March's Disc of the Month sees Howard Shelley, recently awarded an OBE for his services to music, conduct the Orchestra of Opera North from the piano. In this his latest recording for Chandos Shelley turns his attention to three popular concertos in the piano repertoire: Robert Schumann's only completed piano concerto, Grieg's single piano concerto and Saint- Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. These authoritative performances shed new light on three wellloved works, brought together on one disc for the first time. Shelley elucidates his revelatory approach to the works: 'Ever since I first fell in love with Schumann's Piano Concerto in my early teens, I have been intrigued and slightly puzzled by the tradition of slowing the fourth bar of the Allegro affettuoso first movement to what is effectively no more than an Andante, even though there is no indication of any tempo shift in the score. A metronome marking of 84 to the minim, taken from Schumann's manuscript, is given in almost all editions of this work, reducing only to 72 to the dotted minim for the central Andante espressivo section. These are extraordinarily fast basic tempos. There are similar issues in the second movement - a surprisingly fast metronome mark, suggesting perhaps a lighter lyricism than we are sometimes used to, especially in the big cello melody - and also in the first movement of Saint-Saëns's Second Concerto, which is often taken at about half its marked speed. As for Grieg's Concerto, we are fortunate to have Percy Grainger's very informative and detailed notes on the piece, as he discussed it with the composer. Elsewhere he points out that Grieg's tempos were generally faster than when others played the piece. These are some of the considerations which have led to the interpretations on this recording. Directing a highly responsive orchestra from the keyboard has also allowed me great freedom in realising my ideas.'

This opera, so dependent on the wedding of text and music, is a natural candidate for Opera-in-English (I believe one of the first recordings of the work, with Jerome Hines and Rosalind Elias, was in English). The argument that Bartók carefully composed it to match the rises and falls of Hungarian remains valid, but understanding the text is just as important to listeners. The diction of both John Tomlinson and Sally Burgess is impeccable without being too stilted (read: British); of course the bass and mezzo-soprano voices are easier to understand than the higher ranges.

Both singers are superb here. If Tomlinson is sounding a bit old, he's certainly not sounding weak, and the pitch-darkness of his tone is just right for this enigma of a man. "Forbidding" is the word that comes to mind. (He also speaks the Prologue, and sounds properly dour.) Burgess does almost everything right (she drops the high-C at the fifth door too quickly for it to have the resounding effect it ought to) and she can sound genuinely frightened without overstating or exaggerating. Her performance is all-of-a-piece; she's thoroughly believable.

The score is a study in brightness and grief, chiaroscurically speaking, and the clarity of the recording, the elegance and excellence of the playing of Opera North's Orchestra, and the leadership of Richard Farnes lets us experience most of the contrasts. It's not as vivid as renditions by Solti or Kertesz, but it's fine nonetheless. After the Kertesz (with Ludwig and Berry), this set is a fine choice if the English language doesn't get in your way--or if it's exactly what you need.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Yuli Turovsky and I Musici de Montréal offer a very different listening experience in John Corigliano's Pulitzer Prize-winning Second Symphony (a masterful and imaginative string-orchestra arrangement of his 1996 Quartet) in comparison with the work's recorded premiere with John Storgards and the Helsinki Philharmonic on Ondine (to see David Hurwitz's favorable and succinct comments, type Q7651 in Search Reviews). For starters, Turovsky's chamber orchestra contains far fewer strings, resulting in more transparent and delicate textures all around, abetted by faster tempos in each of the five movements. Granted, the eerie, atmospheric opening movement and central Night Music benefit from the Helsinki ensemble's broader, padded sonorities, but Turovsky's more incisive articulation of the Scherzo and Fugue movements gives clearer voice to the music's quirky mood shifts. Furthermore, Chandos' surround-sound production manages to be sharply detailed and lifelike at the same time.


The sonic excellence particularly comes into its own in the "Red Violin" Suite culled from Corigliano's score to the François Giraud film of the same name. With all due respect to Joshua Bell's suave, effortless violin virtuosity that distinguishes the original soundtrack recording, Eleonora Turovsky's more impassioned and colorful solo work adds depth to the composer's unfettered eclecticism (try the cadenza-like passages in Shanghai and Pope's Betrayal). Perhaps some listeners will find this score more accessible and easier to absorb than the Symphony, although it's not as interesting or inspired as Corigliano's wacky collage piece The Mannheim Rocket that couples the Helsinki's Second Symphony. The bottom line is that Storgards and Turovsky are both excellent in their own ways, making a clear-cut choice difficult. Knowing that the present recording was made under the composer's supervision and bears his enthusiastic endorsement might tilt the scales in Chandos' favor.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Review:

The Estonian strings sing their hearts out…the woodwind solos are very lovely, too. Viola-player Mikhail Zemtsov impresses with the sheer beauty of tone.

