While still in his twenties, Cyril Scott was perceived as one of the pre-eminent avant-garde musicians of his generation. He was championed by such luminaries as Henry Wood and Thomas Beecham and his advocacy of the latest techniques briefly gave him a wide acquaintance with some of the leading musicians of the day, including Ravel and Debussy. He became known as one of the 'Frankfurt Gang', that group of young composers who studied at the Hoch'sche Konservatorium and included such contemporaries as Roger Quilter, Norman O'Neill and Percy Grainger. After the First World War, however, he found himself increasingly at odds with the prevailing idioms of the day and became persona non grata with the musical establishment, which contributed to his lack of recognition as a serious composer in subsequent decades. Scott wrote more than two dozen substantial chamber works and although some of his early chamber music has been revived from time to time, with the exception of the Clarinet Quintet this selection receives its premiere recording. The earliest work on the programme is Piano Trio No. 1 of 1920, but the disc significantly celebrates the chamber music composed after the Second World War, exemplifying Scott's late style. The second Piano Trio dates from 1951 as does the one-movement Clarinet Quintet, inspired by the playing of Gervase de Payer who gave its first performance. The largest work, the Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, is in three movements including a beautiful Intermezzo labelled Adagio espressivo. The Gould Piano Trio is joined by Mia Cooper and David Adams, and by the clarinettist Robert Plane, recognised for his 'outstanding musicianship' (The Musical Times).

Classical Music

Includes work(s) for piano by Claude Debussy. Soloist: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 30 November-2 December 1987, 11-13 October 1988, 30 January-1 February 1989 and 24-26 May 1989 Producer: Martin Compton Sound Engineer: Anthony Howell

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Includes work(s) by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Ensemble: B. B. C. Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Leonard Slatkin. Soloists: Evelyn Glennie, Peter Erskine, Christian Lindberg, Timothy [horn] Brown, Michael Murray, Christopher Larkin, Andrew Antcliff.

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York Bowen has a distinguished reputation as a composer and was considered to be one of Britain's finest pianists. In his day he was known as 'The English Rachmaninoff', and Saint-Saëns described him as 'the most remarkable of the young British composers'. The works of York Bowen tend to display a blend of romanticism and strong individuality, and although his influences include the likes of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky, his music is also strongly defined by textures and harmonies that are uniquely 'Bowen'. This recording presents the only two surviving symphonies by Bowen: Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2, which are performed here by the BBC Philharmonic under the exclusive Chandos artist Sir Andrew Davis. Symphony No. 1 was written in 1902 when Bowen was an eighteen-year-old composition student at the Royal Academy of Music. The work is laid out in only three movements (unusual for the time), and requires a relatively modest orchestra. It is a deeply impressive achievement - the beauty and lyricism of the second movement and its myriad of orchestral colourations, together with a unique and often surprising sense of well-being in the finale, demonstrate that here is a genuinely symphonic composer who was not content just to copy established models and appease his professors. At least one movement of this symphony was performed during Bowen's time at the academy, but this recording may well be the first time that the work has been performed in its entirety. When Bowen composed his Symphony No. 2 just seven years after completing his first, much had happened in the world of modern music, not least in instrumental terms with the acceptance of large orchestras as standard. As a result this work is much larger in scale than his first symphony, and performed with significantly larger instrumental forces too. The finale in particular is spectacular in the way it develops from the tiniest semi-tonal seed into a fiery and almost unstoppable flood of 'Bowen-esque' inventiveness. This symphony is the work of an assured composer who was completely certain in his music's sense of direction and in the positive and life-affirming nature of his compositions.

