Classical
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Haydn: Masses
Urspruch: Complete Piano Works / Markovina
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REVIEW:
Urspruch wrote some memorable and interesting music and really deserves to be heard more often and I am very glad that someone has taken up the mantle of playing his works. Ana-Marija Markovina is more than capable of dealing with the sometimes extreme technical demands which this composer makes of his performer plus she is able to play with a lovely singing tone where required. She can also cope excellently with the rapid changing moods in this music and does not overplay the sometimes amazing technical demands. The superb recorded sound helps the clarity of the notes and the beauty in the music stand out. She clearly enjoys playing these works and always seems to be aware of what the music is about. I should also point out her disc of Hugo Wolf Piano music (on the Genuin label, number 87091) is well worth seeking out – his piano transcription / fantasies on works by Wagner are fascinating! I unreservedly recommend this set to all lovers of virtuoso piano music who also have an interest in the more neglected corners of the repertoire. I really wish that Urspruch had written more solo piano music so that there would be more for Ana Marija-Markovina to record.
– MusicWeb International
Giacinto Scelsi Collection, Vol. 7
RAVEL: SYMPHONIC WORKS
Yon: Complete Organ Works / Teglia
This first complete edition of organ music by Pietro Alessandro Yon represents an important piece in the mosaic of the Italian organ production of the Cecilian generation where Marco Enrico Bossi, Giovanni Tebaldini, Oreste Ravanello, were the main exponents. Pietro Yon, friend of Bossi, was like a career concert artist, and was acclaimed by the masses for the virtuosity and singability of his performances; he made his fortune in America, where he developed his musical talent like his great business skills, never forgetting Italy, which always remained in his heart. The young Bolognese organist Elisa Teglia performs this repertoire on four historical instruments alternating pieces of rare expressiveness with others based on spectacular technicalities, often including popular themes, national anthems and famous melodies, that Pietro Yon used for bewitching the crowds at his extraordinary performances.
This Yool: A Medieval Christmas / Martin Best Ensemble
Thys Yool is a four-part programme of medieval music in which four images central to the Christmas story are brought together. Beginning with a sometimes melancholy picture of earth-bound humanity (Winter and Wassail), the record moves through nativity songs (A Child Is Born) towards the point at which Christian and pagan traditions come together in an adoration of the Virgin which is often expressed in the passionate language of the courtly lover. A sense of human perceptions being profoundly altered by the events of Christmas is evoked in Mary’s Son, Goodwill on Earth and a French 12th century conductus touches on the theme of Rebirth. Thys Yool has been a popular Christmas title in the Nimbus catalogue for many years. The Martin Best Ensemble, led by English singer, lutenist, and guitarist Martin Best, specializes in early music, minstrel songs, and French troubadour traditions.
Rossi: A Jewish Composer In 17th Century Italy / Ensemble La Dafne
Salomone Rossi's output was influenced by more than the events of his times and such a figure as Monteverdi. What makes him different is that he was Jewish by birth and upbringing and was deeply affected by his relations within the Jewish community in Mantua and the age-old music of the chanting of the Old Testament Book of Psalms in the religious ceremonies he would have attended. Echoes of this ancient psalmody can be heard in the profoundly religious feeling of his arias, almost as though Rossi were attempting to keep his distance from a trend - already present in the late 1500s due to social, cultural and aesthetic factors – towards using sacred cantatas as an exercise in baroque vocal extravagance to showcase the skill of the performer rather than inspire religious feeling in the listener.
Shostakovich: Last Three String Quartets / Fitzwilliam String Quartet
The Fitzwilliam String Quartet celebrates a remarkable milestone with this special fiftieth anniversary recording of Shostakovich’s last three string quartets. Fittingly, this landmark recording will look back to the music which first propelled the Fitzwilliam to international prominence. Shostakovich entrusted the Fitzwilliam with the western premieres of his last three quartets (Nos. 13, 14, 15), and before long they had become the first ever group to perform and record all fifteen, winning many international awards along the way. The highly innovative String Quartet No.13 is notable for its unique single-movement form and the virtuosic viola writing, which shines a spotlight on founding member Alan George. No.14, despite its twelve-tone structure, is perhaps the most accessible of Shostakovich’s late quartets with a wealth of identifiable melodies. The six movements of No.15 are profoundly melancholic and intimate, with the composer’s obsession with death a clear influence. The Fitzwilliam’s pre-eminence in the interpretation of these works has persisted: Benjamin Britten reported after Shostakovich’s death in 1975 that the composer had told him the Fitzwilliam were his ‘preferred performers of my quartets’.
Corelli: Opus 2 & 4 - Chamber Sonatas / Beznasiuk, The Avison Ensemble
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REVIEWS:
These performances occupy fresh ground. Beznosiuk and the Avison Ensemble have clearly given much thought and attention to their performances: beautifully understated, and allowing the music to speak for itself.
– Gramophone
The Avison Ensemble captures their essence in graceful, finely controlled performances - by turns lyrical, fleet, playful, imbued with an effortless style that eschews mannerisms and fireworks but rather lets the music speak for itself. The string sound is silky and clean; the ensemble neat and subtly articulated.
– BBC Music Magazine
NON SOLO TANGO
IL VERO OMAGGIO
Attaignant: Harpsichord Works
Sacred Choral Music / Vienna Boys' Choir
The Vienna Boys’ Choir is one of the oldest boys’ choirs in the world and still a living tradition after more than 500 years. Even Haydn sang there and Schubert also commenced his musical career there. Antonio Salieri was a member of the admissions jury. What is captivating about these recordings is, on the one hand, the clarity of the textual and musical declamation and, on the other, a very special authentic charm deriving from the slight Viennese accent. In the performance by the Vienna Boys’ Choir, it is a question not just of perfect pronunciation and intonation, but also of a sensual musical element that is frequently overlooked in Mozart and Haydn, but that is absolutely vital.
Lux / Nidaros Cathedral Girls Choir, Trondheim Soloists
Levina: Chamber Music / Lettberg, Revich, Riemke, Adrion, Tchemberdji
After the great success and Grammy nominated album of Piano Concertos by Russian composer Zara Levina, this recording focuses now on different types of chamber music compositions by the same composer. Again, the Riga-born pianist Maria Lettberg plays the leading part on this recording and shows the high creativity of the unjustified forgotten composer. Zara Alexandrovna Levina, born 1906 in Alexandrovsk (Ukraine), witnessed two world wars, the Revolution as well as the collapse and totalitarian reconstruction of her homeland. She was under the constant ideological pressure of the existentially threatening state censorship, which was particularly exerted by the notorious RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) in the 1920s and 1930s, driving her to the brink of a creative and health disaster. However, Zara Levina was able to retain her own and unmistakable voice in her music. She died in Moscow on 1976 as a respected and much-performed composer beloved of musicians such as David Oistrakh, Maria Grinberg, Victor Knuschewitzki and the public alike.
REVIEW:
Zara Levina’s Piano Concertos made something of an impression when Capriccio brought out its disc in which Maria Lettberg featured prominently, as she does in this latest disc devoted to Levina’s music. Here the focus turns to instrumental and chamber music.
There are two piano sonatas. The first dates from 1925 when she was 19 and is an exercise in ultra-compression; it’s the size of a Scarlatti sonata at rather less than six minutes in length. As is so evident in her concertos she was profoundly influenced by Rachmaninov, and the intensity of the chording reinforces the fact in this taut, descriptive work. Over a quarter of a century later she wrote her second sonata, cast in three conventionally-sized movements. There’s almost childlike innocence in its opening Allegretto, a pellucid sense of generosity too, though the central Andante sees the music deepen in expression that encourages a fiery and passionate Allegro finale. The work progresses from sweetness to purposeful drama by a process of clarification of expressive intensity. Maria Lettberg is the perfect exponent.
In 1928 she wrote a Poème for viola and piano, a sliver of a piece shorter even than the First Piano Sonata. Nevertheless, it manages to convey a rich and refined elegance and allows the viola a brief central panel to muse rhapsodically. The Violin Sonata, a work that predates the Second Piano Sonata by a year, is a piece that combines attractive themes with pellucid writing. The solemn nobility of the central slow movement also sports a beautiful lyric section that swings deliciously before returning to the melancholic tread of the opening paragraphs. The finale, meanwhile, has puckish Prokofiev-like leanings and proves another opportunity for enlivening variation of mood and tone from Levina.
The Three Piano Pieces of 1940—a Wiegenlied, Dance and Toccata—exude light spirits. The first is played with a rich sentiment that almost defeats the chilly acoustic, the second is fulsome and energetic, and the third is a darting, exciting affair with some unusual Iberian-flamenco evocations. The Fantasy on Bashkirian Themes is another six-minute piece, this time for violin and piano dating from 1942. The dancing airs are delicious; there are quirky folkloric elements at work, too, and plenty of virtuosic flourishes for the fiddle. Interesting too, that those Bashkirian themes sound to my ears very like Gershwin and Robert Russell Bennett. Despite the 1943 date the Canzonetta for cello is deft and relaxed. This leaves the Hebrew Rhapsody, a work that occupied her for 25 years, on and off. It was finally completed shortly before her death but written for two hands. Here we hear a four-hand arrangement made by Katia Tchemberdji who joins Lettberg for this 11-minute piece. The music moves, perhaps expectedly given its rhapsodic and ethnic nature, from exuberance to melancholia to fiery drive. It’s really only in this work that Jewish elements are uppermost in her music. There’s no real clue as to why a four-hand version was played instead of the original—perhaps the added density may have something to do with it.
It’s the arranger who has written the pertinent booklet notes. All the performers—I’ve only mentioned Lettberg by name as she appears so often—are excellent and the recordings are, as noted, just a little chilly but very clear. Levina’s music continues to impress. In addition to studio recordings I can’t help wondering what, if anything, has survived in radio archives.
– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)
Saariaho X Koh: Chamber Music with Violin
Jennifer Koh, a “brilliant violinist” (The New Yorker) who performs with “conviction, ferocity, and an irresistible sense of play” (Washington Post), showcases works by Kaija Saariaho, the visionary and influential Finnish composer with whom Koh has closely collaborated and feels a deep personal bond. The album offers the world-premiere recording of Saariaho’s Light and Matter for violin, cello, and piano, inspired by sunlit colors and shadows in a city park outside the composer’s window. Also receiving its first recording is the violin and cello version of Aure, meaning a gentle breeze, created for and dedicated to Koh and cellist Anssi Karttunen, another champion of Saariaho’s music. The album’s largest work is the one that first attracted Koh to the composer: the violin concerto Graal Théâtre, written for Gidon Kremer, which Koh has performed many times and performs here in the composer’s chamber-orchestra version. Grove Music Online notes that the work illustrates “Saariaho’s rich and expansive string style, but places greater emphasis on melody than earlier works.”
Tocar, Spanish for “to touch,” explores the playful and tactile aspects of the word through violin and piano. Cloud Trio for violin, viola, and cello was prompted by shape-shifting clouds in the French Alps. Saariaho X Koh is the violinist’s twelfth Cedille Records album in a discography that includes the Grammy-nominated String Poetic.
QUARTETS & CONCERTOS
FANTASIAS, TOCCATAS & VAR.
Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 & Clarinet Quintet / Campbell, New Zealand String Quartet
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REVIEWS:
There can be no gainsaying that this is a gorgeous performance of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet; and the New Zealand String Quartet’s performance of Brahms’s String Quartet No. 3 is no less compelling.
– Fanfare
Brahms String Quartet Op. 67 is an extraordinary piece and the NZSQ gives it a truly fine performance. An equally magnificent performance of one of Brahms’s late masterpieces, the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115, finds the James Campbell's gorgeous clarinet in perfect balance and in equal partnership with the strings, which is as it should be.
– Musical Toronto
Feico Solo / Deutekom
Introducing Sterling Records
Masaaki Suzuki plays Bach Organ Works, Vol. 2
Before releasing his first disc of Bach’s organ works, Masaaki Suzuki had recorded the composer’s complete sacred cantatas, as well as the large-scale choral works and much of the music for harpsichord. His achievements in these fields obscured the fact that Suzuki originally trained as an organist, and began working as such already at the age of twelve. So when Volume 1 of this series reached reviewers around the world, it was something of a revelation to many: the disc went on to be named Choice of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Diapason d’Or in Diapason and Recording of the Month in Gramophone, which then went on to include it on its list of the ‘50 Greatest Bach Recordings’.
Volume 1 featured the celebrated Schnitger/Hinz organ of Groningen’s Martinikerk in the Netherlands. For this present instalment, Suzuki returned to more familiar ground – the chapel of the Kobe Shoin Women's University where the great majority of his recordings with Bach Collegium Japan have taken place. The chapel houses a French classical organ built in 1983 by Marc Garnier, and on it Suzuki performs a highly symmetrical programme with the large-scale chorale partita BWV 768 at its centre. The work is known as ‘Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig’, although the chorale text that it is structured upon most probably is that of ‘O Jesu, du edle Gabe’. On either side the partita is flanked by an arrangement by Bach of concertos by Vivaldi, and a chorale prelude on ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier’. The disc opens and closes with a Prelude and Fugue, in G major and C major respectively.
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REVIEWS:
Suzuki makes extremely savvy use of his resources; the instrument's almost chamber-music-like clarity and intimacy of the results is most enjoyable. The recorded sound is unusually crisp and clear. Strongly and enthusiastically recommended.
– Fanfare
The life, vitality, affection and fun Suzuki brings to them will ensure they have a lasting place in the annals of Bach organ recordings.
– MusicWeb International
The remarkable harpsichordist/organist/conductor Masaaki Suzuki continues his recordings for BIS with this SACD of organ music of Bach played on the Marc Garnier organ of Shoin Chapel in Kobe, Japan. This is not a large cathedral organ. You won’t hear massive pedal notes, but these are excellent performances, beautifully and naturally recorded.
– Classical CD Review
An Enduring Voice
Bach: Solo Keyboard Music, Vol. 33 / Spanyi
Issued between 1779 and 1787, the six collections of sonatas, rondos, and fantasias “fur Kenner und Liebhaber” constitute Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s largest-scale publishing venture. Aimed at ‘Connaisseurs and Amateurs’, the first collection was a retrospective selection of six sonatas but when this became a commercial success Bach expanded and varied the scheme, adding rondos (a recently popular form) for the second and third collection and, in the final three collections, samples of his free fantasies. On the previous two discs in his acclaimed series, Miklós SpAnyi combined pieces from Collection 1 and 2, performing them on the clavichord (Volume 31) and the tangent piano (Volume 32). For the present disc, SpAnyi has chosen to remain with the tangent piano, an early form of the piano with strings that are struck by small wooden slips (‘tangents’). The basic sound of the instrument is reminiscent of the harpsichord, but this can be modified in a number of ways through the use of various devices. In Collection 3, Bach provided variety by alternating previously composed sonatas with newly written rondos and Miklós SpAnyi adds to this by appending an independent set of variations to the collection. Probably intended for amateur keyboard players, the Canzonetta with 6 Variations was composed in 1781, and described by Bach in the catalogue of his works as ‘Canzonetta by the Duchess of Gotha with my 6 variations’.
Rautavaara: Vigilia / Schweckendiek, Helsinki Chamber Choir
In 1971, Einojuhani Rautavaara was asked to compose a Finnish Orthodox church service, an all-night vigil similar to that of Rachmaninov, comprising Vespers as well as Matins. Soon after the first performance he reshaped the music into what we now know as Vigilia, a concert version forming a musical whole. As his inspiration, Rautavaara has himself described a visit to the Valamo monastery in the middle of Lake Ladoga in 1939: ‘The bells began to ring, low-pitched booms and higher, shrill clinks: the world was filled with sounds and colors…’ The music is marked by dark colors, the heady smell of incense and the crepuscular church lit only by small candles. Divided into two parts, Vespers and Matins, the 70-minute work consists of 34 sections, and features prominent parts for a bass and a tenor soloist, as well as a number of solo voices emerging from the mixed choir. The work is enriched by the constantly changing combinations of choir and soloists, the perspective shifting from the personal to the universal.
It is here performed by the 21-strong Helsinki Chamber Choir, under its artistic director Nils Schweckendiek – a team that has made several recordings for BIS in recent years. These include Riemuitkaamme!, a Christmas album (‘Schweckendiek’s immaculately blended singers make a glorious noise’, The Arts Desk), as well as a two-album survey of the choral works of Finnish modernist Erik Bergman (‘The Helsinki choir produces a radiant sound throughout’, Choir & Organ).
