As a tribute to guitar legend Andres Segovia, Profil has compiled performances by the master himself as well as up and coming guitarist Friedemann Wuttke. The works are focused on favorites and evergreens from Segovia's repertoire, works of Albeniz, Sor, Vivaldi, Carulli, Paganini, and more, played intimately and soulfully in this beautiful 2 disc set. A fitting homage to a giant.

Bach was Leipzig’s Director Musices between 1723 and 1729, as well as being Cantor of St. Thomas’s School involving providing music for the four principal churches and also any other special sacred or secular occasion. During these years Bach supplied at least three complete annual cycles of Cantatas for the church year. The rich variety of his writing for solo voices and orchestra along with thrilling choral textures is well represented in these three cantatas.

REGER Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue, op. 57, “Inferno.” Pieces for Organ, op. 145 • Edgar Krapp (org) • NAXOS 8.557891 (69:09)


The Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue opens with a violent fury, building to a quick climax, punctuated by chords and keyboard runs before diminishing into a calm meditation—all within the first minute. Throughout this 10-minute Fantasia, the music swells and diminishes, from climax to serenity. Edgar Krapp brings this off superbly. Max Reger considered his op. 57 the most difficult music he ever wrote, but Krapp never breaks a sweat. He has mastered this music and knows every nuance. He lets all the stops out in the Passau Cathedral in Eisenbarth, Germany, making no apologies for the intensity or force of the music. At times he seems carried away in a kind of divine madness, reveling in every decibel. The effect is exciting and dramatic. But the Fugue has a different character, and is not as successful, hampered by Reger’s penchant for thick writing. In the Fantasia (and throughout most of this recording), the sound captured by the Naxos engineers is vivid, clear, and even spectacular. But the Fugue is a little muddled. Yet every climax is captured superbly; Reger—and Krapp—emerge in triumph as if through the clouds. This is a mighty work that deserves to be heard more often.


Reger wrote his seven organ pieces in 1915–16, in the midst of World War I. These pieces are dedicated to key moments in the liturgical year; yet the war clearly lingered in Reger’s mind as he wrote. One senses sadness during the first piece, which was dedicated to those who died in battle. The second piece is a psalm of thanks, titled, “What God does, that is well done.” Dedicated to the German people, this too has dark moments and builds to a treatment of the familiar hymn, Praise to the Lord the Almighty . As this title indicates, there is a sense of recognition of God’s sovereignty at a time of war. But even in moments of triumph, there is a haunting touch of uncertainty. This is great music.


The piece focuses on Christmas, and Reger incorporates familiar choruses, including Silent Night . This, too, has a dark hue; everything is not quite so “calm and bright.” The fourth part focuses on the passion of Christ. The fifth celebrates his resurrection with a form much more like a chorale. The sixth celebrates the Holy Ghost. Fleet keyboard runs are woven into a strong, declaratory conclusion. The seventh is a victory celebration, highlighted by Reger’s adaptation of the hymn, Now thank we all our God (with Deutschland, Deutschland über alles ringing in the pedals). Some may feel that this uncomfortably mixes politics with music, but this did not bother me, and I found it to be stirring music, and highly enjoyable.


This is Volume 7 in the Naxos collection of the organ music of Reger, and the first that features Krapp. All of the recordings in this series that I have heard have been outstanding. This one is too. Highly recommended.


FANFARE: John E. Roos

Classical Music

The first book of The Enchanted Garden was composed in 1992; the five preludes in that cycle were musical responses to dreams that I had and had eventually written about. The second book, written nearly seventeen years later in 2009, includes seven preludes; experiences and memories both recent and historical are the sources here and the origins of the titles. The fine line between dream and memory, between reality and fantasy has always intrigued me. The ancient Greeks believed that the 'real' world was the unseen world. – Richard Danielpour

Mozart, W.A.: Piano Sonatas - Nos. 8, 10, 11

BRIDGE A Fairy Tale Suite. In Autumn. Miniature Pastorals, Set 1. Étude rhapsodique. Graziella. Dramatic Fantasia. 3 Pieces. A Sea Idyll. Miniature Suite. Characteristic Pieces • Mark Bebbington (pn) • SOMM 82 (77:26)


I wonder when Frank Bridge was first led astray by Scriabin, forsaking the Lisztian bravado of the Dramatic Fantasia for the dark, sensuous tendrils of Graziella and the lascivious impressionism of the Characteristic Pieces. Mark Bebbington’s second volume of Bridge piano works stresses the later achievements, from 1917 on, leading up to and away from the big Piano Sonata of 1924. Ravel is a strong presence in the Fairy Tale Suite and elsewhere, but the themes, early and late, are all Bridge, and mostly memorable.


Whatever its roots, whether outrage at the Great War or more personal passions, the best of these miniatures are very good indeed, and demand the very best players. The works, like the Sonata, are simply not well enough known yet, and they need a broader performing tradition. I hope Russian pianists start to pick up on In Autumn, Graziella , and the other late works. Bebbington, like Ashley Wass and Kathryn Stott, has gone far beyond the “mere” technical problems, which are not small, and the competing Bridge cycles complement each other. If you are going to get just one, then I’d go with Wass on Naxos, whose piano I also just prefer in the upper octaves. But Bebbington conveys most of Bridge’s range, and he’s especially good in the mini- Dante Sonata , which is the Fantasia, and in the 1921 Miniature Suite , with its Prokofievisms.


Ideally, I’d like to hear a hypersensitive Slavic Scriabin interpreter have a tilt at Graziella and “Water Nymphs” from the Characteristic Pieces. But all the pianists I’m thinking of are dead. Maybe Tharaud for “Fragrance” and “Bitter Sweet” from the same Ravelian late set. As you’ll gather, the serious competition for Bebbington and Wass is imaginary. The recommendation is real enough, though. Some of the music in this volume is more British and interesting than it is moving, but more than half of it is top-notch. Wass edges it for feel and expressive range, but Bebbington’s runs, trills, graded dynamics, and sweep are no disappointment.


FANFARE: Paul Ingram

Although Dmitri Kabalevsky’s concertos and sonatas hardly lack for good recordings, few pay attention to his prolific output of shorter solo piano pieces. That’s a shame, because this composer, if not a towering original, wrote imaginatively and effectively for the keyboard, as the works on this disc bear out.

Even at 21, Kabalevsky could dole out flashy goods in his third Op. 1 Prelude, while simple sophistication and canny register deployment define both of Op. 40’s short variation sets. The Six Preludes and Fugues Op. 61 wear their contrapuntal craftsmanship lightly; who else could write a tuneful, waltzing fugue, or a prelude based on clusters that evoke Burt Bacharach covered by The Carpenters? Written for the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition that made Van Cliburn a household name, the A minor Rondo wears well, from its opening downward arpeggios to the infectious “oom-pah” accompaniment.

Each of the three Op. 87 variation sets, respectively based on American, French, and Japanese folk songs, has a distinct personality and deserves wider recognition. While the booklet notes understandably liken the American theme to a tune played on a Native American wooden flute, some listeners will recognize it as the folk song “All the Pretty Little Horses”. Known for her steadfast advocacy of worthy keyboard rarities (including splendid recordings of the complete Amy Beach and Arthur Foote piano music), Kirsten Johnson’s astute attention to detail and her fluent, tonally rich pianism are a joy to behold. The resonant warmth of Nimbus’ engineering will please collectors who found the label’s 1970s/’80s “Ambisonic” productions to be uncomfortably diffuse.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

No one inhabits a Steinway quite like Australian pianist Lisa Moore, which is probably why so many modern composers have invited her to interpret their music. Known for her “beautiful and impassioned” approach, as The New York Times described one of her performances, Moore brings a fully charged sense of rhythm, mysticism and adventure to The Stone People, her first full-length recording for Cantaloupe Music. It follows in the footsteps of Moore’s three-part series of acclaimed EPs for the label: Seven (2009), Lightning Slingers and Dead Ringers (2011) and Stainless Staining (2012).

As Pulitzer-winning composer and Bang on a Can cofounder David Lang reveals in the album’s liner notes, the project takes its name from the opening piece by another Pultizer winner, John Luther Adams. “John’s music is ruggedly elemental,” Lang writes, “using very restrained materials as a way of probing some of our most fundamental human truths. Who we are. Where we are. How we relate to each other. How we relate to the natural world. His pieces are stark explorations of humankind in its most elemental state, and this CD brings together, for the first time, his complete acoustic music for solo piano.”

Among other firsts, the disc includes two works for piano by Julia Wolfe (2015’s Pulitzer winner), as well as newly recorded pieces by Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli and Kate Moore. By turns meditative, mysterious, tumultuous and tender, The Stone People presents Lisa Moore at the height of her transformative powers.

Severac: Piano Music, Vol. 1: Cerdana - En Languedoc

"The performer, Marco Tamayo, does an excellent job. His recorded technique is flawless, both when using the traditional European style of picking and strumming, and the more Spanish and Caribbean influenced techniques... The recording itself is very well done, and does a nice job of highlighting his technique... highly recommended. Much of the work may be unfamiliar, but none of it will be unapproachable. Each piece is a gem, wonderfully written, performed, and recorded. The album is suitable for background or mood music, but excels when scrutinized and given active attention. Short of buying a ticket for a weekend excursion to Havana, this is certainly one of the most enjoyable ways to explore the musical traditions of Cuba that this reviewer has come across. -- Patrick Gary, musicweb.uk.net

"A fascinating insight into the influences on Cuban guitar music...Marco Tamayo proves himself to be a fine guitarist. His playing is rather understated which seems to assist the mood of the music, with more subtlety than flamboyance, more sensitivity than grit; unaffected rather than pretentious. Tamayo leaves the listener with a real sense of 'a soloist at one' with this repertoire from his homeland... moody, reflective and accessible... No problem with the sound quality here and the release has interesting and informative annotation. An exceedingly well performed release from Naxos." -- Michael Cookson, musicweb.uk.net

This is a fine collection of some of Charles Stanford's most enduring church music, sung by one of England's most revered choirs, itself a staple of the country's choral music tradition for more than 300 years. However, there are many fine recordings of Stanford church music in the CD catalog, also sung by superlative choirs steeped in the English cathedral repertoire--choirs from Chichester, Durham, and Portsmouth (all on Priory Records), the Cambridge Singers (Collegium), and Trinity College, Cambridge (Conifer), among others--and so, the question is, if you're looking to acquaint yourself with this beautiful and beloved music, would this be a good place to begin? And the answer is yes, but with the caution that although these performances are not collectively the best, they nevertheless offer faithful, conscientious, well-mannered interpretations that fully honor the substance and style of Stanford's scores.


The service music comes off best, owing to the power of the organ accompaniments and the choir's strongly projected and well articulated statements. The famous Three Latin Motets, staples of concert choir performances all over the world, seem overly reserved and lacking the punch we usually hear--and expect--from these richly expressive pieces. The Communion Service in C is a gem (minus the cumbersome Credo--a text that absolutely defies elegant musical setting), and the choir--probably the most vocally well-integrated of all of England's all-male ensembles--proves its reportorial command as well as its vocal prowess. Sonically, I have no serious complaints--except that I had to turn the volume up higher than my usual listening level to clearly hear and get the full effect of the unaccompanied motets. And I find Naxos' practice of printing track listings only on the back of the jewel box--and not reproducing them in the liner booklet--an irritating and unnecessary inconvenience.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

SCRIABIN: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

ALKAN: 12 Etudes, Op. 35 / Le Festin d'Esope / Scherzo Diabo

FUCHS, L.: Complete Music for Unaccompanied Viola

DURUFLÉ Fugue on the Carillon of the Cathedral of Soissons. Prelude, Adagio, and Choral Variations on “Veni Creator.” Prelude on the Introit of the Epiphany. Scherzo, op. 2. Prelude and Fugue on the Name of Alain. Meditation, op. posth. Hommage à Jean Gallon. Suite, op. 5 • Henry Fairs (org) • NAXOS 8.557924 (73:21)


Duruflé, a student of Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne, is unabashedly post-Romantic. His music is characterized by lyrical sweetness even when it is Plainchant derived or contrapuntally rigorous. For a recording to be successful, it must convey more than a dollop of atmosphere, the full impact of his delicate registration colors, and linear clarity. All of these prerequisites are fulfilled in these performances by Henry Fairs and his aptly chosen Organ of Notre-Dame d’Auteuil, Paris (Cavaillé-Coll 1884–1885).


This release encounters worthy competition from a Loft offering featuring Hans Davidsson performing on the Verschueren Organ, 1998, Göteborg, Sweden (Loft 1054), and a Sanctuary Classics Resonance disc featuring David M. Patrick on the Organ of Gloucester Cathedral (3073). In Meditation , op. Posth., Fairs is more meditative than the estimable David M. Patrick, and his pedal tones are more impressively recorded. In the feathery Scherzo, op. 2, Fairs is a bit more otherworldly than Patrick, and, as before, his pedal tones are more viscerally registered. The more dynamically varied Suite, op. 5, is given a splendid performance by Hans Davidsson on Loft, a company that has provided more than its fair share of stunning organ recordings. Davidsson’s recording is more close-up and timbrally colorful than Fairs’s, but doesn’t quite pack the full wallop of the piece’s pedal tones. The Loft effort has marginally less dynamic range than Naxos’s. Both performances are splendid. One’s preference will probably be dictated by the tolerance of one’s neighbors—the Loft offering has more impact when played at lower levels than does Fairs’s, which requires cranking things up a bit in order to taste it to the fullest degree.


In sum, this is a fine effort. The two comparison discs offer multi-composer collections, but Naxos, in its ongoing attempt to record the everything of everybody, dedicates its entire disc (which claims to contain his entire organ output) to Duruflé. Add to this Naxos’s budget price, and . . .


Typically, full organ specs are provided in the well-written and highly informative liner notes.


FANFARE: William Zagorski

BUXTEHUDE: Organ Music, Vol. 3

Classical Music

Laurence Crane's music is thoroughly contemporary, but has hardly a dissonance in the whole 80 minutes of this CD. His music can be described as super-minimalist, but that would ignore the incredibly fine transitions of harmony and time embedded in his works. Ultimately this is music for the post-modernist age, and it can have no better advocate than Michael Finnissy, himself one of the foremost composers of our time.

FINNISSY The History of Photography in Sound • Ian Pace (pn) • METIER 77501 (5 CDs: 326:48)


The music of English composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946) is difficult to categorize. It is exceptionally multifaceted in both its surface and substance. It is music that is filled with its own original ideas (and textures that sound like nobody else), but at the same time it is constantly making explicit references to other music. His music’s difficulty ranges from nearly unplayable fiendish complexity to exceptional plainchant-like simplicity, frequently within the same piece. Finnissy’s notation is likewise extremely varied, and almost all his scores exist in his astounding calligraphy.


The History of Photography in Sound (1995–2001) is Finnissy’s largest piano work at nearly 5.5 hours in length. Any attempt to summarize the piece in a brief review will fall significantly short of pointing out even a fraction of its facets. The pianist Ian Pace has been associated with Finnissy’s music since he (Pace) was in school, and he recorded this work shortly after its complete premiere about decade ago. For whatever reason, it is only now appearing on CD, but its release is a major event for those interested in Finnissy’s work or significant piano literature. Many of the individual movements/sections were composed as separate projects/commissions and premiered by different pianists. This excellently-produced CD box set also includes an extensive set of booklet essays by Pace (who is also a musicologist), and an even more extended version filled with musical examples is available online. In addition to his concert career (as a new music specialist), Pace is a very outspoken and caustic critic of academic musicology, and in recent years has become a very public advocate for investigation into the many sexual abuse scandals in British music schools.


Finnissy is himself a pianist, and his large catalog is dominated by works for the instrument. For him it has clearly been a source of continual musical inspiration, and the role of the piano in even his non-solo works is also extremely significant, even including an opera where the “orchestra” is simply a single virtuoso pianist. Each of the 11 sections of The History bear a descriptive name, ranging from “North American Spirituals” to “My parents’ generation thought War meant something” to “Kapitalistisch Realisme (met Sizilianische Männerakte en Bachsche Nachdichtungen).” As is nearly always the case in Finnissy’s work, the piece abounds with references and quotations to other music: from Bach to 19th-century music hall songs, and from Berlioz to Inuit traditional music. Sometimes these references are very explicit, but often there is simply a fragment of a melody embedded within the “tenor line” of a larger texture; these would certainly go unnoticed were it not for the composer’s trademark arrows carefully identifying the sources in the score. One of the booklet essays specifically addresses the quotations, and it challenges—in a typically Pace-ian confrontational style—the general critical response to these myriad references as nothing more than a sort of “found object tourism.” Pace breaks down all the different types of quotations into various categories, examining how each category of material is “weighted” in different ways throughout the sections of the work. The external references made in The History are not purely musical, either; literature and philosophy also make appearances. The sixth section, “Seven Immortal Homosexual Poets,” is conceived as a musical version of a poetry anthology, and each poet is treated in turn, wordlessly.


The composer has given Pace’s performances and this recording his enthusiastic recommendation, so it is to be assumed that the performance is definitive. No other pianist (aside from the composer himself) has been more closely associated with Finnissy’s music, and thus Pace brings to the project a true mastery of the composer’s interpretative challenges. Like many of Finnissy’s pieces, there is enough content in The History to keep one engaged through a near lifetime of listens. Certainly there are precedents for large-scale piano works of this scope, or even significantly longer ones: including numerous work by Sorabji and Frederic Rzewski’s “novel for piano,” The Road. In most cases of such large scale works, the pieces end up being quite representative of their composer’s preoccupations and principal artistic concerns. The History is no exception, and thus stands as a major work of a major composer. For those who are completely unfamiliar with Finnissy, they may wish to start with shorter works, almost all of which have been recorded. However, for those who wish to take an unforgettable journey, this is a work, like much great art, that embraces everything and, in the process, tells us something about ourselves.


FANFARE: Carson Cooman

Volume Five in Naxos' complete Sibelius piano music cycle is given over to miniatures, most of which fall within modest technical and registral parameters. Although they were intended for home consumption by amateur pianists, a sensitive and imaginative professional like Håvard Gimse can really make these pieces sound vital and characterful. He does marvelous things. For instance, his angular, push/pull rubato in the Impromptu (Op. 99 No. 4) and varied phrasing of No. 12's dotted rhythms underline the music's superficial resemblance to Schumann. The controlled vehemence he brings to the five Op. 101 pieces admirably downplays their sometimes-mawkish melodic invention. And Gimse is fully attuned to the quirky harmonic twists and turns permeating Op. 103 and 114 (these sets might be described as chips off the blocks that fashioned the composer's Sixth and Seventh Symphonies). In short, collectors who've acquired previous volumes of this excellent series need no further recommendation. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Conceived and built in 1931 by musical forward-thinkers Leon Theremin and Henry Cowell, the Rhythmicon was a musical keyboard instrument. The online one made by Nick Didkovsky, of Dr. Nerve fame, in 2003 takes the instrument to it's next logical step. In the hands of some of today's leading sound artist/composers, the Virtual Rhythmicon makes music that shimmers, pulses and haunts with a beauty that would do it's more famous cousin, the theremin, proud.

Although Brahms arranged many of his own works for piano, either played through to friends or published in this form for a wider public, he also turned his attention to the music of other composers.

Busoni: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Classical Music