George Frederick Bristow and William Henry Fry constituted the first generation of major, native-born composers of instrumental music in the United States. Both were fierce proponents for American music as composers, writers, and performers. Of particular note: Bristow's Symphony No. 4 the "Arcadian" is recorded here in its entirety for the first time. The 1967 recording made by Karl Krueger with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra made large cuts in the first and last movements, reducing the length of the piece by at least ten minutes.

REVIEW:

Muscular recordings of rare symphonic products of 19th century American orchestral romanticism. These are no dutifully played museum exhibits. The whole orchestra plays with golden age verve and astonishing elation.

— MusicWeb International

New York Times Best (Classical Tracks) of 2022 - Korngold: ‘The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex’ Overture

Gramophone Magazine's Editors Choice - Awards Issue 2022

Sinfonia of London and John Wilson present an album that celebrates the golden age of Hollywood. Sinfonia of London rose to fame in the 1950s as the leading recording orchestra of the day, appearing in the musical credits of more than 300 films, including the 1958 soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann for Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Reformed by John Wilson in 2018 as a recording orchestra, and made-up of some of London’s finest orchestral musicians, their first recording of Korngold’s Symphony in F# won the orchestral award from BBC music magazine, and drew critical acclaim worldwide. Korngold’s Overture from the private lives of Elizabeth and Essex which opens the program is an excellent demonstration of his rich, chromatic sound-world that set a blue-print for the Hollywood sound and so many composers that followed. Although the songs were written by Harold Arlen, it was Herbert Stothart’s score for The Wizard of Oz that won the Oscar, and it is his suite from the movie that features here. There are also suites from Max Steiner’s Now, Voyager and Franz Waxman’s Rebecca (receiving here it’s premiere recording). Shorter pieces from David Raksin, Frederick Lowe, Johnny Mandel and Alfred Newman complete this rewarding program.

REVIEWS:

It would be easy to argue that a track from any of the five sensational recordings John Wilson and his elite Sinfonia of London have released this year should be on this list, but every time I play this Korngold, I find it hard to move on to anything else. The virtuosity Wilson lavishes on a composer he is determined to restore to stature is stunning, no matter how many times you hear it.

-- New York Times

Wilson has listened long and hard to the way the Hollywood studio orchestras played this music and has recreated it to the manner born for our technologically advanced times.

-- Gramophone

The recognizable yet well-curated repertoire, along with the instrumentalists’ enthusiastic performances will certainly elicit a sense of nostalgia—and maybe a desire to rewatch—the films themselves. A refreshing album that makes for a delightful listen.”

-- The Classic Review

I enjoyed this album very much indeed. The playing is superb from start to finish…But it’s the composers who must take the final bow. This programme demonstrates in spades the invention and craftsmanship of some of the composers – and arrangers – who were at the musical heart of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The music sounds superb on this disc. Treat yourself to an hour of pure musical pleasure.”

-- MusicWeb International

Few film soundtracks these days can compare with Hollywood’s heyday, and few soundtrack albums have ever sounded as good as this. Anyone with even the slightest interest in the period needs this magnificent recording.”

-- Limelight (Editor’s Choice)

An exercise in unapologetic nostalgia, this lovely celebration of classic Hollywood film scores is delivered with deep care and affection by Wilson and his dependably excellent players…

-- Times of London

This recording presents one of the most lucid and well-programmed portraits of john Adams to emerge, well, in a long while.

In this program, Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich celebrate a composer of our time with works from different periods and citing a wide range of references, whether autobiographical or typically American. John Adams has assimilated numerous musical influences, and his personal style cannot be reduced to one of them: he is neither Minimalist, nor post-Minimalist, nor neo-Romantic. Some of his works can of course be said to belong to one or other of these movements, but he does not consider himself to be the representative of any particular tendency. If he refers to musical tradition in his works, it is always in a critical way and at the same time open to the influences of pop music, rock, and jazz.

REVIEW:

Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich mightn’t be the first pairing one associates with the music of John Adams. But, as their new album – simply titled John Adams – attests, they’ve pretty much got the iconic American composer’s style down pat.

Rhythmically, the Swiss band really digs into the proceedings here. That’s especially true of their account of Lollapalooza, a whimsical 1995 curtain-raiser dedicated to Simon Rattle. Järvi’s tempo is notably slower than either Kent Nagano’s or Michael Tilson Thomas’s, yet, if the reading is less overtly edgy, it’s perhaps jazzier than its forebears. And it certainly doesn’t want for energy or textural clarity.

Similar qualities mark Slonimsky’s Earbox, another mid-‘90s effort. It’s brilliantly energetic, yes, but Järvi’s command of its structure is the real story: this is as coherent a Slonimsky as has been played, clearly drawing on all the threads of Adams’ style up to about 1996 while also suggesting what was to come in pieces like Naïve and Sentimental Music and Son of Chamber Symphony.

Also, My Father Knew Charles Ives, Adams’ semi-autobiographical 2003 tone poem that, last year, was the highlight of a disc from the Nashville Symphony. Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester are, generally, a bit more relaxed in their tempos than their counterparts in Tennessee, especially in the first movement. But the performance never slogs; rather, it overflows with atmosphere and color.

Rounding things out is a carefully-balanced account of Adams’ 1986 fanfare Tromba lontana. Perhaps less familiar than its more vigorous companion piece, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Tromba lontana, with its delicately dancing textures, potently complements My Father Knew Charles Ives.

The end result is one of the most lucid and well-programmed portraits of Adams to emerge, well, in a long while. As such, it’s an excellent way to mark the composer’s 75th birthday this year – or just his general contributions to contemporary music, which, as this disc reminds, have been anything but commonplace or predictable.

