Busoni embodied an essentially recreative approach to the music of the past. His Bach transcriptions reveal an absolute command of intricate polyphony and a limpid clarity. Mozart stood as an aesthetic and technical exemplar while Cramer’s little-known Etudes are adapted for modern piano technique. Busoni preserved the Lutheran austerity of Brahms’s Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 122 whereas in the Mephisto Waltz No. 1 he augments Liszt’s heady writing with a super-virtuosity of his own. Wolf Harden I one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. He has enjoyed great success in the Trio Fontenay, an ensemble that he founded in 1980 and with which he has toured to all the world’s major music centres. Harden devotes himself not only to chamber music but, with the same success, to the solo piano repertoire.

Lorenzo Palomo has long established himself as one of Spain's greatest contemporary composers, and these three recent works reveal the vivid themes and colors of his music and the richness of his orchestration. 'Arabescos' evokes Spain's Moorish past in episodes linked together with rhapsodic freedom and fluidity, while 'Humoresca' features the double bass as it's protagonist in writing as witty as it is virtuosic. The extended choreographic poem 'Caribiana' is sensuously atmospheric and has a wealth of exuberant rhythms and melodies.

Carlo Domeniconi’s distinguished career as an internationally renowned guitarist has been paralleled by his prolific output as a composer whose music repeatedly seeks a synthesis between the disparate cultures of East and West. This programme takes us from the evocative Anatolian mystique of ‘Koyunbaba,’ Domeniconi’s best loved work for guitar, through vivid impressions of ‘Snow in Istanbul,’ the Arabian-influenced ‘Taqsim,’ and a charming visit to Japan through ‘Minyo.’ Award-winning soloist Celil Refik Kaya concludes with the ‘Don-Quijote-Suite,’ Domeniconi’s heart-stoppingly expressive distillation of Spain’s most famous narrative.

Percy Grainger admired the expressive intensity of the wind band and considered it a more suitable medium for the transcription of early music- such as the Bach and Ferrabosco pieces heard here- than the symphony orchestra. In this second volume of his music for wind ensemble there are further examples from the 23 ‘Chosen Gems for Winds,’ full of his unique elastic scoring, as well as two versions of the ‘Irish Tune from County Derry,’ one of his most beloved works, and a world premiere recording of Grainger’s arrangement of his friend Herman Sandby’s lovely ‘Intermezzo.’

As a leading virtuoso who premiered Beethoven’s final violin sonata with the Archduke Rudolph, Rode was at the center of European musical life, his compositions sitting at the apex of the French violin school. The final volume in this acclaimed series presents one of his most inspired pieces, the Violin Concerto No. 11 in D major, lyrically expressive and full of good-humored zest. Violin Concerto No. 12 in E major is notable for the ingenious ways in which, through trills, staccato, spiccato and cadenzas, Rode heightens the music’s bravura. Violinist Friedemann Eichhorn studied with Valery Gradow at the University of Music in Mannheim, with Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhim Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland, and with Margaret Pardee at The Juilliard School in New York. He performs with many renowned orchestras across the globe, and his previous recordings for Naxos were highly acclaimed.

Pauline and Paul Viardot were members of the famous Garcia family, Pauline's father the world renowned operatic tenor Manuel, and her son Paul a violin prodigy who rubbed shoulders with Europe's elite and became a friend and colleague of Saint-Saens. Pauline's 'Six Morceaux' were composed as a gift to her young son. Beyond his 'Sonatas,' much of Paul Viardot's music consists of the short 'salon' works on this recording. They are considered "a treasure of melodies" by Reto Kuppel, and an evocation of 1920s Paris and French elegance. Violinist Reto Kuppel has performed throughout Europe and the United States and has appeared as a soloist with many German orchestras, including the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Concertino Hamburg, the Ensemble Haar, and the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied with Andreas Rohn at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater in Hamburg, and with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School in New York. His solo albums have been highly acclaimed by both critics and audiences.

Schumann’s love of the cello, which developed when he learned the instrument as a young man, is expressed most fully in his ‘Cello Concerto in A minor.’ It is a work marked by freshness of spirit and singing lyricism and stands as a rich example of mid-19th-century Romanticism. The series of characterful small pieces that include ‘Funf Stucke im Volkston’ reveals Schumann’s joy in the cello’s unique lyrical capabilities. The ‘Drei Romanzen’ and the ‘Intermezzo’ from the ‘F-A-E Sonata’ are presented here in new arrangements for cello and piano by Gabriel Schwabe. Gabriel Schwabe has established himself among the leading cellists of his generation. He is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann and the Concours Rostropovich in Paris. As a soloist he has worked with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Malmo and Norrkoping Symphony Orchestras and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. He plays a rare Italian instrument made in Brescia (c. 1600).

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REVIEW:

With just the necessary amount of vibrato, Gabriel Schwabe's cello, dating from around 1600, sings eloquently for him. The score of the concerto’s central section contains much sadness; without any undue haste, he generates an appropriate sense of triumphant brilliance as the work ends.

Schwabe and pianist Nicholas Rimmer give a particularly fast and vibrant account of the Allegro, in the Adagio and Allegro. It is a similarly outgoing performance of the Fantasiestucke that acts as a foil to the moments of beauty in the Three Romances; the five Volkston vividly characterised and contrasted, while the arrangement of the Intermezzo has simply taken the solo part down by an octave.

The catalogue is certainly not short of recordings of the Concerto, but this coupling is unusual and most enjoyable.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

The versatility of the suite form proved well suited to Johann Sebastian Bach in his instrumental works, and the English Suites are no exception. These are distinct from Bach’s other suites with their quasi-improvisatory opening Preludes, and further movements encompassing a wide range of moods and styles from lively dances to the pensive intensity of the slow Sarabandes. The Montenegrin Guitar Duo’s fresh and historically informed performances of these works have been acclaimed as “simply ravishing” (American Record Guide). The Montenegrin Guitar Duo is frequently invited to venues such as the Philharmonia Hall in Saint Petersburg, Manuel de Falla Hall in Madrid, and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. International festivals regularly engage the duo to give recitals, deliver lectures and masterclasses, and adjudicate major competitions. In 2013 their debut album was released by the Montenegrin Music Centre, featuring works by Domeniconi, Piazzolla and Bogdanovic. The first of their two volumes of Bach’s English Suites was released in 2015 and received excellent reviews.

The final volume of Percy Grainger’s complete music for wind band once again respects his precise instrumental demands in pieces that span the breadth of his career, from his first large work in the genre, ‘The Lads of Wamphray March,’ to ‘The Power of Rome and the Christian Heart,’ his largest such work and one of his last. Also to be heard are ‘A Lincolnshire Posy,’ one of the genre’s most famous and beautiful works; ‘The Immovable Do,’ which contains “the most long-held pedal note in all music”; and the revolutionary ‘Hill-Song No. 1,’ which Grainger considered the greatest of all his compositions. All of the scores in this series follow, to the letter, Grainger’s specific instructions as to the instrumentation. The Royal Norwegian Navy Band have starred for Naxos before, not least on some Sousa albums. Bjarte Engeset has been music director of the Tromso Symphony Orchestra and The Norwegian Wind Ensemble, artistic director of Northern Norway’s Northern Lights Festival and Opera Nord, as well as permanent guest conductor of the Flemish Radio orchestra. His discography includes more than 30 best-selling recordings, including an eight-album set of Grieg’s complete orchestral works on Naxos.

Along with Suchon and Cikker, Alexander Moyzes was one of the leading Slovak composers of his generation. His compositional style was inspired by the folk music and beautiful landscapes of his native land, but also took account of contemporary trends in European music after the First World War. These early symphonies, infused with Moyzes’ masterful orchestration and control of counterpoint, signify a new period in 20th century Slovak music. This album is a reissue of a previous release from 2000 that was part of the Marco Polo complete Moyzes symphonic cycle. Fanfare wrote of the original release: “A [release] no collection of 20th century symphony can do without. Bring on the remaining 10!” ClassicsToday.com wrote: “Moyzes’ music is engaging, well crafted, and beautifully orchestrated- qualities clearly understood and successfully conveyed by Ladislav Slovak and his Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The sonatas recorded here encompass almost the entirety of Hans Werner Henze’s creative life. Composed in difficult conditions just after WWII, the Violin Sonata covers the broadest range of human emotions, and is in some ways a study for the extraordinary First Violin Concerto. Steeped in Italian mythology, the Solo Violin Sonata is ‘a real piece of theatre,’ as is the emotionally shattering Viola Sonata, written straight after the completion of the ballet Orpheus. The Violin Sonatina is drawn from Henze’s children’s opera Pollicino, and the two remaining miniatures are memorials for lost colleagues. Internationally acclaimed violin virtuoso Peter Sheppard Skaerved’s close connection with Hans Werner Henze is well recognized, and this release follows on from his recordings of Henze’s First and Third Violin Concertos “having some seriously emotional meat on the bones of this traditional form” (MusicWeb International), and the Second Violin Concerto summed up as “a superb [album]… highly recommended” by Gramophone. This is the first recording to bring together Henze’s solo sonatas for violin and viola, as well as the early Violin Sonata and later Violin Sonatina. Peter Sheppard Skaerved recorded the composers revised 1992 version of the Solo Violin Sonata on the Metier label in 2000, but returns to the 1977 original for this recording, completing a deal with the composer to “see who is right!”

Ferdinand Ries’s life and work are inextricably intertwined with those of his friend and teacher Beethoven, and both Cello Sonatas, Op. 20 and 21 were dedicated to cellist Bernhard Romberg, who performed regularly with Beethoven. Ries exploits Romberg’s extraordinary sound quality in the lower register of the cello in music that resonates with references to colleagues such as Haydn and Hummel. Ries’s final Cello Sonata, Op. 125, completes a triptych that richly deserves its place in the cello repertoire. This release joins an ongoing program of releases of music by neglected composer Ferdinand Ries. This has included an edition of his complete piano sonatas and sonatinas played by Susan Kagan, to whom “classical music lovers owe a debt of gratitude for rescuing these attractive keyboard creations from the undeserved obscurity that they’ve been languishing in for the past two centuries or so.” (Halesowen News) Acclaimed cellist Martin Rummel has recorded widely for labels including Paladino Music and Capriccio. His recordings for Naxos include works for cello and piano by Joseph Merk and Reinhold Gliere. Recordings by pianist Stefan Stroissnig include Beethoven’s Second and Fourth Piano Concertos with the RSO Wien conducted by Heinrich Schiff on the Gramola Records label, and his recording of the Four Impromptus Op. 90 by Franz Schubert and the Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt was awarded the ‘Pasticcio Prize’ by Austrian Radio.

Agustin Barrios Mangore was one of the greatest guitar virtuosi of his time and something of a pioneer in making recordings, which he began as early as 1910. His compositions offer a lexicon of technical and expressive devices for the guitar, from both the South American and European traditions. This penultimate volume in the series offers the scintillating Estudio No. 6, which demonstrates some of the composer’s finest artistic characteristics such as poignant treble melodies and a mastery of harmonic progression. Other works include examples of the Paraguayan polka, the Zamba, Creole airs, the Serenata, and many other pieces attesting to Barrios’s inexhaustible individuality and variety. Celil Refik Kaya was awarded First Prize at the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition in 2012 and has since received multiple awards from several prestigious American guitar competitions, as well as the Rising Young Musician of the Year by the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul in 2017. Kaya has performed in the most prestigious concert halls and festivals around the US and Turkey, including Carnegie Hall, The Frick Collection Museum, NYCGS, Round Top, Brevard and Ankara International Music Festival, and numerous radio and TV broadcasts.

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REVIEW:

The guitarist's performances perfectly capture the atmosphere of popular South American music. You have to go no further than the first track, Las Abejas, for a sample of his quite remarkable agility in both hands. The disc is rounded off with a fabulous account of Milonga.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Ten years after writing ‘Les Corps glorieux’ Olivier Messiaen developed a plan to compose a Book of Rhythmic Studies for the organ. This resulted in two distinct works of which ‘Livre d’orgue’ proved to be an anthology representative of his compositional thinking at the time. It runs the gamut of rhythms, tone colors and sonorities, ranging from extreme delicacy to the most powerful vehemence, and includes new modes, complex Hindu rhythms, and an aviary of birdsong. The test piece ‘Verset pour la fete de la Dedicace’ offers a more serene vision in its own essay in birdsong. Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St. Alban’s Cathedral, where he accompanies the daily choral services and directs the Abbey Girls’ Choir. Previously, he served as sub-organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. He is also musical director of the London Pro Arte Choir. Winpenny has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio and featured on American Public Media’s pipedreams. He was organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a music degree, and twice accompanying the festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast worldwide.

In the last two decades of his career Eugene Zador, whose music fused Classicism with Romanticism to universal acclaim, wrote a series of works that reflected his Hungarian roots. Subtly flavored by folklore without any direct quotations, Zador's facility for melody, harmony and color is exemplified in the 'Rhapsody for Orchestra,' while his gift for lyricism and pithy concision is to the fore in the 'Fantasia Hungarica' for double bass and orchestra. The 'Rhapsody for Cimbalom and Orchestra' reveals his ceaselessly inventive imagination in music that is orchestrated with the deftest touch. Five of these works are receiving, on this album, their world premiere recording. The Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV was founded in 1945 by the Hungarian State Railways. Since then, it has developed a wide-ranging repertoire from music of the Baroque era to works by contemporary composers, and is currently ranked among the best professional ensembles in Hungary. The orchestra has performed throughout Europe as well as in Cyprus, Lebanon, China, Brazil, Peru, and many other countries throughout Europe, Asia, and South America.

Carl Czerny found a continuing source of inspiration in the music of his teacher Beethoven, even after he had established himself with a series of influential pedagogic works, piano exercises and studies. His works for piano trio show a flair for vivacious themes and unusual rhythms, such as the Spanish bolero in the second of the ‘Deux Trios brillants, Op. 211’ as well as opportunities for brilliant display, notably for the pianist. The ‘Trois Sonatines, Op. 104’ are equally lively, showing a transitional style that bridges the period from Mozart to Liszt. Dr. Sun-Young Gemma Shin is an active performer on both Baroque and modern violin as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra leader. She is presently associate concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra. Benjamin Hayek completed his bachelor and MM degrees in cello performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Hayek is active as a modern cellist in addition to his frequent appearances as a Baroque cellist. Dr. Samuel Gingher is active as a solo and collaborative pianist, and has performed in piano and chamber festivals all over the world. He is currently a faculty member at Millikin University in Illinois.

Alexander Moyzes was among the leading Slovak composers of his generation, drawing inspiration from the traditions and landscape of his own country while absorbing a number of wider contemporary trends. His Symphony No. 3, or Little Symphony is derived from an earlier Wind Quintet, while Symphony No. 4, with its occasional suggestions of Mahler and Sibelius, combines protest at the injustice of war with the past history of the Slovaks. The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was established in 1929 as the first professional symphony orchestra in Slovakia. The orchestra is currently led by conductor Mario Kosik. It has made a large number of recordings for labels including Opus, Supraphon, Naxos and Marco Polo. In addition to regular season concerts, which feature works by Slovak composers, many of them as premieres, the orchestra has performed at concerts abroad, visiting Austria and Hungary, and touring in Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Joly Braga Santos was Portugal’s greatest orchestral composer, and this recording presents eight world premiere recordings including his very first work for orchestra, the Symphonic Overture No. 1. This and the Symphonic Overture No. 2 share a unified structure and lyrical themes, contrasting with the somber Prelude, originally written for an intensely tragic opera. Braga Santos’s characterful four ‘miniatures’ are brought together to form an attractive suite, while his only Piano Concerto is a virtuoso spectacle with a large part for percussion and a gloriously anarchic approach to timbre and tonality. Born in Rijeka in 1981, Goran Filipec studied at the Ino Mirkovich Academy in Croatia, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris. During his early career, he was a top prizewinner of several international piano competitions. He performs across Europe, the US, South America and Japan as a recitalist and as a soloist with leading orchestras.

This recording realizes Barthold Kuijken’s long-held desire to restore to Jean-Baptiste Lully, and to French Baroque orchestral works in general, the power and intensity that once held the musical world in thrall. To the grandeur, finesse and diversity of the genre he has brought original source material to inform specific bowing techniques and the use of ornamentation. The result, as with Telemann’s Suite in E minor, which stands firmly in the Lully tradition, and Rameau’s magnificent Suite from Dardanus, evokes the spectacle and splendor of Versailles. Barthold Kuijken is an eminent leader in the field of early music. A virtuoso traverse soloist, teacher and conductor, he has shaped the fields of historical flutes and historically informed performance over the last forty years. Kuijken has widely performed and recorded the repertoire for the Baroque flute and has collaborated with other early music specialists including his brothers Sigiswald and Wieland Kuijken, Frans Bruggen, Gustav Leonhardt, and Paul Dombrecht.

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REVIEW:

This album of Lully-inspired music is worth the full price of admission. The performances deliver both grandeur and finesse, and the recording does them full justice. Two fine sets of notes, from harpsichordist Thomas Gerber and Barthold Kuijken, crown the achievement.

– MusicWeb International

Peter Graham is one of the leading brass band composers of his generation, and the first outside the US to win the American Bandmasters Association’s prestigious Ostwald Award for composition. Black Dyke Band celebrates his 60th birthday with this recording, the theme of which derives from Graham’s time in New York and from some of the ‘giants’ of American culture. On the Shoulders of Giants pays tribute to great brass virtuosi such as Miles Davis and John Philip Sousa; New York Movie is a ‘musical narrative’ on seven of Edward Hopper’s iconic, haunting paintings; and Metropolis 1927 takes its inspiration from the dystopian beauty of Fritz Lang’s classic science fiction film. The Black Dyke Band is legendary in brass band circles, and has already recorded the music of Philip Wilby, which American Record Guide called “dazzling.”

