Chandos features a varied selection of orchestral works by Benjamin Britten, performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox, to mark the great composer's centenary year on this re-release. Included works are the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Suite on English Folk Tunes, the Suite from Johnson over Jordan, and Four Sea Interludes.

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*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Okay, you're not going to find the insane intensity of Rostropovich/Vishnevskaya/Reshetin in Ormandy's Fourteenth symphony, but as you might expect, this Western premiere recording is really well played, and surprisingly well sung. Simon Estes has a rich, dark bass sound, and Phyllis Curtin is, in her own way, practically as intense as Vishnevskaya. Ormandy's conducting could be more volatile, particularly in the quicker songs, but he was always an excellent interpreter of this composer, and it's good to see this disc reappearing in Japanese RCA's Ormandy edition. The Britten pieces are also surprisingly effective given their late date in Ormandy's career. Again, the "Storm" could be a bit wilder, but the Passacaglia is terrific. Sonically this really is pretty good for its 1970s RCA vintage. Available from Arkivmusic.com, on-demand.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's second full-length opera - following the acclaimed Written on Skin - draws on the real-life relationship between Edward II and Piers Gaveston to explore how personal relationships can have fatal political consequences. The King lives in a close but uneasy relationship with his wife Isabel, their two children and his lover Gaveston. When the King banishes his military advisor Mortimer, he sets off a chain of devastating events. Benjamin's richly-orchestrated score perfectly captures the drama's intense emotions, while director Katie Mitchell provides a visually stunning contemporary staging, highlighting the timelessness of the opera's main themes. The composer himself conducts a superb international cast. "... The music, written and compellingly conducted by Mr. Benjamin, is unapologetically modernist, while the libretto, by Mr. Crimp, is often cryptic. Without pandering, they've made another significant contribution to the art form. In the queen, Mr. Benjamin has created another remarkable role for Ms. Hannigan's immense vocal gifts and comprehensive musicianship. He writes lines that shift from earthy emotionalism to angelic purity, knowing that this artist can handle those pivots. He takes advantage of her focused intonation and rhythmic precision to lend even anguished passages structural strength. But it's Mr. Benjamin's remarkable music that gives the work it's charge: The writing is so lush, haunting and detailed - radiant one moment, piercingly dissonant the next - that you are continuously enveloped by the raucous beauty of the sounds." (New York Times)

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Anibal Dos Santos performs with Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota in this 2009 performance. Dos Santos also dances the tango during the concert alongside award-winning Colombian dancer Gina Medina.

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The Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, San Francisco, under the direction of conductor Benjamin Bachmann, present a program spotlighting 20th century composers and choral arrangers in the Anglican choral tradition. The voice of a cathedral choir soaring upward like the great building it fills is a thrill and an inspiration to even the most unmusical listener. Grace Cathedral has had a men’s choir since its founding in 1906, but it was not until 1913 that boy’s voices were added. The centuries-old Anglican tradition of a men and boys choir has since blossomed here, as one of a handful of such choirs in the US. The Cathedral music staff oversees an extensive program of choir rehearsals (including mixed-voice volunteer choirs), music classroom work with the choristers, education for the cathedral congregation, concerts, choir tours, and a wide variety of other musical activities in the life of this cathedral and beyond. The choir tradition continues to flourish into Grace Cathedral’s second hundred years, inspiring those who are privileged to hear it, and bringing back fond memories to old choristers.

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(Previously available on CHAN8983/4, now discontinued) Recorded in: St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead, London 24-28 February 1991 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (Assistant

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A most beguiling release crowning the Britten centenary. Les Illuminations and the Serenade for tenor, horns and strings are two of Britten's most enduringly popular works. Tenor Peter Schrier, heard here at the height of his powers, with Herbert Kegel conducting the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Reissue of performances dating from 1967 recordings done in the then DDR (German Democratic Republic). Booklet includes both liner notes and the sung texts.

A composition student of Napoleon-Henri Reber and a violin student of Henri Vieuxtemps, Benjamin Godard received a thorough education before beginning his teaching career at the Paris Conservatory in 1887. Although much of Godard’s works are forgotten, possibly due to his untimely death, his symphonic works featured here show an original outlook on the genre, fusing together melodic qualities with technical brilliance. This release features his Symphony No. 2, Op. 57, his Trois Morceaux, Op. 51, and his Symphonie gothique, Op. 23 performed by the Munchner Rundfunkorchester, conducted by David Reiland.

The Auryn Quartet with their good feel for current trends have delivered an overwhelming performance of Britten's last two Quartets (FonoForum)

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BILSE Sturmmarsch Galopp. Baumgartenallee Polka. Marienwalzer. Nur mit Dir. Schlesische Lieder. Catharina Quadrille. Die Fürstensteiner. Mit Bomben und Granaten. Winterflocken Galopp. Victoria Walzer. Königspolonaise. Die Provinzialen. Concerthaus Polka. Schützenmarsch • Christian Simonis, cond; Cologne West German RSO • cpo 777 341 (72:10)


You’ve got to hand it to cpo. I don’t know where they come up with these obscure Romantic composers, but here’s another one. The long-lived, Silesian-born Benjamin Bilse (1816–1902) was known in his time interchangeably as the “Hungarian Strauss,” the “Bohemian Strauss,” and the “Danish Strauss.” A native of Liegnitz, Bilse became steeped in the folk music of Poland and Silesia, founding the Bilse Orchestra in 1842. As was not uncommon for small-town musicians of the time, Bilse was proficient on many instruments and pretty much taught himself composition by studying and conducting the works of contemporaries and peers.


If the foregoing paints Bilse as a provincial, backcountry bandleader, the impression is a false one. By the 1860s, we find him in Berlin, a highly popular composer and presenter of public concerts, an important impresario of musical events, and a hardworking organizer of music societies and organizations. He is even credited with having played a significant role in the establishment of the Berlin Philharmonic.


As a composer, Bilse’s ambitions seemed to be more modest. Like the Danish waltz king, Christian Lumbye, the Austrian Joseph Lanner, the French Waldteufel, and the Austrian Strauss clan, Bilse contented himself with writing waltzes, polkas, and marches for the entertainment of mass audiences. And while such works may have been aimed at satisfying popular tastes, they were superbly crafted—some of them miniature masterpieces—and the ensembles assembled to perform them were of the highest professional caliber.


This is feel-good music. If you love a good John Philip Sousa march, you will joyously feather-dust your furniture to Bilse’s Mit Bomben und Granaten (“With Bombs and Grenades”) and Swiffer your floors to the Sturmmarsch Galopp . My sense is that unlike the waltzes of Johann Strauss II, Bilse’s waltz and polka numbers, such as the Victoria Walzer and the Concert House Polka , were less intended to be actually danced to than they were intended to be listened to as stylized, self-sustaining concert pieces. Of their type, these are masterfully written works, highly polished, handsomely scored with an ear for instrumental color, and tremendously engaging.


Based on the milieu of composers to which Bilse belonged and the musical genre to which he contributed, you will know whether this sort of thing appeals to you or not. If so, I can tell you that the performances and the recording are top drawer, and I, personally, haven’t had so much plain old fun listening to a CD in quite some time. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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(2-CD set) "Adolphe" is one of 19th century's greatest romantic work. Written by Benjamin Constant in 1816, the book had a major influence on all the Romantic authors (Hugo, Lamartine, Vigny, etc.) and contributed to the myth of tragic love from a "lost generation" of the early 19th century. Read in French by Jean Debucourt in 1955 for the National Radio.

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Classical Music