London Handel Players:
Rachel Brown Flute • Adrian Butterfield, Oliver Webber Violins • Peter Collyer Viola • Katherine Sharman Cello • Laurence Cummings Harpsichord/Organ

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

TELEMANN Trio Sonatas: in d, TWV 42:d10; in a, TWV 42:a1; in F, TWV 42:F8; in f, TWV 42:f2; in a, TWV 42:a4; in f. Sonata in f, TWV 41:f1 • Fabio Biondi (vn); Tripla Concordia (period instruments) • DYNAMIC 7667 (52:13)


Fabio Biondi’s program of trio sonatas by Georg Philipp Telemann, apparently mastered in the late 1990s, corresponds to an identical program (same works in the same order) once listed as Stradivarius 33685 and not reviewed, so far as I can tell, in Fanfare . Tripla Concordia consists of Lorenzo Cavasanti (recorder), Caroline Boersma (cello), and Sergio Ciomei (harpsichord), and they lend almost bumptious support to the irrepressible Fabio Biondi, playing, in this case, a violin constructed by Desiderio Quercetani in 1991 after an 18th-century Neapolitan model. Danilo Prefumo’s notes explain that the ensemble has gathered together all of Telemann’s works for the combination of violin, recorder, and continuo, omitting other trio sonatas intended for recorder, treble viola da gamba, and continuo, previously considered to have been intended for violin.


The engineers come very close to the ensemble (and if the flute seems almost shrill on occasion, so does the violin on others); but the random breathing they’ve captured seems benign beside the amount of instrumental noise and multitudinous abrasive attacks they’ve registered, all of which might intimidate a faint-hearted listener (the recorded sound also gives the instrumental timbres a sharp edge that, it seems possible, might be an artifact). Nevertheless, there’s no gainsaying the irresistible élan of the ensemble’s reading of the first Sonata, with its three fast movements surrounding a slower second (all the sonatas comprise four movements, in which two fast movements generally provide a contrast with two slower ones). And the close, vibrant recorded sound, however pleasantly or unpleasantly it may strike the listener’s sensibilities from moment to moment, plays a significant role in creating the overall effect. In fact, the razor sharpness of the instrumental sound seems considerably more distracting in slow movements like the opening Adagio of the Sonata in F Minor (TWV 42:f2), rather than in headlong fast ones like the same Sonata’s Finale. The Sonata in A Minor, TWV 42:a4, seems perhaps the most balanced, with all the movements taking about two and a half minutes and alternating slow and fast in the pattern that had become pretty much standard. Yet, from my experience of the work as a performer, it seems to lack in this reading the exuberant energy that characterized the fast movements and the suavity that characterized the slow ones in their performances of the other sonatas. Recommended to those who may have missed this collection in what seems to have been an earlier incarnation and who take delight in this repertoire.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

6 CLAVICHORD SONATAS

Florilegium is one of Britain's finest period instrument ensembles. Since their formation in 1991, they have established a reputation for stylish and exciting interpretations, from intimate chamber works to large-scale orchestral and choral repertoire. This two disc collection features eleven of the twenty-four works from Telemann's Essercizii Musici. This selection of solo sonatas and trio sonatas offers the listener an insight into the different styles and instrumental combinations that make up Telemann's unique soundscape and ensure his music is immediately recognizable.

Classical Music

Ballades, sonnets, poems - in earlier days, these were the genres one could mainly encounter in literature or folklore. That is, until Chopin, Liszt and Scriabin introduced them to classical music. On her album Storyteller, pianist Anna Fedorova focuses on these three composers, how they explored the poetic genres, and how their compositions reflected the actual pieces of literature that inspired them.

Classical Music

Muzio Clementi achieved early success as a widely-travelled pianist, performing for nobility and meeting Mozart, his journeys reflected in the Melodies of Different Nations. The Sonata in A flat major is his earliest surviving work, and the incomplete Allegro and Finale may hve been intended as part of the famous Gradus and Parnassum. Based on a popular dance form, the delightful Monferrinas reveal Clementi's charming side, each one presenting a uniquely interesting character.

This second and final volume of Frederic Mompou's complete songs features the cycle Becquerianas, one of his most ambitious and also one of his most diverse, with it's unprecedented fusion of Andalusian folk-music, virtuosic piano writing and vocal opulence. Comptines, by comparison, are joyful and simple traditional children's counting rhymes. Also included are five recently discovered songs: Et sento que véns, Ets l'infinit, El testament d'Amèlia, Ave María and El viaje definitivo. '... an enticing first offering in a welcome series, and the performers are warmly to be applauded' (Fanfare on Volume 1 / 8.573099).

