After the dramatic success of his previous Passion, comes a new oratorio by one of most accomplished composers of our time! James MacMillan's musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience, and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from the Far East, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe. His prolific output has been performed around the world, to great acclaim.

The poems and songs of the Gruuthuse Manuscript originated in Bruges around 1400, and the collection is named after the later owner, Lodewijk van Gruuthuse. The songs form the most well-known part of the collection: love songs, bawdy songs and drinking songs. The Gruuthuse Manuscript contains the largest collection of Dutch language songs from the medieval period, and it is the largest collection of songs with music notation. The form of the songs also attests to the fact that these songs were intended for connoisseurs. The poet uses forms fixes, the canonized forms of French songs of the late medieval times: ballades, rondeaus and virelais, and the wide variety of the forms used is remarkable. Instrumentalists have been around all over Europe during the 15th century, but musical manuscripts unambiguously showing a repertoire for instrumental ensembles from that period are scarce. The instrumental repertoire on this album contains arrangements and polyphonic ensemble pieces from about 1450-1470. The arrangements are either instrumental versions based on pre-existing polyphonic models or arranged monophonic tenors.

The structure of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto is particularly original, with a sequence of four movements - slow, fast, slow, fast - entitled Nocturne, Scherzo, Passacaglia and Burlesque. The opening movement (Nocturne) is a beautiful song, blossoming from a single melodic fragment. The Scherzo is biting and dazzling virtuosic, like a carousel gone wild. The ensuing Passacaglia is, quite simply, the pinnacle of this concerto; a masterpiece - mature, elegiac and highly lyrical. The passacaglia theme is repeated nine times with contrapuntal elaborations. This is followed by a large-scale cadenza that forms a bridge to the finale. The concerto closes with a Burlesque, in which the theme from the Passacaglia has one final, piercing reappearance. Shortly after the premiere of Gubaidulina's Offertorium (1981), the Swiss patron of the arts Paul Sacher asked her to compose a further violin concerto for the German soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, but nothing came of this due to lack of time. It was only in 2007, eight years after Sacher's death, that Gubaidulina completed In tempus praesens, which was given its premiere by Mutter at the Lucerne Festival. It is a work of extreme contrasts in which very deepl infernal passages are juxtaposed with extremely high, celestial episodes. Much more so than Offertorium, In tempus praesens is a spectacular work for the violinist, who plays virtually from start to finish and barely has a chance to pause for breath. The virtuosity demanded by the work is never an end in itself.

On this CD one of James MacMillan's major works-the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (which has received more than 400 performances)-has been recorded with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, of which MacMillan is Principal Guest Conductor.

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The chansons are about human experiences, human emotions. About love, deep sadness, the fear of being abandoned, but also about the joy of relationships and love. These chansons invite us to dare to be real people. At first sight, the chansons do not seem particularly deep; they are generally not spiritual; they do not use complicated turns of phrase. They describe the ordinary events of life, the lives of ordinary people. But it is precisely this description of ordinary events and encounters that opens the shutters to reveal the greater themes of life such as selfless love, hope and thankfulness. We understand how these chansons are about our own lives and realize how they can unleash powerful human emotions.

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Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

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Marie Francois studied at the Conservatory of Maastricht with Joop Celis and did her master's degree with Alan Weiss at Leuven. She graduated summa cum laude from both. To take her technique to the next level, she went on to study with the Russian Polina Leschenko and Eliso Virsaladze. She also continued to develop by taking numerous masterclasses and performed concerts in venues across the world. Her debut album is one of deep expression and commitment to the music, not only through technical skills, but also through emotion and intuition. It presents an eclectic program with works by Frederic Chopin, Alberto Ginastera, Muzio Clementi, Sergei Prokofiev, and Nikolai Kapustin which fit her personality perfectly, and with which she can tell her personal story. This is the beginning of a wonderful story that will lead her deeper into the music and present her to a larger audience.

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The three works on this release span a period of fifteen years- years in which the young Schumann suffered forcible separation from his beloved Clara, followed by their marriage and a brief period of relative calm, to the increasing bouts of mental instability which were to close him off from the world around him until his death. The piano Fantasiestucke op. 111 was composed in 1851 during atime of deteriorating mental health and increasing disillusionment with his post as Music Director of the Dusseldorf Music Society. In contrast to the youthfully extroverted Fantasiestucke op. 12 of 1837, these three untitled pieces are “of a serious and passionate character,” as Clara described them. The Fantasie in C major op. 17 is one of Schumann’s most powerful large-scale piano works, composed during the bitter period of his enforced separation from Clara. Schumann completed his cycle of nine forest piano miniatures, Waldszenen, in 1849, while struggling with increasing bouts of mental instability and depression. Each piece is headed by a descriptive title. These masterly tone paintings display Schumann’s genius in creating miniature images consummate in expression, characterization and mood. Critics have praised Einav Yarden’s previous recordings for Challenge Classics: “She pairs Beethoven with Stravinsky to striking effect, merging that unlikely couple with imagination and exceptionally vivid playing.” (The Washington Post) “Yarden plays a wonderfully exuberant, vibrant Haydn, glowing, transparent, adventurous, at times intimately chamber-music-like, at times grand and orchestral. A voice for Haydn!” (Fono Forum)

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Includes work(s) by Dietrich Buxtehude. Ensembles: Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Conductor: Ton Koopman. Soloists: Bogna Bartosz, Donald Bentvelsen, Jörg Dürmüller, Andreas Karasiak, Klaus Mertens, Patrick Van Goethem, Johannette Zomer, Bettina Pahn, Hugo Naessens.

BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto . Piano Trio in B?, op. 97, “Archduke” • Storioni Tr; Jan Willem de Vriend, cond; Netherlands SO • CHALLENGE 72579 (SACD: 71:15)


It’s a good thing I fell in love with this CD before I read about it. I deliberately left the notes for later, like a self-sequestered judge. This has been my year for the Triple Concerto , and I have reviewed CDs of it from The Knights and the Claremont Trio, not to mention rehearing a legendary one from Karajan and company. But nothing has gotten under my skin so much as this vital, beautifully balanced and executed performance. It represents one gloriously weighted, pulse-racing leap through the loudspeakers and has a remarkable ability to keep your attention. The recorded sound is natural and spacious, in the nice unforced way one so often encounters now with SACD.


Still, I burst out laughing, when I first read about the musicians. What a can of worms Roger Norrington and his movement have surely opened! Here we find a Barenreiter-influenced interpretation, but from an absolutely enormous orchestra. The instruments are modern, with steel strings, except for the brasses, which are early instruments. The Storioni Trio play on gut strings, but use considerable vibrato, and to confuse things further, feature the fortepiano.


In other words, this should be some sort of ghastly artistic hodgepodge. Somehow it isn’t. The fortepiano, once you get used to its damped sonority, works well. Still, at times it sounds like a harp made of tin cans. And when the finale’s cadenza hits a powerful series of low-octave trills, you might be convinced there were three harpsichords gone mad in a coat closet. But the gut strings, I find, sound a touch sweeter than steel ones. It would have been nice to hear the whole orchestra strung with them. And both performances are actually lovely, once you get past the “what the hell is that!?” of hearing the fortepiano. The notes, once I read them, were informative and fortunately not pretentious. Nothing is more annoying in music than a theory in love with itself!


FANFARE: Steven Kruger

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Classical Music

This is volume 3 of Jan Willem de Vriend’s complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies, of which volume 1 is reviewed here. I greatly enjoyed what this team did with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, so needed no second bidding to investigate some of this new symphonic work.

The booklet notes are nicely written though somewhat subjective, and there is nothing about De Vriend’s approach to interpreting Beethoven other than the rather coy final sentence, “As always, they delve into the depths of the symphonies and from these depths, they elevate themselves to a higher level... in their understanding of Ludwig van Beethoven” Come on people: that’s not content, that’s worthless column filler fluff. Left to the evidence of what we hear, I agree with John Sheppard’s summary of these being “essentially clean, well recorded performances, combining many aspects of the modern trend towards historically informed performance.” With their SACD recording as a potentially important selling point, they immediately run into an already complete cycle and one of my favourites, that with Osmo Vänskä on the BIS label.

I don’t dislike Jan Willem de Vriend’s Beethoven at all. His Symphony No.7 has a spring and a drive which tops Vänskä for urgency in most of the faster movements, while not sounding over impetuous or rushed. The final Allegro con brio reaches fever pitch for example, and is remarkably exciting. The recorded balance is brighter on the whole, but this might have something to do with the string balance, which is a tad fuller and a good deal warmer from the BIS label, or is it the orchestra? My impression is that there is sometimes not quite enough weight in the string sound during tuttis with the NSO, or at least when the brass is in full flow. This is by no means always the case, but there are moments where the string counterweight to the brass interjections seems to struggle a little. See if you agree at 10:10 in the first movement of the Symphony No.7 where the melodic shape from the strings is actually quite hard to track. Intonation isn’t always perfect either, and the little flute solo at 10:50 in the same movement sounds plain sharp. There is plenty of detail in the recording though, and no really substantial complaints on a technical level.

The character of the brass in the Symphony No.7 is rather special in this recording, with some nicely growling horns creating a sense of drama at numerous points. The period nature of the performance of course means little or no vibrato in the strings, so there will no doubt be comments about their thinness of sound. I’m rather used to this now, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you have an allergy to this practice. The famous funereal Allegretto starts fairly urbanely but builds convincingly, and the timpani thwacks here and elsewhere are allowed free rein.

The pairing of the 7th and 8th symphonies is a good one, with the brooding and theatrical drama of the one contrasting with the frequently good natured sunlight of the other. Once again, this Symphony No.8 is very good, though while the lyrical touches in the winds are nicely phrased the legato from the strings is a little less clean. De Vriend moves everything along with a light touch and everyone at ease with his driving tempo and wide dynamics in the opening Allegro e vivace con brio. Timpani played with harder sticks tell in favour for De Vriend and against Vänskä here, whose fatter sounding drums rumble more like a storm in the background rather than being a real part of the ensemble, though that quiet ending is so tight from the Minnesota band it ends up having the last and best word. De Vriend’s Allegretto scherzando is a bit ‘twixt and between – neither really light and refined nor filled with the surprise and variety we have from Vänskä. His touch is also a mite heavy with the Tempo di Menuetto, coming from a baseline soft dynamic which isn’t really that soft. Vänskä gets his players almost down to nothing where he wants; allowing plenty of space for dynamics without having to raise the roof each time there’s a forte. There are plenty of good things here though, and certainly enough testosterone-filled meatiness to go around if you like your Beethoven assertive and masculine. Funnily enough, after so many hard-driven fast movements it is in the finale of the Symphony No.8 that De Vriend eases his foot off the pedal just a little. This allows all those late Beethoven inner voices to speak with that much more clarity, which I rather enjoy. The little off-beat timpani strokes at 2:22 are a delight, and there is plenty of colour and texture to relish, as well as a fine feel of quasi-descriptive narrative in De Vriend’s almost operatic response to this movement.

This is a fine recording and a brace of performances which has much to recommend it. There are one or two mild and mostly minor qualitative issues with the playing, and if you are looking for the most refined of Beethoven then Vänskä is still your man. Jan Willem de Vriend does have a way of making these symphonies sound fresh and exciting however, even a little dangerous – in a different and good way. These don’t quite knock the best recommendations off the top, but as a SACD choice I would certainly choose De Vriend over the heavier Philippe Herreweghe.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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This recording has been ‘in the can’ for a long time. Indeed the Bach arias have appeared before on CC 72034, the concertos on the Vanguard Classics label way back around the turn of the century. This attractive double-disc release gives the aria texts in German only at the back of the booklet, and has interesting if largely somewhat anecdotal booklet notes by Pauline Oostenrijk.

Your response to CD 1 will depend a little on whether you fancy the idea of 13 of Bach’s cantata arias for soprano and oboe obbligato taken in isolation and played back to back. It can be a bit much in one sitting, but the programme has been nicely ordered to provide contrast and is packed full of beautiful music. Nienke and Pauline Oostenrijk have performed these works many times before, and their familiarity with and love for these pieces radiates warmly through your speakers. Nienke’s soprano voice is a touch darker than choirboy purity, though it can take on this character at some moments. She uses vibrato in a natural fashion, not throwing it in like an opera diva’s wide wobble, but also not cramping her own style in an attempt to fit some abstract early music performance ideal. There are one or two moments where Bach’s technical demands test her accuracy just a little such as in the energetic Flößt, mein Heiland from the Christmas Oratorio, but there are lovely little touches as well, such as the echo in Liebster Jesu, Mein Verlangen which appears to have been dropped in during post production, the soloist taking up a position somewhere at the back of the church to provide the effect. The soprano voice and oboe are balanced nicely against the continuo harpsichord or organ and, where applicable, strings or other instruments. There are lovely numbers throughout the programme, but my highlights include the pointillist organ and recorders and scrunchy harmonies of Die Seele ruht in Jesu Händen, as well as the gorgeous opening track Ich Bin Vergnuegt Mit Meinem Gluecke and the moving Seufer, Tränen, Kummer, Not. There are a few similar collections around, including a very fine but much more large scale and operatic sounding one on the Archiv label with Magdalena Kozená, a comparison with which would be like comparing chalk with marble.

The J.S. Bach oboe concerto overlaps with a couple of recent releases I’ve looked at, from ECM with Heinz Holliger, and with Alexei Ogrintchouk on the BIS label for the BWV 1055 reconstruction. Pauline Oostenrijk’s recording doesn’t really replace either of these, but it is very fine in a fairly laid back sort of way. Her oboe d’amore playing is truly lyrical in the central Larghetto, and the playing is lively if not particularly urgent in the outer movements.
The delicious sound of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta suits Johann Christian Bach’s Mozart-influenced Concerto in F perfectly. This gentle approach obtains maximum tenderness in J.C. Bach’s Larghetto, but I was glad to hear the orchestral articulation and dynamics firming up for elder brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Concerto in E flat. It’s perhaps a little far -fetched to read too much Sturm und Drang into this concerto, which is more pleasantly diverting than filled with the ‘violent mood changes’ which Oostenrijk claims for it in her booklet notes, but there is plenty of that empfindsame expression which characterises C.P.E. Bach’s melodically strong compositional style.

This is a fine brace of re-releases packaged in an attractive SACD hybrid single-thickness double jewel case. The SACD layer is a recent re-mastering, but doesn’t add a huge amount to already more than decent stereo recordings.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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On this new release, Ton Koopman has gathered together every one of Bach’s cantatas. Finally reprinted after some years, this is a must-have reference collection. Antonius Gerhardus Michael (Ton) Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. He is also professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In April 2003 he was knighted in the Netherlands, receiving the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Koopman’s Bach Cantatas project is the most ambitious project of his career. He finished the project in 2005.