Like Brahms and Reger, Hans Gal expressed some of his last musical thoughts in the form of a Clarinet Quintet, this one written when it's composer was 87 years old. In these three scores, Gal produced some of the loveliest music in the clarinet repertoire. Creating a family affair, the album was produced by Hans Gal's grandson, Simon Fox-Gal.

BERNSTEIN FAVORITES- ORCHESTRA

Despite the rivalry between the operatic companies leaded by Haendel and Porpora in London (1734-1737), much has to be said about the real nature of the connection between the two composers. Both the musicians were considered outstandingly original for their aesthetic choices. Both admired each other's music. The few whirlwind years of their defiance in Great Britain produced memorable scores: among them, Ariodante by Haendel and Polifemo by Porpora, performed with simultaneous runs in the city theaters. The fight between the two operatic company was an opportunity for the composers to meet and discover each other, to deal with the taste of the audience and to experiment new ideas, getting strength from the incredible skills of the members of the vocal casts (Farinelli, Senesino, Carestini, etc.). This release tries to capture the soul of such a complicated intellectual relationship, presenting significant exemples of the composers' style and outlining the borders of the mutual esteem between two giants in the history of music. On her debut solo album, the young talented mezzosoprano Giuseppina Bridelli performs with effortless bravery the difficult pages written for some of the most famous singers of the 18th century: between them, a version with original variations of Haendel Scherza infida.

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The Isaac Stern Collection: The Early Concerto Recordings, V

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Mieczyslaw Weinberg, born in Warsaw in 1919, became a close friend of Shostakovich in Moscow, after fleeing eastwards before the invading Nazis in 1939. His style has much in common with Shostakovich’s: fluent contrapuntal skill, a keen feeling for melody, often inflected with Jewish cantilena, and an acute sense of drama which combines a natural narrative manner with an extraordinary ability to create atmosphere. Since his death in 1996, his vast output – which includes 26 symphonies, seven operas and seventeen string quartets – has enjoyed increasing recognition as some of the most individual and compelling music to have been composed in the twentieth century. This recording pairs an early orchestral work, the suite Polish Tunes of 1950, with the last full orchestral symphony he was to complete, dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

REVIEW:

It’s truly incredible that works as excellent as these are being recorded for the first time. …[Polish Tunes, Op. 47, No. 2:] there is no shortage of appealing folk-inspired melodies in this fresh and uplifting music. …Symphony No. 21, Op. 152 is titled ‘Kaddish’ referring to the Jewish prayer service for the dead. …Bold and unsettling, almost sinister in character, the Allegro molto section has a swirling, driving momentum. The brass playing is especially striking in writing of a conspicuously martial quality with heavy and relentless percussion. …A fascinating feature that noticeably softens the emotional tension is the inclusion of a wordless soprano at 2:45-7:51 and 10:34-11:06 here performed by Siberian Veronika Bartenyeva. This was my first experience of hearing the Siberian Symphony Orchestra (Omsk Philharmonic) who under the reliable baton of principal conductor Dmitry Vasilyev excel in this wonderful and inexplicably neglected music. The Symphony makes compelling listening with Vasilyev’s unfailing instinct producing assured orchestral playing of striking directness. The engineers provide clear sound with a natural and realistic balance. This important release from Toccata Classics comprising first recordings of Weinberg’s orchestral music has exceptional appeal.”

-- MusicWeb International

An astonishing live performance by the 15-year-old Kissin, with a sense of danger courted and triumphantly surmounted.

Kissin's generous lyricism and lovely rubato in Rachmaninov's Lilacs make a distinguished prelude to this recital; but they are only a hint of the revelations to come. The big E flat minor Etude tableau drenches the listener in an extraordinary welter of sound, at once free and controlled, sensitive to harmonic nuance and yet to broader undercurrents as well. And it is followed by a phenomenally articulate C minor, swirling and crackling like a force of nature (with just a couple of accidents on the last page as a brief reminder of human frailty).

The apex of the recital is a colossal account of the Prokofiev Sixth Sonata. Pianistically it has everything—tremendous force, tremendous resonance, wonderful sensitivity to texture and colour, inspired pedalling, fantastic rhythmic grasp, supreme control whatever the extremes of tempo or dynamic. And all these are at the service of a vision which penetrates to the essence of Prokofiev's art—the subdued half-lights and obsessive drive of the first movement, the deadly serious clowning of the second, the stoical suffering of the third, and above all the appalling despair at the heart of the finale. Please don't think I've taken leave of my critical senses—I noted in passing that the rhythm in the last three bars of the first movement is wrong and that Kissin nearly burns himself out before the tumultous last page of the finale. But if this doesn't qualify as a great performance I don't know what does.

So far I've managed to avoid mentioning that Kissin was aged just 15 and seven months at the time of this recital. In his Rachmaninov and Prokofiev it never occurred to me to think about that, either as a plus or a minus. The remaining pieces do perhaps fall into a less exalted category—they are merely astonishing considering his youth. The Liszt studies are seductive, poetic and rhetorical but not yet entirely settled; the Chopin Nocturne could breathe more freely and has a nasty mannerism of right hand before left, a reversal of bad habits of olden days; the Polonaise sacrifices pride and grace for allpurpose grandeur, unimaginatively driving home every first beat in the bar. For all their finesse, I can imagine the Scriabin pieces reaching further out into the unreal and the ecstatic; and the Japanese encores are wholly trivial and forgettable.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of all is the ultraclose microphone placement. But Kissin is one of the select few whose playing can withstand such clinical scrutiny; and such is the electricity he generates, so strong his empathy with Rachrnaninov and Prokofiev, that you feel inside the music both spiritually and acoustically. I suppose it is conceivable Kissin will one day make an even finer studio recording of the Prokofiev; but I would not bank on it re-creating the magic, the sense of danger courted and triumphantly surmounted, of this astonishing live performance.

-- Gramophone [11/1990]

Note: According to the CD packaging, Kissin plays Liszt's Un Sospiro, S 144 no 3 when in fact the piece he performs is Liszt's Waldesrauschen, S 145 no 1.

The focus of Extravagantes Seicento is the musical exuberance of a century full of contradictions, and at the same time receptive towards all kinds of novelty. By means of a rich collection of instrumental sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord, the recording portrays the peregrine world of composers and instrumentalists who travelled throughout Europe in their search for receptive cultural circles and the degree of financial stability required for the creation of new works. In particular the Habsburg courts of Vienna and Innsbruck attracted artists from Italy and central Europe, becoming hubs for innovation in the visual arts, the theatre and instrumental music. Under the imperial protection of Ferdinand III, Leopold I and Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, the great violinists of the 17th century Ignazio Albertini, Giovanni Padonolfi Mealli, Samuel Capricornus, Heinrich Schmelzer and Ignaz Biber expanded the technical potential of the violin and the viola da gamba, producing a repertoire of highly melodious sonatas featuring virtuoso brilliance and such eccentricity of sound as to surprise or even disconcert audiences, both then and today.

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In early 18th-century England, the recorder was a popular instrument among music lovers, therefore- since the eminent Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli’s works made an enormous impression in the country- it was only a matter of time before numerous virtuoso recorder arrangements of his string works began to appear.Estro Cromatico leader Marco Scorticati and his longstanding partner Davide Pozzi join forces with Evangelina Mascardi, Sara Campobasso, Michela Gardini, and Pietro Pasquini to deliver a new rendition of this well-loved music, including two premiere recordings. Improvised ornamentation, as well as the multifaceted texture provided by diversified combinations of the continuo instruments, play a central role in the present interpretation, thus bringing Corelli’s extraordinary music back to life; as Roger North wrote in 1710 “if music can be immortal, Corelli’s consorts will be so.”

