Another classic from the John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers, whose recordings have become a tradition of Christmas around the world.

REVIEW:

Christmas Star is an entertaining collection of familiar holiday tunes and carols, all professionally performed by the Cambridge Singers. This is good, straight a cappella holiday mus­ic and should satisfy fans of that style[.]

­– All Music Guide (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

Classical Music

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Christmas Eve / Night on Mount Triglav

Benno Moiseiwitsch was one of the many great Russian pianists born in Odessa. He recorded prolifically from 1916 until just before his death and was particularly highly regarded for his Chopin, Schumann and Rachmaninov. Moiseiwitsch met Rachmaninov at his American debut in 1919 and the composer praised Moiseiwitsch's interpretations of his works and even claimed the recording of the Piano Concerto No.2 presented here was superior to his own. All these recordings present Moiseiwitsch at the height of his powers.

For Italian composers of the 18th century, the stage was the primary focus. However, Giovanni Battista Viotti, an exceptional violinist and composer, sought instead a career at the Concert Spirituel in Paris, where his performances seduced and astonished the public. His compositions also established the new standard in violin concertos, laying the foundation for the French violin school. This premiere complete recording of Viotti's 29 concertos reveals the full range of his technical and expressive mastery, showing why he was an influence on Paganini, and was admired by Brahms.

This is the first recording of pianist Igor Levit, conductor Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic with Brahms' two Piano Concertos. The release is a triple-CD album with Levit's recording of Brahm's late solo piano works opp 116-119. As a special encore Levit and Thielemann also play the four-hand Brahms Waltz op. 39/15 together.

REVIEW:

Levit’s utterly compelling accounts of the late sets are the more impressive element in this collection. He does not put a foot wrong in any of them; each piece is perfectly shaped, its subtly varied emotional charge instantly identified. It’s hard to think of many better recordings of these 20 gems, and certainly not of all four opus numbers together.

— The Guardian

Recorded in: Orchestra Hall, Chicago 27, 28 November 1989 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Mitchell Heller (assistant)

Long overshadowed by her towering legacy as one of the 20th century's most influential music teachers, Nadia Boulanger's creative voice as a composer is rediscovered in La ville morte (The Dead City) - a haunting opera of passion, loss, and psychological intensity. Composed in collaboration with Raoul Pugno and based on a libretto by Gabriele D'Annunzio, the work was originally slated for it's world premiere in Paris in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I silenced it before it could be heard. More than a century later, this long-buried score rises from obscurity, where forgotten desires return to life against the backdrop of ancient ruins. Set in the crumbling city of Mycenae, the opera explores obsession, betrayal, and blurred boundaries, it's emotional landscape shaped by impressionistic orchestral textures and arioso-style intimacy reminiscent of both Debussy and Wagner. Here, Boulanger reveals a daring and expressive side that transcends her image as the stern guardian of musical tradition. This landmark recording marks the PENTATONE debut of soprano Melissa Harvey, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin, tenor Joshua Dennis, baritone Jorell Williams, the Talea Ensemble, and conductor Neal Goren. The orchestration-by Joseph Stillwell and Stephan Cwik under the supervision of David Conte-breathes new life into the long-silent score. A co-production between Catapult Opera and the Greek National Opera, La ville morte not only resurrects Boulanger's compositional brilliance but also secures her place in the modern operatic repertoire.

Classical Music

This stunning collection features acclaimed pianist Gabriel Tacchino performing the complete piano and orchestra compositions of Camille Saint-Saëns. Enjoy the masterful musicianship of Tacchino, accompanied by the Luxembourg Radio Orchestra. Immerse yourself in the rich and diverse soundscapes crafted by one of the greatest composers of the late Romantic era. Experience the full range of Saint-Saëns' genius with this comprehensive set.

REVIEWS:

It’s good to see this collection of Saint-Saëns piano concertos coming back in tandem with such rarities as Cyprès et Lauriers for Organ and Orchestra, the Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, La muse et le poète (for violin, cello, and orchestra), and the two small works for horn and orchestra. All are well performed and acceptably recorded, though the main attraction remains Gabrielle Tacchino’s charming way with the piano concertos. An excellent pianist in a lighter vein, his artistry might have been tailor-made for these works.

Tacchino is particularly adept at tossing off the less familiar works–Concertos Nos. 1, 3, and 5–and he understands that elegance and ease count for more than raw power in this music...if you love these works, you should have this. Froment provides decent accompaniments, and while the sonics remain a touch “tight” and dry, the overall quality is perfectly listenable and very well balanced.

-- MusicWeb International (David Hurwitz)

1. Adeste fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful) (arr. D. Willcocks)
2. What Child is This?
3. Ding Dong Merrily on High
4. Sing we to this merry company
5. The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol (arr. M. Allen)
6. The Little Road to Bethlehem
7. The Holly and the Ivy (arr. J. Rutter): The holy and the ivy
8. Carol of the Bells (arr. P. Wilhousky)
9. God rest you merry, gentlemen
10. The First Nowell
11. The Carol of the Angels
12. I saw three ships
13. Come, love we God
14. Torches, Op. 7a
15. Wexford Carol
16. Angels we have heard on high
17. Away in a manger (arr. J. Van)
18. Good King Wenceslas
19. Sussex Carol
20. A Merry Christmas
21. O Holy Night (Cantique de Noel) (arr. J. Rutter)
22. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

This edition of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach performed by Bernard Foccroulle was recorded between 1982 and 1997 on a series of splendid historical instruments and provides a clear picture of Bach’s development as a composer of instrumental music. This complete edition also contains works attributed to Bach as well as the recording of the Chorale Fantasia Wo Gott der Herr BWV 1128 that has only been rediscovered in 2008.

Kip Winger is a genre-bridging composer with a long and successful career in rock music. His celebrated ballet score Conversations with Nijinsky led conductor Giancarlo Guerrero to commission the two works on this album. Weaving four floriographical meanings into the musical arc, In the Language of Flowers is a violin concerto that celebrates a love story "no words could adequately express." Symphony of the Returning Light sits in the tradition of autobiographical fantasies stretching back to Berlioz. The symphony incorporates the use of Morse code rhythms and is centered around the theme of atonement.

Classical Music

Naxos has done it again! Francis Poulenc's delicious Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra, surely the finest work of its genre, also is one of the most difficult to bring off. The problem is one of balance: it was composed for a huge Pleyel harpsichord, which had the dynamic range of a modern grand piano. Usually it's played on a tiny little Baroque instrument, with the balance problems left to the recording engineers, who either blow it completely or adjust matters electronically, which is equally unconvincing. Here, finally, is a performance that works: the right-sounding instrument, dazzling execution, and excellent sonics. The same holds true for the Organ Concerto, appropriately captured in live performance before a very quiet audience in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. In fact, not since the recordings supervised by the composer himself have we had this music rendered with such idiomatic flair.--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

REVIEW:

In the early 1730s Bach revised his E flat major Magnificat of 1723, transposing it to D major and omitting the interpolations peculiar to Christmas performances in Leipzig. (Recent research suggests such richly scored Latin Magnificats could be performed in Lutheran churches at some 15 annual festivals, not just the three – Xmas, Easter, Ascension – previously supposed.) The D major was apparently Bach’s preferred version and is the one commonly played today, as on this latest instalment of Masaaki Suzuki’s acclaimed survey of Bach’s sacred vocal music. Suzuki’s Magnificat, like his earlier Bach recordings, is sharply focused and performed with engaging conviction. My benchmark disc, by Philippe Herreweghe, grips with its palpable air of excitement. Suzuki’s reading is cooler, more nuanced and has a clearer acoustic; yet Herreweghe’s soloists retain a slight edge – few could match Barbara Schlick and oboist Marcel Penseele in rapt duet on ‘Quia respexit’. Herreweghe’s coupling is the splendid Cantata, BWV 80; Suzuki offers a trio of fascinating rareties. The Magnificat by Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor at Leipzig, resembles Bach’s in instrumentation and division of text: it’s a lively, attractive piece, trumpets ringing out boldly in the bright opening chorus. Two shorter Magnificats by Bach’s Dresden-based contemporary Zelenka represent a very different and highly individual approach, the C major’s tripartite structure creating an almost concerto-like framework for soprano soloist. Suzuki’s excellent, scrupulous performances should provoke greater interest in Kuhnau’s and Zelenka’s church music – the latter’s Missa Dei Filii, by Tafelmusik/Frieder Bernius (DHM), is also highly recommended. Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Graham Lock, BBC Music Magazine

Regular duet and two-piano partners Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie have returned to the studio for this all-Debussy program. The album features duets written by the composer himself -such as the Petite Suite, the Six Épigraphes antiques and the Marche écossaise sur un thème Populaire; as well as a number of arrangements of his solo piano pieces (the Première Arabesque, La Fille aux cheveux de lin and the "Slavic" Ballade). The album ends with André Caplet’s monumental arrangement of Debussy’s best known orchestral work, La Mer. Stripped of its orchestration, this two-piano version allows the listener to more easily appreciate Debussy’s ground-breaking harmonic innovation. The album was recorded in the concert hall at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, using a pair of Bösendorfer 280 VC grand pianos.

REVIEWS:

Regular duet and two-piano partners Hélène Mercier and Louis Lortie present this all-Debussy program, starting and ending on the water. The duo characterize Debussy’s impressionism well with playing that is sensitive and charming.

The album ends with André Caplet’s monumental arrangement of Debussy’s best known orchestral work, La Mer. Stripped of its orchestration, this two-piano version allows the listener to more easily appreciate Debussy’s ground-breaking harmonic innovation.

-- Cumbria Times (Andrew Palmer)

The playing by the two distinguished pianists is faultless, distinctly outlining the notes with a clarity of separation; the recording in the superb acoustic of the Snape Maltings captures the sound ideally; the presentation of the booklet, with extensive and informative notes in three languages by Roger Nichols, is excellent; and the music itself, I need hardly add, is marvelous.

Most frustratingly then, is that Debussy’s masterpiece for the two-piano repertoire, his late En blanc et noir, is missing. That, however, is not to say that the purchaser of this very full disc is under-compensated. Nevertheless, there might be something to be said for letting us hear Debussy’s music in two-piano and piano-duet arrangements, especially those published during his lifetime, even when we may suspect that reasons of commercial necessity may have prompted their original issue.

-- MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Included in this impressive program is Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka, and Balakirev's Islamey - Oriental Fantasy. (Vox)

21 tracks recorded in the Chapel of New College, Oxford, under the direction of Edward Higginbottom. Tracks include "Out of Your Sleep," "Wassail Carol," "A Virgin Most Pure," "Once in David's Royal City," "Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night)," "There is a Rose of Such Virtue," Alleluya, a New Work is Come on Hand," and more. (CRD)

The waltzes of Johann Strauss II (‘The Waltz King’) remain de rigueur concert fare for the annual New Year’s Eve celebrations occurring throughout the world. Opera overtures number far less in his oeuvre but are of equal attraction and popularity. Bookending this nine-track Naxos CD overture selection conducted by Alfred Walter are the openers to Die Fledermaus and Die Zigeunerbaron, with the Eine Nacht in Venedig overture among the seven additional Viennese delights on offer.

Classical Music

This album is a reissue of the Chandos label's 1988 recording of Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B minor and the Konzertstück for Cello and Orchestra by Dohnányi, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras, with Raphael Wallfisch the featured soloist.

