The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

Traditional folk music elevated to high art: that theme binds the unique coupling of Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s latest release of the Violin Concertos by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and Soviet-Armenian Aram Khachaturian. The multi-faceted young American Teddy Abrams conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, making for a truly international collaboration. “There are few more interesting violinists on the worldwide scene than Rachel Barton Pine; she is continuously giving us interesting and well-researched and thought-out concept albums that stimulate the imagination, reinvigorate the ears, and put wrinkles in the brain with their intellectual depth.” (Audiophile Audition)

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REVIEW:

Barton Pine's fusion of rock-solid yet scintillating technique is allied to brilliant musicianship as well as intelligent and stimulating programming. The quality of her playing is as fine as ever and she performs with all her usual authority and skill.

– MusicWeb International

The Amatis were Cremonese violin makers universally recognized as those who perfected the morphology of the violin by defining the form considered “classic” today. They worked in Cremona for 300 years from the first half of the 16th Century until the end of the 17th Century. In particular the head of the family, Andrea Amati, and his sons Antonio and Girolamo, brought about an actual revolution in construction and form that contributed in a predominant way to attributing the violin a real soloistic role. But what music were these instruments built for? Which composers? What use of violins considering that the orchestra as we know it today was a long time in coming? With this release, the ensemble hope to contribute to bringing to light many still obscure aspects tied to violin repertory of Lombardy during the 1500’s and 1600’s. They believe that only through meticulous research of the repertory and its execution with historically informed performance practice will it be possible to correctly frame Andrea Amati and his sons, rediscovering, in addition to their renowned exceptional qualities as craftsmen, their influence and their innovative contribution to music history and to the emancipation of the soloistic instrument.

The Brook Street Band has produced attractive recordings of Handel’s chamber music for Avie, and this newcomer is no exception. There are nine Handel violin sonatas, theoretically, and all of them are included here. Of course, with Handel you never really know. Five sonatas exist in verifiable manuscripts, four were printed without any demonstrable input from the composer, and all of them may well use music by others, as was Handel’s wont. But none of it matters because, as Tovey perspicaciously observed, every note added by Handel annihilates the rest.

The first sonata (in G, HWV158) dates from Handel’s days in Italy, and it’s the only work in three movements. I was a bit worried here because in the central slow movement violinist Rachel Harris adopts a “period instrument tone” that has soft, sustained notes on the verge of disappearing entirely. Of course, a decent vibrato would have helped, but as the saying goes, if the basic timbre is unattractive that’s like trying to put lipstick on a pig. Happily, once past the Sonata in G, Harris shows that her sound in sustained music, while slender, is mellow, touching, and sensitively varied.

The remaining sonatas are all in “church” style, that is four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast(ish). Three are in minor keys, smartly dispersed within the broadly chronological ordering of the set, and they provide welcome contrast to the general predominance of charm and cheer. Of course, all of the music is charming, with an abundance of melody that suggests, as the booklet notes state, that Handel’s authorship even in the four doubtful works is more likely than not. If eighty minutes of less than familiar Handel, elegantly presented and naturally recorded sounds appealing, then by all means give this disc serious consideration.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

The magnificent Graz premiere of Joseph Marx’s Herbstsymphonie (Autumn Symphony) was held on 28 September 1922 under the expert conductor and sound specialist Clemens Krauss. It was a great triumph for Marx, and when Krauss selected this work for a concert program in Vienna in late May of the following year, the public went wild. The Herbstsymphonie is not so much a symphony in the traditional sense as a multimovement rhapsody of massive proportions, both in view of its huge orchestral dimensions and its performance length. For this reason this gigantic composition ranks as one of music history’s most lavishly instrumented works. Until now Joseph Marx has been known primarily as a composer of songs and chamber music. However, already in 1911 he had composed the sumptuously designed cantata Herbstchor an Pan (Autumn Chorus to Pan), a work that also in its choice of theme may be said to herald the coming of the Herbstsymphonie.

Antonio Roseltti spent the most productive years of his life in two rural residential capitals in southern and norther Germany, far removed from the centres of contemporary musical life. Yet the poet-composer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubert and the well-travelled English musical savant Charles Burney numbered him among the mos timportant and beloved composers of his day, the latter even placing him on a par wtih Haydn and mozart. Not only do the many known performances of his music prove that it was indeed popular and widely disseminated in his day, his success is also reflected in the fact that more than half o fhis output was issued in print by renowned publishers until well into the late 1790s. The piano has been the center of Natasa Veljkovic's life ever since she was four years old. After studies with her ''musical father'', Prof. Arobo Valdma, in Belfrade, she was accepted to Prof. Paul Badura-Skoda's class at the Vienna University of Music at the age of fourteen. She has earned many distinctions and awards throughout her career and regularly perofrms throughout Europe.

Shortly after the Nazis had seized power, Paul Frankenburger, like many other Jewish composers, left Germany for Palestine, which was then under British administration. In Palestine he resumed his creative work with Ben-Haim as his Hebrew name. He became one of the pioneers of classical music in Israel, both as a composer and as an admired composition teacher. His Concerto Grosso, his first work for symphony orchestra, is embedded in the spiritual and technical sound world of German late romanticism and French impressionism and related to the Baroque concerto grosso only insofar as it contains numerous solos and homogeneous orchestral segments. Ben-Haim concluded the score of his Symphony No. 2, his longest orchestral work, in October 1945. This work adheres to the four-movement structure of classical and romantic music. The autographic score has an epigraph by the Israeli poet Shin Shalom: "Awake with the morning, O my soul, on the summit of Carmel over the sea." It indicates the hopeful, optimistic mood prevailing throughout most of the symphony. The conductor Israel Yinon (who unfortunately died in 2015) is once again our skillful guide through this second Ben-Haim production.

Our new complete recording of the organ works of Johann Pachelbel, the most important composer of the Southern German organ tradition, concludes with a total of three albums – all of them once again in SS and with first-class organists performing on selected organs. Our three protagonists, Michael Belotti, Christian Schmitt, and James David Christie, have produced enthralling recordings on which they demonstrate their expertise in performances on outstanding historical instruments. This final volume of our complete edition adheres to the same policy as Vols. 1 and 2: it too is based on the new collection and edition of the composer’s extant oeuvre. The order of the works on the recordings initially follows that of the chorale arrangements in the edition, which results in programs with the following thematic emphases: Passions, Psalm Settings, and Chorale Partitas. The new recording invites all listeners to rediscover the mastery and versatility of the keyboard composer Pachelbel. Toccata wrote of Vol. 1 of the edition: “Here everything is in order: very good interpretations on appropriate instruments, with an informative booklet in which we also find descriptions and the disposition of the organs played as well as information about the registration of each individual work. The project has what it takes to become one of the most important of this time.”

Since 2017 Golo Berg has been the general music director of the Munster Symphony Orchestra, which was founded by the composer Fritz Volbach in 1919. It was only logical that Berg would also occupy himself with the composer around this centennial year, and Volbach turned out to be a significant personality both as a musicologist and as a composer. Berg and cpo both were surprised by the originality and high quality of these works. During the first decade of the twentieth century Volbach’s name continued to be thoroughly familiar to people who were interested in music; his works were regularly included in programs, but then they were forgotten somewhat. Volbach’s most popular works included the Symphonic Poem “Es waren zwei Konigskinder” based on the famous folk ballad of the same name. Like Richard Strauss in Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Volbach drew on this universally familiar material of folk character in response to the turn-of-the-century predilection for German tales and sagas. He attached great importance to clear structure and an intelligible musical realization, so that the story of the two enamored but unlucky royal children can be imagined without difficulty. The subsequently composed Symphony in B minor formed the crowning conclusion of Volbach’s instrumental music for orchestral ensembles. It represents, so to speak, the “royal category” at the end of his development inasmuch as his aim in this form was to demonstrate his true mastery as a composer.

Published in Paris in 1768, the Sei Sonate, Op. 5 (G 25-30), are Boccherini's first compositions for keyboard, probably inspired by the playing of their dedicatee Mme. Brillon de Jouy, who Charles Burney considered to be one of the greatest keyboard players in Europe at that time. Boccherini met her while staying in Paris in 1767-1768 (from whence he had intended to go to London). This intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin Owned several harpsichords and 'new' pianos, including one sent from London by Johann Christian Bach, similar to the square piano made by Frederick Beck recorded here. Violinist Liana Mosca began studying her instrument at the Suzuki Talent Center in Turin. She received her degree at the Milan Conservatory, and began winning international competitions in 1987. She has recorded for several labels, and currently teaches at the Accademia Suzuki in Turin and is a Teacher Trainer with the Italian Suzuki Institute.

César Franck’s great Violin Sonata in A, arranged for piano by Alfred Cortot, forms the focus on our new solo album featuring the gifted and successful pianist Michael Korstick. “The version without disturbing scratching noises does indeed have its appeal,” Korstick ironically opines and then explains, “I know that I’m now making myself extremely unpopular with all violinists, but some things come across even better in the version for piano alone. One doesn’t miss the violin.” This is of course a controversial statement, especially since it refers to the embodiment of the sensuous romantic violin sonata. “The fact is that Franck almost always thinks starting from the organ,” thus Korstick’s argument continues, “and Cortot so genially distributed the voices of the octaves that the polyphonic structure becomes clearer.” The audience at its premiere in Paris in 1885 was immediately enthused, and most pianists continue to be so even today. Michael Korstick regards this work as Franck’s “most important, central solo piece,” and the Franck expert Jörg Demus views the Prélude, Aria et Final as one of the few “lucid” compositions of the late romantic period and pardons it for its difficulty in playing technique: “But what do difficulties mean when the emotional content compensates one for it in such a rich way!”

When the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra goes to the studio, it is working on all the key features. This was the case with the symphonies of Joseph Bohuslav Foerster, and so it is with the latest product: Two viola and a flute concerto by Osnabrück composer Christian Westerhoff are immortalized. The orchestra thus ends with a recording of a symphony, a clarinet and a double concerto by Westerhoff, which has been recorded by Hermann Bäumer. Westerhoff was born in 1763, and was a real contendor of his time: no Mozart, no Haydn, no Beethoven, but certainly a composer who composed serious music. The viola concertos No. 1 in G major and No. 3 in C major sound lively and fresh - it is a pleasure to listen to the orchestra under Andreas Hotz. The two soloists have also played a decisive role in this: Barbara Buntrock plays the Solopart in the viola concertos, and the same applies to Gaby Pas-Van Riet as a soloist in the Flötenkonzert.

Rossini’s Eduardo e Cristina was a huge success in its day, but as perhaps the last centone opera (one assembled from previously existing material) by a major composer, it became forgotten under the subsequent tide of Romantic idealism. Today we can put these prejudices aside and enjoy this masterful creation for what it is: a hugely entertaining parade of beautiful and spectacular musical ‘hits’ set to a familiar story of secret love, dramatic crisis and triumphant resolution. This 2017 Bad Wildbad revival was summed up as “an evening of pure bel canto pleasure!” by Operagazet.

Alfred Cellier was a contemporary of Arthur Sullivan as a Chapel Royal chorister, and would later conduct several Gilbert and Sullivan productions. With its rural tale of disguise and romantic scheming, its jaunty tunes, lively characters and farcical comedy, Cellier’s light opera, Dorothy, has been almost entirely forgotten today. It had the longest run of any 19th-century piece of musical theatre, seeing off The Mikado and Ruddigore, and became such a popular hit in its day that the box office profits were able to fund the building of the Lyric Theatre on London’s Shaftsbury Avenue. The work is receiving on this release its world premiere recording, presented by The Victorian Opera.

Jozef de Beenhouwer offers Clara Schumann and listening audiences a special gift on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of her birth: an album including numerous recording premieres from this famous pianist's extensive transcription oeuvre. He not only honors her compositional talent but also spotlights works with which she very deliberately and intensively occupied herself - and in the process very attractively nuances our picture of the musical Schumann family. The focus is formed by selected songs by Robert Schumann. Thirty transcriptions in all were published during Clara's lifetime, and eleven others were discovered and edited only a few years ago. de Beenhouwer's choices drawing on both sources impressively demonstrate how skillfully Clara integrated the voice part into Robert's piano parts, which often are quite complicated. Clara also transferred Robert's Studies and Sketches for the Pedal Piano to the piano. The pieces are for hands with an enormous span and flexibility- and attest to her outstanding pianistic capabilities. Johannes Brahms of course also has something to contribute to this meritorious program: the minuet from the Serenade in D major and the scherzo from the- almost unplayable- arrangement of the Serenade in A major shed light on Clara's intimate artistic friendship with this younger composer.

This brand new album for the very first time brings together the complete songs of Clara Schumann in the original key - a long-overdue present for the two hundredth anniversary of her birth! Why is this collection so compelling and vibrant? Because all the songs are heard in the original keys and in each case fittingly performed by a female or male voice. Miriam Alexandra and Peter Gijsbertsen of course contribute their share here, while Jozef de Beenhouwer's experienced and sovereign piano accompaniment shows them in the very best light. Clara Schumann enjoyed international fame as a pianist and continued to concertize with great success throughout Europe even when she was the mother of a growing brood of children, a housewife, and her husband Robert's assistant. She revealed her compositional talent while she was still a young girl- as the twelve-year-old's "Der Wanderer" and "Der Wanderer in der Sagemuhle" demonstrate. Later Robert Schumann encouraged his beloved wife to compose new works and even published joint collections of their songs- a very unusual practice during a time when people at most turned up their noses at compositions by women. Clara reached one high point in her vocal oeuvre with the Jucunde songs. The demanding piano part reveals the keyboard virtuoso- but not without offering the singer sufficient room for the luscious design of this music radiating charm, mirth, and joie de vivre. Robert was especially fond of her last song based on Goethe's "Veilchen," even though it had to vie with Mozart's setting.

With the present release the gifted Belgian Quatuor Danel ensemble turn to two masterpieces by Cesar Franck: his passionate Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. The three-movement Quintet, like Brahms’s op. 34 an expansion of the Schumannian model, is one of Franck’s most infamous works. It immediately established itself, and a second performance with the pianist Marie Poitevin, the later dedicatee of the Prelude, Choral et Fugue, convinced the members of the Societe Nationale. Franck’s String Quartet, his last major work, was similarly acclaimed by its first listeners. After its first performance in April 1890, with tears in his eyes, Cesar Franck is said to have told his pupil Vincent d’Indy, "Now you see: at long last the public is beginning to understand me."

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REVIEW:

Both of these works have been admirably served on disc, but this new recording is the most gripping yet - and by a long shot. Urgently recommended.

– Gramophone

To provide an initial account of 10 years of musical rediscovery, the Palazzetto Bru Zane is bringing out a boxed set of 10 albums showcasing extracts from some of the works that have been unearthed: a wide spectrum (1780-1920) of music is presented, spanning tragédie lyrique, opera, operetta and café-concert, cantata, sacred music, orchestral music, concertante music, chamber music, piano music and mélodie. This boxed set also includes recordings made in collaboration with labels working in partnership with the Palazzetto Bru Zane since 2009.

The vocation of the Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique francaise is to favor the rediscovery of the French musical heritage of the years 1780-1920 and obtain international recognition for that repertory. Housed in Venice in a palazzo dating from 1695 specially restored for the purpose, the Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique francaise is a creation of the Fondation Bru. Combining artistic ambition with high scientific standards, the Centre reflects the humanist spirit that guides the actions of that foundation. The Palazzetto Bru Zane’s main activities, carried out in close collaboration with numerous partners, are research, the publication of books and scores, the production and international distribution of concerts, support for teaching projects and the production of recordings.

REVIEW:

Well worth anyone’s attention, especially those attracted to the less familiar areas of 19th-century repertoire. In fact, I have rarely encountered a ‘compilation’ that has yielded so much listening pleasure...it helps that the standard of performance (and recording) is first-rate throughout. Treat it as an educational indulgence, I say.

-- Gramophone

CONTENTS:

• CD 1: Tragédie lyrique
• CD 2: Opéra
• CD 3: Opérette et Café-Concert
• CD 4: Cantate
• CD 5: Musique sacrée
• CD 6: Musique symphonique
• CD 7: Musique concertante
• CD 8: Musique de chambre
• CD 9: Piano
• CD 10: Mélodie

Charpentier & BEMF Again at their Best. In 2015 our most recent Charpentier recording to date, La Descente d’Orphee aux Enfers with young soloists and the Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble, received the Grammy Award for the “Best Opera Production” of the preceding year and Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice.” Our new album featuring two “mini-operas” by Charpentier again offers enthralling performances of this court music of charming dance character and elegance. In contrast to Charpentier’s other operas, Les Plaisirs de Versailles is directly associated with Louis XIV. The title of the manuscript score registers very clearly and unmistakably what is involved in this composition, and its equation of the “plaisirs,” the “pleasures,” with the king’s residence not only serves to reveal the subject but also the context: on the one hand, the work describes the pleasures that could be experienced in the royal palace; on the other hand, it itself is supposed to be one of these pleasures. Once again a beautiful and top-quality work from opera history is made available to listeners of the twenty-first century: “An important addition to the Charpentier discography” (Toccata).

Over the years I and several other reviewers on this site have been bemoaning the failure of Melodiya, when reissuing their recordings of rare Russian material, to provide texts, translations or indeed adequate booklet notes of any meaningful description for their releases – a damaging omission which does little to make more accessible the excellent recordings themselves. In this selection of Rimsky-Korsakov melodies, CPO have gone to the opposite extreme. Not only do we get the full texts complete with translations, but we also are vouchsafed a lengthy essay from CPO stalwart Eckhardt van den Hoogen discoursing on the composer himself, his psychological background, his attempts to establish himself as a pedagogue, and many other peripheral issues while managing almost entirely to avoid any discussion of the music itself as featured on this disc. Now, I fully appreciate the efforts that CPO put into their booklet notes, which do indeed in many issues offer valuable insights into the music and the composers themselves. However, the turgid prose style of Professor van den Hoogen (which often seems to totally defeat Susan Marie Praeder’s attempts at English translation), are perhaps best regarded in the light of the provision of unintentional amusement. In a final footnote, the booklet essay of eight pages (in small type) notes: “The fact that the Firebird hymn is heard in the Night will be mentioned here for the sake of curiosity and registered completely free from all speculation.” If it is not the intention of the author to discuss the matter, why mention it at all? Earlier in his essay the writer attempts to turn the received opinion of the last century on its head by describing Mussorgsky in the following terms: “Ilya Repin’s famous portrait really tells us everything we need to know about the last years of this original sloth’s life: from his dishevelled hair and watery eyes to the red bulb of a nose shining like a sad lighthouse out of the rolling hills of his face.” Is this really “everything we need to know” about a composer whose output of songs has not only comprehensively outdistanced Rimsky-Korsakov’s in reputation but is also by some considerable margin the most often performed body of vocal works coming from Russia during the nineteenth century?

Still, one has to concede that Professor van den Hoogen always gives good value for money, and he clearly values Rimsky-Korsakov’s output of songs highly. And the performances here do much to justify his enthusiasm. Maria Prudenskaya has spent most of the last ten years working in German opera houses and specialising in Wagner and Verdi, and she fully comprehends the dramatic demands that high romantic music demands of its singers. She was a superbly responsive mezzo soloist in a live Bavarian Radio recording of Verdi’s Requiem under Mariss Jansons a couple of years ago, which I reviewed enthusiastically for this site. Her Waltraute in the 2016 Bayreuth Ring was a towering highlight in an admittedly generally execrable production, and her absolute steadiness of tonal production and gleaming higher register are a real pleasure to hear – not a suspicion of Slavonic wobble here. She also displays a plentiful employment of reflective half-tone, as well as an unexpected (and beautifully floated) upper range in the oriental-sounding Op.2/2 (track 30). Her accompanist Cord Garben is a stalwart contributor to many recitals of song, and as always he relishes the challenge of unfamiliar repertoire. Rimsky-Korsakov was not himself a pianist, and his writing for the instrument was condemned during his lifetime as unidiomatic; but he always gets the effects that he wants to convey. The recording was made some three years before the aforementioned Verdi Requiem – it is not clear why it has waited so long for release – and the recorded sound is fine, even if a little more reverberation might have been welcome.

The disc assembles a whole collection of ‘romances’ identified solely by opus numbers on the CD box, and by transliterated Russian titles at the front of the booklet. They vary in length from just under a minute to a maximum of four minutes; there are thirty individual items here. As might be expected they are all highly proficient settings, generally reflective rather than dramatic, and all have an immediate melodic appeal. Rimsky’s choice of poetic texts is admirable, with Tolstoy, Lermontov, Pushkin and Heine (in Russian translation) featured. They are not assembled in order of composition, which robs the listener of a chance to hear how the composer’s style developed over the years; but Rimsky’s opus numbers are often misleading, with earlier pieces subjected to later revision – it is a pity that the extensive booklet note did not find room to explore this development, including indeed references to songs not actually included on this disc! There are moments which occasion surprise: the clear echo of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in Op.39/1 (track 5), for example, is an unusual reference to non-Russian material. The treatment of the theme quoted by Stravinsky in The Firebird at the outset of Op.8/2 (track 23) is totally different from that of Rimsky’s pupil.

The songs are generally grouped by the poet whose verses are set, although Rimsky does not seem to make any real stylistic discrimination between his lyrics. Most will I suspect be totally unfamiliar to listeners, although some may have crossed the hearer’s path in miscellaneous recitals of Russian song. But since titles (let alone translations) may differ between one recording and another, there seems to be little point in itemising them here.

So far as I can see this is the only current available single disc devoted entirely to the composer’s output in the field, although Brilliant Classics do have a three-disc compendium of his ‘complete songs’ although there appear to be some individual items omitted (77 songs are included out of some 80 apparently given in published editions), and they are distributed between a whole raft of different singers and pianists. This set suffers also from the fact that no sung texts or translations were provided, even in its original issue on Chant du Monde in 1993. Rimsky-Korsakov enthusiasts will obviously have to own the ‘complete’ set; but for lesser mortals this CD, with its judicious selection complete with transliterated text and translations into both German and English, will be more readily approachable. The music itself will certainly prove enjoyable.

– MusicWeb International (Paul Corfield Godfrey)

Formed to promote French Romantic repertoire, Palazzetto Bru Zane is doing sterling work with its Book+CD series. I’m especially enjoying exploring the Opéra français releases and with Les P'tites Michu the series has reached volume 19; a limited edition of 3,000. Incidentally Palazzetto Bru Zane has ceased using Ediciones Singulares as the title of its label which is now called Bru Zane.

Messager was a leading figure in French operetta in the late 1800s and, as a composer of mainly stage works (opéras comiques, opérettes and ballets), is probably best known today for his ballet Les Deux Pigeons. As an admirer of French Romantic music, I am delighted to receive this newly released two CD set of Messager’s Les P'tites Michu (The Little Michus), an operetta I previously knew only by name.

Premièred in November 1897 Les P'tites Michu, an opérette in three acts, quickly became a great success both at home, enjoying one hundred and fifty performances at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, and abroad notably being staged in London and on Broadway. Les P'tites Michu had been written in the wake of several embarrassing failures for Messager, particularly his humiliation with Le chevalier d'Harmental at the Opéra-Comique in 1896, where it was pulled after only six performances. As providence would have it, whilst in England Messager received an unsolicited libretto through the post for the opérette Les P'tites Michu sent by renowned librettists Albert Vanloo and Georges Duval. Messager didn’t know that the libretto had already been rejected by three composers, but clearly fully motivated, he completed the score in just three months. The plot briefly concerns the identities of two little girls, one the daughter of Marquis des Ifs and the other a daughter of Michu who runs a cheese shop. Whilst in his care, Michu mixes up the two girls whilst giving them a bath. Years later, on Blanche-Marie’s wedding day, the Marquis notices her resemblance to his late wife and realises that she must be his daughter.

This recording is taken from live performances at Théâtre Graslin, Nantes with stage direction by Rémy Barché. A fine French cast has been assembled, bringing this sun-drenched comedy to life with singing that sparkles from start to finish. My highlight is from Act Two with soprano Anne-Aurore Cochet and mezzo Violette Polchi singing Blanche-Marie’s and Marie-Blanche’s quite delightful duet Ah! Quel malheur, quel malheur (Oh, what a misfortune). From Act One, in the role of shop assistant Aristide, tenor Artavazd Sargsyan copes well with the couplets Blanche-Marie est douce et bonne (Blanche-Marie is gentle and kind). I notice André Noël (1892-1967) a tenor at the Opéra-Comique made a fascinating early recording of this piece on a collection of his operetta arias for Pathé (N° X. 90019 - N 203201 Choudens) which can be viewed on YouTube. Excelling here in the Act Three Romance a dreamy waltz Vois-tu, je m'en veux à moi-même (You see, I blame myself), Anne-Aurore Cochet is in charming voice as she laments her dreary existence and misses her boarding school. Susan Graham on her 2002 Erato album ‘French Operetta Arias’ has championed Blanche-Marie’s Romance which is a real gem. It’s also contained in her 2010 box set ‘The Art of Susan Graham’ (review). Additionally from act three is Blanche-Marie and Gaston’s attractive duet Rassurez-vous monsieur Gaston (Don’t worry, monsieur Gaston) as they capture the innocence of concealing their sorrow from each other. As the hearty army captain, the smoky tones of Philippe Estèphe contrast well with the Anne-Aurore Cochet’s girlish innocence. Directed by choir-master Xavier Ribes, the Chœur d'Angers Nantes Opéra is in fine order, singing with assurance and unity which are especially noticeable in the splendid Halles ensemble Marchandes et Marchands from Act Three. Under the baton of Pierre Dumoussaud, the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire (using some forty-five players) performs with verve and sparkle.

Sumptuously presented, the two CDs fit inside a 176-page hard-back book which includes essays, a synopsis and French texts together with an English translation placed alongside. A slight grumble concerns the article ‘P'tites Michu, number by number’ where the pieces discussed are not linked to track numbers. Recorded live in May 2018 at Théâtre Graslin, Nantes, the overall sound has a satisfying quality and is well balanced. Not surprisingly, the recording has some minor stage noise and applause has been retained at the conclusion.

Bru Zane’s Opéra français series continues to captivate and with Messager’s opérette Les P'tites Michu grandly maintains its high standards.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

The first instrumental collection by Giovanni Legrenzi, Sonate a due e tre Op. 2, was published during the composer's last years as organist at the Santa Maria Maggiore Church in Bergamo, along with three other collections, including 'Sonate da chiesa, da camera, correnti, balletti, alemane e sarabande a tre, due violini e violone' Op. 4 (1656), perhaps in an attempt to secure a better position by dedicating his works to high-ranking personalities. After all, other important composers with an interest in instrumental music, such as Tarquinio Merula and Maurizio Cazzati also held positions in Bergamo. The collection includes nine sonatas 'a due,' of which six for two violins and continuo and three for violin, violone or bassoon and continuo, and eight sonatas a tre for two violins, violone and continuo.

Classical Music

The frottola genre derived from the oral tradition of executing variations on existing melodies. Above all they were compositions with several strophes and gradually became a cultivated practice, as it was linked to the virtuoso capacities of singers and 'cantori al liuto (singing lutenists). It came to be expressed in three- or four-part compositions where the first part stood out: it carried the melody and it's variations, with as counterpoint a tenor, still quite melodic, a supporting bassus and altus, and the least cantabile of all the voices, which interplayed with the tenor. Barbara Zanichelli was born in Parma, where she earned her diploma at the conservatory in violin before going on to study voice with the Russian teacher Anatoli Goussev in Milan. She furthered her studies of performance practice in baroque music with Cristina Miatello, Claudine Answermet and Roberto Gini. She is joined here by Italian-Swiss lutenist Luca Pianca, who has been championing his instrument since the early 1980s.

Those who have seen the Quartetto Maurice play live have seen this on their faces, in their gestures: the long sweetness and the angry acceleration, the smile and the serenity, the eurhythmy and the euphoria. The latter has often accompanied their wish that everything should change. We know that when we want everything to change, we evoke fire. Flame, Bachelard writes in an essay, is of all the objects that evoke reverie, one of the greatest operators of images: flame forces us to imagine. This is a truth that Fausto Romitelli knew well. Referring precisely to the synthetic work Natura morta con fiamme (1991), for string quartet and electronics, he explicitly refers to an imaginary scale, to an extremity which has a language without words, purely of relations, of which the essential elements are conventional and abstract, implemented by algebraic and combinatory processes. Dedicated to the memory of Fausto Romitelli, the piece by Mauro Lanza, The 1987 Max Headroom Broadcast Incident (2017), for "augmented" string quartet, reflects precisely on what lies beyond what we always see - on the eye forced to watch and the ear forced to listen - we could almost say on the reverie that admires interference. Andrea Agostini conceived Legno, sabbia, vetro, cenere (2009-10), for quartet and electronics. The composer formed the idea of using additive and deferred synthesis- a technique that the composer is pleased to describe as "very old" - to pursue an ideal he never then abandoned. This was writing electronics with a degree of control over detail and articulation of sound that aspires, one could say, to a very marked musical determinism. Silvia Borzelli searches for a profound explanation with Earwitness (familiar 2) (2017), for string quartet and stereo soundtracks. The earwitness of the title is the person described by Elias Canetti in that strange collection of stories that take their name exactly from the story of that name.

Elena Càsoli writes of her new release on Stradivarius: “This recording is the opportunity to collect, for the first time on a single album, most of the works for and with the guitar by Fausto Romitelli. I feel really gladsome about the possibility to think up and elaborate this release with Stradivarius. For me, it represents the desire to crown my passionate work of years on his music. These are compositions full of strength and inspiration, with a sound that is vibrante e luminoso!, as Fausto writes on the fifth page of the Solare score. I have invited Teresa Hackel and Virginia Arancio to collaborate because of their bravura and their connection the works interpreted.”