An essential addition to many collections.

Jerusalem and I was glad have been recorded zillions of times, as you might expect given their exalted status among English cathedral choral works. Even the six motets that make up the Songs of Farewell have been well-treated on disc, and at least one other recording, from St. George's Chapel Windsor Castle (Hyperion), nearly duplicates this program. Among all of those recordings you inevitably could find performances of individual works that are to some degree better than the ones presented here, but Christopher Stokes and his 25-voice Manchester Cathedral Choir (15 boy-and-girl trebles joined with 10 altos, tenors, and basses), along with organist Jeffrey Makinson and the Naxos production team, give lovers of this music the spacious cathedral ambience and the spirited performances they expect, technically sound and fervently expressed.

It's nearly impossible to imagine ever growing tired of Parry's magnificent setting of William Blake's Jerusalem, nor of such sensitive and deeply moving realizations of the poetry in the Songs of Farewell, particularly Thomas Campion's Never weather-beaten sail and Psalm 39 (Lord, let me know mine end). Here they are treated as respectfully and rendered as powerfully as any choir has done, and rarely do you hear such lovely treble singing as in the selection from Parry's oratorio Judith (Long since in Egypt's plenteous land). Speaking of trebles, the recording--and apparently the cathedral space itself--favors them at the expense of the lower voices, and the organ, wonderful as it is to hear, also tends to be a bit too assertive at times. But these are not criticisms serious enough to undermine the very fine, eminently repeatable performances. In fact, for musical value and price, you can't really do better than this in this repertoire. Definitely recommended.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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This is a perfect introduction to the choral music of Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. The repertoire covers his three most popular choral works alongside three great works that are typically known to Parry enthusiasts and those who inhabit the organ loft or choir stalls: the two groups are not mutually exclusive. I did a little survey: I asked five people (not British Music fans) to name a piece of music by Parry. Only one was able to suggest Jerusalem, but added that it might have been by Elgar ... The other four, unsurprisingly, had heard of this great hymn, but the composer remained a blank spot.

The CD gets off to a great start with the anthem I was glad. It was originally written for the Coronation of Edward VII and was also performed at the Service for George VI and the present Queen. Manchester Cathedral Choir cope well with this powerful music and the organ is heard to impressive effect. As is traditional, the acclamations of 'Vivat Rex' or 'Regina' are omitted in this recording. One wonders if this anthem will be used at subsequent Coronations (long, long may that be in the future) or whether something more egalitarian and balanced towards 'world music' will be the order of the day?

The Great Service in D major is a fine piece of choral music that can be used in both a liturgical or concert setting. At nearly nine minutes the Magnificat may be a little long for St Swithun's Parish Church Evensong, but in Cathedrals this would be an acceptable length. Both parts of the Canticles reveal a confident composer who is totally at home in the world of Anglican Church music. The service was written in 1881 for Trinity College Cambridge, however it was not published until 1984. This is a great setting that is a million miles away from the popular view that Victorian church music was over-sentimental and stodgy.

The Songs of Farewell are quite simply stunning. This is a major work that explores feelings about the transience of life and involves much reflection by the composer back across the years of his musical achievement. Parry stated that, at seventy years of age, he had reached 'the last milestone.' It would be a project worthy of a dissertation or a thesis to explore the composer's religious sensibilities at this time in his life. He was not a conventionally Christian believer and would have seen the texts in a personal context rather than liturgical. Yet each of these motets is deeply moving and invariably inspiring.

I guess that many habitués of cathedral and parish churches will know the opening My Soul, there is a country - a fine setting of Henry Vaughan's fundamentally optimistic words. Yet the remaining five motets are less often performed and less well known. The composer provides considerable interest in these subsequent motets by use of varying number of parts and a fine balance of a fundamentally harmonic language over against more complex but never 'academic' contrapuntal workings.

Perhaps the mood of the entire collection is best summed up by the last motet Lord, let me know mine end. The last words of this psalm ask God to 'O spare me a little, that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen'. Hardly the thoughts of a confident evangelical who 'knew' that he was going to join the saints in glory but more those of a deep-seated agnostic.

For me the most beautiful work on this CD is Hear my words, ye people. It is a compendium of texts taken from the Old Testament books of Job, Isaiah and the Psalms. The work was originally composed for the 1894 Festival of the Salisbury Diocesan Choral Association. Unbelievably, it was conceived for 2000 singers with a semi-chorus of some 400! There was an organ accompaniment and brass band present the first performance. The choral music part was kept relatively simple, as there was little time for rehearsal. The more complex music was given to the soprano and baritone soloists. In this recording the baritone part is sung by Mark Rowlinson: the other solo parts are taken by groups of choristers. The work concludes with the well-known hymn O Praise ye the Lord, which was a paraphrase of Psalm 150 by Sir Henry Baker. Something tells me that this 'pared-down' version is actually more effective and satisfying than the original. It is a truly gorgeous work that ought to have a secure place in the repertoire.

The penultimate piece is from the oratorio Judith. Many folk will know the hymn-tune Repton, which accompanies the words Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, without realising the source of the text and the music. Judith was a highly successful oratorio, which was first performed in 1888. The words are from a poem entitled The Brewing of Soma by the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. It is given here with great variety of dynamics and constant attention to the meaning of the words.

Jerusalem is the last piece on this CD. Naturally, it is in Parry's incarnation - with organ accompaniment rather than the gorgeous, but manifestly overblown Elgarian version. No matter how many times I hear this work I cannot help feeling that it is one of the finest hymns ever composed on Earth or in Heaven. For the record it was written during the Great War at the suggestion of Robert Bridges and Walford Davies for a 'Fight for Right' meeting at the Queen's Hall in London.

The quality of the recording is superb, the programmes notes by Keith Anderson are suitably informative and the texts of all the works are provided. The cover picture is entitled 'Beach Sunset' and presumably alludes to the 'Country beyond the Stars'. Yet it has a definite feel of Morecambe Bay about it.  
The obvious comparison for this CD is the Hyperion recording of the Choir of St George's Chapel of Windsor conducted by Christopher Robinson. This was - and still is - an essential disc for all Parry enthusiasts and received excellent reviews. However, I have always had a soft spot for Manchester Cathedral: my father's family were from Lancashire and looked towards this great City for work, worship and pleasure. I first visited cathedral in the early seventies, and have enjoyed musical events and services there on an occasional basis over the years. This present recording is a fine monument to a great musical and ecclesiastical tradition. It will be an essential addition to many collections.

John France, MusicWeb International

Having admirably survived Bax's discursive piano sonatas, Ashley Wass devotes all of his third volume of this composer's piano works to relatively smaller-scaled fare. Actually, the opening selection, What the Minstrel Told Us, times out to 11 minutes. The outer sections feature a bardic melody gently supported by slow moving, impressionistic chords and arpeggiated figures, while a middle section develops this material more agitatedly. Wass summons up all the tone color and sustaining power needed to convey the orchestral sensibility of the piano writing.


He plays the nocturne-like Princess's Rose Garden a bit straighter than Eric Parkin's more garishly-voiced Chandos recording, yet he shapes the chromatic motives with plenty of affection. By contrast, Wass doesn't clarify A Hill Tune's left-hand melodic content and right-hand accompaniment to Parkin's more fluid distinction. However, he scores with more rhythmic snap in the Spanish-tinged Mediterranean and renders the Gopak steadier, sharper, yet slightly slower in contrast to Parkin's brisker, looser approach. In short, collectors who've enjoyed Wass' previous Bax discs also will find this well-recorded, superbly annotated release to their liking. I look forward to this cycle's fourth and final volume.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The transcription of the Goldberg Variations took place within a context of total respect for the original text. No change of notes or rhythms. The transcription is based on an “orchestration” of the text for four string players. As in an orchestra, all the instruments in the string quartet are not systematically required simultaneously: variations for two, three, or four instruments follow in succession. This redistribution of the material enables new lines to be heard that are often di cult to hear within the uniform sound context of the piano or harpsichord. The Goldberg Variations are a model of polyphonic writing, a synthesis of Bach’s art and contrapunctal mastery: the fugue, the canon, the French overture … Nevertheless, the work cannot be reduced to some mere austere exercise: the dances that permeate the cycle confer a superior dimension of accomplishment to the twilight of the baroque era. (Franc?ois Mei?moun)

