The composition of magnificent symphonies was not exactly the domain of Italian composers of the nineteenth century. However, this became the calling of Giovanni Sgambati, a Liszt pupil very much qualifying as the most important composer of symphonic music in Italy during his century. He contributed more to the renaissance of Italian instrumental music than any other composer, paving the way for its new popularity during the second half of the nineteenth century. Liszt described Sgambati as an “extraordinary and genuine artist,” Richard Wagner recommended his works, and European heads of state decorated him with medals. Although the dates of this Rome native lay rather precisely between those of Verdi and Puccini, he did not compose a single opera and as a composer endeavored to develop a style that would blend the cantability of his fatherland into the structural landscapes of the German romanticists. The harmonic language of his symphonies is tonal but also nuanced with many chromatic means and dissonances. His second symphony was rediscovered only a few years ago and now is celebrating its world recording premiere on cpo.

Born in the Champagne countryside in 1837, Théodore Dubois developed his talents at the Reims Cathedral, which explains why the Catholic sacred sphere influenced him throughout his life. Even today he continues to be known in France above all as a composing organist and a composer of sacred music for liturgical use who compiled a massive oeuvre. He also continues to be much discussed in educational circles as the author of the standard manuals in music theory of a strictly conservative nature. We are now releasing three of his violin compositions, which, by contrast, have been neglected and wrongly forgotten by posterity. His Violin Concerto was dedicated to none other than the violin legend Eugène Ysaÿe. The quality of this work is manifested most impressively in the Adagio middle movement in the form a long-drawn-out melody with a mighty amplitude; the deepest depths are fathomed with big sound, and iridescent heights are scaled. Here the whole individual value of French violin culture is revealed. And his only Sonata for Violin and Piano also contains the name of a great virtuoso in its dedication – Henri Marteau – and was composed to order for him.

The rediscovery of the works of German composer Friedrich Gernsheim continues with this collection, the third from CPO focusing on his considerable output which spotlights his violin concertos featuring the noted chamber violinist Linus Roth with the Hamburg Symphony conducted by Johannes Zurl. Gersheim's long life improbably encompassed meeting Liszt, Brahms and Saint-Sa�ns and extended into World War I when he spent the last years of his life in Berlin. Due to his Jewish ancestry, Gernsheim's music was effectively banned and removed from German music libraries during WWII further burying legacy, a slight that is being slowly corrected with releases such as this. Gernsheim's unique contribution is the sustained beauty and expressiveness of his melodies, informed by the Brahms and Schumann influences yet wholly his own.

Cipriano de Rore, a native of Ronse, embodies with his music the multifacetedness and cosmopolitan influence of the Franco-Flemish epoch. His significance in music history can hardly be overestimated, and his extraordinary position between the prima practica and seconda practica makes him simultaneously a guardian of the tradition and a trailblazer of the “new music.” The Mass “Vivat felix Hercules secundus” from the genre of Masses for secular princes was probably composed by de Rore shortly after his arrival in Ferrara and is to be understood as a tribute to his employer, Ercole II d’Este, whose name de Rore honored in a remarkable manner. In each part of the Mass the tenor voice sings the text “Vivat felix Hercules secundus, dux Ferrariae quartus” (Long live the happy Ercole II, the fourth Duke of Ferrara). In addition to the text of the Ordinary, then, a second, worldly level is integrated into the Mass composition, which at the same time works toward the goal of lending the secular ruler – as a mediating instance between the sacred and secular spheres – a quasi-divine status. Along with the Mass, motets by de Rore are also heard here: works in which the composer assimilates techniques such as the canon, cantus firmus, and soggetto ostinato.

The work group formed by Telemann’s overture suites is regarded as exemplary and even today offers a wealth of discoveries – and the three works presented here in album recording premieres certainly answer this description. It is difficult to determine the chronological order of Telemann’s extant overture suites because the composer incorporated very different influences into them, not only from French music since the invention of the form by Jean-Baptiste Lully but also from the “Lullists” active in Germany such as Johann Sigismund Kusser, Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, and Johann Fischer. And for Telemann’s pronounced tendency to mix existing formal, stylistic, and generic traditions, the overture suite formed an absolutely ideal foil. Here we can find diverse characters, formal combinations, and stylistic interconnections in great supply. The great imagination and spirit at work here are also shown in the plentiful stores of surprising ideas that shine like flashes of brainstorm lightning in various passages.

Since Friedrich Ernst Fesca, the father of Alexander Fesca, had received an excellent education as a violinist, it is not surprising that his masterfully elaborated string quartets contributed significantly to the establishment of his outstanding reputation as a composer. Until 1818 he published a total of twelve quartets, and two others followed in 1819 and then again in 1824-25. For a decade Fesca was one of the most-reviewed quartet composers, and it is documented that he was one of the most performed such composers for an even longer period of time. On Vol. 2 the quality and originality of his string quartets again are revealed above all in the balance with which he combines mellow harmony, contrapuntal expertise, and formally integrated virtuosity. The eight quartets are interpreted by the Amaryllis Quartet, which at the very latest since its triumph with the finalists’ prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia in 2011 has numbered among the leading string quartets of its generation. Pearls for friends of chamber music who delight in discovery!

Leopold van der Pals was born to a Dutch father and a Danish mother in St. Petersburg and became a cosmopolitan who counted many of Europe’s leading artistic personalities among his acquaintances and studied with Reinhold Glière in Berlin for a few months in 1907. Glière had just written his second symphony and presumably motivated his young pupil to compose his Symphony in F sharp minor, which was premiered with remarkable success by the Berlin Philharmonic. “He already has something to say; he has thoughts and ideas,” as the Signale für die musikalische Welt wrote at the time, and in fact more compositions followed, which – without a cramped quest for originality – represented the very best of modern music. Even then the theosophical movement showed van der Pals a path to follow in the future; its German exponent Rudolf Steiner greatly impressed him, and when Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society, he espoused this new idea in much of his creative work. His special relationship with nature and its constant changes led to the composition of works such as the two symphonic sketches Frühling und Herbst op. 14 (Spring and Autumn). This highly atmospheric music of individual character situated between neoromanticism, impressionism, and the ecstatic poems of Alexander Scriabin displays the same remarkable organic power and instrumental mastery that also makes the poetic study of the soul in Wieland der Schmied op. 23 (Wieland the Smith) an absolutely fascinating listening experience.

Michèl Yost, a Parisian by birth, was a famous French clarinet virtuoso in his time. He is regarded as one of France’s first important clarinetists and as the cofounder of the French school of clarinet playing and gained renown beyond France’s borders already during his lifetime. Along with clarinet chamber music and a collection of études that is no longer extant, we know of fourteen clarinet concertos by Yost, some of which he composed in collaboration with the German composer and Paris resident Johann Christoph Vogel. Susanne Heilig, who since 2001 has been the principal clarinetist of the Bielefeld Philharmonic, interprets the solo parts of predominantly virtuosic character. The symphony by Johann Christoph Vogel rounding off the album contains a last movement with dramatic and even gloomy elements distinguishing it from what were often the very light and pleasant concluding movements of the symphonies and instrumental concertos of his period and displays surprising musical turns of events setting it apart from the average symphonic music of its times.

Classical Music

In his later stage works, Franz Lehar replaced the happy ending usual for the genre with a bittersweet conclusion filled with painful doubts. In contrast, the ending of the operetta Schon ist die Welt, premiered in 1930, is unsurpassed in it's clarity. Crown Prince Georg and Princess Elisabeth, who were arranged to be married by his father and her aunt respectively, do not want to go through with the arrangement, but end up together in a mountain hut without having met before. They fall in love and realise in the end that the world is quite beautiful after all. Lehar pulls out all the stops of his artistry in this piece. The modern dances and inextinguishable melodies are surprising and he again proves himself to be a master of skilful recycling by bringing the second act of a once dismal story to a new, brilliant life. A highlight of the 2023 Bad Ischl Lehar Festival!

Music of Hanseatic Cities II Music from old Gdansk After the European Hanseatic Ensemble under the direction of Manfred Cordes made a stop in Stralsund in 2023, the journey now leads to Gdansk. And here too, the travelling company has unearthed numerous 17th century treasures of sacred music; organ pieces, choral movements, fascinating scenes such as the battle of Archangel Michael against his adversary... Once again an image of turbulent times appears before us, in which faith was to be strengthened, not least due to the spirit of music. However, what transpired behind the scenes is thought-provoking - the story of how good Christians and accomplished artists schemingly tried to force each other from their posts is the stuff of historical novels. The accompanying music can be found here.

Johann Christian Schickhardt Six Sonatas op. 22 Johann Christian Schickhardt was three years older than Johann Sebastian Bach, survived him by more than a decade and travelled all over - in contrast to his contemporary. Whether the fact that his surviving creations are characterised by wonderful suppleness and beauty of sound was due to his love of travel would be worth investigating. Indeed, his works were not only highly regarded by his high-class dedicatees. Schickhardt mastered the international vocabulary of the baroque, whose elements he combined easily to create works to "entertain the spirit" that have survived for centuries. And thanks to the excellent Ensemble Epoca Barocca, the old prejudice that two recorders are "worse" than one loses it's very last fundament.

Johann David Heinichen German Sacred Cantatas Johann David Heinichen studied law in Leipzig, became associated with Telemann's circle and just as he, attracted so much attention with his Protestant sacred music that a trip to Italy lasting several years was granted to him to further broaden his musical horizons. In 1716, he was ultimately appointed court conductor at the Dresden court of August the Strong - a position that Johann Sebastian Bach, two years his junior, would have been pleased to obtain. The works on this recording include Heinichen's "Protestant" creative period, where more than two dozen German sacred cantatas of colourful design and expression have survived - from serious chorale movements to lyrical and picturesque settings that are not always completely "devotional".

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

These are exceptionally well-played renditions of works that have had perhaps more attention--in almost every shape, size, and instrumental configuration imaginable--than any other 18th-century orchestral music. Crisp, clean, snappy articulation, rich-toned horns, bright trumpets, mellifluous strings and winds, and ideal, unhurried tempos and well-balanced ensemble sound makes for a very satisfying hour-plus concert.

The period-instrument Italian orchestra (unusual to hear in this music!) is very ably led by Federico Guglielmo, who chose to follow recommendations recently asserted by Christopher Hogwood particularly regarding performing order of the 22 individual pieces that make up the suites in D, G, and F. This means that instead of the traditional divisions into suites, we hear one compilation of all the movements, beginning with the F major (which is ordered exactly the way it is in my old Eulenburg pocket score from 1973) and continuing with a mixture of the G major and D major movements. Unless you've got a particular movement sequence firmly stuck in your consciousness and you can't jar it loose, L'Arte dell'Arco's program order won't bother you at all. What may bother you, however, is an annoying clicking/clacking noise that in a couple of places disrupts the otherwise demonstration-quality sound (most notable on tracks 7 and 8).

Nevertheless, the highlights are many, including some very lovely ornamentation by the solo flute in the G major Menuet, exciting brass playing throughout, and a Fireworks Overture that's as rousing and artfully executed as you'll ever hear. This is a release that manages to make a memorable impression in a very crowded field--a significant achievement, and an imposing calling-card for this fine orchestra.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

The latest Dora Peja�evi� (1885-1923) release on CPO features her first and last works for orchestra and four songs. The finely crafted Piano Concerto op. 33 adheres to the usual three-movement structure of the classical and romantic virtuoso solo concerto. The instrumentation produces highly effective contrasts of texture and color. Four of her thirty expressive songs for voice and orchestra are presented here in versions for voice and orchestra. The Overture in d, her last orchestral work, derives it's dramatic tension from it's rhythmically striking, syncopated main theme.