After a period as a court composer at Detmold, Brahms returned to the city of his birth, Hamburg, in January 1860. Here, in relative tranquillity, he explored the then rare piano quartet repertoire. The Piano Quartet No. 2 received a very sympathetic hearing in Vienna, Clara Schumann even preferring it to its immediate predecessor, the Piano Quartet, Op. 25 (Naxos 8572798). Its lyricism is heightened by a romantically beautiful Adagio. Mahler's vibrant Piano Quartet in A minor dates from 1876, the end of his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, where the only completed movement was first performed.

Enrique Soro rose to great esteem not only as Chile's leading composer but as a distinguished pianist, conductor and teacher. The Sinfonia romantica was the first symphony to be composed in Chile and remains the most important example of the genre in the country's musical history. Soro's melodic distinction, mastery of orchestration and his sense of form are equally distinguished. The Tres aires chilenos espouse a kind of nationalism, fusing Chilean folk music, specifically the tonada, with the European classical tradition. The rousing Danza fantastica is a perfect concert opener.

If you enjoy fluent, finely crafted classical period symphonies then this well-played, well-recorded disc is for you. Kozeluch was one of a constellation of Czech symphonies active in eighteenth-century Vienna. His Bohemian roots show in his music’s innate tunefulness, as well as his free use of woodwind instruments. The only thing lacking is that flash of genius, those moments of the unexpected that make Haydn so memorable.

The four works here are nicely varied. The Symphony in C major (No. 6) includes trumpets and timpani. That in G minor has three movements; all of the others have four. Two works, the D major and C major symphonies, begin with impressive slow introductions. Development sections are fully worked out, and the slow movements really sing. Marek Stilic leads lively, smartly paced performances, and gets fine playing from the ensemble. This is music well worth getting to know, and I look forward to further releases in the series.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Although he is best known for his innovative operas and iconic music dramas, Richard Wagner maintained a keen interest in symphonic composition throughout his career. Written in his late teens and early twenties, these two symphonies stand as a tribute to Wagner's passion for his great idol Beethoven. The Symphony in C major absorbs the engertic fire and rhythmic dynamism of Beethoven's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, while the Symphony in E major was alas left unfinished at its beautifully warm and lyrical Adagio cantabile.

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REVIEW:

If you enjoy the music of Mendelssohn, you will very much enjoy this CD, as it occupies much of the same musical territory. There are hints of Wagner’s reverence for Beethoven, and there is real energy and fire in parts of the writing. Performances here are clear and committed. Jun Märkl has the measure of the scores, and it is good indeed to be reminded of the depth and musical richness of the various radio orchestras found in Germany – there is no need for this Leipzig (how appropriate!) ensemble to hide its light.

– MusicWeb International

Liszt’s musical precocity can be measured by the fact that at the age of thirteen he had begun work on what was to become his Op.6, the Etude en douze exercices. After later revisions this became the Grandes Études of 1837 and, with simplifications, the Études d’exécution transcendante of 1851. The monumental 1837 studies were composed after years of travel and at a time when Liszt’s virtuoso status was near its zenith. He transformed the earlier prototype studies, through the prism of his own transcendental technique, into etudes of coruscating technical difficulty and extraordinarily vivid characterisation.

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A native of Bohemia, Antonín Dvorák contributed much to the re-establishment of Czech national musical identity in the 19th century. It was the popularity of his choral music in England, however, that led to the development of the Mass in D from its smaller-scale original into a movingly dramatic and jubilant masterpiece with full orchestra. Dvorák's celebratory Te Deum is comparable in form to a four-movement symphony. Antoni Wit is considered by ClassicsToday.com to be "the best conductor around these days for big choral works". His acclaimed recording of Dvorák's Requiem is available on Naxos 8572874-75.

Liszt had first met Berlioz in Paris, before the first performance of the Symphonie fantastique in 1830 and in the following years did much to promote Berlioz’s work in transcriptions and then, in Weimar in the 1850s, in performances of original orchestral and dramatic works. Berlioz recalls their first meeting in his Memoirs: “I talked of Goethe’s Faust, which he admitted he had not read, but which he soon came to love as much as I. We felt an immediate affinity and from then onwards our friendship has grown always closer and stronger.” This new release, the 46th installment in the Complete Piano Music of Franz Liszt series, features several of his Berlioz Transcriptions, including selections from Berlioz’s most famous work, Symphonie Fantastique. Pianist Feng Bian received his Bachelor of Music degree and artist diploma from Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with John Perry, and his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Peter Frankl and earned the Elizabith Parisot Prize. He is currently pursuing a doctor of musical arts degree at the USC Thornton School of Music. He has given recitals in China, Europe, and the United States, as well as having appeared as a soloist beside several major orchestras. In 2015 he was nominated for an American Pianist Award.

Lázsló Lajtha was one of the most significant Hungarian composers of the 20th century, yet his international recognition suffered under Communist suppression and his remarkable oeuvre remains neglected. Described by the composer as "very tragic, epic, like a ballad", the Fifth Symphony is a heartfelt and forceful statement reflecting persecution and the elusive nature of hope. With its moments of nocturnal enchantment and sparkling humor, the Sixth Symphony is enriched by uniquely colorful orchedstration. These moods are also present in the wittily brilliant overture to Lajtha's ballet Lysistrata.

The Third Piano Concerto has been considered the "Cinderella" among Camille Saint-Saëns' five works in this genre, but it owes its comparative neglect to an adventurous approach to harmony which caused unrest in the audience at its premiere. Daring enough in the first movement, the search for tonality in the second was such an extreme experience that is caused unrest in the audience at its premiere. Saint-Saëns also composed for piano and orchestra in more rhapsodic forms, exploring folk tunes and rhythms from Africa, and revealing his playful side in the charming Wedding Cake Waltz. Volume 1 can be heard on 8573476.

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By the 1940s Heitor Villa-Lobos was widely recognized as Latin America’s greatest composer. Working in the United States gave him new perspectives, and his later symphonies move away from the folk influences and exotic effects of works written in the 1920s and 30s, such as the Bachianas Brasileiras, towards more concise, sometimes neo-classical, models. The Eighth and Nineth share a transparent lightness of touch while the Eleventh, described as a work of ‘immediate charm,’ is the perfect introduction to the later work of Villa-Lobos. Since its first concert in 1954 the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra has developed into one of today’s leading orchestras. An indispensable part of Sao Paulo and Brazillian culture that promotes deep cultural and social transformation, the orchestra has released over 60 recordings and has toured throughout Brazil, Latin Aerica, the United States, and Europe. In 2012 Marin Alsop was engaged as principal conductor, and in 2013 she was appointed music director. That same year the orchestra went on a fourth European tour, performing to great acclaim at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the PHilharmonie in Berlin, and at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

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REVIEW:

Isaac Karabtchevsky's sure-footed pacing conveys a deep understanding of these scores. The orchestra is wonderfully on point, which makes an enormous difference in music as finely shaded as this. An absolutely essential release.

– Gramophone

Francois Devienne performed as an orchestral bassoonist and flautist but rose to fame as an operatic composer. His greatest achievement, however, lies in his sequence of Flute Concertos, of which this is the final volume. Despite his failing health, the four works on this recording demonstrate the hallmark combination of melodic elegance and graceful virtuosity that characterizes Devienne’s flute concertos and are among the most attractive of their time. Concerto No. 10 is one of his masterpieces, distinguished equally by the beauty of its thematic material and its confident, cohesive musical structure. Patrick Gallois belongs to the generation of French musicians leading highly successful international careers as both soloist and conductor. From the age of seventeen he studied the flute with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire and at the age of 21 was appointed principal flute in the Orchestre National de France, under Lorin Maazel, playing under many famous conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Karl Bohm, Eugen Jochum, and Sergiu Celibidache. He held this post until 1984, when he decided to focus on his solo career, which has subsequently taken him throughout the world.

Muzio Clementi achieved early success as a widely-travelled pianist, performing for nobility and meeting Mozart, his journeys reflected in the Melodies of Different Nations. The Sonata in A flat major is his earliest surviving work, and the incomplete Allegro and Finale may hve been intended as part of the famous Gradus and Parnassum. Based on a popular dance form, the delightful Monferrinas reveal Clementi's charming side, each one presenting a uniquely interesting character.

This programme by Andrea Gonzalez Caballero, winner of the 2016 Alhambra International Guitar Competition in Spain, has been carefully chosen for comparison and contrast. Containing a wide range of compositional styles from the romantic 19th century to the present, it includes characteristic Spanish music by Tarrega and Albeniz, freshly minted works by some of today’s most important composers from Cuba, Spain and Brazil, as well as one of the most significant mid-20th century works for guitar, the Nocturnal by Benjamin Britten.

Reflecting Hungary’s troubled times following the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, Lajtha’s last two symphonies are deeply emotional and dramatic works ranging from tragic intensity to optimism. Whereas the Eighth Symphony was aptly described by the composer’s wife as ‘a tragedy without consolation,’ the emotional power and the melodic beauty of the Ninth Symphony evoke suffering, happiness and hope. A huge success at its 1963 Parisian premiere, the work was acclaimed by the critic Claude Rostand as ‘the one that convinced us that Laszlo Lajtha was truly one of the greatest symphonic composers of the 20th century.’ The city of Pecs, in the South East of Hungary, is an important cultural center, with a symphony orchestra that continues a tradition of some two and a half centuries. After its reorganization in 1984, the Pecs Symphony Orchestra undertook a series of important concert tours abroad with performances throughout Europe and worked with a number of distinguished conductors. Orchestral repertoire was broadened particularly under the English conductor Howard Williams from 1989, with an increased attention to contemporary music. In 1993 Nicolas Pasquet, winner of the 1987 Besancon competition, was appointed chief conductor. The orchestra now performs as the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Framed by Edward Elgar’s deeply personal Violin Sonata and the bravura fireworks of his Mazurka, this programme is a fascinating look at British music for violin and piano at the turn of the last century. Popular pieces such as Delius’s haunting Serenade can be found alongside premiere recordings such as that of Frank Bridge’s attractive Con moto or Cyril Scott’s contemplative Versperale.

Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov has said that ‘I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists.’ This is particularly pertinent to works such as the Two Dialogues with Postscript that engage hauntingly with Schubert and Wagner, and the evocative Moments of Memory II which alludes to Chopin and yearns for an unreachable past. ‘Music is still song, even if one cannot literally sing it,’ says Silvestrov. Silvestrov was born on September 30, 1937 in Kiev. He began private music lessons at the age of 15. From 1955 to 1958 he studied music at evening school in Kiev while training to become a civil engineer. For the following six years he was enrolled at Kiev Conservatoire. Here he was a composition pupil of Boris Lyatoshinsky and also took harmony and counterpoint lessons with Levko Revutsky. His catalogue consists mainly of orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano pieces. These have been played internationally. Early works such as the Piano Quintet earned him a place among the leading avant-garde Ukrainian composers of his generation.

Reflecting the life of Christ from the nativity to the Passion and Resurrection, Liszt’s oratorio Christus was premiered in 1873 and enjoyed considerable success. The movements he transcribed for piano are dynamic and virtuosic but also pastoral and meditative, including marches and passages of transfiguring beauty. The transcriptions of movements from the oratorio The Legend of St Elisabeth contains music of stirring power: plainsong, a hymn, a march and a Hungarian folk-song. This is the forty-seventh volume in Naxos's celebrated complete Liszt piano music series, and features prolific pianist Henry Kramer.

Based in Leipzig with a length career as principal cellist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Julius Klengel was a renowned soloist and revered the world over as a great interpreter and pedagogue, whose works are still in use by students today. Composed in true Romantic style, the three Concertinos were written for teaching purposes, the first coming closes to the idea of a mini-concerto but all having virtuoso elements and expressive and lyrical central movements. The Konzertstuck, Op. 10 gives the piano equal status with the cello to create a thrilling conclusion to any programme.

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Composed during a period of social readjustment in post-war France, the First Cello Concerto marked Saint-Saens’ acceptance as a composer among the establishment, and has long been one of his most admired works. Recognition for the fiendishly technical Second Cello Concerto took longer, although its tranquil central movement contains one of the most sublime melodies Saint-Saens ever wrote. The supremely famous Le Cygne appears alongside the less well-known Bach-inspired Suite in D minor, and with the inclusion of the Romance this programme contains Saint-Saens’ complete works for cello and orchestra.

Composer and Latin Grammy-winning flautist Nestor Torres has inspired a generation of composers to write music that has made vivid contributions to the instrument’s repertoire. This album represents his first foray into classical recording and his own unique fusion of Caribbean virtuosity and classical training can be savored in his own composition, “Marta y Maria.” Tania Leon’s “del Caribe, soy!” encapsulates the pulsing rhythms, vibrant color and improvisatory elements that represent the key features of the album and contrasts beautifully with the seductive allure and expressive depth of Miguel del Aguila’s “Miami Flute Suite.”

In addition to his operatic achievements, Franco Alfano composed an impressive body of chamber and instrumental works, including the little-known music for piano heard on this recording. His early career as a virtuoso pianist is reflected in works ranging from the Quatre Pieces, with their tributes to Schumann and Mendelssohn, to the Danses napolitaines, inspired by the Neapolitan canzone, the neo-classicism of the Cinq Danses de Cleo de Merode and the quirky rhythms of the Danses roumaines. Recordings of Alfano’s chamber music can be heard on Naxos’ earlier releases. His opera Cyrano de Bergerac, with Placido Domingo in the title role, is available on Naxos DVD and Blu-Ray.

Set in mid-nineteenth-century Italy during a turbulent period of pre-Unification political unrest, The Gadfly drew from Shostakovich one of his most dazzling and popular film scores, heard hitherto on record only in a suite arranged and reorchestrated by Levon Atovmian. This recording presents the full, original score for the first time, as closely as possible to shostakovich’s original conception. Reconstructed by Mark Fitz-Gerald from the original manuscript and the Russian film soundtrack, it calls for a large orchestra including church bells, an organ, two guitars and a mandolin, all excluded from the Atovmian suite. The excerpts from The Counterplan, which marked the fifteenth anniversary of the 1917 Revolution, include the infectious hit-tune The Song of the Counterplan.

Most known for his piano works which were based on folk music idioms, Isaac Albeniz is a figurehead in Spanish classical music. Transcriptions of many of his pieces are part of the classical guitar repertoire, although he never composed for the instrument. Pianist Miguel Angel Rodriguez Laiz studied in Murcia, Madrid, Dallas, and Canada. He currently serves as a piano professor, chamber music professor, and theory professor at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica “Victoria Eugenia” de Granada. On this release he presents some of Albeniz’s most colorful and influential piano works, including the Rapsodia espanola.

This new release from BBC Radio 3 and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Grant Llewellyn features Violin Concertos by exclusively British composers, including Paul Patterson, Kenneth Leighton, and Gordon Jacob. The featured soloist in these works is violinist Clare Howick. Described by The Strad as “playing with beguiling warmth and affection” and by American Record Guide as “simply spectacular”, Clare Howick is at the forefront of a generation of inspiring violinists. As a champion of new music, Clare has premiered many new works, both on disc and in performance. She recently gave the world premiere performance at St John’s Smith Square of Violin Concerto No.2 ('Serenade') by Paul Patterson, a song-like, wistful and exuberantly sparkling work, which was specially written for her. This is the piece’s world premiere recording.

Recorded live in Lisbon, this programme brings together the voices of celebrated early music soprano Ana Quintans and popular fado singer Ricardo Ribeiro, as well as traditional Portuguese instruments. Incorporating medieval cantigas, works of the 18th and 20th centuries and traditional fado in its purest form, the result is a vivid portrait of Portuguese music from the 13th century to the present. The Portuguese soprano, Ana Quintans, finished her studies in sculpture in 1998. She then started studying singing at the Conservatory of Lisbon with José Manuel Araujo. She graduated from the Workshop La Musique des Mémoires with the French composer Claire Renard at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Ana Quintans is known for her playful lightness in voice and movement as well as for her touching and profound interpretation of characters. Ricardo Ribeiro is a fado singer from Portugal with a traditional style whose full-length solo album releases are few and far between yet popular. Born on August 19, 1981, in Lisbon, he is primarily influenced by fado legend Fernando Maurício.

These three works together constitute an attractive and generous programme. All three are little known although all have been recorded, if not necessarily on particularly high profile releases. There is not an abundance of chamber works involving solo viola and this disc certainly adds to our understanding of how a repertoire for the instrument emerged during the early years of what we now regard as the Romantic era. It also introduces a young recitalist who plays with an assured technique and no little passion. She is the German-born and trained violist Hiyoli Togawa who also has Japanese and Australian roots. Her well-matched accompanist is the Armenian Lilit Grigoryan. There is an interesting and rather confessional interview with Ms Togawa on the Naxos website in which she explains the appeal of these pieces and her philosophy in terms of their performance. To cut to the chase she characterises the works pithily as follows: “Onslow’s sonata reflects …..cheerfulness as well. …..Onslow’s sonata has nothing of Kalliwoda’s dreaminess nor does it have the deep seriousness of Mendelssohn’s sonata.”

Onslow’s Sonata is in fact his own transcription for viola of the first of his three Cello Sonatas Op 16. I have previously expressed enthusiasm for Onslow on this site, and this interesting sonata proves as imaginatively conceived and executed as his String Quintets which are currently being recorded by the Elan Quintet and released systematically by Naxos. While this sonata is not especially earth-shattering it is unusually democratic as the instrumental protagonists are clearly treated as equal collaborators. The opening Allegro is pleasing enough, amiable if rather conventional. The work’s true heart and highlight is the gorgeous Andante. It is odd how individual movements in Onslow’s large and unfamiliar output sometimes make one stop in one’s tracks. Such is the case with this limpid and tender Andante where violist and pianist demonstrate a deeply intuitive sympathy. Onslow’s stylistic influences tended to be Beethoven and Schubert but this early work hasn’t fully absorbed the spirit of these Romantic giants and I find there is something rather Gallic about it. Focusing on Grigoryan’s restrained accompaniment it’s possible to perceive something of French music’s future; it has a weirdly wistful and melancholic Faurean hue. The final Allegretto is contrastingly light as air and full of a youthful joie de vivre. It’s enjoyable, delightfully played and cleanly recorded.

There follows a rare outing for Mendelssohn’s Viola Sonata. I can hear some readers reacting with surprise – “Mendelssohn wrote a Viola Sonata??” Not only A viola sonata. In terms of the viola as we know it, ie not the viola d’amore, my research has thus far failed to turn up an earlier example of this form. (I’m sure somebody reading this will be far better informed….) It dates from 1824 when Mendelssohn was in teenage prodigy mode, although it has no opus number and wasn’t in fact published until 1966. It’s a dark inspiration and it nails its colours to the mast from the first bar of the opening Adagio-Allegro. Its gloomy countenance is tackled with great restraint by Hiyoli Tagowa as if to emphasise the contrast with the more conventional Allegro section which follows although this is not without its own moments of introspection (an 1820s example of teenage angst?). The melodic lines are unusually chromatic. The way the music simply fades at the conclusion of this movement is most novel, and beautifully managed by both players. Indeed the entire work is full of original touches and consequently its relative neglect is puzzling to me. It is scarcely believable that this sonata, with its unusual but utterly convincing structure and especially the brooding darkness of its melodic content could possibly have been produced by a boy of 15. The following Menuetto-Allegro molto will be familiar to anyone on nodding terms with Mendelssohn’s First Symphony (also in C minor) which followed soon after the sonata in March 1824 as it was reworked as the symphony’s third movement. The ensemble between the two players is again outstanding, the instruments have been very closely recorded but this doesn’t detract from the overall sound, which is truthful but never excessively so. The finale is more typically Mendelssohnian and employs his beloved variation form, though the final Allegro forms a kind of independent coda to the whole work, and sort of acts as a counterweight for the first movement fade-out. Another truly individual touch is the piano solo which dominates the final variation. This is lovingly played by Lilit Grigoryan who truly makes the most of her moment. It also underlines the fact that just as in the Onslow work, piano and viola are equals here. While this sonata is not necessarily a masterpiece of Octet proportions the viola repertoire is hardly overflowing and Mendelssohn’s early contribution to the form should surely be better known. It seems the most significant rival to this new recording is the one by Paul Coletti and Leslie Howard on a Hyperion disc from 1998 (CDA 66946), but this is a superlative account from Togawa and Grigoryan, the highlight of the disc for me.

It concludes with the equally unfamiliar set of Six Nocturnes Op 186 by the prolific Johann Kalliwoda, born in Prague in 1801. The notes tell us that these little pieces were among the works that kept his name alive at the start of the twentieth century, not least because they could be used for intimate family chamber performances. Nor do they appear to fulfil the stereotype of the ‘nocturne’ in the sense that the set alternates between slow and fast pieces. The fact that they were written a generation later than the Onslow and Mendelssohn works is reflected in a style that occasionally brings Schumann to mind, most notably in the last of the group which opens with a notably dark and chromatic flourish. Togawa most certainly does not hold back here, and the close microphones capture her 1749 Testore viola in really vivid sound which actually suits these brief and closely argued pieces admirably.

This is a terrific disc. My concern is that issues with generic titles like ‘Romantic Viola Sonatas’ often get overlooked by the record-buying public. I hope this review provides readers with the necessary encouragement to acquire it. It showcases another deeply impressive young violist (I was fortunate to be asked to review Ellen Nisbeth’s superb BIS disc of English repertoire late last year) doing her bit for the instrument. She also has the benefit of a sympathetic and generous accompanist and a warm, if close recording. While the Mendelssohn work is a standout, its companions here are far from makeweights.

– MusicWeb International (Richard Hanlon)

Before he sprang to international fame as an operatic composer, Wolf-Ferrari had embarked on an important sequence of choral works. The very early Otto cori, Op. 2, set to Italian and German texts, contain some of the most beautiful music he ever wrote, revealing his love of Italian Renaissance music through grace, bucolic melancholy, humorous wit and sublime characterization. In ‘Talitha Kumi!’ Op. 3, the title derived from an Aramaic quotation from Mark’s Gospel, the voice of an Evangelist carries the biblical narrative of Jesus bringing the daughter of Jairus back to life against a rich orchestral backdrop.

This 48th release in the Naxos edition of Franz Liszt’s complete piano works complements the first two volumes of the Hungarian Rhapsodies played by Jeno Jandó (8.554480 and 8.554481) that contain Nos. 1-19, S244/R106. This recording offers the much less frequently heard original Hungarian Rhapsodies S242 from the Magyar Dalok collection, introducing themes that Liszt would re-use in the much more famous S244 volumes. Jen? Jandó is one of the most prolific artists in the history of classical music recording. He is also one of its most appreciated and admired. Jen? Jandó is a professor at the Liszt Academy Budapest.

Kara Karayev was one of the most prominent figures in the music of twentieth-century Azerbaijan, and an inspiration to subsequent generations of Azerbaijani composers. His eloquently expressive and tautly dramatic First Symphony is a significant work in Karayev’s output, reflecting both the harmonies and melodic characteristics of the South Caucasus region and, in its orchestral brilliance, the influence of his mentor Shostakovich. The Violin Concerto shows a notable shift in style, exploring the serial techniques that add astringency and inventive depth to Karayev’s already richly colored and vividly diverse palette.

The essential meaning of Wagner’s magnum opus ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ is wrapped up in the composer’s own lifetime pursuit of transcendent romance, with the redemption of eternal love one of the primary tenets of this and his other music dramas. Wagner’s gift for orchestral color and scenic characterization make his operas highly suited to the genre of the tone poem, and these seven tableaus evoke major scenarios in the saga, as well as providing a sense of the course and spirit of the greatest operatic drama ever written. JoAnn Falletta serves as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony, and is the principal guest conductor of the Brevard Music Center of North Carolina. She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa.

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REVIEW:

Conductor JoAnn Falletta creates a magical Forest Murmurs when Siegfried first understands the meaning of the songbird, and sends the Valkyries on a really wild ride. The sound coming out of Buffalo for the Naxos label is some of the best.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)