As I've noted in previous reviews, the nature of the keyboard writing in Liszt's massive organ fantasy and fugue based on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam from Meyerbeer's Le Prophete lends itself well to the piano. Although Liszt himself made an effective piano duet arrangement, Busoni's two-handed piano version can stand toe-to-toe with Liszt's B minor sonata as a virtuoso showpiece. That is, if you have the right pianist.

By and large, Wolf Harden is up to the task. He effortlessly navigates the outer sections' technical difficulties and stamina-testing textures, and sensitively sustains the central lyrical movement. Perhaps the latter emerges with more austere transparency in Hamish Milne's Hyperion studio recording, while the formidable fugue benefits from Giovanni Belluci's greater animation and dramatic sweep in an out-of-print recording on the small Assai label. And perhaps you could imagine more incisive and assertive interpretations of the weak "fake Brahms" F minor sonata Busoni wrote as a teenager and of the composer's late, bitonally obsessed Prélude et etude arpèges. However, this is definitely worth it for "Ad nod" and for Richard Whitehouse's extensive, highly informative booklet notes.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

For a less caustic, more ample-toned, and softer-edged set of Shostakovich Op. 34 Preludes than we usually hear, check out Konstantin Scherbakov. His performances contain many beautiful things. No. 2's whimsical scales and runs magically glide over the bar lines, while No. 9 and No. 12's whirling patterns are impressively controlled and supple--and the pianist articulates the marcato/legato interplay in No. 11 and No. 21 to perfection.


My criticism concerns Scherbakov's arch rubato within certain lyrical pieces. His little holdbacks and gratuitous ritards in No. 8, for example, undermine the effect of the composer's indicated ritards, which the pianist barely observes anyway. And a few exposed wrong notes easily could have been corrected (the E-flat in No. 5, measure 14). Such blemishes, however, do not detract from Scherbakov's compelling pianism.


All the virtues Scherbakov brings to the Preludes equally apply to the composer's gnarly Aphorisms cycle and youthful Three Fantastic Dances. The pianist also sails through the First Sonata's unrelenting polytextural thickets and age-of-steel dissonances with maximum power and minimum struggle. Eleanor Thomason's superb engineering yields one of the finest sounding solo piano discs Naxos has produced.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

The first German artist to win the international Naumburg Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss was acclaimed for his recording of Mendelssohn' Songs Without Words as 'an excellent violinist who plays these with wit and verve'.

Inventive, aromatic and breezy.

As the recording date suggests, this disc is a reissue. It was originally released by Italian label Dynamic in 1995 (CDS111) as the first of three Boccherini volumes by the Venezia (or Venice) Quartet. At the time this was the Quartet's first commercial recording, and the first of ten for the label, including for example the complete quartets of Malipiero.
 
Happily, the Quartet are still making music - these days they even have their own Facebook page! - with three of the four musicians here still going strong in 2012, Giancarlo di Vacri having replaced Luca Morassutti as violist in 2010. Perhaps their most significant recording in recent years was the complete quartets of Luigi Cherubini on 3 CDs for Decca (476 3604, 2010). It should be said that none of this information is available in the accompanying booklet, which for some reason eschews performer biographies. Nor will it be found on Dynamic's less than exemplary website - the "online catalogue" promised in the booklet lists nearly 400 items but they can only be viewed ten at a time scrolling down through a small window! There is therefore no news there as to why this CD has been re-released now, other than that it constitutes Volume 27 in an apparently random series entitled 'Delizie Musicali' ('Musical Delights'). The original disc is still widely available on the internet.
 
Nevertheless, the Dynamic catalogue is laden with musical delights, and Boccherini's op.8 falls easily into that category. As far as his Quartets go, this set is inexplicably neglected, having been only rarely recorded. Spanish label Columna Música issued the Artaria Quartet's account of them only two years ago (1CM0221, two CDs), but there is little other competition, not even at the individual quartet level. This, then, counts as an important recording for string quartet lovers everywhere.
 
The first Quartet in D gets straight down to the business of being inventive, aromatic and breezy. The Venezia Quartet are in their element for the next 75 minutes, turning on the style and, taking full advantage of Boccherini's predilection for demonstrative markings in the scores - the second movement of the A major Quartet is marked 'Amoroso', for example - the expressive phrasing to communicate Boccherini's mellifluous, immaculately fashioned ideas. Boccherini was a renowned cellist, and he unsurprisingly gives his instrument a lot of virtuosic turns. Actually these are 'new school' Quartets, where the parts are divided fairly and squarely, and all four members of the Venezia get plenty of time in the sun. Boccherini's elegance is more than skin-deep, though, and the lively, witty radiance for which he is rightly famed alternates frequently with sections or indeed whole movements that are more introverted, darker, serene.
 
Sound quality is good for the mid-Nineties - just a little raw-edged by current standards, but nevertheless perfectly acceptable. Dynamic's booklets are a bit hit-and-miss: sometimes they are quite good, other times rather too minimalist. Love it or leave it, the cover graphic is by Martha Pilarz, no doubt related to Daniela Pilarz, Dynamic's resident translator. The brief notes are by the now-deceased Paganini authority Edward Neill, Italian despite his name, and whose own label morphed into Dynamic in the late 1970s. Daniela's translation into English does have a few odd turns of phrase as usual, as well as one or two errors, both by translator - such as "Mittleuropean" for 'central European' - and, presumably, by Neill, who states that Mozart was fifteen in 1769.
 
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Light—life-enabling, life-enhancing. Something fundamental, universal in our life. Images evoking it abound in language, and virtually all the authors of the texts set here deal with or refer to it in one way or another, from ancient seers to the modern luminary Desmond Tutu.

There are of course many different kinds of light, but on its own the single word evokes something bright, pure, clear. These are words which can equally well be applied to James Whitbourn’s music. His writing is simple and straightforward (especially harmonically), and not outwardly virtuosic; his use of texture (often under-appreciated as a musical value) is also simple, but beguiling. The choir often sings homophonically (all voice parts moving in the same rhythm, as in a hymn), which implies a clarity of communication. But with a few sure strokes—the addition of a single element, such as the solo voice in the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and A Prayer of Desmond Tutu, or the use of percussion in the same works, or the tanpura and the cunningly Eastern-sounding viola in Luminosity, he can simultaneously evoke different, non-Western traditions, and thereby multiply the allusions.

-- Bernard Robertson

Exclusively for MP3 enabled CD Players. Contains mp3 files for unlimited transfer to computers and mobile devices.

Includes work(s) by Miklós Rózsa. Soloists: Philippe Quint, William Wolfram.

The Yellow River Concerto is one of the most popular of all Chinese works, a richly melodic exploration of scenic variety, and a forceful expression of patriotic pride. Written in 1958 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto has achieved world renown for it's moving and beautiful synthesis of Western and Eastern traditions. In 1985 Chen Gang made an arrangement for piano and orchestra, played on this recording in the edition by the brilliant international soloist Chen Jie. Since her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch, at the age of sixteen, Chen Jie has performed in many leading concert venues around the world. She has won praise at many international competitions including the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (USA). Carolyn Kuan is recognized as one of the most exciting, innovative and outstanding conductors of her generation. Her North American engagements include the Baltimore, San Francisco, Detroit and Seattle symphonies. She holds the distinction of being the first female to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship.

This previously unpublished opus of Carlo Rossaro's work has been deposited with the Library of the Conservatory of Music in Torino Italy. Elena Ballario, pianist, composer and teacher at the Conservatory has re-evaluated the work and is promoting it with the aim of honoring this great Piemontese composer and bringing his repertoire of chamber and piano music to lovers of classical music in concert halls everywhere. Rossaro was a fervent admirer of Wagner and was fundamental in bringing meaning to the turmoil of an expanding cultural world in the Torino of his time. This double album is including the premiere recording of the complete chamber music opera (both, vocal and instrumental) by Carlo Rossaro, talented musician born in a poor family from the Turin provence, that in year 1848 was nominated "honorary pianist of the King" Vittorio Emanuele. He was published by Ricordi till 1863, and also by Giudici and Strada of Torino, Bock & Bote of Berlin and Seuff of Leipzig. It was Giovannina Lucca of Milan, considered at that time the reference point for the forward-looking artists (unlike Ricordi), who published Rossaro's compositions. Even if some of those included in this release are written by composers of uncertain origin, their mature style suggests the work of Rossaro in his later years.

Hindemith's seven string quartets were produced in different phases of his compositional development, all reflecting the experience of being a distinguished and experienced string player. Influenced both by Brahmsian late-Romanticism and by the catastrophic events of the First World War, the imaginative String Quartet No. 1 reflects his concern to extend but honor traditional forms. Cast in the form of a suite, the by turns tempestuous and beautiful String Quartet No. 4 remains Hindemith's most popular and performed quartet. This is the third and final volume of a highly acclaimed cycle. 'As with the previous release in this series, the performances are all outstanding.

Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, became famous for two reasons: The bloody double murder of his first wife and her lover and his passionate and erotic view of profane love.

Modest Mussorgsky wrote many works for the piano, most of which were published posthumously. Born in 1839, Mussorgsky began to compose at an early age, writing his first piece, Portenseigne Polka, in 1852, at the age of thirteen. Throughout his life, he composed works of various lengths for the instrument, many of unquestionable musical worth; his last compositions date from 1880, one year prior to his untimely death, at the age of 42. Mussorgsky’s best-known piano work is undoubtedly the monumental Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), made famous by Ravel’s orchestration, as well as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s highly inventive orchestral version. It’s only in the original piano version, however, that Mussorgsky’s remarkable, fierce stylistic creativity is revealed. These complete works are performed by Italian pianist Giacomo Scinardo.

Although the Italian composer, Michelangelo Rossi, was hailed in his lifetime as a violin virtuoso, a distinguished madrigalist and composer of two operas, his reputation is founded on his astonishingly original and technically advanced keyboard music.

FAURÉ Music for Cello and Piano • Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson (vc); Allan Sternfield (pn) • NAXOS 8570545 (70:06)


Sicilienne, op. 78. Sonata No. 2, op. 117. Après un rêve, op. 7/1. Elégie, op. 24. Romance, op. 69. Berceuse, op. 16. Papillon, op. 77. Sérénade, op. 98. Sonata No. 1, op. 109. Pavane, op. 50


A blurb on the back cover of this album states that “Fauré’s musical language bridged a gap between 19th-century Romanticism and the music that appeared with the new century.” Sounds like something I’ve said before, even having gone so far as to say that Fauré is the missing link between Brahms and Debussy. Whether one chooses to accept that argument or not, it cannot be denied that Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), a disciple of Saint-Saëns and an admirer of Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner, had, by the turn of the 20th century, largely fashioned a personal style based on the teachings of Gustave Lefèvre, as set forth in his book Traité d’harmonie , published in 1889. In it Lefèvre advances the idea that chords of the seventh and ninth are not dissonant, ergo, they do not require resolution; and that the third of the scale may freely alternate between major and minor within a “composite” scale that incorporates both modes. These ideas were of course embraced by the likes of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions in their own updated 20th-century treatises on harmony. And one hasn’t far to travel from the unresolved sevenths and ninths of Lefèvre and Fauré to the chromatically altered seventh, ninth, 11th, and bi-tonal chords, and the whole-tone and pentatonic scales of Debussy.


