Duration: c. 29 minutesFormat: 64-page piano / 20-page recorderFor me, as for many children, the first musical instrument was the recorder. My father brought one home for me when I was three. Through playing the recorder, I learned to read music to a decent standard at an early age, which was very helpful. Although I ranged across a multitude a woodwind instruments before going on to become a composer, I never stopped playing the recorder. So, in 2009, when Leanne Nichols of the Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra asked me to write a concerto for Michala Petri, I was very happy to take on the commission. My only problem was that I was doing a lot of travelling at the time, but I soon found a way around this. I took two recorders with me everywhere. One was a soprano (descant) instrument;the other was a digital recorder. Whenever I was able to find the time, I would try out ideas for the concerto and make recordings, building up an archive that I could refer back to. My favourite location for this strange activity was the church of Furnas on the little island of São Miguel, in the Azores. I was in there for several hours and recorded a lot of new material, all of which eventually found its way into the piece. I met Michala for the first time in Hong Kong about a week before the premiere of Concerto Incantato. I told her that when she arrived on the scene as a child wonder recorder player, in the 1970s, I determined absolutely not go head to head with her in the recorder world. She is a few years younger than me and my mind was almost made up already, but she influenced my choic eof career markedly, nudging me towards composing, rather than performing. I won’t say I’ve never looked back, but when I hear Michala playing, I think I made the right decision.   [Richard Harvey]

Beethoven’s gifted pupil Ferdinand Ries was never entirely forgotten, but it is only in recent years that cpo and Hermann Max dedicated themselves with great success to the rediscovery of this spirited late classicist and romanticist. His oratorio Der Sieg des Glaubens heard here for the first time since 1829, celebrates the triumph of believers of gentle heart.

HERZOGENBERG Quintet in E?. Trio in D • Orsolino Qnt members; Oliver Triendl (pn) • cpo 777 081 (51:16)


Readers will already know from prior reviews, both mine and those of other contributors, that of Brahms’s many contemporaries and wannabes Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843–1900) was the closest of all of them to the elder composer, both professionally and personally. After all, they shared a romantic interest in the same woman, Elisabet von Stockhausen, who came close to marrying Brahms, and who then married Herzogenberg when Brahms dumped her. The relationship between the two men could not have been a comfortable one, and Herzogenberg didn’t help matters any with his toadying behavior towards Brahms, as if merely breathing the master’s exhaled air would somehow fill his own sails with the winds of inspiration. But not even modest talent, let alone genius, is transferable through osmosis.


Herzogenberg did in fact possess a modicum of talent of his own, most evident when he wasn’t trying so hard to imitate Brahms. And that comes through in these two delightful chamber works. The E?-Major Quintet, written in 1883, is scored for the unusual combination of oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano. Few such works exist for this combination of instruments, Mozart’s K 452, Beethoven’s op. 16, and Friedrich Witt’s op. 5 being the best-known—possibly the only known—examples. All share the same key of E? as the most logical compromise and accommodation to the two transposing instruments, the clarinet and the horn. Though Herzogenberg’s quintet would not be as easily mistaken for Brahms as some of his other works, it does exude something of the relaxed, engaging character of Brahms’s much earlier A-Major Serenade. And its last movement, as well as the third movement of the oboe trio, with its running triplets, does call to mind Brahms’s op. 40 Trio for violin, horn, and piano.


The Trio in D for oboe, horn, and piano was written in 1889 during Herzogenberg’s stay in Nice, where he had gone, with Elisabet, to recover from a serious illness. Described by the composer himself as “jolly and so new,” the piece is obviously one of good spirits that reflects the warm Mediterranean clime and Herzogenberg’s improved state of health. In terms of its instrumentation, the trio has even fewer precedents than the quintet, an 1886 work by Carl Reinecke being the only known example, and one that apparently Herzogenberg was unaware of when he wrote his own trio.


The two works on this disc make two things about Herzogenberg abundantly clear. First, he had a life independent of Brahms, and a fairly rich one at that. A Bach scholar of no mean accomplishment, he took up residence in Leipzig where, with Philipp Spitta, he established the Leipzig Bach-Verein, which dedicated itself to the revival of Bach’s cantatas. During his 10-year directorship of the institute, he taught composition to a number of students, one of whom was Ethel Smyth. Relocating to Berlin, he then took up the post of professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik, where he advised Vaughan Williams to study with Max Bruch. Herzogenberg’s catalog of compositions is far larger than current listings of recordings would indicate. It includes major choral works, among which is a requiem, a mass, a number of large-scale oratorios, eight symphonies, a violin concerto, and a vast amount of chamber music.


The second thing we learn is that as a composer, Herzogenberg was not just a conservative—in itself not an indictment, as many composers of this time and milieu, which included Fuchs, Reinecke, and Bruch, among others—were also “old-school” traditionalists—but that he lacked their gift for lyrical melody and the grand Romantic gesture. As one listens to the quintet and trio on this disc, what emerges is a sunny, somewhat carefree disposition, one in which the rustic charm and blithe surfaces are never rippled by any momentous or memorable events. Despite their four-movement classically structured forms and their chamber-music category titles, in musical character these are serenades or divertimento-type works—likeable enough but unremarkable.


Remarkably good, however, are the performances by the Orsolino Quintet, a young German-Austrian ensemble founded in 1996. This is one of those groups from which individual members are drawn on an as-needed basis, depending on the scoring of the work at hand. The services of flutist Walter Auer, for example—one of the Orsolino’s permanent five—are not required in this instance. All players are also members of major orchestras: Jochen Tschabrun is principal clarinet in Frankfurt-am-Main’s RSO; Anne Angerer is principal oboe in Stuttgart’s Southwest RSO; Jan Wessely is deputy principal horn in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; and Marion Reinhard is double-bassoonist in the Berlin Philharmonic. Thus, it comes as no surprise that articulation, intonation, phrasing, and ensemble balance are at the highest professional levels. Joined by pianist Oliver Triendl, and given every advantage by cpo’s excellent recording, these performers make as good a case as any can for a composer who, despite the heroic efforts on his behalf, is not likely to rescind the “DNR” stamped on his medical chart.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

KLEINE NACHTMUSIK KV 525, CONC

Let's start with the "filler", because it's a very interesting one. Rautavaara's The Fiddlers originally was composed as a piano suite, as played here, and later arranged for string orchestra. For this performance, a fine one by Paavali Jumppanen, Pekka Kuusisto offers solo violin versions of the original folk tunes that Rautavaara selected for his suite. The result is fascinating; the tunes are about what you'd expect--robust, folk-fiddle melodies--but Rautavaara extracts a vast amount of variety and emotional nuance from them, using the basic material in often surprising ways. Check out the second tune, Kopsin Jonas, for example, as it enters evocatively in the bass over a swirling treble ostinato. Great stuff!

Rautavaara has composed very little for violin and piano, or (in the case of Variétude) for solo violin. There are mostly occasional works, but they are no less finely crafted for that. The excitingly brief Dithyrambos and Notturno e danza deliver what their titles suggest, while the other pieces are all nostalgic mood-pieces, often very beautiful. The major work here is Lost Landscapes, a four-movement violin sonata in all but name, with each movement offering a portrait of one of the composer's youthful haunts: Tanglewood, Ascona, Rainergasse 11, Vienna, and West 23rd Street, NY.

Kuusisto, as we have every reason to expect, plays very well, with plenty of color in his tone; and as already suggested, Jumppanen also does an excellent job, whether as accompanist or taking over the spotlight. The sonics are generally excellent, well balanced, and perhaps just a bit bright in the violin's upper register. Ondine's Rautavaara recordings really are major additions to the contemporary music scene. This one is no exception.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 & HANDEL V

As a boy during the years 1822–23 Liszt studied in Vienna with Czerny and Salieri, at the same time as Schubert was winning his reputation as a leading composer in the city. Many years later Liszt did much to introduce Schubert’s music to a wider audience, not least through his prodigious transcriptions. In the case of the Three Marches and Mélodies hongroises, Liszt selected music originally written for piano duet, but in Soirées de Vienne, a set of nine pieces of which some were to remain prominent in Liszt’s concert repertoire, he fashioned a sequence of truly memorable valse-caprices.

Daqun Jia: Chamber Works

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Symphony No. 3 / Sinfonietta Op. 31

Classical Music

Recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and a GRAMMY Award, William Bolcom is one of America’s most senior and internationally acclaimed composers. Commissioned to expand upon the under-represented horn trio repertoire, Bolcom has written a modern counterpart to Brahms’ Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano, Op. 40, in which he incorporates multiple styles into a substantial composition. The Suite No. 2 for Solo Violin is by turns frenzied, melancholic and light-hearted. Bolcom states, “Both works are performed beautifully and well recorded. Bravi tutti!”

Includes work(s) by Georg Philipp Telemann. Ensemble: Cologne Camerata.

Including recently discovered works recorded here for the first time. Première Recording* For the first release, Cello Classics has chosen to bring out something of a coup, in hitherto unplayed works by the first great composer for the cello to achieve universal recognition, Luigi Boccherini. Three of the sonatas on this disc have been obtained from manuscripts until recently in a private collection, and provide a wonderful addition to the classical cello repertoire. Sebastian Comberti has been involved in the period instrument revival in London since the early 1980s and has made the study of late 18th Century cello repertoire something of a speciality. This recording has been made using original instruments with a continuo team unusually comprising archlute/guitar and cello, providing a rich and yet light accompaniment to these delightful works. It is bound to be of interest to lovers of the cello and scholars alike

Classical Music

KORNGOLD String Quartets Nos. 1-3; Piano Quintet 1 • Aron Qrt; 1 Henri Sigfridsson • CPO 777 436-2 (2 CDs: 103:24)


“I feel it—and can’t comprehend it—can’t retain it—and yet can’t forget it; and if I grasp it all, I can’t measure it. … No rule would fit it, and yet there was no error in it.”


Hans Sachs’s rumination from the act II “Fliedermonolog” of Die Meistersinger is a perfect summation of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music. At once gay yet wistful, familiar yet elusive, inviting yet unsettling, it aurally distilled all the complex contradictions of fin de siècle Vienna, preserving it for generations to come and carrying it into exile in America after the debacle of World War I. If the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. embody a carefree present moment, the works of Korngold preserve and nurture nostalgic memories of a lost past, ardently clinging and seeking to re-create those, that it might still dwell in them rather than an alien present.


The four works in this set, spanning almost a quarter-century from 1921 to 1945, offer refractions of those memories over a generation. The Piano Quintet and First String Quartet, composed almost simultaneously, present two decidedly different faces. The Quintet acts as if nothing has been lost; it is gay and brilliant, with unabashed romantic ardor emphasized by sweeping runs in the keyboard part. The outer movements are energetic, while the lyrical second movement employs an utterly haunting, gorgeous theme from Korngold’s song “Mond, so gehst du wieder auf” (Moon, Thus Risest Thou Again) from his op. 14 song cycle Lieder der Abschied (Songs of Farewell); once heard, it simply won’t leave one’s head. The First Quartet, by contrast, is more introspective and even melancholic at points; its backwards longing has a certain assertive determination to it. A far greater reliance on chromaticism and freer employment of spicy dissonance give it a constantly edgy, unsettled character, with an antsy, off-kilter Intermezzo and quirky Finale that includes a jaunty, almost Vaughan Williams-like march fragment as a second subject (Korngold inscribed the movement’s opening page with a quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It ).


The Second Quartet dates from the summer of 1933, near the close of a period of several years’ involvement by Korngold with operetta, and just before his first visit to Hollywood. It is a microcosm of melodic and harmonic devices that Korngold would employ so brilliantly in years to come as a composer of film scores. Given Hitler’s recent assumption of power in neighboring Germany, the first, second, and fourth movements would almost seem to be a perverse denial of reality. The opening Allegro epitomizes the skittish music of the Hollywood light romance; the Scherzo is all charming, gently smiling bustle; the Finale is, improbably, a witty, chatty waltz, but one of a decidedly un-Straussian character. All the more surprising, then, is the third-movement Larghetto, beginning with open harmonics like an icy chill (almost hinting at the Second Viennese School), eventually succeeded by a melody of melancholic yearning that seeks to cling to a wistfully remembered but unrecoverable comfort and security.


The Third Quartet dates from 1945, at a juncture in Korngold’s Hollywood exile when, dispirited by academic critical disdain and convinced his film scores were destined for oblivion, he had secretly decided to turn back to composition in more “serious” genres. Dedicated to a longtime friend and near neighbor in exile, the conductor Bruno Walter, it shows Korngold adopting a leaner, more astringent melodic and harmonic language. The melodic material is more fragmentary and questioning; the dissonances more frequent and unresolved. The scherzo has a jittery, almost neurotic character to its outer sections, as short, choppy interjections repeatedly disrupt an incipient moto perpetuo , from which a brief lyrical interlude provides only momentary relief. The slow movement bespeaks stifled grief and haunting bitterness over shattered hopes, with searing pain expressed by violins playing in the higher register as the viola and cello grind out clashing chords below. Only the finale, with its Stravinskian flavor and vigorously offbeat cascades of 16th notes, offers a somewhat hesitantly upbeat finale.


