For Guggenheim Fellow composer Elena Ruehr the appeal of the string quartet lies in the ability of four instruments to express an infinite range of emotional possibilities, to communicate across time. Her six string quartets attest to her enthusiasm for musical time-travel: echoes of Perotin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schoenberg and jazz are there, but the musical language is purely her own. Elena’s Six String Quartets are a magnum opus, three of them commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet, two by the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and one an ASCAP Award winner. “…sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies and piquant harmonies.” (The New York Times) “Music with heart and a forceful sense of character and expression.” (The Washington Post)

-----

REVIEW:

The structure of each quartet is unique to itself, having little in common with the conventional form, even when nominally in the four movements of classical design. There is a tangible community of spirit in these six works, even with the more notionally abstract Fourth (2005) and Sixth (2012). Stephen Salters, something of a Ruehr specialist, is in fine — occasionally falsetto — voice, nimbly accompanied by the Borromeo Quartet. The Cypress Quartet, for whom Nos 4–6 were written, play the remainder with authority and complete assurance. Avie’s sound—mastered by Mark Wilsher—is beautifully clear.

– Gramophone

2019 Grammy Award Winner - Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman’s neat encapsulation of the Orpheus myth infuses his solo recording debut, ‘Songs of Orpheus.’ Orpheus, the greatest singer of all time, famously followed his deceased beloved Eurydice to the gates of Hades in an attempt to bring her back to life. He was thwarted by the gods who forbade him to gaze at her during their journey back to earth. he could not resist, and the tale has been told in numerous musical interpretations including those of Monteverdi and his 17th-century compatriots who are represented on this imaginative album, performed with leading baroque interpreters Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire. Acclaim for Karim Sulayman and Apollo’s Fire has been widespread: “the soloists and instrumentalists are first class” (BBC Music Magazine) “an absorbing collection of early music, beautifully performed by the Cleveland-based instrumental-choral ensemble and vocal soloists” (Chicago Tribune)

-----

REVIEW:

Sulayman’s approach tends more towards the lyrical than the rhetorical – his lucid, velvety tenor and pop-star charisma best suited to melodious arias rather than the text-driven stile recitativo. Under the spirited direction of Jeannette Sorrell, Apollo’s Fire provides slick and stylish continuo realisations.

– BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

The Door to Paradise celebrates Stephen Darlington’s more than thirty year legacy as Director of the distinguished Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. This unprecedented contribution to the choral discography is the most comprehensive collection to date of music from the Eton Choirbook. The Door to Paradise brings together all five volumes of the Choir’s survey in a newly-packaged, beautifully presented deluxe box set with a newly-penned overview of the project by Darlington. This extraordinary collection of English sacred music from the early Renaissance reveals a striking diversity and range of stylistic structures, harmony, sonority, ornamentation and improvisation, and brings to light two world premiere recordings- Walter Lambe’s Gaude flore virginali and John Browne’s second setting of the Salve regina. The collection’s title derives from a dual meaning: the “door to paradise” is the English translation of a line from Browne’s O regina mundi clara, while the cover image features the “Alice Door” between the Deanery and Cathedral Gardens of Christ Church, Oxford, featured in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.



Excerpts of reviews from select, previously released volumes included in this set:

The Sun Most Radiant: Music from the Eton Choirbook, Vol. 4


Stunningly effective singing, with insightful and precise direction by Stephen Darlington. A ground-breaking achievement.

– Early Music Review

Choirs of Angels - Music from the Eton Choirbook Vol 2

Intonation is exact, enunciation clear, the tonal balance distinct between parts yet carefully blended. Phrasing is expressive. Overall, fine performances in sacred music of remarkable eloquence.

– Fanfare

While Johann Georg Pisendel is primarily remembered today as the 18th century virtuoso that inspired Bach to compose his renowned Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, this extraordinary program "Per Monsieur Pisendel" reveals the violinist/composer's influence to be much more widespread and diverse. Each of the six violin sonatas offered was either dedicated to or composed by Pisendel himself, amply attesting to his apparent charisma and exemplary skill. La Serenissima's members--violinist Adrian Chandler, cellist Gareth Deats, and harpsichordist Robert Howarth--rise to the occasion, delivering stirring, alert, and focused performances that ably serve Pisendel and his contemporaries Vivaldi and Albinoni.


Vivaldi's famous RV 6 opens the program, and like Romanesca (Harmonia Mundi) and the Biondi/Alessandrini/Naddeo/Pandolfo/Lislevand ensemble (Arcana), Chandler and colleagues brazenly draw out every dramatic nuance and diabolical twist implicit in the score. Especially enjoyable is their deft treatment of the third movement (Grave), heightened by numerous decorative flourishes throughout. The program in fact features a refreshingly wide variety and inventive use of ornamentation that, unlike so many other recitals of similar repertoire, perpetually keeps things interesting. Chandler's spellbinding rendering of Pisendel's Allegro from his Sonata in D is absolutely spectacular! Likewise, Chandler's performance of the second-movement Allegro of Vivaldi's Suonata a Solo facto per Monsieur Pisendel del Vivaldi in C, RV 2 equally impresses in its cocksure bite and vigor.


Complementing La Serenissima's excellent performances is Avie's clear and immediate sound. Chandler's excellent notes are informative and entertaining. This debut recording couldn't be more auspicious. Highly recommended.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

This collection of music from the Eton Choirbook, the vast collection of English sacred music from the Early Renaissance, is the fourth in an acclaimed seris. Stephen Darlington and The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford lead the series, receiving countless awards and acclaim. The music on this release was firmly rooted in the daily life of the college, appreciated by all who attending and worshiped there.

With this installment of music from the Eton Choirbook, the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral sets out to rival The Sixteen’s five-volume anthology. Already it seems to me that they surpass it technically – which is remarkable considering the inevitable changes of personnel that time imposes on a choir with boy trebles – and interpretatively.

–Gramophone

Stunningly effective singing, with insightful and precise direction by Stephen Darlington. A ground-breaking achievement.

– Early Music Review

Cellist Inbal Segev’s debut release for Avie features the lush and romantic sonatas by Chopin and Grieg, and the Fantasiestucke by Robert Schumann. She is joined by Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen, a fitting partner for the pianistic Chopin and the virtuosic Grieg. In Schumann’s own transcription of his “Fantasy Pieces,” originally for clarinet, the lyrical quality shines through on Inbal’s 1673 Ruggieri cello. Inbal Segev reaches thousands of people across continents through her influential YouTube video masterclass series Musings with Inbal, teaching core repertoire, cello technique and new works. Her many honors include top prizes at the Pablo Casals, Paulo and Washington International Competitions. She began playing cello in Israel at five and at sixteen was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her studies in the US. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Yale University. “first class… richly inspired… very moving indeed…” (Gramophone) “Her playing is characterized by a strong and warm tone…delivered with impressive fluency and style.” (The Strad) “This young artist is, beyond doubt, a star in the making- her tone golden and unstrained in the high positions, her phrasing that of a born musician.” (Musical Opinion)

-----

REVIEW:

In the late 2010s, cellist Inbal Segev teamed with the young pianist Juho Pohjonen in recitals, and the pair has a good, confident rapport.

In the first movement of Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, Segev strikes a nice balance between the bel canto melody and the dense construction.

The virtuosic Grieg sonata is expertly done, and it is likely that this release will satisfy her many fans.

– All Music Guide (James Manheim)

Includes work(s) by various composers.

It is interesting to see what uses musical amateurs of Handel’s day made of his scores, and the singing by Nicki Kennedy is excellent.

HANDEL Cantatas: So Pleasing the Pain Is. 1,2 With Roving and with Ranging. 1,2 To Lonely Shades 1,2 & • Nicki Kennedy (sop); 1 Sally Bruce-Payne (alt); 2 The Brook Street Band (period instruments) • AVIE 2153 (2 CDs: 118:57 Text and Translation)

& HANDEL Songs: 1 An answer to Collin’s complaint. Dear Adonis, beauty’s treasure. The forsaken nymph. I like the am’rous youth. Love’s but the frailty of the mind. ’Twas when the seas were roaring. Transporting joy

This recording is titled “Handel’s English Cantatas.” The three works consist of 13 arias and three duets from three Handel operas, Giulio Cesare, Ottone , and Flavio , with new English texts and arranged for two violins and basso continuo . The arrangements have been attributed to Handel, but this claim is very doubtful. The form of each work, a series of arias ending with a duet, without linking recitative, is otherwise unknown in Handel, and there is no evidence that Handel had any part in putting these works together. The notes to this recording make as good a case as can be made for Handel’s involvement, but I remain unconvinced. The works themselves make enjoyable listening, since the music is taken from three of Handel’s best operas, and it is interesting to see what uses musical amateurs of Handel’s day made of his scores.

The performances are generally enjoyable. Nicki Kennedy is the more pleasing of the two soloists. Sally Bruce-Payne has a large voice that does not sound like it is always completely under her control, and she has an annoying habit of giving a very strong accent to some words; for example, in So Pleasing the Pain Is her overstress produces too strong an emphasis on some syllables. Fortunately, she manages to control this tendency most of the time. The Brook Street Band, consisting of two violins, cello, and harpsichord, plays expertly, and one hardly misses the full orchestra for which these works were originally written.

According to the catalog of Handel’s works in the New Grove , these three cantatas were arranged for different voices than those assigned to them here: So Pleasing the Pain Is for tenor and baritone, With Roving and with Ranging for soprano and baritone, and To Lonely Shades for soprano and tenor. The notes are silent on the arrangements made for this recording.

There are two English cantatas that are accepted as legitimate. Look Down, Harmonious Saint , a single recitative and aria, is not included here but can be found as a supplement to Robert King’s recording of Acis and Galatea . The second, Venus and Adonis , survives in fragmentary form as two arias with harpsichord accompaniment. Those two arias, Dear Adonis, beauty’s treasure and Transporting joy , are included here in a group of seven songs. Many songs have been attributed to Handel. A few years ago, Somm released a recording of all of the songs of unquestioned attribution. Four of them are included here, though one ( An answer to Collin’s complaint ) is performed in a harpsichord arrangement. The forsaken nymph and the two arias from Venus and Adonis are recording premieres. All are excellently sung by Nicki Kennedy.

The three newly recorded items make this recording a must for dedicated Handelians, and the three English cantatas make interesting listening.

FANFARE: Ron Salemi

A serious sense of purpose without dourness, harmonic variety without abstruseness, rhythmic vitality without being overly complex and immediate impact yet worthy of greater study.

It’s especially interesting for me to be listening to and reviewing this disc as I have just been ‘doing’ Egon Wellesz who, like Gál was an émigré as a result of World War II. Gál’s situation was, if anything, even worse as in March 1933, at a time when he had a role of some eminence in German musical life and also a little in Austria, he was forced out of his position on account of his Jewish background. He fled to England. After many vicissitudes he ended up working and living for the rest of his life in Edinburgh.
 
The Violin Concerto comes from the period 1931-2 when Gál was at his most successful in Germany. It is in many ways quite an untroubled work. Throughout it I kept pinching myself that this was not a British concerto as it seems to bear little relationship with the Austro-Germanic tradition of the late Romantics or early moderns prevalent at the time. The ‘Fantasia’ opening movement and the second movement marked ‘Arioso’ begin with a very English-sounding pastoral melody on the oboe. The only vicious and angry writing comes in the cadenzas which Gál himself wrote. The piece was written for Georg Kulenkampff and Fritz Busch and is in three movements. The finale, a Rondo, is quite lively and the brightest of the three but the opening is a Fantasia with four or five contrasting ideas. The work as a whole hangs together in a most satisfactory manner. Annette-Barbara Vogel tells us in a brief essay that recording this work and indeed the entire disc has been her dream for many years. She can be triply proud of her efforts, those of the orchestra and of Kenneth Woods who enables the orchestration to breath with such clarity. The recording engineers must also take a bow.
 
