Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The feast of the Nativity held a special place in the hearts and lives of Italian nuns. In a letter to archbishop Federigo Borromeo, a Milanesenun thanked him for his gift of a lute which “has cheered all of the nuns with me, [...] and thus on the night of Holy Christmaswe went to play Matins to all the nuns, singing Gloria in excelsis [...]”. This recording presents works composed by and for these women that might have been heard or performed at Christmastime, andthey call for a great variety of forces ranging from solo voices to double choirs of both singers and instruments. The nun composers represented include the Ursulines Maria Xaveria Perucona and Isabella Leonarda, author of 20 collectionsof vocal and instrumental music; Chiara Margarita Cozzolani and her conventual sister Rosa Giacinta Badalla from the renownedMilanese convent of Santa Radegonda; and Caterina Assandra, composer and dedicatee of various collections. The CD also featuresworks by eminent male composers (Massenzio, Rota, Reina, Speer et al.) and dedicated to these remarkable cloistered musicians.

Classical Music

Classical Music

A little less than half of Chopin’s complete surviving Mazurkas make up this 2009 release, ordered not according to opus number but for the purpose of an effective program that can sustain one’s interest for 80 minutes. The Mazurkas hold up under many different interpretive game plans, from Ignaz Friedman’s robust, epic statements to the perfumed intimacy of Maryla Jonas and Guiomar Novaes, not to mention Arthur Rubinstein’s three very different complete Mazurka cycles. Koroliov evokes Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s lapidarian finger work, wide dynamic range, and subjective poetry. You hear this in Op. 6 No. 1’s fastidious voicing of the central section’s leaps, although Michelangeli’s monumental left-hand droning fifths in Op. 56 No. 2 never lilted like Koroliov’s do here.

The pianist lends interest to the rather uneventful Op. 24 No. 1 by slightly accenting the dissonances, while his gentle way with the implicitly boisterous Op. 7 No. 1 is offset by striking phrase elongations and cross-rhythmic interplay in the deliciously modal Trio. Similarly, Op. 24 No. 2’s pared down outer sections contrast to the surprisingly rolled, loud A-flat major chords announcing its Trio. In fact, Koroliov is not averse to arpeggiating chords at will, or playing the left hand slightly before the right, dead pianist style, yet he employs these devices wisely. Deft polyphonic control justifies Koroliov’s admittedly pulled-about Op. 24 No. 4 and Op. 56 No. 3, while his mesmerizing legato control in the A minor “Émile Gaillard” Mazurka similarly convinces you that his unorthodox slow tempo is a plausible alternative.

Koroliov’s Chopin Mazurkas aren’t so much dances as distinct and diversified dramas, and he brings off his conceptions without a trace of ambiguity, whether or not you agree with the pianist’s every step. Tacet provides superb engineering and fulsome, high-handed annotations.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

N/A. MUSICA BOHEMICA; JAROSLAV KRCEK, ARTISTIC LEADER. CZECH FOLK SONGS.Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?Â?

Classical Music

ORGAN MUSIC FROM OTTOBEUREN

MAMLOK 5 Capriccios 3,6. Stray Birds. 1,2,11 Fantasy-Variations. 12 Panta Rhei. 7,9,10 5 Bagatelles. 4,8,10 String Quartet No. 2 13. Confluences. 4,7,8,10 Kontraste 3,5 • 1 Phyllis Bryn-Julson (sop); 2 Harvey Sollberger (fl); 3 Heinz Holliger (ob); 4 Helge Harding (cl); 5 Urusla Holliger (hp); 6 Anton Kernjak, 7 Heather O’Donnell (pn); 8 Kirsten Harms, 9 Susanne Zapf (vn); 10 Cosima Gerhardt, 11 Fred Sherry, 12 Jakob Spahn (vc); 13 Sonar Qrt • BRIDGE 9360 (72:45 Text and Translation)


This is the third disc from Bridge devoted to the music of Ursula Mamlok; I reviewed the second in Fanfare 34:6. Like its predecessor, it offers an attractive and varied conspectus of the music of this impressive composer. Again the works cover a wide span of time, here from Stray Birds (1963, written when the composer was 40) to Kontraste (2010). It is gratifying to hear no falling-off of quality; indeed, the consistently high level of inspiration and technique is a hallmark of this disc (if I may be so presumptuous). Also again, we have many multimovement works, here totalling 33 tracks. Most of the movements are short (less than two minutes) and this concision can be hard to take in at first.


It is interesting that seven of the eight works here contain one movement that is far longer than any of the others in the work. In the case of the Five Capriccios for oboe and piano (1968) that open the disc, the final movement, even though it is barely four minutes, is still longer than the other four combined. Curiously, there is no sense in which the structure of any of the works on this disc feels unbalanced, nor does one feel that the shorter movements are breathless, or cut short. Mamlok judges the structures perfectly. In the first of the capriccios, one may think the trick is going to be a limited amount of thematic material in each movement, but the second and fourth capriccios are impassioned and intense with diving and swooping melodic lines. All four create powerful little statements (really, with Mamlok’s music every note has an active, individual purpose) that are then elegantly and coolly meditated upon in the relatively extended finale. In this work each movement is merely given a metronome marking; in later works Mamlok was given to somewhat poetic names for these longer movements. They are typically marked “Still, with utmost simplicity,” “Still, as if suspended,” though there are also a Larghetto , a Molto tranquillo , and so on. It is as if the brisk movements collect the necessary ingredients to enable the slow movement, usually at or toward the end of the work, to happen.


The Five Bagatelles for clarinet, violin, and cello (1988) shows Mamlok’s style becoming somewhat more diatonic. At the same time, every note seems carefully chosen and weighed; the music is written with care and precision, so that even as simple an idea as the insistent oscillating minor third that runs through and characterizes the second movement appears fresh yet inevitable. The odd-numbered pieces are especially good at capturing gaiety and humor while the long penultimate bagatelle, poignant and drawn out, is a satisfying contrast. In the Second String Quartet, from 1998, one can hear Mamlok’s style has subtly shifted again. If in the earlier works discussed the instruments were sharply characterized individuals, always playing against each other—against in the sense of differentiated from, not in an antagonistic way—in the quartet there is, in addition, more concerted music (in the first movement, for example) and even (in the second) momentary deference of an instrument to the others by adopting an accompanying role (I’m thinking of the slow pizzicatos). And, in the third and last movement, real drama and tension, with some sharp shifts of tempo and mood, all in an event-packed four minutes. I think “concision” is probably an unhelpful word for a lot of Mamlok’s music; “compression” would be better. And if I pass over the remaining works on the disc, it is only through lack of space.


The string quartet receives a fine, committed performance from the Sonar Quartet, three of whose members—Kirsten Harms, Susanne Zapf, and Cosima Gerhardt—play in three other works on the discs. Apart from the two Holliger pieces and Stray Birds , the recordings here are a coproduction with German Radio Köln, and they are as fine and meticulous as are the performances and the music itself. The Holliger performances, which open and close the disc, and which are a little cooler in presentation, come from Zürich. Stray Birds is a reissue of a recording previously on CRI. Bridge has done the composer proud. I found it a long disc to review—not, I hasten to add, because I disliked the music, but because it demands and deserves the same attention from the listener that the composer evidently gave it. One didn’t really want to listen to this CD all the way through, preferring to savor a couple of pieces at a time. And, it’s true, I found I needed time to get into the music. But it richly repays the effort and I certainly feel my somewhat neutral response to the earlier disc must be reviewed. This is clearly music that should be heard, which will appeal to the heart as much as the head, and which will enrich as well as entertain.


FANFARE: Jeremy Marchant

RÖNTGEN Serenade (Wind Quintet). Serenade (Wind Septet). Trio for Flute, Oboe, and Bassoon • Linos Ens • CPO 777 127-2 (60:15)


As Jerry Dubins reviewed this disc at some length in Fanfare 36:1, I will make this relatively brief, wanting only to register some degree of dissent from his overall negative judgments. Basically, Dubins liked the rather Brahmsian early Serenade, op. 14, but dismissed the later wind quintet Serenade as a “frivolous, frothy fluff piece” and called the Trio “a work of modest means and even flimsier substance.” He concluded, “If you’re new to Röntgen ... I’d strongly suggest that you start with almost anything else by him than the disc at hand.” I must beg to differ with him regarding the latter two works. While these are indeed occasional pieces rather than major masterworks, they are all ingratiating and provide charming and rewarding listening. While the major influence on the late serenade is indeed, as Dubins notes, Richard Strauss—the clarinet at the opening is reminiscent of that in Till Eulenspiegel , and the end of the third movement sounds much like the music for the little Moorish servant boy from the final bars of Der Rosenkavalier —it also follows in the footsteps of Nielsen’s Quintet. Adjectives that spring to mind are saucy, insouciant, cheeky, and mischievous. It is constructed in a cyclic pattern with a return in the last movement to material from the first movement. The Trio is even closer to Nielsen’s ambit in the more craggy melodic contours and unexpected harmonic twists of its three brief movements. The connection is not surprising; not only was Röntgen an enthusiast for Scandinavian culture, who wrote a biography of his friend Edvard Grieg, but he also played in a string quartet with Carl Nielsen in 1892. It would be interesting to know of any further connections between them. I do admit to being less fond of this piece than of the two serenades, as the slow movement is uningratiating.


I do agree with Dubins regarding the high caliber of the playing of the Linos Ensemble, although in the Trio I do find the oboe to be a bit harsh and off in intonation (perhaps the instrument simply needed to be swabbed out). The recorded sound and booklet notes meet CPO’s usual excellent standards. For those who are particularly fond of the genre of wind serenades, this disc is a welcome addition to its not very sizeable repertoire.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

Classical Music

Classical Music

Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 14 & 21

(...) But what insights into the chemistry, the constructional and structural wonders of these Préludes do Koroliov's musical-pathological dissections allow? They lead into the inside of this texture, invalidating all that one has experienced for frightful - and then again delightful - moments of thinking and feeling. In a peaceable way, they force one to unbiased expose oneself to a strange experience, yet, in the next moment, a familiar experience once again. (Klassik. Heute. De)

Classical Music

Beethoven’s String Quartets are the undisputed sine qua non of the string quartet genre, with all other works in this form, as well as the ensembles themselves who must inevitably perform and record them, measured against this body of work and its associated recordings. The Philharmonia Quartet of Berlin, four members of the BPO, has been termed a "top-flight-ensemble" by the Chicago Tribune, possessing “a heart melting sound” (Boston Globe). An ensemble of thirty years standing, the PQB has established itself as a highly regarded, standard-setting body, and one in great demand worldwide.

Classical Music

This splendid disc was originally released on the Panton label, but happily reappears here on Supraphon. The fact that the conductorless Prague Chamber Orchestra can play this rhythmically tricky music with such confidence bespeaks long familiarity with Martinu's personal idiom. These are, one and all, fabulous pieces, particularly the Toccata e due canzone, a masterwork if ever there was one, and a much darker and more emotionally draining essay than the neo-baroque title might suggest.

Here's the bottom line: these are simply the finest versions of all three works. Tempos are lively, balances true, those long, syncopated, lyrical cantilenas in the first movements of the Tocatta and Sinfonietta soar as if self-propelled. No detail of Martinu's ceaselessly inventive orchestration passes unobserved, and his busy rhythms and obsessive ostinatos never turn mechanical (a potential issue in the Concerto Grosso especially). As usual, the Czech woodwinds (oboes especially) are a joy, and pianist Josef Hála plays delightfully in all three pieces. Excellent sonics offer an ideal combination of warmth and clarity. It doesn't get any better than this.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Taking it's name from Jennifer Higdon' Short Stories, this album explores stylistically diverse music showcasing the saxophone quartet' immense expressive potential.

Mode continues it's Xenakis Edition with the second volume dedicated to his electronic works.

Girolamo Frescobaldi has been one of the most influential composers in the history of Western music. Through his many pupils he influenced keyboard playing and composing throughout Europe. Even Johann Sebastian Bach copied some of his works. Therefore it is quite surprising that - as far as I know - no complete recording of his oeuvre has been released. This year (2010) Brilliant Classics has started a Frescobaldi Edition, which is going to be one of the most important projects in the label's history.

Many of Frescobaldi's works for keyboard are played and included in recordings. But some parts of his oeuvre are largely neglected like the instrumental canzonas and his vocal music. The amount of sacred music in Frescobaldi's oeuvre is rather small: only one collection of motets for one to four voices and basso continuo was published in 1627. There are some motets which were included in collections of pieces by various composers. And then there are the two masses which Sergio Balestracci recorded in Volume 3 of the Frescobaldi Edition.

These masses have been preserved in a single manuscript in the library of the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome. On the organ part of the first of these two masses one finds the letters G. F.di. This has led to these masses being attributed to Frescobaldi. Although their authenticity can't be established with absolute certainty, most scholars believe they were indeed composed by Frescobaldi. It was a good decision to include them in this project since they are of fine quality and give a good picture of the kind of liturgical music which was composed during Frescobaldi's life.

They reflect common practice in Rome in that they are scored for eight voices in two choirs. The two choirs are used to create antiphonal effects. Sometimes they alternate in singing the various verses of the mass, sometimes the one choir repeats a phrase of the other. At some moments they join to underline important passages and in other instances only one choir sings, for instance in 'Et incarnatus est' and 'Crucifixus' in the Credo. In both masses the Benedictus and the second Agnus Dei are left out; these are sung here in plainchant. Both masses are extended by plainchant settings of parts of the Proper of the Mass. In the Missa sopra l'aria della Monica the Introitus, Offertorio and Communion from the Mass for the Virgin Mary are added, whereas in the Missa sopra l'aria di Fiorenza the additional chants are taken from the Mass of St John the Baptist.

Both masses are based on tunes which were quite popular at the time. The aria della Monica was a secular song, and quite often used for keyboard variations and instrumental compositions. The aria di Fiorenza is also known as Ballo del Granduca, and was first composed as the song O che nuovo miracolo by Emilio de' Cavalieri. This was included in the Intermedii which were performed at the wedding of Grand-Duke Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine in 1589. This tune was also often used, for instance by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.

La Stagione Armonico consists of 28 singers, divided over the two choirs. Although I would have preferred a slighter smaller ensemble, the sound is quite transparent. Furthermore the singing is outstanding, and the choir shows great rhythmic vitality. The two vocal groups are audibly split, but fortunately they haven't been put too far away from each other. The plainchant is also beautifully sung, and as a result this disc can be unequivocally recommended.

The three masses which are recorded as Volume 4 of this series are of a different kind. They are quite well-known and available in several recordings. Pieces from these masses are also often played in concerts and included in recordings. That is especially the case with the Toccatas, like the Toccata per le levatione, which appear in all three masses.

The three organ masses belong to the category of liturgical music which makes use of the alternatim practice. Its roots are in the antiphonal psalmody, and from that perspective they are not that far away from the masses which are performed in Volume 3. Verses could alternatively be sung in plainchant and polyphonically, or sung and played. That is the case here: Frescobaldi offers organ verses to be performed in alternation with voices. He doesn't provide a complete liturgy, though: the largest part of every Mass consists of verses for the Kyrie. But he goes a long way to serve organists: although in an alternatim performance of the Mass only five versets for Kyrie eleison and Christe eleison are needed, he offers the full set of nine, giving performers a maximum choice for whatever they needed. The other organ versets are called Kyrie alio modo and Christe alio modo. Here they are performed after the liturgically 'correct' sequence of plainchant and organ versets.

Other pieces are a Canzona dopo l'Epistola, to be played after the first reading from the Scriptures, and a Recercar post (dopo) il Credo, to be played after the Credo. Most famous are the Toccate per le levatione, to be played during the consecration. Dissonances are an integral part of these pieces, which are to remember the congregation of Jesus' Passion. The Messa della Madonna contains a special ricercar, called Recercar con obligo dicantar la quinta parte senza toccarla. It means that an fifth part is added which should be sung without support of the organ. In his liner-notes Noel O'Regan writes: "Frescobaldi gives the singer a six-note phrase taken from the Litany of Loreto where it sets the words 'Sancta Maria'; he does not give these words in the print but it is clear that they are what is intended". In this recording the part is played on the natural trumpet, which is rather odd, although this is often practiced. It would have been nice if this part would have been sung as Frescobaldi has indicated. The Messa delli Apostoli contains a comparable piece but here that part should be played at the organ.

These three masses are from the collection Fiori Musicali, published in Venice in 1635. It also contains two pieces on secular tunes, Bergamasca and Capriccio sopra la Girolmeta. It is not quite clear why they are included. Noel O'Regan states that the former is taking the place of the canzon which concludes the other two masses. But that seems unlikely because of the secular subject. The capriccio is based on a tune whose name is the feminine version of Frescobaldi's own. O'Regan again sees this composition as a possible alternative to the concluding piece of this or one of the other masses.

Roberto Loreggian delivers very good performances. Many pieces are quite short, in particular the Kyrie and Christe settings, and they can appear quite short-winded. The fact that the are alternated by the appropriate plainchant helps to prevent that. The singing of the Schola Gregoriana is bright and clear. Of course, it would be nice to hear all pieces within the liturgical context for which they were intended. To my knowledge no such recording exists. So we have to be satisfied with this recording. The quality and variety of Frescobaldi's music and Roberto Loreggian's level of playing is such that that's no tall order.

If these two disc reflect the quality of this whole project we are in for a treat.

-- Johan van Veen, MusicWeb International

Classical Music