. Only its upper harmonics had to suffice. Early organ CDs reveled in their ability to produce woofer-damaging lower frequencies at the expense of any realistic musical balance. Bit by bit, however, musical intelligence finally prevailed, and here it is eloquently made manifest.
Jane Parker-Smith studied at the Royal College of Music in London. She subsequently took instruction with Jean Langlais in Paris. Her performances have the clarity and guisto tempi of those of Keven Boyer and Christopher Herrick. In her readings, she successfully balances the demands for exactitude and linear coherence with that of her need to actually interpret (pardon my split infinitive) these largely post-Romantic pieces. In other words, to personalize them and thus make them really communicate with the contemporary listener. Her success is striking and immediately made manifest in track 1, Marcel Lanquetuit’s Toccata, a kinder and gentler version of the Toccata that closes Widor’s Organ Symphony No. 5.

Igor Stravinsky, an excellent writer for wind instruments once said of the organ, and I paraphrase: “It’s unnatural . . . it never breathes.” Here Jane Parker-Smith makes it breathe. That this is only Volume 1 delights me. I hope that she will continue to explore these still largely musicological byways and illuminate them as beautifully as she has done here.
Preaching to the converted has never been particularly satisfying to me. The result in this case is an illuminating, and in terms of repertoire, essential recording that will delight aficionados, but, most important, will appeal to those just discovering this literature. Full organ specs are provided. If you haven’t gotten the message by now, this one is most warmly recommended.
--William Zagorski, FANFARE

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HANDEL Six Trio Sonatas, op. 2. Passacaille, op. 5/4 • The Brook Street Band (period instruments) • AVIE 2282 (69:49)


Handel’s music is always such a joy to listen to, I’m not sure how much we should trouble ourselves over how his works are identified or numbered in the listings. But just to clarify what’s on this disc, the updated or modern version of the Händel-Gesellschaft catalog places these sonatas in Volume XXVII, headed “Kammermusik: Sonate da Camera.” Falling under this heading are four subheadings or Parts, of which op. 2 is consigned to Part III: Nine Sonatas for Two Violins, Continuo, and Bass, as follows: B Minor, op. 2/1 (HWV 386b); G Minor, op. 2/2 (HWV 387); B? Major, op. 2/3 (HWV 388); F Major, op. 2/4 (HWV 389); G Minor, op. 2/5 (HWV 390a); G Minor, op. 2/6 (HWV 391).


But that’s only six. The Händel-Gesellschaft catalog places nine sonatas in this grouping. So what gives? Well, here’s the scoop: op. 2/1 (HWV 386b) turns up in an alternate version as HWV 386a, but in C Minor instead of B Minor, my guess is to accommodate performance on flute in place of violin. There’s an HWV 392 in G Minor, which was not published in the original op. 2 set of six sonatas, and which is considered spurious by some Handel scholars. And finally, there’s a Sonata in E Major listed as op. 2/9 (HWV 394), again not published as part of the original set. But when the set was first published in 1733, they appeared in print as “IX Sonatas or Trios for Two Violins, Flutes, or Hoboys with a Thorough Bass for the Harpischor [sic] or Violoncello.”


The Brook Street Band gives us the standard six listed in the first paragraph above, including as a bonus, the Passacaille, which I headlined as coming from op. 5/4, but which Handel actually made use of in a number of different works. I can’t be sure why the players have ordered the sonatas on the disc as they have—Nos. 3, 2, 4, 5, 1, and 6—but a good guess would be to avoid the adjacency of minor-key sonatas, three of which are in G Minor. One other note: Though the Händel-Gesellschaft catalog places these sonatas under the category of “Kammermusik: Sonate da Camera,” all but one of these sonatas are of the chiesa (church) type, meaning they’re in four movements that follow a slow-fast-slow-fast layout. The exception, No. 4 in F Major, adds a fifth movement, an additional Allegro , at the end.


Since the original printing indicates that these sonatas or trios may be played by two violins, flutes, or oboes, The Brook Street Band, named, by the way, for Handel’s London residence, divides the pieces up accordingly; however, the ensemble, as it’s constituted, is oboe-less. Members are Rachel Harris and Farran Scott, Baroque violins; Lisete da Silva, flute and recorder; Tatty Theo, Baroque cello; and Carolyn Gibley, harpsichord.


Despite the 1733 publication date, it’s believed Handel composed these trio sonatas as early as 1722. Consider, though, that by then he was a well-established opera composer in London. Some of his most important operas date from this period— Ottone, Flavio, Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano , and Rodelinda were all composed between 1722 and 1725. I mention this because the slow movements of these trios are emotively expressive in much the same way as Handel’s arias are in his operas of these years, gorgeous cantilenas spun out with affective lyrical beauty. In contrast, the fast-paced movements anticipate the vivacious, energetic drive to come in the later organ concertos and concerti grossi. They’re full of spirited invention, and performed here by The Brook Street Band with lots of spring and bounce, along with some delightfully spontaneous-sounding embellishments added for good measure.


There is competition in these works, and it’s not insignificant, from groups like Sonnerie with Monica Huggett, and the Academy of Ancient Music, led by Richard Egarr. I have Sonnerie’s recording on Avie, and have been very happy with it. But The Brook Street Band’s playing strikes me as sounding freer, more natural, and less constrained. Perhaps the word I’m looking for is less studied. In any case, these are wonderful performances of uplifting music beautifully recorded. What more could you want? Very strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Bach’s three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord were once thought to belong to the composer’s Cöthen period. His employer, prince Leopold, was an enthusiastic amateur gambist and the court orchestra boasted a performer of exceptional talent in Christian Ferdinand Abel. Yet it seems more likely that the pieces were written at Leipzig, possibly for Abel’s son Carl Friedrich who lived there for several years and who may even have been a Bach pupil. In all three Sonatas the gamba is partnered by an obbligato harpsichord, Bach placing the gamba line between the treble and bass keyboard strands to provide a distinct voice in the alto-tenor range. Bach always wrote expressively for this eloquent member of the viol family, above all in the wonderful G minor Sonata whose outer movements adhere to the ritornello principles of a Vivaldian concerto. Jonathan Manson and Trevor Pinnock form a hugely rewarding partnership. Both are spirited players with strong characters but who, yet, are susceptible to the sublime poetry of the Sonata’s centrally placed Adagio. There is much rewarding dialogue in these performances where neither player steals the limelight from the other. The conversational interplay between the instruments is animated and engaging and the rapport between the artists hardly can be placed in doubt. In short, I find greater athleticism and a greater sense of playful spontaneity here than in rival versions either by Jordi Savall and Ton Koopman for instance (Alia Vox) or Jaap Ter Linden and Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi). The fourth Sonata in their programme is a transcription of a piece best known in its B minor version for flute and harpsichord but which, in turn, derives from a partly preserved source in G minor. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine