Kalevi Aho is one of today’s most prolific composers of large-scale orchestral scores, including 17 symphonies and 32 concertos to date. Less well-known is the fact that he has also written chamber music, as well as an ever-expanding series of solo pieces – starting with Solo I for violin from 1975, the most recent in the series, for clavichord, is the 17th. Some of these pieces has originated as part of Aho’s preparations when composing a concerto for the instrument in question, while others have been written for competitions, including Solo III for flute and Solo IV for cello on the present release. This first volume of Solos gathers seven pieces in all, four of which have previously appeared as part of separate discs. Aho’s Solos share the characteristic that they pose great technical, interpretative and often also physical challenges to the performer. Most of those heard here are performed by the musicians for whom they were written, including Hiyoli Togawa (Solo XII), Piet Van Bockstal (Solo IX), Simon Reitmaier (Solo XIV) and Marie-Luise Neunecker (Solo X).

During the first decades of the last century, Paris took over from Vienna as the center of the art-music’s universe. Ideas and styles exploded like fireworks from the French capital, and among the first figures sending them into the wider world was Claude Debussy. His Première Rhapsodie began life as a competition piece for clarinet, first performed in 1911, and while the later orchestral version is now more commonly heard, it is instructive to revisit the composer’s original, more subtly allusive first thoughts. Seven years later, by now dying of cancer, Debussy completed the last of three works in which he returned to the traditional form of sonata which he had avoided through much of his career in favor of tone-pictures such as the Préludes and suites for piano. The Violin Sonata counts among his most concise and refined works in an output touched throughout by those qualities, demanding the greatest subtlety and passion from its interpreters. In the same year as the Première Rhapsodie, Stravinsky had scored his career-defining succès de scandale with the premiere of Le sacre du printemps, and by 1918 he was established as a darling of the Parisian avant-garde when he composed L’histoire du soldat for a septet of instruments and narrator. The following year he arranged five self-contained numbers from the score into a suite, further reduced for a spiky instrumental trio and featuring the marvelously sly tango as well as the Rite-like final Danse du soldat. Milhaud’s Suite and Bartók’s Contrasts date from two decades later, but they are still infused with the absinthe and lemon of 20s Parisian culture. Heard together, the five works paint a portrait of a world of dazzling colours and restless momentum, sometimes bewildered by its own precosity, taking what it wanted from old cultures and always breaking new paths.

Sebastian Manz writes: “It seems only logical at first glance to unite two Scandinavian composers, Carl Nielsen and Magnus Lindberg, on one [album], and it must be said that we are talking about two works that have permanently influenced and changed me as a musician. I played the Clarinet Concerto op. 57 by Carl Nielsen in 2008 for the finale of the ARD International Music Competition and won first prize. It was a huge challenge back then for me to have to play it by heart, as the rules required. Nerves, sleepless nights and superstitions about being able to learn something better by heart by having the score under one’s pillow at night all led on stage (with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra behind me) to one of my most intensive experiences ever. This piece of music is challenging both technically and musically, to the extent that after each performance I have the feeling of being not just a better clarinetist, but a more mature human being; it makes me realize that qualitatively high-value art requires time, not just to mature within ourselves, but to be recognized as such at all.”

The present 10-album compilation illustrates Louis Kentner as a successful soloist, chamber musician and concert pianist. A highly gifted musician, Kentner studied from 1911 to 1922 at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, attracting early attention in 1916 with a concert performance of Chopin. At the Music Academy, he studied piano with Arnold Székely, chamber music with Leó Weiner and composition with Hans Koessler and Zoltán Kodály. He made his official debut at the age of 15 (1920) and began concert tours of European cities, attracting particular attention for his interpretations of Chopin and Liszt. He won the Liszt Prize in Budapest and the Chopin Prize in Warsaw. In 1933, Kentner gave the first Hungarian performance of Béla Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto (conducted by Otto Klemperer); in London in 1946, the first performance in Europe of the composer’s Third Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult. Bartók’s artistic oeuvre found a special place in Kentner’s heart.

REVIEW:

Profil’s 10-disc Louis Kentner collection offers a diverse, if somewhat skewed, representation of the Hungarian-born/London-based pianist’s large recorded output. Among his sessions with violinist Yehudi Menuhin included here, the 1961 Ravel Trio, 1954 Chausson concerto, the 1956/57 Brahms sonatas, and 1950 Walton sonata represent their collaboration at its equitable best. However, two entire CDs given over to their 1951 Bach sonatas capture Menuhin on raspy and intonationally tenuous form, notwithstanding Kentner’s sensitive contributions. On the other hand, Kentner’s Dvorák “Dumky” Trio with violinist Henry Holst and cellist Anothony Pini was the 78 era’s point of reference.

I like the genial interaction between Kentner, clarinetist Reginald Kell, and violist Frederick Riddle in Mozart’s wonderful “Kegelstatt” Trio, while the pianist’s intense and angular partnership with violinist Jeno Lener in Beethoven’s A major Op. 30 No. 1 sonata makes the music sound positively contemporary. Kentner’s otherwise run-of-the-mill 1959 Mozart C minor K. 491 concerto stands out for the pianist’s own harmonically wild first-movement cadenza. The 1958 Brahms B-flat concerto with Adrian Boult is riddled with slapdash articulation and glaring wrong notes from the soloist, compounded by slack ensemble elsewhere (the slow movement’s misaligned clarinet/piano in measures 59 and 61).

The day after presenting its European premiere, Kentner and Boult played Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in a BBC studio broadcast, first issued on CD by Pearl. Aside from the pianist’s momentary stumble in the final bars, Kentner offers a direct and clear reading of the piano part. Kentner’s 1930s and ’40s Liszt recordings generally make up in proficiency for what they lack in inspiration. For example, in La Leggierezza, Kentner almost always slows down before a climax, and generally keeps the left hand parked in neutral. The E-flat Paganini Etude’s descending octaves sound expertly rehearsed rather than demonic in the way of the great Horowitz and Arrau shellac versions. He brings brooding drama to the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’s opening section, but the “friska” doesn’t match the insouciance of Friedman or Moiseiwitsch.

While Kentner’s 1948 Liszt Sonata misses the fantasy and volatility of Cortot or Barerre, its clarity and classicism warrant respect. The same applies to Balakirev’s Islamey. In his pioneering Balakirev Sonata and the first of his two recorded Liapunov Transcendental Etudes cycles, Kentner’s tone opens up as his effortless fingers fuse bravura and poetry. Kentner is also on top form in Constant Lambert’s curious arrangement of Liszt’s Dante Sonata for piano and orchestra.

To sum up, Profil’s Kentner box offers undeniable attractions, not to mention its modest cost. But why waste two discs on Menuhin’s lousy Bach, when Kentner’s Chopin Scherzi and Ballades, 1963 Beethoven Hammerklavier, and 1963 EMI Liszt Années de Pèlerinage excerpts have yet to be reissued?

– ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

COPLAND; BRAHMS; FROST; LUTOSLAWSKI; PIAZZOLLA; HILLBORG; HOGBERG AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA; FROST (CLAR.); TOGNETTI (DIR.) DANCES TO A BLACK PIPE- CONCERTO FOR CLARINET AND STRING ORCHESTRA WITH HARP AND PIANO; HUNGARIAN DANCES NOS 1, 12, 13 & 21; KLEZMER DANCES FOR CLARINET AND STRINGS; DANCE PRELUDES (2ND VERSION); OBLIVION FOR CLARINET, SOLO VIOLIN AND STRINGS; ETC.

Prague Philharmonia Wind Quintet plays charming music for wind instruments and piano - for this time they play together with one of the most renowned Czech classical pianists - Ivan Klánský. The repertory of recording is very colorful and inspiring. To put Mozart, Martinu and Poulenc side by side seems entirely natural in programme design terms. Both Martinu (1890-1959) and Poulenc (1899-1963) had found in Mozart one of the main founts for their own neoclassical music. The recording is opened by Mozart's Piano Quintet in E flat major for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano. Sextet FP 100 by Francis Poulenc for wind quintet and piano is imbued with a typical Parisian nonchalance, French colouring and with Poulenc's mischievousness balanced out with his firm faith. Bohuslav Martinu's Sextet seems to be more like a suite (5 parts composition), but the music of each of the movements is very original and enjoyable. Prague Philharmonia Wind Quintet with Ivan Klánský are presenting us highly professional and truly enjoyable interpretation of all these pieces.

Ewa FABIAŃSKA-JELIŃSKA is one of the most active and recognized composers of her generation. Her oeuvre is regularly presented at national and international music festivals and appreciated by music authorities, which is confirmed by numerous awards she has received in prestigious composers’ competitions. The creative output of Fabiańska-Jelińska, despite her young age, includes over a hundred compositions (excluding incidental music and arrangements), written for diverse ensembles, and is constantly expanding. In her work, we can find pieces representing various genres, including songs, solo concertos, symphonic works, while nearly half of them are written for one to four instruments. The present album features compositions created in the years 2015–2019, most of which represent a sui generis specialization of Fabiańska-Jelińska in the genre of instrumental chamber music, including instrumental duos and quartets. The album is complemented with four songs for solo instruments. Together, the compositions constitute a showcase of Fabiańska-Jelińska’s musical language; its indicators include high formal discipline and attention to material coherence, important role of tone color and melody in shaping expression, often marked by the presence of lyrical element, and frequent use of viola and trombone.

Joly Braga Santos (1924–88) was one of the most important composers in twentieth-century Portugal. In his early works his fondness for modal harmony, absorbed from the Portuguese masters of the Renaissance, and his busy counterpoint combine to make him sound surprisingly close to such particularly English composers as Vaughan Williams and Moeran. Although his harmonic language became more astringent with time, it retained a burly sense of humor and a powerful charge of energy, often infused with the spirit of Portuguese folk-dance.

The famous court orchestra of Prince Elector Carl Theodor of the Palatinate was distinguished by the fact that its musicians were not only certified virtuosos on their instruments but also good composers. Some of these most highly capable musicians basked in the limelight of the international music world, while others stayed in the background without this meaning that they were less-talented musicians. One of them was the horn player and later double bassist Anton Dimler, a member of the Mannheim Court Orchestra who today is known as a composer only to a few specialists even though his works exhibit great quality. This is also true of his clarinet concertos, three of which have been recorded for the first time on the present release. The focus in them is always on the highly virtuosic solo parts, while the orchestral accompaniment exercises a subordinate function. The soloist has the opportunity to display his brilliance with passagework, arpeggios, and shifts of register and makes all the colors of the clarinet shine over its whole tonal gamut.

The Azrieli Music Prizes were established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation to offer opportunities for the creation, performance and celebration of high quality new Jewish music. New works by composer Brian Current, winner of the 2016 Azrieli Commission, and composer Wlad Marhulets, winner of the 2016 Azrieli Prize, are featured on this new album. In addition to those, the album also features Song of Songs, for soprano and orchestra by Lukas Foss, an important work of Jewish music premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1947. Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2018, The Czech National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) has gained a position among Europe’s top symphonic ensembles. In the studio, the orchestra has worked on recordings for Plácido Domingo and for Ennio Morricone’s Oscar-winning score to director Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight.

Up until around 1900 the clarinet repertoire was dominated by music from the German-speaking lands, largely due to the influence of three outstanding clarinettists. Inspired by Anton Stadler, Heinrich Bärmann and Richard Mühlfeld respectively, Mozart, Weber and Brahms composed some of the finest clarinet works ever written. But especially after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French cultural establishment became increasingly concerned with cultivating a national voice of its own, and Michael Collins’s new release is a reminder of this. The works recorded here all date from the last years of the 19th century and afterwards, and it is striking that four of them (Debussy, Widor, Messager and Rabaud) were written as competition pieces for the Paris Conservatoire – the institution which played such a decisive role in shaping French musical life. But even though they were commissioned for educational purposes there is nothing academic about them: from Debussy’s seductive Rhapsodie to Messager’s light-heartedly brilliant Solo de concours there is instead a definite French – maybe even Parisian – quality to them. This also applies to the Clarinet Sonata by Saint-Saëns, composed in the last year of his life but full of charm and courtly irony. Closing the disc are two works from either end of Francis Poulenc’s life. While the brief Sonata for two clarinets from 1918 is pure and cheeky fun, the 1962 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano is more conflicted emotionally, as indicated by the first movement’s tempo marking Allegro tristamente. Throughout the greater part of the programme, Collins is partnered by Noriko Ogawa, whose pianism has won her particular acclaim in French repertoire, with Sérgio Pires making a guest appearance in Poulenc’s clarinet duo.