Franz Liszt’s project of transcribing all of Beethoven’s symphonies took him 25 years to complete. His approach retains a deep fidelity to the original score with piano writing that is sumptuously rich and always perfectly suited to the instrument and its possibilities. A celebration of music as an independent and absolute language, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is considered the perfect utterance of his musical philosophy, while the Second Symphony looks to the future as it wrestles with the conventions of symphonic tradition. Gabriele Baldocci’s second volume in this edition (CDS7771) was admired in ClassicsToday.com, in which the ‘Beethoven/Liszt ‘Eroica’ symphony transcription conveys an impressive, multi-levelled pianistic sheen’.

These four central-European composers share a history of persecution and emigration but survived the worst excesses of the time. Their works for flute and piano reflect very different aesthetic positions. Schoenberg’s uncompromising Sonata for Flute and Piano is an arrangement of his Wind Quintet, Op. 26 of 1923–24 made a few years later by the Austrian composer Felix Greissle. The Suite by Ernst Krenek is delightfully neo-Classical, whilst the Czech Emil Burian crafted an eloquent, light-hearted work, heard here in its first recording. Paul Dessau’s Guernica was written for piano in 1937 and memorialises the tragedy of that bombed city.

Stefano Golinelli was an acclaimed virtuoso pianist who was also appreciated as a composer in his day. He played an important role in the 19th-century Italian musical renaissance, but his name has faded from view over time. The emotional power of Golinelli’s music is well represented in his first two piano sonatas, the earliest of which, Op. 30, shows the influence of Schumann and Mendelssohn. The Op. 53 sonata features a wealth of melodic ideas and musical surprises – its opening is an Italian homage to Chopin, and the work also contains a beautiful Andantino movement.

It is largely due to Astor Piazzolla that the bandoneon has become inextricably linked to the languid, sensual art of the tango. His renewal of its traditions – the so-called Nuevo tango – is exemplified by Aconcagua, a concerto for bandoneon, string orchestra and timpani of vivid imagination and rapid changes of mood that embodies the milonga, the improvised song of the Argentine. The six accompanying pieces are among Piazzolla’s most famous and evocative – works of poignant melody, profound melancholy and complex, uplifting beauty.

In the last decade, research in the Genoa archives has revealed a series of important manuscripts, one of which is Saverio Mercadante’s Messa solenne. This magnificent score requires four vocal soloists, a male choir – women were then forbidden to sing in church – and a large orchestra with extensive concertante roles for cor anglais and violin. It was premiered in January 1868, two years before Mercadante’s death, and shows the composer’s artistic maturity at its peak: opulent orchestration, extensive counterpoint, intricate instrumental textures, rich lyricism and fugal mastery. This world première recording amplifies the significance of the Genoese musical tradition.

Mauro D’Alay was a native of Parma. His fame as a violinist and composer took him all over Europe, and he was employed for many years at the prestigious court of Philip V of Spain. As with the Concertos, Op. 1, these recordings include world premieres from manuscripts mostly found in the Dresden Sächsische Landesbibliothek. These concertos are formally based on models by Vivaldi, but D’Alay’s style is freer, at times incorporating a more ‘modern’ galant fashion in discoveries such as the beautiful and unique Concerto in D minor, and in pieces dedicated to the famous Venetian violinist, ‘Maestra’ Anna Maria della Pietà.

Fresh from his success in Vienna with the Rondo à la Krakowiak, Chopin decided to explore the piano concerto genre where he would compete with a triumvirate of composers then enjoying huge success in the city: Moscheles, Hummel and Kalkbrenner. Dedicated to Kalkbrenner, though inheriting influence from Hummel, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 is discreetly orchestrated and marries brilliant virtuosity with expressive melancholy. Structurally similar is the Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, though here heroism is tempered by a more reflective intimacy that reaches its apotheosis in the beautiful slow movement.

The eight string quartets that Malipiero wrote between 1920 and 1964 constitute a major body of Italian chamber music and reflect his successive musical affiliations. The first two form a linked unit and espouse his radical anti-Romanticism in the early 1920s. Nos. 3 and 4 share structural similarities and act as a kind of laboratory for his symphonies of the time. Quartet No. 5 was inspired by Malipiero’s theatrical work, whilst No. 6 explores a new-found narrative dimension. With the two late quartets Malipiero moves into a world of chromaticism, where tone-color freedom reaches the apex of imagination and achievement.

REVIEW:

Malipiero’s eight string quartets were composed over a period of 44 years and show a remarkably consonant stylistic development.

