Centaur presents StAr Splendours, a wonderful new release with a memorable proram for Marimba.

THE BACH FAMILY ALBUM • Aulos Ens (period instruments) • CENTAUR 3068 (63:43)

J. C. BACH Quintet in D, op.22. J. S. BACH Aria, BWV 988; Minuets: BWV Anh.114 & 115; Polonaises: BWV Anh.123 & 125; Musette, BWV Anh.126. C. P. E. BACH Trio Sonata in G, Wq 144; Oboe Sonata in g, Wq 135. J. C. F. BACH Trio in c



"Founded in 1973, the Aulos Ensemble is one of America’s oldest period-instrument chamber groups, if not the oldest. The same five musicians have been with the group since the beginning: Christopher Krueger, Baroque flute; Marc Schachman, Baroque oboe; Linda Quan, Baroque violin; Myron Lutzke, Baroque cello; and Arthur Haas, harpsichord. Their Bach Family Album contains an imaginative selection—rather than programming major works of Old Bach, they have decided to include several short excerpts from the Clavier-Büchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach , arranged to suit the personnel. The famous Aria that begins the Goldberg Variations , for example, is presented here as a cello solo, expressively played by Myron Lutzke. All the other numbers are performed en symphonie with each member given a solo turn.


The bulk of the program is entrusted to three of the Bach sons, including one you don’t hear much about: Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732–95), the so-called “Bückeburg Bach” and the oldest surviving son of Anna Magdalena. His trio for harpsichord, flute, and oboe is a vigorous but ultimately lightweight affair firmly planted in the late galant style. The writing pairs flute and oboe, often in thirds, against solo harpsichord. The Bach son conspicuous by his absence on the program is Wilhelm Friedemann; I would have gladly traded the Friedrich Bach trio for anything by Friedemann.


Johann Christian Bach’s quintet is a bit more substantial; it has been recorded at least once before on period instruments, by members of the English Concert and Trevor Pinnock in the late 80s. The work’s instrumentation is tailor-made for the Aulos Ensemble and they do it justice.


In the 18th century, the term “trio sonata” meant basically any work written for two instruments and basso continuo; the choice of melody instruments was often left to the performers. For its performance of the Emanuel Bach trio sonata, the Aulos Ensemble has chosen flute and violin for the upper parts, and the two instruments offset each other quite nicely. The performance is all one could wish for: idiomatic and expressive.


I am especially gratified to see that Marc Schachman was granted a solo spot on the CD. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Baroque oboists, but there are precious few examples of his playing on disc. His performance of the Emanuel Bach oboe sonata is authoritative and filled with delicious sounds.


The recorded sound is generally good, with excellent balance between the instruments. The rich-sounding harpsichord is given prominence when called for, as in the Christian Bach quintet. Recommended."


FANFARE: Christopher Brodersen

ANTON RUBINSTEIN Grigorios Zamparas, piano; Philharmonia Bulgarica/Jon Ceander Mitchell. ANTON RUBINSTEIN: Piano Concerto No. 3 in G major, Op. 45; PianoConcerto No. 4 in D minor, Op. 70.

Classical Music

In Bach’s time, the lautenwreck, or lute-harpsichord, was a very popular instrument. It has a much more mellow sound than a modern harpsichord and Bach himself was quite fond of the instrument. John Paul has made numerous recordings with the lautenwerk and hearing Bach’s music played by Paul is exuberating.

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RANTAISIE ITALIENNE LAMENTO E

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Melodic tonal music for saxophone and orchestra.

Bruzdowicz, a pupil of Messiaen with a gift for Gallic-accented melody, launches this collection with her Largo. It's from her film music for Jacquot de Nantes (1991) - Rachmaninov's Vocalise out of Fauré and with a decidedly sombre curve. Away from the soprano saxophone to the alto with Raman's gentle Aria which was inspired by the Bozza Aria. Raman was a pupil of Paul Chihara - who himself wrote a saxophone concerto (1981) which was premiered by Harvey Pittel in Boston. Raman's Aria moves in dove-gentle tones between Barber and Vaughan Williams. Kilar's Vocalise, with solo parts for harpsichord and piano, unfolds at unhurried leisure. It has the mien and plaintive droop of the quieter parts of Nyman's Where the Bee Dances. The Villa-Lobos is well enough known from the soprano original - a pity we do not get the whole thing. Leatherbarrow was born in England but is how studying in the USA. His Don Quixote in Love is an offshoot from a work-in-progress, tone-poem The Last Dream of Don Quixote for soprano saxophone and full orchestra. The work heard here is tender and melodic with a Delian susurration over which the saxophone slowly glides and courses. Gleaming strings melt their way from phrase to phrase. The sound recalls an intensely romantic take on the ‘seagull music’ from Watership Down. Bozza's equable and feminine Aria is the oldest piece here. It was dedicated to Marcel Mule. The apt orchestration is by Hunter Ewen. While Bozza cannot quite match his likely models, the Ravel and Fauré Pavanes, this is certainly an agreeable and moodily pleasing piece.

