Classical Music

Includes work(s) for gtr by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Soloist: David Leisner.

From start to finish, I was absolutely mesmerized by this CD. There isn’t a really weak link among the 14 pieces, and Barton Pine’s prowess as a violinist has, I think, never been more boldly or excitingly displayed.



CAPRICHO LATINO • Rachel Barton Pine (vn); 1 Héctor Elizondo (narr) • ÇEDILLE 125 (79:41)


ALBÉNIZ Asturias (Leyenda). CORDERO Rapsodia Panameña. TRADITIONAL Balada Española. ESPÉJO Prélude Ibérique. QUIROGA Emigrantes Celtas. Terra!! Á Nosa!! YSAŸE Sonata No. 6. GONZÁLEZ Epitalamio Tanguero. J. WHITE Etude No. 6. TARREGA Recuerdos de la Alhambra. RODRIGO Capriccio. SEREBRIER Aires de Tango. PIAZZOLLA Tango Etude No. 3 con Libertango. 1 RIDOUT Ferdinand the Bull


I was at a bit of a disadvantage in reviewing this CD as the promo copy I received had track listings by the composers’ last names but no identifiers of the works or composers’ first names and dates. Of course, I knew who Albéniz, Ysaÿe, Rodrigo, Serebrier, and Piazzolla were, but the only two pieces I recognized by ear were the Albéniz Asturias and Rodrigo’s Capriccio (though I’d forgotten the title of the latter). A few days later I received a full track listing but no liner notes, yet I noticed that the Serebrier piece was dedicated to Rachel Barton Pine, and the González to both Rachel and her husband, Greg.


Despite the confusion, I enjoyed the CD immensely. Judging from her other CDs I’ve listened to after this (Handel sonatas, Instrument of the Devil, and Violin Concertos by Black Composers ), Barton Pine’s style tends more toward the lyric than the dramatic, but her playing here is very dramatic indeed, with sharp attacks, cleanly articulated pizzicato, and impeccable turns. One thing that surprised me was the rich, dark quality of her tone, almost viola-like in places. I would describe it (not negatively) as a “junior Oistrakh.” Every note in her range has a full, rich sound at every dynamic level and, aside from those moments when she is purposely vehement, her bowing is never rough.


Despite the extreme challenges of doing an entire CD unaccompanied, Barton Pine never lets up in creating a rhythmic underpinning for herself. I assume that Roque Cordero’s Rapsodia Panameña is based on different folk music and rhythms than the Panamanian music that reached our shores in the early 20th century, as those were essentially in habanera rhythm and this piece is not. Of course, since Cordero was a late 20th-century composer, the language has elements of bitonality throughout, and there are very quick changes from short but intense lyrical passages to rhythmic outbursts and back, but the piece holds together very well indeed. Jesus Florido’s arrangement of a traditional Spanish ballad consists of almost continual contrapuntal 16ths in which the violinist must emphasize the melody without sacrificing cleanliness of attack. César Espéjo’s Prélude Ibérique, written for Szeryng, has a very similar style though the tonal base is less spiky, and there is a long passage in 16ths that is exciting but more in the nature of a continuous melody than rhythmic accompaniment.


Manuel Quiroga, also known as Quiroga Losada, is the only composer represented by more than one work: a passionate lament in C Minor ( Emigrantes Celtas ), punctuated by short, staccato stabs; and a fiery, rhythmic piece in Terra!! Á Nosa!! which, at times, resembles a Celtic tune in melody and construction. The Ysaÿe sonata—dedicated to Quiroga Losada—has a strong Andalusian flavor. Typically of Ysaÿe, the music is more passionate and evocative of mood than an academic theme-and-devlopment. Later passages of this sonata, using a rhythmic underpinning to the melody, show his knowledge of the unaccompanied partitas of Bach. Compared with this dense piece, the etude by José White sounds almost jolly and simplistic, even repetitive, but nonetheless pleasing. The Serebrier Aires de Tango is really something, feeding into Barton Pine’s reputation for having one of the best staccato techniques on earth, but if anything her transcription of Piazzolla’s Tango Etude is even wilder, and in fact practically steals the show. Those who remember the Disney version of Ferdinand, the Bull with the Delicate Ego will not necessarily like all of Alan Rideout’s more modern version, but it’s a very amusing piece. Héctor Elizondo has a somewhat hoarse speaking voice, but is an interesting and whimsical narrator.


