Gabriel Faure' chamber works, long overshadowed by his popular Requiem, are regaining their rightful place, as the success of his Violin Sonatas and Cello Sonatas attests. Dubbed the 'Master of Charm' by Debussy, Faure responded to the quasi-orchestra.

Stravinsky's music for violin and piano was written for his duo with violinist Samuel Dushkin. Both the Suite Italienne and Divertimento are arrangements of ballet scores, each work in turn an alchemic transformation of Baroque and Romantic styles into Stravinsky's distinctive idiom. The enigmatic but unwaveringly expressive Duo Concertant was Stravinsky's only original work in this form. Huebl and Wait were acclaimed for their recording of Schnittke's complete Sonatas (8.570978). Mark Wait received two GRAMMY nominations for his disc of Elliott Carter's Piano Concerto (8.559151). Violinist Carolyn Huebl is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader, and has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Argentina and Canada, winning critical acclaim. Pianist Mark Wait is Dean and Professor at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. His recording of Elliott Carter's Piano Concerto (Naxos 8.559151) was nominated for a 2004 GRAMMY-� award for Best Classical Album and Best Instrumental Solo Performance with Orchestra.

A champion of Haydn', Mozart' and Beethoven' chamber music, Louis Spohr also made a considerable contribution to this genre, composing 36 string quartets and four double quartets, these latter unique in the repertoire.

Nikolay Andreyevich Roslavets was viewed by his Russian colleagues as one of the most original, innovative and progressive composers of the 1920s, a period of extraordinary artistic experimentation between the Russian Revolution and the Soviet regime'.

With his Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi created perhaps the most famous and influential work of late Baroque music. Even today, his imaginative solutions to the challenges of depicting the seasons in music are completely compelling in their evocative power. Recorded in the Concert Hall of the State Chamber Orchestra, Zilina.

The penultimate release in the Naxos Seattle Collection, featuring internationally renowned soprano Susan Graham.

Kenneth Leighton's distinctive gifts as a composer were apparent as early as the premi�re of his Cello Concerto, when he was barely 26. It was an instrument for which he wrote with particular subtlety and often from an inner compulsion. The Elegy, Op. 5 is full of brilliance, lyricism and mystery whilst by the time he wrote the rhapsodic and expressive Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 52, his position as one of Britain's leading composers had long been cemented. The beautiful Alleluia Pascha Nostrum, Op. 85 was first performed by the soloist on this disc, Raphael Wallfisch.

Kaikhosro Shapurji Sorabji is known as a composer whose pursuit of extremes resulted in vast works such as his Opus Clavicembalisticum which, for many years, was acknowledged as the world's longest non-repetitive piano work. More important is his music's unique and satisfying beauty. From the mystical impressionism of earlier 'nocturnal' pieces to the awe-inspiring energy and massive climaxes of his later work, Sorabji's legacy is one which is increasingly appreciated as a unique contribution to 20th century music. Michael Habermann's now legendary recordings gained Sorabji's exclusive approval, breaking through the notorious ban he had placed on performances of his own work.

John Ireland’s music is often a response to landscape and romantic sensitivities, and with its significant musical clues, broad, songlike melodies and turbulent finale, the Sonata in G Minor is one of his most expressive and passionate works. A Downland Suite is one of Ireland’s most attractive compositions, especially for its exquisite Elegy and popular Minuet made familiar through its use in radio and television. Ireland’s evocative piano works lend themselves well to string orchestra arrangement, including the poetic Soliloquy, and In a May Morning inspired by spring on Guernsey.

Grace Williams (19 February 1906 - 10 February 1977) was a Welsh composer. Born in the coastal town of Barry, near Cardiff, Grace learned piano and violin and developed her musical skills early. She won the Morfydd Owen scholarship to Cardiff University in 1923 where she studied under Professor David Evans and in 1926 she proceeded to the Royal College of Music, London, where she was taught by Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Williams is regarded by many as one of Wales finest composers. She wrote two symphonies, the earlier being the first symphony ever composed by a Welsh composer, a mass, one opera, numerous other pieces for orchestras and chamber ensemble, as well as accomplished vocal works. She was also the first British woman to score a feature film, with Blue Scar in 1949. Her chamber music, recorded here for the first time, spans 40 years.

The precociously gifted Korngold followed in the footsteps of the great late romantic composers Richard Strauss, Mahler and Pfitzner, his unwavering commitment to refined melody, ravishing harmony and formal coherence earning him the reputation of a musical genius.

The Naxos Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition: Schubert set the poetry of over 115 writers to music. He selected poems from classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, from eighteenth-century German authors, early Romantics and Biedermeier poets.