The First Quartet, composed in 1920 and showing the impressionist influence of Debussy and folk textures alike, is his most extended quartet at (here) 22 minutes. Its partition points are clear as are the ritornello figures. Malipiero’s way is not development, more successive panels of light, color or contrast but he ensures that the work ends with a reflection on the Italian baroque so close to his musical heart, cadences of almost ecclesiastical beauty and refinement. The Second Quartet is related to the First in several structurally important ways but is more compressed and in some ways even more lyrical. It generates real propulsion and sonority and this malleable movement alternates with light textures.

The athleticism of Malipiero’s conception is a distinguishing feature of the quartets; tightly constructed single-movement works that bring a heavy quotient of Venetian energy, myriad in effect, constantly referencing, briefly but adroitly, Italian Baroque and his rich folkloric storehouse. That’s certainly the procedure in String Quartet No.3 ‘Cantàri alla madrigalesca’ (1931) by which time impressionism has been lightly dispersed. A greater sense of fluidity and metrical flexibility enters with the Fourth Quartet of 1934. The occasional eruptive material seems more organic than in previous quartets where paragraphical points could impede and threaten to destabilize the music.

The wartime Fifth Quartet was written concurrently with an operatic project and here a greater sense of textural clarity infiltrates itself into the music. In part lyrically effusive this is an effective work that reflects cross-pollination of influence but also an increasing tightening of procedure, so that incidental elements are more clearly subsumed into the musical argument. No.6, though once again in a single movement, is in three ‘parts’, two Allegros surrounding a central quasi-improvised section which has catchy, playful elements.

The last two quartets show an increasing enthusiasm for chromaticism, and this means a moving away from the mid-period clarity established earlier in the cycle. If you welcome clotted textures and thickening of the quartet sonority, you’ll enjoy No.7 where livelier music includes a clarifying lyricism alongside that sense of effortful skirling dynamism. In 1964 he wrote his final quartet, the tautest yet, in which the material is foregrounded and saturated in chromaticism. The fugal elements that also motor the music are eloquent tribute to his command of the quartet medium and his skill in introducing disparate material without ever becoming academic.

Suitably, these recordings are played by the Quartetto di Venezia, city of Malipiero’s birth. They play with fulsome commitment and the booklet notes, reprised from that earlier appearance, will tell you all you need to know.

-- MusicWeb International

The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was gaining international fame during the latter part of the 19th century for a string of highly successful and popular works across many genres. His Cello Concerto was premiered in London in 1896 – its symphonic character and wonderful melodic invention made the concerto one of his most beloved and frequently performed works. The Rondo, Op. 94 owes its Slavic nature to the popular melody on which it is based, while the enchanting Silent Woods and soulful Laßt mich allein! are both arrangements from previous works. The pieces on this album are performed by the award-winning cellist Enrico Dindo – praised by Rostropovich for an extraordinary sound that ‘flows as a splendid Italian voice’.

Paganini’s string quartets with guitar are amongst his very finest chamber compositions. Written for friends and private performances, they reveal the care he took in their construction. The dialogues in Quartet No. 6 are conversational but Nos. 11 and 13 are more advanced – here, formal ingenuity and melodic creativity are fused with great character. Paganini’s feel for aria-like lyricism, for operatic richness, conveyed with a variety of musical ideas, is at its zenith in these works.

Many Paganini scholars consider the quartets with guitar to be among his finest chamber works. The care Paganini took in their composition is documented in numerous letters asking the opinion of his friend Luigi Germi, to whom Quartet No. 10 is dedicated. The Quartets, Op. 4 and Op. 5 with their almost playful eccentricities and freedoms show the composer trying out a variety of forms and variations on convention, all with his typically virtuoso and lyrical touch. Volume 2 of this edition (CDS7938) was admired for its ‘crisp and elegant sensibility’ in BBC Music Magazine.

Johann Pachelbel is remembered today for his Canon in D major, but he was an outstandingly successful organist and composer whose musical legacy is in fact quite broad and varied. Of his keyboard pieces the Hexachordum Apollinis is regarded as the pinnacle of his oeuvre and was a work to which Pachelbel himself attached great importance. Consisting of six arias with variations, the collection brings together the influence of several schools of music, all filtered through the composer’s refined tastes and superlative technical skill. The splendid Chaconne anticipates Bach and is one of Pachelbel’s best-known keyboard pieces.

REVIEW:

The title work on this disc is a fascinating composition. A set of 6 arias with variations written for either harpsichord or organ. Mathematically complex with symbolism relating to numerology and the Kabbalah the booklet notes point out some interesting features and point to a work that should perhaps be more widely known and appreciated. The Chaconne is a more known work.

-- Lark Reviews (Stephen Page)

After many years of creating intensely original solo piano and song repertoire, Robert Schumann made a relatively late entry into chamber music. The piano trio genre was initially inspired by Mendelssohn who was considered by Schumann to be ‘the 19th-century Mozart.’ After testing his creative freedom with the Phantasiestücke Schumann increasingly relished the sonorities and musical discourse of strings and piano, and from the effusive energy and ardour that shines through in Op. 63 to the deep convictions expressed in Op. 110, these works include pages of incredible lyricism and pure enchantment for which Schumann had no rivals.

World Première Recordings

Giovanni Battista Sammartini attained a leading role in Milan’s music scene in the 18th century, his career extending from the height of the Baroque era to the Classical worlds of Mozart and Haydn by his death in 1775. Appearing here in world premiere recordings, these works appear to belong to Sammartini’s early period, including a four-movement example that recollects archaic church sonata form. Full of fascinating stylistic quirks, these sonatas reflect the refined taste for nuance found in the Milanese musician’s finest chamber works, with an easy melodic flow that expresses a mood for stylistic change.

A native of Naples, Ferdinando Carulli established his reputation as a leading guitarist and teacher in Paris, and his Guitar Method, Op. 27 is still in use today. As a composer he shrewdly satisfied the demands of players and audiences alike. Entertaining light waltzes can be found alongside popular melodies treated to virtuoso variations of great brilliance and indisputable originality. Musical references to Carulli’s contemporary Paganini and the fashionable influence of Spanish styles and techniques are brought together in a program that includes numerous world premiere recordings to deliver a portrait of a Neapolitan musician who deserves to be much better known.

Research in the manuscripts of the Vercelli archives has led to the attribution of known and unknown works to Luca Marenzio, one of the great masters of the late Renaissance in Italy. These works, recorded for the first time here, share a common thread: the composer’s activity in Rome and Poland. Missa Jubilate, a parody mass, is one of the most sumptuous creations of its time and a masterpiece of melodic invention whilst Magnificat sexti toni exemplifies Marenzio’s sophisticated use of echo effects. Both versions of Magnificat octavi toni and Jubilate Deo are also premiere recordings. On this recording, Don Denis Silano leads La Cappella Musicale della Cattedrale di Vercelli.

Johann Joachim Quantz wrote over 300 flute concertos for Frederick II, King of Prussia, works that have increasingly been recognized for their wealth of invention. Before his years in Berlin, however, Quantz had worked in Dresden where he wrote a series of trio sonatas. The genre had been codified by Arcangelo Corelli and was the most popular form of chamber music at the time. Quantz fashioned elegant dialogues between the instruments, fugal passages, the melodic element of the trios always highlighted next to the counterpoint. These concise, eloquent works blend styles and musical languages in a way that foreshadows his larger-scale concertos.

Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari studied in Naples before finding esteem in the Parisian musical world of the late 1780s. Fleeing the Revolution he settled in London. His compositions divide equally between vocal and chamber music, but also include two piano concertos. His Four Duets for Piano and Harp reveal clearly the main features of his art: easy melodic grace founded on his studies with Paisiello, high musical quality, formal balance, and a veneration of Haydn and Mozart. Intended for professionals and amateurs alike, slow movements are expressive and rondos full of vigor. In this recording original instruments are used to do full justice to the period timbre of Ferrari’s dialogues between fortepiano and harp.

Fernando Sor was born at a time when the guitar enjoyed increasing prominence. He differed from other virtuoso-composers for the instrument such as Giuliani and Carulli due to his far greater sense of harmonic refinement. Sor’s studies and exercises have been fundamental to guitarists for two centuries, and his sequence of Themes and Variations are his best-known compositions. His three collections based on popular French melodies have enjoyed popularity as has Les Folies d’Espagne avec Variations et un Menuet, but his masterpiece remains the Introduction et Variations sur un Thème de Mozart, a sublime example of his skill.

World Première Recordings

The premiere of Nabucco at La Scala, Milan in 1842 was a huge success for Verdi and soon led to foreign performances of the work. For its appearance in Brussels under the name Nebuchodonozor Verdi fashioned an orchestral Divertissement which was inserted into Act III; the composer’s score of this, performed here, has only very recently been rediscovered. Macbeth is one of his psychologically penetrating masterpieces and for its Parisian staging in 1865 it underwent considerable revision, notably to make its dramatic development more incisive. When Il trovatore was performed in Paris as Le Trouvère Verdi added lively local color as new additions to the score.

REVIEW:

One may ask, if these Verdi masterpieces are ‘made in Italy’, why is the title of the disc Vive Verdi!? Well, the answer is simple. All three works were such huge successes that Verdi was obliged to write a ’French version’ for each opera for foreign performances in Brussels (Nabucco) and Paris (Macbeth and Il Trovatore). Apart from the language, Verdi also included a substantial amount of revised and new music, including ballet, and this issue is dedicated to the rarities and discoveries found in these French versions. Indeed, the ’Nabucco Divertissement’ has only very recently been rediscovered. If you believe you know your Verdi, think again. A memorable programme, passionately performed and splendidly recorded, that widens our knowledge of the great Italian master.

-- Classical Music Daily

Nicol� Paganini's Quartets for Strings and Guitar offer some of the best examples of his inexhaustible creativity, including ideas and themes that were later included in his more famous concertos. The Seventh Quartet combines mastery of form with endless melodic inventiveness, while the Fourteenth is more virtuosic, allowing it's dedicatee to shine as a violinist with splendid effectiveness. The dark color of the viola gives unique timbre to the Fifteenth Quartet which, with it's moments of operatic expressiveness, is outstanding in Paganini's chamber music output. Volume 1 of this edition (CDS7912) was considered "first-rate" in every regard by the American Record Guide.

Carl Vine is one of Australia’s most eminent and internationally admired composers. His four piano sonatas span three decades and trace his diverse musical development. The earliest sonata is exuberant, pulsating with driving rhythms, while No. 2 enshrines a jazz-inspired toccata alongside memorable virtuoso pyrotechnics. Vivid fantasia elements mark out No. 3, juxtaposing the aphorism, reflection and turbulence of No. 4. With their traditional forms Vine’s sonatas are sophisticated, lyrical, urgent and compelling contemporary statements. Pianist Xiaoya Liu has captured the imagination of worldwide audiences through her pro-found artistry and charismatic performances as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across Asia, Europe, and the United States with orchestras such as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Round Rock Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, GSIM Festival Orchestra and in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Hill Auditorium, Palazzo Biscari, and Shanghai Concert Hall.

REVIEW:

Austrian composer Carl Vine has a maximalist approach both to expression and to pianistic technique—but there are moments when I wonder whether the technical difficulty is necessary in conveying the emotional content. The first theme of the First Sonata’s second movement, for example, is a lightning-fast flurry of 16th notes that requires both hands to remain stretched to a 10th through much of the passage and to leap as much as an octave and a half between iterations of the figuration. This places the hands in a near-continual stress position, but the musical effect is reminiscent of the final movement in Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata, in which Chopin allows the hands to remain in a relaxed position. Liu (and others) play the passage as if effortlessly, but I have a clear idea of the effort they must have put into mastering it, and I can’t say the passage merits that level of difficulty (and—frankly—physical discomfort if not risk of injury). Likewise, the opening of the Second Sonata involves bold chords in the treble punctuated by low bass octaves and cascades of arpeggios that span the entire range of the piano. The effect is colorful, but does it absolutely require a race from the next-to-highest octave of the piano to its lowest note and back? It’s not that I object in any way to virtuosity or athleticism in music; I’m just not always convinced that Vine’s music needs to be quite as busy as it often is. And the very few times that Xiaoya Liu is anything other than exquisitely subtle in her playing—times when she places a melody in undifferentiated accented relief rather than phrasing it with her characteristic sensitivity—it is because the writing is so thick and the physical demands so intense that she could hardly do otherwise.

But that criticism does not detract from my impression that each one of Vine’s four sonatas is tremendously expressive and is a substantial addition to the piano sonata repertoire. Xiaoya Liu gives each one a searching, thoughtful interpretation. And the sound quality is excellent throughout the recording. I give it a very strong recommendation.

-- Fanfare

Gino Marinuzzi was a great conductor and composer whose operatic experience made his own theatrical work extremely effective. Composed in Marinuzzi’s signature post-Romantic ‘grand style’, Palla de’ Mozzi was hugely successful in its day and is considered a masterpiece of 20th-century Italian opera. Making ample use of symphonic writing and rich characterization, the opera tells the dramatic and ultimately apocalyptic story of Giovanni de’ Medici’s militia, the ‘Black Bands’, commanded by the imaginary figure of Palla de’ Mozzi. This acclaimed Cagliari production was summed up in Libero as ‘something rarely heard … a synthesis of the entire history of music’. This release from Dynamic is the work's world premiere recording.

Viotti: Violin Concertos (Complete), Vol. 4

VERDI: Trouvere (Le) (Il Trovatore) (1857 Paris Version)