Neeme Järvi is back conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the third of four albums featuring Henk de Vlieger's bold arrangements of operas by Wagner. Of the first album (CHSA 5060), Classic FM wrote: 'Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger builds a penetrating symphonic poem that reflects the dramatic depths of The Ring.' In Volume 3, De Vlieger turns to Wagner's tragic romantic opera Tristan und Isolde, which is here treated symphonically. The key themes of anticipation, longing, rapture, separation, hope, death, and transfiguration are expressed solely through orchestral forces. A particularly striking feature of the lovers' duet, a movement entitled 'Nachtgesang', is the conspicuous presence of the violin and the clarinet, which pick out the sung parts of the two lovers. The movement ends on an unresolved chord followed by a compelling caesura, which symbolises the painful realisation that it will never be possible for them to fulfil their great love. This disc also includes the overture to Wagner's Die Feen. This was the composer's first great romantic, although less well-known, opera. The overall style of the work, based on La donna serpente by Carlo Gozzi, owes its essentials to Beethoven, Marschner, and Weber - something that Wagner himself never hid in the least. However, the opera also displays clearly audible foreshadowings of the composer's later works, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, in particular. Wagner based Das Liebesverbot on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and included on this disc is the overture to the opera. It is perhaps the most Mediterranean-sounding of the composer's operas, something especially apparent in the brimming vitality of the overture in which the tone is set straight away by the sparkling contributions of castanets, triangle, and tambourine. Described as a 'große komische Oper', it was composed in 1834, and Wagner conducted the premiere at Magdeburg in 1836. The first performance poorly attended and involving a lead singer who forgot the words and had to improvise, the opera was a resounding flop and its second performance had to be cancelled after a fist-fight broke out backstage between the prima donna's husband and a leading tenor before the curtain had even risen. The opera was never performed again in Wagner's lifetime.

Buxtehude's legacy, for many centuries neglected, has more recently been re-appraised and its importance accepted, not only for the quality of its craftsmanship but also for its undeniable influence on composers such as J.S. Bach. In fact, it is reputed that Bach walked over 200 miles to hear Buxtehude perform on the organ, so extraordinary was his reputation. Chaconne has previously recorded sacred cantatas of Buxtehude, but this is the label's first recording of secular instrumental works of the composer. The VII Suonate, Op. 1 have now been recorded by The Purcell Quartet, who consistently receives good reviews, and is renowned for its artistry in repertoire of this kind. The trio sonatas are a remarkable example of Buxtehude's beautiful chamber music and together with the trio sonatas Op. 2 are the only compositions that Buxtehude issued in print.

Classical Music

The newest installment in the Chandos La Musica de Espana series with the BBC Philharmonic and chief conductor Juanjo Mena explores the music of Isaac Albeniz, one of the greatest Spanish composers to have ever lived. This album includes his Piano Concerto No. 1 "Concierto fantastico", Suite espanola, Rapsodia espanola, and Suite from “The Magic Opal.” The featured soloist for the Piano Concerto and Rapsodia espanola is British pianist Martin Roscoe, who has already been critically praised for his previous recordings on the Chandos label.

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



Richard Hickox's final project - reviving little-known Holst works - is a triumph

Does sentiment govern this choice as Recording of the Month? Yes and no. It is only right, I think, to pay tribute to a conductor who did so much for music in general and British music in particular. A conductor whose recordings, as a reader was good enough to point out to me the other day, are recommended more than almost any other in the Gramophone Classical Music Guide.

On the other hand, this issue needs no special circumstances to make its case. It is, in all the best ways, typical Hickox. A neglected corner of the British canon gets the full works treatment – splendid and fulsome orchestral sound, with each of these works brought to glorious life. There was always an excitement about this kind of Hickox recording, a glee in being able to reawaken for the masses works that had unjustly been allowed to slumber. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales bring gleaming textures and a sense of mighty architecture to repertoire that shows that Holst was not just about The Planets.

The conductor tragically died shortly after a recording session for a second volume of Holst orchestral works. Is it too much to hope that enough was set down for the sequel to be issued? In any case, there can be no finer epitaph than this.

-- Gramophone [2/2009]

Classical Music

From the Bolshoi to La Scala, from the Stockholm Philharmonic to the Vienna Symphony, the forty-five-year carrier and notably famous supple stick technique of Gennady Rozhdestvensky have made him one of hte most respected twentieth-century conductors in Europe. This release celebrates his superb Enescu series with the BBC Philharmonic. The Romanian composer was one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians of the twentieth century: a great violinist and composer, a distinguished conductor, an accomplished pianist, able cellist, and a famous violin teacher. Although relatively modest, his published output contained some substantial works, such as the folk-inspired Romanian Rhapsodies and romantically influenced symphonies, all featured here.

2 SACD's for the price of 1 The works on the present SA-CDs span Berg's creative career from his first published piece, the Piano Sonata, Op. 1, here performed in the orchestration by Theo Verbey, to the Violin Concerto and the Symphonic Pieces from the Opera 'Lulu', the last works that were fully completed when Berg died at the age of fifty in 1935. The Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen performs the Violin Concerto, for which she is well known. The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote last year: 'Van Keulen brought Manon Gropius vividly to life in the concerto, matching her tone and expression to each episode; flighty and cheerful in the first, plucky and aggressive in the second, serenely resigned at the end, where Berg quotes a Bach chorale. The enigmatic folksong woven into both movements (hardly Bachian with its risqué text) had a mysterious feel, and van Keulen tied it all up in a performance as narrative as it was nimble.' This comprehensive collection, performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (the National Orchestra of Sweden) under its former Principal Conductor Mario Venzago, is released on two Surround-Sound hybrid SA-CDs. It is the only available Berg collection on SA-CD and sold at the price of a single SA-CD. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra recently made its debut on Chandos with a disc of concertos by Weinberg, which was widely praised. On 5 March, the Orchestra, conducted by Mario Venzago, will perform Berg's Violin Concerto and Three Fragments from 'Wozzeck' in a concert in Gothenburg to celebrate the launch of this recording.

This compilation of reissues makes for an excellent Shostakovich disc. The Chamber Symphony Op. 110a and the Symphony for Strings Op. 118a are actually arrangements of two Shostakovich string quartets (No. 8 and No. 10, respectively) made by Rudolf Barshai with the composer's approval. Of the two, Symphony for Strings makes a greater impact in its expanded version, given the inherent symphonic writing of the original. Quartet No. 8 is a more inward, personal work, and while the Chamber Symphony arrangement is effective, the work's gritty intensity is more powerfully conveyed by just four instruments, without the added padding to soften its lacerating blows. Nevertheless, the I Musici de Montréal players give a bracing account of both works, from the quiet elegiac moments of Op. 110a to the full-frontal assault of Op. 118a's tutti passages. Yuli Turovsky's single-minded leadership has the band sounding as close to a huge string quartet as possible. The final third of this well-packed disc is taken up with the songs From Jewish Folk Poetry, composed in 1948 in response to a new and brutal wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the Soviet Union, and then kept hidden in a drawer by Shostakovich for many years. The poems actually describe the hard life for Jews under the Czar, allowing Shostakovich to speak about their current plight using coded allegory. Nadia Pelle, Mary Ann Hart, and Rodney Nolan bring to life the misery, terror, and humor contained within the texts, and make listening to these songs a deeply moving experience. Chandos has captured it all in full, rich sound. --Victor Carr, ClassicsToday.com

Järvi encourages the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande to give of their very best and, abetted by excellently judged SACD sound, the results are biting, driving, refined and brilliantly exciting. A scintillating and often nightmarish ride.

– Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

A year on from the opener, this is a very generously filled second volume of Chandos's promising Raff symphony cycle. There are two previous recordings of the composer's eleven highly idiomatic, imaginative symphonies, long unjustly neglected by programmers and critics alike. The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Hans Stadlmair, recently released by Tudor in handy boxed set form (review, with further discographical information) is probably the critics' favourite, although it comes neither cheap nor without flaws. The forerunner was an early-Nineties series on Marco Polo with different orchestras, mainly from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, all but one under Urs Schneider: these are currently available from Naxos as mp3 downloads only (9.40248). In 2001 Naxos had the good idea of reissuing the Marco Polo recordings as physical discs under their own brand, but only two appeared (8.555411, 8.555491) and then the label either had a change of heart, or forgot.

Raff's programmatic 'Lenore' Symphony has three further modern recordings. One comes from a local rival to Järvi's ensemble, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Nicholas Carthy. A satisfactory, rather than compelling recording, it was brought out by Italian label Dynamic (CDS 283) well over a decade ago, and there has been no sign of any kind of follow-up since. Another version is Yondani Butt's with the Philharmonia Orchestra on ASV (DCA 1000), one performance in a long line by this determinedly uncontroversial conductor of almost clinical neutrality.

Finally there is Matthias Bamert and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra on Koch Schwann, re-released as 367932, but dogged by poor sound. As for Chandos, despite the fact its audio quality was not as good as the SACD/24-bit/96kHz tags – abetted by one or two prominent reviews – implied, the first release immediately became the new standard for the Second Symphony. This is above all for the fact that Järvi is such a fine all-round conductor and the Suisse Romande a pedigree orchestra with a definite aptitude for Raff-era music. Back at the same Swiss location, that slight lossy edge to the audio is still there on this latest disc, yet the Chandos sound is still much superior to all its predecessors', and despite the imperfections constitutes a further plus-point for Järvi's cycle.

On the other hand, no further incentive should be required when the offering is one of Raff's most memorable works, the tune-packed, masterfully orchestrated Fifth Symphony. He chooses to focus – and then expatiate - on the nervous drama of Gottfried Bürger's famous but second-rate poem 'Lenore', rather than on its cold-blooded religious mania. The story is similar to Dvo?ák's later cantata Svatební Košile, known in English as The Spectre's Bride, which was based on a similar-themed ballad by Karol Jaromír Erben. This is doubly pertinent: Raff shares Dvo?ák's intuitive feel for lyrical drama. In Bürger, the eponymous Lenore is duped and then effectively buried alive for thinking herself in a state of despair neglected by God, but Raff's final-movement 'ride into hell' is jauntily mesmeric and ends with an uplifting chorale – moving, but certainly diverging from the implications of Bürger's chilling poem.

It is worth noting here that Järvi's account is a full ten minutes faster than Stadlmair, Carthy and Schneider. This is interesting enough in itself, but these three were already seven or eight minutes quicker than Bernard Herrmann's pioneering recording with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970 — (most recently available on Unicorn UKCD 2031, but originally funded by Herrmann himself. Järvi is taking Raff at his word with his astonishingly fast metronome markings, but those who have had their opinions as to how this work should sound coloured by more leisurely approaches will likely need time to get used to these tempos, and those many long in thrall to Herrmann's account may possibly never accept them. The third movement Marsch-Tempo in particular will raise many eyebrows: Raff asks for, and Järvi gives – where no one else seemingly dares - 160 beats per minute, a good 50% more than what would normally be expected from a march. Yet odd as it initially sounds, the speed is still well within the bounds of a military double march.

Järvi's programme is amplified by a selection of overtures from Raff's operas, plus one of his own transcriptions – his only such, in fact - the 'Abends' Rhapsody. One or two of these are take-them-or-leave-them works by comparison with the symphony, though their Rossini-meets-Beethoven idiom is undeniably attractive, and their realisation here by the ever-dependable Swiss Romandes elegantly winning. Best of the four extras is the most substantial, the 'King Alfred' overture. Scored for large orchestra, it is a dramatic tone poem in all but name. The notes describe it as "grandiose in design, comparable in sweep and scope to Wagner's recent overture to Tannhäuser". The Rhapsody itself is a lovely, moodily crepuscular work, over all too quickly.

As for the CD booklet, Chandos continue apace with their shrinking-font policy, their texts tiny islands of ink in blank paper seas, legibility further hampered by the greyish ink. Still, the notes themselves are usually excellent, as indeed those here by Avrohom Leichtling are - detailed, informative, enthusiastic, trilingual. Bürger's poem might usefully have been included, if only to make use of some of that blank space.

– Byzantion, MusicWeb International

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

A Gramophone Disc of the Month



HOLST The Planets. 1 Beni Mora. Japanese Suite • Andrew Davis, cond; BBC PO; 1 Manchester CCh • CHANDOS CHSA 5086 (SACD: 78:25)


As unlikely as it seems, this appears to be the only SACD of Holst’s orchestral tour de force currently listed on ArkivMusic; another on Chesky, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, is available on British websites.


Both sonically—in two or five channels—and musically, this is a very impressive Planets . Certain labels have always had a distinctive sound, and this is especially true of Chandos. The sound of this disc is typical of Chandos’s best orchestral recordings: There is more sense of the hall—in this instance Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall—than on most other labels, a feature particularly evident in SACD mode, but the recording still is immediate enough to pack a real wallop. Listen, for example, to the organ pedal in “Saturn,” or the ffff full-organ glissando at the end of “Uranus.” The dynamic range in “Mars” is huge, and the offstage women’s voices in “Neptune” come from some unknown place. The BBC Philharmonic, surely among England’s top orchestras by now, plays superbly; “Mercury” is on the button, “Jupiter” polished rather than ragged as so often heard. The women of the Manchester Chamber Choir sing with pure tone and perfect intonation, again a refreshing change from most versions. Sir Andrew Davis, now a seasoned veteran, gives a reading of which Sir Adrian Boult would have been proud, atmospheric in “Venus,” light in “Mercury,” and monumental in “Saturn.” Put another way, “Mercury” is mercurial, “Saturn” saturnine, “Jupiter” jovial. This Planets would be a high recommendation in stereo; for multichannel listeners it’s a must.


This release is titled Holst: Orchestral Works, Volume 2 ; Volume 1, which turned out to be the final recording by the late Richard Hickox, included four ballet scores from late in Holst’s career. (The reviewer for a well-known British magazine cited the “splendid and fulsome sound” of that disc, perhaps illustrating Shaw’s observation that England and America are two countries separated by a common language.) According to Chandos’s Ralph Couzens, the series was to have culminated in The Planets , but the plan obviously had to be revised. Volume 1 was reviewed in Fanfare 32:6 by Peter J. Rabinowitz, who found some of the scores rather weak; I suspect that, rather than marking any decline in Holst’s creativity, the problem lies in the differences between the music Holst wrote for amateurs (including at least two of the works in Volume 1) and for professionals. The three works in the present volume were not only all written for professionals, but date from around the same time: The Planets was written in 1914–16, the Japanese Suite during the composition of The Planets , and Beni Mora (subtitled “Oriental Suite”) a bit earlier, in 1909–10. Of the two shorter suites, Beni Mora , inspired by a trip to Algeria, is the more interesting. The Japanese Suite was written for a Japanese dancer, who provided Holst with the themes; for once (in contrast to the Second Suite for Military Band and his many choral folk-song settings), the themes seem to limit Holst’s imagination, and the work lacks the vitality of Beni Mora.


The shade of Boult looms large over these performances; his recordings of the two shorter works for Lyrita (SRCD 222) still sound terrific, and are a bit more incisive than Davis’s mostly admirable readings. As for The Planets , of course, Boult was the conductor of the informal first performance in 1918, and his five recordings, particularly the two stereo versions for EMI—dating from 1966 and 1978!—are uniquely authoritative. But Davis’s interpretation is compelling in its own right, and Chandos’s sonics blow away even EMI’s fine sound. This SACD is superb both musically and sonically, and Davis’s grasp of Holst’s idiom bodes well for further volumes in Chandos’s Holst cycle. Highly recommended!


FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan

Following his acclaimed recording of sonatas by contemporaries of Beethoven, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet further celebrates the great composers’ anniversary year with this set of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos. Electing to direct the Swedish Chamber orchestra from the keyboard, Jean-Efflam writes: ‘To play a concerto under a conductor who shares and enriches one’s vision of the work concerned is one of the greatest joys in the life of a soloist. Nevertheless, one can also admit that some aspects of performing without a conductor may prove advantageous. Rehearsal time is generally speaking made longer by the process of working out the different protocol of gestures from the soloist and the leader in coordinating the ensemble playing. As this work proceeds a creative bond is forged, resulting in an artistic osmosis, a common vision of the work, in which compromise has no place. For the pianist there is also the delight of appearing face to face with the entire orchestra, in direct visual communication, the musicians perhaps more likely to take personal initiatives, thus multiplying the pleasure of a genuine participation, dialogue, and musical exchange.’ The Cadenzas used in this recording are all Beethoven’s, from the set that he wrote-out in 1809, and so are contemporaneous with the Fifth Concerto.

REVIEW:

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's interpretations are distinctive in several respects and succeeds in standing out from the crowd. The Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, has a straightforward slow movement quite unlike the stomp fests that have become routine, but the subtlety and rhythmic complexity of Bavouzet's solos in the outer movements is absorbing. In the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ("Emperor"), Bavouzet unleashes the full ringing tone of his unusual piano, and he manages the trick of getting a really exciting, forward-moving reading of this work with a small group. With fine engineering support from a small university auditorium in Sweden, Bavouzet delivers a Beethoven concerto cycle that's worth listeners' investment of time and money.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

BACEWICZ Violin Concertos: No. 7; No. 3; No. 1. Overture • Joanna Kurkowicz (vn); ?ukasz Borowicz, cond; Polish RSO • CHANDOS 10533 (63:47)


The recorded works of Gra?yna Bacewicz (1909–1969) consist almost entirely of compositions for violin in various combinations, with a few piano pieces thrown in for good measure. Violinist Joanna Kurkowicz has contributed to that catalog three of Bacewicz’s seven violin concertos, conductor ?ukasz Borowicz having suggested (according to Kurkowicz) the Overture as a companion piece. (Several years ago, Kurkowicz released a collection of Bacewicz’s violin sonatas—No. 4, No. 5, and No. 2—and short pieces—Oberek No. 1, Partita, Capriccio, and Polish Capriccio —with pianist Gloria Cheng on Chandos 10250.)


The program opens with the last of the three concertos, No. 7, from 1965. Despite its modernity, this Concerto has been tailor-made for the violin by its violinist-composer. So no matter how colorful or impressionistic its orchestration, the solo always maintains equality of interest. The entire work, divided into the traditional three movements, lasts just a bit less than 22 minutes, with the cadenza in the first—a movement almost eight-minutes in length—arriving it seems almost before the Concerto has gotten underway, so firmly does the interplay of capricious melody and texture hold the listener’s interest. The comparisons in the notes with Szymanowski’s First Concerto hardly seem out of place, although Bacewicz appears to have wandered farther along that path than did the earlier composer. Fairy-like sonorities and eerie timbres predominate in the second movement, with textures suddenly piling up and then as suddenly dispersing. The third movement begins with a commanding orchestral statement, but the violin launches into almost manic figuration. Joanna Kurkowicz seems particularly comfortable breathing these rarified atmospheres, and Borowicz brings a kind of preternatural clarity to the sprinkles of orchestral stardust. The engineers have captured both the detail and the lithe tone of Kurkowicz’s 1699 Pietro Giovanni Guarneri.


The Third Concerto, from 1948 (Kurkowicz and Borowicz play them in reverse order), remains closer to traditional tonality, though the violinistic figuration often suggests the kind of pulverization listeners will remember from the Seventh Concerto. Nevertheless, the orchestral parts have a cinematic sweep, with Romantic expressivity echoing through its basic modernity. (If the Seventh Concerto recalls Berg and Szymanowski, this one sounds in some ways closer to Korngold!) Once again, despite the difference in style, the cadenza arrives almost before it seems the movement has gotten fully underway. And the movement ends with a bang, not, as in the Seventh Concerto, with a whimper. Adrian Thomas’s notes trace the slow movement’s lyricism to what Bacewicz identified as a little-known song, sung at first simply before rising to heights of dramatic expression. The jaunty finale (the notes identify a dance-like Tatra Mountains motif), provides—as did the first movement—a harmonic and melodic background for the frequently frantic figuration, though nostalgia haunts the Meno that precedes the dance’s final appearance.


The 12-odd-minutes First Concerto, from 1937, combines motoric scramble with poignant reflection in its first movement, a lyricism that foreshadows the out-of-focus harmonic schemes of the Third Concerto in its second movement (which strays farther toward its end), and a sprightly finale. The tumultuous Overture, from 1943, rhythmic and complex (compare an exhilarating rhythmic fugue by Karl Amadeus Hartmann), provides an exhilarating conclusion to the collection. The orchestra plays it with a combination of exuberant abandon and disciplined clarity.


Kurkowicz’s suggestion in the booklet that these works deserve a wider reputation appears to be more than mere puffery. Imaginative texturally, harmonically, melodically—and not least, violinistically—they certainly deserve the kind of sympathetic performances that Kurkowicz and Borowicz give them. If Bacewicz seems in these riveting, strongly appealing works more a composer-violinist than a violinist-composer, many will doubtless consider that designation to redound to her credit. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Chandos has been a major player in the long overdue rehabilitation of Parry's music. Here his most important large scale choral works are available as a 2-CD set for the first time at the price of one full price disc. Parry's two finest and most popular anthems, Blest Pair of Sirens and I was glad, make an attractive coupling to his famous choral works. The 45-minute work The Soul's Ransom, with its sequence of solos and choruses, forms a broadly symphonic four-movement structure and The Lotos eaters; a setting for soprano, chorus and orchestra is performed by Della Jones, a characterful soloist. This is a full and atmospheric recording to match the incandescent performances. On its original release these works received 3 stars in the Penguin Guide, and consequently make a welcome return to the Chandos catalogue. 'The choral singing and the playing of the LPO under Matthias Bamert is magnificent, ably championing these deserved revivals.' - Classic CD Other releases: Parry: Complete Symphonies with LPO and Matthias Bamert - CHAN9120 (3 CD set) Symphonic Variations with LPO and Matthias Bamert - CHAN6610

Ripening, the successor to the Asrael Symphony and A Summer Tale, is a voluptuous late-Romantic extravaganza, and it's very well performed here. Jirí Belohlávek often seems a trifle soft-edged, but here he galvanizes his large forces and produces an interpretation full of conviction. The textures are very intricate, the individual parts challenging. There are a few points, such as the solos for trumpet, or the big fugue about two-thirds of the way through, where you might miss the rhythmic bite and bright sonorities of the Czech Philharmonic, but otherwise there's very little to carp at.

The performance of the symphony is even finer: this is hands down the best version currently available. Most others sound tame in comparison. The first movement finally has the energy that until now has remained largely latent, its rhythmic vigor exploited to the full. The fact is, Belohlávek knocks a good six or seven minutes off of the work's typical timing, and it's all to the good. Also, in this stylistically simpler, Dvorák-influenced piece, the orchestra sounds at its very best. The SACD sound is really excellent--warm, spacious, and detailed. After a very tepid Asrael for this same label, it's good to hear everyone back in top form.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com