Recorded in: Blackheath Halls, London 25,26 September 1996 Producer(s) Gary Cole Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Recorded in: Haskolabio University Hall, Reykjavik 14, 17-19 October 1993 Producer(s) Chris Webster Sound Engineer(s) Bjarni Runar Bjarnason Hreinn Valdimarsson (Assistant)

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In this latest recording of works by Albinoni, Simon Standage directs Collegium Musicum 90 showcasing the rarely performed and recorded Op. 10 Concertos. As late as 1961, academics were unaware of Albinoni's last set of concertos. All this changed when two small private collections were found to contain the print. Since then, the existence of Op.10 has been known to scholars, but awareness of it and curiosity about it has not really penetrated. Most of the Op.10 concertos have not been published in a modern edition, and the set has been recorded only twice before. The dedicatee of Op. 10 was the Marquis of Castelar, Don Luca Fernando Patiño, who had come to Italy from Spain as a military commander. As a result, the Op.10 concertos are highly individual. If one looks at the melodic lines in isolation, they look full modern for the 1730s, but if one looks at the bass line they go right back to the time of Albinoni's Op.2 and Op.5. Albinoni alludes to the dedicatee in the music itself: the first movement of Concerto 11 is a vivid evocation of flamenco style, with all itsfierce percussiveness. Note writer Michael Talbot describes the concertos as 'undoubtedly 'odd' in the fact that they are wildly different from what one expects from any composer working in the 1730s, but they are also beautiful in a way absolutely peculiar to their composer and in a way a logical conclusion of his art.' Simon Standage performs regularly with Collegium Musicum 90 and other groups and is a very well respected performer in the early-music field.

Shostakovich's Ballet Suites contain some of Shostakovich's most vicaciously tuneful and witty music. These recordings were made during Neeme Jarvi's vintage period with the SNO and are notabel for the freshness of the playing and brilliance of sound. The couplings include the exciting 'Festive Overture', as well as the substantial 'Suite from Katerina Ismailova'. Recorded in: City Hall, Glasgow (Suite No. 1) Recorded in: Caird Hall, Dundee (Suite No. 4) Recorded in: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow (other works) 14-17 April 1987 (Suite from Katerina Ismailova, Festival Overture), 22-26 April 1988 (Suites No 1-3), 12 May 1988 (Suite No. 9), 14 May 1988 (Suite No. 5) Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Janet Middlebrook (Assistant) Philip Couzens (Assistant)

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Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 9-10 February 1998 Producer(s) Brian Pidgeon (Executive) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Stephen Rinker

Avoiding the tendency toward nationalist spirit that motivated his Polish colleagues, Mieczyslaw Karlowicz's music cleaves to the lush late-Romantic orchestral sound world and heavy-handed philosophical references essayed by Strauss and others. Bruckner, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Scriabin also ostensibly influenced Karlowicz (1876-1909), as his preferences for sweeping extended themes, massive climactic brass pronouncements, and swirling chromaticism are the dominant characteristics of these sprawling works.


The three-movement Eternal Songs substitutes Schopenhauer for Nietzsche as the inspiration for this Zarathustra-like tone poem. Peppered with "meaning of life" motives and headings but with no explicit program, Eternal Songs is anchored by powerful low brass climaxes (perfect intervals that mark the so-called "Eternity" theme) in both the first and final movement (the latter a giant self-contained Bruckner coda) and will remind listeners not only of Strauss' famous work but also of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy. The central movement comprises the inevitable twin themes of Love and Death, and, befitting the lofty subjects embodied in this work, they are sumptuous and overwrought, replete with tam-tam and cymbal crashes, soaring horns, and trumpet flourishes.


Described as a "travesty" of Romeo and Juliet, the next work deals with the incestuous and ultimately forbidden love of siblings Stanislaw and Anna Oswiecim. Again, Strauss is the model (an unlikely mix of Don Juan, Der Rosenkavalier, and Symphonia Domestica), featuring a yielding, limpid melody ("Anna") juxtaposed with a more forceful high-spirited theme denoting Stanislaw. The music becomes more turbulent and tumultuous (their unrequited love?) only to culminate in the couple's ineluctable death, the clear highlight of the work. At 13:44, the music changes dramatically with the ominous entry of the bass clarinet, builds slowly into an impressive funeral march, and finally explodes into an awesome orchestral tutti at 18:42 that would do Siegfried justice. Chandos captures the BBC Philharmonic in all its glory (the brass section is really on its game) and thus provides a fitting farewell to Yan Pascal Tortelier as the orchestra's principal conductor.


After all this orchestral bombast, the gentler Lithuanian Rhapsody seems an odd way to end the disc. Remarkable only for the fact that it is the one tone poem by Karlowicz to be based on folksong, this coloristic work simply plods along, suffering from a dull main theme that can barely support its 17-minute length. Nonetheless, the rest of the music, however indebted it may be to other better-known composers, is thrilling, involving, and well-crafted. Complementing a two-disc complete set of tone poems from Dux (issued October, 2000) this disc is a highly worthwhile and sonically spectacular remnant of the late Romantic age from an unlikely source.
--Michael Liebowitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Recorded in: Brangwyn Hall, Swansea 8-9 November 1993 & 14-15 February 1994 Producer(s) Mike George Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Scored for large forces - the rare Symphony in F Sharp major is a work of real imaginative power and ranks alongside the major symphonic works of Mahler and Bruckner; with a powerful and deeply felt slow movement of grandiose character. Coupled with the exquisite yet, rarely performed 'Lieder des Abshieds' a cycle of four orchestral songs are much earlier and completed in 1920; clearly influenced by Strauss, Mahler and Zemlinsky and performed here with the persuasive soloist, Linda Finnie. Conducted by Edward Downes, the BBC Philharmonic performs with enthusiasm and sensitivity. 'Korngold's lush orchestration needs sound with a full bloom, and the Chandos engineers provided that in spades.' - The Times

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