David Morgan (not the same David Morgan whose Contrasts recently featured on Lyrita), based at Youngstown University, writes for both the jazz and classical worlds. The triptych that is the Three Vignettes was written specially for Greg Banaszak. The first vignette is The Secret of the Golden Flower and moves without effort between Vaughan Williams and an Oriental sway: fast, punchy and meditative. Consolation has the contours of a primitive church hymn moving through a mist of melancholy. The final First Light makes play with Latin-American dance. Elements of rumba and tango are married to 1950s-style commercial sophisticated light music. Morgan's writing is delicate and luminously orchestrated. An undemanding delight.

The Hovhaness concerto was written for the New England Conservatory, then performed once by the Chatauqua Symphony and forgotten. The composer's widow assures us that like many works of its vintage the solo line was written with her high coloratura voice in mind. This seems completely plausible and by all means listen to the later Poseidon CDs for further proof. The three movement concerto pleases with its high sinuous solo line and breathing string figuration. The second movement is a surprise: its instrumental solo melody suggests sentimental British music-hall rather than Eastern esoterica. The composer also draws here on a dashing Mozartian effervescence which only once reconnects with Hovhaness's core lingua franca. The finale carries the archetypical title Let the Living and the Celestial Sing. It returns us to the composer's 'campground' with delicate pizzicati, great wheeling yet grounded angelic paeans and sinuous foregrounded solos. These are lent airy movement by surprising interactions with the warm string choir. Intriguingly, even in this last movement, Hovhaness admits elements of sentimentality to interact with the devotional.

The helpful notes are by Dr Myron Schwager and provide us with pretty well everything we want to know about this music. It's a shame we don't get birth years for some of the composers and dates of some of the compositions. Also regrettable are persistent little errors such as Hovhannes for Hovhaness and Rubenstein for Rubinstein. These are small flies in the ointment in what is a pleasingly consistent collection for those wanting melodic tonal music for saxophone and orchestra.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Includes work(s) by Larry Austin. Soloists: F. Gerard Errante, Stephen Duke, Robert Black (doublebass), Michael Lowenstern, Jacqueline Martelle.

Also Available: Volume 1 - Rorem: Piano Sonatas performed by Thomas Lanners.

Ned Rorem has always written for the piano, and after hearing both of these discs, I agree with Thomas Lanners. “These works deserve wider acclaim than they currently enjoy . . . a significant body of captivating works that musically inquisitive pianists would be wise to explore.”. . . Lanners’ two-disc survey of Rorem’s piano music. Vol. 2 (2007) includes works composed around the same time as the three sonatas, as well as others from much later in Rorem’s career. The three Barcarolles share the traditional 6/8 meter and are primarily gentle and soothing, although Rorem’s harmonies, in keeping with the date of composition (1949), sound appropriately modern (nothing extreme, however). The second is the slowest of the three, and at first suggests that Rorem’s boat is becalmed; the forward motion picks up as it continues. The third is the liveliest, with bursts of speedy figuration propelling the vessel across the waters. A Quiet Afternoon (1948) is a suite of nine short pieces for children. The music is serene, playful, and wistful; it’s a pleasant addition to the genre. Fast- forward almost 30 years to 1976 and the Eight Etudes: conceived as a group, they naturally pose various challenges, including the rarely encountered one of an etude for the right hand alone (parallel motion plus simultaneously conflicting rhythms). Others include (in Rorem’s words) “a study in softness . . . [one] for speed without pedal . . . [and one for] slow tune with fast filigree.” There are also studies for fourths, sevenths, loud contrary motion, and a novel concluding etude that’s “a disguised medley of all the preceding ones.” This is an exciting and imaginative set in a modern idiom—“fiendishly difficult but exceptionally well-crafted for the instrument”—that deserves a place alongside such famous 20th century etudes as those by Bartók, Messiaen, and Ligeti. The five brief pieces that Lanner performs after the Eight Etudes were written for friends of the composer (for example, Sixty Notes for Judy celebrates singer Judy Collin’s 60th birthday). These are all more or less cut from the same cloth: slow, evocative, harmonically interesting, occasionally with more dynamic variety than one would expect in such a short span (the longest only takes 1:42). Recalling (2003) is in three parts. The first, “Remembering Lake Michigan,” begins mysteriously, and then startles the listener with a sudden, fortissimo crash. This pattern, repeated several times, gives way to a driving series of bass and treble flurries, also periodically interrupted by crashes. It’s an unforgettable opening to the program. In “The Wind Remains (Remembering Paul Bowles),” Rorem (in his own words) “quotes the descending minor third—‘the dying fall’—as utilized by Paul Bowles” in his opera of the same name. The piece is very similar in mood (as well as thematically and harmonically) to “Remembering Lake Michigan’s” slower moments. To Rorem, “‘Remembering Tomorrow’ defies explanation, as indeed does any music.” Paradoxical title aside, it’s interesting that the piece begins with a 12-tone row. (I’m taking Lanners’ word for that, as I didn’t count. I just heard it as an unexpected use of pointillism, perhaps symbolic of the future?) Combined with scurrying figures in both hands and references to the earlier movements, the result is an exciting piece that “races towards its crashing conclusion.” Song and Dance (1986, commissioned as a competition piece) combines jazzy syncopation and sweet-toned lyricism: it ends amusingly with a bland major cadence that drops in out of the blue. The piece is “appropriately flashy and crowd-pleasing”; it would make a great encore. Lanners plays it to the hilt, as he does all the virtuosic pieces, and he’s also a sensitive musician who communicates the essence of Rorem’s varied moods. Additionally, his album notes are so “spot on” that I felt obliged to quote him throughout my review. Recommended.