A large number of saxophone concertos have been written, but only a handful are regularly performed. With these premiere recordings Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo showcases five works that, had circumstances been different, might easily have established themselves as repertoire pieces. John Beach Cragun’s beautifully voiced work is the first saxophone concerto by an American and, like Yrjo Gunaropulos’ concerto- which enjoyed celebrity in the 1930s- was only rediscovered in 2016. The concertos by Eilert Lindorff-Larsen and Leopold van der Pals are compact, varied and exciting, while that by Phyllis Tate is considered her first major work. Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo has performed over 100 times as soloist with different symphony orchestras. He has encouraged a rising number of composers to create a whole new repertoire for him; almost 100 works have been written. Tuomisalo has so far released 15 solo albums, including 37 works for saxophone and orchestra.

All of the pieces in this programme have a literary or artistic connection as the background to their creation. Heard here in their first version, the Consolations owe their title to a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine and include a melody that later became the first Hungarian Rhapsody. The meditative Sposalizio was inspired by a painting by Raphael, and the Ballade by Gottfried Burger’s haunting ‘Lenore.’ Victor Hugo’s Apres une lecture de Dante is used powerfully by Liszt to express damnation and hope, and the first Mephisto Waltz derived from Lenau’s ‘Faust’ depicts a dance both sinister and amorous. Born in Rijeka in 1981, Goran Filipec studied at the Ino Mirkovich Academy in Croatia, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris. During his early career, he was a top prizewinner of several international piano competitions. He performs across Europe, the US, South America and Japan as a recitalist and as a soloist with leading orchestras.

Weinberg’s Symphony No. 13, dedicated to the memory of his mother, is cast in a single movement that unfolds in a symmetrical arc. A large orchestra is used sparingly in chamber-like textures with motivic ideas that evolve over the course of the work. The result is music of gripping and unsettling power, both emotionally intense and architecturally complex. Some years earlier Weinberg wrote the light-hearted Serenade, Op. 47, No. 4 which offers a study in contrasts: by turn capricious, rumbustious and wistful. The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra has a reputation as one of the best orchestras in the former Soviet Union. In 2015 Vladimir Lande became the orchestra’s new Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Since then, the orchestra has embarked on a recording programme with international labels, and televised concerts have become available for online streaming.

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REVIEW:

The dominant mood of the Symphony No. 13 is elegiac, and though the middle section displays aggression and sustained tension, the framing outer sections depend on long, brooding melodies and subdued dissonant counterpoint to communicate a haunted mood in the vein of Shostakovich’s late music. In contrast, the Serenade is almost shockingly cheerful, bursting with hummable melodies and rustic dances that at times evoke a sardonic mood. This album is an excellent introduction to Weinberg’s music.

– All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)

The Estonian composer Toivo Tulev has forged a unique sound world. His music, with it's almost obsessive focus on religious mysticism, can be sensual and emotional but also cerebral and technically demanding. Tulev often takes inspiration from his extensive travels, in particular from the city of Istanbul which, like his vocal music, bridges East and West. His meditation on the words of Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj, 'I said, Who are You?- He said, You,' conjures up a transcendent atmosphere, while his Magnificat departs from the text's traditionally solemn setting with it's stratospherically high string writing and wild percussion solos. The Latvian Radio Choir ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe. Working under the leadership of Sigvards Klava and conductor Kaspars Putnins, the choir is renowned for it's tonal finesse and range of expression. The repertoire of the LRC ranges from the Renaissance to the most sophisticated modern scores. The LRC has participated in the top musical forums in Salzburg and Montpellier, the Baltic Sea Festival, Klangspuren Festival, and others, and has performed in many renowned concert halls.

A fiercely independent composer, Henri Dutilleux wrote music that is refined, colorful and scrupulously crafted. Symphony No 1, his first purely orchestral score, established his international reputation. Structurally unconventional- it opens, unusually, with a passacaglia- it illustrates his principle of ‘progressive growth’ through its sustained lyricism and towering, chorale-like statements. Metaboles was inspired by the virtuosity of the woodwind section of George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra. Distinctive instrumentation for each movement allows for deep expression, jazzy rhythms and moments of irony. The enigmatic diptych Les Citations quotes from fellow composers Benjamin Britten and Jehan Alain. After over 40 years at the head of the Orchestre National de Lille (ONL), of which he was the founder, Jean-Claude Casadesus enjoys an international career that has brought seasons in Germany, Russia, Japan, Latvia, and in Lille. His 30 albums with the orchestra have won critical and public acclaim and as a guest conductor he has appeared in Moscow, Singapore, Montreal, Baltimore, Seoul, St. Petersburg and Berlin. He is an enthusiastic champion of contemporary music and set up residences for composers with the Lille orchestra.