British composer Douglas Weiland has long been acclaimed as one of contemporary music's most outstanding composers for the string quartet medium, and his evolving cycle has won much admiration. Composed between 2011 and 2012 the Fourth and Fifth Quartets show him at the height of his artistic powers, where he seeks connections across time, and shows a Classical commitment to form, invention and melodic beauty. His conceptions can be Schubertian in scale and scope, while also displaying the influence of Haydn and Bartok.

Rooted in European music, native folk traditions and often infused by jazz, Brazilian music encompasses a huge variety of dance forms and songs. Prize-winning guitarist Pedro Aguiar has selected a panoramic recital to illustrate these elements which include the choro and music rich in melody and rhythmic vitality. From Villa-Lobos, whose Charos No. 1 is one of the most popular guitar solos ever written, through to the work of the revered Dilermando Reis, and on to contemporary examples of the genre, this is music of dazzling virtuosity and finesse.

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REVIEW:

Pedro Aguiar’s playing is irresistible. This album is a must for guitar lovers and fans of Brazilian music.

– MusicWeb International

Opera-comique emerged in the 19th century as an intermediary between grand opera and burlesque operetta. This album charts it's progression as a distinct genre, tracing the origins from Boieldieu and Mehul early in the century via the classic vitality of masters such as Herold and Maillart into the operetta style of Offenbach and Lecocq. With innovative features, colorful orchestration, drama, wit and atmospheric writing, the operas proved very popular and these overtures encapsulate their immense vivacity and charm.

Many interwar Norwegian composers tried to create a new national music by combining elements of authentic folk music with new techniques. Eivind Groven was considered one of the most innovative composers in this quest, integrating the structure of folk dances from his rural upbringing into familiar formal principles. Both symphonies make use of techniques of so-called ‘progressive transformation’, which led fellow composer Arne Nordheim to declare: ‘While others made instrumentations of folk tunes, Groven created sounds, for example in his [two] symphonies which, in my opinion, are quite unique.’ Eivind Groven’s symphonies have been recorded before, though this is the first time they have appeared together on a single album. The expressive eloquence and approachability of both of these symphonies means that such relative neglect is deeply unfair. Peter Szilvay is one of the most sought-after of Norwegian conductors, his career developing quickly after his acclaimed final diploma exam with the Norwegian radio orchestra and his award as ‘Conductor of the Year’ in Oslo in 1999. He has conducted most of the leading Norwegian orchestras and with the Norwegian Opera and ballet, his repertoire stretching from Beethoven to the late Romantics and as an enthusiastic ambassador for contemporary composers, having premiered over 160 pieces.

This album of French piano rarities features seldom-heard and recently discovered works by composers who had an influence on Pierre Boulez, as well as the premiere recording of Boulez’s Prélude, Toccata et Scherzo. This large-scale early work looks back on virtuosic Romantic music, while at the same time exploring the new compositional styles that Boulez would subsequently embrace.

Among the rarities is a posthumously discovered piano study by Debussy, a reconstructed birdsong work by Messiaen, and a tiny masterpiece by Ravel found in a notebook.

Ralph van Raat has been fascinated by classical music of the 20th century since the age of 14. Although his repertoire ranges from Bach to Boulez, his primary focus has always been on composers dating from Debussy, Bartók and Ives to present-day masters. Van Raat helps audiences identify with modern day composers by adhering to a classical approach: he firmly believes that a strong sense of classical structure as well as a refinement of tone is essential in conveying the logic and poetry of any music. This has not gone unrecognized: he is the recipient of a substantial number of national and international awards, many composers have written solo works for him, and he has performed over 50 piano concertos with orchestras worldwide.

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REVIEW:

In addition to other solo piano writing from Boulez, van Raat’s new album shows his lustrous way of playing lesser-heard gems by Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen. Given this repertoire, the album’s title, “French Piano Rarities,” makes plenty of sense. Yet it doesn’t do justice to the worldliness that informs this pianist’s process, no matter which tradition he is exploring.

– New York Times (Seth Colter Walls)

Myroslav Skoryk is one of Ukraine’s leading composers and teachers, with a portfolio of works that include opera, a symphonic transcription of Paganini’s Caprices, and a cycle of nine violin concertos written over a 45-year span. Concerto No. 5 utilizes jazz elements and a vivid fugato, while Concerto No. 6 explores the use of sensual moods and provocative dance rhythms. Syncopation and lyricism infuse Concerto No. 7, while No. 9 is both touching and dramatic. Concerto No. 8 offers a representation of events in Chopin’s life through quotations, in combination with Skoryk’s own distinctive musical voice.

Domenico Scarlatti is best remembered for the hundreds of single-movement keyboard sonatas he composed for his pupil the Infanta Maria Bárbara, who married the heir to the Spanish throne in 1728, taking her music master with her from Lisbon to Madrid. Scarlatti’s panache and inventiveness is always on show in these compact sonatas, their delicacy and refinement hiding some surprising explorations of unexpected keys, and technical demands such as hand-crossing and chains of sixths and thirds that would have posed some interesting challenges to his clearly talented pupil. Alon Goldstein is one of the most original and sensitive pianists of his generation. His discography includes Mozart’s Piano Concertos with the Fine Arts Quartet and Dvorák’s Piano Trios with the Tempest Trio and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concertos with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. A passionate advocate of music education, recent teaching engagements have included the Steans Institute at Ravinia Festival, The Gilmore Keyboard Festival, and Ensemble Connect (formerly Ensemble ACJW) at Carnegie Hall. Goldstein has performed at prestigious venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Kremlin, Hollywood Bowl and the Southbank Centre. In 2019 he was inducted into the Society of Scholars of his alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This album features works by Sor, Tárrega, Bach, Paganini Rodrigo and Myers.

The ‘Best Loved’ series of albums covers a wide range of popular instruments, each bringing together a substantial selection of works from the vast Naxos catalogue. Each compilation includes an extensive booklet which provides a full introduction to the instrument, an explanation of how its sound is produced, and descriptions of the pieces. Each album will serve as an introduction to a specific instrument, with musical examples from the Baroque to the present, and with a mixture of solo, chamber and orchestral works. The series is aimed at listeners who do not have extensive knowledge of classical music, but who are interested to find out more about the instrument featured and about popular repertoire written for it. The focus in these releases is a light and relaxed approach, rather than academic and theoretical: a joyful exploration and celebration of individual instrumental sounds. This series will be accompanied by supplementary online playlists that will have additional best loved tracks for each instrument beyond what can be included on a physical album. This carefully selected programme represents the key Romantic-era composer/players alongside more traditional pieces.

The second volume in this series (Volume1is on 8.574005) continues to explore little-known examples of Auber’s elegant and refined operatic music. Julie was his first stage work, its fantasia-like beauty foreshadowing the operas, opéras-comiques and lyric dramas to come. Striking melodies and haunting episodes abound in these overtures and entr’actes, and there is restrained yet fragrant Iberian color in the overture to Léocadie. The Violin Concerto is lightly scored and gentle, with a tarantella-like finale full of folk vitality.

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REVIEW:

This disc concentrates on Auber's early career between 1805 and 1829, going back to his first opera, Julie, ou L’Erreur d’un moment, where the orchestral scoring could be just for an enlarged string quartet. At the other end of the spectrum, in Fiorella from 1826, he was in competition with Rossini and requires a much more fulsome orchestra. We then move into the world of serious opera in 1824 with Leocadie. The Violin Concerto poses no major problems for Marketa Cepicka, a ‘song-like’ quality in the first two movements concluded by a suitably frolicking dance finale. The playing of the Czech orchestra is first rate for the Scottish/Italian conductor, Dario Salvi, the musicologist who is unearthing these long forgotten scores.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Leó Weiner, a contemporary of Bartók and Kodály, was a profoundly important teacher in Budapest whose own music developed from a more traditional Romantic model – exemplified by the songful Románc, Op. 29 – to an absorption of his native Hungarian folk music during the 1930s. The two Divertimentos for strings, vibrantly orchestrated sequences of dances, are among the best-known works of this period. The later Hungarian Nursery Rhymes and Folk Songs draw on some archaic and very popular native melodies. Volumes 1 and 2 can be heard on 8.573491 and 8.573847. This is Volume 3 of Valéria Csányi’s ongoing series of the complete orchestral works by Weiner, with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV. Vol. 1 includes the complete ballet C song or and Tünde (8.573491)in which Gramophone wrote that ‘Csányi shapes the score as if she really loves it’, while Fanfare stated that ‘this disc represents a charming discovery.’

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REVIEW:

This is the fourth disc in Naxos’ survey of the orchestral music of Leó Weiner—each performed by the same artists as here. All of these CDs have been impressively and idiomatically performed and the repertoire is valuable in expanding the knowledge of Weiner’s work outside his native Hungary. For those discovering his music for the first time, this disc might be the best introduction to his work of the series so far.

In terms of both musical content and simple length, the Pastorale, Fantasy and Fugue Op.23 is the most substantial work on this disc. The use of folk-inspired melodic and rhythmic shapes is unmistakable but none of these are explicitly folk-derived although the fugal finale does draw on a traditional Hungarian bagpipe song. This is certainly a work that deserves to be more widely known and played outside of its native Hungary.

This well recorded, confidently played programme cements the attractive music of Leo Weiner as being well-worth performing. With the exception of the Op.23, this is essentially quite light but very enjoyable music that benefits from sympathetic and idiomatic performances. István Kassai’s English-only liner is very helpful highlighting information about both the music and this relatively unfamiliar composer.

– MusicWeb International

Silvius Leopold Weiss was acknowledged as the greatest lutenist of his age, composing over 600 pieces for the instrument organized into suites or sonatas. In these arrangements for guitar, Danijel Cerovi? has selected the only two of Weiss’s sonatas to have been given poetic titles, Sonata No. 29 ‘L’Infidèle’ (‘The Infidel’), with its bell-like sonorities and triumphant conclusion, and Sonata No. 28 ‘Le Fameux Corsaire’ (‘The Famous Pirate’), thought to refer to the buccaneering pirate Blackbeard. Cerovi? also includes two of the great Tombeaux, elegies of profound and poignant depth. Danijel Cerovi? is an internationally acclaimed recording artist, touring musician and pedagogue from Montenegro. He is frequently invited to play at international festivals and concert halls, as a soloist or chamber musician, and performs with orchestras all over the world. He has also given masterclasses at international conservatoires, festivals and competitions.

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REVIEW:

A delight; early lute music meticulously and lovingly arranged for guitar seemingly without any loss in the innate musicianship of the original. Mood changes impress by their subtlety and inner charm rather than any attempt to impress.

– Lark Reviews

Valentin Silvestrov’s elusive post-modern style is rich in nostalgia for the lost music of a barely remembered past filled with beauty and spiritual aspiration. Ode to a Nightingale is a masterly response to Keats’ unsentimental reflection on human mortality, contrasting with the beauty and affecting intimacy of the Cantata No. 4 and the resonant emotional world of its companion piece, the Concertino. Starkness set against elegiac melancholy are the shared features of Moments of Poetry and Music and the Seventh Symphony – an embodiment of Silvestrov’s dual musical nature of anguish and tenderness. Valentine Silvestrov’s music has become widely acclaimed and appreciated through numerous recordings, and he has been dubbed ‘one of the greatest composers of our time’ by the likes of Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Part. Naxos and Grand Piano have added to his catalogue with significant releases and ‘beautiful, sensitive performances that make a strong impression even though they never raise their voices.’ (Fanfare)

Greek by parentage, Vasily Kalafati settled permanently in St Petersburg where he counted Rimsky-Korsakov among his teachers, and later included Igor Stravinsky among a distinguished roll-call of his own students. Kalafati’s style incorporated elements of the Russian National School into traditional forms, as can be heard in the wide-ranging contrasts and Romantic lyricism of his only Symphony. The Polonaise has a celebratory character with exceptionally bright orchestration, while the ingenious Légende commemorates Schubert by transforming his themes into a colorful late-Romantic symphonic poem that earned Kalafati some well-deserved distinction at its premiere. Conductor Byron Fidetzis and the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra recently made a much-admired recording of works by Nikos Skalkottas, and Fidetzis has also recorded for the Naxos Greek Classics edition. These releases include orchestral works by Manolis Kalomiris (8.572451) in which ‘Fidetzis...turns in a truly masterly job and delivers performances that are equally full of expertise, verve, and passion’ (Fanfare).

Not only was Robert Fuchs an admired friend of Brahms, but he nurtured a prodigious number of pupils, among whom were Enescu, Korngold, Mahler, Wolf, and Sibelius who called Fuchs a clever orchestrator, professional to his fingertips, and very happy as a composer. The three Violin Sonatas, composed over a 24-year period between 1877 and 1901, exemplify Fuchs superbly crafted and melodious grace, with soaring Romanticism spiced with occasional Hungarian color, folkloric themes, and vivacious finales.

The music of Carl Nielsen holds a very special place for Danes, defining the nation's musical voice for over a century and reflecting the soul of Denmark. Nielsen was a violinist from childhood, his early Sonata in G major having 'a scent of Mozartian youth,' while the newly published Romance in G major was dedicated to his first teacher. Mature works include the Second Violin Sonata, 'a work unparalleled in the sonata literature,' and the Prelude, Theme and Variations inspired by Bach's Chaconne for solo violin. This collection represents the first ever recording of Nielsen's complete music for violin solo or with piano.

During his lifetime Anton Rubinstein gained a considerable reputation as a piano virtuoso the equal of Liszt, and for a stream of distinctive compositions, among them symphonies and operas. He was also responsible for revolutionising standards in Russian teaching and performance – yet despite his eminence many of his works have been overlooked. Le Bal, Op. 14 presents a characteristic ballroom scene in ten sections full of energy and rich sentiment. This miniature drama charts the anticipation of the dancer, a series of eventful dances and a final reflection on what has been. Warren Lee made his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of six. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Yale School of Music, he was the First Prize winner of the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition and the Grand Prix Ivo Pogorelich in 1995. He has performed on four continents, often in collaboration with international artists and leading orchestras. His recordings for Universal Music (Hong Kong) and Naxos have garnered favourable reviews worldwide. A Steinway Artist as well as an awardwinning composer, Warren Lee received the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in Hong Kong in 2012 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015 for his contribution to the music profession. In 2017 he received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Music.

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REVIEW:

The playing is stunning and imaginative. Warren Lee gives a performance which sparkles in the lively numbers and is suitably thoughtful in the quieter and more reflective moments.

– MusicWeb International

Jules Massenet is famous for his series of 27 operas that include Manon and Werther, but he also wrote a significant portfolio of orchestral music which include ballets, orchestral suites and incidental music. The works presented here show his versatility and lyricism and include the one-act ballet Espada, saturated in Iberian color and beguiling rhythms, as well as Les Érinnyes (‘The Furies’) with a vivid sequence of contrasting themes. Modeled after Liszt, Visions is a poème-symphonique of both ethereal and dramatic power.

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REVIEW:

Between JoAnn Falletta and Jean-Luc Tingaud, Naxos seems to be cornering the market when it comes to unusual but worthy repertoire. Tingaud’s specialty, unsurprisingly, has (thus far) focused on French music, and this Massenet collection includes some pretty nifty and rare titles. Visions, for example, is a symphonic poem in Lisztian style dating from 1891, and it’s an imposing and impressive fourteen-minute hunk of good, romantic music. Brumaire is a powerful, militant overture that belies the composer’s reputation as little more than a soft orchestral voluptuary.

The Espada Suite is another in the seemingly endless series of French works with a Spanish flavor, and it’s none the worse for that. Best of all, perhaps, is the incidental music to Érinnyes (The Furies). Dating from 1876, this substantial half hour of music features an extended “Scène religieuse” and a three-movement divertissement full of memorable and vigorous ideas. The program concludes with the darkly dramatic overture Phèdre–like all of the music here very well played and conducted with real conviction. The sonics, too, do the music proud. I love this stuff, and I suspect that you will too.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Scarlatti’s single-movement sonatas or exercises are his greatest musical legacy. Largely designed for the Infanta, who became Queen of Spain in 1746, the music exists in a number of 18th-century manuscripts, some possibly bequeathed to the great Italian castrato Farinelli. Each of the sonatas in this volume exemplifies the limitless variety of Scarlatti’s imagination, from ‘crush’ notes and surprising pauses, through virtuosic moto perpetuos, bell evocations and busy counterpoint, to delicately restrained phrases and delightful syncopation.

Florent Schmitt was a student of Massenet and Fauré, and winner of the coveted Prix de Rome. His impressionistic style blends influences ranging from Debussy to Wagner, with references to Stravinsky and other contemporaries. Conceived as a ballet but revised as a symphonic poem, La Tragédie de Salomé depicts Salome’s dangerous seductiveness with subtle magnificence. Narrative symbolism also applies to the evocative word painting of the exquisite Musique sur l’eau. The perilous saga of Oriane et le Prince d’Amour contrasts with the poetic tapestry of orchestral colors in Légende, in a version that replaces the original solo saxophone with violin.

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REVIEW:

Although Florent Schmitt lived until 1958 and took an interest in musical trends of the day, his fundamental style never really changed. It tightened up a bit under the influence of Stravinsky but remained essentially late Romantic. JoAnn Falletta has been an unfailingly successful advocate of Schmitt's on disc. There are quite a few versions of La tragédie de Salomé available, but none more refined and silky than this one. The Buffalo Philharmonic is a polished orchestra and has a wonderful satin feel for French music. The smooth acoustic of Kleinhans Hall and Naxos’s customary transparency do the rest.

All told, this is a winning release. In the vanishing wake of dodecaphonic music, where process was everything, we seem to be rediscovering beauty and meaning in composers who were, so to speak, left behind. More power, then, to Florent Schmitt!

– Fanfare

The piano trio holds an important place in the history of Russian chamber music and to follow the development of the genre is to accompany the fascinating history of Russian music in the 19th century. Its beginnings can be found with Alexander Alyabiev, a student of John Field, whose unfinished but elegant and vivacious Piano Trio in E flat major is paired with the yearning Romanticism of the Piano Trio in A minor. Mikhail Glinka’s Trio pathétique bears the inscription ‘I have only known love through the sorrow it causes!’, while Anton Rubinstein’s elaborately acrobatic piano writing in his Piano Trio in G minor reminds us of his own virtuosity, and reveals his magnificent skills as a melodist.

Christophe Dejour’s arrangements of music by Albeniz and Granados performed by Trio Campanella have won much acclaim. For this recording he has made three pioneering arrangements that further expand the instrument’s repertoire and compass. Dejour’s arrangement of Gesualdo’s Canzon Francese del Principe is both expressive and idiomatic, and he explores two great 20th-century works in Berg’s milestone Piano Sonata, Op.1and Bartók’s profound and complex Sonata for Solo Violin which was inspired by Bach.

Symphonic thought is at the heart of Elisabetta Brusa’s oeuvre, whether in larger forms or solo instrumental works. As with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 (8.573437), the Symphony No. 2 follows a Classical four-movement form with harmonies that are essentially tonal and richly colored. Emotions are vivid and the rhythms are punchy and passionate whether in fanfare figures or in the beautiful solemnity of the slow movement. Simply Largo is a short ‘song without words’ with a seamless melodic clarity that reflects Brusa’s power to summon up great expressive depth.

Alexander Mosolov was one of the foremost composers of the Russian avant-garde during the1920s. His music was considered ‘a testament to the revolutionary spirit of his time’, but the legacy of his fame from that period now rests solely on The Iron Foundry. Soviet-era politics brought persecution and imprisonment, and these two recently rediscovered works were both composed after his ‘rehabilitation’. The Harp Concerto– a piece worthy of a place in the mainstream repertoire – is Mosolov’s ‘response’ to the concerto by his teacher Glière, and is heard here in its first complete performance. Coupled with the first recording of his final colorful Fifth Symphony, these are fascinating additions to the corpus of neglected Soviet-era works.

“Passacaglia della Vita” – an homage to the facets of life: heartache, betrayal, seduction, impermanence, excitement, fun and laughter. At the center of the concept of the program is the eponymous song “Passacaglia della Vita” by Stefano Landi. While the stanzas depict a wide variety of life situations and repeatedly call for the enjoyment of life in accordance with the motto “Carpe diem,” the refrain repeats the rather admonishing “bisogna morire” – each of us dies. The reminder of death – or in a religious sense, the belief in redemption and life eternal – illustrates the finiteness of worldly joys and gives us a framework for life.

Soon after his return from studies in Leipzig, Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote his second work, L’Île Enchantée. This was a ballet score on the subject of a shipwrecked mariner which debuted at Covent Garden in the form of a divertissement at the end of Bellini’s La sonnambula, where it was received with acclaim. This premiere recording restores passages Sullivan cut when presenting the work for concert performances. Thespis, a collaboration with W.S. Gilbert, is a flamboyant opera cum pantomime of which only fragments now remain – the work’s lost ballet has been rediscovered and restored by Roderick Spencer and Selwyn Tillett.

REVIEW:

L’Île Enchantée is an early (1864) ballet originally designed to be performed as a divertissement following a performance of Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Nights at the opera evidently ran long in those days, because this particular trifle lasts nearly fifty minutes. The music reveals the young Sullivan fully in command of his gifts for catchy melodies and colorful orchestration. It may not be great stuff, but it is extremely entertaining, and if you enjoy nineteenth-century ballet music then you’ll certainly take to this appealing example of the genre. Never mind the plot, which involves a shipwrecked sailor washed up on an island populated by nymphs and fairies and suchlike. The autograph score is lost, but the work was reconstructed from surviving orchestral parts and here receives its world premiere recording (originally issued on Marco Polo in the early 1990s)—and a fine one it is.

Thespis, Sullivan’s first collaboration with W.S. Gilbert, was a Christmas spectacular most of which no longer exists — Sullivan incorporated bits of it into later works, but a few ballet numbers appear to have survived. The five dances presented here total nine minutes of music, and make an apt filler to The Enchanted Isle. Again, they reveal Sullivan’s obvious facility at this sort of light entertainment. Andrew Penny and the RTE Concert Orchestra offer lively, refreshing performances of all of this music. There’s not a dull or routine moment anywhere, and Naxos’ clean and clear sonics leave little to be desired. This release represents an attractive and intriguing addition to the discography of England’s greatest nineteenth-century composer.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Janácek’s final decade saw an almost unprecedented creative renewal during which he wrote some of his greatest works. Among them were his chamber music masterpieces, the two String Quartets. The first was inspired by Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata, a torrid tale of adultery and murder to which Janácek responded with music of increasingly frenzied passion. The second was subtitled Intimate Letters, a freely evolving work full of yearning and amorous defiance. originally cast for four violins, the two youthful Sonnets date from 1875 and balance the archaisms of the first with the lyricism of the second.

REVIEW:

The scores of the quartets are liberally sprinkled with changes of tempi and dynamics, and nowhere are those more important than when capturing the mood of the ‘story’ being told in the opening two movements of the First Quartet. Maybe recordings from Slovak quartets are the most successful in making those moments really startling, but the New Zealanders offer very well prepared performances, full of well judged nuances, and suitably suave when required in the Second Quartet. There they question, without resolution, the contents of the letters, with undiluted searing moments of pain. In summary, with the impeccable balance between instruments, and squeaky clean intonation, these are among my recommended performances on disc.

– David's Review corner (David Denton)

Social and musical life in Biedermeier Vienna during the first decade of the 19th century created a great demand for dances which took place in the residences of wealthy citizens. With their echoes of the Austrian countryside Schubert’s folk-type Ländler are dances in 3/4 time, precursors of the waltz. Composed towards the end of his life when Schubert wrote his greatest music, the sets of 16and17Ländlerare notable for their melodic inventiveness. The 16arededicated to the ladies of Vienna and known as the Wiener Damen-Ländler; while the Écossaises were intended for facing lines of dancers rather than couples. Daniel Lebhardt relishes the joy and ‘irresistible and sometimes quite delirious’ ingenuity of these jewel-like dances.

This carefully selected program by the multi award-winning Mare Duo presents some of the best original music written for mandolin and guitar, showing both instruments as equal chamber music partners in works both challenging and beautiful. The Duo’s surprising range and variety of timbre can be heard from Funk Pearson’s highly atmospheric Mountain Moor, and the intercultural sketches by Thomas Allen LeVines, to Guido Santórsola’s lyrical SonataNo.6.Ernst Krenek’s Suite is a late masterpiece that embraces virtuosity, intimacy and quirky wit, with a dramatic mini-opera as its finale, while Monk Feldman depicts an elusive ocean landscape in ThePaleBlueNorthernSky.

Widor’s cycle of ten organ symphonies underwent profound development and transformation over many years. Classical elements became more obviously virtuosic and, by the time of these Op.42 symphonies, his musical language had become monumental. Symphony No. 5 in F minor is world famous for a single movement, its concluding Toccata, a moto perpetuo of astonishing brilliance, but the whole work is imbued with structural and musical genius. Striking rhythms, dynamic contrasts and technical roulades mark out Symphony No. 6 in G minor. Also included is a graceful movement from Symphony No. 8 (8.574207) that Widor later omitted.