– BBC Music Magazine

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This album with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and its artistic director, Neeme Järvi, features two mature works by Bohuslav Martinu, recorded in the splendid acoustic of the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn.

One of the most wide-ranging composers of music for the stage, Martinu was also enthusiastic about the theatrical possibilities of including new media in his operas. Špalícek in many ways belongs to this experimental tendency. Although it was published and billed at its first performance as a ballet, it might best be described as an opera-ballet, as alongside the many dances there are extensive roles for chorus as well as tenor, soprano, and bass soloists. Martinu described the work on his manuscript as deriving from folk games, customs, and fairytales.

The lyrical Rhapsody-Concerto was written in 1952, at a time when Martinu was fighting homesickness and depression, worsened by the political situation in his native Czechoslovakia. The work is a marked move toward a more romantic sound world. The soloist here is Mikhail Zemtsov, principal violist of the Residentie Orchestra The Hague since 2001 and a prize winner at the first International Viola Competition (Vienna) and the Elisa Meyer String Competition (Hamburg).

The exploration by Järvi and the ENSO of hidden gems from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has proved highly successful, their recent recording of works by Suchon awarded the Choc de Classica

Classical Music

There’s always room for another terrific Falla collection, though there’s certainly no shortage of them. Indeed, The Three-Cornered Hat has already been very kind to Chandos: Tortelier’s Philharmonia version is excellent (coupled with Albeniz’s Iberia in the Arbos orchestration). This one is just as fine, maybe even better. Juanjo Mena certainly gets the BBC Philharmonic to wake up from its usual bland, business-as-usual attitude and deliver tangy, idiomatic results. Listen to his perfectly judged rhythmic accents in the Dance of the Miller’s Wife, or his riotously brilliant final Jota. These zesty and energetic sections are more than offset by the poetic stillness of Raquel Lojendio’s lovely offstage soprano solo in Part Two. It’s just an excellent performance, about as good as it gets.

This is just as true of the other works on the disc. Homenajes receives a nicely contrasted interpretation that gives the piece a wider expressive range than usual–the tribute to Debussy is particularly atmospheric. Nights in the Gardens of Spain is marvelous. Bavouzet, as has become clear over the past couple of years, is a very major artist, and his performance has an especially noteworthy vitality and sparkle. So many performance of this work wallow in a sort of droopy, soggy “impressionism.” Certainly Mena and Bavouzet capture the music’s many moods, and they don’t stint on its mysterious, nocturnal tints, but they do it with a welcome rhythmic focus and firmness of outline. For a typical example, consider the vibrant Poco più animato at figure 5 in the first movement. This is great stuff, and the sonics are as bold and tactile as the interpretations.

– ClassicsToday.com

The effervescent and communicative energy of Bavouzet and Takacs-Nagy is encapsulated again in this second volume of their Mozart series. These exhilarating interpretations of Mozart’s piano concertos of 1784, faultlessly supported by the Manchester Camerata, follow highly praised concerts as well as a first volume which was “Editor’s Choice” in Pianist. The two concertos presented here are among the six that Mozart composed in Vienna in an extraordinarily productive year. As Bavouzet states in an exclusive personal note, they “share their association with operatic and symphonic styles. The contrasts of mood in their first movements relate them more closely with music for the operatic stage, while their finales are conceived in purely instrumental terms and make reference to the symphonic domain. On the other hand, these two works are complete opposites as far as their use of wind instruments is concerned. In KV 449 their inclusion is ad libitum, whereas they very often play the principal role in KV 459.”

REVIEWS:

Led by Adi Brett, the ensemble is ideally sized for this repertoire, especially in the string department. Because clearly only players of the highest calibre are engaged, the character here is much more akin to the intimacy of a chamber group ensemble than a true symphonic ensemble, the clue, of course, partly being in the name. But that is not to say that there is not power-a-plenty when called for. The very opening of the E flat Concerto, in fact, says it all in a nutshell: absolute precision in the ornaments, great clarity of line where any instrument that has something important to say at any one point stands out, but never dominates the texture, and the impressive attack as the music goes into the relative minor (C minor, and one of the composer’s favourite keys for drama) around twenty-five seconds into the exposition. These all mark out this performance as something special, even before the soloist has made his own telling first contribution. It is clear that both sheer dynamism and enthusiasm in the orchestral playing emanates from the man at the front, Budapest-born Gábor Takács-Nagy, who also works just as hard to nurture the more lyrical side of the music. That is something he is more able to do by forsaking the baton, and itself something perfectly feasible for this size of ensemble.

But when Bavouzet makes his first appearance, he takes over exactly where the Camerata have left off, attesting to a great feeling of empathy between soloist and conductor. All too often, the soloist’s body language can suggest a degree of displeasure at the way the orchestra deals with the opening themes that the soloist will then make use of in the ensuing solo exposition.

In discussing his previous Mozart CD, Bavouzet explains his choice of the Yamaha CFX instrument: “When considering a piano for this project I immediately thought about a Yamaha. The wonderful comfort of the keyboard action, the refined sound, and the natural balance between bass and treble were qualities that made my choice obvious and perfect for the Mozart Concertos.” Although a life-long Steinway aficionado, I have to agree with his comments, in as much as the piano-sound on this new CD is concerned, enhanced, of course, by the outstanding fidelity of the recording as a whole, and the warm acoustic of the venue.

With the added generosity of two well-known and much loved Divertimenti—in D major, KV 136, and F major, KV 138, respectively—where the Manchester Camerata really comes into its own with some stunning playing, there can be little doubt that this new CD is the perfect successor.

-- MusicWeb International

Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the world's most famous living composers and her music has a tremendous worldwide following. This is currently the only available recording of Hommage à Marina Tsvetayeva, and there is only one other recording of The Canticle of the Sun. Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 7 & 8 May 1999 (The Canticle of the Sun) and 15 & 16 November 2002 (Hommage à Marina Tsvetayeva) Producer(s) Claus Due (The Canticle of the Sun) Chris Hazell (Hommage à Marina Tsvetayeva) Sound Engineer(s) Jørn Jacobsen

The Serbian-American Paris-based pianist Ivan Ilic has signed a new multi-album recording contract with Chandos Records, following internationally acclaimed recordings of works by Godowsky and Feldman. His first project on the label is a series devoted to the solo piano works of the Czech composer Antoine Reicha, a contemporary and lifelong friend of Beethoven. Although best known for his contributions to the repertoire for wind quintet, Reicha wrote vast quantities of solo piano music, most of which has never been recorded. The manuscripts, preserved in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, were published only recently. Offering premiere recordings of the Grande Sonate in C major, the Sonata in F major, and three excerpts from Practische Beispiele, this first volume confirms Reicha as an authoritative, singular voice, whose piano works complement and enrich our understnanding of Haydn and Beethoven. Volume 1 is a coproduction of Chandos, RTS (Swiss Radio), and the Palazzetto Bru Zane- Centre de Musique Romantique Francaise in Venice.

Symphony No. 5 is widely considered as the finest among the nine numbered symphonies of Anton Bruckner, and ranks among his most famous works. In their first recording on Chandos for almost ten years, the Residentie Orchestra The Hague here performs the work under its chief conductor, Neeme Järvi, who has conducted the symphony with orchestras across the globe, and is recognised as one of the key interpreters of it. The reputation of the Residentie Orchestra The Hague as one of the finest orchestras in Europe makes it an appropriate figurehead for The Hague as a cosmopolitan city of justice, peace and culture.

Much to enjoy here … listen to this and marvel at playing of such eloquence.

Mozart’s sole bassoon concerto dates from 1774. As the booklet points out, every bassoonist plays it at some time, and most seem to harbour an ambition to record it. I have come to regard the results as a very special test of a player’s musicianship. A technically proficient but dull performance will leave you wondering why you bothered to spend a quarter of an hour with such tedious music, whereas in the hands of a player with real imagination and energy it can be a most exhilarating experience. Fortunately, and no surprise to those who have enjoyed her earlier discs for Chandos, this performance falls resoundingly into the latter category. Right from the soloist’s first entry the listener is engaged by Karen Geoghegan’s ripe tone, crisp articulation, imaginative phrasing, total technical control and above all her ability to communicate directly. The variety of tone that she gets from the instrument is one of her chief assets, together with an ability to surprise the listener by minute variations of phrasing. The slow movement, with its muted upper strings and subtle textures is an especial delight, and the Rondo Minuet finale has just the rhythmic lift it needs to keep it alive. The only criticism I would venture is the length of the cadenzas in the first two movements, but she is certainly not alone in this and they are of greater interest than those used by many of those of her rivals that I have heard. The very positive contribution of the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda is a major part of the success of this performance and their efforts are helped in turn by the transparent recording. Perhaps the soloist is a shade too forward for my liking, but I soon adjusted to it.

Similar remarks could be made about the performance of the Crusell Concertino, his last work in this form. The Kreutzer Fantasie falls into three sections, ending with a Polacca. In style, form and length it is very similar to Weber’s Clarinet Concertino, and whilst not as memorable as that work it is enjoyable and is given a first class performance here.

The remaining work is one I had not heard before – the “Rossini” Concerto. I understand that this was only discovered in the 1990s and that some Rossini scholars doubt that he wrote it. Whilst I have not read their reasoning for that view, I must say that I find it hard to believe that he had a hand in it. The booklet refers to its “veritably Rossinian wit” but each time I listened to it I missed it, although I certainly acknowledge that it does “display various kinds of bravura agility” with playing of a breathtakingly confident style. I am glad to have heard it but doubt if I will wish to return to it often.

This disc offers four works for bassoon and orchestra from the late 18 ^th and early 19 ^th centuries in superb performances well recorded and presented. Only one is a real masterpiece, two are pleasant if second rate, and one is wholly forgettable. If the programme appeals to you there is much to enjoy here, and wind players in particular should listen to this and marvel at playing of such eloquence.

-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International

A most compelling disc.

These choral works by Verdi are overshadowed by his great Requiem Mass and are consequently often overlooked. Maestro Noseda has been doing a first-class job in Manchester from 2002 as principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Sadly his final appearance as their chief conductor was on 16 April 2011 in a concert performance of Verdi’s Otello at the Bridgewater Hall. Noseda will become conductor laureate of the BBC Philharmonic.

For these choral scores Noseda has turned to all-Italian forces. The soloists are renowned Milanese soprano Barbara Frittoli and Genoa-born tenor Francesco Meli. The feature work is the Four Sacred Pieces - a score with three or four fine alternative versions in the catalogue but it certainly hasn’t been recorded anywhere near as often as its quality deserves.

Soon after working on The Force of Destiny in 1862 Verdi composed the dramatic cantata the Hymn of the Nations. It was the intended as the Italian entry for the International Exhibition in London in 1862. The score calls for tenor soloist, referred to as ‘The Bard’ in the text, sung by Francesco Meli, a four-part mixed chorus and orchestra. It is a setting of words by Arrigo Boito, the librettist especially noted for Otello and Falstaff. It did not actually feature at the International Exhibition but when performed (with a soprano soloist) in London it was to considerable acclaim. This celebratory work sung with tremendous fervour includes references to France and Italy. In deference to Queen Victoria there is a verse of ‘ God Save the Queen’ at the conclusion.

To mark Rossini’s death in Paris in 1868 Verdi suggested that the composers of Italy should unite in honour of Rossini. A scheme was hatched that each composer would collaborate gratis and contribute part of a Messa per Rossini to be performed once only at Bologna on the first anniversary of Rossini’s death. Initial performance preparations were put in place. However, the collaborative project experienced several difficulties and never came to fruition. Verdi’s contribution was the closing section the Libera me, Domine cast for soprano solo, four-part mixed chorus and orchestra. Verdi later reused the Libera me Domine for his great Requiem Mass ( Manzoni Requiem) with a few alterations necessary from the original to ensure a good fit.

Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces were actually premièred as three Sacred Pieces in 1898 in Paris. Verdi dropped the Ave Maria from the performance. The Ave Maria was performed as part of the set later that year in Vienna. Its four panels can be summarised as follows:-

i. Ave Maria on an ‘enigmatic scale’ harmonised for four-part mixed chorus a cappella, in Latin
ii. Stabat Mater for four-part mixed chorus and orchestra, in Latin.
iii. Laudi alla Vergine Maria (text taken from Canto XXXIII in Paradiso of Dante’s Divine Comedy) for four-part women’s chorus a cappella, in Italian.
iv. Te Deum for double mixed chorus and orchestra, in Latin.

I have several versions of the Four Sacred Pieces including accounts from the Berlin Philharmonic and the Ernst Senff Chamber Choir/Giulini on Sony, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir/Gardiner on Philips and the Berlin Philharmonic and the Swedish Radio Choir and Stockholm Chamber Choir/Muti on EMI. Most outstanding of all is the version from Carlo Maria Giulini with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus on EMI Classics. Produced by Walter Legge, this was recorded in 1962 at London’s Kingsway Hall. My current copy is the wonderful sounding 2010 reissue on the EMI Classics, Masters series titled Great Classical Recordings. The coupling is Giulini’s justly famous 1963-64 Kingsway Hall account of the Requiem on < EMI Classics 6 31821 2.

The Ave Maria for unaccompanied mixed chorus is a haunting score. Noseda’s Teatro Regio Chorus is attractively toned and sing well. Giulini takes the tempo a little slower than Noseda. I immediately noticed the superior sound from the refined and highly unified Philharmonia Chorus. Giulini’s women’s choir sound remarkably angelic with the men’s choir providing a sturdy foundation.

The substantial Stabat Mater is highly dramatic with Noseda’s Turin forces contributing a sparkling and buoyant performance. Giulini’s Philharmonia chorus is noticeably more powerful with singing of considerable weight together with resounding orchestral accompaniment. Giulini’s climaxes remain quite awe-inspiring - spine-tingling stuff. The glowing string sound from the Philharmonia also takes the ear. Remarkable too is a glorious hushed quality to the Amen.

Probably the most immediately appealing of the set is the lightly textured and captivating Laudi alla Vergine Maria for unaccompanied women’s chorus. Noseda’s Turin choir offers attractive singing and is stirring on occasions. Giulini’s choir with their impeccable unity sounded angelic. Here Giulini takes a slightly quicker pace than Noseda.

For mixed chorus and orchestra the Te Deum is the lengthiest piece and the most complex of the set. It is generally acknowledged as containing the finest writing - best appreciated after several plays. The piece also includes the set’s only part for solo voice. Noseda’s Turin choral forces are in excellent voice sounding particularly reverential. They take great care over the meaning of the text. The Turin brass sound thrilling and I was struck by the gleaming timbre of the strings. For Noseda soprano Barbara Frittoli is suitably pious in her small solo part. A little quicker than Noseda, Giulini’s stunning interpretation feels weightier and has additional vitality with breathtaking climaxes. The orchestral accompaniment from the Philharmonia shines through - especially the brass - to grand effect. Janet Baker can be heard singing serenely towards the conclusion.

The final score on the Chandos release is Mary the Virgin of the Angels, the concluding chorus with Leonora from act II of the opera The Force of Destiny (1861/2). Verdi’s librettist for the opera was Francesco Maria Piave.

Renowned soprano Barbara Frittoli has pleaisng clarity of diction combined with a most glorious tone. The pronounced wobble on her sustained notes may prove a distraction for some. In the Libera me Domine from the Mass for Rossini Frittoli remembers appropriately that she is not singing in a Verdi opera and is suitably reverential. I was highly impressed with Francesco Meli, a clear-toned tenor with a top register that reminded me a little of Pavarotti. Meli’s voice is sufficiently powerful to soar over the chorus in the Hymn of the Nations.

The Chorus of Teatro Regio of Torino is in impeccable form: heartfelt, reverential and decisive. I found them especially rousing in the Hymn of the Nations and tenderly devout in the Stabat Mater and Laudi alla Vergine Maria. With notable unanimity and potency the Teatro Regio Orchestra respond with conviction to Maestro Noseda’s thoughtful promptings.

The Chandos presentation is to the high standard that we have all come to expect. I was impressed by the quality of the booklet notes which included a fine essay and full texts with English translation. The sound quality is reasonably clear, however, I was a touch uncomfortable with the brightness of some of the forte passages. This is a compelling disc and reminds us again that every Noseda disc is worthy of investigation.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Recorded in: St Bartholemew's Church, Orford, Suffolk Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London (BWV 233 and BWV 236); 10 December 1997 (BWV 529), 7-9 July 1999 (BWV 233 and BWV 236) Producer(s) Martin Compton Sound Engineer(s) Anthony Howell (BWV 529) Ben Connellan (BWV 233 and BWV 236)

Recorded in: The Warehouse, London 11-13 March 1996 (Sonatas Nos 1-4 & 6), 28 March 2000 (Sonatas Nos 5 & 7) Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan

Classical Music

D'Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as 'The Samson of Music' for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. Today the music of d'Indy is sadly neglected, which is why Chandos and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra have decided to embark upon a series devoted to his orchestral works with conductor Rumon Gamba. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d'Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies and employing Franck's well-known 'cyclic method'. This is the first foray by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for Chandos into the realm of French repertoire after recordings of music by Malcolm Williamson. On the most recent Williamson release, American Record Guide commented, 'Rumon Gamba's direction of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra is superb, as is the shape and conviction of all these interpretations. The sound is vibrant and clear'. Previous releases with Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra: Williamson, Vol.1: CHAN10359 Williamson, Vol.2: CHAN10406

HOLST The Mystic Trumpeter. First Choral Symphony 1 • Andrew Davis, cond; Susan Gritton (s); 1 BBC S Ch; BBC SO • CHANDOS 5127 (SACD: 69:20 Text and Translation)


I complain so often of the modern tendency towards over-reverberant sonics, particularly in Naxos and Chandos releases, that when the sound matches the mood of the music I am pleased to admit that it works. In this disc, titled Holst Orchestral Works Vol. 3, the fine conductor Andrew Davis leads inspired performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and soprano Susan Gritton in two of Holst’s most interesting and appealing works for that combination.


The Mystic Trumpeter (1904, revised 1912) is described in the booklet as being in Wagnerian musical language, but evolved. Based on a poem by Walt Whitman, “From Noon to Starry Night,” it includes musical premonitions of The Planets , particularly “Neptune the Mystic.” The musical evolution also owes something to Richard Strauss, who Holst played under as a trombonist, but here Holst’s continuing musical growth is clear and fascinating from first note to last. It also has the trait in common with Debussy that every time the music reaches a climax, it pulls back shortly after and recedes. This ability of his to “cap the geyser,” so to speak, was to come to fruition in the next three decades of his life.


The First Choral Symphony, as the notes indicate, has a weakness only in the text setting of the Finale; otherwise this, too, is an outstanding work, and one deserving of greater exposure. Here, too, the mature Holst is able to maintain a spellbinding atmosphere at a consistently soft volume level, only occasionally opening up the sound to create brief climaxes. The orchestral texture is more varied, even in the fast sections of the music where a certain sameness might have been expected. There’s a touch of Britten in the later sections of this work—a possible influence on the younger composer? I make no claim for this, only a suggestion; make of it what you will. In any case, this is an excellent disc of truly excellent music.


Susan Gritton contributes a brief statement in the booklet recalling how she rehearsed these works under the late Richard Hickox, only to have that esteemed conductor die suddenly before the recordings could be completed. Under such circumstances, I’m sure that this project was a bittersweet one for her, but as I say, Andrew Davis has done himself—and Holst—proud.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

D'Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as 'The Samson of Music' for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator, and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d'Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies, and employing Franck's well-known 'cyclic method'. The exclusive Chandos artist Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra here return with Volume 4 of Chandos' highly acclaimed series devoted to these unjustly neglected orchestral works. Of Symphony No. 3 on Volume 3, released in 2010, Classic FM said: 'Following their first two much-praised discs, Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony further champion the lushly colourful and impressionistic orchestral music of Vincent d'Indy. It's a fascinating work that mixes straightforward militaristic passages with a high-Romantic, 20th-century language that's part Expressionist, part Impressionist'. Symphonie italienne was written when d'Indy was in his late teens. It was strongly inspired by his travels in Italy, and the four movements bear the respective titles 'Rome', 'Florence', 'Venice', and 'Naples'. Heavily indebted in style to Mendelsohn, Schumann, and Berlioz, this tuneful work was a tremendous if ambitious undertaking for the comparative novice, and shows early signs of the composer's strong intellectual musical mind. D'Indy composed the Symphonie Suite Poème des Rivages, his late orchestral masterpiece, in 1919 - 21. It is a work of outstanding technical accomplishment and poetic inspiration, which succeeds in combining the solid post-Franckian structures with the textual and colouristic fluidity of Debussy. The orchestral forces, including four saxophones, create an almost visual impression of light and atmosphere, in the manner of Claude Monet. Its well-received premiere took place in New York on 1 December 1921 under d'Indy's direction.

TELEMANN Suites: in F, TWV 55:F16 ; in A, TWV 55:A7 ; in D, TWV 55:D23 . Concerto in D for Strings, TWV 43:D4 . Fanfare in D, TWV 50:44 . Divertimento in E?, TWV 50:21 • Simon Standage, cond; Collegium Musicum 90 (period instruments) • CHACONNE 0787 (79:18)


It seems like the Telemann fountain is flowing full force nowadays, with a number of recordings appearing like clockwork each month, and I’ve no doubt that the vast number of his compositions are very much in danger of being all recorded, that is, those that haven’t been lost. This disc brings together a selection of instrumental pieces performed by the venerable Simon Standage with the equally venerable and reputable Collegium Musicum 90, which he founded with the late Richard Hickox. Indeed, the Telemann offerings by this ensemble and its director are of such number, variety, and excellence that they were awarded the Telemann prize in 2010, an honor that shows their stature in this massive revival.


This disc does not disappoint, either, although only one of the six works presented is given its world premiere. This is the Divertimento in E?, which seems in every other way little more than a conventional suite of French dances but contains a rather nice dramatic element in the movement titles that offer something more than expected. It would seem that for someone who wrote such a tremendous amount of music, one would have scads of autographs all about, but in Telemann’s case, oddly enough, these seem to be a rarity. As few as 18 of the instrumental works exist in his own hand, nine of which are actually in a single collection written for and dedicated to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ludwig VIII. This disc takes three of these works, written when the composer was 86 years old in 1766, opera ultima if ever there were. The remaining three are earlier, probably closer to 1708 or so when he was Kapellmeister at Sorau in Silesia, now Poland. It is no matter, for the thread that links them is that all are in the French style, dances that alternate fast and slow in the manner of the suite. Only in the Overture-Suite in A Major (titled Concert en Ouverture ) is there a hint of a soloist, in this case a vehicle for violinist Standage to shine. More interestingly, however, is that three of the works from late in the composer’s life include a pair of horns, as well as flutes, coming close to the standard Classical-period orchestra.


Since most have been recorded before, only a few words will suffice about the works themselves. The F-Major suite is very Handelian, with exaggerated French dotted rhythms at the opening, but the harmonies momentarily veer off into strange areas, one of Telemann’s trademarks, as is the outdoorsy feel of the Allegro section with its hunting calls. In the Bourrée that follows, the horns begin this dance in their high register, adding tonal punch to the line, but in the second part, the folk-song character in the decisive rhythms makes a nice complement. The final movement is titled “The Tempest,” and the skirling strings and echoing horns entrances, not to mention a nice crescendo at the beginning of each section, is quite dramatic. In the concerto grosso, I find the opening Andante amusing, almost like Telemann is teaching his ensemble exercises, but his penchant for folk rhythms reasserts itself in the Vivace that follows. One might also note the perpetual-motion finale of the A-Major suite, with its maniacal Gigue and final unexpected cadential flourish. The Divertimento is a perfect little gem, almost a dramatic and very civilized scene that begins with a quick awakening, a mincing gavotte that evokes a conversation at the table, and a brief hunt. Here we are more in the world of early Classicism than the rather more Baroque style of the remainder of the works on the disc.


About the performances themselves, Collegium Musicum 90 is up to its usual standard of excellence. The interpretation is finely nuanced, the attention to dynamic and rhythmic contrast clear, and the intonation spot-on. This rapport is clearly something that Standage and his group have achieved over the years, and this disc only adds to an already world-class reputation. I find some nice surprises, such as the rather prominent horns in the opening movement of the F-Major overture, which I suspect may have been playing bells-up in order to achieve the bucolic sound, very different from the more refined work elsewhere. The flutes are equally clear in their performances. All around, this disc can be highly recommended, even if you have most of the works on other recordings. I would make this one your standard.


FANFARE: Bertil van Boer

FERGUSON Violin Sonata No. 2. BRITTEN Suite for Violin and Piano. WALTON Violin Sonata. Two Pieces for Violin and Piano • Tasmin Little (vn); Piers Lane (pn) • CHANDOS 10770 (61:39)


Here we have the first in a series of British works for violin and piano. Presumably all will feature the excellent team of violinist Tasmin Little and pianist Piers Lane. They are a team in the true sense of the word: Lane well known for his sensitive work in chamber music (he curates and performs in an annual chamber music festival in Townsville, Northern Australia), and Little highly regarded for her performances of British music. Full marks to them for not calling themselves the Little Lane Duo. The series gets off to a fine start with this diverse program of rarely heard and stylistically contrasting works.


The Suite for Violin and Piano op. 6 is among Britten’s earliest pieces (post-juvenilia), when the composer was consciously following continental trends. Its five movements include stylistic pastiches such as a march, a moto perpetuo, and a concluding waltz. Two years later Britten would revisit these forms with even more assurance in his Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra. The piano part in these short pieces is brilliant (as in the composer’s Piano Concerto, another early work), and very French in places; the ghost of Debussy is present in the rippling arpeggios accompanying quiet sections of the finale. In the 1930s Britten’s music was regarded as superficial—playfulness being a quality that sat uneasily with English composers—but the main attribute of this music is its focus. Britten knew what he wanted to say and employed the most precise means with which to say it. This never changed throughout his career, although his aims obviously did. Little brings an equal precision and poise to her playing of the gentle Lullaby that forms the fourth movement, and both musicians revel in the high spirits and punchy accents required elsewhere. Theirs is a performance that makes you wonder why the work is not played more frequently.


Walton’s days as an enfant terrible were over by the time of his Violin Sonata, which came a decade after the highly successful Violin Concerto of 1937. It is in two movements: the first, rhapsodic and lyrical; the second, a theme and variations—a form the composer increasingly turned to in his late music. Each variation in this movement is in a key a semitone higher than its predecessor. In both movements the writing is fulsome, certainly in comparison to Britten’s spare textures, with the violin part displaying yearning lines and wide intervallic leaps that recall the earlier concerto. The piano was not Walton’s instrument and he wrote little for it, yet its colors are effectively exploited in the variations, notably in the Fifth Variation ( Allegretto con moto ) where the keyboard plays in octaves in its high register against the violin’s pizzicato.


On a Chandos recording of Walton’s Violin Concerto the companion piece is an orchestral version of this Sonata, arranged by Christopher Palmer. Palmer’s recreation of the composer’s orchestral style is perfect, but Walton knew best: it is clearly music conceived for two instruments. Little and Lane’s performance leaves no doubt of that. They also unerringly tap the vein of nostalgia in the first of the Two Pieces, titled Canzonetta , and are suitably frisky in the concluding “Scherzetto.”


The disc opens with a major work by the rarely played Irish composer, Howard Ferguson (1908–1999). It was composed in 1946, as Walton was working slowly on his own Sonata. Ferguson was even more meticulous; he later abandoned composition altogether, so out of touch did he feel with the Modernist wave of the 1950s and 60s. His Sonata No. 2 has a traditional three-movement structure, but again within that there is a tendency to rhapsodize. It takes a few hearings to recognize the economy of means that Ferguson uses as a basis for his emotionally charged music.The underlying tone is one of anxiety and sorrow—even anger in the tougher third movement—no doubt due to the work’s wartime provenance. Both musicians are securely on the composer’s wavelength.


I cannot praise Lane and Little highly enough. They face tough competition in the Walton: Daniel Hope and pianist Simon Mulligan recorded it, coupled with the sonata by Elgar, in 2001; Fanfare ’s Robert Maxham wrote that Hope’s “lyricism in the Walton has a strong, perhaps ironic, pungency.” The young Nigel Kennedy also recorded the piece, and there are older performances available by Aaron Rosand and Yehudi Menuhin. Competition is scarce in the other works. Lydia Mordkovitch taped Ferguson’s two violin sonatas for Chandos in the mid-1990s. I have not heard that disc but I tend to prefer Little to Mordkovitch in other repertoire (such as the Walton Concerto).


The version of Britten’s Suite in the newly released Decca Britten box is by LSO violinist Alexander Barantschik, taken from a single EMI disc of Britten’s chamber music from the mid-1990s. Barantschik’s performance also turns up in a recent EMI collection of Britten’s chamber music. Interestingly, his pianist is named as John Alley on the original release, but John Adey on both the reissue boxes. I presume this is a typographical error that neither EMI nor Universal picked up. Barantschik and Alley treat the Suite to a dry Stravinskian attack, making it sound even more starkly modern, and are recorded in a less resonant acoustic that suits their approach, but Little and Lane have great authority and their program is substantial. The new disc is strongly recommended, and promises much in the forthcoming issues from these fine artists.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott