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.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This superb programme combines the beautiful 'Alto Rhapsody' with the much more rarely performed 'Gesang der Parzen' and the cantata 'Rinadlo' - a work which gives us some idea of how a Brahms opera world would have sounded. This is the third and final volume of Brahms's works for chorus and orchestra, performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under its distinguished Principal Conductor, Gerd Albrecht.

Cyril Scott was an artists of immense standing amongst his contemporaries. Debussy wrote of him, 'Cyril Scottt is one of the rarest artists of the present generation...' and Elgar acknowledged Scott's influence in his treatment of harmony. Scott failed to receive attention after the First World War for he did not connnect with the msuical establishment as it developed. His posthumous lack of popularity is unfathonable as his music has a personality and integrity which demand, nearly half a century on, that we revisit it. This release places Scott's early masterpiece, the first Piano Concerto, alongside one of the larger orchestral works composed after the Second World War. Performed here by Howard Shelley, the large scale Piano Concerto was composed immediately before the First World War and premiered by Scott himself, with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of his friend Sir Thomas Beecham. Scott's static and exotic harmony, and his use of ostinati, repeated motifs, exotic orchestral colours and the bell-like effect of repeated fourths lend the work an oriental sound world. Scott himself said about it: 'It's as if Scarlatti had lived in China'. Symphony No.4 was completed in 1952 but has not been performed until now and with this release receives its world premiere recording. Clearly influenced by Ravel and Debussy, particularly at the climax points, Scott composes melodic lines that are richly chromatic, and his orchestration is colourful and constantly changing. This work is coupled with 'Early One Morning', a single-movement 'Poem' for piano and orchestra.

Yuli Turovsky and I Musici de Montréal offer a very different listening experience in John Corigliano's Pulitzer Prize-winning Second Symphony (a masterful and imaginative string-orchestra arrangement of his 1996 Quartet) in comparison with the work's recorded premiere with John Storgards and the Helsinki Philharmonic on Ondine (to see David Hurwitz's favorable and succinct comments, type Q7651 in Search Reviews). For starters, Turovsky's chamber orchestra contains far fewer strings, resulting in more transparent and delicate textures all around, abetted by faster tempos in each of the five movements. Granted, the eerie, atmospheric opening movement and central Night Music benefit from the Helsinki ensemble's broader, padded sonorities, but Turovsky's more incisive articulation of the Scherzo and Fugue movements gives clearer voice to the music's quirky mood shifts. Furthermore, Chandos' surround-sound production manages to be sharply detailed and lifelike at the same time.


The sonic excellence particularly comes into its own in the "Red Violin" Suite culled from Corigliano's score to the François Giraud film of the same name. With all due respect to Joshua Bell's suave, effortless violin virtuosity that distinguishes the original soundtrack recording, Eleonora Turovsky's more impassioned and colorful solo work adds depth to the composer's unfettered eclecticism (try the cadenza-like passages in Shanghai and Pope's Betrayal). Perhaps some listeners will find this score more accessible and easier to absorb than the Symphony, although it's not as interesting or inspired as Corigliano's wacky collage piece The Mannheim Rocket that couples the Helsinki's Second Symphony. The bottom line is that Storgards and Turovsky are both excellent in their own ways, making a clear-cut choice difficult. Knowing that the present recording was made under the composer's supervision and bears his enthusiastic endorsement might tilt the scales in Chandos' favor.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, the French composer, organist, and harpsichordist, was one of the most famous musicians of his time. His suite of pieces from 1759 is here performed by Sophie Yates on a harpsichord specially chosen for the repertoire, a double manual instrument built by Andrew Garlick in 1996. It is a copy of a French harpsichord by Jean- Claude Goujon, made in Paris in 1748, which today forms part of the collection of the Musée de la Musique at the Conservatoire de Paris. Sophie Yates has made a series of solo CDs for Chandos, many of which have won international awards. She has been described by Gramophone as 'hugely talented' and by BBC Music as playing 'with exceptional poise'. In the eighteenth century, aristocratic or, ideally, royal patronage was the undisputed key to an artist's success. In the case of Balbastre, the young composer was quickly and efficiently introduced to the Parisian musical circles and high society by no less a figure than Jean-Philippe Rameau, and made a brilliant career. He played at the Concert Spirituel until 1782, became organist of the Notre-Dame cathedral and of the Chapelle Royale, harpsichordist to the French royal court where he taught Queen Marie Antoinette, and organist to Louis-Stanislav Xavier, Count of Provence, later Louis XVIII, King of France. His fame grew so great that the archbishop of Paris had to forbid Balbastre to play at Saint Roch during certain services, because the church drew excessive crowds whenever he played. Because of his royal patronage, Balbastre developed a compositional style that displayed strong elements of nobility and grandeur, but there was also a great deal of exuberance, which meant that his works were commonly regarded as more popular than intellectual. The music on this recording takes the form of descriptive 'pièces de charactère'. Some of them - 'La Suzanne', for example - require a sparkling virtuosity, whilst others, such as 'La Berville', calls for the sensitivity to create a supple line. The title Giga at the top of 'La Lugeac' is a clue to its Italianate vigour, and its infectious spirit shows off Balbastre's gift for the common touch. 'La d'Hericourt' and 'La de Caze' are more noble and traditional. By contract, the pastoral style, so very popular in eighteenth-century France, is clearly heard in the socalled Air Champêtre, 'La Castlemore'. This collection of pieces was composed at the time when Balbastre was enjoying his greatest success in Paris, just before the old regime and all that went with it came to a dramatic end. It embodies the last flowering of the French harpsichord repertoire.

Michael Collins has been recording for Chandos what one might call thematic ‘mood’ albums; virtuosity has been covered [CHAN10615] and here is lyricism. Burgmüller’s Duo is a single movement, but tripartite piece, dating from 1834. It assuredly lives up to the disc billing, being profusely lyric, but in its central panel cleverly evokes the operatic by means of declamatory piano statements above which the clarinet spins vocalised curlicues of decidedly virtuosic pretension. It hardly aspires to anything especially deep, but makes for a good palette refreshing opener.

Finzi’s wartime Bagatelles are a clarinet staple. Collins’s subtly coloured, variegated tone is a perfect fit. He’s rhythmically sharp in the Prelude, and elegantly relaxed in the Romance, though I have to admit I do prefer John Denman’s slightly brisker tempo. Collins however plays the Carol with disarming simplicity, the tone remaining richly rounded, and he brings a very vocalised sense to the Forlana with its echoes of the composer’s great setting of Hardy’s For Life I Had Never Cared Greatly and specifically the lines ‘Conditions of Doubt/Conditions that leaked slowly out.’

Heinrich Joseph Baermann was an elite clarinettist of his time. His Clarinet Quintet of 1821 was rediscovered in 1922 and claimed to be a very early work by Wagner. Pamela Weston has arranged the Adagio from the Quintet for clarinet and piano, and most effectively, as it’s a lovely movement, rich and warm. Paul Reade’s Suite from ‘The Victorian Kitchen Garden’ comes from music for a TV series, and can be accompanied either by piano (as here) or harp. The five gentle scenes are atmospheric and engaging, the second (called ‘Spring’) having requisite jauntiness and the third – ‘Mists’ – just the right sense of stillness. I know Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel gets trotted out often in one of its manifold arrangements, especially when mining pathos in TV war documentaries – the Barber Adagio de nos jours – but I can certainly take the composer’s clarinet/piano version nicely. Nine minutes doesn’t seem a second too long.

And finally then to two very different French Clarinet sonatas. The Saint-Saëns was composed at the very end of his long life. It’s suffused with easy going charm and lyrical content. Collins drops to the chalumeau register in the slow movement where the piano’s rolled chords remind one very distinctly of César Franck. Collins conveys the quietude and ending-without-regret quality of this work very adeptly. The Poulenc too was a very late work, composed the year before his death and dedicated to the memory of Honegger. Again this is a convincingly argued performance. It’s a touch more measured than, say, Richard Horsfield and Ian Brown in the Nash Ensemble’s performance, but Collins and Michael McHale balance the introversion of the Romanza with the freewheeling dynamism of the finale well.

The warm recording comes courtesy of Potton Hall, an elite venue of choice for chamber recitals.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

The Symphonic Variations immediately echo Brahms, but have their own pleasures, and the eloquent Concertstuck (which unexpectedly lacks a solo instrument) has equally strong Wagnerian influences. From Death to Life is a pair of contrasted movements, the first sombre, the second lively, easily melodic and Elgarian in the best sense. The poignant Elegy for Brahms is both extended and very passionate, but has a particularly appealing central Largamente. It would be difficult to imagine more committed performances, and the rich recording fits the music like a glove.
GRAMOPHONE, 2/2001

Classical Music

Classical Music

This boxed set of Tortelier's three previously issued Dutilleux CDs contains a bonus disc in the form of a new recording of the composer's latest work, The Shadows of Time. It's a good thing Chandos got it down. God only knows how long Seiji Ozawa's premiere version, an Erato CD "single", will remain available, assuming that it's still around even now. Tortelier's performance of this and all of these works leaves absolutely nothing to be desired. He captures the magic of Dutilleux's impressionistic sound world while at the same time never losing sight of each work's long-term tonal goal. This pays dividends both in the two concertos, whose dreamier passages, absent a firm controlling hand from the podium, can tempt the soloists to meander a bit, and in the more highly structured variations of Métaboles.


Perhaps the first disc, containing the two symphonies, stands out most, if only because these two sensational works have been around for a while and have yet to be fully appreciated and played as often as they deserve. Then there's the only available performance of the large orchestra version of Mystère de l'instant--but in the final analysis all of the music here belongs among the finest creations of the 20th century, and we can only hope that this painstaking perfectionist now entering his mid 80s keeps on adding to his select family of works. The recorded sound is fully worthy of the excellence of the performances. [12/14/2000]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

2009 release. BBC Philharmonic Fionnuala Hunt leader, conducted by Rumon Gamba. Recorded in Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester, England December 9 &10, 2008. Premiere recording of Electra, Op.79 (1963) Ballet in One Act.

Chandos' featured release is a new recording of the first English operatic masterpiece, Purcell's tragedy Dido and Aeneas. Starring Sarah Connolly, Gerald Finley, with the Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, it is released to commemorate the 350th anniversary of Purcell's birth. Directed from the keyboard by Steven Devine and Elizabeth Kenny as in recent concert performances, the ensemble presents the opera in a version that incorporates other dance works by Purcell, a version which Sarah Connolly performed at Teatro alla Scala in 2006. There have been two revolutions in scholarly thinking about Dido and Aeneas and both had serious implications for historically inclined performers, and demand a creative response today. The musicological backdrop to this recording results in a performance closer to the court entertainment of Purcell's day, in which musical dramas evolved from the English theatre tradition. Sarah Connolly, the quintessential Dido of the early twenty-first century, has been the driving force behind this recording. She writes of the project, 'It seems I have known Purcell's Dido all my life and feel able to express myself in this music like no other... As a character, Dido fascinates me to the point of obsession'. Connolly has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on many occasions, including two productions at Glyndebourne - Giulio Cesare and St Matthew Passion - as well as Dido and Aeneas at the Proms, the South Bank Centre and Tetbury Festival. One recent review of Connolly's Dido had the following to say: 'It was the sheer depth of emotion Connolly infused in her portrayal of Dido that was truly remarkable. Emotion flowed off the stage from the intensity in her voice and through her actions. Her final aria, one of the most beautiful in English baroque music, brought a tear to the eye in a hall so quiet you could hear a pin drop... a moving portrayal of this tragic heroine' (MusicalCriticism.com). This impressive performance by an extraordinary group of musicians makes for a significant addition to the catalogue. Sarah Connolly and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will perform Dido and Aeneas at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in March 2009.

Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 19-21 May 1999 (Ligeti Violin Concerto); 5-6 March 1999 (Helle Nacht); 22 May 1999 (Sonata 'The Secret Melody') Producer(s) Brian Couzens (Executive) Claus Due (Recording) Sound Engineer(s) Jørn Jacobsen