The Cello Concerto in B minor by Dvorák has become one of his most popular works, and perhaps the most popular concerto ever written for the instrument. He was asked to write this piece by a friend of Wagner, the cellist Hanuš Wihan. Initially reluctant, Dvorák stated that the cello was indeed a fine orchestral instrument but totally insufficient for a solo concerto. Fortunately, he changed his mind upon hearing Victor Herbert’s Second Cello Concerto performed in concert, in 1894. The resulting Cello Concerto is richly inventive, full of deep feeling, and perfectly fitted to the cello. Dvorák combined his experience as an orchestral player with an understanding of the cello’s distinct textural qualities to produce a grand and emotionally intense work, one of his finest achievements.

Ernst von Dohnányi was highly acclaimed as a pianist-composer, and widely regarded during his lifetime as a successor to Liszt. As a composer, however, he had more in common with Brahms than with Liszt, despite his Hungarian heritage, and his creative output was not limited to the piano. His Konzertstück in D major is in fact a full-scale cello concerto, in three interconnected parts. A lyrical rhapsody, it begins quietly, the cello emerging out of the orchestra and seeming to sing, until parting with a sense of regret at the end.

Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 4-5 July 1988 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Janet Middlebrook (Assistant)

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich from the 1980s onwards. It was then that he learned to appreciate and love the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in particular. In October 1976, Bernstein had appeared with an all-Beethoven programme, and in 1983 he began a series of annual concerts with the orchestra. This CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert on October 17, 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. The programme of the Munich concert in October 1976 included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which can be seen as stroke of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through hardships to the stars" or "through darkness to light") and also a symphonic piece that he had written for his only opera "Fidelio": the Third Leonore Overture, with it's lone trumpet signal announcing the arrival of the minister Don Fernando - and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. Joachim Kaiser, Munich's leading music critic at the time, said: "Bernstein demonstrated to a spellbound Munich audience how much he is filled with Beethoven, the man is full of a freedom and fire that can be produced and reproduced. Even if Bernstein's leaps, crouches and crescendos may seem violent to anxious listeners, the inner rightness of the music - which sounds natural, powerful, wonderful and relaxed - is overwhelming." The live recording was made on October 17, 1976 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Driving intensity, rhythmic flair, and demonstration-quality sound are brought to the fore in a new anthology of Antal Doráti's early recordings with the Philharmonia Hungarica on Mercury and Philips. Founded in 1956, the Philharmonia Hungarica emerged from turbulent post-war times as a crack ensemble of émigré Hungarian musicians who had fled Communism for the West. While they gave concerts in Europe and the US, it was through these seven albums on Mercury and Philips that they became famous, and synonymous with the name of the conductor Antal Doráti. Together, Doráti and the Philharmonia Hungarica would go on to make a celebrated cycle of Haydn symphonies for Decca in the early 1970s. But these early recordings already demonstrate what a potent artistic combination they were, as forerunners both to that monument of gramophone history, and to the modern-day Budapest Festival Orchestra. As reviewers at the time remarked, the strings play with a particular unanimity and attack which sounds uniquely 'Hungarian'.

A booklet essay by the music historian David Patmore tells the story of the Philharmonia Hungarica and their debut on record. All six Mercury albums were recorded at sessions in June 1958, held in the Vienna Konzerthaus: a spacious but analytical acoustic, well suited to the label's trademark high-impact sound. The repertoire played to the strengths of both label and musicians: mostly Hungarian music from the last half century, vividly colored and coursing with rhythmic energy.

There is an early taste of the ensemble's feeling for Haydn, in the 'Surprise' and 'Drum Roll' Symphonies. Doráti's established reputation as a masterful conductor of ballet brings a sweeping sense of line to a collection of Viennese waltzes. The ace in the pack of the Mercury/Philharmonia Hungarica albums was Respighi's suites of Ancient Airs and Dances, which soon became a demonstration disc for audiophiles worldwide. Never previously collected together, this Mercury legacy is complemented by the two albums which the Philharmonia Hungarica and Doráti recorded for Philips. The ensemble's first-ever recording, made in October 1957, appeared on the Fontana imprint, coupling Bartók's Divertimento with Leo Weiner's Hungarian Dances. From 1974, the second Philips album returns to Bartók, with gripping interpretations of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Dance Suite.