Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

“Elegance and poetry... silvery tone, beautifully controlled… phrases flowing and immaculate.” (Okinawa News) Italian virtuoso flutist Raffaele Trevisani continues to exemplify such praise in this, his ninth Delos recording. His graceful elegance and interpretive warmth are evident in this all-Mozart program containing some of his loveliest music despite his rather low regard for the flute. A rare bonus is the faithful transcription for flute of the masterly Quartet for Oboe, K370. Mr. Trevisani’s three collaborators are members of the renowned Suk Chamber Orchestra.

Delos exercises its penchant for rare and eclectic repertoire yet again with this recording of two highly significant 20th c. works for piano trio by Armenian master Arno Babadjanian (1921-83) and the legendary Latvian composer Peteris Vasks (b. 1946). The Potch Trio is one of South Africa’s most distinguished chamber ensembles. Their collective skill, emotional depth, interpretive intensity and glowing sound place them among the finest ensembles of their kind. “...both (works)…recognize suffering as well as bliss. Both emphasize beauty.” - Piet Koornhof

Tobias Brostrom is one of the hottest, young Swedish composers today, and on this album Vasteras Sinfonietta presents his Cello Concerto with Mats Rondin, and Samsara-Double Concerto with Hugo Ticciati/violin, and Johan Bridger/marimba. Apart from the Vasteras Sinfonietta and members of the Swedish National Youth Orchestra conducted by Johannes Gustavsson, essens:1 interprets the bonus work 'Dreamscape' for electric violin and electric clarinet.

Classical Music

This new release features even more world premiere recordings of the music of Amanda Maier (1853-1894). Amanda Maier was a Swedish-German composer, was married to fellow composer Julius Rontgen and was a close friend of Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and other great musicians of the time. The first volume of her music, released in 2016, was a huge success. On Volume 2, leading Swedish violinist Cecilia Zilliacus and pianist Bengt Forsberg perform Maier’s beautiful violin sonata, and Nine pieces for violin and piano. Soprano Sabina Bisholt makes her recording debut with her interpretation of Maier’s great songs. Eight of these seventeen tracks are world premiere recordings.

In addition to being the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra's principal flutist, Iceland native Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson has forged a distinguished simultaneous career as a soloist and chamber musician. On this, his debut solo CD he offers an impressive and varied program of classic works for flute and piano by mainstream composers, plus a haunting unaccompanied flute novelty composed by a fellow Icelander. Michael McHale, with whom Mr. Höskuldsson collaborates, is one of Ireland's leading all-around pianists. "Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson played with agility and warmth" - New York Times.

Classical Music

What a shame that these works aren't better known by the chamber-music-loving public!

Listeners who are familiar only with Glazunov's symphonic oeuvre or incidental music could well be surprised at his string quartets. They are personal works, generally serious in tone and tersely argued, brilliantly conceived for the medium. The color and evocative imagery of his orchestral music is replaced by an ease—even a playfulness—with counterpoint that never descends into the merely academic. What a shame that these works (and similar compositions by Sergei Taneyev) aren't better known by the chamber-music-loving public!

The String Quartet No. 5 dates from 1908, toward the end of Glazunov's abruptly foreshortened compositional career. (Contrary to legend, he didn't cease composing because of "the political world changing around him" or any other such romantic nonsense. Glazunov stopped because of the extremely heavy responsibilities associated with the directorship of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he assumed in 1905 and held effectively until 1928.) It is one of his finest works, and a composition of great charm and subtlety, if perhaps a shade less immediately accessible than his String Quartet No 3, the so-called "Slavonic" (after its use of predominantly folk idioms).

The performing group on this release, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, was created in 1985 by Leningrad Conservatory graduates (yes, Glazunov's old stomping grounds). Despite their origins, this ensemble is in the modern "American" quartet mold of four equal voices whose balance inclines toward intense musical dialog rather than homogeneity of sound. This approach works very well in the Quartet No. 5, given its concentration on contrapuntal texture. Unfortunately, there are no currently competing versions I'm aware of on CD. An old Melodiya LP featuring the celebrated Shostakovich Quartet offers one of the finest "old style" quartets in this work, with a rich, plumy sound and extraordinary attention to dynamics; still I prefer the SPSQ's more linear reading.

Glazunov's Five Novelettes, composed in 1886, represent his other, more "public" side, offering delight to players and audiences alike without great intellectual effort. Each movement is ostensibly in a distinct nationalistic style: the first "In Spanish Style," the last "In Hungarian Style," and so on. But these are national styles seen through deliberately Russian folk-tinged glasses. While the third movement ("Interlude in the Old Style") does create a series of fine variations on what sounds like a Slavonic chant, the "Orientale" of the second movement is simply a pleasing scherzo in Glazunov's best Borodinesque manner.

Not surprisingly. The SPSQ has slightly more competition, here, and some of it is excellent. The Calvet Sring Quartet delivers a strongly nuanced 1931 reading of the "Olden Style" movement (Lys 298/9), while the Hollywood Quartet (Testament 1061, originally recorded in the 1950s) offers an energized, dynamic reading of all tlve pieces, wonderfully blended. The Shostakovich Quartet's superb tone is formidable again in several movements on another out-of-print LP (which, hopefully, someone will reissue, someday) -surely beauty of tone was on Glazunov's mind, given the expert performers at his disposal in turn-of-the-century Russia. But the SPSQ scores in the "Orientale" movement, whose trio is delivered over a vibratoless drone. I've not heard that interpretation before, but Glazunov, who was supposedly an expert on regional folk music, would probably have delighted in the effect.

All in all, this is a highly attractive CD of two rarely heard but compelling works, performed and recorded (in a closely miked environment) immaculately. Let's hope that the SPSQ continues with further explorations into the world of Glazunov's chamber music, for there are more gems out there.

Barry Brenesal, Fanfare, Issue 25:2 (Nov/Dec 2001)

This long-overdue tribute to the French Romantic-era virtuoso cellist and composer August Franchomme brings to light many of his long-neglected original compositions and arrangements for cello(s), most of which have remained unpublished and unheard for well over a century. This release thus fills a longstanding gap in the annals of music history, revealing fresh perspectives on an important and influential figure of his day whose significant role has long been underappreciated. As Chopin’s close friend, confidante and musical partner, Franchomme transcribed many of the Polish master’s famous piano works for cellos in various combinations and/or with piano; he penned many remarkable original compositions as well. Some of the best of both are recorded here for the first time. This project is the culmination of years of research by distinguished cellist Louise Dubin, who is also perhaps the world’s leading scholar of Franchomme’s life and work. She performs here as lead cellist, with the sonorous collaboration of fellow cellists Julia Bruskin, Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir and Katherine Cherbas as well as pianists Hélène Jeanney and Andrea Lam.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music