-- The Arts Fuse (Jonathan Blumhofer)

This set consists of previously released recordings. - ArkivMusic

Heitor Villa-Lobos once confessed that he loved to write string quartets, stating ‘one could say that it is a mania.’ His 17 quartets form a substantial part of his chamber music output, covering a long career that embraced national pride and musical experimentation leading to the rarefied atmosphere of the final masterpieces. Often drawing on the musical folklore of Brazil, these quartets are an outpouring of spontaneous and daring invention. Ranging from austere polyphony to compelling expressiveness and virtuosity, they represent one of the most distinctive bodies of chamber works in 20th-century music.

REVIEWS:

Villa-Lobos once confessed that he loved to write string quartets, stating ‘one could say that it is a mania.’ His 17 quartets form a substantial part of his chamber music output, covering a long career that embraced national pride and musical experimentation leading to the rarefied atmosphere of the final masterpieces. Often drawing on the musical folklore of Brazil, these quartets are an outpouring of spontaneous and daring invention. Ranging from austere polyphony to compelling expressiveness and virtuosity, they represent one of the most distinctive bodies of chamber works in 20th-century music. 6 CDs. Danubius Quartet. Original 1992–1994 Marco Polo releases.

-- Records International

Established in 1983, the Danubius Quartet was a Hungarian group – this set was recorded in Budapest – so while they may lack the Latinamericanlo’s Brazilian ‘accent’, they nevertheless hail from Europe’s great centre of string playing. Their brightly projected sound is ideal for Villa-Lobos’s life-affirming music.

-- Limelight

An eminent interpreter of Vivaldi, Giuliano Carmignola has always had a great affinity with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard in his landmark recordings of the Violin Sonatas with Andrea Marcon (2002), the Violin Concertos with Concerto Köln (2014, Diapason d'or), and the Sonatas & Partitas (2018), which Gramophone judged to be "a first-rate choice among the recordings of these works on period instruments, despite the competition”. Carmignola’s latest project took shape during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and offers a new and sometimes experimental reading of Bach’s Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso, in which he highlights new details and exalts the choreatic character and the brilliance of many of the suites’ movements. Having already assured the success of Sonar in Ottava (A472) with his long-time friend Mario Brunello, this recording is the first of a series of solo projects that Carmignola will realize for Arcana.

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine marks the 25th anniversary of her 1997 recording of violin concertos by Black composers of the 18th and 19th centuries with Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries. This special-edition reissue updates and expands the original program into the 20th century with Pine’s recent recording of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, composed in 1952. The 1997 release established the violinist’s reputation as a passionate advocate for composers of African descent. Pine recorded Price’s Second Violin Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by rising young American conductor Jonathon Heyward, who has held conducting and guest conducting positions with prominent European and American orchestras. The violinist reprises her previous recordings of masterworks by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1775), José White Lafitte (1864), and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1899), all with Chicago’s Encore Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Hege. The New York Times declared: “Rachel Barton [Pine] handles the concertos’ varied demands with unaffected aplomb, performing this music lovingly.”

REVIEW:

This is more than an anniversary reissue. Cedille updates the release by including a new recording. When Rachel Barton Pine recorded these works in 1997, she was an explorer. The works—and even the names—of Black composers were virtually unknown. Barton’s committed and electrifying performances brought these works to light.

This reissue includes Price’s Second Violin Concerto. Price wrote it shortly before her death in 1952. It had never been performed and was considered lost. The concerto was part of the cache of Price manuscripts rediscovered in 2009. It’s a compact concerto—less than 15 minutes long—but it packs a punch. Barton’s performance crackles with good-natured energy. And the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, directed by Jonathon Heyward, is right there with her.

With the addition of this work, Barton’s survey of Black composers runs from the 1790s through the 1950s. To me, the reissue is a more comprehensive survey, and a more satisfying listen.

--WTJU

In this new concerto album one of the greatest violinists of his generation, Christian Tetzlaff, offers profound interpretations of two deeply dramatic and lyrical concertos – those of Brahms and Berg – together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati.

“Reasons of substance justify the recording of the Violin Concertos of Johannes Brahms and Alban Berg on a single album: both works concern existential human states of being. For me, the concerto by Johannes Brahms is a work that in a violin concerto dares to address very dangerous, abysmal, and profound states of the soul. Here an enormous contrast between ecstasy and total lonely isolation is in evidence. (...) Brahms also has a lot to say about pain. That’s rare in violin concertos – and links the Brahms concerto to the one by Alban Berg. I’ve been playing both concertos for 40 years – and I’ve played both of them, taken together, much more than 300 times. Here it seems to me as though the experience of these pieces changes one’s own life.” (Christian Tetzlaff)

REVIEWS:

This is a master violinist at the height of his powers. Teztlaff's playing demonstrates the range of emotion that each work requires. Needless to say, he is wholly in command of the technical demands of each work. The balance between soloists and orchestra is good.

-- MusicWeb International

Tetzlaff’s performance of the Brahms Concerto is brisk, and his interpretation at times feels very much of the moment. The first movement’s second subject is deliciously languid, but always moving onwards, and he develops increasing excitement and momentum in the build-up to the great tutti.

-- The Strad

One of the boldest and most radical composers of all time, Alexander Scriabin had a lifelong obsession with occult and mystical ideas. Initially under the influence of Chopin, Wagner, and Liszt, his music later became more complex, taking on an expressive power which provoked extreme reactions from audiences – of adulation as well as repulsion. Not shying away from hyperbole, Scriabin once declared: ‘I am the apotheosis of creation – I am the aim of all aims – I am the end of all ends.’

