Classical Music

To have such romantic richness . . . offered on a bargain label is cause for celebration in itself; to have it performed and recorded with such tireless commitment is a double blessing. . . . [S]uccessful on all counts. Scherbakov, praised by Richter and recently hailed as a ‘modern Rachmaninov’, is now more attuned to Medtner’s widely fluctuating idiom, complementing his unquestioned virtuosity with inwardness and conviction. . . . Scherbakov’s agility at, say, the con moto (8'38'') is never at the expense of a composer whose bravura is always poetically motivated, and so all lovers of romantic piano concertos need look no further. . . . -- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

14.99

Naxos has done it again! Francis Poulenc's delicious Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra, surely the finest work of its genre, also is one of the most difficult to bring off. The problem is one of balance: it was composed for a huge Pleyel harpsichord, which had the dynamic range of a modern grand piano. Usually it's played on a tiny little Baroque instrument, with the balance problems left to the recording engineers, who either blow it completely or adjust matters electronically, which is equally unconvincing. Here, finally, is a performance that works: the right-sounding instrument, dazzling execution, and excellent sonics. The same holds true for the Organ Concerto, appropriately captured in live performance before a very quiet audience in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris. In fact, not since the recordings supervised by the composer himself have we had this music rendered with such idiomatic flair.--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5 - Symphonies Nos.

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 11 - Concerto Ballata

Classical Music

Recorded in: Paroisse La Nativite, La Prairie, Quebec 31 May & 1 June 1989 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Ben Connellan (assistant) Richard Lee (assistant)

Recorded in: Mosfilm Studio, Moscow December 1996 Producer(s) Igor Veprintsev Sound Engineer(s) Igor Veprintsev

W.A. Mozart: Complete Works for Horn and Orchestra

Includes work(s) by Baldassare Galuppi, Alexander Arkhangelsky, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dimitri Bortniansky, Alexander Gretchaninov, Pavel Chesnokov, Alexander Nikolsky. Ensemble: National Cathedral Choral Society Washington, D.C.. Conductor: J. Reilly Lewis.

MENDELSSOHN: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings / Violin

}Gramophone (2/97, pp. 53-4) "...I was as impressed by [Frith and Tinney's] attunement of phrasing in lyrical contexts as by their synchronization in all the brilliant semiquaver passagework....a not-to-be-missed opportunity to explore the precocious young Mendelssohn..."{

Classical Music

Volume Five pairs two relatively early works of Lutoslawski with two works of his full maturity. The 'Concerto for Orchestra' of 1955 is a brilliant example of Lutoslawski's orchestral craftsmanship. It also demonstrates that he was a great composer well before he explored the more personal idiom of his later music. Also from this period is the tiny Overture for Strings of 1949. It is a lovely work that has been completely overshadowed by the composer's first symphony as well as the more famous 'Funeral Music.'
From the composer's full maturity comes his only work for chorus and orchestra, the 'Three Poems of Henri Michaux.' The score specifies that the two ensembles are only loosely coordinated, and each has its own conductor. The middle movement is a brilliant evocation of a crowd on the verge of riot. Finally there is 'Mi-Parti,' from 1976, a two-part single-movement work written for the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. As always in this series, the performances are completely competitive and offer much repertoire not available elsewhere--and all at a budget price.

Somewhat unusually, the fourth volume of the Naxos series of Lutoslawski orchestral recordings concentrates entirely on the music of his full maturity where the composer used brief passages of aleatoric counterpoint. As the composer stated many times, this is not improvisation: All the music is written out, but the precise coordination over a set duration is left to the moment. Thus each performance is, in its small details, literally unique. By the time of 'Livre pour orchestre,' written in 1968, Lutoslawski had begun to incorporate a certain amount of indeterminacy in all of his music.
The masterful Cello Concerto, written for Rostropovich in 1970, marked Lutoslawski's mature return to concertante writing. At the great cellist's request, only musical considerations were taken into account, hence the fearsome solo part. It is one of the composer's finest works, and is very well performed here. The 'Novelette' was also written for Rostropovich, this time as conductor, as a companion piece to the Cello Concerto in 1979. Finally, from Lutoslawski's last period comes 'Chain No.3,' the last of three works all employing a similar chain method of construction. All three works reflect the increasingly refined idiom of Lutoslawski's final decades.

'....enormous virtuosity and propulstive energy...Daredevil playing evoking an aura of poetic mystery.' - The New York Times

Italian Oboe Concertos, Vol. 1

This admirable recital forms a sequel to Stephen Hough's Gramophone Award-winning Chandos disc of the A minor and B minor Piano Concertos (4/87). And although the music is less enticing and substantial, the performances less exuberantly virtuosic and elegantly inflected, these are decorous rarities played with an assured brilliance and affection. Hummel's Mozartian rather than Chopinesque bias declares itself most obviously in his Op. 73 Concertino, though even here, at 315" for example, the figuration has a recognizably Hummelian froth and sparkle. Too charming to be vacuous, such surface brio has little in common with Mozart's depth and subtlety, and for music of greater romantic range and ambition we turn to the A flat Concerto (music briefly in Jorge Bolet's repertoire), with its fuller scoring and lavishly decorated solo part. Lovers of a finespun, operatic cantilena will warm to the central "Romanze" and find the final Rondo alla Spagniola, even when it outstays its welcome, more than a prophecy of Chopin's E minor Concerto.

The Gesellschafts Rondo (offered here in a premiere recording) commences in solemn Adagio vein before turning to a more typically bustling and ceremonious Vivace. It may be that Hummel "puffed, blew and perspired" when he played but he won the admiration of Chopin (a hard master to please and one who turned Hummel's animation to rare poetic advantage) and his sheer style is infectious when projected with such unfailing expertise by Howard Shelley in his dual role as pianist and conductor of the London Mozart Players. The recordings are exceptionally well balanced, the acoustic pleasingly spacious.

-- Gramophone [1/1995]

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, Tooting, London 10-11 February 1992 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Richard Lee Jonathan Cooper (Assistant)

GALUPPI: Harpsichord Concertos (Complete)

Vivaldi: Four Seasons (The) / Wind Concertos

DUSSEK / WAGENSEIL / KRUMPHOLTZ: Harp Concertos

Classical Music

Classical Music