Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Jean Sibelius. Ensembles: Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Tempera String Quartet, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki University Chorus, Dominante Choir. Conductors: Osmo Vänskä, Neeme Järvi. Soloists: Leonidas Kavakos, Dong-Suk Kang, Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Monica Groop, Folke Gräsbeck.

Classical Music

Here is yet another intelligent project from Cedille, and a real bonanza for chamber music lovers. Turina’s chamber works are gorgeous. True, the early Piano Quintet in G minor is a touch heavy and faux-Franck, but after that it’s basically smooth sailing. This two disc set contains, first of all, the complete music for piano trio, expertly played with passion and precision by the Lincoln Trio. Most collections of this music contain only the two numbered trios plus the dawn-to-dusk tone poem for piano trio known as Circulo. Here we also get the large early trio in F major, a lovely work that brings the total playing time of the disc to over 73 minutes.

The second disc offers the late Piano Quartet in A minor, the above-mentioned piano quintet, and the sunny, lyrical sextet in two movements subtitled Escena Adaluza. Turina’s mature works exude Spanish color in the cast of their melodies, but his music is also formally elegant and beautifully shaped. Several of these pieces, such as the Quintet and the Trio No. 1, contain spontaneous but intellectually sophisticated fugues, and there isn’t a routine note anywhere. The Lincoln Trio’s colleagues, especially violist Ayane Kozasa, who has a major part in the Sextet, blend seamlessly with the basic ensemble, and they are flawlessly recorded.

I never cease to be amazed at how, with a little thought and intelligence, it’s still possible to put together worthwhile programs of serious classical music that are wholly winning and simply delightful. This release would grace any collection; it’s a treat.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This new release features two undeservedly underperformed string quartets by the Russian master Sergey Taneyev, beautifully performed by the California String Quartet. The California String Quartet is Benjamin Lash, Katia Popov, Luanne Homzy, and Zach Dellinger. Based in California, the group has performed throughout the United States, and has recorded several albums to critical acclaim. “Our soloist, Katia Popov, was fabulous, and I don’t just mean the dress. The LBSO’s principal second violin has a beautiful sound that is bigger than some of the international soloists we’ve heard over the years, as well as technique to burn. She delivered a magnificent performance, using her magic fingers to surmount myriad hurdles with jaw-dropping ease.” (Gazzette Publications, Long Beach Grunion) “Popov’s musical voice was powerful, rich and full of life, her technique flawless and the collaboration… delicately exact.” (Press Telegram)

Classical Music

Janacek composed his piano music around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, before he found fame late in life with operas such as ‘Jenufa,’ ‘Kata Kabanova’ and ‘The Makropulos Case.’ Epigrammatic but obsessive, these intimate pieces speak of the composer’s passions and frustrations. But like his later works they are loaded with drama and big ideas. The first book in ‘On An Overgrown Path’ is notable for its poetic titles- such as ‘Our evenings,’ ‘They chattered like swallows,’ ‘Unutterable anguish’- which find expression in music of apparent folk-like innocence and sudden passions, which reach a powerful climax in the violent contrasts of the first book’s final piece, ‘The Barn-Owl has not flown away.’ This is music of heartbreak and desolation hardly less moving on its way than the great scenes of love and abandonment which Janacek composed for his operatic heroines. Stripped of such titles, the second book in ‘On An Overgrown Path’ is more elusive in meaning, swinging between a gentle, Czech translation of Debussy’s Impressionist tone-painting and darker, more sinister currents of expression that run raw and angry in the Sonata which Janacek wrote to commemorate the death of a young man at the hands of the police in Prague during political protests in the autumn of 1905. From seven years later, the four-movement cycle of Mists recovers some of the Romantic melancholy of ‘On an Overgrown Path,’ though its cathartic finale presents a stiff challenge to any pianist with its torrents of notes. As the recipient of a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni award, the Hungarian pianist Zoltan Fejervari is a solo, concerto and chamber-music pianist with several well-received recordings to his credit such as Liszt’s Malediction and an album of Mozart violin sonatas in partnership with Erno Kallai.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

It takes an impressive performance for Elgar to come alive for me, as he does in this recording by Edo de Waart and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, both subtle and fiery. The First Symphony, in particular, burns under a surface sheen, and “The Dream of Gerontius” is intensely played and firmly sung.

