An exact contemporary of Olivier Messiaen (1908-92), Franco Margola was a Brescian musician born and bred, growing up within the culture of the city’s historic industry of string-instrument making. He composed in all the major classical genres but his music has been little heard outside Italy: a situation which this engaging new collection of his chamber music should remedy. Though he composed operas and symphonies, Margola was most at home in the world of miniatures such as we find on this album. He had a ready fund of quirky, memorable melodies which spring from the neoclassical Italian idiom honed by composers of the 1920s and 30s such as Respighi and Casella. While still a student, he met Alfredo Casella, and showed him a recently composed song. Casella was impressed and asked for more, so Margola an instrumental trio which Casella proceeded to perform with his own ensemble throughout Italy and farther. These precociously mature student years are represented on this album by the Piccola Sonata for violin and piano, composed in 1929. There are three sections within its concise five-minute span, largely elegiac in character and flavored not only with late-Romantic harmonies but the unmistakable influence of Maurice Ravel. At the other end of his life, Margola began to write for mandolin as a professor at the conservatoire in Parma. He treats the instrument like a lute, as if transcribing Renaissance dances in the style of Respighi, but the harmonies remain richly Romantic. One particular highlight is the Romanza senza parole, a song without words with an airy theme that alternates between the piano and the mandolin in a lyrical mood that naturally brings Mendelssohn and the world of Lieder to mind. Made in the composer’s home city of Brescia, these recordings are led by the mandolin player Raffaelle lo Ragione, an experienced soloist in music of the Baroque and Romantic eras, with a previous Brilliant Classics album of neglected Neapolitan music to his credit, ‘Serenata Napoletana’.

 

REVIEW:

 

There is some wonderful music on this disc, especially the lovely Picccola Suonata, a work clearly wedded to the Romantic Era. Occasionally one can hear a harmonic reference that is a bit adventurous, but those moments are fleeting. This is music of great charm and eloquence, coupled with wonderful melodic invention. It is simple, without being simplistic. All of the performers on the disc serve the music well. Their performances are sympathetic and sincere in their expression. The recorded sound is very good.

 

– Fanfare

Belonging to the generation of Respighi but dying several decades later, Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) is a far more varied composer than listeners to his post-Romantic chamber and orchestral music would guess. This album is both the most comprehensive publication ever issued of his song output on record, and a valuable opportunity to reappraise an often under-rated 20th-century composer. Malipiero wrote songs throughout his career, and in his late 20s found an affinity with the visionary and influential poet Gabriele d’Annunzio. Their artistic partnership began in 1909 with I sonetti delle fate, full of Wagnerian yearning in the spirit of Debussy’s incidental music to d’Annunzio’s St Sebastian play. The composer’s literary leanings and gifted word setting soon produced equally idiomatic settings of French poetry in a set of Cinq mélodies and an elliptical cycle of three poems (titled in English) by Georges Jean-Aubry, Keepsake. With Le stagioni italiche, however, Malipiero shows himself up to date and in sympathy with the latest developments in expressionist song writing from the pens of Mahler, Schoenberg and Webern, and with an ambition to match: a 40-minute cycle of four varied texts ranging from the 15th century to Malipiero’s own day. Like much else here, the cycle has previously been recorded but never in the context of Malipiero’s other songs which help us to understand the composer’s stylistic evolution. Three years later, there followed a through-composed drama based on the ancient legend of Philomel (immortalized by Ovid in the Metamorphoses) from which Malipiero extracted a cycle of three songs. He continued to refresh his style and innovate with Le sette allegrezze d’amore from 1945, but little in his music prepares the listener for the pointilliste precision of the Sette canzonette veneziane from 1960.

The history, legends, culture, art and music of Naples were constant companions to composer Angelo Gilardino in his formative years. Never attracted as a composer to pictorial music, he does feel that the impressions derived from the experience of places and literary works leave profound imprints on the emotions and the intellect, which can provide the impulse to write music associated with a particular place. A project to create music based on the mythical Parthenope (precursor of modern Naples) began with a conversation between Gilardino and two Neapolitan masters of the guitar: Aniello Desiderio, virtuoso guitarist acclaimed throughout the world; and Lucio Matarazzo, who embodies the forthright Neapolitan style so typical of the school of Eduardo Caliendo (the guitarist who collaborated in the performances and recordings of Roberto Murolo). Having joined forces in a new duo, the two guitarists asked Gilardino to compose a concerto for guitar and orchestra, and he replied with the Concerto del Sepeithos for two guitars and orchestra in 2013. The river Sepeithos (Sebeto) flowed through ancient Neapolis, and Gilardino was drawn to accounts of the raging current making its way through the city and into the sea at today’s Piazza del Municipio. The duo’s response to the Concerto del Sepeithos was another request: for Gilardino to write a Sonata for two guitars for them, as well. In 2014 they were rewarded with Riviera di Chiaia – Passeggio reale, a piece evoking an imagined Naples informed by impressions ranging from Cimarosa to Anna Maria Ortese, Leonardo Leo to Nicola Pugliese. In particular, the composer was reading Pugliese’s novel Malacqua (Four Days of Rain in the City of Naples) while writing the second movement, ‘Pioggia’ (Rain).