MOZARTIANA- PIANO TRANSCRIPTIO

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Until Volume One of his orchestral music was released last year, the English composer-conductor Henry Cotter Nixon (1842–1907) has entirely disappeared from music history. But this series – presenting all his surviving orchestral music in its first-ever recordings – reveals him to have been one of the most accomplished English composers of his generation, with a style that takes in elements of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Verdi and Brahms. This second volume confirms his ability to handle extended symphonic structures and also presents a Sullivanesque lighter side. Ian Hobson, pianist and conductor, began his international career in 1981 when he won the Leeds International Piano Competition. This is the thirteenth album that he has recorded for Toccata Classics as either pianist or conductor. Paul Mann is a regular guest conductor with many orchestras throughout Europe, the US, Australia, and the Far East. He is well known for his collaboration with the rock group Deep Purple.

[This] record has a considerable extra in Falla's Harpsichord Concerto. This dry but oddly attractive work is admirably played by Kipnis with leading members of the NYPO. Their performance is excellent. Boulez understands this sort of work completely and directs an admirable performance.

-- Gramophone [8/1976]
reviewing the original LP release of the Falla Concerto

What a wonderful title. The absurdist libretto of Schnittke's opera by the former 'dissident' writer Victor Erofeyev is based on his own short story and is partly a satire on Soviet life under Communism ('Vova' was Lenin's nickname, and Howard Haskin — the creator of the role — was made up to look like the former leader). Clearly, for Schnittke and other post-Soviet artists, there are still scores to setde with the past. Whether that will tell against the opera's long-term success remains to be seen.

At its worst it recalls a superior cabaret act, Schnittke's frequent recourse to parody as part of his 'polystylistic' approach sounding a touch glib. But other moments suggest wider resonances. The opera was premiered in Amsterdam last April, when this recording was made. Rostropovich, who was instrumental in the project from an early stage, conducts a brash but vital performance (he also plays the cello and piano) and the cast enters fully into the spirit of the piece. The sound has a curiously hollow quality.

-- George Hall, BBC Music Magazine

Crossley's playing of ''Brouillards'' (the first Prelude of Book 2) successfully evokes the disturbing fog of a winter night in which objects appear suddenly and menacingly. I actually think the marking Modere suggests a quicker tempo—Gieseking takes 2'44'' as against Crossley's 3'33'', but there again, the admirably sensitive Gordon Fergus-Thompson takes a minute longer than Crossley!... This Debussy is beautifully textured, with fine control of fingers and pedals; indeed, it is most sympathetically presented and the recording, made at The Maltings, Snape, is satisfyingly atmospheric, with a glowing sound rather than a brilliant one... This applies equally to the Estampes and Children's Corner. In the former work. ''Pagodes'' is a touch deliberate, but has lovely sounds; indeed, Crossley's tonal beauty is consistent...

-- Christopher Headington, Gramophone [9/1993]

"A concert performance starring four of the greatest singers of the era (Wunderlich, Ludwig, Lipp and Berry). In this 1962 live performance, conductor Karl Böhm leading the Vienna Symphony and the Vienna Boys Choir. This is the only complete recording of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with tenor Fritz Wunderlich in the role of the Evangelist. Newly remastered."

Bach, Mozart, Telemann & Vivaldi: The Great Flute Concertos

The Brazilian-born composer Ant�nio Carlos Gomes (1836-96) found immediate success in Europe with Il Guarany, his first opera to be staged there, ensuring his reputation at the time despite being little-known today. As recently as two decades ago, however, this work was re-staged in Germany, by Werner Herzog no less, and starring Pl�cido Domingo! The highly authentic, idiomatic and definitive studio recording at hand, dating from Sao Paulo, 1959 here makes a welcome return to the active catalog.

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Austrian-born conductor Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962), noted champion of contemporary and Austro-German late romantic-era music, features here with an orchestra he came to be associated with and much-identified late in his career, the Southwest Radio-Symphony, Baden-Baden, in these mid-1950’s performances of four of Anton Bruckner’s monumental symphonies. +Includes the early Second, the lesser-known Fifth, the sublime Seventh, and the last fully completed, and towering, symphony, the Eighth.

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