Selections recorded at the St Sophia's Cathedral, Polotsk and Dormition Cathedral, Smolensk, Russia.
Dmitri Stepanovic Bortnyansky was among the first generation of native Russian composers who emerged in the late 18th century. Like many of his colleagues he studied in Italy and wrote operas in both Italian and French. He is best remembered, though, for the large output of sacred choral music he wrote for the court of Catherine the Great, much of it gathered into three movement suites called concertos. Not intended as part of the Orthodox service but as recessional pieces, the concertos are pleasant works of a generally uplifting nature, displaying classical balance and grace rather than spiritual fervor. The performances by Valeri Polansky and the Russian State Symphonic Cappella are rich and euphonious, and well captured by Chandos in an ample cathedral acoustic.
REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (7-8/00, p.97) - "...Few choral composers have terraced their harmonies and dynamic changes more expertly...These seven 'Sacred Concertos' are three-movement affairs that vary in duration... [u]tterly glorious things happen in all of them..."
International Record Review (4/00, p.27) - "...Borynyansky's choral writing is of the first rank, and perfectly caught by the superb Russian State Symphonic Cappella. Listen, for example, to the spine-tingling dramatic hush of the opening movements of concertos Nos. 10 and 11..."

Classical Music

Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 16-17 December 1992 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Don Hartridge

With spellbinding narration by Sir John Gielgud, this recording is part of a three-disc retrospective of Walton's greatest film scores. The original discs presented the premiere recording of much of this music, and they are here re-issued at Classics price in contemporary packaging. Includes the rarely performed music for the cinematic treasure 'Major Barbara'.

Recorded in: Wessex Hall, Poole Arts Centre 27-28 February 1993 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Classical Music

Classical Music

Childhood-related but mature and attractive music, well performed and recorded.


Bryden Thomson had something of a reputation for slowish tempi, savouring the music a little too much as he went along. I find this less irksome in his performances of Bax, for example, than some reviewers, and it is not too much in evidence here. He is often faster than Boult; only rarely is he slower.

The Slumber Scene (track 6) is one exception: here, at 4:27, he is exactly a whole minute slower than Boult’s 3:27. EM, who has already reviewed this recording – see review – also noted that Thomson takes whole minute longer over this movement than Handley – at least, I think he meant to say that Thomson was slower, not shorter.

Not recalling that I had thought this movement at all slow in my first run-through, I let several days elapse before listening carefully to the Boult version, fully prepared to think his timing too rushed. It was no such thing – he captures the spirit of the piece perfectly. Having put on the Boult recording in order to check the one track, I just couldn’t resist playing the whole thing. This is a wonderful recording and EMI should urgently consider reissuing it, perhaps more appropriately coupled – the music and performance are even worthy to sit alongside the Enigma Variations. I note that JQ welcomed its most recent appearance on EMI British Classics with enthusiasm.

Then I played the Thomson again and derived equal pleasure from it. At first I thought the recording not quite as full as the Boult – EMI’s ADD sound is very good for its age – but that is an aural delusion resulting from the fact that the EMI transfer is at a slightly higher rate: turn up the Chandos a notch and the illusion disappears. Both performances and recordings deliver plenty of power where it is need.

Did Thomson’s Slumber Scene sound too slumberous? Only marginally – heard on its own, without comparison, it’s perfectly fine. I’ve said so often that tempo indications don’t always tell the full story that it’s time that I got it into my own noddle. I do think, however, that the March which begins the second suite (tr.8) is a touch slow at 4:58 against Boult’s 4:26.

The Nursery Suite and Dream Children also receive fine performances – the latter from Norman del Mar, always idiomatic in English music – well recorded. At its new price, this recording is very welcome. In the absence of the Boult (temporary, I hope) this will do very nicely.

If you enjoy these pieces, you will probably react favourably to Elgar’s other piece of childhood-related music, The Starlight Express, Op.78 - not to be confused with the West End musical of that name; there’s a wonderful budget-price Vernon Handley version on Classics For Pleasure 5859072.

-- Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International

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

This is the fourth album in a series from Chandos dedicated to the orchestral works of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Thord Svedlund. The cello soloist is Claes Gunnarsson, one of Sweden’s leading cellists, who combines the post as Principal Cello of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with a brilliant solo career.

After the Second World War, along with many other composers, Weinberg was subjected to a series of campaigns against so-called Formalism in the Soviet arts. As a result he turned his attention to concertante works, a medium less prone to censure than symphonies, sonatas, and quartets. The first movement of the Cello Concerto shares the tense, pensive lyricism found in the opening Nocturne of Shostakovich’s almost exactly contemporaneous First Violin Concerto. This later gives way to the rhythms of a habanera and some impassioned passages of Jewish klezmer, almost as if to guarantee a healthy quota of folk-rooted intonations (a required antidote to charges of Formalism), while at the same time allowing for deeper emotions too. In the 1970s, Weinberg’s symphonic production went in two distinct but complementary directions. One of these was at the patriotic end of the Socialist Realist spectrum, while the other was much more abstract. Weinberg’s highly austere five-movement Symphony No. 20 clearly falls into the latter category – challenging, perplexing, and unpredictable. In the second scherzo Weinberg quotes from his opera The Portrait, based on a short story by Gogol. In fact, the finale perfectly captures the mood of the opera’s closing scenes, in which the artist protagonist realises that he has betrayed his calling, and sinks into delirium and eventual death.

A previous volume in the Weinberg series (Chandos 5089: Symphony No. 3 and Suite No. 4 from The Golden Key) was nominated for a Grammy this year, in the Best Engineered Album category.

Recorded in: New Broadcasting House, Manchester 27 - 28 April 1997 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Brian Pidgeon Sound Engineer(s) Stephen Rinker Sharon Nokes (assistant)

Chandos releases a new compilation of orchestral works by Grieg on its mid-price 'Classics' label. The disc contains some of Grieg's most popular works. Recorded in: Ulster Hall, Belfast 29-31 August (Suite No. 1), 19 & 20 August 1989 (other works) Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Suite No. 1) Tim Oldham (other works) Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Philip Couzens (Suite No. 1) Richard Lee (other works)

Classical Music

Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 1 Juky 1986 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Philip Couzens

Recorded in: St Anne's Cathedral, Leeds 13/09/1984, 14/09/1984 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Bill Todd (assistant)

LIVE CONCERT RECORDING - WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING. Adopted by the British Legion as the centerpiece of its Armistice Night celebrations from 1923 to 1926 at the Royal Albert Hall but not heard since then, the Manchester-born John Foulds's heartfelt memorial to the war dead of all nations is here revived under the American conductor Leon Botstein in a spectacular recreation of those original Festival of Remembrance performances. With international soloists (Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Stuart Skelton and Gerald Finley), massed choirs, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, off-stage fanfares and the great organ of the Royal Albert Hall, this performance presents music on a huge scale. Very different in nature from Benjamin Britten's 'War Requiem' of forty years later, Foulds's 'A War Requiem' is nevertheless a significant forerunner in its deeply pacifist inspiration, its used of mixed, only partly liturgical texts, its varied instrumental forces, and its relation to the 1914-18 War. Indeed it dared to offer itself as a public statement - as a focus for a national or even an international act of remembrance. Its relation to war is much more direct as it was composed in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. Foulds stated that it was conceived as 'a tribute to the memory of the Dead - a message of consolation to the bereaved of all countries', and in its ardent invocation of peace it leans towards the mystical. 'It went deeper down and reached higher up, it was bigger, broader, nobler and reached out into the eternal than music as it is commonly understood and interpreted, or as any music than that heard by the great masters, has ever done. It is indeed a world heritage.' Thus wrote the Labour MP Frederick Pethick-Lawrence after attending the premiere of 'A World Requiem' on Armistice Night 1923, and his statement was typical of the audience reaction on that night. This modern revival is long overdue and may now demonstrate that the work's relevance is both timeless and contemporary.