- Robert Schulslaper, Fanfare, Issue 33:3 [Jan/Feb 2010]

SILENCE: JOHN, YVAR AND TIM U

PRELUDE, ALLEGRO, AND PASTORAL

Youmee Kim is the Assistant Professor of Piano at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Born in Korea, she received degrees from Ewha Women’s University, Indiana University, and The Ohio State University in piano performance. She specializes in twentieth century American piano music, which has prompted her to release this album dedicated solely to that endeavor. Especially notable on this release is the inclusion of James Primosch’s five-movement work “Pure Contraption, Absolute Gift,” which is receiving here its world premiere recording. The work was commissioned by Youmee Kim and eleven other pianists. Works by Libby Larsen, Henry Cowell, and Benjamin Lees are also featured.

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Harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and continuo improviser at numerous festivals and concert series around the world. She has been a member of Duo Geminiani with violinist Stanley Ritchie since 1974, and has performed solo recitals and made guest appearances with Tafelmusik, Seattle, Vancouver and Portland Baroque. She frequently collaborates with artists of international renown, including performances with Les Sonatistes and as a guest artist with Ye Olde Friends and Musica Ficta. She has served as artistic director of projects devoted to musical settings of Italian baroque poetry. Her “Marino and Music: a Marriage of Expressive Rhetorical Gesture” was published in The Sense of Marino: Literature, Fine Arts and Music; she has also published reviews for Early Keyboard Journal. Ms. Wright is a founding member of the Seattle Early Music Guild and Bloomington Early Music Associates. She serves as a board member of the Early Music America and a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Here, she tackles an early keyboard staple: the harpsichord works of J. S. Bach.

This is Volume 1 in a 5-volume edition of the keyboard works of CPE Bach. Preethi de Silva, a specialist in this repertoire, performs on harpsichord, clavichord and fortepiano.

This 2CD set of Schubert’s Piano Trios features historically informed performances, with the piano part performed on fortepiano by Viviana Sofronitsky, the daughter of legendary Russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky. Violinist László Paulik is one of the founding members of the Concerto Armonico Chamber Orchestra, and the Quartetto Luigi Tomasini. Cellist Sergei Istomin is in demand throughout Europe and North America as soloist and chamber musician. His repertoire includes baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary music on both period and modern instruments.

This recording contains a charming five-movement work by German composer Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) - Quintet in A major for Piano Left-Hand, Clarinet, Violin, Viola & Cello. Musicians featured on this recording are pianist Kae Hosoda-Ayer, clarinetist Christopher Ayer, violinist Jennifer Dalmas, violist Kathryn Steely, and cellist Evgeni Raychev. This performance was recorded in June of 2014 at Baylor University, Waco, Texas.

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This new release features two works for violin and cello: Zoltan Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7, and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello. Cellist Jeffrey Lastrapes and violinist Kristen Yon perform these works with assurance and ease.