– New York Times

Benjamin Zander conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler’s hugely popular ‘Resurrection’ Symphony in a GRAMMY-nominated recording. Exceptionally challenging and thrillingly powerful it is the perfect showcase for Zander’s distinctive balance of insightful musicianship and emotional intensity. With London’s famed Philharmonia Orchestra, he is recording the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies, recordings which have been received with extraordinary critical acclaim and several awards. Zander’s recordings of Mahler symphonies have inspired critics worldwide to use superlatives such as ‘revelatory’, ‘exhilarating’, ‘illuminating’ and ‘remarkable’. The featured soloists are Sarah Connolly, one of the foremost British mezzo-sopranos who has impressed at La Scala and Glyndebourne, and Swedish soprano Miah Persson, who is in great demand with the major opera houses including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera New York.

Described as ‘one of the great new Sibelian teams’ (The Herald), Thomas Søndergård and BBC National Orchestra of Wales continue their shared fascination with the orchestral music of Sibelius. Released one month after BBC NOW celebrates its ninetieth anniversary, this recording includes many of Sibelius’ most famous masterpieces. Sibelius established his credentials early on with the tonally adventurous En saga, which brings to mind the excellence of Berlioz’ orchestral writing. Sibelius’ successful foray into the impressionistic tone world of Debussy resulted in the haunting seascape of The Oceanides. Sibelius wrote it was ‘pure inspiration’ that led to the composition of the perpetually popular Finlandia, with its world-famous hymn motif. The wonderfully descriptive Swan of Tuonela finds Sibelius at his mystical best as he casts the cor anglais as the majestic swan from Finnish mythology. Sibelius: Finlandia is a fitting finale to this Sibelius series which also includes critically acclaimed recordings of four of his symphonies.

In 1919 Stanford chose to compose a setting of the mass to commemorate the allied victory, hoping perhaps that the work might be attractive to choral societies. In terms of his music connected with the war, the Mass ‘Via Victrix 1914-1918’ Op. 173 would be his greatest and most substantial effort, and it would prove to be a canvas to equal similar large-scale choral tours de force such as his Requiem Op. 63 (1897), Te Deum Op. 66 (1898) and Stabat Mater Op. 96 (1907), all ambitiously conceived for chorus, four soloists, orchestra and organ. Bearing the adapted Latin dedication ( ‘Transiverunt per ignem et aqua et eduxisti in refrigerium’ [“(They) went through fire and water and thou has brought (them) into a wealthy place”?] taken from Psalm 66 verse 12 (from Tyndale’s translation), the work was dedicated to those who made the greatest sacrifice in defence of their country. The mass was therefore intended as a work of thanksgiving, of celebration for the final victory, but equally one which looked into the heart of the nation, to commiserate with those who grieved, to pray for those whose sense of loss was unconsolable, and to urge for a spirit of renewal in the face of the hardships and sorrows the nation had had to endure. In this sense Stanford’s work stood at the vanguard of other cathartic expressions of war grief such as John Foulds’ A World Requiem (1921), Delius’s Requiem (1914, but not performed until 1922) and Arthur Bliss’s Morning Heroes (1930). When news was made known of the unveiling of the Cenotaph and the interment of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey in October 1920, the Right Hon. Mr Justice Charles John Darling (1st Baron Darling) published a poem ‘At the Abbey Gate’ in The Times on 26 October (under the initials C.J.D.) as part of a larger article ‘To the Unknown Dead’ announcing the special nature of the ceremony on 11 November. Through a desire to commemorate this major national occasion, Stanford decided to set Darling’s poem as a march for chorus, solo baritone and orchestra. At the Abbey Gate Op. 177 was completed in November 1920 in the days following the great national ceremony.

