Hungarian violinist Johanna Martzy (1924 - 1979) was one of the most admired and respected violinists of the 20th century. She is a record collector’s icon and a legend. She toured extensively throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Each track on this release is a live broadcast or live performance from the 1950s and early 1960s, when Martzy’s career was at its peak. All of these broadcasts are receiving here their first release. Featured works include Bartok’s Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, Vivaldi’s Violin Sonata in D major, and more.

The organ loomed large from early on in Bach’s life. The foundations of his multifaceted career as a professional musician were clearly laid in the careful cultivation of Bach’ prodigious talent as an organist whilst he was still a child. - See more at: http://www.signumrecords.com/catalogue/david-goode/johann-sebastian-bach:-the-complete-organ-works/sigcd800.html#sthash.gfLILMva.dpuf

A profound, powerful and yet unfinished opera, Moses und Aron ends with an admission of defeat: "O word, thou Word that I lack!", Moses' last cry, is also the last phrase the composer has been able to set to music. Recounting the story of Moses, who has experienced the immensity of God, and of Aron, who tries to speak of it; casting doubt, with dodecaphonism, upon the adequacy of tonal and traditional musical language; Moses und Aron questions the possibility of a True Speech. Following in their wanderings the chidlren of Israel, a stateless people lost in the desert and looking for signs and images, Moses un Aron symbolizes the challenges encountered by a community looking for her own identity, torn between spiritual ideal and material needs. The opera thus reveals, in Romeo Castellucci's spectacular and poetic staging, a tragic divide between what can and cannot be represented, between God and idols, between endlessness and constriction, between the realm of intuition and the realm of language. The Paris Opera Chorus and Orchestra, who, thanks to his musical director Philippe Jordan's work, has pierced all the secrets of Schönberg's audacious score, reveal with grace and accuracy all the emotion contained in this anxious, overwhelming and unforgettable masterpiece.

When Dino Ciani died in 1974 in a car accident in Rome at age 32, the world lost a great pianist. He was described by his teacher Alfred Cortot as "a youth possessing the rarest gifts bestowed by nature." He is now considered an icon among classical record collectors, and has a piano competition dedicated to his memory which is held each year at Teatro alla Scala. During his too short career Ciani collaborated with some of the world’s finest conductors including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini, and others. Each track featured on this new release is a live or studio performance recorded between the years 1965 and 1973. All tracks are available here for the first time.

Mendelssohn’s piano trios are among the most popular and frequently played works within the genre. Both trios are such recognised works and display such perfection of form and content that one might well imagine that they flowed effortlessly from the composer’s pen without a moment’s doubt or hesitation. But was this actually so? In the course of recording the two Mendelssohn trios we had the opportunity to examine a copy of the manuscripts of both works. We were astonished to discover that the manuscript of the first trio displayed considerable differences from the work that we were familiar with as the celebrated Trio in D minor. Further investigation revealed that this was an early version of the same trio, completed in July 1839, nine months before the first edition of the definitive version. To our even greater astonishment it turned out that this version was not just a rough sketch but a complete work, which had undoubtedly stood the test of time even without Mendelssohn’s later revisions. It was incredible to discover a masterpiece by his hand that was unknown to us. To be sure, it was largely the same as or closely related to the trio that we were familiar with, but there were also wonderful passages that were totally new to us.

This programme explores that vast twentieth-century secular English choral repertoire which goes under the generic title ‘partsongs’. It is an extraordinarily rich repertoire to which almost all the famous composers contributed. Buried amongst vast quantities of slightly twee pastoralism – the much-derided “cow-pat” school – are to be found many settings of glorious poetry, forming a corpus of sublime twentieth-century madrigals at least as fine as their famous renaissance forebears. However, this programme has another particular theme: how poets and composers reflect upon the natural world as a metaphor for our own emotional experience. At the heart of this programme is the complex relationship between man and nature, the bitter-sweetness of a radiant and beautiful dawn creating the same unbearable sadness of a ravishing song, and both with intimations of mortality.

Wolfgang Rübsam, one of the finest, busiest, and most prolifically recorded organists on Planet Earth, launches the first volume of a cycle devoted to the complete organ works of Pachelbel. The first impression you'll get from placing this disc in your trusty CD changer will be the pungency of the bright, reedy stops characterizing the organ by Johann Nepomuk Holzhey at Wiessnau (built in the 1780s). Naxos' transparent, up-close engineering further underscores the instrument's timbral distinctions. Listen, for example, to the registral clarity in the three Christmas Chorale Preludes, the brooding G minor Fantasia (what heartbreakingly gorgeous low-register harmonies!), or the flowing, reflective Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist. The two Toccatas in C major boast snarling pedal-points from which vivid, trumpet-like lines proudly take wing. Rübsam's slight ritards and breath marks throughout the D minor Chaconne, together with his strikingly varied couplings, add welcome drama and color to the score. Some listeners might prefer the steadier rhythm and restrained registration of Joseph Payne's more conservative reading on Centaur, but I lean toward Rübsam.


Payne's Pachelbel cycle, nearly complete at 10 volumes, employs a different organ for each installment. Will Rübsam do the same? That is, if he's been designated to record the whole Naxos Pachelbel cycle himself (remember, the label's Dupré organ music cycle is given over to different players). Artistically speaking, Rübsam and Payne complement rather than compete with each other. Even if you've acquired all or many or some of the Payne volumes, give Rübsam's Pachelbel a fair shot. What can you lose at Naxos' rock bottom price? Stay tuned for Volume 2.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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BACH, J.S.: Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, Vol. 2

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This disc features the second half of the 12 sonatas (actually suites of dance movements) that make up The Nymphs of the Rhine Op. 8 by the fascinating 17th century Dutch-German composer Johannes Schenck. A master gambist, Schenck's absolute knowledge of the potential of the instrument is on full display in these superbly crafted, colorful works, and Susie Napper and Margaret Little, the players in Les Voix Humaines, possess superb skill and incisive musical instincts. The dialogue between the instruments seems effortless, allowing Schenck's cosmopolitan blend of musical languages to speak naturally. Just listen to the gentle weeping of the Menuet, or to the highly expressive Allegro "Aria" of the E minor sonata, with its delicately interlaced musings.

A real treat is the Rondeau of the C minor sonata--the opening eerily imitates the drone of a bagpipe (complete with the characteristic swell up to the first note), as the tune, reminiscent of a sober Breton folk song, dances on. Throughout this recording the musicians engage as much technical and interpretive facility as required to effectively capture the music's wide variety of manners and moods. Naxos' sound has a bit of a metallic edge, but is certainly full and clear. If you already have the excellent first volume of The Nymphs of the Rhine, then you'll surely want this one too. If not, then this is a fine introduction to some terrific music.
--David Preiser, ClassicsToday.com

Rising-star violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen is joined by the eminent pianist-composer Huw Watkins in a diverse programme of works that were all influenced in different ways by the era in which they were composed. The works were conceived at four very different points in the composer's lives - Debussy, at the end of his life, Respighi in the first flush of fame, Elgar, although not old, enjoying his last creative period, and Sibelius in his prime composing prolifically. These four contrasting works were all composed as the Great War drew to a close, but none of them specifically attempts to conjure up images of the conflict, nor act as any kind of programmatic memorial to its victims. Rather, these works are all conceived as absolute music, albeit, in the case of the Elgar and Debussy sonatas, imbued with a melancholy regret that may have been a reflection of those tragic four years.

Second volume in the ongoing series of Beethoven's Piano Concertos with Hannes Minnaar and Jan Willem de Vriend conducting the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Surely among the most interesting and sought-after pianists of his generation, Hannes Minnaar received international acclaim after winning prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (3rd Prize) and the Geneva International Music Competition (2nd Prize). Volume one of this series received raves from Gramophone, Fanfare, Crescendo, Classical Candor, and more.

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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This DVD marks the first complete recording of Xenakis' four string quartet, including the late quartet Ergma.

This CD presents a fascinating collection of Spanish keyboard works played on the harp, as well as "Intabulations" (settings of songs, madrigals and other vocal works) of the well-known composers working at the Spanish court. Surveying a lesser-known facet of one of the most famous periods in music history, this collection is a must-buy for the Renaissance connoisseur.

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A Lenten oratorio in the Italian tradition of sacred opera, Il Dolore di Maria Vergine is widely held to be the outstanding masterpiece in the genre by Alessandro Scarlatti. Structured in two extended parts, it assigns roles to the Virgin Mary, St John, Nicodemus and to a High Priest named Onìa. The challenge taken on by the composer and his anonymous librettist early in 1717 was to make a mere four characters effective as vehicles for conveying the drama of the Passion, moving as Bach does from the capture of Jesus in Gethsemane, to his interrogation by Pilate, his scourging and crowning with thorns, his journey to Calvary and his crucifixion and death. Recorded in 2001 and first released by Bongiovanni, this recording of Il dolore di Maria Vergine was welcomed by the Italian Musica magazine with a ringing endorsement of its virtues: ‘The orchestra is precise, and in full sympathy with the Scarlatti idiom; outstanding among the instrumental soloists are the trumpet player Gabriele Cassone, the violinist Fabrizio Cipriani and the members of the notably rich continuo section.’

Quartetto Klimt is one of the most interesting chamber music groups in Italy today, regularly performing in prestigious concert seasons and festivals, both in their home country and abroad, and supported by such prestigious artists as Carlo Maria Giulini, Natalia Gutman and Maurizio Pollini. They make their Brilliant Classics debut with this recording, having previously recorded Dvo?ák’s two quartets for piano and strings for the Amadeus magazine.

This release couples two of Schumann’s substantial chamber music works: the mature E flat Piano Quartet Op. 47 and the youthful C minor Piano Quartet. Schumann’s E flat Piano Quartet is a masterwork in its genre, on a par with those by Mozart and (later) Brahms. The C minor brother is an outpouring of youthful passion on a grand scale, compensating its lack of structural solidity by ardent impetuosity and boundless energy. Excellent performance by the Quartetto Klimt, 4 young Italians sharing their passion for this still slightly neglected chamber music. Recorded in 2009. The booklet contains liner notes and artist biographies. - Brilliant Classics

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