Mario Gangi (1923-2010) was among the pre-eminent Italian guitarists of his generation. Born in Rome to a professional jazz-musician father, Gangi graduated from the city’s Accademia della Santa Cecilia and soon followed in his father’s footsteps as both an orchestral bassist (with the local radio orchestra) and a guitarist. This latter career took off in the 50s: Gangi gave several important first performances of concertos by the likes of Petrassi and even the 19th-century Giuliani. His teaching method became an essential study for young guitarists, and he edited the music of Sor, Tarrega and J.S. Bach for modern guitar editions. With this recording, the Duo Pace Poli Cappelli present Gangi’s music for two guitars, comprising a trio of suites – the Suite Italiana, the Suite Spagnola and Suite Barocca – and a pair of standalone rhapsodies in a more contemporary idiom, the Fantas and Fabulae. The three suites evoke their titled points of inspiration. An Andalusa, Fandango and Sevillana capture the idiom of Spanish folk-music; a Saltarello, Adagio and whirling Tarantella present musical snapshots of Italy; and the Minuet and Gigue of the Suite Barocca return to the courtly world of the 18th century without parody. The Fantas and Fabulae plough a more modern furrow: still essentially lyrical in style, rhapsodic in form but more flecked with dissonance and less dependent than the suites on the specifics of a national idiom. The influence of modern popular styles imbues the Fantas in particular with sunshine and contemporary energy.

One of the most important and prolific composers of the latter half of the 20th century, Hans Werner Henze wrote for guitar often, enjoying the evocative potential of the instrument and painting a diverse array of emotions and atmospheres in his compositions. The two Sonatas on Shakespearean Characters, featured on this album, portrays the timeless characters like Lady Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Ariel, personifying these characters with new and dramatic expression. Andrea Dieci is “a true star of the classical guitar.” (Corriere della sera). His previous recordings include Jappelli’s complete works, and guitar compositions by Piazzolla.

Founded in 1985, the Kammerata Luxembourg has established itself at the centre of the country’s musical life with new commissions, concert series and recordings, supported by its ministry of culture. One recent enterprising series was named ‘The European Union Enlarges’, focusing on the chamber music of future EU states, and others such as this album have constructed enlightening juxtapositions of modern and Romantic-era repertoire. Few composers from the 19th century have exercised so potent an influence upon composers of our time as Robert Schumann. His abrupt changes of mood and intense, passionate commitment to individual expressive states have seized the imagination of many composers as well as listeners. Not the least of them is Schumann’s fellow German AribertReimann, In arranging the Fantasiestücke Op.73, Reimann altered not a note of the clarinet part while arranging the piano accompaniment for the unusual combination of flute, a harp and two violas, which enables him to explore both the sombre timbres and the more ethereal hues of the score. The Op.107 songs are united by both a theme of unrequited love and a mood of wistful other-worldliness, which Reimann accentuates with an often-Expressionist recasting of the piano part for string quartet. The other original work here is the collection of canonic pieces originally written for a pedal piano and arranged by Schumann’s contemporary Theodor Kirchner. Meanwhile, the two contemporary responses to Schumann are undertaken in a spirit of the most sincere love and homage. Kurtág’s instrumentation for clarinet, viola and piano refers back to the Op.132 Märchenerzählungen – fairy tales – and he peppers his score with both literary allusions and references back to the object of his homage. Jörg Widmann likewise evokes Schumann’s Op.23 Nachtstücke in his own trio for clarinet, cello and piano. Anyone fearful of new music need not hesitate: Widmann insinuates himself into a world of Romantic melancholy with uncanny skill.

The Ukrainian composer Thomas De Hartmann (1885-1956) had undertaken a classic musical training with Anton Arensky and then Nikolai Taneyev before the death of his mother in 1912 prompted him to begin searching for a spiritual teacher. Four years later he made the encounter that would change his life, with the Armenian philosopher and mystic George Gurdjieff (1877-1949). Gurdjieff had his own musical training, as well as a sharp ear and retentive memory for the folk melodies which he heard on his long travels through central Asia and the middle East. De Hartmann and his wife joined Gurdjieff’s circle of followers, and the two men began to write music to accompany their spiritual exercises. This body of music eventually amounted to around 300 short pieces, of which the indefatigable Jeroen van Veen has recorded the entire published corpus of 170 divided into four volumes.