It’s interesting that despite all of the difficulties thrown at Gál and his family in 1934 he wrote the genial, easy-going yet masterful ‘Improvisation, Variations and Finale on a Theme of Mozart’ for string quartet (Meridian CDE84557 - Edinburgh Quartet). In 1939 he wrote an equally lyrical ‘Concertino’ which, ironically is, if anything, more virtuosic than the concerto. Its opening Andante tranquillo is fecund with ideas, almost Fantasia-like. Its melody on cellos is almost Korngold and even more so when the soloist takes it up. But the second subject is strident and dotted. The work is in just two movements linked by a challenging bridge-cadenza before hustling in a ‘Rigaudon’. This was a melody which Gál noted down, apparently from a British Museum Manuscript dated 1716; in contrast there is a more romantic second subject. A nice touch is created by this idea melting away into another, briefer cadenza before the opening melody of the first movement returns with a sense of sadness and nostalgia. The dance tune is suddenly re-invigorated for a final fling in the orchestral strings and then by all, leading to a light-hearted ending.
 
The CD places ‘Triptych’ between these two concertante works. It dates from around Gál’s 80 ^th year when he was experiencing a late burst of creative activity. The excellent booklet notes by Eva Gál tell us that this was the time of Third Quartet in 1969, the Fourth of 1971, the Fourth Symphony of 1973 and a Clarinet Quintet of 1977. One is therefore reminded of late-flowering composers such as Berthold Goldschmidt and Havergal Brian. The Triptych is intractably conservative for its time. Indeed in the clarinet writing of the slow, middle movement - called a ‘Lament’ - and in the lyrical second subject of the third movement marked ‘Comedy’, one may well be reminded of autumnal Brahms. There are times anywhere in the work when other composers might come to mind. My wife, who really took to this “warm-hearted old man”, at one moment shouted out ‘Glazunov’ in the first movement (marked romantically, ‘Impromptu’). There’s even a hint of Elgar at one point. But this music is not shackled to any particular time and like its composer is related to no particular place. It has a serious sense of purpose without dourness. It has harmonic variety without abstruseness. It has rhythmic vitality without being overly complex. It has an immediate impact but is worthy of greater study.
 
The presentation is exemplary with photos and examples of Gál’s neat manuscript work and wonderful performances. If from my descriptions the music seems to have an appeal then search out this CD out because if successful then I suspect more Gál might appear in the next few years.
 

-- Gary Higginson, MusicWeb International

Continuing Avie’s acclaimed and influential series of recordings of the music of Austrian émigré Hans Gal, this latest release brings together two of today’s most eminent Gal interpreters, Sarah Beth Briggs and Kenneth Woods with violin virtuoso David Juritz for a recording of Gal’ breathtakingly lyrical Piano Trio in E major and his witty Variations on a Popular Viennese Tune. Gal’s music and destiny was shaped by war and political upheaval, as was that of Dmitri Shostakovich, whose Piano Trio in E minor, one of the monuments of 20th century chamber music, is a harrowing souvenir of the times in which it was written. “Beautifully poised, enchanting accounts.” (Gramophone) “Briggs is an artist with prowess and personality… [her] infectious pianism is impossible to resist.” (MusicWeb Inernational) “Woods holds his own against such wonders as Sawallisch, Celibidache, Giulini and immediately becomes a favorite for this delectable work.” (Classical Source) “Refreshingly spontaneous.” (BBC Music Magazine)

GÁL Cello Concerto. ELGAR Cello Concerto • Antonio Meneses (vc); Claudio Cruz, cond; Northern Sinf • AVIE 2237 (61:48)

Receiving two very fine recordings of my favorite cello concerto, the Elgar, two issues in a row (see Fanfare 36:1 for review of Paul Watkins’s Chandos release) is enough treat in itself. But the real news here is the first-ever recording of Hans Gál’s Cello Concerto, composed in 1944 under very trying circumstances.

It’s not surprising, I suppose, that the booklet cover that displays through the jewel case’s front window lists the Elgar first, no doubt a lure based on name recognition. But it’s the Gál that comes first on the disc and is so confirmed by the booklet’s backplate that displays through the rear window.

Hans Gál (1890–1987) lived a long life but one filled with tragedy for a good part of it. An Austrian Jew, he was caught up in the Nazi vise, believing he’d be safe back in Austria after being dismissed from his post as director of the Mainz Conservatory in Germany. But the Anschluss soon brought Hitler’s storm troopers to Austria to round up and deport the Jews there as well. Gál and his immediate family were able to escape to the U.K. in 1938 before they were conveyed to a concentration camp, but trouble followed them across the Channel.

At first, Gál’s prospects brightened. Francis Donald Tovey invited him to Edinburgh to work as an archivist cataloging the Reid Music Library. But when Tovey was suddenly incapacitated by a stroke, Gál returned to London just in time for the outbreak of the war. Citing national security concerns, the Brits began rounding up German and Austrian nationals and sequestering them in detention camps. Gál was caught up in the sweeps and found himself interned in a camp on the Isle of Man, perversely incarcerated side by side with those from whom he’d fled. Upon his release four months later, he returned to Edinburgh. But by now, Hitler’s death camps, mostly in Poland, were working overtime, and members of Gál’s extended family who were still in Germany were at grave risk.

Gál’s mother, thankfully for her, died on her own in 1942, but in Weimar his sister and an aunt took their own lives to avoid deportation to Auschwitz, and that same year, Gál’s youngest son, Peter, who was physically out of harm’s way with the family in Edinburgh, committed suicide at the age of 18. Gál remained in Edinburgh where he was appointed lecturer at the city’s university, founded the Edinburgh Festival, and was eventually awarded the Order of the British Empire. He was also honored by the nations that would almost certainly have killed him had he remained. His cantata De Profundis was premiered in Wiesbaden, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Mainz and the Literis et Artibus medal by Austria.

Gál’s Cello Concerto is a work purely of the heart and soul, for no commission or even remote prospect of performance prompted it. Six years would pass before the work was first heard at a concert by the Göteborg Orchestra in 1950 with cellist Guido Vecchi playing the solo part.

Despite its 1944 date of composition, the concerto is as romantic a score as anyone could have made to order. Considering the circumstances under which it was written, it’s not as dark a work as Elgar’s World War I Cello Concerto. There are passages, however, of lament and exquisite, soaring lyrical beauty, and from time to time an exotic Middle Eastern element in the music comes to the surface that distantly echoes Bloch’s Schelomo and Voice in the Wilderness. The solo part in Gál’s concerto requires a good deal of virtuosic skill, but the work is not what you would call a virtuoso showpiece. For much of the score’s first two movements, the cello plays an almost obbligato role, dialoging with instruments in the orchestra in a pretty much equal engagement. It’s not until the concluding movement, in which the cello has an extended and technically challenging cadenza, that the writing highlights the soloist in a more traditional virtuoso concerto role.

This is a most magnificent addition to the cello repertoire, a work that, in my opinion, deserves to take its place beside the Schumann, Dvo?ák, and Elgar concertos as one of the cello’s great repertoire works. Antonio Meneses, unquestionably one of the instrument’s great players on the world stage, performs Gál’s concerto with breathtaking sweep.

Elgar’s Cello Concerto is well known and has been covered extensively in these pages. Therefore, I will restrict myself to telling you that Meneses’s deeply penetrating, intensely passionate, throbbing reading, supported by some of the most sympathetic orchestral playing from Claudio Cruz and the Northern Sinfonia I’ve heard in this score, goes straight to my 2012 Want List without passing GO.

This is an absolutely must-have disc, assuredly for the Gál, but also for one of the most beautiful performances of the Elgar you may ever hear.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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

Winter Words is the solo debut release by American tenor Nicholas Phan. The recording was made in the wake of a recital tour in 2010-11 which culminated in his Carnegie debut at Weill Hall. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera studio Nick has performed with the opera companies of Los Angeles and Seattle, symphony orchestras of Atlanta, St. Louis and San Francisco, and the Marlboro, Ravinia and Edinburgh Festivals, among others. He sang in Stravinsky's Pulcinella with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Nick presents a deeply personal perspective of Britten's music, encompassing his own performing experiences to audience reaction. He says: "I've been a fan of Britten since playing his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra with my youth orchestra in Detroit as a teenage violinist. But my great devotion to his music increased to an obsession when an excellent pianist and good friend asked if I'd perform with her at a small university in Missouri. She suggested Winter Words, saying, "I think these would sound really great in your voice, and I've wanted to play them for ages, so indulge me." I researched and played through Britten's settings of Hardy's poems and before long, I was hooked." Approaching the performance in a small Midwestern town with some trepidation ("how would they react?"), Nick describes the audience's overwhelmingly positive response: "my favourite piece on the program ... the most lasting impression." Such is the enduring quality of Britten's sophisticated yet direct song writing, of which Nick is a leading torch-bearer. critical acclaim for Nicholas Phan "took hold of the music with unerring musicality, precise diction, and conversational command." - The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross "an excellent young singer ... more importantly he penetrates deeply into the inner drama" - Boston Globe "Vocally and dramatically at the level of the finest international artists." - Chicago Sun Times

