This new Elgar recording brings together some of Cahndos' finest exclusive British artists for the first time. The Doric String Quartet - highly praised for its series of Haydn and Schubert quartets - joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner in the "Introduction and Allegro", one of Elgar's masterpieces. Gardner here captures the subtle contrast between the solo quartet and the string ensemble, while also reconciling a wide variety of musical ideas and tempo fluctuations, not least the ever-popular "Welsh" solo viola melody. The full Orchestra then appears in a passionate account of the majestic Symphony No. 1, a much-loved work ever since its premiere in 1906. As well as highly praised Walton and Britten recordings, the enduring relationship between Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra has seen successful series of works by non-British composers such as Szymanowski and Lutoslawski. Edward Gardner is also involved in recording projects with many other orchestras, including the Bergen Philharmonic, the DBSO, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, his latest collaboration.

The third in Chandos's 'Mendelssohn in Birmingham' series with the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Edward Gardner features "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" and his Symphony No. 2. The overture's densely textured, slow opening evocation of oceanic calm and the following, quickening full-orchestral crescendo strikingly depict Goethe's verses. The fusion of neo-baroque procedures with romantic sentiment provides the backdrop to a symphony made up of three orchestral movements and a choral finale, in which contrapuntal arias contrast with exuberant, dramatic choral sections.

Peter Oundjian and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra tackle two seminal works by the American composer John Adams. Harmonielehre, a symphony in all but name, is an expansive, richly expressive, and often breathtaking work. It takes its title from a 1911 text by Arnold Schoenberg on harmonic theory and evokes the lush soundworld of that composer’s early tonal period. Also heard throughout the score are echoes of Mahler, Wagner, Strauss, Sibelius, Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky. The piece also takes inspiration from some of Adams’s own strange and surreal dreams. The Doctor Atomic Symphony, based on Adams’s controversial opera Doctor Atomic, focuses on the character of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as preparations are made for the first test of the atomic bomb. Although played without a break, the symphony falls into three distinct sections: ‘The Laboratory’, ‘Panic’, and ‘Trinity’. The symphony’s concluding section takes its title from the name given to the bomb test site by Oppenheimer himself, with reference to a deeply spiritual John Donne sonnet. This poem is set to music at the end of Act I of the opera and here in the symphony the aria’s intense vocal line is performed by solo trumpet. Also featured on the album is John Adams’s energetic fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

R E V I E W:

ADAMS “Doctor Atomic” Symphony. Harmonielehre. Short Ride in a Fast Machine • Peter Oundjian, cond; Royal Scottish Natl O • CHANDOS 5129 (70:15)

This spectacular new release is perhaps the perfect introduction to those who do not already know the music of John Adams, as it contains not only three of his most effective works, but also encompasses a representative overview of the evolution of his compositional style.


The cornerstone of the program is Adams’s monumental Harmonielehre. In Fanfare 35:6, I described it as follows: “John Adams’s 1985 Harmonielehre was and still is a landmark work, not only in the composer’s output, but also within the larger scope of late 20th Century orchestral music. With Harmonielehre, Adams definitively demonstrated that minimalist techniques, previously thought by many to be not only a passing fad, but an emotionally vacuous one at that, could be used to create music of great power and deeply felt human expression.” In this work, Adams integrates these minimalist techniques, some might say clichés, into a musical vocabulary based on the development of strongly expressive melodic material and compelling rhythmic patterns.


Harmonielehre not only created a huge initial sensation when it was premiered in San Francisco in 1985, but has established and maintained a strong foothold in the repertoire ever since. The work is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. With this splendid new release, Harmonielehre , essentially a three-movement symphony, has now been recorded six times and of the five that I have heard, there is not a dud in the lot. These include two offerings by the San Francisco Symphony, the orchestra that commissioned the work: the excellent premiere recording conducted by Edo de Waart (Nonesuch 79115–2) and a breathtakingly powerful 2011 release conducted by current music director Michael Tilson Thomas (SFS Media 0053). Other recordings included the muscular and colorful Rattle/City of Birmingham (EMI 5-55051–2) and a solid, serviceable Saint Louis account conducted by David Robertson (available as a digital download from the orchestra’s web page and on iTunes and Amazon). There is also one by the Litauische Philharmonie conducted by Juozas Domarkas (available on two separate Denon releases) which I have not heard.


This new recording can stand toe-to-toe with the best. From the violently pounding hammer strokes of the first movement’s opening E-Minor chords we know this performance by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra presented in the insightful interpretation of its recently appointed music director Peter Oundjian is going to be something special. This impression is carried through the darkly hued and sinister second movement to the ear-tickling colors and dancing rhythmic fragments of the third. The brass is especially powerful, the woodwinds and percussion are vividly colorful, and the whole performance is enhanced by an extraordinarily detailed and impactful recorded soundstage. I have to admit, I was emotionally exhausted at the end of my first listening (but in a good way), so visceral was its overall effect on me.


The disc opens with “Doctor Atomic” Symphony, a work derived from Adams’s opera of the same title. It is not a symphony in the traditional sense; the composer is not concerned with the development of melodic, harmonic, and/or rhythmic ideas. However, this is not to imply that the work is without structure. Quite the contrary, here Adams has synthesized the dramatic and emotional arc of the opera into a concise, tightly organized three-movement work. This is no mere suite of “highlights.” With its pounding timpani, snarling brass, and shrieking strings, the brief first movement immediately calls to mind the music of Edgard Varèse and Carl Ruggles. The second movement is dark, gloomy, and mysterious with a sinister film noir feel. The closing aria, though performed very expressively by trumpeter Huw Morgan, does not quite elicit the same devastating emotional effect as it does in the opera. The vocabulary of the work might strike some as a bit severe, characterized as it is by sharply angular melodies and unapologetically dissonant harmonies, but the emotional impact of the Symphony is undeniable. Clocking in at only four minutes, the disc is filled out with the shortest and fastest Short Ride in a Fast Machine on record. It’s quite a roller-coaster ride.


It’s very early in 2014, but I cannot imagine this superb new release not making my Want List. Highest Recommendation.

FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

Edward Gardner’s view of William Walton’s First Symphony is exciting enough, but different enough, so that we can spare ourselves the usual “it’s not Previn and the LSO” apologia. Gardner’s performance of the finale is probably the most brilliant yet recorded: swift, bold, and dazzling, with a smashing (literally) coda. By contrast, the first movement is a touch on the light side, with the uniquely speedy account of the last few minutes offering plenty of energy but less sheer power than usual, especially from the brass. It works because it moves, and after the snappy scherzo and bittersweet slow movement, Gardner’s approach throws some of the emphasis in the large-scale argument onto a finale that in so many performances comes across as unconvincing.

In other words, Gardner has a genuinely original and valid conception of the work, different from anyone else’s, and he has the chops to get the BBC Symphony to do his bidding. This is a real achievement.

In these circumstances the Violin Concerto comes as a bonus. Tasmin Little has recorded the work before, for Litton on Decca, and let’s face it: she’s a good violinist but not so great that she deserves another shot at the same work. Is there a Tasmin Little Society lining up for this? She obviously understands the work, from the romantic cantilena at the start to the brilliant passagework in the central scherzo and finale. So far, so good. What she doesn’t have is a big tone, especially in her upper register, and I am not saying this in comparison only to Heifetz. Just consider James Ehnes, Joshua Bell, or Kyung Wha Chung. The recorded balance between soloist and orchestra, very natural, with plenty of space around the instrument, paradoxically also makes Little sound, well, littler than she otherwise might. Never mind; the symphony’s the thing.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

This is the latest volume in the Chandos series exploring the orchestral output of Vincent d’Indy, nicknamed ‘The Samson of Music’ by Fauré for his work as a composer, conductor, and teacher. His style was essentially eclectic, strongly influenced by Beethoven and Wagner, into which he frequently incorporated folk melodies.

Based on a folk tune from the Tourtous, the Symphonie sur un Chant montagnard français has become one of the composer’s best-loved works. The highly atmospheric work is scored for piano and orchestra; however, far from engaging in conflict with the orchestra, the soloist operates on equal terms. The part is here performed by the internationally acclaimed Louis Lortie.

The symphonic poem Saugefleurie tells the story of the tragic love between Saugefleurie, a lonely yet charming little fairy, and the King’s son, based on a poem from the Contes de fées by Robert de Bonnières, a friend of the composer’s. The Wagnerian influence is apparent throughout; however, in terms of orchestration and sonority the work remains characteristically French.

Among the now forgotten works of the French poet, novelist, and dramatist Catulle Mendès is the play Medée, based on the Greek myth of Medea, who murdered her two sons to avenge her rejection by her lover, Jason, the leader of the Argonauts. D’Indy wrote incidental music to the play in 1898, and later preserved much of it in the form of an orchestral suite in five movements, recorded here.

Also on the theme of doomed love is d’Indy’s first opera, Fervaal, a work of Wagnerian scale and proportions, and clearly displaying the influence of Parsifal in the complex network of leitmotivs. At the same time, in its historical setting at the time of the Saracen invasion, and in its musical evocation of local colour, it reflects the earlier Parisian Grand Opéra of Meyerbeer and Halévy.

- Chandos

Review

"... This beautifully crafted - and impeccably interpreted - music knows how to weave a magical spell." John Terauds - musicaltoronto.org - 23 April 2013

Gianandrea Noseda’s Casella reappraisal for Chandos, among his most significant achievements to date, has radically shifted our perspectives on one of the finest if most neglected Italian composers of the post-Puccini generation.

Finicky about his own music, Casella dismissed the symphony as juvenile and the ballet – it was offered to Diaghilev, who rejected it – as derivative, though we might now question his judgement in both cases. Le couvent sur l’eau evokes Venice as a place of decaying, sinister beauty, with faded allusions to Baroque suites, a dark, post-Impressionist tinge in the scoring and a disembodied soprano voice weaving its way through its textures. The symphony, meanwhile, reveals its influences a bit too obviously in places but shows a powerful dramatic imagination at work. His mature ability to filter his influences through his imagination to create something utterly original, meanwhile, informs the Elegia, which blends Mahlerian anguish with Stravinskian rhythmic violence in a lament for an unknown soldier killed in the First World War. It’s a shattering work, one of his greatest.

The performances are exemplary. Noseda’s familiar combination of rigor and emotional extremism is in evidence throughout. The symphony seethes with tension and excitement, even in the lengthy finale where the material is occasionally repetitive. Highly recommended.

– Gramophone

Richard Hickox brought these two neglected works into the record catalogue to criticla acclaim. In an Editor's Choice review in 1996 - the year of its release - Gramophone stated: ''Elgar completed The Black Knight in 1893 and it provided him with his first big success. The text tells of a sinister, unnamed ''Prince of mighty sway'', whose appearance at the King's court during the feast of Pentecost has disastrous consequences. Elgar's score boasts much attractive invention, some of it strikingly eloquent and prescient of greater offerings to come. The choral writing is always effective, the orchestration already vivid and assured. Richard Hickox's performance has great bloom and spaciousness. Similarly, in the tuneful, vernally fresh Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands, Hickox and his colleagues respond with comendable spirit and pleasing polish. Typical of Chandos, the recording is bright and clear, tonally beyond reproach and with just the right balance between choir and orchestra.''

This new release is the final installment in Chandos’ Atterberg series with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi. This volume features two rarely performed centuries from the later years of Atterberg’s career. The seventh century is featured first in its final form which consists of three movements. While it was composed in 1942 with four movements, it didn’t reach its final shape until 1969 when Atterberg removed the last movement. The ninth symphony was regarded by the composer as “evil.” He set parts of the Icelandic poem “Volupsa” which tells of how evil came into the world and how it will eventually cause total destruction. The work is a single movement large-scale rondo form.

The BBC Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena focus here on the orchestral works of Joaquín Turina, one of the two leading Spanish composers of the twentieth century, the other being Manuel de Falla. Turina was a prolific composer, who in his sixty-seven years wrote more than one hundred works, in which he explored a wide range of classical genres, from symphonic music, solo piano pieces, and vocal works to ballet scores and chamber music. Most of these show the influences of traditional Andalusian music – often conveying feelings of rapture and immense exaltation – while also owing a debt to a range of French composers. - Chandos

For me the main attraction in this fascinating batch of discs is the magnificent Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution. It is here presented in its unbowdlerised version including Stalin's speeches towards the end. Kondrashin was forced to elide them in his first recording. However let's not confuse politics with musical worth troubling though the process of separating one from the other in a cantata of this type may be. The forces used are massive and they are used to huge effect. Loudness and awe are not of course enough. In fact this music has a dizzying concentration that is bound to impress and some poetry too.

The performance history of the piece is fascinating. Completed in 1937, it was buried by the denunciations of that era until 1966 when it was performed and then recorded -against the conductor's wishes - minus two crucial substantial episodes which set words by Stalin. This Chandos recording which is complete, faithful to the original schema as to instrumentation and has all sections as written was performed in this form for the first time anywhere outside Eastern Europe by Järvi at the RFH in 1992.

The choir is large and subdivided into two section - eight parts. There is a super-augmented orchestra with quadruple woodwind and eight horns alongside three augmentary instrumental groups: six accordions or bayans, a seventeen strong windband including six further trumpets to add to the four already in the orchestra and a percussion ensemble with alarm bells, cannon-shot, sirens (9:22 in Revolution tr. 6) and the kitchen sink. In the wild fervent rumpus that is Revolution the voice of Gennadi Rozhdestvensky rings out through a megaphone orating the words of Lenin. One can somehow see the smoke of insurrection, feel its sting, the howls of heightened awareness and hysteria and the bloody fervour of the words. This is the same movement in which the Bayan band appear. The bayans return for The Oath: Stalin's pledge in his speech at Lenin's bierside. It too burns with conviction - faithful to the original sentiments of the extension of the Communist International into a spreading worldwide alliance. It is greatly to the credit of the Philharmonia chorus and Simon Halsey that the flame burns bright, steady and intense. The final and tenth movement, The Constitution, again sets Stalin's words

There are no soloists except for Rozhdestvensky and his spoken cameo - the voice of the people speaking the words of their hortators into the dazzling sun. Overdose on grandiloquence and blazing fervour. In case you think this is all unremitting grandstanding the quietly intimate silvery sheen of the strings in Victory shines forth.

The notes are by Christopher Palmer and all the words are there in the booklet: transliterated Russian alongside French, German and English translations.

When this disc was first released in 1992 while not impossible to track down full recordings of Prokofiev's third Soviet ballet The Tale of the Stone Flower were difficult to come by. CPO and Chandos have put that right in style since. Even so there is a place for this twenty-five minute sequence from Prokofiev's full-length ballet: whooping brass, gypsy flavour, echoes of Romeo and Juliet (how could he escape it), dark clouded tension, shrieking tangy woodwind, the swayingly touching solo of the gypsy girl (tr.17) and stamping, crashing fury.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Renowned violinist Tasmin Little returns to Chandos with a line-up of three women composers whose lives share some features but also significant differences that illustrate the complex lives of female musicians. Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach all came from families that encouraged their musical interests but balked, in varying degrees, at professional training and engagement. All three composers draw on the influence of Robert Schumann and Brahms; Beach and Smyth in particular were fond of metrical and motivic manipulation.Tasmin Little plays this music close to her heart with her usual warmth and dexterity. The manuscript to Clara Schumann’s final chamber work Three Romances states ‘for piano and violin’, an ordering reflected in the relative complexity of the parts, the florid passagework here played beautifully by long-term collaborator with Little, John Lenehan.

-----

REVIEWS:

This delightful, beautifully performed album makes an emphatic, seemingly effortless case for these composers’ music.

– BBC Music Magazine

Neither the Beach or the Smyth, surely, has ever been treated to anything like Little’s gleaming, endlessly fluid tone or John Lenehan’s warmly characterised, unfailingly sensitive pianism. There’s a flexibility and sense of sweep to Little and Lenehan’s performance of the Beach that’s utterly persuasive on its own terms. The two players respond to each other as if by instinct.

– Gramophone

Reviews of the original recordings that make up this set:

Symphony no 1, Mascarade Suite Chandos 10584

It's good to see Neeme Järvi back on Chandos, working in top form, and it's even better to see the label starting a new project that promises to be delightfully worthy of collectors' attention and true to its roots in interesting Romantic repertoire. As a composer, Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) is seriously underestimated, largely because most of his orchestral music falls into the category of theater or "incidental" music. A good bit of it, and much else besides, has been recorded by Simax, but those discs may be difficult to find (and costly too). It is, in any case, often music of very high quality, as the suite from Mascarade (same story as Nielsen's opera) clearly reveals.

The First Symphony, which dates from the 1920s but could have been written three or four decades earlier, reveals Halvorsen's ties to the school of the Russian "Mighty Five". If you enjoy, say, Borodin's Second, then you're going to love this immaculately crafted, tuneful, and melodically memorable piece. The other three pieces are brief "pops" numbers, but no less attractive or well-made. In short, there's not a note here unworthy of your time and attention, even the tiny La Mélancolie, an arrangement of an earlier tune by Ole Bull. As already noted, Järvi is back to his old exciting, vigorous self, and the orchestra plays with total commitment and enthusiasm. Great sound too. A terrific release.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Symphony no 2, Suite ancienne Chandos 10614

Johan Halvorsen spent most of his career writing for the theater, which is probably why his music sounds so effortless, colorful, and well, efficient. This isn't meant to be disparaging. Rather, all of these pieces get right to the point, and none outstays its welcome, not even the Second Symphony, which clocks in at a bit under half an hour. It's conservative, harmonically and formally, but the music really works--it's a pleasure from beginning to end, and wholly convincing. This performance also is the first to correct the zillion errors in the printed score that have gone a long way to preventing the work from entering the repertoire, where it surely belongs.

The other pieces are all, in one way or another, ostensibly Norwegian in sound in a manner quite similar to Grieg. Again, there's nothing wrong with that. What sane person dislikes Grieg? The Suite ancienne, to the memory of Holberg, has every bit as much charm and freshness as Grieg's Holberg Suite, while the other three pieces all feature solo violin. Marianne Thorsen plays splendidly, while Neeme Järvi leads his Bergen forces in performances that are graceful, vibrant, and in the Suite and the Symphony, the last word in impetuosity and excitement. With terrific sound, if you don't know this music, you're missing something special.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Symphony no 3, Black Swan, Wedding March, Wedding of Ravens in the Grove of the Crows

Johan Halvorsen is one of those composers whose music will have you asking why it’s not part of the standard repertoire. It’s that good. His Third Symphony is a pithy, three-movement work lasting a bit less than half an hour, full of good tunes, immaculately crafted and luminously scored. You can’t dislike it. Black Swan, the Wedding March, and the Wedding of Ravens in the Grove of the Crows are delightful miniatures. Norwegian music seems to be full of bridal marches, wedding processions, and the like, and it’s rather amazing that Halvorsen packs so much variety into what you might think would be an extremely restrictive genre. The incidental suites also have their share of wedding pieces.

Speaking of which, Fossegrimen (another classic Norwegian-themed play featuring trolls and other mythological creatures) contains some marvelous music in the folk style, some real, some invented, including extensive writing for the Hardanger fiddle. This performance includes the Danse visionaire, an independent work dedicated to Halvorsen’s wife (Grieg’s niece) that was part of the original incidental music but was later replaced by a newly composed piece. It’s good to have it here.

Finally, Bergensiana, billed as “Rococo Variations on an Old Melody from Bergen”, offers more than meets the eye, or ear. The tune may be old, but the scoring is fully modern, even radical. There’s a prominent variation featuring xylophone and bassoon, while another is given to the mandolin. Since they happen to be placed next to each other, the sound sample below offers a taste of them both, and they seem to encapsulate the combination of good humor and exquisite craftsmanship characteristic of Halvorsen. As with previous releases in this series, the performances are as good as it gets, and so are the sonics. There is absolutely nothing to criticize about Neeme Järvi’s interpretations, the fine Bergen Philharmonic, or the engineers. It’s just 79 minutes of terrific music.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

HALVORSEN Symphony No. 3. Black Swans. Wedding March. Wedding of Ravens in the Grove of the Crows. Fossegrimen. Bergensiana • Neeme Järvi, cond; Ragnhild Hemsig (Hardanger fiddle); Marianne Thorsen (vn); Bergen PO • CHANDOS 10664 (80:32)

HALVORSEN Norwegian Rhapsodies: No. 1; No. 2. Norwegian Bridal Procession . Passacaglia. Queen Tamara: Dance Scene. The King: Symphonic Intermezzo. Norwegian Festival Overture. Norwegian Fairy Tale Pictures • Neeme Järvi, cond; Melina Mandozzi (vn ); Ilze Klava (va); Bergen PO • CHANDOS 10710 (72:53)

Has any conductor done more to promote lesser-known but deserving composers than Neeme Järvi? Now he’s into the Norwegian Johan Halvorsen, with four volumes to his credit so far on Chandos. Here we have Volumes 3 and 4. James A. Altena was not particularly enthusiastic about Volume 1 (“a mildly appealing diversion,” he wrote in Fanfare 34: 1), but Barry Brenesal was considerably more taken with Volume 2 in 34:4 (“definitely recommended and I’m looking forward to the third volume”). Well, Barry, you’ll be pleased to know that not only is Volume 3 available, but Volume 4 has just come out as well. Both contain wonderful music, wonderfully played.

Volumes 1 and 2 each featured one of Halvorsen’s three symphonies. Volume 3 opens with the Third. On the basis of the first movement alone, one might be induced to put the disc aside. A lovely, forlorn oboe solo introduces the symphony, but the remainder of the movement is rather empty, bombastic, perhaps reminiscent of second-rate Glazunov. However, the two remaining movements are a sheer delight—a lushly orchestrated central movement that rises inexorably to a grand climax and a third movement grander still, bringing to mind the symphonies of Elgar in its rich counterpoint, energetic spirit, and sense of purpose pursued and attained.

The symphony is followed by five shorter works, all worthy of attention. Two of them, both evocations of birds, are billed as premiere recordings. Black Swans is a quasi-Impressionist miniature of darkly oppressive character while Wedding of Ravens in the Grove of the Crows is a theme-and-variations set for strings, based on a hauntingly beautiful Norwegian folk melody (Grieg arranged it also as one of his op. 17 piano pieces). The wan, nostalgic melody alone is memorable, but what Halvorsen does with it makes the Wedding a miniature masterpiece.

The 10-minute Bergensiana is another variation set. Its subtitle reads “Rococo Variations on an Old Melody from Bergen,” but Øyvin Dybsand writes in his program notes that the tune is in reality probably a minuet by Lully. The six variations take the listener on a whirlwind journey to various lands, with a triumphant return to Bergen at the end (the tune constitutes the city’s anthem, and Halvorsen’s work opens the annual Bergen International Festival). The Wedding March is another highly attractive miniature. It sounds more like a celebratory dance than a march, but its tune is irresistible. The solo violin part is handled with high spirit and panache by Marianne Thorsen.

The real showpiece of Volume 3 is the suite of incidental music Halvorsen wrote for Sigurd Eldegard’s troll play Fossegrimen (1905), which Dybsand describes as “one of the most-performed plays ever on Norwegian stages.” The title character is the “mythical music master of all underground creatures,” a kind of Norwegian Paganini who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for remarkable musical ability. His instrument is of course the violin, in this case the traditional Hardanger fiddle, which plays a prominent role in the proceedings. As Dybsand tells us in his extensive and outstanding notes, Halvorsen played the instrument himself and spent his honeymoon with Grieg’s niece in the Hardanger region of the country, where he became intimately familiar with the fiddle and its repertory. In his music for Fossegrimen , Halvorsen for the first time ever combined the Hardanger fiddle with symphony orchestra. Halvorsen’s 30-minute suite combines the colorful orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov, foot-tapping themes of national character, splendidly atmospheric writing for the fiddle, and engaging melodies.

Volume 4 continues the pleasures to be found in Volume 3. The main work in 4 is again a suite of incidental music for a troll play, Peik and the Giant Troll , which Halvorsen arranged into the Norwegian Fairy Tale Pictures . These include a stirring introduction, a languid waltz, an elegantly gliding number that might elsewhere have served as carousel music except that it is scored with the skill of a Johann Strauss (delicate bells, solos for violin, clarinet, oboe, etc.), and troll music scary enough to make those creatures in Grieg’s Hall of the Mountain King sound almost benign (Halvorsen’s trolls inhabit a Blue Mountain). Conductors looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous Peer Gynt suites might well take a look at Halvorsen’s Fairy Tale Pictures . The composer considered this to be one of his finest compositions, and of those represented on these two programs, I concur.

Also in Volume 4 we have a seven-minute orchestral interlude brimming with dramatic intensity (part of the incidental music for Bjørnstherne Bjørnson’s play The King ); the orientally tinged dance from Queen Tamara (a play based on the same character as in Balakirev’s symphonic poem); the splendidly festive Norwegian Festival Overture ; the two Norwegian Rhapsodies featuring a very capable soloist, violinist Melina Mandozzi; and the stately Norwegian Bridal Procession . If the latter sounds very much like Grieg, it should—it is an orchestration of a piano piece from his op. 19, also used in Peer Gynt . The only piece on these two discs that most listeners are likely to know already is the Passacaglia for Violin and Viola, which has been recorded innumerable times over the years (by Heifetz and Primrose, among others).

Halvorsen was born in the same year as Richard Strauss (1864) and lived almost as long. Unlike Strauss’s, however, Halvorsen’s music remains rooted in 19th-century Romanticism, much like Rachmaninoff’s. It is invariably well crafted and often inspired. At its best, as in the dance from Queen Tamara , the Fairy Tale Pictures, or the Third Symphony, it ranks with the best of Grieg. On both discs the Bergen Philharmonic is in fine form, Järvi provides consistently committed leadership, Øyvin Dybsand gives us model program notes, and Chandos delivers engineering as crystal-clear and energizing as those legendary Norwegian mountain streams and waterfalls. Are there further volumes in the works? There’s still a fair amount of material to draw upon, including a violin concerto and a large repertory of incidental music. The latter includes no fewer than four Shakespeare plays. I for one look forward to more of Halvorsen’s fine music.

FANFARE: Robert Markow

This handsomely presented box gathers together four CDs all of which have been previously issued and glowingly reviewed on this site. … For those like myself who missed the original Chandos issues, this box is a most valuable survey of what probably constitutes as much of Halvorsen’s orchestral music as they will need to hear. The symphonies in particular reveal themselves as works of considerable merit. The playing of the Bergen orchestra and the recording quality are of the highest standard.

– Paul Corfield Godfrey, MusicWeb International

The recent partnership of John Wilson and BBC SSO on record reaches this second volume in their invigorating exploration of fascinating orchestral works by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Less well known than his widely famous film music (Murder on the Orient Express, Four Weddings and a Funeral, etc.), the orchestral works featured here display the versatility with which Bennett contradicted the dogma of musical modernism at the time of their creation (60s-70s), as well as an evolution of his compositional style towards a musical language that spoke to audiences everywhere in the world. From the glittering Symphony No. 2 – generating subtle yet engaging musical contrasts on a large scale – to the jazzy Concerto for Stan Getz – featuring the saxophonist Howard McGill who has established himself as one of the greats of London’s jazz scene – this album features works that break down the false walls between two musical worlds and will appeal to anyone willing to explore, discover, or simply enjoy great music.