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This new release, the fourth volume of the Alwyn film music series, has been long anticipated. This series began seventeen years ago with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Richard Hickox, and continued with Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic, who released volumes 2 and 3 in 2001 and 2005. Rumon Gamba also got involved in other series, exploring the music of d’Indy, Rozsa, and British composers of the twentieth century, as in two volumes of Overtures from the British Isles. This latest album brings new recordings of music from the prolific decades of the 40s and 50s, during which Alwyn scored a number of famous films. These scores show to perfection Alwyn’s supreme skill in providing music totally attuned to the subject matter, which ranges from the dramatic to the exotic, from comedy to the factual. Much of the music recorded here had to be reconstructed by Philip Lane from the soundtracks, as written scores had not survived.

My Recording of the Month, by a long way. The BBC Philharmonic sounds simply superb … Noseda conducts intelligently, sensitively, with full structural awareness of the dramatic trajectory.


Note that this is not part of the Chandos ‘Opera in English” series. This Aleko is sung in Russian. Rachmaninov’s early opera is remarkable, especially given its early date. The inspiration is free-flowing from the composer’s pen; the integrity of the Pushkin original is maintained.

The BBC Philharmonic sounds simply superb in the opening Prelude, delivering the themes of fate and jealousy with equal amounts of foreboding and lyricism. The recording helps – superbly focused, believably balanced and with just the right amount of space. The orchestra is superbly captured throughout, a vital facet of any recording of this piece given the dances that permeate the score. The Women’s Dance is superbly characterful - the BBC Philharmonic’s wind section excels. The Men’s Dance contains more contrasts, all relished by the forces here.

The opening chorus of gypsies makes plain reference to Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. The chorus throughout - and it plays an integral part in the work’s unfolding - is magnificent. The Teatro Regio, Turin chorus makes a lovely, rounded sound and still sounds believably Russian.

The Russian text is given in Cyrillic only in the booklet, which might pose problems for some. At least there are translations in English, French and German and track points are frequent.

Luxury casting comes in the form of the experienced Gennadi Bezzubenkov as the Old Gypsy, full of Russian melancholy as he reminisces (track 3). The oboe’s supporting comments seem echt-Russian rather than Mancunian. The Old Gypsy Woman, who appears towards the end of the opera, is similarly convincing (Nadezhda Vasilieva).

The title role is taken by baritone Sergey Murzaev, strong and virile of voice. Aleko’s Cavatina (track 10) is powerfully delivered, a clear arioso narration until Aleko utters the magic name of “Zemfira”. The aftermath of his Cavatina (after the lines “Zemfira is unfaithful! Zemfira has grown cold!”) is a magical Intermezzo, during which the moon disappears and daybreak begins onstage. His vocal acting in the finale, when he awakes to find Zemfira and the Young Gypsy together, is excellent, right up to the moment he stabs the Young Gypsy.

As Zemfira, Svetla Vassileva is pure and yet passionate. Her big number is the Lullaby (track 9), preceded by the tender duet with the Young Gypsy - the ardent tenor Evgeny Akimov. Only his later off-stage aria, “Look how beneath the distant vault of Heaven …” disappoints, lacking the last iota of conviction. Again, the BBC Philharmonic performs a sterling service in setting up the atmosphere, here in the pointed phrasing. Vassileva sings beautifully, moulding her responses to the text perfectly.

Noseda conducts intelligently, sensitively, with full structural awareness of the dramatic trajectory. We clearly hear the Tchaikovskian influences in the orchestral writing, particularly in the yearning string phrases.

Rob Barnett rightly praised the Järvi DG recording on this site some eight years ago. I would love to hear the Svetlanov (only part of a six-disc set, alas). I remember a Proms performance of Aleko some years ago now which featured the magnificent Elena Prokina – perhaps it is too much to wish that she were part of the Chandos cast. Whatever, there is no doubt that this performance stands firmly on its own two feet.

My Recording of the Month, by a long way.

-- Colin Clarke, MusicWeb International

This much-admired disc of French sacred music from the seventeen and twentieth centuries, beautifully performed by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge under George Guest, is now available at chandos Classics price for the first time. These performances were well received on their initial release, with reviews such as 'The choir's silk-sheen sound brings Poulenc motets to perfection' (South Wales Argus) and 'This is another quality disc from Chandos which offers beautiful performances of these attractive French choral works' (Canberra Times). The recording is sure to be welcomed at the new, lower, Classics price.

RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 3. Caprice bohémien. Prince Rostislav • Gianandrea Noseda, cond; BBC PO • CHANDOS 10677 (73:50)


Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony, composed in 1935–36, has never gained the same traction as the Second or The Isle of the Dead , both composed some years before his departure from Russia in 1917; it is neither as lush as the Second—how could it be?—nor as muscular as the Symphonic Dances , his next, and last, composition. Aside from the difficulty Rachmaninoff had composing in exile, which has been well documented, I believe the Third Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto, both “problem” pieces, stand in similar relation to the Symphonic Dances and the Paganini Rhapsody , respectively: Just as the Fourth Concerto shows Rachmaninoff working out the difficulties of adapting to a familiar genre the leaner-textured and more harmonically bold style of his later solo piano works, so does the Third Symphony; and, in each case, the work that follows demonstrates his masterly solution to the problem. In other words, while the Third Symphony is a not-quite-comfortable juxtaposition of past and present in Rachmaninoff’s musical language, the Symphonic Dances expresses the complete assurance of his new style or manner, much in the same way an émigré writer’s second novel in his new country would exhibit greater security in its use of the new language.


Over the years I’ve found the recordings of the Third by the Philadelphia Orchestra, for which the symphony was written, generally satisfying: the composer’s own, supple 1939 version, and those by Eugene Ormandy, first a taut version on a mono LP and then a somewhat more luxuriant one in stereo. (The Dutoit recording for Decca is more problematic; see my review in Fanfare 35:1.) This new version by Gianandrea Noseda, however, demands consideration. For starters, the BBC Philharmonic sounds terrific; the strings are rich and full, as they must be in this work, and the many wind solos are superb. The statement of the first movement’s second theme near the end, by flute and clarinet two octaves apart, is meltingly beautiful. The ensemble in the tricky scherzo section of the second movement is dead-on. This may well be Britain’s finest orchestra these days.


Then there’s the contribution of Noseda himself. He’s a veteran Rachmaninoff conductor by now, having recorded all three symphonies and all three operas for Chandos; of the major works, only the Symphonic Dances and the choral-orchestral music remain. Fanfare’s critics have had mixed reactions to his previous Rachmaninoff recordings, but I find this one a real winner: Like the composer’s own version, tempos are flexible but never arbitrary, instead seeming to react to the music’s ebb and flow; climaxes are dynamic (and with Chandos’s sound, they can pack a wallop) but never exaggerated. Noseda takes the first-movement exposition repeat, now standard practice, but something neither Rachmaninoff (on 78s) nor Ormandy did.


The symphony, sensibly placed last on the disc, is complemented by two early works. The Caprice bohémien is a sonic showpiece, again with particularly beautiful wind solos. Noseda handles the gradual but relentless increase in speed in the latter portion nicely, making for a big finish. Prince Rostislav , from Rachmaninoff’s incredibly fruitful year of 1891—he was 18 years old!—is long on atmosphere if short on memorable thematic material; it owes a debt to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko.


This is a first-rate recording. If, like me, you could use a well-wrought Rachmaninoff Third with the exposition repeat and in excellent modern sound, you need look no further.


FANFARE: Richard A. Kaplan


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There was once a trend among critics to downplay Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 3 likely stemming from mixed reviews at the work's premiere but beginning in the late 1970s the symphony has been re-evaluated several times and is today often recognized as an assured and thoroughly exciting Russian orchestral work, with appealing themes and a structure every bit as strong as the popular Symphonic Dances. In fact the dance rhythms of the Symphony's energetic finale are much akin to those in the Symphonic Dances as is the colorful orchestration. The work was written for Rachmaninov's favorite orchestra, the Philadelphia under Leopold Stokowski.