In the 1990s, Donald Fraser scored a hit with his orchestral arrangement of Marin Marais’ baroque classic The Bells of Genevieve which reached the Top 5 of Billboard’s Classical Chart and remains a radio evergreen to this day. Numerous commissions for arrangements followed for musicians such as The King’s Singers, Yehudi Menuhim and the English Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, AVIE released Don’s large-scale orchestration of Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet and choral version of Sea Pictures, which charted in the Top 10 of the UK Specialist Classical Chart. Don now returns to the art of arranging smaller scale, classic works by John Dowland, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi and others, including new versions of his own “Amen” from A Christmas Symphony which was written for and premiered by soprano Jessye Norman, a new remix of The Bells of St. Genevieve and orchestrations of four Elgar art songs that evoke the album’s title, Songs for Strings.

Steinway ambassador, Guildhall professor, and cofounder of the London Piano Festival, Charles Owen turns to the late piano works by Johannes Brahms for his latest AVIE release. Within this collection of Capriccios, Rhapsodies and Intermezzi, Charles reveals myriad moods with the composer harking back as well as facing forward- from evocations of Schubert, Schumann and Liszt in the Eight Klavierstucke, Op. 76; winter-like darkness in the two Op. 79 Rhapsodies; Hungarian foot-stomping dance forms in the seven Fantasies that comprise Op. 116; nostalgic contemplation in the Op. 117 Intermezzi; romantic inflections in Op. 118 Klavierstucke which were dedicated to Clara Schumann; and the tonally forward Klavierstucke, Op. 119. “A class above the rest… His performances are underpinned by an unwavering musicality that is enhanced by close attention to the score.” (International Piano) “Exemplary. Classic. Spellbinding. And enthusiastically recommended.” (Fanfare) “Fantastically versatile… he hits the nail on the head… very stylish, very faithful.” (BBC Radio 3 Record Review)

-----

REVIEW:

In the Op. 117 Owen finds an apt simplicity to its opening number, while the second has a nice gentleness. The third is filled with a tangible sadness, and is nicely inward—altogether more urgent than Jonathan Plowright, who produces one of the most touchingly withdrawn readings on record. In Op. 116 Owen is particularly telling in the A minor Intermezzo, which has a pleasing intimacy, contrasting with the turbulence of the following number and the sonorously beautiful E major Adagio that forms the set’s centrepiece.

The two Op 79 Rhapsodies are another highlight of this set, with Owen conveying the requisite sense of power, surmounting their difficulties with ease and making the much-played G minor very much his own.

– Gramophone

Classical Music

Strauss, R.: Heldenleben (Ein) / Metamorphosen

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.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Benjamin Hochman brings his new conductorial skills to the impeccable release of two Mozart concertos, the joyful and lithe No. 17 in G major, and the dark and explosive No. 24 in C minor. Directing from the keyboard, Benjamin leads the finest Mozartian orchestra in the world, the English Chamber Orchestra.

-----

REVIEW:

His rendition of the G major concerto is captivating: fluent and subtly shaded throughout, Hochman directs the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard with aplomb. Avie’s sound, as always, is clean and natural, allowing the music to bloom.

– International Piano

Award-winning Lithuanian, London-based pianist Indre Petrauskaite makes her AVIE label debut with a selection of Mozart’s piano works with a twist: she uniquely brings together the composer’s solo keyboard works written in minor keys. The nine works offered here represent a fraction of the composer’s overall oeuvre, yet they span a gamut of genres – including improvisatory and emotional fantasies, enigmatic miniatures and complex sonatas. Indre showcases these pieces – much loved staples of stage and studio alike – in a novel and stunning album. “Strong and well-played performances.” (MusicWeb International)

REVIEW:

Petrauskaite has an original voice in Mozart, not something that's so easy to accomplish. She is what's called a strong pianist, generally avoiding the delicately lyrical style in Mozart except in small details. Although this certainly isn't a historically oriented performance, Petrauskaite avoids Romantic gestures and extensive use of the pedal except in the fantasies; her playing is clean, tough, and insightful. The album, as a whole, offers an emotional journey that's rare in Mozart recordings, yet in Petrauskaite's hands, it seems to make sense. A superior Mozart recording.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

With his critically acclaimed AVIE Records recordings of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure´ and Sergei Rachmaninov to his credit, the celebrated British pianist Charles Owen scales the heights of Franz Liszt’s anthology Annees de pelerinage, Premiere annee: Suisse (“Years of Travel, First Year: Switzerland”), which evokes the great 19th-century pianist-composer’s Swiss sojourns with aural impressions of the Alpine landscape, its peaks and valleys, mountains and streams, and the country’s distinctive folk music. Literary references abound as they do in the album’s concluding piece, the emotional Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude (“The Blessing of God in Solitude”) which was inspired by a poem penned by Liszt’s friend Alphonse de Lamartine. Emotions ran equally high for Charles Owen who turned to Liszt during lockdown. The uncertainty of being homebound throughout the pandemic was eased by the extra meaning and solace of the composer’s evocations of journeying, experiencing the natural world and its sense of beauty and liberation.

Greetings from Italy where music is everywhere! Celebrating 20 years of an illustrious international career with their 14th recording and first on AVIE, the multiple award-winning Quartetto di Cremona sends Italian Postcards, assembling evocations of the Mediterranean country by four non-natives. Mozart penned his first string quartet during his first Italian journey to the town of Lodi. Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade takes its inspiration from poetry and ancient Italian melodies. Extending the quartet repertoire, the Cremona commissioned British-French-Israeli composer Nimrod Borenstein, whose Cieli d’Italia was inspired by the colors of the Italian skies. The album’s idyllic conclusion is Tchaikovsky’s string sextet, “Souvenir de Florence,” in which the Cremona is joined by violist Ori Kam (Jerusalem Quartet) and cellist Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartet).



REVIEW:

The Quartetto di Cremona have an uncanny knack for sounding like more than just four players, their sound rich, vibrant, and resplendent. These are as sunny, Italianate performances as one could want.

– Classicsl Candor (John J Puccio)

Both on the concert platform and in the recording studio, pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar is a completist. Following complete cycles of piano sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart, he presents 12 Great Piano Sonatas by Franz Schubert – the composer’s 11 finished sonatas and the seminal fragment D840. Pienaar relishes in these revelatory works, their extraordinarily detailed possibilities of characterisation, their call for immense energy and abandon, and navigating the vast dreamscapes that unfold in the course of this six-hour musical journey. “dazzling precision and clarity ... he communicates an individual and convincing vision for each piece, enough for every one of them to give delight. Brilliant.” (Gramophone, Editor’s Choice on The Long 17th Century) “dizzying virtuosity ... fresh, spontaneous, original readings that shed new light on the keyboard player’s Bible” (BBC Music Magazine on J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier)

 

REVIEW:

 

These readings for me capture the spirit of Schubert’s piano style. It is only when you set Pienaar next to the established greats that he lacks something in presence and imagination, but only by a small degree. His playing is at once natural and sympathetic, and blessedly free of artifice. It is also necessary to qualify my generalization that Pienaar’s approach is lively and alert. He recognizes the greater ambition and amplitude of the opus posthumous sonatas and changes his approach accordingly.

 

– Fanfare

This collection of music from the Eton Choirbook, the vast collection of English sacred music from the early Renaissance, is the third in an acclaimed series by Stephen Darlington and the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. A thrilling encounter with the remarkable world of the liturgy of Eton College Chapel in the late 15th century!