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Braunfels: String Quintet & Sinfonia Concertante / Schirmer, Munich Radio Orchestra
Walter Braunfels studied law and economics at the university of Munich until, after seeing a performance of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, he decided to shift his focus to music. He went on to study with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna before returning to Munich to study composition with Felix Mottl and Ludwig Thuille. His earliest success came with the opera Die Vogel. With the rise of the Nazis to power, however, he was dismissed from his positions and listed as being half-Jewish. Luckily, the war passed peacefully for his family, he returned to the public eye after the war was over. On this release, the Munchner Rundfunkorchester with violinist Henry Raudales, violist Norbert Merkl, and hornists Karl Reitmayer and Marc Ostertag present Braunfel’s String Quintet in F sharp minor in its version for String Orchestra, and his Sinfonia Concertante op. 68 for violin, viola, 2 horns, and string orchestra. These are world premiere recordings.
Dalasinfoniettan / Blendulf
Auber: La Sirene / Reiland, Orchestre des Frivolites Parisiennes
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REVIEW:
The performances on this premiere recording are modest but engaging and entertaining as well. David Reiland secures bright and breezy playing from his appropriately named Orchestre des Frivolités Parisiennes. Jeanne Crousaud doesn’t quite live up the idealised Siren of the title but sings with charm, as do the two tenors, Xavier Flabat and Jean-Noël Teyssier. The lower men’s voices sing characterfully, as do Les Métaboles, even if some of their contributions get a little lost in the rough-and-tumble.
– Gramophone
Respighi: La Campana Sommersa / Renzetti, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari [Blu-ray]
Also available on standard DVD
The opera La campana sommersa (‘The Sunken Bell’) is Respighi’s operatic masterpiece. A symbolist drama on a supernatural theme, it is steeped in beauty, mystery and foreboding, and orchestrated with the Romantic opulence familiar from his sumptuous trilogy of Roman tone poems. Its triumph at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1928 was repeated at La Scala, Milan, and this most recent production at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, world-renowned for its staging of rarities, was hailed for its ‘brilliant production’ and magnificent performances. Directed by Pier Francesco Maestrini, this production features a lineup of modern opera stars including Valentina Farcas, Maria Luigia Borsi, Agostina Smimmero, Angelo Villari, and more.
Rossini: Ricciardo e Zoraide / Perez-Sierra, Virtuosi Brunesis
It takes place during the Crusades in Dongola in ancient Nubia. The Nubian king Agorante is infatuated with Princess Zoraide, daughter of Ircano, whom Agorante has defeated. Zoraide was captured and the Christian knight Ricciardo, Zoraide’s lover, accompanies an emissary to have her released. Agorante’s wife, Zomira, feels her position as Queen is threatened and arranges that Ricciardo and Zoraide are captured and plots to have them executed. In the end an army of Christians rescues the two lovers.
The story is more complicated than the above summary says, but it is something of a thriller and it should be able to engage an audience – as it obviously did at Bad Wildbad in July 2013, even though it was only a concert performance. This on the other hand means that extraneous noises are reduced to a minimum – only applause after some numbers and at the end of acts.
The sinfonia is brass-laden and gloomy and we understand that this is going to be a sad story. After 3-4 minutes it becomes lighter in tone, march-like for a while, but there is little joy. Some woodwind for a while lighten things up further but a long horn solo spreads more gloom – though the melody is beautiful. In the end the Rossini we know steps forward, faintly smiling, but no crescendo within eyesight, just a jolly piccolo flute … and then: Curtain! There is a brassy intro to the opening chorus with troops and Nubian people – and here some joy creeps in: their leader Agorante has just returned home victorious.
Agorante addresses the people and informs that he has expelled Ircano and his followers because Ircano has denied him the hand of his daughter who, we already know from the summary, happens to be in love with Ricciardo. Thus we are at once involved in the love triangle that is the core of the story.
Agorante then sings a cavatina with high-lying tessitura and virtuoso passages, well-sung by Randall Bills who ends in the bass register. The cabaletta that follows, requires him to climb up in the stratosphere. A man of power he is properly hailed by his soldiers … and the audience.
Enter Zoraide, who is an important character – at the premiere she was sung by Isabella Colbran and we can expect some great things, but she is not quite in focus yet. After some dialogue with her confidante Elmira, the Queen, Zomira arrives. She offers to help Zoraide deal with Agorante’s unwelcome wooing – but her prime aim is to render Zoraide harmless since she believes Zoraide wants to force her off the throne. Zoraide doesn’t trust the Queen and the two women sing a dramatic duet, where the Queen is formidable in her anger (CD 1 tr. 8-10). When Agorante pops up this gives Rossini an opportunity to write a lively and dramatic terzetto, Cruda sorte! (CD 1 tr. 12-13), with a bridal chorus singing a wedding song in the background (the King is very sure he will bring home his new bride!), and here Rossini can’t avoid building up one of his famous crescendos.
There is a change of scenes, and after a proud soldiers’ chorus we finally encounter Ricciardo and his friend Ernesto. They have just arrived on a ship, Ernesto is there to plead to Agorante that he releases Zoraide and Ricciardo, disguised as an African, is acting as his guide. He sings a cavatina where he pours out his longing after Zoraide. Maxim Mironov, certainly one of today’s best bel canto tenors, has a sappy voice, elegant vocalism and marvellous phrasing (CD 1 tr. 16). In the cabaletta, which is filled with stunning coloratura, Ernesto also joins in. After a new change of scenes we meet the jealous Zomira and her confidante Elmira, who is ordered to keep an eye on Zoraide’s every move. In the final scene the tension builds up and Agorante’s decision to start another war creates turmoil, accompanied by martial rumble from the timpani.
We needn’t go into every complication during the second act, but there are some good musical numbers worth pointing out. The first is the duet between Agorante and Ricciardo, the latter still in disguise. Their voices are so different in character that there is no problem to tell them apart. They sing well together, and in the following florid cabaletta Agorante (Bills) excels in brilliant top notes, whereas Ricciardo (Mironov) displays his elegant bel canto (CD 2 tr. 6-7).
They separate and now Ricciardo and Zoraide meet alone for the first time – but they are secretly observed by Elmira! Their duet (CD 3 tr. 2-3) is one of the highlights of the score. The final note, taken fortissimo, causes furore in the audience. I would have preferred it much more lyrical. Before Ricciardo has been able to explain his plan to run away with his beloved, Agorante suddenly appears, and when Ircano, Zoraida’s father also unexpectedly appears, this gives room for a quartet, where Nahuel Di Pierro powerful black bass in the role of Ircano gives dramatic depth to the music.
In the next scene the vengeful Zomira has a big scene (CD 3 tr. 7-8). Musically it is excellent and Silvia Beltrami’s powerful and expressive voice – more contralto than mezzo-soprano – is certainly in phase with the character. A pity that her vibrato sometimes is a bit wider than one could wish, but it is a dramatic highpoint.
The final scene begins with plaintive sounds in the orchestra. Ricciardo and Zoraide are now certain they will be executed, and Zoraide, expresses her desperation in her grand scena. Alessandra Marianelli musters some really intensive singing here. But their rescue is imminent. Like a deus ex machina Ernesto arrives with his troops and disperses Agorante’s soldiers. He disarms Agorante, but Ricciardo prevents him from killing the King and gives his sword back to him. Moved by such chivalry Ircano grants Ricciardo the hand of Zoraide. Everybody, except Zomira, rejoices at this happy end!
Though not one of Rossini’s greatest operas, it still has a lot to offer. The singing on this issue is generally good and Maxim Mironov adds another great achievement to his CV as recording artist. The recorded sound is worthy of the occasion, and there is an interesting essay and a comprehensive synopsis. Rossinians shouldn’t miss this.
– MusicWeb International (Göran Forsling)
Reznicek: Benzin / Beermann, Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie
Strange but true: Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek’s opera Benzin set to his own libretto freely adapting Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s "El mayor encanto amor" collected dust for more than eighty years and first found its way from his music cabinet to the stage when it came to the attention of the Chemnitz Theater. It was here that the opera, now finally being released as a recording, celebrated its premiere on 28 November 2010. A closer examination of the opera reveals that there is much more to it than a lighthearted operetta; here we have a farcical, fantastic drama à la E. T. A. Hoffmann in which grotesque exaggeration renders tolerable the depths and perils of human existence. Dance forms pervade the music, contributing to the characterization of the social class depicted in the plot of the opera while also offering an overview of the “light tone” intended by Reznicek for this work; polonaise, foxtrot, Boston lente, and Tempo di Valse numbers occur along with a tango and a Galop presto. The tonal arsenal is fully equipped and implemented, which of course means propeller noise, sirens, and hammering on an anvil creating an authentic airport atmosphere.
Wolf: Passionoratorium / Willens, Cologne Academy
Ernst Wilhelm Wolf’s contemporaries called him the “Weimar Wolf,” a fitting label, inasmuch as Weimar’s musical environment greatly influenced the life of this teacher, concertmaster, and organist who advanced to the post of chapel master to Duchess Anna Amalia, a noted patron of the arts. Even though he was a thorn in the flesh for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany’s prince of poets, he remained true to the court and his duchess over the decades. He even declined with thanks an offer from the King of Prussia, Frederick II, to succeed Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin. However, the fact that Wolf highly valued Bach’s empfindsamer Stil and the style of the Berlin chapel master Carl Heinrich Graun is clearly audible in his works. During recent years Wolf’s instrumental music has attracted increasing attention. Now Michael Alexander Willens has recorded Wolf’s oratorio Jesu, deine Passion will ich jetzt bedenken. In this work, like Graun in his Tod Jesu, the composer, who in 1756 was only a little over twenty, reflects on the Passion of Christ and relives it with deep emotion. An absolute masterpiece from the age of musical sensibility with arias of great melodic appeal that are guaranteed to leave no heart unmoved!
Glinka: Septet, Trio Pathetique, Serenade & 3 Russian Songs / Consortium Classicum
Mikhail Glinka, the founder of Russian national opera composition and Russian symphonic music, is known internationally above all for his operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila and his orchestral work Kamarinskaya. His chamber oeuvre is little known outside Russia and – apart from piano music and songs with piano – is limited to a few works. The complete edition of Glinka’s works edited in the Soviet Union contains a mere eight chamber compositions. The form of Glinka’s Septet is modeled above all on the symphonies of Viennese classicism; for its themes, however, he draws on the folk melodies with which he had been familiar since his childhood, thereby combining Western tradition with Russian melodic designs. His Trio pathétique and the Serenata distinguished by great virtuosity and colorfulness are played without breaks between the four movements. The Three Russian Songs heard on the present recording form a group created by the composer Eduard Hermann during the 1880s. He employed songs with piano accompaniment by Glinka and arranged them for a piano trio.
Rossini: Adelaide di Borgogna / Acocella, Gritskova, Sadovnikova, Virtuosi Brunensis
Set in medieval Italy, Rossini’s rarely performed Adelaide di Borgogna is based on dramatic historical events that led to Otto the Great (Ottone) of Germany conquering the Kingdom of Italy. Despite its political and warlike subject, Adelaide di Borgogna is full of beautiful music, Rossini using lyrical moments to emphasize emotions and express the triable of passionate love and rivalry between Adelaide, Ottone and Adelberto. Adelaide is bel canto in its purest form and was held in high regard by its composer, who recycled music of it in his subsequent operas. This performance was recorded live at the Trinkhalle, Bad Wildbad, Germany, in July of 2014 for the XXVI Rossini In Wildbad Festival (Artistic Director: Jochen Schoenleber).
Ries: Chamber Music / Franz Ensemble
Ferdinand Ries must have made a strong impression as a pianist. Beethoven, a gifted pianist in his own right, even entrusted the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 to Ries. The two had known each other since their days together in Bonn, when Ries’s parents took the half-orphan Ludwig into their family. Ries was Beethoven’s right-hand man in Vienna, and what he learned from his great model, who was fourteen years his senior, is impressively demonstrated by the Franz Ensemble on its debut album: brilliant virtuosity meets Classical form, and tradition appears in new guise – for a very special anticipation of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth! Ries delights in experimentation in his Sextet and surprises us with his original instrumental combinations. The solo piano is joined by the harp, which also has to rise to the highest challenges, while the clarinet, horn, and bassoon form an accompaniment of orchestral character over the double bass foundation. The pianist also has the opportunity to shine as a soloist in the Octet- which amounts to a piano concerto en miniature. It recalls Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5. Unknown music in unusual combinations- that is the specialty of the Franz Ensemble. The young musicians around the clarinetist Maximilian Krome are not afraid to test new material.
CLARINET CHAMBER MUSIC
Jane Eyre [2 CDs]
Bellini: Bianca e Gernando / Fogliani, Poznan Camerata Bach Choir, Virtuosi Brunensis
Vincenzo Bellini was among the most important Italian opera composers of the early 19th century, and the quintessential representative of its bel canto tradition. Despite his enduring renown, his official operatic debut Bianca e Gernando was known only in its revised version of Bianca e Fernando until this rediscovery and revival at Bad Wildbad in July 2016. Set in the ducal palace of Agrigento and with its tale of secretive plots and triumph over tyranny, this original version of the opera presents both unknown music and significant differences from the revised version, giving its dramatic shape a distinctive new character.
Sibelius: Kullervo / Lintu, Finnish Radio Symphony
The work tells the story of Kullervo, a tragic hero drawn from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. While a student in Vienna, Sibelius started planning to write a large work that would crystallize the rising Finnish national feeling in music. It was in the cosmopolitan surroundings of Vienna where Sibelius finally discovered the Finnish sound for his orchestral works to follow. Until that moment the art music of his country, even works based on folklore characters such as found in the Kalevala poetry, had been largely influenced and dominated by German Romanticism. For his work Sibelius drew inspiration from traditional Finnish folk music and by studying the Kalevala epic on his own. From the 50 songs of the Kalevala, Sibelius chose passages from the most tragic sections of the work telling the story of Kullervo, an ill-fated young man. With the premiere of this work in Helsinki in 1892, Sibelius became a national hero – and also won the favour of his future father-in-law. Although the work was not performed never again in Sibelius’ lifetime after the following year, the work was a milestone for Sibelius himself in his development as a composer and a symphonist. It was the composer’s first serious attempt in composing a large-scale orchestral work. Kullervo is work by a young composer filled with inspiration, ideas, and drama.
Conductor Hannu Lintu recently won the Gramophone Award and ICMA Award for his recording of the Bartók Violin Concertos together with Christian Tetzlaff and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Fiorentino plays Liszt
Loeillet: 6 Suits of Lessons for Harpsichord or Spinet / Chiarizia
“With this album we wanted to fill the lack of recordings devoted to the Belgian XVIII Century keyboard repertoire. Belgian music, taking inspiration from the French style, is likewise significant from the musicological point of view.” (Luigi Chiarizia) Luigi Chiarizia, harpsichordist, organist and composer, was born into a family of artists and began to study music at the age of six. He was able to learn from his impressive teachers while at the same time maintaining his own personal musical style and interpretation. He graduated with honors in organ and organ composition at the Pescara Conservatory of music and by the age of nineteen he debuted for I Solisti Aquilani and at twenty five he had already appeared in over eighty concerts. He has studied at the l’Università di Paleografia e Filologia Musicale and, after a few years had won a bursary to study at Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena. He continued to hone his skills with Christophe Rousset and, later on, with Leonhardt, Tagliavini, Stembridge and Baiano. He was organist at S. Agata in Cremona and subsequently in S. Stefano in Tesserete (Ticino). He is the author of twenty transcriptions, an anthology of music composition, and eight books of compositions.
MADAME SCHUMANN
Kraus: Amphitryon; Cantatas; Symphonies; Chamber Music
Joseph Martin Kraus, also named as the "Swedish Mozart", has been many years a shadowy existence in music history. Gluck and even Joseph Haydn saw "a real genius" in his virtuosic and nearly early-romantic works. His position as composer at the Swedish court under Gustav III made it possible to have a fixed income and a blithe creativity. This new release gives us an overall musical impression of his compositions in all genres: Beginning with the incidental music to Amphitryon, the high virtuosic Italian Cantatas, his Symphonies from different life periods, till the early String Quartets- it is clear that Gluck and Haydn were not mistaken in their assessment of his skill and prowess.
Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia / Lingas, Cappella Romana [CD + Blu-ray Audio]
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REVIEW:
In the winter of 2010, Ms. Bissera Pentcheva obtained permission to enter what was then the Hagia Sophia museum at dawn, capturing four balloon pops and a wealth of acoustic detail.
The balloon noises, along with maps of the interior, enabled identification of the acoustic fingerprint of the building, including the multidirectional refraction of sound as it bounces off the dome and marble colonnades. Computer simulations were then integrated into a set of microphones and speakers.
Thus the members of Cappella Romana, a vocal ensemble based in Portland, Ore., specializing in Byzantine chant, recorded “The Lost Voices” in an offsite space that persuasively mimicked the acoustics of Hagia Sophia — with its luscious reverberation, cross echoes, and amplification of particular frequencies.
In Byzantine cathedral chant, reverberation was key to invoking the divine presence. She pointed to the exuberant amount of melisma in the repertory, where a single syllable is stretched over multiple notes. In the liquid acoustics of Hagia Sophia, words sung in this way blur.
The recording provides a glimpse of that experience. Phrases chanted in unison leave a ghostly imprint. Rhythmic shudders and grace notes set off blurry squiggles of overlapping echoes. Chords unfurl in reverberant bloom.
– New York Times (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim)
RESONANZ
Rodrigo: Guitar Works, Vol. 3 / Kaya, Gedigian
Joaquín Rodrigo, composer of the renowned Concierto de Aranjuez(Naxos 8.579053), is acknowledged as one of the great Spanish composers of the 20th century. His music extends the Romantic Impressionist tradition of Albéniz, Granados and Falla, and is inspired by the French style and color Rodrigo experienced during his studies in Paris. From the thrilling and virtuosic Elogio de la guitarra to his swan song in the Dos pequeñas fantasías, Rodrigos guitar music explores the Spanish nature of the instrument and blends tradition with innovation. Always filled with variety, contrast and compelling atmosphere, his oeuvre is now appreciated as one of the central pillars of the entire guitar repertoire. Since his concert debut at the age of six, Turkish American guitarist and composer Celil Refik Kaya has received many high accolades. He was the youngest contestant to win First Prize in the 2012 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, and is a prizewinner of international guitar competitions across Europe and the US. In 2017 he was named Rising Young Musician of the Year by the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul and awarded a prestigious fellowship from Harvard Universitys Dumbarton Oaks. Kayas first recording, Jorge Morels Guitar Music was critically acclaimed by American Record Guide.
Telemann: Moralische Cantaten / Eckert, Schachtner, Hamburger Ratsmusik
The Hamburger Ratsmusik – an ensemble looking back on a five-hundred-year history – teams up with the young countertenor Benno Schachtner on this recording of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Six Moral Cantatas. During the decades between 1720 and 1750 the middle class of the early Enlightenment sought moral education and ethical improvement deriving from human nature and reason as part of its never-ending quest for earthly happiness. It was with wit and charm that in his Moral Cantatas of 1735 Telemann set to music a poetic document conveying the spirit of this Enlightenment period. His only recently rediscovered Fantasies for Solo Viola da Gamba, published at the same time, are presented here in alternation with his Moral Cantatas, the title with which they were announced in a catalogue dating from August 1735. These two collections first performed together during a concert of the Hamburger Ratsmusik at the last Telemann Festival are now being presented here for the first time. These two works by Telemann were intended for professional and amateur musicians alike, and they seem to have met with special resonance among those interested parties who wanted to perform at home in smaller ensembles.
Wer Ist Der, So Von Edom Kommt - Passions-Pasticcio / Concerto Vocale, Sachsisches Barockorchester Leipzig
This month we are happy to present to you a great Passion oratorio that Johann Sebastian Bach in all likelihood pieced together for his last Passion service. He took a work by Carl Heinrich Graun, a composer whom he admired, and expanded it to produce a magnificent two-part Passion. To it he added compositions of his own authorship and others by his friend Georg Philipp Telemann. The result was a pasticcio, a new work consisting of set pieces. This practice was very common during Bach’s times. Both composers on whose works Bach drew were contemporary stars who did not at all object to this practice, especially since they occasionally operated in precisely the same way. The composer Georg Philipp Telemann saw no reason to complain about the reuse of his works. Although we do have quite a bit of background information about the Passion, the riddle surrounding it is only beginning to be solved. Accordingly, Bach scholarship can only hope that additional sources will be found and prove Johann Sebastian Bach’s authorship once and for all. The work perhaps even offers evidence pointing to one of his lost Passions, and it might even be his last Passion oratorio – which, as the current state of research knowledge sees things – can only have been written during the years following 1733.
Vivaldi x2 / Chandler, La Serenissima
REVIEWS:
The Vivaldi recordings by Adrian Chandler and his British period instrument ensemble La Serenissima, named after the nickname of the Venetian Republic and specializing in its music, are breaking new ground. Give this one a try if you haven’t heard the group before: it’s wonderful.
– All Music Guide (James Manheim)
These musicians represent one heck of a crack team when it comes to the music of Vivaldi. Bravissima, La Serenissima.
– Gramophone