During lockdown, Jeroen van Veen found himself with the time to immerse himself in this music, which ranges across Asian, Arabic and European systems of rhythm, harmony and tuning, so that he could capture its perfumed mysticism and improvisational character. There are solemn hymns of an Orthodox nobility, atmospheric tone poems such as the ‘Night Procession’, freely pianistic transcriptions of melodies from early-Christian sects such as the Essenes, modal-pentatonic melodies to accompany a ‘Sacred Reading from the Koran’ and to aid an awakening of consciousness in an elevated state of awareness, and then pieces simply titled after their date of composition. While overall meditative in mood, there is a tremendous variety to the Gurdjieff/De Hartmann collection, and Jeroen van Veen’s new recording is an ideally comprehensive way to dive into its riches.

REVIEW:

One can approach these pieces as being parallel to the Magyar folk music that Bartók and Kodály collected in the early 20th century and used as a basis for their own music, except that for the most part Gurdjieff and de Hartmann tried to keep the tunes intact as they stood and didn’t try to develop them in a standard Western classical manner.

Taken a few pieces at a time, the music isn’t bad to listen to, but prolonged exposure to the whole six CDs can bore the more imaginative listener. Despite the intriguing Eastern harmonies, the music is repetitive and tiresome. This is not van Veen’s fault; he is a splendid pianist who plays the slow pieces with great atmosphere and the quicker ones with a lively rhythm; he does his best to engage your interest, and there are certainly some very cute and interesting pieces in this collection, but the lack of any development and the unvarying rhythm of each piece eventually take their toll on the listener. If there is such a thing as high quality background music, this is it. I would also recommend this music in the main as an aid to meditation so long as you realize that every so often there are upbeat numbers in the set and this may spoil your getting deeper into yourself (CD 2 has the most uptempo music).

Of course, the real value of this set is to give a pianist, professional or amateur, who may wish to play some of these pieces the chance to hear them performed. There are other recordings out there of some of this repertoire, but having it all in one place is clearly helpful. A second pianist, Daff by Van Veen, plays with Jeroen on nine numbers if Series II of the Asian Songs and Rhythms, five pieces in Music of the Sayyids and Dervishes First Series, and a few other pieces thereafter.

-- The Art Music Lounge (Lynn René Bayley)

Paul Hindemith's (1895-1963) systematic approach to composition, his Haydn\-like industry and invention, produced no fewer than 10 sonatas for wind instruments between 1936 and 1955. Even in the years prior to these sonatas, Hindemith had proved to be a highly versatile musician: apart from being a virtuoso violist, an excellent violinist and pianist, he could also hold his own on bassoon, cello and a range of percussion instruments. It is hardly surprising that so versatile and resourceful a musician should have composed the singularly rich and unusual collection of works to which the two albums of this recording are devoted. Considered as a body of work, the Wind Sonatas demonstrate Hindemith's original tonal idiom and his gift for new and personal melodies; his structural invention within inherited sonata forms; his renewal of the instrumental tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries; his skill and sympathy in handling the specific features of each instrument. Hindemith continually has a surprise up his sleeve such as the finale of the Trumpet Sonata, which opens in grand heroic style but winds up in mournful meditation on a Lutheran chorale, Alle Menschen müssen sterben. Even more original is the argument of the Saxophone Sonatas finale, prefaced in the score by an imaginary dialogue in which the pianist begs the saxophonist to search for Silence, Sense and Form brought to life by the soloists liquid reflections over the top of the pianists noisy whirlwind. This release is the latest in a series featuring the pianist Filippo Farinelli accompanying fellow Italian musicians in major collections of song and chamber music by 20th-century composers.

