Classical Music

As far as his church music is concerned, Johann Christian Bach, the youngest of Johann Sebastian's surviving sons and often referred to as "the London Bach", could fairly be identified as the "Roman Catholic" Bach--a meaningful distinction owing to the rest of the family's deep roots in the Lutheran church. Christian converted to the Roman Catholic faith while studying and working in Italy in the 1750s (he remained there until moving to London in 1762), and it is during this period that he most likely wrote all three of the works performed on this disc. Bach's Salve Regina, whose Marian text is a traditional part of the liturgy and has been set by countless composers throughout the centuries, features a solo soprano--preferably one with a sizable range and extraordinary technical skill--and an agile, responsive orchestra. Emma Kirkby has been doing this sort of thing for years and certainly is in full command of Bach's highly florid melodies and integral affective devices. This is music that demands direct, outward expression--a requirement that applies to all of the works presented here--and Kirkby really takes it to her audience with strong, confident delivery and often dazzling virtuosity (the second movement of the Salve regina and the third of the Laudate pueri, for example).


The Laudate pueri is set for tenor and soprano who sing the outer movements together and the inner ones as solos--two for tenor, one for soprano. Like the other works, this is a lively, happy, outgoing piece that employs vigorous and very tuneful orchestral accompaniment. Tenor Markus Schäfer is nearly as accomplished as his vocal partner, although on some of the highest notes his tone spreads and the articulation isn't as clean. The sections where tenor and soprano sing together are quite wonderful and are well executed through even the trickiest passages. The final motet, Si nocte tenebrosa, is a 17-plus-minute tour de force for tenor, and here Schäfer--and Bach--really shines with clear, ringing tones, smooth legatos, and impressive runs, leaps, and turns. The orchestral writing shows considerable skill in utilizing contrast and color, rhythms are lively, and the melodic material is invariably attractive. The orchestra, led by violinist Michi Gaigg, is a delight to hear, a finely tuned and ideally balanced ensemble whose playing gives real drive and support to the singers--and, in these world premiere recordings, makes a strong case for hearing a lot more from J.C. The sound is exemplary.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

REVIEW:

Within the first few seconds of the first track--the Sonata No. 1 in G major--most listeners will find themselves in surprisingly familiar territory--surprising because this little-known 18th-century composer seems to have written a popular tune long attributed to Pergolesi, a misattribution given additional false credibility by its use in Stravinsky's Pulcinella. In fact Stravinsky used selections from several of Domenico Gallo's trio sonatas in his famous ballet music, thinking them to be works of Pergolesi because they were published under his name in late-19th century English editions.

Ultimately--other than the fact that it's always nice to set the record straight--the author of these expertly written and very appealing works for violins, cello, and harpsichord is not so important as what they offer to listeners and to performers. (For the record, even Gallo's authorship isn't absolutely certain for all 12 sonatas.)

As realized by these four excellent players and their well-matched period instruments, we can count on a steadfastly upbeat, uplifting hour and 10 minutes of first rate chamber music notable for its lovely, lively melodies and skillfully varied textures and harmonic settings. Gallo shows much of his best stuff in his slow movements--and so do the performers, who demonstrate their facility in bringing out the music's emotional core. Good examples are the slow movements of No. 2 in B-flat, No. 3 in C minor, and the very Bach-like No. 6 in D major for which, unfortunately, you'll have to do a little searching because each work is served by only one track number. Throughout, the playing is stylish and full of personality, buoyed by unfaltering technical confidence and assured ensemble interaction. The sound is intimate, warm, and resonant. It's not Bach; it's not even Pergolesi. But it's well worth a place in your CD collection, especially as this set contains pieces you won't find anywhere else. Perhaps Parnassi musici and/or other musicians will be motivated to explore and record the many other works by Gallo that remain unpublished and unperformed.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

REVIEW:

This 5-disc box collects for the first time CPO's Cannes Classical Award-winning series of Milhaud's complete symphonies featuring the Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alun Francis. Only in today's blasé market would it be possible for this set to receive so little attention and be received with such general critical indifference. What other major French composer this century completed 12 fascinating, first rate symphonies? If this isn't a tremendous musical achievement, then what is? Leaving aside, for a moment, the general excellence of the performances themselves, it's worth exploring why Milhaud's symphonic achievement has garnered such neglect. Several reasons come to mind.

Milhaud's symphonies are really difficult to play well. Not only does his polytonal style always sound "wrong" to the players (a genuine clash of clearly defined keys is much more disconcerting in many respects than heavily chromatic or atonal music), but he also loves to oppose very high and very low sounds with nothing in the middle, as in the first movement of his Eighth Symphony. His mature music also is heavily polyphonic (a natural result of its harmonic style), and as a consequence often sounds unrelentingly busy. It is, therefore, difficult to listen to as well--it requires attention and doesn't work at all as background or ambient music. Folks expecting the popular jazz or Latin influences of such pieces as The Creation of the World or Le Boeuf sur le Toit are in for a big surprise. Though hardly Germanic in a formal sense, these are indeed real symphonies: bold, serious pieces that engage the listener at many different levels.

Finally, Milhaud was a very prolific composer, reaching Op. 441 when he died, and this is always considered to be a liability given our persistently Romantic notion that quality and quantity are somehow mutually exclusive, and that each new work must be a unique masterpiece created from the ground up, as with Mahler's symphonies, for example, or Wagner's operas. This is total nonsense. In fact, the 20th century was an exceptionally fertile period full of composers who achieved a consistent musical style and created a vast number of engaging works while remaining comfortably within that style. Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Martinu, Villa Lobos, Cowell, Hovhaness, and even Richard Strauss are just a few of the great names who, along with Milhaud, fit this description to a greater or lesser degree. There's nothing unusual about a large body of great work at all. Bach and Handel did it, and so did Haydn and Mozart.

The argument that the achievement of the great masters of the past was only possible in "the good old days" but not today, won't survive 10 seconds of careful listening. No one composed more junk than Mozart, and you'd be hard pressed to find something totally lacking in interest in Milhaud, Stravinsky, or Martinu. Milhaud's symphonies, within their stylistic parameters, show at least the same range of expression as do, for example, the symphonies of Bruckner or Sibelius. The elements of his style: the pastoral moods, raucous marches, solemn dirges, dance rhythms, strident, soloistic scoring favoring the wind section over the strings--all of these find expression in different ways in each work.

It's very unlikely that these pieces will find any more persuasive advocates than Francis and his Swiss orchestra--certainly not Michel Plasson and his muddily recorded and rhythmically slack Toulouse orchestra on Deutsche Grammophon. While you may not want to get the whole box at one throw (despite the very reasonable discounted price), if you care about French music or the 20th century symphony (and there's a lot of evidence that the 20th century was a golden age of the symphony, much more productive than the 19th), then you must hear this music, plain and simple.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

A few years ago, the name of Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) came out of the blue as a wonderful surprise. Baroque music lovers around the world were amazed to discover an obscure composer who, in his best works, was second to none--easily comparable to Vivaldi in terms of originality, rhythmic exuberance, and boundless imagination. A half decade and a few recordings later, Heinichen has become a popular name, and rightly so. These Dresden Wind Concertos display treasures of passionate invention, energized by a spectacular use of dynamic contrasts and poetized by delicate touches of lyricism in the solo writing for woodwinds. Just listen to the dialogue (an obbligato figure in Heinichen's style) between traverso flute and pizzicato strings in the Concerto S. 225's last movement, or the biting orchestral outbursts in the G minor oboe concerto. Examples of Heinichen's vivid, sometimes unpredictable inspiration abound in every page of these extraordinary works. The Fiori Musicali ensemble, on period instruments, plays with enthusiasm and poetic commitment. The virtuosity may not be as extreme as that of Concerto Köln (on Capriccio), but each performance reaches a perfect balance between expressive ardor and precision--a quality mirrored by the accurate and natural sonics of the Radio Bremen engineers. --Luca Sabbatini, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This set is available at a special rate: four CDs for the price of two.
The true historic impact of 20th century composers may not be known until their time is long past. The careers of eminent artists such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold lend themselves to debate. Korngold's start as a thirteen-year-old stage prodigy and his end as a Hollywood film composer do not reconcile themselves easily. However it is exactly this tumultuous career path that made Korngold's music the soundtrack of the bustling years to come.
Korngold's youthful success set a higher standard for his later work; the strides he made can be observed over the four-and-a-half hour length of this collection. From 1908 to 1953 his pieces matured as he struggled to recapture the critical triumph of his early years. His work with film gave his later orchestral works a pronounced, dramatic feel, expertly captured in this collection.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This recording received a 1998 "Critic's Choice" award from Gramophone
magazine. It is offered at a special price: 3 discs for the cost of 2.