The album contains two other rarely heard works. The symphonic poem Prince Rostislav wherein the youthful composer shows the influence of his composition teacher Rimsky-Korsakov and, as with Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works, is graced with eloquent, folk-like melody. Despite these appealing elements, the piece is overshadowed by Rachmaninov's later masterpieces. An even more rarely heard work is the Capriccio bohémien, which is luminously orchestrated and inspired by similar musical moments within the composer's opera Aleko.

Gianandrea Noseda continues this Chandos Rachmaninov series with excellent, well-recorded performances by the BBC Philharmonic who seem to be enjoying themselves within this passionate, fiery, luxurious music.

- Greg La Traille, ArkivMusic.com

Sir Andrew Davis continues to champion the lesser-known works of Sir Arthur Bliss with this coupling of The Enchantress, Mary of Magdala and Meditations on a theme by John Blow. Dame Sarah Connolly and James Platt are the soloists, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The three distinctive works by Sir Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975) on this recording span his sixties and early seventies, from 1951 onwards, the year of his sixtieth birthday, during which he composed The Enchantress for Kathleen Ferrier.

The BBC Symphony Chorus was founded in 1928 and its early appearances included the UK premieres of Bartók’s Cantata profana, Stravinsky’s Perséphone, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Each year it appears regularly with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre, as well as performing at the BBC Proms, frequently at the iconic First and Last Nights. It maintains an undiminished commitment to new music, performing a wide range of challenging repertoire, often with the BBC SO, most of which is broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

REVIEW:

Here are three contrasting works of Bliss’ later years. The two vocal pieces set Greek pastoral poetry and words from St John’s Gospel. The theme in question is Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd. The programming of these three pieces makes for a satisfying experience, highlighting the inventiveness and flexibility of Bliss, still an underappreciated composer.

-- Lark Reviews

Among all the many Chandos brass recordings, each release having played a major role in the label’s successful history, this one may well be the loudest. In the vast acoustic of St. Jude’s Church, London, rendered in surround-sound, and in the largest ensemble format to which it has ever expanded, Onyx Brass, under the energetic direction of John Wilson, brings together four dozen fanfares by fourteen British composers of the past century and a half. Including works by Arnold, Bax, Bliss, Imogen Holst, Ketelbey, and Tippett- with numerous premiere recordings, this album is an unmissable celebration of stirring, brilliant, joyous, exciting, varied, sometimes military, and always optimistic music.

Classical Music

Clifton Parker was a prolific composer in the British film industry during the 1940s and 50s. Originally singled out by legendary music director Muir Matheson, he went on to enjoy a twenty-year career in the movies. Inexplicably, hsi work, distinctive for its lively, symphonic style, is little known today, despite having written the scores for a number of classic movies.

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

The multi-award winning and ever-popular Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is back with Volume 2 of Chandos' highly acclaimed Haydn Sonata series. This new release follows Bavouzet's complete Debussy cycle and a number of recent concerto recordings - all of which have been extraordinarily well received by critics and audiences alike, picking up numerous awards along the way.

Many leading pianists have tackled these at times technically challenging classical sonatas by Haydn, but in Bavouzet's own words, this is a composer who always left the door open for new interpretations: 'One often forgets how little information Haydn left in the text of his keyboard works: few instructions on nuance and phrasing, and very minimal tempo indications. Playing them is all the more fascinating for that, but it is also arduous and even risky for the performer, who must, even more than usual, create his or her own world and internal logic, only hoping - in the absence of tangible proof - that he or she is not straying too far from the composer's intentions, forever out of reach.'

For the recording Bavouzet brought in a specially selected Yamaha piano which he feels gives the sort of tonal quality he is looking for, and it shows in the programme for Volume 2 which includes the elegantly virtuosic Sonata in E minor, No. 19; Sonata in B flat major, No. 20; Sonata in G minor, No. 32; Sonata in C major, No. 48, and Sonata in D major, No. 50.