Most of the works on this disc are early to middle Fauré, and thus closer in content and style to the romantic aesthetic than they are to the composer’s later efforts. And three of the pieces are arrangements of works originally written for other media. The famous Après un rêve of 1870, presented here in a transcription by Pablo Casals, was conceived as a mélodie for voice and piano. The 1878–79 Berceuse was a violin and piano piece. And the ubiquitous 1887 Pavane , given here in an arrangement by Henri Büsser, was an orchestral work with choral parts later added.


Placing the remaining numbers, originally for cello, in chronological order, we have the Elégie (1883), the Romance (1894), Papillon (1894), Sicilienne (1898), the Sérénade (1908), the First Sonata (1917), and the Second Sonata (1921). While Fauré’s output did not cease in the decade between the 1898 Sicilienne and the 1908 Sérénade , it’s interesting to note that his 1898 incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande was quite possibly his final doffing of his 19th-century Romantic hat. There’s no questioning that the next few years were a time of reexamination for Fauré. Surely, he must have heard Debussy’s opera based on the same play that was premiered in 1902, and possibly even Schoenberg’s exactly contemporaneous tone poem on the subject. And though I doubt that Sibelius would have been known in France at this early date, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Fauré may even have heard the Finnish composer’s 1905 incidental music of the same title. Whatever the extent of Fauré’s exposure to these various stimuli may have been, changes in his compositional style and technique become evident with his 1906 song cycle La Chanson d’Eve , op. 95.


Both of the cello sonatas belong to Fauré’s late period, the second of the two being among his last works. While still conforming to a Classical three-movement fast-slow-fast pattern, the harmonic language is now freer and the melodic treatment more fluid, giving a sense that the music is “through-composed.” With the exception of an 1888 Petite pièce in G Major, op. 49, which has been lost, the current Naxos disc, as far as I know, gives us all of Fauré’s original works for cello, plus the three aforementioned arrangements.


German-born, prize-winning cellist Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson studied with Pierre Fournier and Sergiu Celibidache. She is today an Israeli citizen, and principal cellist and frequent soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Her discography, at least according to Naxos’s brief bio, includes the Bach suites for solo cello, but I was not able to find it, or any other of her recordings, listed. Allan Sternfield is a “made in the U.S.A.” product, having studied at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music. He was subsequently coached by Leon Fleisher and Wilhelm Kempff.


Naxos has here entered into competition with itself, for another fine release on the same label with Maria Kliegel and Nina Tichman, minus the Pavane , contains exactly the same program. Such duplication seems odd, especially since both discs seem to have been recorded only a year and a half apart. The current Joost/Sternfield CD, just released, was recorded mid 2007; the Kliegel/Tichman, released in 2008, was recorded late in 2005. It’s a head-scratcher to be sure. Be that as it may, a comparison between the two reveals little difference, certainly not enough to warrant purchasing Joost/Sternfield if you already have Kliegel/Tichman. J&S offer an extra with the inclusion of the Pavane , a piece you’re already bound to have in its original orchestral version. In general, though not in every single case, J&S are a bit slower in their tempo choices than K&T in the short pieces, and considerably so in the two sonatas. This may impart a somewhat more nostalgic feeling to J&S’s readings, which can, at times, suggest a salon atmosphere. But in terms of technical execution, tone production, and intonation, I would be happy with either recording.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Here is a recording of rarities on two counts. Not only is the music of Kryukov, Vasilenko, Frid, Krein and Bogdanov-Berezovsky little known outside of Russia, but viola sonatas are as welcome as they are scarce. Romantic lyricism, the influence of Scriabin.

Featuring two Russian composers, this album presents two very rare recordings under the direction of one of the most impressive Russian conductors, Evgeny Svetlanov. Evgeny Svetlanov was born in Moscow into a family of musicians and artists. His parents were both members of the Bolshoi Theatre company, and from early childhood, Evgeny was captivated by the theater. He studied at the Gnessin school and at the Moscow Conservatory. His conducting mentor was Alexander Gauk, the founder of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, which is heard on this recording. He gave his first performances as a conductor on the radio in 1953, while he was still a student. Two years later, he returned to the Bolshoi as principal assistant, and in 1962 was appointed principal conductor. He went on to hold prestigious posts with numerous other ensembles, and he completed more than three thousand recordings throughout his career. The present release features a recording from 1968.

ARENSKY 6 Pieces, op. 53; 4 Etudes, op. 41; 12 Etudes, op. 74; 6 Esquisses, “Près de la mer,” op. 52 • Adam Neiman (pn) • NAXOS 8.572233 (63:37)


Rimsky-Korsakov, writing in his Chronicles of My Musical Life , said that he believed his student Anton Arensky “will soon be forgotten.” Apart from a few compositions that are still performed today, among them the Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky, the D-Minor Piano Trio, and the suites for two pianos, most of Arensky’s works have suffered just that fate. Happily, some of these lesser-known works are being explored again, notably here, and in a field in which Arensky spent a good deal of his attention, the piano music.


All of the works on the present recital are similar in that they are all less than five minutes in length. If there is one strong point to Arensky’s compositional skills, it is that he is able to use this characteristic to his advantage to create mood quickly and effectively. Once Arensky has chosen the basic mood of the piece, there is a fundamental continuity of mood that exists until the end. But though many of the lyrical pieces make pleasant listening, most of the melodic material is forgettable. That said, there are beautifully conceived moments, in which Arensky’s attention to details of figuration brings much interest to the pieces. One such moment can be found in the lyrical D-Major Etude of op. 74, with its static sense of waterfall-like arpeggiations. The grand dotted rhythms of the French overture-like prelude (minus the fugue) in the op. 53 set is yet another. Adam Neiman is a good advocate for much of this repertoire, as he possesses the technical prowess necessary to play these pieces, and a feeling for tonal shading and breath. The lighter pieces (the Scherzo, also in the op. 53 set, for example) suffer perhaps a bit from heavy-handedness, but not so much as to disturb the generally playful character that he brings to the music.


This is not essential listening, but it is enlightening to hear a composition every once in a while that reminds one of the next generation of Russian composers, in particular Arensky’s own students—both Rachmaninoff and Scriabin being among them. Recorded in excellent sound, on a Fazioli grand piano, Neiman makes this music sound as good as any I’ve heard. The repertoire is specialized but the price is right. Recommended for those, then, who particularly like Russian music, or who want to delve deeper into their understanding of the roots of 20th-century Russian music.


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

Classical Music

Busoni embodied an essentially recreative approach to the music of the past. His Bach transcriptions reveal an absolute command of intricate polyphony and a limpid clarity. Mozart stood as an aesthetic and technical exemplar while Cramer’s little-known Etudes are adapted for modern piano technique. Busoni preserved the Lutheran austerity of Brahms’s Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 122 whereas in the Mephisto Waltz No. 1 he augments Liszt’s heady writing with a super-virtuosity of his own. Wolf Harden I one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. He has enjoyed great success in the Trio Fontenay, an ensemble that he founded in 1980 and with which he has toured to all the world’s major music centres. Harden devotes himself not only to chamber music but, with the same success, to the solo piano repertoire.

Guitar Recital: Johan Fostier

The Persian composer, Reza Vali, began his music studies at the Tehran Conservatory of Music, finally settling in the United States. His compositions include pieces for orchestra, string quartet, piano and voice, and chamber ensemble.