The second half of the 19th century witnessed a proliferation of significant works for strings alone including the Serenades for Strings by Dvorák (1875) and Tchaikovsky (1880) and Grieg’s Holberg Suite (1884), followed by a trio of works for strings in 1892 from Suk, Wolf and Elgar. Tchaikovsky’s music for string instruments is notable for its range and consistency – and this culminates in the magnificent Violin Concerto and one of the greatest works ever conceived for string orchestra, his Serenade of 1880. Earlier, in 1873, Tchaikovsky wrote incidental music to Ostrovsky’s three-act drama The Snow Maiden. Though he abandoned the idea of adapting it into an opera, when Rimsky-Korsakov composed one on the same subject, he retained affection for this little-known work. Judging by the beautiful Melodrama of Act II, its neglect is unjustified. Eight years before that, as a 25-year-old student at the St Petersburg Conservatory he composed a String Quartet in B flat. If, as some authorities believe, it had four movements, only one has survived. Such is the inner power of the music that it takes on a more expressive hue when performed by a full string orchestra as on this recording.

Towards the end of 1884, the Moscow Society of Artists wished to honor veteran actor Ivan Samarin’s 50-year artistic career, and Tchaikovsky enthusiastically contributed a musical entr’acte. Tchaikovsky’s publisher Jurgenson persuaded the composer the music was worthy of publication, under the title Elegy, as Samarin died the year after the celebrations. When Tchaikovsky suddenly died near the end of 1893, the slow movement of his Third String Quartet was arranged for string orchestra by Glazunov for performance at his funeral service. Glazunov’s subtle and sympathetic arrangement of this fine music for full string orchestra honors his friend, the great composer, in truly noble fashion.

REVIEW:

This attractive program includes Tchaikovsky’s familiar Serenade for Strings along with four shorter works, the last of which, the Glazounov-arranged Andante Funebre e Doloroso from the Third Quartet, was played at Tchaikovsky’s funeral in 1893.

The chamber orchestra's playing is full and warm, rich in vibrato and expression. If you like Russian music played by native musicians (I’m thinking here of the old Leningrad Philharmonic, which became the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 1991) you’ll enjoy this. It’s some of Tchaikovsky’s most attractive music, richly played and beautifully recorded.

-- American Record Guide

Born in the context of the popular devotion of the peoples of the Mediterranean during the late Middle Ages, the spiritual lauda became well established in the central part of Italy, where a strong oral tradition is still preserved today. They were originally monodic compositions in the vernacular, based on the style of the Occitan troubadours (12th to 14th century), with a regular rhythm and simple melodic form, which could be sung by anyone with or without instrumental accompaniment.

Francisco Soto was born in Langa de Duero, in the present-day province of Soria, Spain, in 1534. He trained musically as a puer cantor in the Cathedral of El Burgo de Osma before leaving for Rome and being admitted in 1562 as a cantor in the Pontifical Musical Chapel, today commonly known as the Sistine Chapel Choir. He was the first castrato to join the choir. He served in Rome as a falsettist soprano for 49 years, until 1611, 5 years of which were spent as maestro uno inter pares of the Cappella Musicale Pontificia, between 1606 and 1611. This recording presents 20 Laudi, collected from the 5 books of Laudi, published in Rome between 1583 and 1598, written in daring polyphonic arrangements by Soto de Langa.

Suor Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) was the most prolific woman composer of the 17th century. She published no fewer than 20 collections of motets and other sacred music, nearly 200 compositions spanning virtually every genre of sacred music of her time, as well as the only complete collection of instrumental works by an Italian woman in the 1600s. This recording is a tribute to her artistry.

Born and baptized as Anna Isabella Leonardi on 6 Sept. 1620, she belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Novara. She studied at home before entering the Congregazione delle Vergini di S. Orsola at age 16. She took her vows three years later and remained in this convent until her death on February 25, 1704, at the age of 84. During her long life, Isabella served in all capacities: mater discreta et cancellaria, magistra musicae, superiora, and finally consigliera. She was clearly a woman of robust constitution and an iron will. This recording provides a portrait of Isabella Leonarda’s vast and varied output, ranging from solo motets to a large-scale Psalm setting for voices, obbligato violins and basso continuo. Numerous works exemplify her “concertato” writing in their alternation of meter, tempo and texture between florid soloistic passages and more homophonic choral treatment. The absence of male voices is solved by the transposition of lower voices or the use of instruments.

Cappella Artemisia, founded by Candace Smith in 1991, is an ensemble of women dedicated to performing the music of Italian convents of the 16th and 17th centuries. The repertoire includes both forgotten works composed by the nuns themselves, and music intended for performance in the convents by male composers, but presented as it would originally have been heard, i.e., without male voices.

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) is one of the most important Italian composers of the first half of the 20th century. Famous for his sumptuous symphonic works (notably the Roman Trilogy) he had a fascination for the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, transcribing works by the old masters and using their modal techniques. The Ancient Airs and Dances “Antiche danze ed arie” and the orchestral suite “Gli Uccelli” (The Birds) are adaptations of Renaissance and Baroque dances and arias by Italian composers, brilliantly orchestrated by Respighi. Organist Rodolfo Bellatti was inspired by Respighi’s orchestrations and strove to create a similar effect on the organ, with its endless possibilities for coloring and tonal differentiations. The result is spectacular and presented on this new recording, which is recorded on the magnificent Serassi and Grisanti Organs at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Asti, Italy, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. Rodolfo Bellatti is an active recitalist and recording artist, with several albums to his credit, as well as a researcher in the areas of organ building and musicology.

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1763) was born in Schweidnitz, Silesia (today Poland). His special inclination towards music led him to undertake a brief period of study in Breslau (today Wroclaw) with the court musicians who were under the employment of the Archbishop of Breslau. In 1733 Janitsch moved to Berlin where the then Crown Prince, Frederick offered him a position as a double bass player. With the permission of the Crown Prince, he founded the circle "Freitagsakademien" (Friday academies), in which music was performed by professional and amateur musicians alike. From 1740, when Frederick ascended to the Prussian throne, Janitsch's position as double bass player was transferred to the newly founded Berlin Court Orchestra. The Friday academies continued in Berlin in his home in the form of weekly concerts open to the public. Janitsch's compositional style is typical of the galant and the empfindsamer Stil of the first half of the 18th century, combining attractive melodic writing with disciplined compositional craft. The Church Sonatas, written for 2 violins or violin and oboe plus basso continuo, mingle echoes of Corelli’s Baroque style with the galant or pre-Classical manner of Janitsch’s age. The Berlin Friday Academy is a Berlin-based ensemble made up of young players from around the world – a group of passionate, historically-inspired musicians striving to bring about beauty through the performance, recording, and scholarly discussion of eighteenth-century music.

Prior to the turn of the 20th century, Camille Saint-Saëns enriched the cello repertoire with two important compositions: his Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor (Op.33 ) and his Cello Sonata No.1 in C minor (Op.32). The first Cello Sonata was composed in the autumn of 1872, and its first public performance – with J. Reuschel on cello and the composer at the piano – was given on 26 March 1873 at the Salle Érard in Paris. The work is divided into three movements: the first and third have a tragic character, while the second offers an oasis of quiet serenity. The work opens with a dramatic Allegro in sonata form. The second movement stems from an organ improvisation performed by Saint-Saëns at Saint-Augustin. The final movement takes up the tumultuous and agitated character of the first and ends in an unrelenting race. Some 30 years separate the Cello Sonata No.2 in F (Op.123) from its predecessor. The fruit of laborious work, it was completed in early 1905. The Sonata is structured in four movements, the first in sonata form with contrasting heroic and lyrical characters throughout. The second movement is a Scherzo with eight variations, each with its own identity while maintaining a link to the theme, one of them in the form of a fugue. The third movement is, in Saint-Saëns’ words, ‘a romance that will delight cellists’, and he wrote of its concluding section, ‘the Adagio will bring tears to sensitive souls’. The sonata ends with a playful, light Rondo in which both piano and cello engage in technical virtuosity and imitative games.

The golden age of string orchestra repertoire must certainly be the period spanning the final decades of the 19th century to the early 20th century. The density of sound, great dynamic range, long phrases and virtuosity that are uniquely possible with this combination of instruments saw it become a particularly cherished ensemble for many of the greatest composers of the day. Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile is the composer’s own transcription of the second movement from his famous String Quartet No.1, prepared for a private concert in Paris (February 1888) with cellist Anatoly Brandukov and the Edouard Colonne Orchestra conducted by the composer. Russian composer and pianist Anton Arensky (1861–1906), who was strongly influenced by Tchaikovsky’s style, is particularly known for his Variations Op.35a on a theme by Tchaikovsky. Again, this is an own-arrangement of the second movement of Arensky’s String Quartet No.2 in A minor. Written in 1894 on the occasion of Tchaikovsky’s death, the work takes as its theme Tchaikovsky’s song ‘Legend’, adding seven variations and a coda.

Elgar’s Elegy for Strings was written in 1909 after the funeral of Robert Hadden – one of the members of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London – at the suggestion of Elgar’s publisher Alfred Littleton and intended as a commemorative piece for future ceremonies. It was first performed in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1914, where it is still heard for commemorative celebrations today. Its popularity is justified by the poignant beauty of every single musical phrase. Most famous for his series of serenades for string orchestra, Robert Fuchs (1847–1927) is considered a worthy heir to the Viennese romantic musical tradition.

Daniel Pio Dal Barba (1715–1801) was Maestro di Cappella at Verona Cathedral, a position he took up in 1762. Before this, he taught at the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona where, on 9 January 1770, he met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was visiting the city. He enjoyed already a successful career as a composer of operas for two theatres in Verona. There are also numerous references to his work at other theatres in the Veneto and Trentino regions, where he was both a composer and male soprano. Dal Barba's music was highly appreciated for its spontaneous and popular character. He introduced a simple style into the church, far from learned academicism but above all aimed at the common people, pleasing, melodious and harmonious.

This new recording presents Dal Barba’s Requiem, a substantial and dramatic work in which the Dies Irae alone lasts 20 minutes. Also included are a Gloria and a Te Deum. These works are performed by the Coro Istituzionale Armonica, which was founded in 2018 by Alberto Turco in order to perform works by composers that have come to light in the archives of Verona Cathedral. Accompanying them, the ensemble Il Narvalo has already won critical praise for its Brilliant Classics album of music by the Spanish composer, Juan Frances de Iribarren (95859)

With a catalogue of acclaimed albums for Brilliant Classics stretching well into double figures, the Dutch recorder virtuoso Erik Bosgraaf goes back to Bach for his latest release, with an album of arrangements as imaginatively conceived and as stylishly executed as Volume 1 (94296), released in 2011, which won glowing reviews from the international music press. Bach wrote as inventively and idiomatically for the recorder throughout his career as he did for every other instrument at his disposal, but he left no concertos in which the instrument takes the spotlight.

Thus Bosgraaf and his colleagues have attempted to answer the question, what might Bach have done, or could he have done, if he had written concertos for the recorder? They have looked for inspiration to the cantatas, and not only those where Bach composed memorable recorder parts such as the Actus Tragicus. For example, the album’s opening G major concerto is compiled from a tenor aria of dazzling runs in BWV74, followed by the sorrowful opening Sinfonia of BWV12 (in which the oboe originally takes the starring role), and then another tenor aria from BWV81 which graphically illustrates the foaming waves of a stormy sea. In both aria transcriptions, Bosgraaf’s recorder takes over the vocal line, and paints vivid sound pictures with his remarkable palette of tone colors. A second concerto in D major draws its music from similar sources, followed by a Partita which the Dutch musicologist has arranged from movements of the Fifth French Suite. A further concerto is supplied by a relatively ‘straight’ transcription of the familiar (but sublime) A minor Concerto for violin, BWV1041.

Born in 1961, the Italian composer Raffaelle Bellafronte has produced a wide-ranging body of work in a modern tonal idiom. Previous albums of concertos, guitar music and chamber works paint a portrait of a lively mind and a personal voice embracing large dramatic gestures and lyric reflection, each as quintessentially ‘Italian’ in their expression as the other. The set of 12 Preludes opens with a magnificently imposing evocation of stillness, colored by the kind of bittersweet harmonies to be found in Bartok and the sense of musical space associated with Messiaen, building a surprisingly complete soundworld within the brief space of three minutes. The remaining preludes are no less ingenious in their economy of mood and gesture. Melancholy and frenzy alternate; glittering and asymmetrical rhythms stand in stark opposition to slow ostinato figurations; dense contrapuntal writing is cast against terse homophony.

Bellafronte trained as a pianist himself, and he composes for the full spectrum of the instrument’s heroic and sensual possibilities. There is a satisfying crunch to the harmonies and immediately appreciable breadth of vision to the opening paragraphs of the Sonata Prima Désaccord (2006),where contrapuntal and propulsive ostinato writing combine to pull the listener through a compelling narrative which feels longer than its 12-minute duration. From three years later, the Second Sonata experiments with a Haydnesque binary form of two quick movements – a nervous, lopsided march followed by a frustrated would-be fugue with a brutal and macabre conclusion. The Third Sonata (2014) is the most substantial piece here in both duration and ambition, launched with a momentum worthy of Bartók or Alkan. The quick-slow-quick form is superficially conventional, but it encloses a wealth of surprising excursions which challenge tonal stability and once more pitch the listener into a pianistic tumult.

As the most celebrated singer in Venice during the 1640s, Anna Renzi created roles in operas by the great dramatists of the day including Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea. As outlined by the booklet’s detailed essay on Renzi’s life and career, her career was not very long but dazzling. It centered round the many Venetian theatres and prestigious tours that took her to Florence, Genoa and Innsbruck: from 1640, when she made her debut in Rome, her home city, in an opera written by her alleged teacher Filiberto Laurenzi staged at the French embassy in Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, to 1657 in Le fortune di Rodope e Damira, set to music by Pietro Andrea Ziani, at Teatro Sant’Aponal in Venice. Roberta Invernizzi begins her recital with ‘Disprezzata regina’ L’incoronazione di Poppea and follows it with two arias from Cesti’s lesser-known Argia of 1655, hardly less dazzling in the brilliance of its vocal line. O cara libertà is a standalone aria from a collection by a composer two generations after Monteverdi, Filiberto Laurenzi (1618-after 1651), and Invernizzi ends the album on a high with three arias from his little-known drama La Finta Savia.

Between the vocal selections, Ensemble Sezione Aurea insert instrumental interludes by Venetian contemporaries such as Rossi, Cima and Frescobaldi. The album as a whole adds up to a compelling portrait of Renzi, demonstrating her particular gift for bringing characters to vivid life on stage, and also a showcase for the vocal and dramatic talents of Roberta Invernizzi, who has taken lead roles in early operas under early-music luminaries including Alan Curtis, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The booklet also includes full sung texts and English translations.

REVIEW:

Roberta Invernizzi presents a tribute to a so-called opera diva, Venice’s most famous singer in the 1640s, Anna Renzi. With interpretations full of character, this is a successful, if somewhat brief tribute to her legendary ancestor.

-- Pizzicato (Remy Franck)

After Haydn composed The Seven Last Words for chamber orchestra as a devotional accompaniment to the Good Friday liturgy at Cadiz Cathedral in 1786, several other arrangements were made during his lifetime, by himself and others, all of them familiar to us now: as an oratorio with soloists and chorus, and in string quartet and solo keyboard transcriptions. The cycle continued to attract arrangers after Haydn’s death. In the course of researching them, the flautist Rafael Ruibérriz de Torres turned up a manuscript by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, who transcribed it for flute and string quartet in 1840 – perhaps as a compositional exercise at the behest of his teacher, Ramon Carnicer, who had recently produced a flute quintet of his own. In any case, Barbieri’s arrangement presents a Romantic-era conception of Haydn’s work in which the flute part acquires the same importance as the other instruments, lending color and brilliance to the quartet parts. At points the flute line plays in unison with one or other of the strings (almost throughout Sonata II, for example), but elsewhere his melodic and contrapuntal contributions are woven into the fabric of Haydn’s score with masterly technique and no small measure of creative inspiration.

From 1763 until his death in 1806, Johann Michael Haydn worked in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg – almost as long a period of service as that of his brother Joseph to the princely family in Esterhazy. During the course of those 43 years, he bridged the stylistic gap between early Classicism and the Biedermeier style. Indeed, he was initially regarded by contemporaries as equal in talent to Joseph. Only the older brother’s steep rise to become the most important instrumental composer of his day somewhat overshadowed Johann Michael Haydn. In recent years his music has been rediscovered, and he has increasingly been recognized again.

His output includes more than thirty works in Latin or German for two or three lines of upper voices, composed for his ‘dear choirboys’ singing at the cathedral in Salzburg. The first setting of the ordinary in this series was the Missa Sancti Aloysii, composed in 1777. It was initially intended for the Commemoration of the Holy Innocents on 28 December, when the chapel boys celebrated their principal feast day. This exceptionally charming mass is marked throughout by a wonderfully effervescent sense of joy. At the other end of his career, the Missa sub titulo Sti. Leopoldi pro festo Innocentium was Michael Haydn’s last completed work, finished on 22 December 1805 in time to celebrate the same feast day as the earlier Mass, despite the composer’s ill health, and drawing strength (according to the composer) from the optimistic character of his pupils. Complementing these two Mass settings, the Accademia Vocale di Genova and Roberta Paraninfo present a complete recording of the Vespers which Haydn wrote for the Feast of the Holy Innocents in 1787.

Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831) was one of the most multifaceted artists of all time, being active in various fields as a composer, performer, publisher and piano builder. Born in Lower Austria, he became the pupil of Joseph Haydn in Eisenstadt, who considered him to be a superb student. In 1791, due to the French Revolution, musical performances in churches and public concerts were abolished, so Pleyel travelled to London searching for a better place to work. Pleyel was a quite prolific composer, writing at least 42 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several operas. Recent scholarship has suggested that the theme for the St. Anthony Variations Op.56a by Johannes Brahms was probably composed not by Haydn but by Ignaz Pleyel. The beautiful and cheerful Quintet in C for piano and winds is in a pleasant, early-classical Viennese style, reminding us of the previous masterpieces for the same medium by Mozart and Beethoven. An arrangement for Wind Octet of this work is preserved at the Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Hofbibliothek Donaueschingen in Germany.

The manuscript of the Due Duetti for clarinet and viola has so far never been published. The Trio Op.20 No.1 for two clarinets and bassoon is an arrangement from one of Pleyel’s flute and string trios. The two short songs Behind yon Hills and The smiling Morn, from the Original Scottish Airs, are originally for soprano and piano, but the clarinet replaces the singer with a similarly expressive and beautiful result. The Variations in F on a Theme of Pleyel is a piece arranged for three clarinets by Antonín Myslík, taken from the Quartet in F by Franz Krommer (1759–1831). Mozart praised Pleyel’s compositions in a letter written to his father.

Born in Lille, Édouard Lalo (1823–1892) studied the violin before leaving home for good, against his father’s will, to enter the Paris Conservatoire. Having graduated without family support, he began to make a living in the capital as an orchestral violinist and violist and as a member of the Quatuor Armingaud (from 1855), one of many such ensembles which sprang up within a culture of chamber music that was then supported by the foundation of the Société nationale de musique. Lalo’s Cello Sonata in A minor is relatively unknown, despite its obvious beauty and clear Schumannesque qualities.

Charles Koechlin (1867–1950) studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Jules Massenet and Fauré. He composed frequently, producing a huge opus of well over 200 works, and in a fluent style distinguished above all by its melodic invention, with supple and eloquent melodic themes. In that regard, the spirit of Fauré is never far away in the Cello Sonata Op.66 – allusive, imbued with a retrospective spirit which unfolds into a kind of accompanied recitative, quintessentially cellistic. Koechlin wrote the Sonata in October 1917 in a flurry of chamber-music activity. Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937), also an alumnus of the Paris Conservatoire, was a successful musician and won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1882. Pierné became one of the most influential musicians in Paris, more at the time through his conducting than his composing. He introduced audiences at the Concerts Colonne to countless premieres of lasting significance, and was one of the principal conductors for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, conducting the world premiere of Stravinsky’s Firebird.

Pierné’s single-movement Cello Sonata in F sharp minor is in a cyclical form, following the example of Franck and Liszt.

The guitar became increasingly important to Castelnuovo-Tedesco through the course of his long career. ‘My art tends progressively to simplify itself,’ he wrote, ‘and the guitar has become one of my favorite means of expression because it has led me towards the essential.’ He was first drawn to the instrument after meeting Andres Segovia in Venice in 1932. The Variations á travers les siècles Op.71 followed almost immediately.

Over the course of the next seven years, Castelnuovo-Tedesco produced a string of equally successful pieces for the instrument. Most substantial is the four movement Guitar Sonata subtitled as a ‘Homage to Boccherini’: an elegant essay in neoclassicism which evokes the courtly elegance of Boccherini’s Guitar Quintets while sounding entirely true to Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s own language. There followed a Capriccio Diabolico, which lives up to its title as a homage to Paganini with fiendish figuration which delighted Segovia. Sharing the Capriccio’s Opus number of 87 is a contrastingly restrained character-study of Sicilian flavor, ‘Oranges in Bloom’.

The last guitar piece written by Castelnuovo-Tedesco before leaving Europe for good was the Variations plaisantes sur un petit air populaire Op.95, which takes its theme from a French folk melody after a Swiss critic had taken aim at the Sonata as merely a display piece for Segovia. Castelnuovo-Tedesco proved him wrong with another demonstration of his deep feeling for the guitar as an instrument of both display and reflection, ending with an elaborate fugue. This album is the latest in a series of new recordings documenting the output of Castenuovo-Tedesco. Rather than playing from the standard editions of these pieces by Segovia, Antonio Rugolo has gone back to the composer’s manuscripts as well as consulting newer editions by Angelo Gilardino, resulting in performances which are truer to the composer’s vision than ever before.

Giuseppe Corsi (c.1631/1691), known as Celani, was one of the most important composers of the Roman school active in the second half of the 17th century. Corsi's catalogue of works includes around 23 secular compositions including Cantatas for one voice and basso continuo. The protagonist of the cantata Dalle balze sicane is the mythological Enceladus who, having been plunged into the bowels of Mount Etna by the goddess Athena, invokes Jupiter to placate the outrage against him. The character’s 'misfortunes' and 'sorrows' of love in Cruda legge del mio fato find analogies with those experienced by the composer. The first aria in this cantata is rich in complex enharmonics, greatly expanded and varied in the repeat, when the voice is engaged in difficult bravura passages.

The cantata Abbandonato e solo begins with a veritable monologue from Roman emperor Nero, tormented by his past ghosts. The cantata on this album by Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661–1756), Pompe, voi che ascondete, although attributed to Corsi’s favourite pupil, is in fact still of unproven authorship. It is possible that Giuseppe Corsi met Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632–1692). The two composers in 1685 took part in the famous dispute over parallel fifths in Arcangelo Corelli's Sonata Op.2 No.3. The bass of the violin family, of which Vitali was a virtuoso, was widespread thanks to the Este patronage of Duke Francesco I. In his cantatas, Corsi repeatedly insists on the B flat grave, a characteristic of violin bass tuning, and the numerous semiquaver passages are particularly agile on the violone, so it is not unlikely that the composer from Marsica had this instrument in mind. It is also for this reason that Corsi's compositions have been joined by some movements from the Partite sopra diverse sonatas for the violone by Vitali that are particularly pleasing.

Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) was a cosmopolitan piano virtuoso who studied with C.P.E. Bach, lived and performed in one European capital after another in a tumultuous progress across the continent, and wrote huge quantities of eclectic music which has largely been forgotten. Dussek’s music for his own instrument may now be much better known than half a century ago – not least thanks to the first period-instrument edition of his piano sonatas, produced by Brilliant Classics – but he wrote almost 80 violin sonatas which also deserve revival as the product of a fluent and always inventive mind working on the cusp of eras we now identify as Classicism and Romanticism.

The three sonatas gathered here as Dussek’s Opus 1 were published around 1780. Each of them is cast in two movements: a lively Allegro in sonata form, followed by a Rondo or (in No.1) a set of variations, gentle and even meditative in character, in which Dussek’s originality shines through the occasional, recitative-like episodes. The six sonatas of Op.28 belong to the genre of ‘accompanied piano sonatas’ in which the musical substance is conceived principally for the keyboard instrument, with an obbligato melody instrument (such as the violin or flute) adding or doubling a top line if convenient. By the time he wrote them in 1795, Dussek had been a celebrity of London musical life for six years, having fled revolutionary Paris in a hurry. The dedication to ‘Miss Shaw’ refers to one of the daughters of the composer Thomas Shaw, and one may imagine the father on the violin accompanying and encouraging his daughter on the piano in Dussek’s vivid evocations of rural life and the lively march of a tin-soldier regiment.

Dussek’s sonatas are played here in new recordings by the German duo of Julia Huber and Miriam Altmann in polished and historically informed performances, using an authentic 1780 fortepiano. Huber has worked with German period-instrument ensembles such as L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, La Stagione Frankfurt and the Collegium Cartusianum in Cologne.

Whether or not they actually traveled south of the Alps, as Handel did early in his career, all 18th-century German composers of note were influenced by the Italian style of vocal and instrumental writing at the time. Manuel Tomadin’s latest album for Brilliant Classics explores the connections between these apparently disparate traditions, beginning with the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWWV564 which stands among the most striking examples of JS Bach’s work during his years as Capellmeister to the ducal court in Weimar (1710-1717). The Italian qualities of the concerto-like nature of the opening Toccata in BWV564 and then the pathos of the Adagio, with its walking bass and Neapolitan harmonies, are underlined by the following transcription made by Bach of a Vivaldi Concerto, the A minor RV522, and then Walther’s transcription of a concerto by Torelli. Just as Bach was later influenced by the violin playing and writing of the virtuoso Pisendel, German-born but widely traveled in Italy, Johann Gottlieb Graun was a pupil of Pisendel’s who had also studied with the prince of Italian violinist-composers, Giuseppe Tartini, and so Tomadin includes a solo-organ concerto of Graun’s which abounds in violinistic figuration. An arrangement of Handel’s opening Sinfonia to his oratorio Esther, another Vivaldi concerto and Bach’s magnificent A minor Prelude and Fugue BWWV543 complete this stimulating program.

This album is also a valuable record of the historically significant organ in St Peter’s Church in the Dutch town of Leens. Dating from 1733-34, and thus contemporary with the music recorded here, the instrument is the work of the Dutch organ-builder Albertus Anthoni Hinsz. He modelled his designs on the instruments by the Schnitger family who dominated North-German organ-building at the time, and the example in Leens is a superbly preserved and scrupulously restored example of this heritage. The booklet is generously annotated with an essay by Manuel Tomadin exploring the Italian connections between the music on the album, a history of the organ, a full stop-list and a record of the specific registration used for each piece.

In recent decades, Johann Sebastian Bach's works have undergone numerous transcriptions and adaptations. Since the 1960s, the guitar repertoire has seen the addition of several Bach pieces originally intended for the lute, an instrument that is undoubtedly among the most akin to the modern six-string guitar. Following the increasingly in-depth study of Bach's work and the spread of the classical guitar, several harpsichord pieces have also been transcribed and performed. This album magnificently displays these pieces by exploiting the rich dynamics and full polyphonic capacity of the guitar.

The Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and the Clavier-Büchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bach hold an important place, as these collections offer a glimpse into Bach’s familial and didactic spheres of action. Within the Friedemann Bach collection, we find the two Praeambula (BWV 924 & 926), characterised by arpeggiated writing, probably a model for students to create a first simple improvisation. Further on, the Fantasias that appear in the final part of the collection show a wonderful degree of contrapuntal complexity. Although there were 2 versions of the Anna Magdalena collection, the one which has survived almost in its entirety seems to have been intended as a family album, with contributions not only from Anna Magdalena (J.S. Bach’s wife), but also from her son Carl Philipp Emanuel and other composers. The pieces in this collection, including vocal pieces written for Anna (an accomplished singer), are most commonly small dance forms characterised by an essential and refined homophonic-style writing. The Anglaise and Minuet from the French Suite No. 3, as well as the more solemn Allemande from the French Suite No. 4, are clear examples of the gracefulness of these compositions, which show a subtler sound texture than those of other series of Bach suites, as well as a more limited use of counterpoint. Also of exquisite elegance is the Minuet from Partita BWV 825, taken from the first volume of the Clavier-Übung.

This album also includes some famous works, among them the preludes from the French Suite No. 3 and Johann Peter Kellner’s collection. These are rather varied pieces, written for teaching purposes and passed down through written transcriptions from Bach’s pupils. Some are extremely short but show some degree of harmonic density and sometimes a rather chromatic style, while others have a slightly broader structure and a writing more similar to the Inventions, with a systematic use of counterpoint. The album also features works from other prominent composers – George Philipp Telemann and C.P.E. Bach – as well as two lesser-known composers, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Christian Petzold.

In the second half of 18th century, keyboard music in Tuscany was flourishing. Many composers wrote music for both the fortepiano and the harpsichord: the former, which was invented just before the turn of the 18th century in Florence by harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731), rose to an incredible degree of popularity in the last decades of the century at the expense of the latter, which experienced the last moments of its glorious history. At any rate, it was by no means uncommon that composers published music intended to be played on either instrument, as almost all keyboard pieces written in Tuscany during the 1780s were explicitly addressed per il clavicembalo o fortepiano (for the harpsichord or piano).

The Florence-born composer Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842) published his Sei Sonate per il Cimbalo around 1780; they are currently believed to be the first published work by the composer, although he had written operas and religious music prior to the publication of this work. The style of these sonatas is not too far from the musical fashion of the time: they all consist of two movements, the first in sonata-form, the second a rondò where the second theme is typically characterized by highly virtuosic writing. All six sonatas follow this strict formal code, however, Cherubini manages to create a surprising variety in the themes and their development. Each sonata could, in fact, depict a different stock character from the commedia dell’Arte, with their strict formal codification employed in a theatrical way thanks to the perfect balance of ideas set out each time. Even the bass seems to be adjusted depending on the mood of the theme – Cherubini employs Murky bass, Alberti bass and even counterpoint. The harmonic closeness between the key signatures of each sonata gives further cohesion to the whole set.

After careful consideration, Simone El Oufir Pierini found the fortepiano to be the best instrument to play these works on, although in the printed edition it was explicitly said that they should be played on the harpsichord. The piano, a new instrument, was highly favoured by the new Tuscan court, and the potential of this new instrument was sought out with keen interest by composers. The employment of the fortepiano for these sonatas hopefully sheds new light on these pieces, written by one of the most influential composers of the time.

This CD presents Violin Concertos from Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza Op. 4, transcribed for organ. These are contained in the collection known as Anne Dawson's Book and kept at the Henry Watson Music Library in Manchester (UK). The collection, compiled around 1720, contains, in addition to arias for voice and basso continuo, a number of compositions for keyboard instrument along with several transcriptions of concertos by various composers, including 10 by Vivaldi. They are closely related to the original score and show an evident process of adaptation to the possibilities and idiom of the keyboard instrument.

Organist Luca Scandali is one of Italy’s foremost scholars and keyboard players. For Brilliant Classics he recorded the complete organ works by C.P.E. Bach (nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Galuppi, Pasquini, Pellegrini and Padovano. He plays the Gaetano Callido organ from 1774 at the Church of San Venanzo, Albacina, Italy.

Hidden behind the late 19th century’s great symphonies, sumptuous ballets, and concertos with moving climaxes is something much more thoughtful and contemplative. This secret landscape comes courtesy of a few precious pieces for string orchestra by three Russian composers, all active at approximately the same time.

The extremely simple theme in 3/4, from Glazunov’s Theme and Variations in G Minor, Op. 97, has the feel of a solemn, ancient dance, simultaneously nostalgic and sombre. In another example of Glazunov’s crystal-clear yet expressive writing, the string orchestra provides the backdrop and conversation partner for a solo instrument that was a rarity in concertos at the time: the saxophone. Overall, despite the explosive counterpoint in the work’s final movement, it is a dreamy composition, never overly dramatic, and subdued and melancholy in places: almost elegiac, in other words.

The two elegies Tchaikovsky composed for string orchestra are highly refined works that reveal another side to the famous composer. In the same period that Tchaikovsky was writing his elegies, between 1880 and 1885, the composer and chemist Alexander Borodin was drafting his second Quartet. The third movement, a Nocturne, is one of Borodin’s finest works. It was therefore not only written at the same time as Tchaikovsky’s elegies, but also shares their gracefulness.

REVIEW:

Sieva Borzak (b. 1997) serves as the Conductor-in-Residence of the Roma Tre Orchestra, a collegiate ensemble that, when founded in 2005, became the first of its kind in central Italy.

The young musicians play with an artistic maturity and sensitivity well beyond their age; and the entire program bathes the listener in the timeless and contemplative romantic soundscape of the pre-Soviet school. Even so, this remains a student ensemble; and moments of stunning beauty are sometimes followed by shaky intonation and patchy teamwork. Taddei has all the tools for a solo career, executing the Glazounov concerto with splendid poise, expressive phrasing, and superb technique; but his free-blowing set-up always seems on the edge of spreading, even if his control is very good. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating preview of what the next generation of Italian talent has to offer.

-- American Record Guide

Franz Xaver Murschhauser was born in the summer of 1663. In 1676 Murschhauser joined the choir and orchestra of St Peter’s, where he benefited first from the tuition he received from the church’s choir director Sigmund Auer and later, from 1684 to 1693, from the Court Kapellmeister Johann Kaspar Kerll, which left a lasting impression on him. In July 1690, most probably on the recommendation of his teacher Johann Kaspar Kerll, Murschhauser was asked to stand in for the choirmaster of the Munich Frauenkirche, Ludwig Hölz, who was indisposed owing to illness. After the latter’s death in 1691, Murschhauser became his successor, holding the position for the remainder of his life.

The Prototypon Longo-Breve Organicum (which might be translated as ‘Prototypes for organ pieces, long and short’) was published in two parts in Nuremberg in 1703 and 1707 and contains eight cycles/sections totalling 46 compositions, comprising varying numbers of intonations, praeambulae, fugues, canzonas, toccatas and finales designed as preludes or postludes to figural music. In 20 of the more extensive numbers, Murschhauser indicates cuts as an aid for organists in liturgical use, if needed. It is precisely these sorts of adaptations of the musical material offered by the composer himself to suit the time available in liturgical performance that make the Prototypon such a practical and relevant work, right down to our own times.

The intonations are made up of figures, broken chords and passages over a pedal point, deliberately kept free of any imitative interplay. The praeambulae consist either of motivic figurations with imitative passages and pedal points somewhat reminiscent of the style of Johann Pachelbel, or they are more akin to the old Italian toccata in their alternation of chord successions and scales. By contrast, the two toccate arpeggiate, with their full-voiced chordal writing and harmonic richness, point to the Overture in the French style which, at this time, was finding its way into southern German music primarily through the work of Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer. In his edition of the Prototypon (housed in Vol. 18 of Monuments of Musical Art in Bavaria), Max Seiffert writes: ‘In all these pieces, Murschhauser demonstrates a remarkable creative power and contrapuntal skill’.

In this respect, the Prototypon Longo-Breve Organicum by Franz Xaver Anton Murschhauser remains an important record of musical and organ performance in the southern German Early Baroque, and one that can still offer a valuable service to the organists of today.

Thanks to recordings such as this one, the figure of Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) is increasingly coming into focus and prominence as a notable contemporary of Beethoven who deserves better than his previous obscurity. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the Wilms as ‘one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists’ of his generation: a judgment borne out by the this trio of high-spirited chamber works. Born near Cologne, only two years after and some 60 km distant from Beethoven, Wilms made his career in Amsterdam as both performer (on flute and piano) and composer, inviting further parallels. His tenuous foothold on posterity has depended until recently for being known as the composer of the Dutch national anthem. His style may be more notable for fluency and charm than depth, but this album traverses his own expressive journey from the elegant Classical manners of an early piano trio to the intimations of Romanticism and melancholy in the second of his piano quartets. Though the piano quartets of Wilms have been recorded before, this is the first-ever recording made on instruments of the period, and the inclusion of the piano trio makes it a generous coupling and a perfect introduction to an original voice in European music of the Classical era. Known together as the G.A.P. Ensemble, Emilio Percan, Aymat Fusté and Luca Quintavalle aim to build musical bridges between eras much as Wilms himself did, considered retrospectively. Their previous albums have been enthusiastically reviewed in Gramophone, Diapason and elsewhere. The recording was made in October 2021 in the studios of WDR radio in Cologne, presenting both composer and performers in a warmly attractive light. In 1807, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung described the composer Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) as “one of the most ingenious, spirited, and best educated artists” of his generation. Undoubtedly, this contemporary of Beethoven was among the most important composers in the Netherlands during his lifetime. Born in 1772 near Solingen, Germany, Wilms went to Amsterdam in 1791 and made a name for himself as an outstanding improviser on the piano and as a flautist in various orchestras in the city. He increased his fame by performing his own and others' piano concertos (especially with the Felix Meritis Orchestra) and as a teacher of piano and composition. From 1793, thanks to the first publications of his works, he became an appreciated composer beyond the borders of his adopted country, Holland, and his music was also performed in Leipzig, Breslau, and Prague.
Of his two piano quartets the Op.22 is a chamber work in four movements in which the piano plays the role of 'primus inter pares', while Op.30, in three movements, is more appropriately a piano concerto with string trio accompaniment. While still fully adhering to the spirit of the 18th century, especially from a formal point of view, these are works that, in terms of intensified virtuosity and harmonic freedom, can be compared to the compositions and style of composers such as Franz Danzi, Anton Eberl, Jan Ladislav Dussek and Carl Maria von Weber. The period instrument G.A.P. Ensemble consists of Emilio Percan, violin, Oriol Aymat Fusté, violoncello, and Luca Quintavalle, harpsichord/fortepiano. They worked with artists like Viktoria Mullova, Daniel Hope, Cecilia Bartoli, Christophe Rousset, Fabio Biondi, Julia Lezhneva, Raffaella Milanesi and Hille Perl and performed at some of the most renowned concert halls in the world, for example Berliner Philharmonie, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Tokyo Opera City Center Hall and Palau de la Música Barcelona.

In his own lifetime (1839–1901), Joseph Rheinberger was more sought after as a professor of organ and composition than he was recognized as a great composer. His roll call of students at the conservatoire in Munich was long and impressive, including Humperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari and Furtwängler. However, Rheinberger produced a significant catalogue of sacred music in particular, concentrated on choir and organ. Sometimes unfavourably compared to Brahms, he is more usefully regarded as a south-German Fauré – for the gentle contours of his melodies and the softly rounded quality of his choral writing.

The principal work on this new album is the Mass for four-part men’s chorus which he composed in 1898, and which has become a staple of the male chorus repertoire around the world. By no means as staid or sober as its scoring might suggest, the Mass is a work of resonant beauty and sweetness, a concise and elegant demonstration of Rheinberger’s melodic gifts and his embodiment of Catholic values in the secular musical culture of late 19th-century Germany.

This newly recorded album makes an ideal introduction to the world of Rheinberger through its diversity. The Mass is complemented by a radiant partsong, Abendfriede, and a setting of the Ave Maria all the more affecting for its devotional simplicity, close in spirit to the early motets of Bruckner. Finally, Manuel Tomadin plays the grandest and best-known of the 20 organ sonatas composed by Rheinberger throughout his career. Cast in three movements, No. 19 opens with an imposing Allegro, while the intimate central Provenzalische finds Rheinberger at his most beguiling as he taps into the folkloristic culture of German Catholicism. Prefaced by a broad introduction, the chromatic counterpoint of the finale approaches Reger for hard-won transcendence, played here on the organ of the Church of Maria Ausiliatrice in the Slovenian town of Vipava.

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a German romantic composer of mainly works for the organ, his own instrument. He was one of the leading figures in the “Cecilian Movement” which, in a world of increasing secularization, propagated the return to religious values of the past, expressing itself in a renewed interest in Gothic architecture and polyphony. Rheinberger’s works are a happy blend of the Romantic spirit of his time and a healthy dose of polyphony and counterpoint, in this he was a worthy successor of Felix Mendelssohn. This new recording presents a selection of choral music and organ works, the two genres in which Rheinberger excelled and for which his fame is undisputed. Included are the Mass for Male Choir and Organ Op. 190, Ave Verum, the popular Abendfriede for organ and the mighty Organ Sonata No. 19 in G minor.

Music of great warmth and sensitivity, quintessentially romantic, played by organist Manuel Tomadin on the 1897 Goršic organ at the Church of Maria Ausiliatrice, Vipava, Slovenia, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. The male choir “Il polifonico” is conducted by Fabiana Noro.

Johann Schneider was a German organist, violinist and composer (1702, Lautertal–1788, Leipzig). He was a pupil of Nicolas Mueller in his hometown and continued his studies with Johann Hartmann Reinmann in Saalfeld between 1717 and 1720. Around 1720, he became Johann Sebastian Bach's organ and harpsichord pupil in Köthen. In conjunction with his keyboard work with Bach, he studied violin with Johann Gottlieb Graun in Merseburg and with Johann Graf in Rudolstadt. In 1721, Johann Schneider became court organist and first violinist (concertmaster) in Saalfeld in his native Coburg. From 1726 he was employed as violinist in the court chapel in Weimar (Weimarer Hofkapelle), and he was later appointed organist of the Nicolaikirche in Leipzig in 1729, holding this position for the rest of his career. Schneider achieved a commendable reputation as a truly great organist, as Lorenz Mizler quotes: 'His organ preludes are of such good taste in this field, with the exception of Mr. Bach, whose pupil he was, that one cannot hear better in Leipzig'. A small number of his works are contained in the manuscript Mus. Ms. 30377, preserved in the Berlin State Library. His style shows a correlation with that of J.S. Bach, but the influence of the Galant style is also detected in various moments of his music. Johann Philipp Kirnberger was born in Saalfeld in 1721 and died in Berlin in 1783. He received his first training in harpsichord and violin within his family and then continued his studies with the organist Johann Peter Kellner in Gräfenroda. In 1738, he was an organ pupil under Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber in Sondershausen, then pursued further studies with Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig between 1739 and 1741, which proved pivotal to his development. More than a composer, he is remembered as a 'witness' to Bach's work: he took charge of copying much of his master's music. He kept the manuscript of the Brandenburg Concertos and collected several chorales known today as the 'Kirnberger Chorales' in which we find BWV numbers 690 to 731a – sincerely feeling himself vested with the mission of divulging Johann Sebastian Bach's greatness. His personality was that of a didact, and his compositions are predominantly the consequence of his treatises (L'arte di comporre bene, 1774/79). This attitude is exemplified in the Clavierübung compiled between 1762 and 1766 containing pieces structured in order of increasing difficulty and carefully fingered according to the precepts of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. He wrote only a handful of pages for organ: a few sporadic preludes to chorales, the eight fugues for organ or harpsichord (featured on this CD) and a 'Clavierfuge mit dem Contrapunct in der Oktava'. His figure is thus summed up not so much in an innovative spirit as in that of a person careful to pass on the inheritance he received.

During the years leading up to the beginning of the 20th century, Edvard Grieg was the most significant Scandinavian composer. His 4 Norwegian dances Op. 35 are arrangements for piano four-hands of old folk tunes. The Symphony in C minor was composed in 1863–64. The melodies of its second and third movements later came to be known in the present arrangement for piano duet known as 2 Symphonic Pieces Op. 14. Grieg composed a score for Peer Gynt of some 90 minutes of incidental music, from which he selected the most beautiful numbers for two orchestral suites which he arranged in versions for piano solo and piano four-hands.

Grieg wrote the 2 Walzer-Capricen Op.37 for piano four hands in 1883. The 2 Nordic Melodies, Op. 63 were originally written for string orchestra in 1895. The work is dedicated to the Norwegian and Swedish ambassador to Paris Frederik Due. Due sent Grieg some compositions for violin and piano, and one of his melodies appears in the first piece: ‘In Folk Style’. The second piece, comprising the ‘Cow-Call’ and ‘Peasant Dance’, is a reworking of two pieces (Nos. 18 and 22) from Grieg’s Op. 17 (25 Norwegian Folk Ballads and Dances).

REVIEW:

Grieg had a mastery of the two-piano idiom that is well represented here by Plano and Del Negro. I am very pleased to have this excellent release in my library. It has great piano sound and some of my favorites along with a few rare pieces.

-- American Record Guide

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was widely known for his passionate, incomparable improvisations on the clavichord, most characteristically in the form of free fantasia. His compositions were unique in style, full of contrasts, and universally admired by several generations; the Vienna Classicists, even Beethoven and Schubert, considered him their musical father. Declamatory, improvisatory style is of course the epitaph of all 18th-century music – exemplified in Johann Sebastian Bach's Chromatic Fantasia BWV903, with its central recitative and broken chords audaciously passing through distant harmonies. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, author of the first Bach biography and part of C.P.E. Bach’s literary circles, transmitted a refined version in his manuscript (P 212) and subsequent edition that may derive from a revised original version once in possession of the Bach sons. C.P.E. Bach’s Fantasia in C minor (published in 1753) bears distinct similarities to his father’s Fantasia chromatica, and it has been suggested that it may in fact have been a tombeau to the elder Bach. The deep personal nature and connection between the two works is explicit. For Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and the ‘Bachists’, the most expressive and intimate compositions were reserved for the clavichord. It was in the clavichord that one might ‘find the soundboard of your heart. … Have no regrets when alone under the moonlight you improvise, or refresh your soul on a summer night, or when you celebrate a spring evening; ah! then pine not for the strident harpsichord. See, your clavichord breathes as gently as your heart.’ (Ch.F.D. Schubart: Musikalische Rhapsodien III, 1786) Charles Burney, who visited C.P.E. Bach in Hamburg in 1772, described the composer improvising at his legendary clavichord, built by Gottfried Silbermann: ‘He grew so animated and possessed that he not only played but looked like one inspired. His eyes were fixed, his lower lip fell, and drops of effervescence distilled from his countenance.’ The original 18th-century instruments heard on this recording – from Regensburg, Stockholm and Vienna – demonstrate possibilities the like of which would have been known to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin and Hamburg and ultimately derive from the Saxon school of G. Silbermann.