Izhar Elias has produced several successful and imaginative albums for Brilliant Classics. None of them have confirmed to a ‘Spanish guitar’ stereotype but all have engaged in various original ways with the developing heritage of the instrument during the 19th century, from ‘Paisiello in Vienna’ (BC95301) to ‘Beethoven and the Guitar’ (BC94631) to Giuliani’s astonishing transcription of Rossini’s grand tragedy Semiramide (BC93902). His latest recording brings the classical guitar up to date with works by composers from four different countries; within them may be heard influences from classical music, avant-garde, Caribbean music, Spanish folklore, flamenco, Arabic music, blues, Argentinean tango and even trip-hop and heavy metal: provocative testament to the world’s most versatile instrument. The Guernica Suite by Pujol (b.1959) focuses on different aspects of Picasso’s painting in six movements, with a tentatively positive conclusion. The Triptych of Roberto Sierra (b.1953) evokes some nocturnal sounds from his native Puerto Rico, including the tropical tree frog as well as a night on the tiles. The three Danzas Concertantes pulse and glide with the rhythms of Leo Brouwer’s native Cuba, offset by some astringent harmonies that place the guitar’s usual role as purveyor of folkloristic colour under threat. Finally there is the Schattenspiel Suite by Florian Magnus Maier (b.1973), who also plays electric Moog guitar on this recording. Maier pursues a diverse career as a composer, guitarist and vocalist with bands including Alkaloid, Dark Fortress and Noneuclid; this tripartite suite inspired by shadows is his best-known work in the classical tradition, and for this recording he has made a new arrangement for two guitars and string quartet. There is something for everyone on this album: it’s essential listening for guitar-music enthusiasts who want to broaden their horizons.

Born in 1626, Legrenzi was a native of the Marches region of northern Italy who made his career as an organist first in Bergamo and then the more cosmopolitan city of Ferrara, where he became maestro di cappella of the Accademia dello Spirito Santo in 1656. The music on this album dates from the following two decades, when despite professional frustrations his work was fired with tireless compositional élan. He began to perfect the style of the instrumental sonata and to favour the non concertato vocal repertoire, featuring one or more voices accompanied by basso continuo alone, with collections such as Harmonia d’affetti devoti of 1655, Sentimenti devoti of 1660, Compiete con le Lettanie & Antifone della B.V. of 1662 and Acclamationi divote a voce sola of 1670. On good stylistic and aesthetic grounds, the musicians of Ensemble Zenit have chosen to play a selection of works from these collections on cornet and trombone. They intersperse them with four pieces for organ relating to the composer’s periods of work in in Bergamo, Ferrara, Bologna and Venice. Legrenzi wrote keyboard sonatas himself, but none has come to light, so Ensemble Zenit features four composers who represent each of those four cities: Tarquinio Merula (1595-1665), chapel master in Bergamo until shortly before Legrenzi’s arrival and unquestionably a source of inspiration for the way he structured his Sonate; Luigi Battiferri (1610-1682), Legrenzi’s predecessor as chapel master at the Accademia dello Spirito Santo in Ferrara; Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637-1695), organist in Bologna, and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (1653-1723), who studied under Legrenzi in Venice and was appointed second organist at St. Mark’s just two months after the death of his teacher in 1690.

In his booklet essay, Jean-François Dichamp explains that he experienced an epiphany with Goyescas: while Granados himself later reworked his piano cycle into an opera, first premiered to acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera House, just a couple of months before the composer’s untimely death by drowning, the pianist sees the piano cycle as a through-written dramatic work in its own right: an opera for piano. He plays it accordingly, with tremendous fire and awareness of the voices which may be heard in pieces such as ‘The Maiden and the Nightingale’. This is the lyric heart of a cycle which opens with the courtly insinuations of ‘Galant Compliments’ and soon progresses to a more ardent love duet, ‘Conversation at the Window’. Finally, as so often in Spanish music, death has the last word, and the cycle closes with the Serenade to a Ghost: comical yet chilling, unnerving and quintessentially Spanish. Between each section of the Goyescas, like intermezzi at the opera, Dichamp places a Baroque keyboard sonata, by Scarlatti and Soler. This is the music that would have accompanied aristocratic evenings for the nobles who were immortalized – not always in complimentary terms – by Goya. These are the paintings that changed the course of Granados’s career when he first saw them as a young man in the Prado museum in Madrid, and determined that one day he would pay homage to Goya’s muse in music. Jean-François Dichamp graduated from the Paris Conservatoire and became a pupil of Nikita Magaloff. His recordings have long attracted critical praise: ‘A pianist of great delicacy, subtle and elegant’ (Le Monde de la Musique); ‘his Chopin is at once thorough and profound’ (Diapason).

Along with the two books of piano studies by Gyorgy Ligeti, the Etudes of Philip Glass have taken their place as modern classics of the literature, serving both a didactic purpose to train the fingers and minds of their performers, but also bringing their unique soundworlds to new audiences. Glass himself remarked that the first book, compiled from work between 1991 and 2012, had a twin objective, ‘to explore a variety of tempi, textures and piano techniques. At the same time it was meant to serve as a pedagogical tool by which I would improve my piano playing.’ The studies of Book 2 (2012-14) are often bolder in finding new structures and fresh keyboard colours. Each of the 20 Etudes handles a specific piano technique, and the two books are united by the instantly recognisable quirks of Glass’s harmonic language and, as Jeroen van Veen remarks in his booklet note, ‘in almost all the etudes, endurance is the main issue to overcome’. Most recent of the pianist’s many Brilliant Classics recordings of Minimalist music have been albums dedicated to the genre’s godfather, Erik Satie and his successors including Michael Nyman and Max Richter. ‘Van Veen’s beautiful and texturally varied sonority, his long-lined sensibility, and his intense focus draw you in,’ remarked Classics Today of the complete Satie box. ‘Sample the Nocturnes’ sustained, almost otherworldly serenity, or the subtle spacing of notes throughout the Veritables preludes flaques, and you’ll hear how completely and masterfully van Veen conveys his intentions, abetted by superb, full-bodied sonics… His fascinating and riveting pianism is well worth Brilliant Classics’ attractive budget price.’

This Brilliant Classics Composer Edition spectacular shines its brilliant light on one of the Baroque-era giants, George Frideric Handel. At a whopping 65 CDs, this set represents the most comprehensive Handel Edition on the market! While not “Complete”, the set presents a substantial and representative oeuvre: 12 complete oratorios, cantatas, Odes, Anthems, Arias, Duets, the complete chamber music, the complete keyboard works, the complete organ concertos, oboe concertos, the complete Concerti Grossi, the Water Music and Fireworks Music: a grand musical feast covering a wide range of styles, spotlighted instrumentalists and emotions.

The consistently high quality of playing includes performances by Roberto Loreggian in the harpsichord music and legendary soprano Arleen Augér singing the German arias. Handel’s orchestral music is performed by a variety of German chamber groups. The trio sonatas feature L’École d’Orphée, boasting players drawn from some of the leading British Baroque orchestras. The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, performs Handel’s most famous oratorio, Messiah. This excellent gift idea represents superb value and guarantees a wealth of repeatable, meaningful listening pleasures.

REVIEW:

There is plenty here to more than make up for the absence of opera...[for] me, the discoveries made it worthwhile and I expect to be dipping into this set for a long time to come. The overall value of the set is such that, even with those discs you’ll only hear once, you can think you are getting something for nothing.

-- MusicWeb International

Born in Sant Feliu de Torelló, Catalonia, in 1714, Manuel Espona died on 9 January 1779 at the Monastery of Montserrat, where he had been an acolyte between 1724 and 1733, studying with Father Vicenç Pressiach. Montserrat was one of the main centers of musical study and practice in eighteenth-century Spain, and Espona, who took holy orders in 1733, was unquestionably one of its leading composers and teachers (among his pupils was Antonio Soler). His single-movement Piano Sonatas are written in the typical Italian-influenced tradition of the first half of the eighteenth century. This is reflected not only in the way he develops a highly original musical discourse, but also in his choice of key for each sonata, his modulations, his painstaking and elaborate ornamentation, his innovative rhythmic textures and a whole host of differences that lift these works above the rest, turning them into a genuine musical treasure trove.

Hailed by international critics as “A truly virtuoso musician of the world elite” ("The Daily Telegraph" Melani Mestre has risen to become one of the most internationally acclaimed pianists and conductors of his generation. He is particularly a champion of the repertoire of his native country Spain. For Hyperion he recorded the Piano Concertos by Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados.

Born in 1941, Angelo Gilardino enjoys an extensive discography on Brilliant Classics, which has won international acclaim both for the beauty of the music and the authority and sensitivity of the performances. In 2008 Gilardino arranged a set of his solo studies based on the music of Mauro Giuliani and dedicated them to the ensemble on this album, the Quartetto Santorsola. They comprise seven brief pieces, with a dashing tarantella at their heart. The year previously, he had written a three-movement Sinfonietta expressly for guitar quartet, in which each movement pays tribute to an inspirational figure in the history of the instrument from the early part of the last century: Ferenc Farkas, Alexander Tansman and finally Teresa de Rogastis, evoking their musical personalities and playing styles within a fast-slow-fast design that makes for a substantial work in its own right. Gilardino’s own work is complemented here by his transcription of ‘Andalucia,’ a piano cycle by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, as Gilardino himself observes in a booklet essay, the cycle belongs to the Spanish heritage of Albeniz and Granados: “It seemed appropriate to make this version for four guitars that, while not competing with the dynamic range of the piano original, nonetheless lives up to the color and brilliance of Lecuona’s inspiration.”