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REVIEWS:

Rescued from obscurity nearly a century after its composition, Stanford’s large-scale post-war mass is definitely worth checking out. Impassioned performances here.

– BBC Music Magazine

Symphonically paced and nuanced in its construction, Stanford’s Mass receives an impressive reading from Adrian Partington, his four soloists, and the wonderful voices of the BBC National Chorus of Wales with BBC NOW. Thanks to the editorial work and tireless advocacy of Stanford scholar Jeremy Dibble, this CD again makes available an important British choral work that has lain largely forgotten for over a century.

– Choir & Organ

Completed in 1891 and 1895 respectively, the Piano Concerto No.1 and the D minor Symphony were Sergei Rachmaninov's first large-scale orchestral compositions, written by a young man still in his early 20s. The composer, whose self-critical vein was evident from the start, almost immediately decided to revise the concerto, even though he did choose to perform it in its original form when he made his London début as a pianist in 1899. Two years earlier, the symphony had been premièred, an event which has become notorious as one of music's great disasters: the rehearsal time had been completely inadequate, and Glazunov, who conducted the work, was less than sympathetic to it - and may also have been drunk during the performance. The scathing reception caused Rachmaninov to doubt not only the quality of the work, but his own gifts as a composer, and he didn't write anything of importance for three years. In 1917, he did revise the piano concerto, making use of the experience gained from having in the meantime composed the immensely successful 2nd and 3rd piano concertos and performing them numerous times himself. Rachmaninov also repeatedly expressed the wish to return to his first symphony, but the score was lost in the upheavals of the Russian revolution and the composer's move to the USA. Not until after his death in 1943 was a set of the original orchestral parts rediscovered. That Rachmaninov never forgot the work is however proven by the fact that he quoted it in his very last orchestral composition, the Symphonic Dances from 1940. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui have previously impressed critics worldwide with their performances of Rachmaninovs Second and Third Symphony, and are once again joined by the piano soloist Yevgeny Sudbin, with whom the team recently recorded what the reviewer in American Record Guide described as 'the most stunning performance of the Rhapsody [on a theme of Paganini] I've ever heard.'

Called a 'symphony' by its composer, Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony is nevertheless a symphonic poem, and as such it is the last in a series of works that includes such masterpieces as Don Juan, Also sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben. In 1900, when Strauss first mentioned any plans for the work, he spoke of a symphonic poem in two parts that would begin with a sunrise in Switzerland. When he returned to the idea some ten years later, the work soon grew so vast that he decided to be content with one single movement, depicting the 'worship of eternal glorious nature'. To regard the Alpensinfonie simply as an impression of landscape would be a mistake, however. It does make use of Strauss' entire repertoire of orchestral pictorialism, but behind it are ideas much less simple: nature is being worshipped in the intoxicated spirit of Nietzsche's superman, the liberation of the soul is achieved through hard work - the climber's struggle to gain the mountaintOp.The work is divided into 22 sections that flow in an unbroken sequence, marking the ascent and descent of the mountain, from before sunrise to after sunset. It was scored for the largest orchestra ever used by Strauss for a purely orchestral piece, and he later said that it was in the Alpine Symphony that he had 'finally learned how to orchestrate'. The experience must in any case have been useful when he composed his next work, the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, with an even more opulent orchestration. The opera was premièred in 1919, but it wasn't until 1946 that Strauss, in his 82nd year, returned to the score in order to make his Symphonic Fantasy, based on high points from the opera. These huge, and enormously colourful works are performed here by the eminent São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, whose highly praised recordings of the Choros by Villa-Lobos have been described as 'an orgy of colours and rhythms' (Diapason) and 'an assured blend of lush colours, pulsating rhythms and supple phrasing' (International Record Review). The orchestra is conducted by Frank Shipway, with fine credentials in late-Romantic Austro-German repertoire.