REVIEWS

Though better known in French repertory, Mr Bavouzet has begun an exploration of Haydn’s long-underrated sonatas. The first installment was dazzling, and the second is too: crisp and detailed. Mr Bavouzet’s slow movements are particularly memorable; he shows instinctive feeling for the way this music breathes.

--New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)

This second volume in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Haydn sonata is every bit as outstanding as the first…the sonics are as brilliant and natural as the playing. A wonderful recital, from first note to last.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

In his final year as BBC Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena completes a highly-acclaimed Ginastera series with this third volume. Like in his previous series ‘La Musica de Espana,’ Mena brings the composer’s creative genius to a more deserved fame, showcasing here three works that belonged to three different periods of his compositional life. While the Concierto Argentino is the most significant score of his early years, drawing directly on Argentinian folk music and full of youthful exuberance, the Variaciones Concertantes (more a concerto for orchestra than a set of variations) assumes a more personal and abstract form in accordance with the development of his harmonic ideas in the later stage of his life. The rhythmic energy and magic scoring of the ‘neo-expressionist’ piano concerto (as Ginastera defined the third phase of his life) is faithfully expressed by the highly technical and virtuosic playing of Xiayin Wang, widely praised for her recent solo recording of piano works by Enrique Granados.

CLAUSEN All That Hath Life and Breath, Praise Ye the Lord. O magnum mysterium. The Tyger. The Lamb. Mass for Double Choir. Magnificat. Prayer. O vos omnes. A New Creation: Set me a seal • Charles Bruffy, cond; Kansas City Chorale • CHANDOS 5105 (SACD 62:25)

René Clausen has been the director of the famed Concordia Choir of Concordia College in Morehead, Minnesota, for more than 25 years. He is best known to the public as the artistic director of the annually broadcast Concordia Christmas concerts, and in choral circles as an outstanding teacher and conductor. He is also a popular composer, writing for his own ensembles as well as on commissions from other choral organizations. Despite this, I had until recently steered clear of Clausen’s compositions, as early contacts had left me with an impression of a technically accomplished but prosaic prettiness that I do not find particularly interesting. However, Eternal Rest, the second disc that Charles Bruffy and his chorales recorded for Chandos, includes a performance of Clausen’s In pace that suggested I might be missing something. And indeed I have been; a number of the works included on this SACD, Life and Breath, exhibit a compelling harmonic and contrapuntal sophistication, reminiscent of the music of Eric Whitacre, though with less insistent (and ecstatic) dissonances.

The centerpiece of the release is Clausen’s Mass for Double Choir, written in 2011for Bruffy and his two chorales in Kansas City and Phoenix. It is here recorded by an augmented Kansas City Chorale, boasting 31 rather than the usual 24 singers. I suspect that this Mass, the composer’s first, may have been inspired by the Frank Martin masterpiece. If it was, Clausen quickly found his own way, creating a distinctive setting of rich but subtle coloration and great depth of feeling. There are few antiphonal effects for a work ostensibly for double chorus, but the text—or most of it, as Clausen has made some odd, assumedly musically dictated, word and phrase excisions—has been set with skill, clarity, economy, and more than a little imagination. The Mass is the most challenging and substantial work on the program, but other recent pieces like the restlessly inward O magnum mysterium and the Prayer on a text by Mother Theresa—achingly beautiful but never mawkish—further demonstrate the composer’s expressive growth.

There are a few quibbles. The clever Blake settings, The Tyger and The Lamb, provide welcome contrast to the liturgical works, but Clausen never really invites us below the surface of Blake’s vision into either the darkness or the wonder. A couple of the earliest works include quotes of Lutheran chorales, which, while imaginatively done, now seem a little passé. Finally, “Set Me a Seal” from Clausen’s 1989 cantata A New Creation sails dangerously close to the shoals of preciousness. It is, however, his most popular work, so its inclusion is inevitable, and it serves reasonably well as an encore/benediction to the program that precedes it.

The Kansas City Chorale—in conjunction with its sister group, which actually got the first release—is the first American chorus to record with English label Chandos. It is not hard to hear why it was accorded this honor. It offers some of the finest a cappella singing to be heard on disc, on a par with the best of Great Britain’s vaunted choruses, and is Chandos’s answer to Hyperion’s similarly thrilling Polyphony. Tuning is impeccable, and blend is faultless, though I might have liked an additional bass in the balance. Diction is clear and tone varies easily by mood, though projection is slightly restrained, as is Bruffy’s way. The sound and artistry are exemplary. Many a soprano section I’ve heard on disc lately could take a lesson from this choir’s superb singers on how to negotiate leaping high notes. Chandos engineers have provided just enough distance and resonance to support blend while maintaining clarity, and in surround the choir is placed out in a believable space. To anyone who enjoys beautifully crafted, thought-provoking but accessible choral music, this release is most highly recommended.

FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

To this day, music from classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals continues to enjoy immense popularity with audiences and performers alike. Here Simon Keenlyside, one of the world’s most charismatic and sought-after operatic baritones, presents Something’s Gotta Give, an album devoted to songs from musicals – songs that require every bit as much attention to text and interpretation as Lieder, and often the same mastery of vocal technique as operatic arias. Scarlett Strallen, a regular presence of West End and Broadway stages, partners Keenlyside in duets and sings two numbers on her own. They are joined by David Charles Abell, a musician steeped in the tradition of musical theatre, who conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in wonderfully lush original orchestral arrangements, a number of which have been specially restored for this recording.

The programme includes some of the best-loved numbers in the repertoire, including Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day’, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’’, and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ from Fiddler on the Roof. The range represented, from the emotional tour de force of ‘Soliloquy’ to the charming character song ‘Reviewing the Situation’, showcases the many facets of Simon Keenlyside both as an extraordinary vocalist and endlessly charismatic performer.

Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra follow their Grammy-nominated volume 1 and Editor's Choice winning Volume 2 with four rare orchestral works from Vincent D'Indy's legacy. The previous volumes have obtained such comments as '...superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d'Indy's orchestra output' (Gramophone) and 'this series is going to be virtually definitive' Musical Opinion Composed in 1916-18 at the climax of the Great War, d'Indy's last symphony is a valid reflection of his intense patriotism. In its dramatic theatric and tonal conflicts it well portrays the heightened emotions of exaltation and terror experienced by the French nation. D'Indy's seven-variation programmatic work, Istar, Op.42 is a beautiful, flowing work set in the underworld and inspired by the sixth canto of an ancient Assyrian epic poem called Izdubar that was probably written around 2000 B.C. The unconventionally conceived yet well integrated work Choral Varie for Saxophone Solo ans orchestra, Op.55 employs an eclectic variety of styles. Like certain other French composers such as Bizet, D'Indy well understood the saxophone's expressive potential. The solo role is taken by one of Iceland's most prominent musicians, Sigurður Flosason, who has twice been nominated for the Nordic Music Prize, and four time winner of the Icelandic Music Awards. Volume 3 is completed by D'Indy's last orchestral work, Diptyque Mediterraneen, Op.87. It reflects the Indian summer which his happy second marriage brought him in his final decade. There is a certain similarity with the earlier Ardeche-inspired Jour d'ete a la montagne in its illustration of the sacred rhythms of nature during the course of the day, but here the influence of Debussy is clearly apparent in its superb Mediterranean-like clarity of texture.

This 1994 recording is one of the first Holst collections made by Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia, an orchestra he conducted for thirty-seven years, until his death. Having brought neglected works by Holst to a more deserved fame in the early 1990's, Hickox returned to Holst in 2007, embarking on a new series with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He was recording what would have been the second volume of this new survey when he was suddenly taken ill. While he was never able to finish that second volume himself, the first instalment was released in January, 2009 and seen as a recording triumph.