The first volume in this project, undertaken with missionary zeal by both singer and pianist, to rescue Medtner’s song output from obscurity, was met with enthusiasm in the Dutch press. ‘The melancholy, autumnal atmosphere evokes Tsarist Russia, of which the once Uzbek but long Dutch-resident Ekaterina Levental has perfectly captured the spirit. Her smooth singing is a joy to listen to.’ (Opus Klassiek) Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) was a Russian (with German roots) who lived outside the Soviet Union from 1921 and lived in London from 1936 until his death. He was a good friend of Rachmaninov and composed in a related style, with a hint of Scriabin here and there. His work dates from ‘the long 19th century’, ignoring the current of contemporary modernism; he continued to compose in a late romantic, tonal style until his last breath. Yet his music sings with its own voice. Medtner, a considerable virtuoso, wrote sonatas and concertos that place great demands on the pianist, at first glance rhapsodic in form but hiding considerable formal sophistication. Seventy years and more after his death, Medtner no longer seems behind the times; his music may be enjoyed on its own terms, and a renaissance in his appreciation began around 30 years ago, but it was focused on the big sonatas and concertos. The pronounced narrative character of his music is perhaps best appreciated in the shorter piano pieces such as the Skazki ('fairy tales'). It is these pieces to which Medtner’s songs are most related.

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was the most significant Italian composer of the first half of the nineteenth century. Born to working musicians – his father was a horn player, his mother an opera singer – his operas, both comic and serious, conquered Maples, Italy and later the rest of the world. His style is sensuous, brilliant and rhythmically vital, a constant source of delight and excitement. Rossini was just twelve years old when during the summer holidays, spent in 1804 at the Conventello in Ravenna estate in the home of the Triossi family, he composed the “Sei sonate a quattro”. Rossini had been invited by the young Agostino Triossi, a self-taught double bass player, who had asked him to write chamber music for him and for his cousins Luigi and Giovanni Morini, who used to play the violin and the cello, respectively. After their composition, the tradition of performing them frequently in transcription for string ensembles has established itself, although the performance, according to the original text, (certainly better), highlights the lively dialogue among the instruments. The present recording is played in the original form by four string players, Francesco Manara , Daniele Pascoletti , Massimo Polidori and Francesco Siragusa , in the best Italian tradition of instrumental Belcanto.

Among the most extensive works here is the cycle of Cantos Desiertos (1996) composed for flute and guitar by Terry Riley. The cycle was later incorporated within The Book of Abbeyzoud, an album with a character suspended between the Biblical, the mystical and the exotic. Francesco en Paraiso is a tender memorial to the countertenor Frank Royon Le Mée (1952-1993). The cycle continues with an Indian melody, and a melancholy lament before ending with a sultry Tango Ladeado (Tango Off-Centre). Hardly less substantial is Muse of Fire (1990) by George Rochberg, written in the shadow of the Gulf War: hence the sudden stops and starts, the military evocations, the funeral marches, the moments of dream-like lyricism and the rhapsodic soliloquies. Ora pro nobis (1991) is based on the slow movement of Bach’s Italian Concerto: a plea for release at a deeply troubled time. Bateau is a song from the 2003 album Ceramic Dog by Marco Ribot, who works mostly with jazz and post-rock musicians: this is the work’s first performance on classical guitar, and Alberto Mesirca brings out the delicate textures that evoke light shimmering on water. Of similar aquatic origins, Fish Tale is a ‘watercolor for flute and guitar’ by Osvaldo Golijov: ‘I wanted everything to be beautiful,’ said the composer, ‘even at the expense of some sense.’ This unique compilation concludes with shorter solo pieces alternating between flute and guitar, taking in the satisfyingly intricate textures of Crawford Seeger and Wuorinen at each end of American modernism, as well as a touching elegy by Mark Delpriora in memory of a student of his, Basil Keiser. This is the third solo album on Brilliant Classics by the guitarist Alberto Mesirca after his collections of music by Regondi and Sanz.

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Other information:

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

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

- Detailed booklet notes included.

- Fascinating historical recordings of the composer as pianist.

 

Track list:

 

Disk 1

·         1 Tres evocaciones: I. Tarde en el parque

·         2 Tres evocaciones: II. Noche junto al Guadalquivir

·         3 Tres evocaciones: III. Mañana en Triana

·         4 Danza de la amapola

·         5 Sonada de adiós

·         6 A l’ombre de Torre Bermeja

·         7 Preludio de añoranza

·         8 Suite para piano: I. Preludio

·         9 Suite para piano: II. Siciliana

·         10 Suite para piano: III. Bourrée

·         11 Suite para piano: IV. Minué

·         12 Suite para piano: V. Rigodón

·         13 Cancion y danza

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Disk 2

·         1 Serenata española

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

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

·         4 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: III Seguidillas del diablo

·         5 Cuatro estampas andaluzas: IV. Barquitos de Cádiz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

·         14 Cuatro piezas para piano: IV. Danza valenciana

·         15 Preludio al gallo mañanero

·         16 Zarabanda lejana

·         17 Bagatela

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

·         19 Deux berceuses: I. Berceuse de printemps

·         20 Deux berceuses: II. Berceuse d’automne

·         21 Tres danzas de España: I. Rústica

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

·         23 Tres danzas de España: III. Serrana

·         24 Pastoral

 

Disk 3

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

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

·         3 Cinco piezas infantiles: III Mazurka

·         4 Cinco piezas infantiles: IV. Plegaria

·         5 Cinco piezas infantiles: V. Gritería final

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

·         7 Atardecer for piano with 4 hands

·         8 Juglares for piano with 4 hands

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

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

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

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

Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-99) composed for the guitar for over 75 years. Over his long and productive life he produced some of the best loved music ever written for the instrument – Concierto de Aranjuez and the Fantasia para un gentilhombre. His output for solo guitar and guitar duet form the bulk of his compositions and this 3-CD set encompasses all these works from the earliest in 1926 up to the late Ecos de Sefarad of 1987.

Strangely for one who devoted so much of his creative energies to the guitar, Rodrigo was not a guitarist, but a pianist of considerable technique. His flair for exuberance, display of technique and the combination of popular styles and great refinement ensure that all the works on these CDs are full of delightful surprises, and typical of this composers unpretentious style.

Recorded in 2007 and produced by Michael Haas.

Track list:

Disk 1
1 Por los campos de España
2 Por los campos de España
3 Por los campos de España
4 Sonata a la Española
5 Sonata a la Española
6 Sonata a la Española
7 Sonata a la Española
8 Tres pequeñas piezas
9 Tres pequeñas piezas
10 Tres pequeñas piezas
11 Tonadillafor two guitars
12 Tonadillafor two guitars
13 Tonadillafor two guitars

Disk 2
1 Sonata giocosa
2 Sonata giocosa
3 Sonata giocosa
4 Sonata giocosa
5 Sonata giocosa
6 Tres piezas españolas
7 Tres piezas españolas
8 Tres piezas españolas
9 Elogio de la guitarra
10 Elogio de la guitarra
11 Elogio de la guitarra

Disk 3
1 Dos preludios
2 Dos preludios
3 Ecos de Sefarad
4 Pájaros de primavera
5 ¡Qué buen caminito!
6 Un tiempo fue Itálica famosa 7’48
7 Tríptico
8 Tríptico
9 Tríptico
10 En tierras de Jerez
11 Tocccata
12 Zarabanda lejana

The Milanese composer Riccardo Malipiero was born in Milan in 1914 and took lessons with his uncle, Gian Francesco Malipiero in the late 30s. Malipiero disowned all that he wrote up until 1938 and saved only a small amount of that written before 1945: the surviving early pieces show the influence of his uncle’s teaching and the neo-classicism of Casella and Stravinsky. However, influenced by Luigi Dallapiccola, he came to embrace a personal, lyrical language of 12-tone composition which ultimately traces its roots back to the music of Berg. The four-movement Violin Sonata from 1956 makes an ideal introduction to Riccardo Malipiero’s music, with a nervous, waltz-like Scherzo and a frozen slow movement leading into the finale’s extensive violin cadenza, beautifully written for the instrument and played here by Rebecca Raimondi with burning conviction as well as ferocious accuracy (she included the sonata within her Master’s recital at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which she graduated in 2017). At her graduation recital she was accompanied by Alessandro Viale, and together with the other members of the Rest Ensemble they have given concerts of Malipiero’s music in both the UK and Italy, lending to these studio recordings the ring of intimacy and impassioned authenticity that is rare in recordings of unfamiliar modernist music. The Piano Trio of 1969 sets a tougher challenge to both performers and listeners, more angular and explosive, yet still imbued with a strain of wit and grace that runs through his output.

This unique and fascinating programme features concertante works for piccolo and orchestra. The Piccolo Concerto by Lowell Liebermann was first performed and recorded by James Galway, and gained international fame. Liebermann is one of America’s most frequently performed and recorded living composers. The New York Times said of him: “As much as a traditionalist as an innovator.” The two contemporary works by Carla Galante and Alessandro Cavicchi, which are receiving here their first recordings, are written for and performed on the new MINI instrument by the famous flute builder Nagahara. It boasts improved dynamic contrast, better blending capabilities and an extended range. As a bonus, this release ends with a transcription of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet K370, for piccolo and strings.

Brilliant Classics proudly present 5 new albums in this series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Brahm’s Complete Symphonies & Concertos, Beethoven’s Complete Piano Trios, Mozart’s Music for Violin, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites & Violin Concertos and Schubert’s Piano Trios, String Quintets and String Quartets. World class performers include Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra with Kristóf Baráti and conductor Heinz Bongartz as well as the Berliner Sinfonie-Ochester with Günter Herbig.

This recording features a very special newly built organ, showcasing it in the roles in which its predecessors were used in their heyday at the turn of the 16th century. This particular type of organ, small in scale and with open pipes all made of Italian cypress wood, was one of which perhaps the most important composer of his time, Claudio Monteverdi, was particularly fond, and yet it’s practically nonexistent today. It was during Le Nuove Musiche’s great undertaking to record the complete cycle of Monteverdi’s Books of Madrigals that director Krijn Koetsveld began to feel the need for an organ capable of recreating the sound typical of that era. He explored possibilities for realizing such a project, and gradually the idea to reconstruct an organ befitting the Italian musical practice from around 1600 took shape. He approached the Netherlands’ Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds, and they embraced the idea, consulted organist Pieter van Dijk and awarded the organ building contract to Klop Orgelbouwers. No original organs from Monteverdi’s time have survived, and very few illustrations exist. But it was possible to reconstruct his beloved organo di legno (wood organ) on the basis of contemporary accounts, which describe, in addition to the open, wooden pipes, hand-operated bellows, creating a much lower wind pressure than that of modern organs. From Monteverdi’s instructions in the organo di legno part of his Vespers, such instruments are also known to have had several stops.

Brilliant Classics proudly presents 5 more titles in the exciting 5-album sets series: QUINTESSENCE, attractively priced compact box sets containing essential core classical repertoire in outstanding performances. Aimed at attracting both the discerning classical connoisseur and the classical newcomer it presents the pillars of classical music: Dvorák Complete Piano Music, Tchaikovsky Complete Ballets, J.S. Bach Famous Concertos, Handel Complete Organ Concertos and Locatelli Complete Violin Concertos. World class performers include Inna Poroshina, Igor Ruhadze, Christian Schmitt, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Pieter-Jan Belder, Musica Amphion, Erik Bosgraaf, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and others. The fresh and colorful artwork is eye-catching while the booklet contains liner notes in English. A great series at an unbeatable price! The present release showcases Igor Ruhadze performing Locatelli’s complete violin concertos.

With this recording the acclaimed ensemble Le Nuove Musiche, led by director Krijn Koetsveld, has almost completed a monumental undertaking nearly a decade in the making: the complete cycle of Claudio Monteverdi’s books of madrigals. Their latest recordings in this series is the final Ninth Book (Libro IX), which was published posthumously in 1651 and looks back on the breadth of the composer’s career with lighter pieces in the established forms of his day (prima prattica), in Monteverdi’s own innovative style (seconda prattica), and in a new genre that had begun to eclipse the madrigal in Monteverdi’s twilight years. Though not published in his lifetime, the preface suggests that the Ninth Book was indeed compiled by Monteverdi himself, as a mix of madrigals – still contrapuntal, though simple in texture with at most three parts – and examples of this newly popular canzonetta, with its single accompanied melody. In that sense, the Ninth Book captures the transition from polyphony to monody – from the Renaissance to the early Baroque – in miniature. Le Nuove Musiche’s approach to Monteverdi is both dedicated and informed. They bring the past into the present, considering questions that were asked in the Renaissance and are still relevant in our present musical landscape, thereby making Early Music as new today as any other, while maintaining the highest standards of performance authenticity.

According to fellow organist and composer Costanzo Antegnati (1549–1624), Claudio Merulo (1533–1604) was famous for ‘the sweet way he played’. In the 16th century the term ‘sweetness’ was mainly related to the practice of ‘diminution’, or ornamentation, with skillfully executed passeggiando and a ‘judicious breaking up of the figures’, so that the application of the coloratura might confer a personal and lively chiaroscuro effect. In 1574 Merulo published Il primo libro de ricercari da cantare, a qvattro voci in four separate vocal part-books (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), and for this album Francesco Tasini has aptly scored, intabulated, adapted and diminished the Ricercari for performance on the organ. Out of respect for Merulo’s original, Tasini’s diminution of the 19 Ricercari of the Libro primo always retains each part as it appeared, deliberately abstaining from any temporary suspension of a line which could be brought about in order to give space to the coloratura of another part. The process of diminution is not limited to the ‘filling in’ of long note durations with passages of short notes; it also includes a rhetorical game enacted between the parts through syncopes, delayed entrances, changes of register, slurs and various echo and other effects to achieve an underlying lively discourse, as well as arpeggio effects typical of organ practice which Tasini has modelled on numerous passages found in Merulo’s two books of Toccate. The addition of coloratura highlights and brings out the formal division within each ricercare and, in addition to the cadences, establishes a different application for each new subject, so as to enhance its distinctive features.

This cd contains two 20th century masterworks for 2 pianos and orchestra: the Scottish Ballad by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and the Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra by Francis Poulenc.

The Concerto for two pianos and orchestra is one of the most famous pieces by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). Here we find the summary of the author's style, which from the very first movement plays with formal elements, loosening the schemes of the traditional sonata form to adapt to that kaleidoscope which is his stylistic signature. From Javanese gamelan to Mozart's atmospheres, from the childish nursery rhyme to the passionate impulse, from primitive percussiveness to café chantant. Benjamin Britten wrote his Scottish Ballad in 1941. The works is rhapsodic in character and nostalgic in tone, exploring folkloristic material.

Concluding this program the piano duo plays the First Orchestral Suite by Debussy, in an arrangement for two pianos by the composer.

Mattia Ometto and Leonora Armellini are two young and brilliant Italian pianists. Their perfect pianistic ensemble brings out all the humour, wit and melancholy of these wonderful works for two pianos.

‘Cristiano Porqueddu is a master guitarist,’ says the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, ‘and one of the foremost representatives of the new generation of soloists. He brings sound to life, and then turns it into art.’ Like many of the other composers in this remarkable collection, he has composed more than one piece for Porqueddu and now pays tribute with a piece which draws inspiration from the guitarist’s homeland of Sardinia. Diálogo del Olivo y el Nuraga (‘Dialogue of the Olive Trees and the Nuraghe’) imagines a wordless exchange between two ancient features of the Sardinian landscape, the trees which have provided food and fuel and money for its people for centuries, and the Stone-Age towers which dot the island. Each of the works here tells a vivid story: Porqueddu’s own Sonata III is subtitled ‘The Rite of Fire’ after an ancient Sardinian legend which imagines Saint Anthony and his piglet descending to Hell in order to procure some firelight. Angelo Gilardino draws on his personal memories of sights and sounds experienced when visiting the island in his Sardegna Suite (including another piece evoking the nuraghe). Francesco Morittu is a native-born Sardinian guitarist-composer, whereas Mark Delpriora is an American guitarist who heads the guitar faculty at the Manhattan School of Music; both have contributed intensely atmospheric pieces, which capture the island’s wildness as well as its sense of isolation. Born in 1988 in the Italian province of Velletria, Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart is the youngest composer featured in the collection with a suite inspired by three works of the Sardinian painter Giuseppe Biasi, who also contributes the artwork for the collection’s cover.

A previous album of cantatas by Nicolo Porpora on Brilliant Classics attracted glowing international reviews, flinging wide open ‘a window on a world generally known only in appearance and from a superficial listening of its flourishes and ornaments, but in reality very concrete and aesthetically complex and articulated.’ (Gothic Network) Now comes a sequel, from a different, equally talented Italian early-music ensemble with an established track record on Brilliant. This album also contains several world premiere or first modern recordings, making available a wider appreciation of Porpora’s dramatic and elaborately decorative vocal idiom. Porpora’s cantatas present an embarrassment of riches to the enterprising performer and the adventurous listener. There are so many that a path must be picked, a theme chosen. For this album, Mvsica Perdvta focus their attention on the subject of flowers and plants, which seems to have inspired the composer to notable artistic heights. Flora’s Realm, ‘Il Reggio di Flore’, stands in for love in the real world, but it also presents a fertile ground for expressive metaphors to be illustrated with instrumental colours and delicately entwining vocal lines. These particular cantatas were newly edited for performance from manuscript sources based in Naples – Porpora’s home city – and Brussels and London. One of the most renowned singing teachers of his day, Porpora had an expert knowledge of the human voice, and these secular cantatas also contain moments of extraordinary pathos, underpinned by great technical skill and remarkable virtuoso élan. Mvsica Perdvta is a flexible chamber group with a particular interest in musicological research. Its Brilliant Classics albums have won praise for their stylish performances and excellent recordings. ‘Sound quality is very good indeed. These days, Brilliant's engineers reliably outperform those of so many bigger labels by some distance… An all but exemplary product.’ (Zuccari, Cello Sonatas, 94306: MusicWeb International)