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

Classical Music

Three years after Granados premiered his Trio in Madrid, his admired friend, Joaquín Malats, whom he had known since they were fellow students in Barcelona, premiered his Trio in B-flat at the Madrid Athenaeum. Music of exquisite, elegant, and fresh refinement, constant in flight and resounding in inspiration, condenses in its three movements all the creative potential of a musician who died prematurely at 40 years of age. Pedrell himself confesses in the first person his weakness for Chopin in his first period as a composer: “In the year 1872, the chronic nocturnitis from which I suffered, and which was influenced by Chopin and Field, worsened, and I published, almost at the same time, two Nocturnos (in G minor and A major). After a month of intense work, the Trio in C Major op. 50 of Enrique Granados premiered on 22 February 1895, at the Salón Romero in Madrid, the favorite haunt of Madrid’s chamber evenings, as the culmination of a programme dedicated entirely to the music of Granados that included his Quintet and several pieces for piano.” The present recording has been made using exclusively the manuscript of the Trio in C Major op. 50, held in the Museum of Music of Barcelona. The difference with the existing editions of the work and with the recordings based on those texts is more than notable.

Grand music for coronations, for ceremonial occasions, for matters of state and for formal dancing is brought together in this special album. 400 years of quintessentially British music, from Matthew Locke to Eric Coates, centered around the peerless style of Sir Edward Elgar, whose ‘pomp and circumstance’ marches are familiar to us all.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Filmed in HD at a live 2012 performance in the Teatro Carlo Felice, one of the best known and the last of Puccini's operas "Turandot" is directed and filmed by Giuliano Montaldo in a cast led by Daniela Dess� in the titular role and Mario Malagnini as the Calaf. Based on a 12th century Persian tale, the story of Turandot has long entranced audiences worldwide with it's lyrical pageantry and pentatonic laden score containing an astonishing amount of now beloved arias such as "Nessun Dorma" and "In Questa Reggia". With the Franco Alfano score to the final act and with the Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro Carlo Felice conducted by Donato Renzetti, this production features the acclaimed stage design of Giuliano Montaldo's. With generous subtitle availability in Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Korean.

This new release is homage to a great Italian soprano, Daniela Dessì, who passed away last year, just one year after these performances at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. This is a superb interpretation of this signature role of her long artistic career. Daniela Dessì was considered one of the world’s leading sopranos and a reference point for the Verdi, Puccini and Verismo repertoire. Thanks to the beauty of her voice, a strong technique and an intense dramatic talent, she was able to sing from Monteverdi to Prokofiev, performing in more than seventy different operas. This versatility has significantly been underlined when, in 2011, she was awarded with the Prize Belcanto “Celletti”, recognized as an “absolute soprano”. In this production of Umberto Giordano’s Fedora, she is joined by an all-star cast, including Fabio Armiliato and Daria Kovalenko.

Walter Braunfels is a composer whose music died twice: Once when the Nazis declared his music “degenerate art”. Then again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music; when the arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music – almost the whole pre-war aesthetic – to be tainted. This 7th release of Capriccio’s Braunfels Edition shows again his large range of colorful music and focus this time on his early great Orchestral work Fantastical Apparitions Of a Theme by Hector Berlioz, Op. 25 (1914-1917) - the first complete recording of this amazing composition, compiled with his last orchestral work, the Sinfonia brevis op. 69 (1948).

REVIEW:

Aside from hearing the Berlioz Variations in their splendid entirety, the interpretations here are also worthy. Buhl leads them with dramatic motion, pointing up their considerable orchestral flair.

– American Record Guide

Walter Braunfels is a composer whose music died twice: Once when the Nazis declared his music "degenerate art". Then again when post-war Germany had little use for the various schools of tonal music; when the arbiters of taste considered any form of romantic music - almost the whole pre-war aesthetic - to be tainted. Post-war Europe had experienced (or rather: been prescribed) an aesthetic paradigm shift. Walter Braunfels had a hand at drama and his operas demonstrate his careful consideration of texts. This also shines through in his songs, with which he learned his craft and all but two of which he composed prior to The Birds. Marlis Petersen, whose fascination with Braunfels' "unique tonal language of a totally transparent structure and large late-romantic nature" began with two songs she got to sing earlier in her career, considers the Federspiele to be "real jewels of the art of Lied: simple, deeply touching airs."