Franz Anton Hoffmeister was active in Vienna both as a composer and a publisher, becoming closely associated with Mozart and including works by Beethoven amongst his editions. The combination of violin and cello had its appeal for the amateur market, though Hoffmeister’s Duos Op. 6 include plenty of technical challenges. Conjectured as being from Beethoven’s final years as a young man in Bonn, the three refreshing and inventive Duos for Clarinet and Bassoon are so pleasing that they have appeared in numerous arrangements

Despite the scandal it created with first staged in 1875, Carmen has subsequently become one of the world’s most popular operas. The love affair at its heart shocked contemporary audiences but the music is imperishably vibrant and exciting- so much so that, after the composer’s death, his friend Ernest Guiraud arranged two suites from the opera. Here the Toreador’s Song and the graphically sensuous Seguidilla and Habanera dances are heard in all their orchestral glory. The two suites from L’Arlesienne containe music of great charm and refined elegance.

CASELLA Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Cello. GHEDINI Concerto dell’albatro ( Concerto of the Albatross ) for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Speaker 1 • Damian Iorio, cond; Emanuela Piedmonti (pn); Paolo Ghidoni (vn); Pietro Bosna (vc); 1 Carlo Dogliioni Majer (spkr); O I Pomeriggi Musicali • NAXOS 8.573180 (58:11 Text and Translation)


The music of Alfredo Casella and Giorgio Ghedini, modern and brilliant as it is, has been marginalized in part because both composers complied with the Fascist government—Casella willingly and eagerly, Ghedini passively. This disc combines major concertos by both of them. The former concerto grosso is almost Modernist in style, with the three soloists emerging from and returning to the ensemble, either individually or together; by contrast, the latter is a much more expansive and almost Impressionistic work, leaning on techniques pioneered by French composers, with its last movement including a spoken text (in Italian) from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick about the first time an albatross was spotted. Essentially, then, we have a contrast in influences, Casella’s Russian-Germanic style versus Ghedini’s more Francophile one.


This makes perfect sense in Casella’s case, as in 1930 he formed a piano trio, the Trio Italiano, with himself at the keyboard (violinist Alberto Poltronieri and cellist Arturo Bonucci were the other two members), and it was for his trio that he constructed this Concerto in 1933. David Gallagher’s liner notes claim a sameness in the construction and music of this Concerto and the Introduzione, aria e toccata, the Cello Concerto, and his purely instrumental Concerto of 1937, and he may indeed be right. I only have, or have heard, the first-named of these, and there is indeed a strong similarity to this Triple Concerto. Still, it is an excellent work; and, as Gallagher also points out, the composer thought the middle movement of this Concerto one of his finest pieces.


Ghedini’s music is almost uniformly original and inventive by comparison. The opening movement of his Concerto dell’albatro, marked Largo at a tempo of quarter note = 46, bears a striking resemblance to the music of Pïteris Vasks—but Vasks, born in the 1940s, only came to composition long after Ghedini’s death. Indeed, the only movement in this amazing work that struck me as somewhat artificially contrived was the fast movement (No. 4, Allegro vivace – Poco a poco animando – Lentamente ), a mere succession of rapid note patterns in an ambiguous jumble of tonality and an annoying, almost aggressive 6/8 rhythm. Carlo Doglioni Majer’s narration of Melville’s story is cool and detached.


Without having any prior knowledge of these works. I nonetheless enjoyed them both tremendously. The three soloists, though not strong personalities, are all fine musicians and the orchestra plays sublimely under Iorio’s baton. And here, wonder of wonders, Naxos’s sonics are excellent. This is, simply, a remarkably fine disc.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

The fortunes of the viola as a solo instrument enjoyed a remarkable upsurge during the first half of the 20th Century. Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata ranks among her finest compositions while Frank Bridge’s Four Pieces convey both melodic charm and elegiac warmth. Theodore Holland’s appealing Suite exploits the viola’s tender tones and jaunty potential. Arthur Bliss’s Intermezzo, transcribed from his Piano Quartet and William Walton’s Canzonetta and Scherzetto, originally for violin, complement Arnold Bax’s haunting Legend and Vaughan Williams’s posthumously performed Romance. Matthew Jones has been hailed by The Strad magazine as ‘a worthy successor to Lionel Tertis’. A major prize-winner from the Royal College of Music, Michael Hampton performs on major stages around the world.

Lubox Fiser was one of the most influential and versatile Czech composers of the twentieth century, with a prolific and impressive body of work for the stage, screen and concert hall. Fiser’s eight piano sonatas (of which the second is lost), were composed for the instrument described by the composer as ‘his greatest love of all.’ Retaining a special place in Fiser’s oeuvre, they became an intimate diary of his constantly evolving compositional style, from his student days and the neo-classical Sonata No. 1, through the experimental sonatas of the 1960s and 1970s, to the simplicity of melodic line and the immediate emotional impact of the final sonata, No. 8.

The Kodály Quartet completes its Schubert cycle with this imposing performance of his final work in the genre. Quartet No. 15 often has been likened to the music of Bruckner, and many ensembles have followed this notion with symphonic-styled performances. The Kodály takes an opposite tack, presenting the work as an outgrowth of late Beethoven informed by Schubert's lyrical sensibility. The result is a classically oriented performance with relatively quick pacing married to deft, vibrant phrasing.


The first movement especially gains from this approach, here sounding more incisive than the slower, meditative readings by the Italiano and Juilliard quartets. In fact, in terms of tempo the Kodály is closest to the Alban Berg Quartet--though that ensemble's EMI performance, with its reverberant recording, offers an expansive sonic environment that is outside the realm of chamber music. With the Kodály you are definitely aware of four people playing four instruments, thanks to Naxos' intimate (though somewhat bass-heavy) recording perspective.


The first movement's energetic pulse informs the scherzo and (to a lesser degree) the finale, while the Andante flows at a perfectly judged walking pace. But tempo is only part of the story, as the Kodály's rhythmic precision gives the music a sense of sizzling immediacy, while the careful exposition of Schubert's beautiful themes exudes Old World romanticism. In all, it's a masterful performance, certainly different from the grand statements of the Alban Berg or Verdi Quartet, but attractive and insightful enough to intrigue newcomers to this work as surely as it delights veterans. This, plus the ensemble's lively reading of Schubert's Five German Dances, makes this a disc a worthy choice.
--Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

Jaan Rääts has written prolifically for the piano and his ten sonatas, spanning half a century, reveal his sophisticated control of expressive gestures. The composer himself has said: "I don't like rigid systems. I like absorbing musical material, filtering it, emotionally developing it as needed. Using it as a springboard for my imagination..."

Here comes yet another cycle from Naxos, this time Ferruccio Busoni's piano music. Presumably this overview will encompass all the original works and transcriptions. Busoni's original compositions, in fact, often behave like transcriptions. The mighty Fantasia Contrappuntistica, for example, is a full blown fantasia with the final, unfinished contrapunctus of Bach's The Art of Fugue as its centerpiece. An die Jugend's five movements pay a sort of hommage to keyboard styles past and present (meaning Busoni's present). The Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esecizio's whole-tone scales sound like Debussy echt Deutsch. The third movement is essentially Bach's D major Prelude and Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 with discreet textural padding, followed by the prelude and fugue ingenuously combined.


It reminds me of Godowsky's chicanery (his combination of Chopin's "Black Key" and "Butterfly" Etudes, for example), but minus the fun. Like Messiaen and Reger, Busoni's music is utterly devoid of humor, and it requires a special kind of pianist. Although Wolf Harden may not possess the visionary drive and narrative sweep distinguishing recorded Fantasia Contrappuntistici from Christopher O'Riley, John Ogdon, Alfred Brendel, and Egon Petri (the latter two were on long-out-of-print mono LPs), there's much to savor in his clean fingerwork and rich, bass-oriented sonority. He digs into Busoni's massive chord climaxes like a hungry trencherman about to enjoy his aged Porterhouse steak, and he shades the composer's polytonal arpeggios with great sensitivity. There's no doubt that Harden has the technique and temperament for this repertoire, and I look forward to more. Next time, however, I hope the piano tuner doesn't leave when the recording sessions start.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The second release in the Naxos Geirr Tveitt survey comprises two orchestral suites drawn from A Hundred Hardanger Tunes Op. 151. There are not--and never were--a full hundred, but what survives are four orchestral sets of 15 pieces each. A further group was lost in the disastrous fire at Tveitt's ancestral farmstead in 1970 that resulted in the destruction of most of his completed works. Tveitt lived in the Hardanger region of western Norway, and the folk tunes (the "Hardingtonar") were collected by the composer during his travels throughout the locality. The material often is humorously orchestrated, most cleverly in the second group heard here, the Suite No. 4 "Brudlaups-Suiten" ("Wedding Suite"). This set takes the form of a programmatic representation of a traditional Nordic wedding and includes such graphic episodes as Hardanger Tune No. 58 "Brura-drammane" or "The Bride's Drink". Here, a peasant has slipped something into the bride's beverage and the first bassoon gives a risible portrayal of its undesired laxative effects! This account uses the recently completed edition by Bjarte Engeset, who directs a capable and attractive performance and secures a colorfully idiomatic response from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.


Suite No. 1 (un-titled) has been recorded previously on the Simax label by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Per Dreier. Although Dreier's is marginally better-engineered than Engeset's Naxos disc, there's little to choose between these two well-paced, evenly-balanced performances. If you're interested in Tveitt's music, try out this budget CD; the music is entertaining enough to fully justify the minimal outlay, and you can't go wrong with Engeset's strongly committed readings of both suites.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

TVEITT: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 5

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 9

HAYDN: Cello Concertos Nos. 1, 2 and 4