Louis Sclavis / Benjamin Moussay -"Unfolding" - Having previously joined forces on several Louis Sclavis recordings for ECM (including the clarinetist's last album, Characters On A Wall), Sclavis and pianist Benjamin Moussay have been increasingly focused on their two-way communication in recent years, playing expansive and well-received concerts throughout Europe. Now, in a program of originals (two-thirds from the pianist's pen, the remaining third by the clarinetist), the French duo dreams up a world of chamber conversations that juxtaposes lyrical contemplation with whimsical inventiveness in a joyous, concentrated collaboration. Verve Label Group; ECM; Jazz

UNFOLDING

With it's forty-five chorale preludes, the Orgelb�chlein bears witness to a mastery of the art of improvisation on the organ, as the congregation heard it at the time before singing the hymn in it's turn. It was a tempting experiment to revive this primary function: by collaborating with the combined forces of the Ensemble Vocal Bergamasque and the Ma�trise de Notre-Dame de Paris, Benjamin Alard gives the 'little organ book' it's full significance and expressive power.

FIELD: Piano Concertos, Vol. 1

Classical Music

Stravinsky composed his music at the keyboard, often struggling to play his own complex rhythms. It is not surprising therefore that many of his symphonic works also exist in his own piano versions, such as the four hand transcription of his ballet, The Rite of Spring. It is a pianistic tour de force, the players often having to interweave fingers, hands and arms to meet the composers tremendous demands of virtuosity. The work has for many years formed part of the standard repertoire of Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill. They have played it throughout England to astonished audiences, and have broadcast this (and the other two works on this disc) on BBC Radio 3. The performance is staggeringly brilliant, superbly recorded in St Silas Church, London on a wonderful Bosendorfer Imperial Grand. The duo are now recording exclusively for Naxos, Peter Hill will be recording the complete music by Stravinsky for two hands at sessions this summer.

The Davidsb�ndlert�nze, Opus 6, and the Fantasiest�cke, Opus 12, both belong to the year 1837. Wieck had insisted that Clara should not see Schumann and that letters should be returned. The latter, despairing of success in his pursuit of Clara, turned to drink and conduct that his landlady, at least, found reprehensible. At one point he sought revenge on Clara by publishing a satire mocking both her and a young man who had been brought in by her father to give her singing lessons. He dedicated his Fantasiest�cke, written between 22nd May and 4th July, to an attractive eighteen-year-old Scottish pianist, Robena Laidlaw. It was Clara who brought about a reconciliation through an intermediary so that August saw her pledged to him and in September they were able to meet again. The Davidsb�ndlert�nze were written in the late summer and early autumn of 1837, after this reconciliation. The first dance opens with a quotation from a Mazurka by Clara Wieck and is varied in mood, attributed to both Florestan and Eusebius. The second piece is attributed to the latter and the third, marked With Humour, to Florestan, the author of the fourth, marked Impatient. The simple fifth piece is in the mood of Eusebius, while the sixth, in stormier mood, reverts to Florestan. The opening arpeggiated chords of the seventh piece reintroduce Eusebius, followed by a brusque Florestan. The last piece of the first book, marked Lively, carries an additional explanation: Hierauf schlo� Florestan und es zuckte ihm schmerzlich um die Lippen (Hereupon Florestan stopped and his lips quivered sadly). Florestan opens the second set of nine pieces in ballad measure, with a whimsical third piece framing a simple second for Eusebius. The fourth has room for both moods, with the gently singing filth for Eusebius. Both are together again in the sixth piece as they appear to be in the seventh, with it's contrasting slower Trio section, which leads at once to the eighth piece, Wie aus der Ferne (As from the Distance). For the final dance Schumann adds the explanation: Ganz zum �berfluss meinte Eusebius noch Folgendes; dabei sprach aberviel Seligkeit aus seinen Augen (Eusebius considered the following quite superfluous; but at the same time he expressed much happiness with his eyes). The last piece adds a gentle C major conclusion to the work. Benjamin Frith the young British pianist Benjamin Frith has had a distinguished career. A pupil of Fanny Waterman, he won, at the age of fourteen, the British National Concerto Competition, followed by the award of the Mozart Memorial Prize and joint top prize in 1986 in the Italian Busoni International Piano Competition and in 1989 a Gold Medal and First prize in the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition. Benjamin Frith enjoys a busy international career, with engagements in the United States and throughout Europe as a soloist and recitalist, with festival appearances at Sheffield, Aldeburgh, Harrogate, Kuhmo, Bolzano, Savannah, Pasadena and Hong Kong and an Edinburgh Festival debut in 1992. His recordings include a highly praised performance of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations on the ASV label and for Naxos a release of piano music by Schumann, followed by the two Mendelssohn Piano Concertos and the Third Piano Concerto of Rachmaninov.

MENDELSSOHN: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings / Violin

MENDELSSOHN: 7 Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 / Fantasia, Op.

MENDELSSOHN: Sonata in B-Flat Major / Fantasies, Op. 16

As I remarked last November when Vol. 1 of this cycle appeared, the multiplicity of notes in Mendelssohn’s piano music sometimes lays him open to the charge of ‘note-spinning’. So what higher praise for Frith than to say that thanks to his fluency, tact and fancy, not a single work in this second volume seems to outstay its welcome.

The unchallengeable masterpiece, of course, is the Variations serieuses, so enthusiastically taken up by Clara Schumann, and still a repertory work today. Frith characterizes each variation with telling contrasts of tempo and touch without sacrificing the continuity and unity of the whole. Equally importantly, never for a moment does he allow us to forget the serieuses of the title. I was no less impressed by his sensitively varied palette in the early E major Sonata (unmistakable homage to Beethoven’s Op. 101) so often helped by subtle pedalling. But surely the recitative of the Adagio at times needs just a little more intensity and underlying urgency.

Of the miniatures the six Kinderstucke (“Christmas Pieces” – written for the children of a friend) emerge with an unforced charm. As music they lack the romance of Schumann’s ventures into a child’s world, just as the Three Studies do of Chopin’s magical revelations in this sphere. However, Frith’s fingers never let him down. In the first B flat Study he even seems to acquire a third hand to sustain its middle melody. For sheer seductive grace, the independent Gondellied haunts my memory most of all, here with its melody so gracefully floated over a gently gliding bass. With pleasantly natural sound in its favour, too, this disc could surely sell at more than its modest price.'

-- Joan Chissell, Gramophone [5/1996]

}Gramophone (2/97, pp. 53-4) "...I was as impressed by [Frith and Tinney's] attunement of phrasing in lyrical contexts as by their synchronization in all the brilliant semiquaver passagework....a not-to-be-missed opportunity to explore the precocious young Mendelssohn..."{

George Benjamin is a contemporary composer known best among small circles, but with a loyal international following. This recording contains five of his pieces, and they share a common style. Benjamin treats a composition as a landscape: a kind of blank, rolling panorama onto which he affixes musical ideas. His sound is very textured and evocative. 'Ringed by the Flat Horizon,' for example, portrays a storm that overtakes a vast open space. The music begins ominously and contains a variety of created sound effects along with rapid fire crescendos into huge orchestral crashes. 'A Mind In Winter' is contrarily a setting of "The Snowman" (a poem by Wallace Stevens), and yet is built upon the same sort of abstract picture-building and sweeping evocative gestures for the voice. Benjamin's vocabulary is developed from the modern schools of atonality, and his teacher Messiaen is a clear and strong influence on his work. For those attracted to the modern schools of classical composition, they will find a great many layers to be unveiled in this recording.

Classical Music

MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Capriccio Brilla