The three works featured on this release belong to Scriabin’s final compositional period where the music seems to veer between voluptuous languor and striving energy. Composed back-to-back, the Poem of Ecstasy and the Fifth Piano Sonata are drenched in bitter-sweet harmonies and carefully constructed dissonances. The scores of both works make reference to the same poem – by Scriabin himself – which ends with the lines ‘thus the universe resounds with the joyful cry: I AM!’. In his last symphonic poem, Prometheus — The Poem of Fire, Scriabin aims even higher. Here he expresses the evolution of the world from formless chaos, through the appearance of mankind, fertilized by the divine spark, towards spiritual liberation and ultimate transcendence. The unusually large orchestra and a wordless choir produces a kaleidoscope of contrasts, colors and sounds caught up in an ecstatic whirl.

REVIEWS:

In Scriabin’s work, the Prometheus myth is focused less on the creative element of Prometheus and more on the theft of fire, which allows the composer to create ‘light-filled’ images. Lan Shui creates a very great tension from the very first bars, giving expression to the fantasy nature of the composition. We thus hear music with those detaching particles of sound that, like the flock of birds in flight, create effects from ever-changing forms. Shui thus proves to be an imaginative conductor who spurs his orchestra and choir on to an outstanding performance. Evgeny Sudbin blends perfectly into this feverish sound...A great performance!

-- Pizzicato

Lan Shui and his Singapore Symphony Orchestra...inflame the subject; they delight in lascivious sensualities, the better to suddenly cause volcanoes to burst. All this is of a dizzying control and a sonic refinement...

The pianist is none other than Yevgeny Sudbin...He touches on genius in Prometheus, but you also have to hear him burn his keyboard, all hammers and iron, for a 5th Sonata that sounds as if it had just come out of the forge. A great album - totally unexpected, and recorded with striking fidelity.

-- Artamag'

The term sinfonietta is generally used to describe a work that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. It only came into common usage during the first half of the 20th century, which is when the three works included on this disc were in fact composed. Worth noting is also that Sergei Prokofiev and Benjamin Britten wrote their respective sinfoniettas while they were still in their teens – early attempts at multi-movement works for ensemble. Prokofiev revised his Sinfonietta twice, with the 1929 version recorded here, and went on to become one of the great symphonists of his time. Britten chose a different path, with operas forming the most important part of his legacy. Perhaps symptomatically, his Sinfonietta – his Op. 1 – was initially composed for wind quintet and string quintet, a scoring which he later expanded into the version heard on the present recording. Like Britten, Francis Poulenc was not naturally inclined towards large-scale orchestral works, and his Sinfonietta is indeed his only symphonic piece. The most recent of the works on the disc, it is in a neo-classical vein with sparkling dance rhythms as well as lyrical moments. The three works are here performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, a team which has released several highly acclaimed albums on BIS.

REVIEWS:

Poulenc's Sinfonietta would be the composer's only work in the symphony genre, borrowing, sometimes more obviously than not, from the neo-classical stylings of Stravinsky and nearly quoting Mozart. Poulenc mostly stayed away from larger forms, finding success with his songs, chamber music, and religious works, but this Sinfonietta displays the composer's charm and gift with melodic phrasing.

The Sinfonietta, Op. 5, by Prokofiev (heard here in its final revision from 1929, which the composer assigned as his Op. 48) is a youthful work, even in its revised form. A light and airy neo-classical work that, along with his Classical Symphony, can trace to the mature Prokofiev symphonic writing.

While the sinfoniettas of Poulenc and Prokofiev are light and airy works, the Sinfonietta, Op. 1, by Britten has a more mature sound, even though he was only 18 when it was written. The harmonic structure of the work is influenced by the Second Viennese School through his teacher and dedicatee of the work, Frank Bridge. Originally written for wind quintet and string quintet, Britten later revised it for chamber orchestra, which is what is presented here.

A thoroughly enjoyable hour of lighter music that will be nearly unknown to many listeners but should be accessible to a wide audience. BIS' engineers make good use of the Lahti Symphony's magnificent Sibelius Hall home.

-- AllMusic.com (Keith Finke)

All in all this is a splendid release, very enjoyable from beginning to end, offering 3 wonderful pieces not often encountered. It is expertly played, conducted and recorded. Very highly recommended.

-- Classical CD Review

From new to classic Disney songs, this new album features collaborations with Adassa (the original voice of Delores in "Encanto"), Laura Osnes, Anthem Lights, One Voice Children’s Choir, The All-American Boys Chorus, and more! Vocal Point was founded in 1991 by two students at Brigham Young University. Vocal Point is BYU's world-renowned all-vocal ensemble and has earned acclaim the world over, including being identified as one of “greatest college a cappella groups of all time.” In 2006 the group took home the title of International Champions of College A Cappella, and the following year were voted the nation’s favorite male collegiate a cappella group by the Contemporary A Cappella Society of America.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, born four years before her brother Felix, was an accomplished pianist and a prolific composer. When she died of a stroke aged just 42, she left around 460 pieces of music, some 250 of which are songs. The difficulties of making a career in her own era (Her supportive father would not allow her to publish or work as a ‘professional’ composer) have condemned much of her work to obscurity: a situation that is now rapidly being reversed with more concerts and recordings of works by women composers.

Here the award-winning Kaleidoscope Collective champion her Piano Trio and Piano Quartet, alongside Felix Mendelssohn’s under-performed Piano Sextet. Fanny composed her Piano Quartet whilst a student, aged 17. In contrast, the Piano Trio was her last chamber work, written in her final year. Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet was also an early work, written in just a few short weeks in the spring of 1824. For some reason he never published the work (perhaps because of the unusual scoring) hence it became his Op. 110 when published posthumously in 1868.

Since its inception in 1964, the Berlin Jazz Fest had been thought of as a festival that, if not avant-garde, welcomed the most progressive and experimental forms of music of a period rich in all types of modernistic trends, from radical free jazz to a multitude of fusions of pop, rock, soul and jazz. But in 1969, as if swimming against the tide of the revolutions that swept the West, the organizers took an audacious stand: it was Duke Ellington’s 70th birthday and not only did they welcome him at the head of his big band for the first time, but part of the program focused on his heritage; as a bonus and birthday gift, Ellington was featured on the publicity poster of the festival’s sixth edition.

The Berlin concert of 8 November 1969 is magnificent testimony to the extraordinary freshness of tone that Ellington’s big band still displayed on stage, when the sheer pleasure of playing took over from the routine of performance. The concert of 2 November 1973, on the stage of the Philharmonie, turned out to be Ellington’s last concert at the Berlin Jazztage.

Clark Terry is one of the greatest and most important trumpeters in jazz history. Now, Storyville Records presents a live recording with his fantastic orchestra, Clark Terry’s Big Bad Band – Live in Holland 1979. The whole band is in great form, and besides Clark Terry himself, this recording showcases many of the very best musicians from the heyday of big bands. The band is SWINGING, that also goes for CT’s introductions of the music and the band. The live setting of this performance, containing 13 tracks, clearly inspires both CT and his 16-piece orchestra to even greater heights than in the studio. The performance culminates with the hit “Mumbles”, a track made famous during the many years CT was one of the leading members of “The Tonight Show Band”. The repertoire presented here makes way for the entire band with arrangements by Phil Woods, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington among others. CT is not just a brilliant soloist, but also a charming entertainer, engaging in friendly banter with both the musicians and the audience.

CT’s original style and technique has had a major influence on many great jazz musicians, including Wynton Marsalis, Art Farmer, Miles Davis and not least Quincy Jones, who has written a very personal piece for the liner notes, praising the lifelong mentorship of CT for many of the greatest American jazz musicians. CT has played with both Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s orchestras. He made his mark on both orchestras with his great swing and as a soloist, both on the trumpet and the flugelhorn. CT continued from his stints with the forementioned big bands to become one of the most beloved and sought-after soloists in the history of jazz. Both with his own orchestras and as a soloist with big bands globally.

This new album release by the Latvian Radio Choir and conductor Sigvards Kļava on Ondine is devoted to choral works by the legendary American composer and music pioneer John Cage (1912–1992), one of the most leading figures in 20th Century music. John Cage is the dictionary definition of an avant-garde composer. Choral music and John Cage might seem like an odd pairing. And indeed, strictly speaking, Cage wrote only two compositions for chorus, both of which appear on this album: Hymns and Variations (1979) and Four2 (1990). The other works on the album are written for ensembles that are more or less open-ended and which have been interpreted here for choral forces. One reason Cage and choruses did not mix well may have been his notorious hostility to harmony in music. Arnold Schoenberg told Cage that he lacked any feeling for harmony, and that this would be a wall between him and his goal of being a composer. Given all this, it is no wonder that Cage and choruses didn’t tend to mingle together. And so it was not until Cage was 67 years old that he wrote his first work for choral forces: Hymns and Variations.

REVIEWS:

John Cage was barely a choral composer. But by combining the couple of pieces he wrote for chorus with a creative interpretation of the flexible instrumentation of a few other scores, you can arrive at an hour or so of mysterious, wordless music for vocal ensemble. “Hymns and Variations” (1979) is the earliest work on this intimate and luminous new album from the Latvian Radio Choir. Cage subtracts some notes from two hymns by the early American composer William Billings, and extends the duration of some that remain, creating an eerily pure, serene suggestion of 18th-century harmonies.

--The New York Times

That Cage delighted in provoking audiences is undoubtable, but his mischief concealed his seriousness of purpose. He revealed and explored a vast New World of sound which had hitherto been a terra incognita of the mind. But above all, Cage was a tireless proselytizer of the gospel of beauty and created some of the 20th century’s most radically beautiful music. These strands are united here in this breathtaking collection from Ondine of some of the composer’s late choral music performed by the Latvian Radio Choir.

--MusicWeb International

John Cage and choral music might seem strange bedfellows, but there was no corner of the musical landscape that this dedicated breaker of composition rules didn’t want to deconstruct. With its drifting, otherworldly textures, Five, from 1988, could almost have come from the soundtrack of 2001: A Space Odyssey, while Four2, astonishingly written for a high school choir, includes a tonal tenor and bass pairing, oozing quite unexpected calm.

[One] can’t but be stunned by the fearless skill of Sigvards Kļava’s choir as they navigate the most jagged, fragmented notes and pitches—the musical equivalent of climbing Mount Everest just with your hands and feet.

--BBC Music Magazine

There are, I think, two possible approaches to this recording. One is simply to listen through it and let the effect of the (very different) pieces on it wash over one, reacting to each in turn. The other is to read the excellent booklet notes by James Pritchett and then listen to the music, following in more or less detail what he explains in them. Either process would work, because the music is intrinsically interesting and frequently very impressive. It must be said as well that the singers sound as though they are enjoying themselves enormously.

--Gramophone

Black Oak Ensemble, the Chicago-based string trio with an international following, treats listeners to a double-album of stylish and often witty French treasures written between the World Wars. The ensemble offers seven rarely heard delicacies from the 1920s and 30s, including world premiere recordings of trios by Henri Tomasi, Robert Casadesus, and Gustave Samazeuilh, along with works by Jean Cras, Emile Goué, Jean Françaix, and Gabriel Pierné. Most were written for and dedicated to the virtuosic Trio Pasquier, which ranked among the era’s chamber music superstars.

Tomasi’s Mediterranean roots are heard in the Provençal folk melody referenced in his Trio à cordes en forme de divertissement, noted for its colorful, kaleidoscopic finale. Casadesus’s Trio à cordes combines fine craftsmanship and poetic sincerity. Samazeuilh, a disciple of Claude Debussy, wrote his Suite en trio in the form of a Baroque dance suite. Celtic-infused folk music of his native Brittany emerges in Cras’s Trio pour violon, alto et violoncelle, as does an homage to Beethoven’s Op. 132 string quartet. Goué wrote his Trio pour violon, alto et violoncelle, energized with folk-dance elements, on the eve of his World War II army deployment. Françaix’s Trio displays his trademark textural clarity, agility, and sense of humor. Pierné’s Trois pièces en trio has even more fun with the listener with its satirical finale conjuring intoxicated, stumbling house cats out on the town.

REVIEWS:

Occasionally you hear a commentator use the term “accessible” to describe a musical work or style. Yet, as with other terms such as “affordable” in reference to housing, without context it is virtually meaningless: we need to know who is applying the term and to what it’s being compared. So, when I assert that most listeners will find the seven works on these two smartly programmed discs “accessible”, it is as much about what they are not than what they exhibit in style and musical substance.

For anyone at all concerned about setting forth on a journey through two hours of unfamiliar 20th century chamber works–string trios, no less!–be assured that throughout this program you will encounter nothing of the atonal, anti-melodic, thematically ambiguous, or deliberately arcane efforts that characterize many works from this same period (“Avant l’orage”, “before the storm”). Regarding the term “accessible”, you will find in each of these works not only a “way in” that’s familiar and (to most listeners) comprehensible, but music that is unfailingly captivating, thought-provoking, and challenging, all in ways that both entertain and enlighten. Now how can you do better than that?

Henri Tomasi’s Trio (1938), one of three recording world premieres on the disc, makes an excellent opener, its pleasingly assertive Prélude, an uneasy, restless Nocturne, mischievous Scherzo, and relentlessly energetic, folk-like Final drawing us in with an irresistible, festive air that also shows off the Black Oak Ensemble’s range of virtuosity, color, and style.

Jean Cras’ 1926 Trio has many highlights throughout its four substantial movements (24 minutes), but the fourth may be the most notable–a dance, whose rhythmic progression and character is anything but predictable!

Jean Françaix, successful performer and prolific composer who early on caught the attention of Ravel, dedicated his 1933 Trio to the three brothers who made up the Pasquier Trio (also the dedicatees of Tomasi’s Trio). You may never have seen a tempo designation of “Allegretto vivo” (this work’s first movement), but in their delightful, dexterous, precisely controlled moto perpetuo frenzy the Black Oak musicians leave no question as to their interpretation of the term! And has there ever been a Scherzo more deserving, or illustrative, of its name? Or played with a truer sense of joy and humor? The final Rondo is a fabulously virtuosic complex of rhythm and meter changes, and again these players nail the shifts and turns with requisite technical precision and musical flair.

If you know Robert Casadesus primarily–or exclusively–as a pianist, here’s your chance to get to know some of his scarce yet very fine work as a composer. His Trio à cordes from 1938, also dedicated to the Pasquier Trio–and also a world-premiere recording–may not be the most sophisticated or inventive work on the program, but it shows an intriguing interplay among instruments and well-developed sense of momentum by force of melodic/thematic development and strong rhythmic presence.

The third premiere recording is Gustave Samazeuilh’s 1937 Suite. Although its six movements are modeled on “the form of a Baroque dance suite”, you won’t hear anything stylistically related in the music itself. Yes, it’s very tonal, but has more in common with 19th-century Romanticism. And it’s all very lovely, originally written for piano and re-scored for, you guessed it, the Trio Pasquier. Here the Black Oak players seem to revel in the inherent opportunities for highlighting the music’s richness of timbre and singing melodies.

There are many other discoveries and delights to be found in the remaining trios by Émile Goué and Gabriel Pierné–which by now you will hopefully be looking forward to hearing for yourself. And I have to say that if I were one of the composers represented here I would feel blessed to have such advocates as the three musicians of Black Oak Ensemble: Desirée Ruhstrat (violin); Aurélien Fort Pederzoli (viola); David Cunliffe (violoncello).

This is difficult, challenging music that requires not only a comprehensive, deeply felt sense of style and prodigious technical facility, but an understanding of how to differentiate the expressive demands of a collection of pieces that are in some ways similar, but in more ways quite different, and how as an ensemble to make each stand out and stand in its own deserving space. Not only does the Black Oak Ensemble achieve this, but their effort makes you more than eager to hear the whole thing again. I’m happy to say that you’ll also learn a lot from the excellent notes by Elinor Olin. Accessible, enduring, enlightening, and highly recommended.

-- ClassicsToday.com (10/10, David Vernier)

Henri Tomasi’s vital and communicative string trio is a very satisfying work written in the minor, alternating some Debussy-isms with a Stravinskian touches. The third movement includes some truly fascinating polyrhythmic figures that drive the music forward through its bitonal theme and variants, and the Finale is even more interesting, including quite a bit of non-jazz syncopation.

The trio by Jean Cras is a little more old-style but not ultra-Romantic, at least not the way it’s played here. The music uses bitonality but is not as much on the edge as the Tomasi piece, yet it is still an interesting, well-written work.

The Goué Trio is bouncy and sprightly. It contains some novel ideas as well as shifting meters and tempi in its first movement, and the last movement is an ingenious recasting of tarantella rhythms.

The Françaix trio is in his usual modern-but-entertaining style, including funny “drunk”-sounding passages in the first and last movements, although it is not one of his works most frequently recorded, and the Black Oak Ensemble again plays this, as all the other works, in a peppy manner.

Unlike most of the other composers presented here, Robert Casedesus’ compositions are relatively few. This one has some fun with overlapping and interlocking rhythmic patterns, which the notes suggest might resemble some of his train travel. The music is interesting and a little eerie-sounding—at least, until a full stop introduces a surprisingly sprightly new theme in a fast 6/8. Once again, we have here a formerly unheard gem.

Gustave Samazeuilh’s trio is the most old-fashioned-sounding, by far, in this entire collection, a real late-Romantic piece played in a post-modern manner by the ensemble. The fourth-movement “Divertissement” uses some extended chords in its harmonic base, lively use of 3/4 rhythm, as well as interesting harmonic touches in the last-movement “Forlane.”

[This] is clearly an important release for its inclusion of so much good but rarely-heard and some formerly unrecorded music. It is definitely one of the best classical releases of the year.

--The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

The twelfth volume in the Haydn 2032 series, in which Giovanni Antonini conducts the Kammerorchester Basel, is devoted to ‘games and pleasures’. The symphonies recorded here, nos. 61, 66 and 69, were composed for the daily theatrical performances held at Eszterháza Palace in the spring of 1776. For Haydn they marked the end of a festive period, before he had to return to the serious business of writing operas. The ‘Toy Symphony’, attributed to Haydn for 200 years before it was discovered that it was in all probability composed by a Benedictine monk, completes the program in a similarly light and cheerful atmosphere.

By its title and its twelve violin concertos, Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico immediately captures the imagination. Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano, with the addition of high-calibre keyboardists, present the full collection with the six additional adaptations for keyboard by Bach. This Opus 3 published by Vivaldi in 1711 vibrates with the virtues of a poetic energy taken to the highest level of expressivity, embodied in the subtle and virtuosic exchanges between a string orchestra and four, two, then one solo violins. The stylistic principles developed in each piece were completely new and inspired for the time, the virtuosity intense, and the success considerable, rapidly reaching beyond the frontiers of La Serenissima. Which is how Bach, seven years younger than Vivaldi and drawn to the polyphonic dimension of these “multi-voiced” pieces, adapted several of them for organ and harpsichord.

On this new release from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s classic tale is reimagined especially for the screen. King Leontes rips his family apart but grief opens his heart. Will he find the child he abandoned before it is too late? This production of Shakespeare’s play is staged for the screen by the RSC. Directed by Erica Whyman, the play is set across a 16-year span, from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to the moon landings. “The first ever televised Royal Shakespeare Company world premiere is solid.” (The Independent) “Autolycus can be a touchstone for personal taste and Anne Odeke was delicious here across the whole gamut, from singing voice through to cream-cake comedy.” (The Arts Desk)

Reviews

“Enchanting” – The Times ★★★★

“Engaging and high-spirited” – The Stage ★★★★

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vaughan Williams, we are proud to reissue this outstanding symphony cycle. Started in 1999 by Richard Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra, this was the first Vaughan Williams symphony cycle to be recorded in Surround Sound and released on Hybrid SACD. Tragically, Richard Hickox died before he was able to complete the project – a task that was undertaken by Sir Andrew Davis and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. This reissue is priced at 6 discs for the price of 2, and features almost an hour of bonus material – broadcast interviews with Sir Adrian Boult and Sir John Barbirolli, and reminiscences from both Ursula Vaughan Williams and the composer himself.

Praise for previously released recordings included in this set:

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 / Hickox, London Symphony

Richard Hickox gives us the chance to hear VW's original, hour-long canvas – and riveting listening it makes too! Sprawling it may be, but this epic conception evinces a prodigal inventiveness, poetry, mystery, and vitality that do not pall with repeated hearings. An essential purchase for anyone remotely interested in British music.

-- Gramophone (2001 Recording of the Year)

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 / Hickox, London Symphony

This is an exceptionally powerful yet deeply moving account of the Fifth. Aided by glowing, wide-ranging engineering, Hickox's is an urgently communicative reading. The first and third movements in particular emerge with an effortless architectural splendour and rapt authority, the climaxes built and resolved with mastery.

-- Gramophone

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 8, "Sinfonia Antartica" / Davis, Bergen Philharmonic

The Bergen Phil finds a clear affinity with the Sinfonia Antartica...There’s an inexorability about this performance and a strong tragic undertow that makes it a compelling listen throughout. Davis authoritatively builds up the tension without any fussiness.

-- The Sunday Times (UK)

Monk, also known as “Toot”, leads his sextet with an innovative and dynamic approach. Since 1992, the drummer has worked exclusively with his co-players, making the sound of the sextet incredibly tight. When they roll out their arsenal, they soar and swing, and are indeed exciting to hear. In that regard, it might be quite surprising to learn that this is Monk’s very first live album! “This is my first live recording, ever! It’s daunting and an uncertain kind of product. Most live albums aren’t that good. I’ve been lucky to always have great people working with me.”

The seven songs on the album are taken from two performances at two similar jazz rooms over a two-year period; three are from “Harlem’s Jazz Shrines Festival: Jazzmobile presents Minton’s Playhouse” at Ginny’s Supper Club on May 7, 2014, while others were recorded at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland on April 24, 2016. Drummer, percussionist, composer, producer and bandleader, T. S. Monk has taken his place in the pantheon of jazz royalty, to which he was born. The swing is DNA inherited and absorbed in this master drummer’s persona. Monk spent the late 70’s and 80’s in various R&B groups, scoring his biggest hit Bon Bon Vie (Gimme the Good Life) in 1982, but by the 1990’s he decided to return to his jazz roots.

REVIEW:

Two Continents One Groove has superb sound reproduction for a live disc. But that would be for nought without great performances, and this band delivers. With its well chosen covers and strong member compositions, it’s a perfect blend of foundational and forward looking. Best of all, it’s great fun, with all kinds of swing and funk. Highly recommended.

-- A Green Man Review (Gary Whitehouse)

“Houses of the Wind” is a haunting, five-movement electro-acoustic piece that critically acclaimed composer Adams created from his field recording of an aeolian harp (wind harp) played by the Arctic winds 30 years ago. Over the years since he made this field recording, both the concept and the sound of the aeolian harp have inspired many of his celebrated instrumental works—including his six string quartets. In 2021 he went back to his original aeolian harp recording and sculpted each movement (or variation) of “Houses of the Wind” from the sounds on that tape, using voice layering, time stretching, and pitch manipulation as his primary compositional tools.

John Luther Adams’ music has won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award and has been performed by such prominent ensembles as the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the JACK Quartet. Cold Blue Music has released nine recordings of his work, including “Arctic Dreams,” “Lines Made by Walking,” “Everything That Rises,” and “The Wind in High Places.” His memoir, “Silences So Deep,” was published in 2020.

Review

I’m not going to beat about the bush: I love this recording!

I have been an enthusiastic admirer of the American composer, John Luther Adams, for some years now and, whilst I am not naïve enough to assume his music will be to everyone’s taste, I think this must rank amongst his very best. Years of living in extreme isolation in the North American Arctic have pared down JLA’s music to its simplest and most fundamental qualities and this latest project is no exception. In a very real sense, Houses of the Wind should have a co-composer credit for the wind itself as it is shaped out of field recordings made by the composer of the sound of an aeolian harp in 1989. In the process of transferring the tapes of his old field recordings, Adams became captivated by the sound of a ten and a half minute long tape which provided both the inspiration and the basis for the present composition.

All five movements use that ten and half minute recording as their source material with Adams stretching out the sound, layering and transposing it to evoke what I presume are the characters of different types of arctic wind.

Just about every piece by John Luther Adams deploys some kind of natural acoustic effect to generate music and he directly relates this to his passionate concern for the Earth’s environment. These natural sounds used in this way also tend to have a far reaching psychological effect on the listener. In the case of this piece, that effect goes well beyond some pleasant noises produced by an aeolian harp and tunes into a place where man and nature meet or perhaps it might be better to speak of where man can realise his place within nature that he tends to neglect and abuse.

There is a risk that Houses of the Wind will sound, on the basis of this description, like the kind of music encountered at a spa wellness hotel. Such an idea should be banished forthwith! JLA’s experience of working with overtone series on string instruments in his wonderful string quartets means his musical imagination hears in what must be a really wonderful original recording all sorts of aural miracles whether it be vast, limitless landscapes in the bass register or angelic singing voices like the ghosts of violins in the treble. There is a profound absence of hurry which despite each piece only lasting the ten and half minutes of the field recording produces the effect of something genuinely timeless. The timeframe is set by things like the gradual, patient unfurling of an overtone sequence. JLA has contrived to create music that makes us feel we are eavesdropping on the music making of nature herself. What is particularly impressive is that a distinct voice is heard through the music even though in no way does it resemble a human voice. Or rather it is the voice upon which all human voices rest since it is the foundation of all sound. Of course, this is sleight of hand because this is after all a composition by a human being - but a human being wonderfully in tune with the world around him. Thankfully for us a human who can translate that attunement into music in which even our dull ears can hear something of what he hears.

John Luther Adams’ genius lies in taking ideas that often look dry or uninspiring and allowing the most vivid kind of life to shine from them. I have often found that after listening to his music, my experience of all other music seems cleansed and revitalised. I have this experience listening to Houses of the Wind.

The composer has written of how many of his pieces for more traditional instruments were inspired by listening to aeolian harps during his years resident in the Arctic and there is a moving sense in this composition of Luther Adams paying back for that inspiration.

--MusicWeb International (David McDade)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is best known for his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which brought him international success as well as propelling his career at home in the UK – success which was remarkable in stuffy late-Victorian England because of his mixed race and humble origins. Born out of wedlock to Daniel Taylor, a medical student from Sierra Leone, and Alice Holmans, Samuel was brought up by his mother and step-father, George Evans, a railway worker, in Croydon, south London. The three pieces recorded here were all composed during his time as a student at the Royal College of Music. They were destined to remain unpublished during his lifetime, and indeed for some ninety years following his untimely death from pneumonia at the age of only thirty-seven. Performing editions were eventually prepared from the surviving manuscripts – which had remained in the RCM’s archive – in the early 2000s, offering modern performers and audiences the chance for the first time to savour exactly how precocious the creative talents of the teenage Coleridge-Taylor had been. The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective has consulted the manuscripts and corrected numerous inaccuracies in these editions. Described by The Arts Desk as ‘a sparky, shape-shifting ensemble of starry young musicians’, the Collective has been thrilling audiences with its charismatic programming and outstanding musicianship.

REVIEWS:

This disc is a delight from first to last… For anyone interested in rare British chamber music this is warmly recommended.

-- MusicWeb International

What a glorious disc this is! From beginning to end the music just flows in an unending stream of pleasure. There is such skill and maturity in every aspect of the writing…These works could not hope for better performances[.]

-- British Music Society

The music’s youthful joie de vivre is matched by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective’s warmth, enthusiasm and finesse … Elena Urioste is an ever-eloquent first violin, Tom Poster’s silvery pianism glistens and flows as if effortless, and all of their colleagues match them with a spontaneous, collegial and well-balanced playing, making the whole more than the sun of its already excellent parts.

-- BBC Music Magazine

[The] Piano Quintet and Nonet in particular are assured, determinedly structured and richly scored statements, abundant in melody and a gutsy inner harmonic strength…The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective…clearly love performing this music [and] take the listener on joyful and impassioned journey – great players cherishing special music for a new generation to discover[.]

-- International Piano

Featuring a stellar cast of performers, and curated by pianist Dylan Perez, this complete anthology of Samuel Barber's songs present those works published during his lifetime, together with those published posthumously, some of which are recorded here for the first time. Barber was clear as to what he wanted from very early in his life, and this strength of character and courage to follow his path is heard throughout Barber's significant contribution to the genre. At a time when American classical music was heavily influenced by experimentalism, Barber's inclination for 'traditional' harmony and melody helped set him apart. Barber's vocal music demonstrates the ease he finds in the marriage of text and music. The Navarra String Quartet join the line-up for Dover Beach, Op. 3.

The Forgotten Rite, from 1913, is one of Ireland's earliest orchestral compositions. The symphonic rhapsody Mai-Dun was inspired by the Dorset countryside – Thomas Hardy Country – a landscape that exerted a lifelong influence on Ireland. While it was commissioned for the national Brass Band Championships in 1932, Ireland later arranged the central two movements of A Downland Suite for strings. The first and last movements were later arranged by his pupil Geoffrey Bush. The overture Satyricon was one of Ireland’s final large-scale works, and is based upon texts by the Roman writer Gaius (or, in some sources, Titus) Petronius Arbiter, a courtier of Nero. A London Overture and the Epic March were both commissioned by the BBC – the latter as a morale-booster during World War II. It was during this period that Ireland orchestrated The Holy Boy – a piano piece composed on Christmas Day in 1913. John Wilson and Sinfonia of London present these works with care and conviction, revealing the great quality of this unjustly neglected composer.

REVIEW:

I am very enthusiastic about the recorded quality we get here. A mildly reverberant acoustic gives a perfect cushion for the orchestra, and the strings in A Downland Suite are splendid in their unanimity and fullness of tone. The rest of the very fine orchestra play as expertly as one would expect given that the Sinfonia was re-established in 2018 as a recording orchestra, staffed by top players from British and international ensembles. It has also given public performances, and is scheduled to appear at the BBC Proms on July 16^th, in an all-English program of Elgar, Vaughan Wlliams and Bax, amongst others.

I am also enthusiastic about the performances, conducted with the necessary verve or gentleness as appropriate.

The presentation is up to Chandos’s normal high standards, with a very detailed analysis of each work and a history of the orchestra, accompanying a brief biography of John Wilson, all in English, French and German."

--MusicWeb International (Jim Westhead)

Music by the marvelous, criminally underrated composer and “Aural Alchemist” Charles Koechlin is always a discovery and invariably. “Koechlin can daub with notes as Seurat daubed with bright pigments on canvas [he] could, whenever he wished, bathe his music in the impressionist glories of Debussy and Ravel or give it the delicacy of Fauré and then toughen it up with some Roussel-like grinding rhythms.” (Robert Reilly)

Koechlin is an impressionist dreamboat. With a title like The Seven Stars Symphony (the seven are Douglas Fairbanks, Lilian Harvey, Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Charlie Chaplin) and following so closely on the heels of the equally enchanting Vers la voûte étoilée (Toward the Vault of the Stars), you’d think the work was some spectacular colorist bonanza of celestial ambitions. Actually, it’s Koechlin’s ode to his favorite film characters as portrayed by these actors – but no less bewitching for it.

REVIEW:

The Basel Symphony Orchestra’s performance under Ariane Matiakh has a wonderful lithe elegance, which matches the beauty and refinement of Koechlin’s writing in every respect.

-- The Guardian (UK)

Charles Koechlin was a prolific composer with a list of works encompassing more than 200 opus numbers. His interest in film stars resulted in several compositions, the most spectacular being The Seven Stars’ Symphony written in 1933. He was a skilled orchestrator as evidenced in this work. He employs a gigantic orchestra, comprising substantially expanded woodwind and brass sections, including an alto saxophone, a large assortment of percussion, and in the third movement, an Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument, invented just a few years before the work was written. Stylistically there are influences from most French composers, from Berlioz and Fauré (who was his teacher) to a modernist like Messiaen. Formally it isn’t a symphony, rather an orchestral suite in seven movements, each movement a portrait of a famous actor in Hollywood at the time the suite was composed, but all of them are still well-known today. His interest in movies emanated from the then quite recent arrival of the sound film, when he saw The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings.

That [Lilian Harvey] was the ageing composer’s dream-girl, is clear from the second movement of the symphony: jolly and charming, light-toned music with glittering flutes creating an aura around her. It is the shortest movement, lasting just over two minutes. The contrast between Harvey and the cool and mysterious Greta Garbo is striking. This is slow, almost melancholy music, and the use of the Ondes Martenot with its eerie glissandi paints a picture of an icy Nordic princess...Clara Bow['s] movement is racy and full of life – the scherzo of the symphony, and the finale is rather boisterous, presumably illustrating the hectic stream of fan letters – in January 1929 she received 45,000 letters!

...Marlene Dietrich is still well-remembered...Her movement is slow and beautiful with a deep clarinet solo featured. It is a set of variations on a theme that is built on the letters of her name. [Emil] Jannings’ movement is dramatic and dark, and the end is gloomy. The final movement is devoted to Charlie Chaplin, and it is by far the longest, occupying more than one third of the total playing time of over forty-three minutes. Though it refers to some of his merry pranks in silent movies like Gold Fever and Circus, a surprisingly large part of the movement is contemplative and chamber-music like, transparently orchestrated.

This effort by Sinfonieorchester Basel under Ariane Matiakh fills the need [for new recordings] admirably. The playing is excellent and the recording very good. Whether the work is the masterpiece some pundits maintain is another question. Koechlin’s masterly orchestration cannot be called in question, and that is reason enough to wallow in the music...This issue is well worth getting to know.

--MusicWeb International (Göran Forsling)