The only other complete set of the quartets is by the Flesch Quartet, originally recorded for ASV and now available on a budget reissue from Brilliant Classics. In Fanfare 23:2 Martin Anderson had high praise for its rendition of the Third Quartet and Sextet (the filler there instead of the Piano Quintet here). If those performances were more competitive, the budget price would tilt a recommendation toward the older set. However, the new cpo set completely outclasses its predecessor at every level, both interpretively and sonically. The Aron Quartet plays with immaculate ensemble and intonation, with far richer tone and irresistible zest and tenderness; the Flesch ensemble is almost lethargic in comparison, with its overall timings averaging almost 15 percent slower. (For example, the respective timings for the First Quartet movements are 7:26, 7:41, 4:42, and 8:07 vs. 8:47, 9: 56, 4:37, and 9:09.) Although its spirit may be willing, the Flesch is relatively weak. Henri Sigfridsson is a perfect teammate for the Aron players in the Quintet, which is likewise far ahead of rival versions such as the uninspired Marco Polo recording. The recorded sound is exemplary in every way. One complaint: This is shockingly short timing for a two-CD set. There is no reason that all three quartets could not have been put on a single CD, and another work such as the Piano Quartet included on the second disc. Nevertheless, this album is a stellar contribution to the ongoing and much needed Korngold renaissance, and is urgently recommended for all devotees of that once unjustly maligned but now belatedly appreciated master of late Romanticism.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

This release concludes the CPO exploration of the song oeuvre of Johannes Brahms. Time of course has taken nothing away from the enduringly high value of the song interpretations by top artists like Juliane Banse, Ingeborg Danz, Andreas Schmidt, Christoph Prégardien, and others. Already the sheer quantity of twenty duets and twenty-seven quartets as well as the eighteen Liebeslieder-Walzer and fifteen Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer still mostly designed as vocal quartets clearly demonstrate that settings for more than one solo voice have an important place in Brahms’s lied oeuvre. Although the quartets in principle were written for ensembles of soloists, from the very beginning choral performance for presentation in the concert hall formed an alternative that at least was tolerated by the composer. While Brahms himself could not decide about the ideal ensemble dimensions, solo or choral, for the two series of Liebeslieder-Walzer, for the Quartets op. 64 he even expressly reckoned with the possibility, as he stated to his publisher, that the settings “occasionally would be sung by a little choir.” Things were different with the duets: they belonged to the core inventory of middle-class home performance in the nineteenth century and were even more strongly anchored there than the solo lied beginning in the 1850s, when the increasing number of lieder recitals meant that this song form more frequently found its way to the concert hall.

BAROQUE TRUMPET (THE ART OF THE), Vol. 2

C. Loewe: Lieder & Balladen, Vol. 21

RACHMANINOV: Piano Transcriptions and Arrangements

Jeremy Justeson is one of America's finest saxophonists, and this is his debut recording on the American Modern Recordings (AMR) label. This recording contains seven contemporary works, all of which feature the saxophone, and most include at least one other musician. All of the pieces in this album are world premiere recordings, and a few feature the composers performing their own works. Works include: Pistol Packin' Mamma for alto sax, violin and piano; Walimai for also sax and piano; Sultana for soprano sax and piano; schizo 'squito for solo alto sax; Tongue and Groove for alto sax and five-octave marimba (four mallet version); Spirit for alto sax and piano, and Pimpin' for baritone sax and recording. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH TRACK • Pistol Packin' Mamma is about three conflicting personalities that are very rarely in harmony with each other • Walimai is inspired by a character in Isabel Allende's fascinating collection "Cuentos de Eva Luna" • Sultana takes it's name from a female sultan • schizo 'squito is inspired by the schizophrenic life of a mosquito • Tongue and Groove is inspired by carpentry, rhythmic interplay, fast tonguing and oral sex • The title Spirit refers to raising one's spirits and the general tone is one of warmth and positive emotion • Pimpin', the title track, is the only work on the album not by an American composer, and is based on original speech by American pimps and prostitutes JEREMY JUSTESON BIO Jeremy Justeson has performed as an orchestral soloist and recitalist across the United States, Europe and Asia. Dr. Justeson currently serves as Professor of Saxophone and Director of the Wind Ensemble at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Active regionally, nationally, and internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, clinician, and conductor, Dr. Justeson has appeared in venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium and Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall, Dallas' Meyerson Center, San Antonio Symphony Hall, Allentown Symphony Hall and San Diego's Copley Symphony Hall. A proponent of new music, Jeremy Justeson has premiered numerous pieces, worked with many of the day's leading composers and performs as a member of the New York City based, American Modern Ensemble. He also serves as the Executive Director of the CASE Arts Group, Inc. a non-profit arts organization supporting performances and commissions of new music. Current CASE projects include a consortium commission of composer Joan Tower for her first original work for solo saxophone. Jeremy Justeson's celebrated debut CD Juggernaut is available nationally on the Equilibrium label. A native of San Diego, Jeremy Justeson received the Bachelor of Music degree from California State University, Fullerton, the Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin. Jeremy Justeson's primary saxophone teachers have included James Rötter, Harvey Pittel and Dr. Frederick L. Hemke. Jeremy Justeson is a Selmer Performing Artist and Clinician.

Swiss composer Hermann Suter's works reflects that of the German late-Romantics of his era, including Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, many of whom he conducted when posted in Basel. Suter's three great string quartets document different stations of his musical awareness, thereby revealing much of his artistic personality and of his intellectual world the Beethoven Quartet, founded in 2006 in Beethoven's home town of Bonn, is today based in Basel.

Fortunat Frölich – Wetterleuchten

Edition Luigi Boccherini: String Quartets - String Quintets

Schoenberg, A.: String Quartet No. 2 / Webern, A.: Langsamer

HERZOGENBERG String Quartet, op. 18. String Quintet, op. 77 1 • Minguet Qrt; 1 Peter Langgartner (va) • CPO 777 083-2 (58:40)


If Brahms’s name had been attached to Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s String Quintet, that work might be in the basic repertoire by now. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, but not by very much. In fact, Herzogenberg’s String Quintet (1892) is the next best thing to a newly discovered work by Brahms. If one were to present it as such, no doubt many listeners wouldn’t question the attribution. For music to be more Brahmsian, it would have to be by Brahms himself.


None of this is terribly surprising, as Herzogenberg and his wife, Elisabeth, were more than simply passing acquaintances with Brahms. Elisabeth had been Brahms’s piano pupil, and some have argued that the elder composer had a crush on his young student, and when Elisabeth married Heinrich in 1866, Brahms became jealous, in spite of himself. The couple kept up correspondence with Brahms, and Heinrich, an accomplished composer himself, shared his work with Brahms, whose approval was at best grudging. Herzogenberg’s music isn’t exclusively an imitation of Brahms’s, but many of his works—the op. 77 String Quintet in particular—are in a decidedly Brahmsian style. I was tempted to add “for better or worse” to the last sentence, but the stylistic similarities are very much for the better. It is amusing to hear the last movement trace a similar path as the analogous movement in Brahms’s First Symphony. The “big tune,” which appears after considerable preparation, could even be a variant of Brahms’s melody (which in turn, as “any ass can see,” was a variant of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”). Alas, this work was written in the wake of Elisabeth’s death early in 1892, but of mourning there is little trace. I don’t know what Elizabeth Kübler-Ross would have thought about this quintet, but Herzogenberg hardly wallows in grief here, apparently preferring to work through his feelings in a more positive fashion.


If anything, the D-Minor String Quartet, which dates from 1876, is more tragic. Up until this point in his life, Herzogenberg had been a devotee of Wagner, but it was around this time that he turned from Wagner to Brahms. This quartet doesn’t sound like Wagner, and it sounds much less like Brahms than the Piano Quintet. With Herzogenberg lacking a strong musical personality, it also fails to sound like Herzogenberg (whatever that might be), but in every other way it is an assured and respectable work. Hearing it is not a waste of one’s time, although I expect that most listeners will focus their attention on the later work. (As if to foil those same listeners, cpo has placed op. 77 before op. 18. I suspect I am not the only listener too lazy or too passive to switch the CD halfway through.)


These recordings date from 2008 (op. 77) and 2005 (op. 18), and are the Minguet Quartet’s second Herzogenberg disc for this label. (Cpo 777 082-2 contains the op. 17 Piano Quintet and the op. 63 String Quartet.) This is a German ensemble, formed in 1988, and named after a Spanish philosopher who believed that the fine arts should be made accessible to the general populace. The Minguet Quartet does just that, performing these works with the sort of fervor that makes even casual listeners pay attention. They don’t overdo it, however, and those who deplore emotionally sloppy performances of Brahms (as well they should) will not be turned off by the playing here, which is eloquent, masculine, and always in control. In the String Quintet, violist Peter Langgartner’s addition is seamless—so much so that one can’t tell where he begins and where the Minguets leave off. The booklet notes are brief, but only by cpo’s standards, and the engineering is all one could wish for. Strongly recommended to those who love Brahms, mostly for the yummy String Quintet.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle