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Louis Wayne Ballard was the first indigenous North American composer of art music and a highly respected authority on his culture’s musical heritage. Conductor John Jeter and the Forth Smith Symphony continue their Naxos journey of rediscovering neglected American composers in a program of world premiere recordings.

REVIEW:

The conductor John Jeter could be categorized as an angelic force for overlooked American music. Here, he and his Fort Smith Symphony are back for an invaluable hour in the company of the Native American composer Louis Wayne Ballard, whose music has yet to receive substantial interest from record labels.

The first three movements from “Scenes From Indian Life,” written in 1963, have an unassuming playfulness. (The fourth movement, appended in 1994, takes on a graver cast.) But the longer pieces are even more impressive. Selections from Ballard’s ballet “The Four Moons” could pair well with Bernstein’s “Fancy Free” suite. The tone-poem writing of Ballard’s Fantasy Aborigine No. 3, “Kokopelli” could lend an American air to an orchestral program featuring music by Strauss.

The singing wind, brass, and string lines threaded throughout his “Devil’s Promenande” are captivating, too. While the playing here is persuasive as per usual, I also came away from this album hoping to hear Ballard’s music taken up by orchestras far and wide.

-- New York Times (Seth Colter Walls)

This is the first ever complete recording of German composer Nicolaus Bruhns’ organ works. Bruhns, Scheidemann and Flor were the prominent figures of the 17th century German music. During this period Schleswig-Holstein in the northern part of Germany was the center of musical life. The recording took place in Eckernförde and Husum, Germany where Bruhns lived and worked. Organist Sven-Ingvart Mikkelsen graduated from the conservatory in Esberg and further studied in Paris and Vienna. His teachers include Marie-Claire Alain, André Isoir and Michael Radulescu.

This is the fourth release (two more to come) of N.W. Gade’s Cantata Series. Earlier releases (KPT 32070 “Elverskud”, KPT 32072 “Kalanus”, KPT 32148“Zion, Die Heilige Nacht, Gefion”) have been received with enormous interest throughout the world and generated quite an excitement around this composer who has unjustly been placed more or less in the shadow of Carl Nielsen. “Comala” is Gade’s first attempt in his orchestra/chorus works which he called “Concert Pieces” composed in 1846 in Leipzig where he was taken under the wing of Mendelssohn whose post at the Gewandhaus Gade succeeded eventually.

The fact that all of their concerts are sold out as soon as they are announced is a proof of Collegium Musicum’s enormous popularity in Denmark. It is an orchestra consists of principal instrumentalists of major symphony orchestras throughout the country including flutist Toke Lund Christiansen and his colleagues in the wind section here. This complete collection of flute chamber music by Ibert is the first and only release available presently.

The increasingly popular Nielsen symphony series reached its fifth volume here including two pieces for string orchestra: Andante Tranquillo and Scherzo which are premier recordings. Earlier releases received a number of favourable reviews: KPT 321771 “...one of the most interesting interpretations available in the market now...the orchestra presentation is absolutely impeccable...” (The Jutland Post) KPT 32178 “...The Odense orchestra play with sensitivity and a total commitment throughout...” (The Gramophone)

Ibert, Nielsen, Jolivet: Concertos For Flute And Orchestra

Famous Classics, Volume 3

Ib Nørholm’s Symphony No. 2 “Isola Bella” was first performed in 1972 by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. It has since been considered as of paramount importance among Nørholm’s symphonic works. Odense Symphony Orchestra and the chief conductor Edward Serov gave their superb rendition of this ambitious work inspired by the intriguing scenery on an island in the Italian lake Lago Maggiore for the Kontrapunkt’s Nørholm Symphony series.

After their explorations of Italian repertoire in Che fai t�? (MU-037) and French in Vous avez dit brunettes? (Alpha 761), Les Kapsber'girls, a vocal and instrumental ensemble founded by lutenist Albane Imbs in 2015, devotes it's third album to Baroque women composers: hidden talents, unrevealed destinies, few of these composers have had the opportunity to reveal their art, which is nevertheless very real. Recent research has made it possible to revive the fascinating works of composers such as Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), Lucia Quinciani (1566-1611), Francesca Caccini (1587-1641), Antonia Bembo (c.1643-1715), and Francesca Campana (c.1615-c.1665), who spent sixty-nine years of her life in an Ursuline convent in Novara, although this did not prevent her from composing no fewer than two hundred works!

"Merit[s] hearty recommendation." -- Textura

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Naxos’s exploration of the works of Florence Price continues with this album of music for string quartet. Price and Leo Sowerby were contemporaries in the Chicago music community of the 1930s and 1940s, and they are known to have respected each other’s works. Sowerby’s String Quartet in G minor is a world premiere recording. Performed by the Avalon String Quartet – one of America’s leading chamber music ensembles.

Claudio Santoro’s remarkable final decade, in which he allied more traditional and eclectic styles to his earlier experiments. Both the Concerto Grosso and the Three Fragments on BACH were written for student orchestras, but are nonetheless substantial pieces which show his command of writing for strings. The Eleventh Symphony is one of the densest and most dramatic of the cycle, its finale exploding into an evocation of the opening of Brahms’ First Symphony, while the Twelfth Symphony is an unusual ‘sinfonia concertante’ for nine soloists and orchestra.

REVIEW:

I am enjoying getting to know some of this music in ‘The Music of Brazil’ series from Naxos. Santoro’s works have already featured and here we have a further pairing of two of his later symphonies (of a total of 14). They are complemented here by Concerto grosso for string quartet and Three fragments on BACH. Three of the four works here are world premiere recordings. Some of the music features some beautifully percussive ‘Latin’ orchestration and rhythm whilst there is also much that is reminiscent of Soviet traditions of the early/ mid twentieth century. The whole CD makes for enjoyable, interesting listening.

-- Lark Reviews

Complete Works For Organ

Following a fruitful first collaboration for Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 22 and 24, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Les Violons du Roy and Jonathan Cohen return this time with Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 23. The works on this recording were composed by Mozart between 1783 and 1786, when the musician was approaching an important personal and professional turning point. First, the Concerto in A major, K. 488, was completed on March 2, 1786, two months before the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, a work that marks Mozart's return to opera. While Concerto K. 466 is, with Concerto No. 24, the only one by Mozart in the minor mode, that also coincides with the arrival of his son Karl. The performance of the soloist and of the orchestra complement each other marvellously in these two masterpieces whose contrasts respond to each other magnificently.

Trios For Flute, Cello And Pia

Complete String Quartets

Complete Works For Violin And

Kontrapunkt has been devoting large part of its catalogue to Danish composers known as well as less known to the international audiences. P. E. Lange-Müller (1850-1926) was one of the leading late Romantic composers whose main part of works were songs and state music. Though the list of chamber music is relatively short, they are true gems. Albumsblade for string quartet is a recent discovery and is world premier recording.

Clarinet Sonatas

Symphony 7, Symphony 9

Symphonic Works

Complete Works For Choir A Cap

Piano Trios

Harpsichord Music

Danish Golden Age

The Violin Sonatas