"The Baroque Soloists, Munich are among the best mixed ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice A program of some of Vivaldi‘s less familiar concertos for various instruments The members of the Baroque Soloists Munich are in high demand as soloist, orchestral and chamber musicians on the early music scene"

V3: RUBINSTEIN COLLECTION

Despite being orphaned when he was young, Johann Georg Lickl (1769-1843) was a talented musician who studied with Haydn and Albrechtsberger. This album contains Lickl’s chamber works. His Cassation in E flat major was once thought to have been written by Mozart, which gives an indication of the quality of Lickl’s work. Performing these works are soloists of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestras.

WEBER: TEN SCOTTISH MELODIES,

Florian Uhlig draws near the conclusion of the first truly complete edition of the solo piano music of Robert Schumann with this 9th installment in the series featuring the Kinderszenen op. 15 and the Novelletten op. 21 surrounding hitherto largely neglected contemporaneous pieces. An exclusive hännsler Classic artist praised for his cohesive concert programs, Mr. Uhlig made his orchestral debut at the London Barbican in 1997, and since then a busy performing schedule has taken him to the concert halls of Berlin, New York, London and Paris, as well as Hong Kong, Reykjavik and Cape Town.

Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 50: Chopin: 51 Mazurkas

The revival of interest in the music of Robin Milford (1903–59) has largely bypassed his exquisite chamber music, an omission this recording seeks to redress. It presents some of his most attractive chamber works, showing his very personal – and very English – combination of melodic freshness, elegiac lyricism and echoes of folksong. The clarinetist Robert Plane has been described as the ‘current occupier of the shoes of the late Thea King in his championship of British clarinet music’. Other notable performers include violinist Lucy Gould, violist David Adams and cellist Alice Neary.

I reviewed the first volume in this comprehensive, pioneering series with great pleasure and feel the same way about the second release. As before, the fully idiomatic and nerveless duo of Sherban Lupu and Ian Hobson take the honours — for expressive variety, technical excellence and ensemble assurance.

Each work has some defining feature or features to compel interest, though maximum interest will, I think, be focused on violin fanciers whose range of experience will be richly enhanced by the three works that have never been previously recorded. The first of that trio is Souvenir du Pré aux Clercs, written with Charles Schunke (1801-39), who had been appointed pianist to the French queen. The two men fashioned something out of Ferdinand Hérold’s last work, an opera premiered in 1832. It’s been securely presented by Toccata which allocates a separate track to the introduction, theme, series of variations, cadenza, andante and finale. This is a work where the piano part proves to be every bit as formidable as that for the violin, if not more so. Technical difficulties begin to accumulate as the variations develop, and there is a droll quality to the writing too, and a joint cadenza in which ensemble pitfalls are manifold, and a finale full of élan, lightning fast left hand pizzicato and lashings of audacity.

Pensées Fugitives Part 1, written with Stephen Heller (1839-42), is another premier recording. The Hungarian pianist Heller based himself in Paris, and shunned virtuosic music after an early breakdown. Ernst’s philanthropy — he wanted to help Heller financially — was laudable and the joint work reflects the sense of lyricism and romanticism that Heller sought in composition. The six charmers are character pieces, somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn — though Mendelssohn equally knew of Heller and Ernst, so it’s by no means one way traffic. Songful and charming they are performed with impeccable attention to detail.

The last of the previously unrecorded works is Variations brillantes sur un thème de Rossini which was probably Ernst’s first published work. This is a real Paganinian blockbuster with coruscating technical demands; the second variation is an especially arduous test of intonation, which Ernst himself must have passed heroically; and there’s bravura aplenty in the fourth variation as well. After the Last Rose of Summer variations the Fantaisie brillante sur la Marche et la Romance d’Otello de Rossini must be Ernst’s most recorded work. David Oistrakh and Ruggiero Ricci recorded it. Lupu loses little in comparison, keeping things alive timbrally and expressively throughout — his sense of colour shading is exemplary, and Hobson’s pianism outstanding. This feast of articulation, finger position changes, mastery of colour, and subtlety of vibrato usage exemplifies all that is best in Ernst’s writing and indeed in these performances. Note how Lupu’s vibrato widens and intensifies for the ‘pathetic’ sensibility summoned up in the Romance section. As if this were not enough, we have the luxury of the Boléro with its amiable warmth and the two Romances, where cantabile warmth and lilting lyricism are the names of the game.

Top notch recording quality and an outstanding booklet note complete this exemplary offering.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Fauré: Pavane, Songs & Requiem

What if 60 composers from 18 countries wrote 60 pieces under 1 minute each for solo piano?Anderson, Thomas Jefferson - Andreoni, Roberto - Andriessen, Louis - Aviram, Eilon - Baas, Danielle - Bailie, Joanna - Baiye, James - Beaudoin, Paul E. - Bermel, Derek - Bolcom, William - Brooks, Richard - Cahallan, Patrick - Caravaggio, Pepe-Tonino - Carrick, Richard - Cody, Joshua - Cotel, Ketzel - Culpo, Christopher - Eggert, Moritz - Eidschun, Robert - Ekimovsky, Victor - Engel, Barbara - Escriv, Brian - Faia, Carl - Fox, Donal - Frahm, Frederick - Goldschneider, Isak - Gosfield, Annie - Haven, Walter - Hinton, Newt - Hippel, Paul von - Katz, Jonathan - Khyrsh, Atanasio - Kleier, Roger - Landau, Daniel - Lann, Vanessa - Lauer, Fritz - Leach, Stéphane - Mancuso, Giovanni - Maral, Alper - Martinez, Patricia Elizabeth - McLoskey, Lansing D. - Nez, Ketty - Norton, Jonathan - Pallante, Sergio - Pritsker, Gene - Robert, Martial - Rovan, Joseph - Sainsbury, Lionel - Sanchez, Walter - Shadle, Charles - Sharp, Elliott - Shockley, Alan Frederick - Stewart, D. Andrew - Togawa, Yohichi - Tran, Tuyet A. - Vaglini, Riccardo - Warburton, Dan - Wit, Sophie de - Yoshinaka, Atsushi - Zebrowski, Marcin Józef.

WEBER: SYMPHONY NO 1 MENDELS

A unique collection of American romantic piano music, written largely in the last third of the 19th century, by Foote, Whiting, Paine, Chadwick and Nevin. In a period where in Europe piano music was in the hands of towering virtuosos like Liszt, Anton Rubinstein and later Rachmaninoff, the American scene was notably less tormented, focusing on tone painting idyllic landscapes, rural scenes and charming dance forms. These genre pieces share the same delightful characteristics as their European pendants by Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Gade, Sinding and others. Young pianist Artem Belogurov (born in Latvia, grew up in Odessa/Ukraine and now lives in Boston) is a former student of Peter Serkin. For this recording he plays a beautiful period instrument, a 1873 Chickering piano. Chickering was one of the most respected and successful piano builders of the 19th century; Hans von Bülow premiered Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto in Boston on a Chickering, and Franz Liszt owned two of their instruments. The booklet contains extensive liner notes on the music and composers, an artist biography and information and photos of the instrument.

Mozart: Sonatas & Variations

BACH: CONCERTOS VLADIMIR SPIV

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MAHLER: DAS LIED VON DER ERDE

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Coming off the immense success of the Billboard-charting Let me tell you — which received rave reviews from the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Wall St. Journal, and many more — Barbara Hannigan turns her attention to the work of Erik Satie as the musical world celebrates his 150th birthday. The disc focuses on one of the minimalist composer’s few elaborate masterpieces: the almost-forgotten vocal piece “Socrate,” on three Plato dialogues in French translation.

In celebration of Satie's 150th birthday, the venerable label Winter & Winter recorded a selection of works with the world-famous soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, known for his outstanding Satie interpretations. “Socrate” is the central focus of the album, heard alongside “Trois Mélodies” from 1886, “Trois Autres Mélodies” from 1886–1906, and “Hymne” from 1891. Barbara Hannigan and Reinbert de Leeuw are two of the most important representatives of the contemporary classical music world.

BERLIOZ: HAROLD IN ITALY, ETC

This is a brilliant recital, one that reveals just about every facet of Shostakovich's musical personality in terms of his writing for piano. The novelty for most listeners will be Dances of the Dolls, yet another arrangement of numbers from his film and ballet music, aimed at younger players. Somehow these tunes sound even more charming and witty in their keyboard guise, and Melvin Chen's clean and rhythmically snappy approach lets their puckish humor speak for itself. Both the Aphorisms and the First Sonata reveal the young, modernist Shostakovich, the latter work in particular. Once again Chen manages to give shape and meaning to music that can sound merely noisy, but he does it without sacrificing the music's aggressiveness or impetuosity.

With the Second Sonata we encounter the mature composer around the time of the Second World War, when he was creating some of his finest large works. This sonata never has caught on, partly on account of its typically spare textures, but more likely because it's a very large work (nearly 30 minutes) that ends quietly and enigmatically. Certainly it does not sound in any way lacking in content here. Chen keeps the music interesting, particularly in the long variation finale, which has plenty of contrast and seems perfectly paced. This is music that, given time and a fine performance like this one, will grow on you. So if you like Shostakovich but have not yet warmed to his piano music, try this superbly played and recorded CD. I suspect it will win you over.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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