Bottom line: From start to finish, I was absolutely mesmerized by this CD. There isn’t a really weak link among the 14 pieces, and Barton Pine’s prowess as a violinist has, I think, never been more boldly or excitingly displayed.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

J.S. Bach: Partitas, BWV 825-827, Vol. 1 (Glenn Gould Annive

Includes work(s) for gtr by Roland Dyens. Soloist: Elena Papandreou.

SORABJI 100 Transcendental Studies: Nos. 1?25 ? Fredrik Ullén (pn) ? BIS CD-1373 (71:11)


?Our highest insights must?and should?sound like follies and sometimes like crimes when they are heard without permission by those who are not predisposed and predestined for them? Nietzsche notes in Beyond Good and Evil , 30. Yes?and like drunkenness, mania, delirium, ferocity, black magic, malice?seduction, if one is a composer of startling originality. Fredrik Ullén herewith joins the small band of ?predisposed and predestined? pianistic supermen who have opened the adytum on Sorabji?s hermetic soundscapes?Marc-André Hamelin, John Ogdon, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Michael Habermann, Kevin Bowyer, Jonathan Powell?casting up fragments of his stupendous, visionary ?uvre compellingly before us. For Hamelin, that?s true in a practical sense as well?Ullén thanks him, with Simon Abrahams and Alexander Abercrobie, for editing the Studies because ?Sorabji?s manuscripts, while calligraphically beautiful, are in general not readable enough to be useful for the performer.?


This first installment of the 100 Transcendental Studies , composed over 1940?44, suggests a more or less systematically pithy inventory of oddments comprising the Sorabji manner and its technical means, most playing a minute or two, the longest just under six. If music is, in an essential sense, for musicians, and the pleasure non-musicians derive from it a happy consequence, this relation of music to a putative audience is raised to a power in Sorabji: Busoni remarked to Bernard van Dieren?composers Sorabji admired intensely and lovingly eulogized??We must make the texture of our music such that no amateur can touch it.? The ?texture? of Sorabji?s music is such that even the well-trained professional may suffocate in it. The point is not that Sorabji is difficult to play and we?re obliged to applaud those who can bring his pieces off, but that his fantastication is such that few listeners possess the apperceptive mass?the background of associations and perceptions with which his music is in dialogue?to grasp it. For instance, the way Sorabji simply sidestepped the ?Tonal oder Atonal? obsession of his time with the sovereign caress of 10 fingers on a keyboard demonstrates that there is a richly substantial world elsewhere. Sorabji?s music does, indeed, possess sensuous appeal?cheek-by-jowl with intentionally rebarbative imprecations. Ullén?s indispensable annotations prompt the ear:


4. (Scriabinesco) Soave e con tenerezza nostalgica is an arabesque and a loving meditation on Scriabin?s B major étude, Op. 8, No. 4. There are some interesting polymetric experiments in the later section.


6. (untitled) The 100 Transcendental Studies contain études in parallel lines for each possible interval. This is the first one in seconds with rich use of 3:4 polyrhythms. A scintillating will-o?-the-wisp étude in the romantic tradition.


9. Staccato e leggiero . A remarkably modern piece for its time. Both hands play staccato chords, first in perfect asynchrony, later on with irregular alternations between the hands. Frequently Sorabji has one hand play only on white keys and the other only on black keys, a device used much later by, for example, György Ligeti.


20. Con fantasia . One of Sorabji?s refined, mysterious nocturnes . . .


22. Leggiero volante e presto assai . The piece explores an interesting new device for pianistic fireworks: glissandi on chords. A quick hazardous piece that passes by leaving you wondering what really happened.


For those of a logical or mathematical bent, the philosopher Kenneth Derus glosses Sorabji with an exploration of the metaphysics of memory reminiscent of Alfred North Whitehead at his most punctilious. And that?s to say that if you?ve read this far, you are either a Sorabji insider?to whom this will be sine qua non ?or a candidate for initiation. Sound is closely detailed and immediate?uncramped?with neither ambience nor reverberance.


FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis

This final disc in our trilogy of the chamber music of Schoenberg and his disciples is dedicated to the works for piano solo. Covering almost all of Schoenberg's output in his genre - including two fragments never previously recorded - the programme also includes Alban Berg's Sonata No.1, composed at the age of 23 under the influence of his teacher's Chamber Symphony. There is also a first recording of a fragment by Berg, originally intended for a sonata but later used almost unchanged in his opera Wozzeck. The previous two instalments in this series have received great acclaim. 'An impeccable balance between precision and expressivity' the critic in Le Monde de la musique wrote in reviewing 'Schoenberg: Works for Violin and Piano' (CD1407) and Klassik Heute gave 'Schoenberg/Webern Chamber Music (CD1467) top marks: 10/10/10. Eminent pianist Roland Pöntinen participated on both of these discs, and now he closes the trilogy with this solo programme.

Naxos arrives at the fourth installment in its complete cycle of Napoléon Coste's guitar music. The influential 19th century French guitarist and composer wrote in an early Romantic style touched by sophisticated textures, idiomatic assurance, and formal symmetry. You might say that his music sounds like what Carl Maria von Weber might have written had he been a guitar specialist. In any event, Costé's 25 Etudes Op. 38 mask their didactic aims by way of sheer musical delight. It's fantastic guitar writing, packed with enough double-note patterns, glistening scale passages, ingenuous polyphonic effects, and sly harmonic twists to entice listeners and keep guitarists honest. Jeffrey McFadden not only is an extraordinary guitarist--he's also an inspired musician. Hear, for instance, how he breathes life into the second etude's flowing patterns, or his impeccable timing of all the cadenza-type passages throughout the etudes. What variety of touch, dynamic inflection, and color McFadden brings to the slower selections! Bass lines simply soar, and the bell-like sound he gets from the higher strings and remarkable registral independence makes us wonder if McFadden is actually playing a piano disguised as a guitar! Informative annotations, gorgeous engineering, and, well, you already know the rest. No question, this is one of the loveliest discs in Naxos' burgeoning guitar collection. Buy it. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Rather than an attempt to depict a reality-based musical view of China, pianist Jenny Lin's program seems designed to show how fantasy tends to mix with reality in many Western composers' attempts to evoke the flavor of a far-off, exotic land that held strong fascination. Of course, this fascination with the Orient in general began centuries ago with Europeans' first awareness of music, styles, food, and art, an awareness that grew to spawn periodic fads and influence fashions. Rulers stocked their palaces with treasures brought from the far east; Puccini and Gilbert and Sullivan celebrated this attention and many other composers included or tried to include elements of what they thought was oriental "flavor" in some of their works. Most often, however, the result was as much like real Chinese as the Moo Goo Gai Pan from your local takeout.


Lin has chosen a varied and eminently colorful program that includes many unfamiliar works--but no one can complain that this isn't one of the more engaging, intriguing, original, and entertaining piano recordings to come along in the past year. And pianist Lin is a wonderful musician, in total technical command of this long (nearly 80 minutes) and formidable program. And (as long as we're on the subject) she imbues the music with an enticing mix of variously scented spices that truly bring out the unique, if rarely authentic flavors of each composer's creation. As you might expect the pentatonic scale and its permutations are a ubiquitous presence, a feature that may have seemed merely curious a century ago but now comes off as more than a little cartoonish and hackneyed. But it still can be made charming and even pretty, as in Martinu's The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, or sensuous, as in the surprising, Debussyian Lotus Land by Cyril Scott. Morton Gould's Pieces of China is a kind of Pictures at an Exhibition for the Kodak age. The idiom is a hybrid of borrowings from popular music styles (especially jazz) and the Western composer's "do-it-yourself Chinese music fake book"--but it's an absolutely charming condensation of cliché and postcard images, from "The Great Wall" to "Puppets" to "Slow Dance-Lotus".


Other highlights include Anton Arensky's Étude sur un theme chinois Op. 25 No. 3, a great encore piece that whirls and swirls its way through four exciting minutes; Percy Grainger's Beautiful Fresh Flower, loaded to overflowing with open fourths and pentatonic melodies; John Adams' predictably busy-but-going-nowhere evocation of China Gates; and Albert Ketèlby's In a Chinese Temple Garden, complete with gong. The prize for most authentic goes to Alexander Tcherepnin's Five ('Chinese') Concert Études Op. 52. The composer not only lived in the Far East for nearly three years in the 1930s, but he married a young Chinese concert pianist, Lee Hsien-Ming, for whom the etudes were written. Inventive and artful in their use of real Chinese melodies and impressions of Chinese instruments, these pieces have been virtually ignored by pianists but, especially as Lin presents them, they also deserve serious attention by others. Lin's fluid legatos, skillfully calibrated dynamics, and polished rapid fingering technique really shine here.


In the "works that have Chinese names but nothing to do with China" category are Abram Chasins' Rush Hour in Hong Kong, which from the sound of it just as well could be San Francisco or London or any other city; Ferruccio Busoni's Turandots Frauengemach, which is based on the folk tale Turandot, but whose theme is the very English tune "Greensleeves" which, according to the excellent liner notes, Busoni mistakenly thought was Chinese; and Rossini's Petite Polka chinoise, in which amusingly you can hear lots of Chopin but virtually no chinoiserie. Lin plays this with knowing humor and understated flair.


Lin's Steinway benefits from an acoustic that complements and naturally captures its full range and character, from robust lows to ringing highs. This is a release that every piano enthusiast should own. Those looking for a quirky but unfailingly delightful visit to China will enjoy it too. [7/1/2000]
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

In the 18th century, Leufsta Bruk - some 140 kilometres northwest of Stockholm - was the centre of a major industry producing iron both for Swedish needs and for export. It was a little principality in the middle of the forest governed by the descendants of Louis De Geer, the Belgian financier who had developed the ironworks. Highly cultured and musical, the family gathered together a remarkable collection of musical scores, a collection which mirrors the development of music and music publishing on the Continent, as well as the musical activities at a flourishing Swedish manor of the period. Presenting a sample from the Leufsta collection, this disc contains music by international stars - Tartini and Handel - as well as less familiar names, such as the London-based German composer Gottfried Keller and the Swedish composers Johan Helmich Roman and Hinrich Philip Johnsen. Concertos, keyboard solos, sonatas and duets bear testament to the entertainments - often with the active participation of members of the De Geer family themselves - that enlivened the evenings at Leufsta in the mid-18th century. The programme closes with music that has a special connection to the church of Leufsta Bruk and its famous organ from 1728: excerpts from Johnsen's Church Music, composed for the Easter Day service of 1757. Bringing these musical treasures to life is the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, whose many recordings on BIS have created a following around the world. Released in 1985 their version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with soloist Nils-Erik Sparf, is still considered one of the classic recordings of this work. More recently the forerunner of the present disc (Musical Treasures of Leufsta Bruk I, BIS-CD-1526) was described as a 'superbly performed ... unique collection of pieces demonstrating an eclectic and aristocratic taste of the early 18th century' by the reviewer on the website MusicWeb International. !

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Claudio Santoro, Mozart Camargo Guarnieri, Henrique Oswald, César Guerra-Peixe, Luiz Alvares Pinto, Alberto Nepomuceno, Radamés Gnattali, José Siqueira, Ernesto Nazareth, Fructuoso Vianna, various composers. Soloist: Arnaldo Cohen.

"An immensely gifted musician…who combines the technical mastery of a virtuoso with the musical sensitivity of a poet."

- The New York Times, (Review of David Northington's debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall.)

Classical Music

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, Greek-Armenian mystic, writer, and composer, was active in his work in the early 20th century. As part of his work as a mystic, he incorporated spiritual dance. To accompany these dances, he composed piano works along with the help of his "spiritual disciple", Thomas de Hartmann. These pieces were written during what is referred to as his “second period.” Award winning pianist Frederic Chiu plays these works giftedly.

BACH Goldberg Variations • Sachiko Kato (pn) • CENTAUR CRC3202 (59:15)


When this arrived in the mail, my first reaction was, “Oh no, here we go again; another Goldberg Variations by an artist I’ve never heard of before.” And after being so rattled by my grievous error regarding the matter of repeats in Daniel Pienaar’s recording, I had serious doubts about reviewing another Goldberg Variations ever again. Well, you know what they say about getting right back up on the horse after you’ve been thrown. Had I passed on this assignment out of fear, I’d have missed out on a truly extraordinary experience. For starters, forget that this is a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations . It’s a disc you should have purely for the velvet smoothness and silken beauty of Sachiko Kato’s tone as captured by the One Soul Studios engineers in New York’s Klavierhaus Hall. This is simply one of the most gorgeous reproductions of piano sound I’ve heard on disc.


Now, of course, this is a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations , and not being one to be burned twice, I listened to Kato’s performance with undivided attention and followed the score dutifully. Here is what I can tell you. She takes the first-half repeats of each variation, but not the second-half ones. More’s the pity, because in many of the variations’ first halves, she adds some of her own embellishments that tickled me with delight. Kato is an extremely imaginative player, and I would have loved to hear her embellishments in second-half repeats.


Beyond the matter of repeats and her own embellishments, Kato’s readings of the variations are so perfectly realized in terms of tempos, phrasing, and discovery of detail, particularly in the left hand, that one marvels at the utter naturalness and fluency of the music. Notice I said “of the music,” not of Kato’s playing, because she plays with such a sense of effortlessness and ease that it’s as if the piano is having its own joyous conversation with Bach. Listen, for example to the happy mordents and smiling trill-and-mordents in the second half of Variation 5, executed with such perfection that even at Kato’s rapid velocity, not only can you hear the difference between them, your ear can discern the number of squiggles.


I’ve long admired Angela Hewitt, Murray Perahia, András Schiff, and Craig Sheppard in this music, but Sachiko Kato’s performance is truly special, and for piano versions, I think it may now be my favorite. This wonderful Japanese-born, Los Angeles-raised, Juilliard-trained artist has yet to gain much of a presence on record—Amazon, as well as her website, lists only two previous releases, both of modern music, which Kato champions—but she performs extensively throughout the U.S. and Japan. To everyone who embraces Bach’s Goldberg Variations on piano, this deserves to be heard and is urgently recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Karl Korte and Priscilla McLean are two of the most accomplished composers of electro-acoustic music based in the U.S. These are works created entirely through digital manipulation of actual recorded Earth sounds.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This exquisite, mobile-like, ever-focus-shifting music for three pianos is wonderfully performed by noted new-music champion Sarah Cahill. A 25-minute CD EP/Single. “If this is a long night, let it go on and on.” [Marc Geelhoed, Time Out Chicago] “It’s a beautiful and original piece, with ‘family’ links to such composers as Harry Partch, Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, and John Cage, and with allusions to ‘nature’ and the ‘East’.” [Int'l Record Review] “A commanding presence in the landscape of American music.... his music is passionate, fiercely intelligent and one of a kind. Gann’s music embraces a broad range of influences but sounds like no other.” [John Luther Adams, NewMusicBox (American Music Center)] “Long Night was intended to evoke Martin Heidegger's phenomenology of mood swings. Three unsynchronized piano lines flow parallel through sections of indeterminate length, overlapping like ripples from raindrops splashing into a pond in slow motion…. Sarah Cahill plays all three parts on this economical CD single, heightening the music’s gentle equanimity.” [Steve Smith, Time Out New York] “Best Albums of 2005.... The composer-turned-critic dusts off a minimalist piano sketch from his apparently not-so-misspent youth.” [K. Leander Williams, Time Out New York]

Six elegant, dark, sensuous soundscapes in which emotions seem to bubble just below cool surfaces. Harmonically rich and texturally subtle music that features idiosyncratic electric guitar playing techniques developed by composer/performer Cox, whom noted guitarist-composer Ry Cooder has called “a hidden master of the crepuscular and the diaphanous.” On this CD Cox is joined by celebrated composer/trumpeter Jon Hassell, popular film composer Thomas Newman (piano), and composer/performer/instrument designer Chas Smith (pedal steel guitar). The Wire magazine wrote of this album, “Gently undulating melodies are held in soft focus, without becoming cloying; [Cox’s] enveloping harmonies are less innocent than they first appear. Prettiness with a tough core.” And Fanfare magazine wrote, “If you imagine floating through the night sky on a large abstract tapestry, you’ll get a feeling for what Cox’s music is like.” Motion (UK), opined, “Quiet music of consummate musicianship…an achingly beautiful suite of pieces featuring slowly, oh-so-slowly shifting soundscapes. One of a kind and clear candidate for every ambienteer’s ‘Best of 2001’ list.”

Nigel North presents a beguiling selection of English Renaissance ballad tunes for the lute by John Dowland and his contemporaries. Originally released in 2003, 'Go From My Window' has been re-issued as part of Linn's ECHO series which offers a second chance to enjoy the best of the label's award-winning catalogue. To the Elizabethans and Jacobeans of early seventeenth-century England, the lute was undoubtedly the most important instrument at all levels of society. It was the principle instrument used to accompany the voice, at court, theatre or home; amateurs played it for domestic music making; professionals like John Dowland entertained royalty around Europe with their own music composed and performed on the lute. Familiar favourites, like 'Greensleeves' and 'Go From My Window', sit alongside pieces whose popularity has since been forgotten. North has grouped pairs of the same tune by different composers allowing the listener to compare the different variations. 'Go From My Window' was well reviewed upon release with Gramophone naming it a 'Choice' recording. Renowned as one of the world's most respected lutenists Nigel North has developed a unique musical life embracing work as a teacher, accompanist, soloist, director and writer. With the ensemble Romanesca, North, together with Andrew Manze (violin) and John Toll (harpsichord & organ), performed and recorded 17th century chamber music winning several international awards for their recordings.

Mompou: Piano Music, Vol. 4

Art & Music: Bruegel - Music of His Time

SCHNITTKE: Piano Quintet / String Trio / Stille Musik