Giovanni Bottesini was not only among the most famous double bass players of his time, but was also a conductor of some distinction and a composer. He conducted the first performance of Verdi's opera Aida in Cairo in 1871 and won success with some, at least, of his own ten operas. Known to some as the Paganini of the double bass, he significantly extended the technical possibilities of the instrument.

"The Duetto for two basses is probably the earliest and most etude-like work on this disc, from a set of three dedicated to Bottesini’s teacher, Luigi Rossi. The Concerto No. 2, sometimes referred to as in A minor, or in B minor, for complicated reasons arising from old-fashioned tuning conventions, is a fully mature work, from the well proportioned, somewhat laconic first movement, through the simply singing second, to the third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the polonaise (and the Cuban bolero).

Other selections emphasize the essential vocality of Bottesini’s inspiration, most explicitly in the Bellini Fantasia, but stylistically so in the pairings of bass, always singing, now with clarinet, now with soprano. The anonymous texts are routine bourgeois expressions of popular Romantic sentiment; but in the case of Tutto che il mondo the music is very well known - Chopin’s Etude Op. 25, No. 7. The Bach transcription is perfectly straightforward. Can there be any instrument without a transcription of this piece? The Adagio melancolico projects that characteristic elegiac mood, demanding a virtuosity of feeling at least as much as of just technique, that Bottesini perfected for many of his stand-alone solo pieces."

Jeffrey L. Stokes

Classical Music

Classical Music

Martin Luther reformed the structures of the church. Preaching the gospel was bound to have visible consequences for the form of divine service. Preaching and Luther’s own writings are complemented by the sacred song, through which evangelical faith is spread. The new song of the Reformation springs from the faith of a confessing church. In arranging, translating and expanding a whole series of older church melodies, and in particular through his own figures of speech, Luther was the true founder of German Protestant congregational singing. His own hymns reflect his strong personality founded on faith, exercising a powerful effect on his and following generations. He was the “Wittenberg Nightingale.” The reforming of the old order of service had shown the need for Latin chants to be replaced by verses sung in German. Luther’s first congregational hymn “Nun freut euch, liebe Christen gmein” was written in 1529. The first Lutheran hymn book, Geistliches Gesangsbuchlein, appeared in 1524. This “little book of sacred songs” introduces the great hymns of the Reformation, soon to find a place in popular culture and to be sung wherever the gospel is preached: Music had great significance for Luther. In honor of the 500th anniversary of the reformation, this collection of hymns by Martin Luther and songs from JS Bach is released.

“The works on this CD constitute a major contribution to the international repertoire of choral music, and any choir or vocal ensemble that has not (yet) engaged with this composer still has something to accomplish!” - Paul Hillier

Classical Music

Classical Music

Kenneth Leighton's distinctive gifts as a composer were apparent as early as the première of his Cello Concerto, when he was barely 26. It was an instrument for which he wrote with particular subtlety and often from an inner compulsion. The Elegy, Op. 5 is full of brilliance, lyricism and mystery whilst by the time he wrote the rhapsodic and expressive Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 52, his position as one of Britain's leading composers had long been cemented. The beautiful Alleluia Pascha Nostrum, Op. 85 was first performed by the soloist on this disc, Raphael Wallfisch.

The decision by the Vaughan Williams estate to release for publication and performance a tranche of his early chamber and orchestral works has proved to be popular with recording companies and performers. This is the third recording of the 1903 Piano Quintet I have heard and I suspect that is not a complete list. The "concern" of the Estate trustees one imagines was that the late-developing Vaughan Williams' reputation would in some way be tarnished by the public's knowledge of these apprentice works. Instead, one is able to enjoy this attractive and appealing music in its own right as well as marvelling at how, in just a few short years, Vaughan Williams went from being rather derivative to wholly personal.

Take the 1903 Piano Quintet that opens the disc. This is the same year Vaughan Williams started working on his Sea Symphony - for all the occasions of awkwardness that beset the completed work his originality blazes out. In the Quintet, Brahms is a benevolent shade. Vaughan Williams uses the same instrumental line-up as the Schubert Trout Quintet with a double-bass thickening the bottom line as opposed to a second violin as in the more traditional piano quintet ensemble. Then fascinatingly, as in the second subject of the opening movement, there is a glimpse of 'Music-yet-to-come' with a tentative violin-led theme gently reiterated by the piano. It is as though the 'original' Vaughan Williams is peeking out almost not daring to have the effrontery to be himself in the presence of the older master. The London Soloists Ensemble give an excitingly powerful and dramatic account of the score, excellently recorded at Champs Hill by veteran producer/engineer Michael Ponder. This music was first recorded on a very fine 2 CD set from Hyperion by the Nash Ensemble. That compilation collected together in one place most of the early chamber works including three of the four recorded here plus several other substantial pieces. If that set is already in your collection, excellent and near complete as it is I am not sure the new disc will add substantially to your knowledge. However, in its own right this is very fine. The London Soloists offer a more dynamic and full-blooded approach than the Nash Ensemble with all the parts beautifully integrated but solo lines brought forward with character and panache. First amongst equals violinist Lorraine McAslan is a dynamic presence in the two main works to which she contributes. What I especially like is the high romantic style of her playing; flamboyant, dramatic and skilful as required. Vaughan Williams was never the greatest of composers for the keyboard but here John Lenehan makes light work of the frequently thick writing.

Violist Sarah-Jane Bradley has her own moment to shine in the undated Romance for Viola and Piano - it was found amongst the composer's papers after his death. Liner writer Paul Conway speculates it may have been written for Lionel Tertis. It is no reflection on the excellent Bradley, who gives a fine and eloquent performance, to say that this is the least interesting work on the disc. Whereas the other works might have been with-held on the grounds of being juvenilia, I suspect this remained in Vaughan Williams' bottom drawer simply because he knew it was not one of his finest or indeed very characteristic works.

McAslan, Bradley and Lenehan are joined by guest players Anthony Pike on clarinet and Tim Jackson on horn for the Quintet in D from 1898. Here the Brahmsian influence is even more undigested - indeed I would be amazed if any 'innocent ear' listener was able to identify this as a work by Vaughan Williams. Yet in many ways I enjoy this work more than the later piece. This is romantic music with a capital R. Big sweeping gestures made with a young man's confidence. The addition of the two wind instruments adds considerably to the tonal range. The clarinet writing - played here with melting beauty by Pike - is so directly influenced by Brahms' late chamber works as to be all but plagiaristic. I like the way Vaughan Williams delays the horn's first entry, so that when it does the elegiac melody has all the more impact. There are weaknesses and oddities in the work; the second movement Intermezzo [track 6] is as close to a salon waltz as anything the composer wrote. The cello has a relatively uninspiring part, rarely having much of an independent existence other than to reinforce the piano's bass line. Then there is an oddly directionless and rather weak fugato in the finale that seems to spring more from the exercise manual than any compositional imperative. But balance that against the third movement Andantino which is simply beautiful - deliberate reference to Brahms' 4th Symphony and all. Would we be listening to this music if it was not written by a composer who went onto far greater things? I do not know for sure but this is a very enjoyable and easy listen.

Initially I thought the inclusion of the much later - and relatively well known - Six Studies in English Folksong from 1926 to be at best rather anachronistic. I still wonder if it was included to showcase the great talent of the ensemble's clarinettist Anthony Pike. Two things disarm my doubts; the quietly simple genius of the work and Pike's exceptionally beautiful playing. By hearing this brief work at the end of the programme it reinforces the compositional journey Vaughan Williams made and just what a liberating force the discovery of English Folksong was for him. Gone are the profligate, almost verbose - but enjoyable - gestures of the earlier works. Here is the very essence of both composer and original songs existing in perfect accord. The piano writing is a model of minimal intervention, simply supporting the melody or reinforcing a harmonic point. John Lenehan's accompaniment is quite superb - again aided by the excellence of the recording. The work exists in other versions - notably that for cello and piano. I think I prefer this version most, the purity of the clarinet's tone in some way matching the simple directness of the original songs. Many fine recordings exist of both versions but I do not think I have heard a better one than this; five of the six songs are in effect slow and lyrical and Pike floats his tone with effortless perfection. There is a little key action to be heard but nothing to disturb the gentle sense of rapture the players evoke.

An unusual typo from Naxos calls Vaughan Williams ‘Waughan Williams’ at one point but that aside the English-only liner is interesting and succinct. With a generous playing time and as a single disc survey of early Vaughan Williams chamber music coupled with a superb Six Studies, this disc is hard to beat.

-- Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Eighteenth Symphony is the centerpiece of his symphonic trilogy On the Threshold of War, focusing on the traumas of the Soviet Union in World War II and stands as one of the most significant creations of his later years. Using texts by important Soviet poets, the work reflects on war with eloquent expressive power. The Trumpet Concerto is amongst Weinberg’s most substantial and diverse works from the 1960s. Ranging in effects from pointillist modernism to the grotesque and sardonic, Shostakovich described it as a “symphony for trumpet and orchestra.”

"[The 18th Symphony] is a complex work in every way worthy of the later Weinberg and his blossoming during the thaw. These are excellently solid performances of works well worth having. Lande and the amassed choral and instrumental forces give us a performance worthy of the brilliance of the music. Very recommended. Weinberg!" -- Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review [6/2014]

“The present performance boasts a compelling contribution from Andrew Balio, who revels in the witticism of the Finale while also encapsulating the darker undertones of the wistful central movement. The St Petersburg State Symphony offers strong support.” -- BBC Music Magazine [7/2014]

Taking its name from Evan Ziporyn’s Hive, which grew out of the composer’s experience as a beekeeper, this album brings together an engaging selection of pieces for solo clarinet and clarinet ensembles of various sizes. From Piazzolla’s popular tangos to Harbison’s Bach/Stravinsky-inspired Trio Sonata, Schuller’s Duo Sonata and Barker’s Single Six, both jazz-inflected yet classical in spirit, to Persichetti’s lyrical Serenade, Clarinet Hive is an endlessly fascinating showcase of the clarinet’s expressive and virtuosic potential, as well as its wide range of subtle sonorities.

Classical Music

The Ensemble Dreiklang Berlin presents this light-hearted album entitled Badinerie. The album’s title comes from the baroque dance which was frequently paired with a Gavotte, Sarabande, Minuet, and other dance movements to form a suite. The ensemble performs these works on recorders.

Includes serenade(s) by Joaquin Malats. Soloist: Julian Bream.

It’s fantastic!

George Antheil was, probably, his own worst enemy. Having taken Paris by storm, both as composer and virtuoso pianist, he failed, unlike Stravinsky, to moderate his language and adopt the neo–classical style which came into vogue during his stay. However, when Copland arrived in France, to study, he said that “… George had all Paris by the ear". It was probably Ezra Pound’s call that Antheil was "possibly the first American–born musician to be taken seriously" and regarding him as the great Messiah of a 'New Music' which coloured the composer’s attitude. From our historical position, the fact that he failed to move with the times is no longer seen as a problem. True, some still find it difficult to equate Antheil’s early works with the more sober works he wrote after his return to the USA, but a man has to eat, and with a wife and son to support he had to work. The later works are, certainly, more conventional than the pieces from his Paris years, but there are still many fine pieces to be found, both in his concert music and operas as well as his music for film. I particularly like his score for Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper (1952) and Ben Hecht’s Angels Over Broadway (1940). I cannot help but mention that before returning permanently to America, Antheil wrote a detective story, Death In the Dark, which was edited and published T.S. Eliot. The plot concerns the murder of a concert agent!
 
Antheil visited America in 1927 to display his musical wares to an unsuspecting American public and this is what it heard! He wrote the Jazz Symphony for Paul Whiteman’s second Experiment in Modern Music concert of December 1925 – the first, held on 12 February 1924, had introduced Rhapsody in Blue to the world. For some reason it wasn’t given in that show and the Carnegie Hall concert of 1927 was its premiere, when it was done by W.C. Handy’s Orchestra with the composer as piano soloist. Antheil revised the score of the Jazz Symphony in 1955 and made it a much less spectacular and exciting work. Hearing it in its original form is a revelation, for it is wild and exuberant, great fun and it’s easy to understand that it received an ovation when it was given in Carnegie Hall, at this concert. This is an excellent performance, hard-driven, up-front and in-yer-face, hysterical and brilliantly realised. It’s worth buying the disk for this piece alone.
 
Antheil’s two Violin Sonatas were written for Ezra Pound’s mistress, Olga Rudge. The second is fascinating for it contains a part for drum, supposedly written for Pound to play. As it stands, it starts as a wild ride for the two instruments, then the piano launches into an almost insane cadenza. After this the drum takes over the accompaniment for the rest of the work. As with most of the other music recorded on this disk, it’s a wild, typical 1920s piece, but the performance here is a bit too polite. I once turned pages for a performance of this work given by Thomas Halpern and Yvar Mikhashoff and they threw all caution to the wind, giving a marvellously showy and fantastically over-the-top performance – just what the work needs. All that kind of extrovert display is missing here. A real shame, given the music-making of the couplings.
 
The short 1 ^st String Quartet is a very compelling work, cogently written, well laid out for the instruments, and it’s much more mainstream European music than the other works recorded here. The performance, by the Mendelssohn Quartet, is strong and forthright.
 
The Ballet Mécanique made Antheil’s name and confirmed his status as ‘The Bad Boy of Music’ - the title of his autobiography which is well worth a read. It caused a riot at its premiere in Paris and Aaron Copland wrote to Israel Citkowitz, “… the boy is a genius. Need I add that he has yet to write a work which shows it.” At Carnegie Hall, Copland, together with Colin McPhee, was one of the pianists in the performance of the Ballet where, again, it caused a riot. In 1952 Antheil revised the score, but all this did was to water down a fascinating score into a less-than-interesting one. Here it is, in all its 1920s gaudy splendour, colossal, noisy, outrageous, a tough listen – without a doubt – but a rewarding one. Anyone who heard, either in the hall, or on the radio, the weak performance given at the 2009 BBC Proms won’t know what’s hit them when they hear this! It’s fantastic!
 
Great performances, in general, brilliantly bright sound, good notes all go to making this indispensable to anyone interested in American music and the musical experiments of the 1920s.
 
-- Bob Briggs, MusicWeb International

Giovanni Battista Fasolo most probably composed its Annuale simultaneously to the famous "Fiori Musicali" by Girolamo Frescobaldi; the Annual, however, was delivered to printing only ten years later, in 1645, possibly for editorial reasons because it was the same Venetian printer - Alessandro Vincenti - specialized in keyboard music, to publish both collections. The goal pursued by Fasolo with his Annuale was to provide "tutto quello, che deve far un Organista, per risponder al Choro tutto l'Anno" (everything that an organist has to do, responding to the Choir throughout the year). More than an artistic stand-alone product, the collection was an example of the repertoire suitable to the liturgical service of the time: a compilation of models and forms, styles and modes of composition tha thad to be learned for finally being reused in the daily practice. Unlike Frescobaldi, Fasolo does not provide any toccata intro: a genre completely absent in teh Annuale. On this album organist Luca Scandali is performing three complete masses at the historic Luca di Bernardino da Cortona organ accompanied in alternatim by the ensemble Bella Gerit.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Described as 'the first German song book', Das Lochamer Liederbuch is one of the earliest collections of German songs and instrumental compositions, assembled in the 1450s.

TANEYEV Violin Sonata in a. 1 Theme and Variations in C. Repose. Scherzos: in d; in g; in e?; in C; in F. Prelude in F. Quadrille. Andantino semplice. Prelude and Fugue in g?, op. 29. Romance, op. 26/6 (arr. Feigin) 1 • Olga Solovieva (pn); Ivan Peshkov (vn) 1 • NAXOS 8.557804 (72:41)


After several decades in the wilderness, Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915) is enjoying somewhat of a comeback, with a number of recent recordings introducing him anew to audiences that may have known his name but have heard little of his music. With Nikolai Rubinstein as his piano teacher and Tchaikovsky as his instructor in composition, Taneyev graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with honors. He made his concert debut in Moscow in 1875 playing Brahms’s D-Minor Concerto, and the following year he toured Russia as accompanist to the great violinist Leopold Auer.


Unfortunately for Taneyev, a dyed-in-the-wool musical conservative who distinguished himself as a performing artist in the works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and who, as a composer, cast his countenance ever further West and further back than Tchaikovsky, becoming an expert in the techniques of 15th-century vocal polyphony and 16th-century counterpoint, he ran afoul of his Russian nationalist contemporaries. No love was lost between them. Taneyev was disdainful of the “Mighty Handful,” publicly reproaching Balakirev, calling Borodin “a clever dilettante,” and remarking that Mussorgsky made him laugh. He was a bit more deferential towards Rimsky-Korsakov, respecting the composer of Scheherazade for his serious study of counterpoint.


Taneyev’s personality and outlook are perhaps a bit easier to understand when one realizes that he was, in his own mind, anyway, an unfairly untitled aristocrat. Coming from a wealthy family, he enjoyed the resources to pursue his interests in science, history, mathematics, and philosophy. Traveling extensively, he rubbed elbows with literary figures such as Zola and Flaubert, and with musical celebrities such as Franck and Saint-Saëns. Taneyev’s attitude towards the progressive composers and modern music of his day was not dissimilar from that of his older but longer-lived French contemporary, Saint-Saëns; both abhorred what they saw as unschooled, undisciplined dilettantism in any field of endeavor, but especially in music and the arts. When Tchaikovsky left his position at the Moscow Conservatory in 1878, Taneyev replaced him; during his tenure there, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Gliere, and Medtner, among others, benefitted from Taneyev’s teaching, though each went his own way once out from under his influence.


The five scherzos for solo piano on this CD, written between 1874 and 1875, are asterisked as being world premiere recordings. And grateful we should be to pianist Olga Solovieva and Naxos for outing them, for they are gem-like beauties, which, in melodic and harmonic vocabulary, are heavily indebted, according to note author Anastasia Belina, to Schumann and Tchaikovsky.


The major work on the program, Taneyev’s 1911 A-Minor Violin Sonata, carries the subtitle, “Of medium difficulty.” The piece was new to me, though there is another recent recording of it listed on the Northern Flowers label. Melodically, as well as in the close exchanges and echoing back and forth of material, the writing bears resemblances to the op. 12 violin sonatas of Beethoven, not surprising, given Taneyev’s Classical leanings and his touring with Auer. Based on the hearing of it—I don’t have the score—I’m fairly confident in saying that the piece is technically easier to play than the Beethoven sonatas. Filled with charming melodies for the violin and delightful effects in the piano part, Taneyev’s Sonata would make a wonderful work for any moderately advanced violin student.


Though Naxos is not claiming premiere recording status for the C-Major Theme and Variations, this is the only current listing I find for it. The piece is a student work dated 1874. Taneyev was 18 at the time and still under Tchaikovsky’s supervision. According to Belina’s note, Taneyev’s exercise was heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky’s “Thème original et variations,” the concluding number in his Six Pieces for Piano , op. 19, which appeared in 1873, the year before Taneyev wrote his work. Evidence in support of Belina’s contention comes in the form of a theme Taneyev borrowed from the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Second String Quartet as a counter-melody in the second variation. The transmigration from Tchaikovsky’s Quartet to Taneyev’s Variations must have happened at the speed of light, for both works were written at virtually the same time.


Of the remaining pieces on the disc for solo piano, the Quadrille is the most interesting and the longest at almost eight minutes. Careful listening reveals that Taneyev did not use the title flippantly or fancifully. He was too much of a stickler for correctitude. Technically and formally, a quadrille is an ancient and very complex dance that became all the rage, alongside the waltz craze, in 19th-century Vienna. If written according to the Viennese form, which Taneyev’s is, the dance is comprised of six sections: (1) an open rondo-form, the “Pantalon,” in 2/4 or 6/8 time; (2) the “Été,” always in 2/4; (3) the “Poule,” a closed rondo form, always in 6/8; (4) the “Trénis,” a mirrored binary form (A-B-B-A); (5) the “Pastourelle,” a modified rondo, always in 2/4; and (6) “Finale,” a double ternary form (AA-BB-AA) in 2/4 time in which each statement of the theme is eight bars in length. It’s fascinating to listen to the precision with which Taneyev adheres to the formal scheme in his whirligig Quadrille.


Finally, there is the Romance adapted for violin and piano from the composer’s song cycle, Immortelles . The appearance of the right-hand piano’s notes on the page is alleged to resemble the stalactites of the song’s title, “Stalaktitï.” While there is a static “dripping-tears” character to the piece, I wouldn’t put too much stock in the analogy, especially if you, like me, associate stalactites with the freakish icicle-like formations found in cold limestone caves. Taneyev’s Romance may be tearful, even sentimental, but it’s heartwarming in the same way that the fourth in the set of Dvo?ák’s Four Romantic Pieces , op. 75, is. In fact, Taneyev’s Romance bears a striking resemblance to the Dvo?ák.


This is a thoroughly winning disc. The more of Taneyev’s music I hear, the more I think he has been undeservedly eclipsed by the very dilettantes he despised. He wasn’t a Russian nationalist in the mold of the “Mighty Handful,” but his music may actually be better crafted than theirs; and, to me at least, it’s more appealing than that of some of his more renowned students. Ivan Peshkov is wonderful in the two violin works, and Olga Solovieva, as both soloist and accompanist, is one of the best advocates Taneyev has. Urgently recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Includes work(s) by Hans-Eberhard Ross. Ensemble: Gould Piano Trio. Soloists: Benjamin Frith, Lucy Gould, Alice Neary, Robert Plane.

KREISLER String Quartet in a 1. ZIMBALIST String Quartet in e 1. YSAŸE Harmonies du soir 2 • 1,2 Fine Arts Qrt; 2 Otis Klöber, cond; 2 Members of Europe PO • NAXOS 8.572559 (71:36)


Two of the works on this disc—Zimbalist’s String Quartet and Ysaÿe’s Harmonies du soir —are premiere recordings. While it’s conceivable that someone reading this review could have heard Ysaÿe in concert toward the end of his career—he died in 1931—it’s more likely that readers will be more familiar with the great violinist as a composer, many of whose works, particularly his six sonatas for solo violin, have survived him to become standard repertoire pieces.


With Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) and Efrem Zimbalist (1890–1985) the situation is somewhat reversed. More than a few readers, I suspect, will have heard them play, at least on record if not in person. Their compositional output, however, was either slim in the case of Zimbalist or, in Kreisler’s case, consisting of a collection of salon pieces, cadenzas to other composers’ concertos, and a number of hoaxes perpetrated under the names of actual Baroque composers.


Kreisler did, nonetheless, make at least one attempt at writing a serious, multimovement, classically-styled work, the String Quartet in A Minor heard on the present disc. He wrote it in 1919, and it displays both considerable craft and familiarity with the musical trends of the time, which is to say it’s a beautifully written piece with nary an original idea. The first movement, titled Fantasia, is a dead ringer for César Franck’s 1889 D-Major String Quartet. The second movement, a scherzo, is positively Mendelssohnian. The lovely Romanze returns to a Franck-Fauré-Debussy idiom, while the finale, titled “Retrospection,” takes on the character of some of Kreisler’s lighter salon pieces. It’s a sort of Caprice viennois flirting with a Fuchs serenade.


Zimbalist thought enough of his 1931 E-Minor String Quartet to revise it in 1959. It too, like Kreisler’s quartet, is a model of superbly crafted string writing, but differs considerably from it in style. Where Kreisler synthesized his score from the musical vocabularies of composers and their works that were roughly contemporaneous in 1919 when he wrote it, Zimbalist looks back for his inspiration to the closing decade of the 19th century and first decade of the 20th, and specifically to his Russian roots in the music of Arensky, Glazunov, and Sergei Taneyev. In other words, Zimbalist’s quartet is a throwback to an earlier period and style, one that is very romantic and very Russian sounding.


Ysaÿe’s Harmonies du soir is an unusual hybrid of a piece scored for string quartet and string orchestra. Written in 1924, it’s a fairly late entry in the composer’s catalog, described in Roy Malan’s program note as “a sensuously chromatic journey through thickly textured emotions and colors finally leading, by restlessly climbing motifs, to a glorious sunrise in C.” To my ear, the piece resembles early Schoenberg; Transfigured Night could well be its mother. The only documented public performance was given by the Columbia University Strings in New York in 1979.


As noted, the Zimbalist and Ysaÿe pieces are firsts on disc, and while both are quite attractive, I’d be surprised to see seconds anytime soon. Luckily, both scores find themselves in excellent hands with the Fine Arts Quartet and, in the Ysaÿe, joined by the string section of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Europe led by Otis Klöber.


Kreisler’s quartet has been previously recorded, most notably by Kreisler himself with an ensemble that also included violist William Primrose. That recording, however, appears to be available only in a 10-CD EMI set that gathers a multitude of concerto and sonata recordings featuring Kreisler in his capacity as violinist.


The performances on the current Naxos CD are top-notch, as is the recording. The three works are appealing enough and certainly of sufficient interest to warrant recommendation, especially given a release so affordably priced.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Chicago based ensemble Lincoln Trio presents this personal program of 20th century piano trios by composers who hail from the members’ ancestral homelands of England, Armenia, and Switzerland. Acclaimed for creating “worthwhile programs of serious classical music that are wholly winning and simply delightful,” (ClassicsToday.com) the Lincoln Trio consists of violinist Desiree Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian. Many listeners will be discovering the works on this release for the first time. English composer Rebecca Clarke wrote her Piano Trio in 1922. This work is featured alongside Arno Babajanian’s 1952 work Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor and the most well known work on the album, Frank Martin’s Trio on Popular Irish Melodies from 1925.

REVIEW:

Most “concept albums” don’t work. This one does. Dubbed “Trios from our Homelands”, the three members of the Lincoln Trio have each chosen a piece from their native countries: England, Armenia, and Switzerland. It’s a cute idea, and that’s all it would be if the musical quality of the three works presented were not so high, and the program so effective. What we really have, musically speaking, is a splendid concert of three excellent 20th-century chamber works, at least two of which will likely be new to most listeners, played with proprietary zeal and recorded with perfect discretion and naturalness.

The work you might know is Swiss composer Frank Martin’s delightful but hardly overexposed Trio on Popular Irish Melodies, a minor masterpiece of genuinely involving thematic workmanship and expressive economy. Perhaps the biggest “find” is Rebecca Clarke’s dazzling Piano Trio (1922), a major work by any standard that you might describe as Bartók with English folk inflections rather than Hungarian. The ensemble writing throughout is intense, melodically fresh, and altogether masterful, its three movements well-proportioned, and the Lincoln Trio simply plays the bejesus out of it.

Armenian composer Arno Babajanian (1921-83) was a major voice in his country’s musical development. His Piano Trio in F-sharp minor is a romantic work written with a heart-on-sleeve passion that never turns tacky or descends into cheap nationalist musical gestures. Its three movements might be a bit lacking in contrast, but the argument never goes slack and, once again, it would be difficult to imagine a finer performance. Intelligently assembled programs like this one are all too rare, but the Lincoln Trio shows us that they are possible, and set a standard that other groups would do well to emulate.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Bach: Praeludien & Fugen

MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL::


Igor Stravinsky memorably described Rachmaninov as ‘six-foot-six of Russian gloom’, and that description fits admirably, and at the same time magnificently, with this music. It arose out of Rachmaninov’s admiration for Tchaikovsky. For Tchaikovsky’s only Piano Trio, his Op. 50, had been dedicated ‘to the memory of a great artist’: Nikolai Rubinstein. Rachmaninov gave his Trio élégiaque of 1893 the same dedication; now the ‘great artist’ was Tchaikovsky himself. The young Rachmaninov was already making his mark on Russian musical life, as both prodigious pianist and talented composer. The dedication of the Trio is a reflection of the strong impression he had made on Tchaikovsky, the composer of the previous generation whom Rachmaninov most admired.


The Trio is arguably the finest achievement of Rachmaninov’s earlier career: the period before his breakdown following the disastrous premiere of the First Symphony. It was preceded by another piece of the same name and for the same instrumental combination; but in every way, in both scale and conception, the earlier work is a pale imitation of the later.


Naxos couple these two trios in a sensible combination that gives commercial value as well as artistic integrity. The performers seem ideal, and so too the recorded sound from that favourite venue for Naxos: Potton Hall in Suffolk. The Trio No. 1 is a work of sensitive emotion and admirable intellectual command, but the music lacks the vision and with it the truly epic commitment of the Op. 9 Trio of 1893. The latter is still an early work, and it is true that Rachmaninov returned to it fourteen years later to revise it in the light of a more sophisticated technique. Be that as it may, there is a complete integrity of design and an associated command of structure, and its every bar conveys an eloquent immediacy of emotion.


Of course the performers need bring their own vision to chamber music that is built on such an ambitious scale. This Russian trio of Grohovski, Wulfson and Yablonski combine to achieve eloquence of line and intensity of expression, a performance that is founded upon techniques of the utmost assurance. Their interpretation is captured in an acoustic whose warmth serves the music well. Make no mistake; this is one of the most successful recordings of chamber music one could wish to encounter, and to have it available at budget price is a cause for celebration.

Terry Barfoot, Music Web International