The epic piano trios of Leonid Sabaneev stand on the dividing line between the Romantic and the Modern, between exalted feelings and the oppression of Stalinist terror. Ilona Then- Bergh (violin) and Michael Schäfer (piano) collaborate for the sixth time on this Genuin production. These world premiere recordings are never before heard.

The Bulgarian-born mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova fairly quickly became a crowd favorite early in her professional career at the Zurich Opera House, reaching international stardom soon after with her Salzburg Festival debut in 1991. During the subsequent quarter-century, she has been heard on the great stages of the world's finest opera houses, singing a range of roles in operas by Mozart, Rossini, Massenet, Berlioz, Donizetti, Verdi, and more. A past ECHO Klassik award recipient, her recordings, including several for the RCA Victor Red Seal label, have been critically-acclaimed and popular with opera fans and admirers of Ms. Kasarova. For Genuin, she has recorded a new album of Russian Arias with the conductor Pavel Baleff and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden. It's repertoire is one of discovery, or re-discovery, with names such as Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov denoting the high quality of the music to be heard sung by this world-class singer.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a gifted composer not only for his own instrument, the piano, as is abundantly clear in this new Genuin release featuring Leipzig's MDR Chorus. The elite choir is already presenting its second recording of Rachmaninoff's ''Great Evening and Morning Praise'' to replace their award-winning 2002 version. Choir director Risto Joost himself engaged several Latvian basses for the project, whose exceptionally dark timbre wonderfully enhances the warm and breathtakingly beautiful sound of the choir. A magnificent recording of a magnificent work!

Classical Music

LE BEAU 3 Klavierstücke. Original Theme with Variations . Sonata. 8 Preludes. Improvisata . Gavotte. Ballade. 3 Old Dances. Deutscher Reigen. Trauermarsch. Klavierstücke . Barcarole. Abendklaänge • Ana-Marija Markovina (pn) • GENUIN 10177 (79:48)


We often mourn the great music we have missed because of a handful of composers that died prematurely (Mozart, Schubert) or before a major breakthrough (Wagner). A far greater tragedy was the de facto removal of women from the compositional profession for most of the history of Western music, a state of affairs that has improved radically in recent decades.


Luise Adolphe Le Beau may seem like a mere historical footnote for those not familiar with her music (that included me until recently), but if this disc is any indication, this is one composer whose reappraisal is not happening quickly enough. She wrote in most of the major genres of the day, but not surprisingly it is her piano and chamber works that are getting the first modern glances. More often than not I’m skeptical about these revivals, but this fine recording by Marija Markovina of Le Beau’s complete piano works should spark renewed interest.


Biographical information isn’t easy to come by for the German composer, even with notes that are otherwise substantial. Her primary fame seemed to spring from her concertizing, though her compositions did make a minor splash with other composers of the day (Clara Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, and critic Hanslick) and in at least one contest. The demands on the pianist are significant, though by no means on the same level of virtuosity of Liszt or even Brahms. Some of these bear the hallmarks of parlor pieces, but others are substantial enough to take pride of place on a concert stage. The Improvisata has more meat than the name might imply, with a suggestion of a barcarolle in the rolling melody in triplets. The Ballade has some Chopin in its DNA, but there are also touches of Schumann and Brahms here as well as in most of the other works. The central tune is a thing of beauty, and the bravura final pages are stirring.


Her gift for spinning simple and memorable tunes is nowhere more apparent than in the sweetly pastoral Three Old Dances . The most extended work, Original Theme with Variations, dates from her early years, but the skills seem already fully developed. Here the mark of Schumann is most pronounced, with concentrated, inventive variations that reach well beyond the clichés of the Classical or early Romantic era.


I don’t often highly recommend obscure works beyond a pool of dedicated specialists. Here is a happy exception, a generous helping of engaging piano works performed in captivating style by a perceptive pianist. As a bonus for the collector, this is one recording that is sure to stump any competitors in a game of “guess that composer.”


FANFARE: Michael Cameron

When we hear Trombone Unit Hannover’s second GENUIN release, we’re reminded of King Arthur and his round table: a dozen or so internationally award-winning young men with glistening metal and flaming audacity. But when the first notes of Handel’s Royal Fireworks overture blaze forth from the speakers, all we can think is “The world is sound!” Whether we’re fans of brass or ballet or orchestra: the virtuosity, drive, and glorious sound of these young knights of the trombone practically sweep us off our feet. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Handel’s Fireworks music: who would ever want to hear these works again in a different version?

Already for the 16th time the pianist Michael Sch�fer opens up new worlds for us in his GENUIN series Un!erh�rt ("Unheard"). After the 2013 release of the CD featuring the (unrightfully) rarely performed chamber music by Leonid Sabaneev, Michael Sch�fer is now presenting the first volume of Sabaneev's piano works as a double CD. This music seems to be placed between all worlds and epochs: music of a composer who experienced and suffered the entire Russian history, from the Russian Empire up until long after Stalin's death. Michael Sch�fer plays to his customary high standard, inspired and passionate - for Russian fans and keyboard enthusiasts a must!

Classical Music

The young, much-praised pianist Schaghajegh Nosrati makes her grand, auspicious Genuin label CD debut with Bach’s The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. Born 1989 in Bochum, Germany, Ms. Nosrati’s career has already been marked by numerous successes at national and international piano competitions as well as appearances at major European music festivals and concert halls. “Miss Nosrati's interpretation is highly impressive and profoundly moving.” (Sir András Schiff) “The interpretation is well-balanced, conscientious, natural and convincing in its structure. Quite a feat!” (Robert Levin)

Classical Music

GLASS String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima.” Saxophone Quartet. NYMAN Songs for Tony • Sonic Art Saxophone Qrt • GENUIN 11222 (54:27)


The debut recording by this fine quartet was reviewed by me a little over a year ago in Fanfare 34:5. The members of the Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet chose to make their first splash with a CD that they admit in the notes for this release would “rub the hearing nerves the wrong way.” It is a great CD, one that I unreservedly recommend to listeners who are open to avant-garde music.


This CD is different, if still very much about New Music. The works of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman are little concerned with the outer limits of extended instrumental technique—though a fine technique is a must—or with exploring the expressive possibilities of extreme dissonance. To the contrary, they are concerned with creating an emotional response with the humblest of harmonic and rhythmic means: lines of arpeggiated chords underlying relatively simple and often rather popish diatonic melodies. It shouldn’t move one, but in the hands of these composers the effect can be both refreshingly uncomplicated and deeply affecting. Listen to the wistfully sad melody of the “Mishima Closing” movement and be amazed at how much can be said with so few musical words; it is, in a sense, the equivalent of haiku.


The playing itself is mesmerizing; it is a joy simply to listen to the precision and balance that the young German quartet achieves. One cannot help but be impressed with the seamlessness of the lines, the exquisite balancing of parts, the purity of tone, the precise tuning, and the way the players seem to respond as one. The technical polish generally suits this music well, with results that are both coolly objective and revealing of the structures of the music. This is most effective in the saxophone-only version of the quartet (1995), an abstract piece that creates much of its expressive power through the interplay of lines and textures. Glass’s original version, the String Quartet No. 3 (1985), lifted from the composer’s score for the Paul Schrader film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters , carries more overt emotional weight. Sonic Art’s crystalline perfection and the rather swift pacing tend to understate that emotional content in this transcription. A comparison with the original, highly expressive Kronos Quartet recording reveals this ensemble’s relative interpretive reserve.


Nyman’s Songs for Tony (1993) also has a film pedigree; part of his score to Jane Campion’s The Piano is the basis for the second movement. The work voices Nyman’s grief over the death of his friend and business manager, Tony Simmons, and the last movement in particular, scored for a quartet with two baritone saxophones, is a moving reflection on that loss. I first heard Songs for Tony on a Decca Apollo Saxophone Quartet release, First & Foremost , and disliked the raucous first movement enough that I never revisited the work. Sonic Art’s performance has me re-evaluating that response. The newer performance still retains the rock feel of his song Mozart on Mortality , set in that movement, but the tone is decidedly more refined. The other movements, especially the soprano saxophone-dominated third movement, are played with all the warmth that I found wanting in the “Mishima” Quartet. Those who favor the Apollo performance may find this one comparatively lacking in character, but Sonic Art makes it work for me.


The engineering provided by Genuin is close and extremely clean, in keeping with the quartet’s style. Purists are warned by the informative notes that the pauses for breathing were edited out of the Third Quartet recording rather than using circular breathing, as would be done in a concert setting. There are alternatives for those seeking a particular Glass work: the more supple Oasis Saxophone Quartet recording of the “Mishima” Quartet ( Fanfare 34:6) is nicely matched with works by Gotkovsky and Escaich. Note however that the finale is even faster than Sonic Art’s, and thereby misses the melancholy. Fine recordings of the Saxophone Concerto have been offered by Tetraphonics (Cybèle, Fanfare 32:6), Amstel (Concert Artists Guild, Fanfare 33:5), and the more reflective but brilliant Raschèr on Glass’s own Orange Mountain Music label. Those attracted to this particular trio of works, however, will find the new release highly satisfactory; it is recommended with only the above few qualifications.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

With the cycle "The Year", composed by Mendelssohn's sister Fanny upon completing a journey to Italy, one feels transported into another time period. Els Bieseman's Fortepiano debut CD set exactly those strings in vibration that have been lost on the new, well-equipped modern concert grand. The dark, dreamlike sound of the Pleyel grand (that Liszt & company enthused over…) beautifully fits the transparent, structured and always supple playing of the young Belgian musician. Wonderfully romantic music in which a splendid musician allows us to take part! - Genuin

Review Quotes:

"She plays with passion, musical sensitivity, virtuosity and emotional intensity that would surely have impressed Fanny..." - Andrew Benson-Wilson, Early Music Review, 10/12

"Genuin has brought us Els Bieseman to reveal the best Romantic traditions. His sense of nuance and his vision are of a perfect score. Music that soothes, within the conventions of the past yet also up to date.." - Jean-Luc Caron, ResMusica, (translated from French) 28.01.2013

"The playing is much to be praised. She tends to be more mercurial in the faster pieces and moves more quickly in the slower ones. Her technique and expressive abilities are never too challenged, and she easily moves through all of the surface charms of the music. The engineers have also done their job very well." Alan Becker, American Record Guide, January 2013

D’INDY Poème des Montagnes,. Tableaux de Voyage. Thème varié, fugue et chanson • Michael Schäfer (pn) • GENUIN GEN 87083 (73:24)


Vincent d’Indy, a notable composer for piano? Apart from the piano complement to the evergreen Symphonie Cévenole , the seldom heard Poème des Montagnes, and several misrepresentative attempts on the great Piano Sonata—which most listeners have probably dismissed as turgid and too long—d’Indy’s piano works are little-known, even to collectors. Yet his catalog is extensive. Indeed, this is the first of three generously filled CDs that stop just short of comprising the complete piano music. The current program is a revealing balance of works by the young enthusiast and the old master.


From 1881, as d’Indy turned 30, the suite Poème des Montagnes, a great fresco chronicling the courtship of his cousin—Isabelle de Pampalonne, whom he’d married in 1875—against the backdrop of the Cevennes mountains surrounding the family chateau, is dedicated to Chabrier, whose note of thanks put a finger on its strengths and weaknesses. Found “exquisite” were the “Bruyères” section, “Brouillard,” “which would be delicious on the orchestra,” “Plein air,” “A deux,” “and all the last pages. I’m not so keen on the ‘Danses rhythmiques’; to begin with, the writing and especially the rhythms are certainly unusual, but these rhythms are broken up by the use of the thumb in the left hand and by too many effects one after another with so little regularity in their disorder that I’ve no time to be either astonished or charmed. … In any case, you are a marvelous musician, with more skill than substance as yet, but inspired by the highest artistic ideals. Thank you, again, Affectionately, Emmanuel.” Schäfer animates it all—including the frantic “Danses”—with a muscular zest, dusting Diane Andersen’s lame account into the weeds (Talent 128, Fanfare 33:1), though for the ultimate finesse one would have to go back to LPs and the aptly named Jean Doyen’s account for Erato, picked up by the Musical Heritage Society, The French School from D’Indy to Roussel (MHS 1155/6/7). Doyen, by the way, takes the “Danses” at a more leisurely pace, ameliorating the clatter/clutter of d’Indy’s Gaiment direction.


The Tableaux de voyage are a baker’s dozen of souvenirs from a walking tour of the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps composed in 1889. D’Indy thought well enough of them to orchestrate six of them two years later. From slender melodic gifts he wrings major charm to make eminently companionable music. By 1925 the master hand could compel engagement from the most rudimentary melody. In the Thème varié, fugue et chanson every note tells, keeping one’s attention on the stretch with the spectacle—or auricular—of so much done with so little. Michael Schäfer rises to every challenge with gratifying impetuosity, though his tone tends to a certain hardness and there is some occasional pedal-thumping. No matter. We are fortunate to have so much recondite fare given with such empathetic flair. Sound is immediate, detailed, and gutsy. Released at the end of 2007, this and its companions were slow to achieve domestic distribution and you are best advised to grab them before they disappear. Enthusiastically recommended.


FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis

With this Genuin release, we're carried away on a musical journey to other spheres in a live concert recording by rising young South Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo. The late Beethoven Sonata, Op. 109, Chopin's 24 Preludes, and piano works by Liszt an dTchaikovsky form a substantial and multi-faceted selection that does full justic to the 2015 International German Piano Award winner's dynamic playing style. The transparent sound of his Bechstein grand allows even the subtlest nuances of color to shine through. The phrases and structures are brought out with such clarity and lucidity that we're more than happy to simply follow along as the pianistic guide shows us the way.

CELLOCINEMA • Eckart Runge (vc); Jacques Ammon (pn) • GENUIN 12220 (69:34)


Music by ROTA, WAITS, HERRMANN, PIAZZOLLA, GARDEL, CATALANI, SHOSTAKOVICH, JANÁCEK, DALE, CHAPLIN, MORRICONE


Film music is becoming an increasingly popular genre for classical musicians. In recent months I have reviewed, here and elsewhere, CDs with very similar repertory by the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, the Austrian Salonists, and violinist Nicola Benedetti. All of them were rather bland and unadventurous, so I was skeptical about the present release. Despite the presence of what I am beginning to think of as “the usual suspects,” (Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” Ennio Morricone’s music from Cinema Paradiso , Shostakovich’s Romance from The Gadfly , etc.), Cellocinema is a cut above the aforementioned discs. I think the reason for this is that cellist Runge and pianist Ammon (who worked jointly on the arrangements) do not treat the music with excessive reverence. They are respectful, but they also have a good time with it. They show some imagination. For example, at the start of Bernard Herrmann’s main title for Psycho , Runge’s cello appears to be imitating a yowling cat . . . or is it the wind? But really, just the fact that Runge and Ammon took several sections of Herrmann’s score and arranged them for cello and piano is both funny and exciting. (The Montreal Guitar Trio also has recorded a fantastic arrangement of music from Psycho . I just thought you should know!) A suite of Nino Rota’s music from 8 1/2 is surprising too, and done with an appreciation for the film’s humor, which is both manic and pathetic.


Runge is a most expressive player. While he shows off beautiful cantabile playing in his arrangement of the famous aria from Catalani’s La Wally (the one used in Diva ) and in Chaplin’s “Smile,” at other times he roughs up his tone, or disguises it, “speaking” in a funny or choked voice as if he himself were a movie actor. Ammon is an equal partner in these proceedings, not allowing himself to be upstaged by Runge, but never competing with him either.


The only fault with this disc is the documentation. Herrmann’s first name was not “Bernhard” (I can imagine him screaming over this) and Janá?ek never wrote anything called The Unbearable Lightness of Being , although music of his was used in the eponymous film. The selection included here is the third of that composer’s set of three Fairy Tales , but you won’t know that from Genuin’s track listing or from Runge’s booklet notes. Most of the disc was recorded way back in 2003, but three of the tracks (Tom Waits’s “Helsinki Mood” from Night on Earth , Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” as used in Pulp Fiction , and “Smile”) are from 2012. No explanation is given for the nine-year gap, but you wouldn’t know it was there unless you read it, and of course that is a good thing. Cellocinema is one of those rare birds: a crossover disc that is neither silly nor pandering, and one that reveals that the performers have a genuine affinity for the material.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle