Classical Music

Classical Music

Saxophonist Ryan Muncy releases a recording highlighting the increasingly important and vibrant role of his instrument in today's avant-garde repertoire. Featuring performances of works by Donatoni, Aperghis and Czernowin, with such notable performers as flutist Claire Chase and violist Nadia Sirota, this CD engages with and breaks through the saxophones previous limited associations, pointing the way to a new arena of exploration for the instrument.

REVIEWS:

Dirty Linen (8-9/99, p.65) - "...one of America's best lutenists....offers 44 tracks of music from three manuscripts from the 17th century. There is generally more nobility than abandon in the treatments...masterfully played."

Classical Music

Classical Music

CLAUDE FRANK 85th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION • Claude Frank (pn) • SONO LUMINUS DSL-92122 (2 CDs: 138:12)


SCHUMANN Arabeske. Fantasiestücke: Warum. Kinderszenen: Traümerei. MOZART Piano Sonata in C, K 330. Rondo in a, K 511. SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in B?, D 960. BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos. 30–32


The big question attached to this release is, “Why now?” Many collectors will recognize Claude Frank’s name from the complete set of Beethoven sonatas he recorded in the 1970s, and which were released on RCA Victrola LPs. (These now are available on Music & Arts.) There have been a couple of other releases since then—Beethoven’s and Schubert’s works for violin and piano, recorded with his daughter, Pamela Frank—but for the most part, Claude Frank is a major pianist who has been ignored by the recording industry. In other words, the present release is welcome, and very satisfying, and when I look at how many CDs Lang Lang has made since the start of his career, the infrequency of Frank’s recordings makes me mad.


Recorded in New York’s American Academy for Arts and Letters in 2008 and 2009, this pair of discs captures Frank a little before his 85th birthday. (He was born in 1925.) Initially, I thought that these were going to be live performances. Apparently they are not, but Frank’s playing, both intimate and communicative, suggests the presence of an audience of one—that being you, dear listener. Frank’s frequent vocalises, in the manner of Glenn Gould, will not endear these readings to everyone. Somehow, they add to the intimacy of the music-making.


In the generous booklet that accompanies this release, Frank discusses his lengthy studies with Artur Schnabel. (Frank studied with him between 1941 and 1951, but there was a break after he was drafted into the United States Army during World War II.) Frank’s repertory has much in common with Schnabel’s, and his playing resembles his teacher’s in several ways as well. Above all, effect for effect’s sake is rejected. Frank’s playing is not flashy, but it goes right to the music’s core like an arrow seeking the bull’s-eye. One way in which it differs from Schnabel’s is in Frank’s occasional use of a technique in which the left hand slightly anticipates the right. (This can be clearly heard in the middle movement, the Allegro molto, of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31.) I know this drives some listeners crazy, and if you are one of them, consider yourself warned. Frank doesn’t do it often enough to make it a mannerism, though. In the sequence of repeated G-Major chords that ushers in that final section, Frank (I think through a combination of pedaling and touch) creates a sonority I have never heard coming from a piano. A little later, in the final fugal section, Frank realizes Beethoven’s odd rhythmic dislocations with greater clarity than I have heard from any other pianist. In the three Beethoven sonatas, Frank does not suffer in comparison to his younger self, and the engineering is better, too.


The other performances are terrific as well. In Schubert’s sonata, Frank captures a quality that I consider essential to much of the composer’s later work, that being the song of a bird who sings still more beautifully even as he perceives that a cat is about to pounce on him. A similar quality pervades the Mozart Rondo in A Minor. Mozart’s Sonata in C is unaffected—it is neither fragile Dresden china nor a jolly rugby scrum. The Schumann miniatures are warm but not overly sentimental. Frank understands that romantic music does not mean “anything goes.” Above all, in all of these works, including the Beethoven, Frank lets the music speak for itself. Like the finest pianists at work today (Perahia, Lupu, Schiff, etc.), his personality supports the music and does not compete with it.


The musicianship on these discs stands up to anything else in front of the public at this time. Piano mavens whose heads are not turned by mere virtuosity should acquire this release immediately, if they have not done so already!


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle


These 2008/09 recordings were made in anticipation of Claude Frank's 85th birthday on December 24, 2010, and testify to the veteran pianist's seasoned musicianship and remarkably intact technique. Frank always has played Schubert's final sonata supremely well, and you can forgive the occasionally uneven phrase or split note in light of the pianist's warm tone and intelligently shaped long lines, especially in the first-movement development section and throughout the slow movement. Frank's moderate tempo for the Scherzo allows the music its lilting, delicate due, while the finale boasts genuine cumulative urgency and a driving coda that ought to keep younger pianists humble.

The Mozart C major K. 330 sonata sports characterful grace, wit, and spot-on timing. Frank's bracing and direct treatment of the Mozart A minor Rondo demonstrates how to convey expressive niceties through color and nuance rather than by monkeying around with tempo. Likewise, the Schumann short pieces elicit eloquent, tellingly proportioned artistry.

By and large Frank plays the last three Beethoven sonatas with greater deliberation and lyricism than in his relatively faster RCA studio versions from nearly four decades earlier. The incisive punch and accentuation of yore has given way to more songful phrasing and room to breathe, although Frank's dynamic range ventures less toward Beethoven's extremes. This is a memorable release showcasing Claude Frank in authoritative performances of the music he loves best.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

As the composer that Johann Sebastian Bach at the age of twenty walked more than 400 kilometres in order to meet, Dietrich Buxtehude holds a place of honour in the history of music. Luckily, an important portion of his music, mainly vocal works and organ pieces, has also survived. Having spent his childhood and early years in Helsingborg and Elsinore, on either side of the strait that divides Denmark and Sweden, Buxtehude was recruited as organist by the congregation of the great Marienkirche in the wealthy Hanseatic city of Lübeck. On the basis of this, as well as the challenges posed by his organ compositions, it is safe to assume that he was a virtuoso on his instrument. He would also have been a connoisseur of fine organs - the finest of which at the time were to be found in Northern Germany. Two such magnificent instruments still exist in the small towns of Altenbruch and Lüdingworth, some 130 kilometres west of Lübeck, and on them Masaaki Suzuki here performs a varied selection of Buxtehude's organ works. This ranges from brief chorale preludes to the magnificent Te Deum laudamus and the celebrated Ciaccona in E minor. Although he is most widely known for his on-going, highly praised series of Bach's cantatas on BIS, Masaaki Suzuki in fact began his professional career as a church organist at the age of twelve, later studying the instrument both in Tokyo and in Amsterdam. For BIS he has previously recorded Bach's Organ Mass ('an organist of distinguished musicianship and superior technique' wrote the American Record Guide) and organ works by Sweelinck, a disc which upon its release was recommended by Gramophone and described in International Record Review as containing 'performances which are compelling in their stylistic integrity and uncompromising musicianship.'

One of Finalnd’s most versatile musicians, Jaakko Kuusisto has an extensive discography with BIS where he has recorded as a chamber musician, soloist, concertmaster, conductor, composer, and arranger. This release features Kuusisto as both composer and performer. One can hear Kuusisto’s nods to some of his hero composers including Stravinsky, Sibelius, and Prokofiev, fusing together centuries of Western music to form his own unique style. Joining Kuusisto for this recording is the Meta4 String Quartet, who frequently performs Kuusisto’s works, and pianist Paavali Jumppanen who has written extensive liner notes for this release.

In his early career as a composer, Berlin-born Stefan Wolpe espoused social causes and wrote songs on revolutionary themes.

ALBÉNIZ Iberia. GRANADOS Goyescas • Arthur Pizarro (pn) • LINN CKD 355 (2 CDs: 146:25)


Goyescas and Iberia are generally considered, and not without some justice, to be the two pinnacles of Spanish piano music. Messiaen, who was obviously influenced by it, once wondered if Iberia might not be the greatest piece of piano music ever written. Seriously. It is divided into four parts, each consisting of three pieces that attempt to evoke Spanish scenes and landscapes, mostly in Andalusia and vicinity, often by using characteristic dances and rhythms. It presents the would-be performer with a cascade of finger-twisting difficulties and a barrage of notes that sometimes require three staves (this is also true, to a lesser extent, of Goyescas ). Albéniz once considered destroying it because he suspected that it was unplayable and Blanche Selva, the pianist who eventually gave the first performances of all four books, initially agreed with him.


I have not heard any of the several previous recordings that Artur Pizarro has made for Linn Records but, judging from his recordings of these Spanish favorites, I would guess that he’s someone who marches to his own drummer. In his interesting annotations, Pizarro says that the composer himself could not play all of the 12 pieces that make up Iberia . Pizarro obviously can but he sometimes tries to make his points with tonal shading and restraint, eschewing flashiness. This is a dangerous strategy in Iberia , which is surely one of the most extroverted collections of piano music going. Many of the pieces invite virtuosic brilliance and, if recordings are typical, usually get it. I think that the music benefits from a more aggressive approach than that taken by Pizarro in, at least some of the pieces. I am not claiming that this is a dull performance—it is not and it does not lack vitality and color. Speaking of tonal color, he uses a Blüther piano because he believes it has a sound that Albéniz and Granados would have recognized—in his words, “a piano with the sound of the beginning of the century with the build quality and strength of a new piano and a very, very fast action.” This is no problem at all and what emerges from the Blüther bears no resemblance to the tinny sound of a fortepiano.


My own favorite among Iberia s remains that of Nicholas Unwin on Chandos, which I would place in a virtual tie with those of Marc-André Hamelin (Hyperion) and Alicia de Larrocha (Decca). These are all more conventionally “brilliant” performances and tend to be faster than Pizarro’s. Unwin’s has two advantages over theirs: (1) it’s on one CD and (2) it’s still available. Larrocha’s EMI recording (originally Hispavox), a wonderfully vital, animated performance, suffers from what seems to be sympathetic vibration that imparts an unpleasant ring to many loud notes. It has also been reissued on the “Great Performances of the Century” series but I doubt that the problem has been cleared up; by my recollection, it also existed on the Epic LP. There are also perfectly good recordings by Martin Jones (Nimbus) and Guillermo González (Naxos). I have not heard Aldo Ciccolini’s recording in many years. My (possibly unfair) recollection was that some of his “interpretive” touches were dictated by the difficulty of the pieces. On the other hand, in 1947 Claudio Arrau recorded Books 1 and 2, only, with such technical facility and power that he actually made the pieces sound easy. Grab that one if it ever turns up. Too bad Arrau didn’t record it all, but he apparently had little interest in Spanish music. Jorge Bolet would probably have made a knockout recording but he only recorded one Spanish music collection, for the Boston Records label (I wonder who owns the rights). José Iturbi was interested in Spanish music and played it with flair but he only recorded a few pieces by Albéniz and Granados for EMI, none of them from Iberia or Goyescas . It is possible that he recorded some for his own label but I’ve never seen any of those recordings. His sister, Amparo, made a fine LP recording of Goyescas for RCA Victor but I’ll bet that never shows up on CD.


Speaking of Amparo Iturbi, when she was a child, she played Goyescas for Granados and was told that he wished performers would use El pelele , which is not part of the set, as a prelude to Goyescas . In fact, when he wrote the opera that is based on the piano suite, he actually did use El pelele as the prelude. The only recordings I know of that follow this procedure are those of Iturbi and Ralph Votapek, the latter of which, fortunately, compares with any that I’ve heard and, happily, is still available. Like the six pieces that make up the body of Goyescas, El pelele is inspired by a painting by Goya. The only piece he did not use when he wrote the opera is the final one, The Specter’s Serenade.


In his annotations, Pizarro says that Alicia de Larrocha once admonished him not to imitate her. That some young pianist who was taking on Spanish repertoire might be inclined to do so would be understandable, given her authority and proficiency. It appears that she need not have been concerned; his take on Goyescas is not only different from hers, it’s actually different from the other nine recordings I auditioned. In four of the pieces, Flattery, Conversation at the Window, The Maiden and the Nightingale, and Love and Death (I assume that the English titles will mean more to most Fanfare readers), his is the slowest tempo, sometimes significantly so, but he brings it off. There is a kind of yielding elegance to his playing that strikes me, at least, as appropriate for the music. On the other hand, Granados’s recording of the first four pieces is much faster but he probably never played it the same way twice in a row and his Welte-Mignon piano rolls seem improvisatory. He takes the pieces at quite a fast tempo and certainly demonstrates that reports of his prodigious technique were not greatly exaggerated. He also, for some reason, makes a cut in Flattery . In any event, Pizarro joins the ranks of those who have done recorded justice to Goyescas, which, to my taste, include Votapek (my first choice), Alicia de Larrocha (any of the four I’ve heard), Cristina Ortiz, Eduardo del Pueyo, Benita Meshulam, Douglas Riva, Martin Jones, and Amparo Iturbi. When (what I assume to be) Larrocha’s earliest recording of Goyescas was issued in the U.S., on American Decca, it was, for some reason, divided between two LPs, with the last two pieces on the second LP along with some piano music of Mompou. When MCA issued it on CD, they only included the first four pieces, as if they were unaware of the other LP, a really dumb error. Tape damage would have been no excuse since I wasn’t the only person in the country to own the second LP. Fortunately, her subsequent recordings for Hispavox/EMI, Decca/London, and RCA Victor more than filled that gap.


FANFARE: James Miller

There is a degree of self-effacement and self-absorption in his playing that I find appealing: it's as though we are eavesdropping on an intimate and private dialogue. A fine set, beautifully recorded.

– BBC Music Magazine

With no shortage to choose from, it's easy to imagine why listeners might be overwhelmed when choosing a recording of Bach's Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin. Baroque violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk throws his hat into the ring with this 2011 Linn Records set. His playing does seem very conversational, even drawing listeners into the discourse. His effortless technique shines through in the much more animated, vivacious fast movements.

– All Music Guide

This is rather terrific. It is an example of the transcriber's art as high as Bach's and a whole CD of it, full of Italian concertos we never hear, as well as ones we do. What we have here is a kind of super-abundant version of Bach's arrangements of Vivaldi and others. These are 'concertos after' and reflect the transcriber's skill who has turned them into organ sonatas with some degree of freedom. There was a Vol. 1 of transcribed (Albinoni, Gregori, Telemann, Gentili) and original works which I've not yet heard. Walther was a year older than his distant relative, J. S. Bach. The two became friends when Bach spent time in Weimar. Walther was acknowledged as one of the great organists of his day, playing not only his own compositions but, as Vol. 2 shows, collecting those of other composers.

Born in Erfurt he received tuition from Johann Bernhard Bach. Organist at his home city's St Thomas he formed a friendship, based on much travelling, with Werckmeister, studied with Pachelbel's son, Wilhelm Hieronymus, then studied philosophy back at Erfurt university. As often happens to musical philosophy students in Germany around this time, he finally devoted his energy to music from thenceforth, and was organist at St. Paul's Weimar from 1707, joining the court orchestra by invitation of Duke Wilhelm Ernst, around the time Bach was leaving after the death of his wife.

Walther's own chorale preludes are represented, and 'Mache, dich' with its tinkling effects rather like some of Krebs's later efforts, recall one of the occasional stops no longer used in the organ vocabulary. They're very fine pieces and deserve to be better known. Walther's own modesty and low profile as a composer is the key to their comparative neglect. The transcriptions are suitable for the Italian or Italianate originals, the Vivaldi similar to Bach's and the Manzia unexpected in its use of flute stops. The Blamr is gentle, not quite bland, an attractive composition by someone hardly known to us. The Taglietti is full of panache and the three Torelli concerti that close the volume full of a graciousness one doesn't expect. The single movement d minor is full of questing for the home key, reflective and quasi-churchy. The B flat blows this away in brilliant ceremonials. The a minor is full of bright gothic gloom.

A really enjoyable disc, a true addition, beautifully recorded and played.

-- Simon Jenner, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

From 'The angel Gabriel' to 'In dulci jubilo' the tone of this programme is set by Christmas lullabies, medieval English carols and a cradle song. This lovely Christmas feast from a variety of choirs and instrumentalists is crowned by the sonorous tones of Johann Sebastian Bach's magnificent organ music.

Great music from a Tudor court. A musical journey back in time - to the world of the jesters and music makers of the royal chamber. Stately dances, gentle lute music and wistful love songs make up this programme of beautiful and elaborate sixteenth-century music from the Tudor courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Beautiful piano music to excite, inspire and encourage, composed with children in mind, from Mozart's variations on 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' and evocative children's pieces by Debussy, Schumann and others, to minuets and other simple pieces which children often learn to play.

Classical Music

Born in Mexico, Jorge Federico Osorio began his musical studies at the age of five with his mother. He studied at the conservatories of Mexico, Paris and Moscow and his teachers have included Jacob Milstein and Wilhelm Kempff, among others. Maximiano Valdes is Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Spain and as of September, 2002, Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. He was born in Santiago and began his studies in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music there and continued at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome where he took courses in composition and conducting. Completing his diploma in piano, he decided to concentrate entirely on conducting and enrolled in the conducting classes of Franco Ferrara in Bologna, Siena and Venice and also worked with Sergiu Celibadache in Stuttgart and Paris.

� Coinciding with his 20th anniversary as a performer, this release features a broad overview of audience favorites as revealed to Mr. Vieaux during his playing career. � A diversity of nationalities herein includes music of Spanish, South American, Mexican, Cuban, French, and American origin. � "... among the elite of today's classical guitarists." - Gramophone

Classical Music

Maurice Greene (1696-1755), organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Composer and Organist to the Chapel Royal; Master of the King’s Musick. Maurice Greene, described contemporarily (and he was a near-exact contemporary of Handel) as the leading English-born musician of his generation. And yet, today’s audiences have little experience listening to his music, especially his instrumental works. The truth is, his music is not better than Handel, it’s not as good as Handel, but it sounds like Handel at his most ingratiatingly English. If it’s not as melodically entrancing, it definitely captures the appeal of bright “happy” harmony and ear-catching melody, along with the character of both the gentle, verdant countryside and the stately court ceremony. In short, if you like the orchestral Handel, or the concerto grosso Handel, you’ll definitely enjoy the overtures presented here, in vibrant, clearly detailed sound, stylishly performed by Garry Clarke’s Chicago-based period-instrument ensemble Baroque Band.

This group can play notes with the best baroque bands, but throughout the six Overtures in Seven Parts (strings, plus harpsichord, flute, and oboe) and the two additional overtures (from the opera Phoebe and from Greene’s Ode to St. Cecilia’s Day) these musicians and their director show particular and welcome concern for expressive nuance and articulation that gives the performances a dynamic presence that’s far more satisfying to listeners than renditions that may be “proper” but fall far short of demanding a repeat.

The program’s producers opted to supplement/complement the recital with three selections from Greene’s Lessons for the Harpsichord, performed with his usual panache and absolute stylistic authority by David Schrader. My only suggestion would have been to intersperse the solo harpsichord works among the overtures rather than group them in one block–but having these pieces on the same disc as the orchestral works makes for nice variety as well as giving listeners exposure to another area of Greene’s rarely-heard music. I looked everywhere for information about Schrader’s harpsichord–an instrument whose disposition makes an impressive sound, but also has a certain character that organists and early-music keyboardists know can add a dimension to the music and the performance that goes beyond the mere designation “harpsichord” or “organ”. Whatever its provenance, Schrader’s instrument has a very pleasing, intimate quality, timbrally on the bright side and evenly voiced across registers.

And whatever may have prompted the producers and players on this recording to make a program of Maurice Greene’s instrumental music–the vast majority of the existing CD catalog contains choral works–we baroque music lovers can do no less than celebrate and enjoy the chance to hear–and hear again–these undeservedly obscure solo and orchestral pieces, most of them entirely new to the catalog. Strongly recommended.

– David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music