HAYDN Piano Trios: No. 24 in D; No. 25 in G; No. 26 in f?; No. 31 in e? • Kungsbacka Pn Trio • NAXOS 8.572040 (52: 35)


This disc offers an intriguing set of paradoxes. But let’s first state that it is quite wonderful. The Adagio cantabile of Trio No. 26 is that of the Adagio of Haydn’s Symphony No. 102—and yet it is not. The notes are very much the same; one easily follows the symphony’s score during the trio, translating the first violin part to the piano and the winds to the violin. But the movement now makes a totally different impression, sweet and calm instead of solid and intense. This is not just the performance, and the Kungsbacka demonstrates elsewhere that it can be appropriately intense. In its complete set, Haydn Trio Eisenstadt (which I admire greatly) hews close to the symphony’s Adagio, and it just doesn’t work.


As I seem to repeat in every issue, there is no single right way to play Haydn, assuming competence and taste. This ensemble produces the impression of period practice, and yet Simon Crawford Phillips’s piano is clearly a modern grand. He achieves delicate, pearl-like tones in Haydn’s rising and falling phrases, but he sometimes pounds cadences in codas. These performances are thoughtful and relaxed (the andantes are especially lovely), with little of the sparkle of the Beaux Arts Trio’s recordings—which are in turn seldom contemplative and can wear one down with their consistent flash. Each complements the other, and many recordings lie in between; yet the Kungsbacka races through the presto “Hungarian Rondo” of No. 25 as fast as any group. If you prefer one complete set, I recommend Haydn Trio Eisenstadt on Phoenix Edition ( Fanfare 32:5). I prefer the variety of multiple ensembles, and these four trios mesh neatly with a disc of Nos. 21–23 by Trio 1790 on cpo (Complete Piano Trios Vol. 4) and Nos. 27–30 by Robert Levin, Vera Beths, and Anner Byslma on Sony. Add to these PentaTone’s two-SACD set of nine early trios by the Beaux Arts: no duplications, and you get both modern and period instruments.


FANFARE: James H. North

Includes work(s) for guitar by Nicholas Maw. Soloist: Marcin Dylla.

This collection of piano music is a welcome reminder of the many fascinating stylistic strands that colour George Enescu' work. Seriously under-rated today, he exerted a powerful influence on all those who came under his spell.

Challenges even the best - a bargain alternative to Trevor Pinnock.

Naxos already had a decent recording of the ‘Nelson’ Mass (8.554416, with the ‘Little Organ’ Mass, Hob.XXII/7) on which soloists, the Hungarian Radio Chorus and the Nikolaus Esterházy Sinfonia were conducted by Béla Drahos. The new recording, Volume 3 of the Naxos series of the Haydn Masses, is also available in an 8-CD.

The Nikolaimesse, recorded in 2002, gets the new recording off to a very good start. The music is lighter, less vintage Haydn than its more familiar companion, with mainly brisk tempi much in the manner of the short early Masses which Mozart composed for his Salzburg patron Archbishop Coloredo. It also receives a fine performance and recording. The soloists don’t merit a listing on the rear insert, but they are named inside the booklet, as they deserve to be. If I select Ann Hoyt, the soprano, for special praise, that should not be at the expense of the others.

To be honest, I had not expected much from this CD - I hadn’t heard of any of the performers and I’d forgotten the warm reception which the complete box had received - but the performance of the Nikolaimesse alone makes it worth the modest price. All concerned convince me that this early work is at least the equal of any of Mozart’s Masses, with the exception of the Coronation (K317) the ‘Great’ Mass (K427)and, of course, the Requiem (K626).

The ‘Nelson’ Mass is, I think, at least the equal of the three best Mozart Masses. I shall continue to give it that name as a kind of shorthand, though it has very little to do with Lord Nelson: Haydn nicknames have a habit of sticking even when they are inappropriate - there is at least enough evidence to doubt that it was at a performance of Symphony No.96 that the heavy chandelier narrowly missed causing serious injury, yet the name ‘Miracle’ continues to be attached to that work. Haydn himself called it Missa in angustiis, Mass in straitened times, but it’s easier and shorter to continue to call it the ‘Nelson’.

The opening Kyrie announces that this is a more serious work than the Nikolaimesse. As Jennifer More Glagov notes in the excellent booklet, the lack of wind players - the Prince had just dismissed them as an economy measure - apart from three (specially hired?) trumpets gives the work an undeniably martial tone.

The performers again give an excellent account of themselves. Only Ann Hoyt remains from the earlier line-up and continues to sing impressively - my wife came in as I was listening and was very surprised to discover that this was the voice of a singer whom neither she nor I had heard before. Naxos and others please note, we want to hear more of her. The other soloists and the choir also step up to the plate and the recording, though thicker than for the earlier work, recorded five years earlier, is more than adequate. The last semi-professional performance of the ‘Nelson’ that I heard was spoiled by a soprano who out-sang everyone else, but that is certainly not the case here. I understand that all the soloists are members of the Trinity Choir, which must make it a formidable place for the musically inclined to worship.

John Sheppard (hereafter JS) complained of Burdick’s habit of slowing at certain points, but some of these are traditional. In the Creed, for example, the slowing at the end of track 16 on the words descendit de cælis prepares for the more marked traditional emphasis on et incarnatus est in the next section, where it used to be expected that all would kneel or bow deeply. In any case, JS soon began to be as untroubled by this practice as I was.

William Hedley (hereafter WH) commented on the reverberant acoustic of the Trinity Church but I really was not troubled by this - different audio systems react differently to reverberant recordings. Nor was I really troubled by the other detailed criticisms which he makes. Rather than repeat these here, I refer you to his review. Whilst I admit the validity of just about all of them, I cannot consider them a serious handicap to an overall recommendation.

WH is more than a little hard on the diction - the syllables are frequently chopped up in the wrong places, but the demise of Latin in the school curriculum makes it almost inevitable that a choir’s familiarity with that language can no more be taken for granted than a knowledge of Japanese. (Actually, the latter is a more frequent visitor to the modern UK secondary curriculum). Haydn would have expected to hear the harder Austro-Germanic pronunciation of Latin, with hard ‘g’ in virginis, and ‘c’ in crucifixus, for example; I’m pleased to report that all concerned here take the softer Italianate course.

JS raises the possibility that the set as a whole is superior even to Hickox (Chandos CHAN0599, also available separately) or Guest (Argo/Decca). I’m not quite sure that I would go that far, but I was impressed enough by the single CD under consideration to wish to sample more of the set via the Naxos Music Library.

I’ve already praised the quality of the Naxos notes. One small complaint concerns the absence of texts, but the Tridentine Latin Mass is pretty well known and the texts and translations are available online, as indicated above: they can be yours even without buying the CD.

Overall, I think that WH is right to prefer John Eliot Gardiner (Philips 470 2862, with the Theresienmesse) and Trevor Pinnock (DG Archiv 423 0972, with the Te Deum). I recommended the Pinnock version of the ‘Nelson’ Mass as Download of the Month in my May 2009 Download Roundup) and thoroughly agree with WH that it offers a life-enhancing experience, but I can’t imagine purchasers of the present CD being disappointed with J Owen Burdick’s performances. Having heard the recording right through once, I couldn’t wait to hear it all again, instead of taking the usual time out to gather my impressions. Go for Pinnock for the best - even at full price and rather short value - but the new Naxos makes a very fine and less expensive alternative.

-- Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International

Just listen to the variations in tempi and dynamic of Luci serene e chiare. It’s the first track of this fourth volume in the excellent series of Gesualdo's madrigals from Delitiæ Musicæ under Marco Longhini on Naxos. To hear this is to appreciate how effective care and attention to every nuance should be when singing what is often seen as a dark corner of the Renaissance vocal repertoire.

It goes on that way: the six singers and keyboard player (Carmen Leoni) treat every piece by the usually only anthologised Gesualdo as its own gem. They approach each madrigal almost as if it were Gesualdo's only one. This could, admittedly, lead to a laboured and self-conscious style. It doesn't. The Italian group's familiarity with and obvious love of Gesualdo's world sees to that.

Instead, our response is anticipation for each next madrigal while thoroughly savouring the particularities of the one we're listening to. In a way this helps to create an understanding of the corpus of this aspect of Gesualdo's output … two more CDs from Naxos - to whom Delitiæ Musicæ is under exclusive contract - and the cycle will be complete.

The composer's Fourth Book of madrigals was published in Ferrara in 1596 and quickly achieved several further printings - including one in 1613 in Genova in partitura - a rare occurrence enabling singers to experience the music 'horizontally', line by musical line.

This Fourth Book was intended as a kind of atonement for the composer's (conviction for the) murder of his first wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos in 1590. In the Kingdom of Naples a husband had such a legal right in the case of infidelity. But, although Gesualdo faced no punishment from the legal system, he was ostracised and marginalised by his own community. What Longhini - who also produced the 'Urtext Edition' for these recordings - and his singers have achieved so well is a convincing set of performances. This graciously and genuinely blurs any distinction that we might make four hundred years later between heartfelt remorse on Gesualdo's part and what the Renaissance poet, playwright and composer was able to make using events from life as material for art.

In a way the tone, the weeping, the dourness, the (self-)deploring, above all the self-doubt must be taken as starting points for this beautiful and affecting music - not as something to be expressed in and by it. The creativity, the tight and effective matching of texts (mostly anonymous and by Guarini) to tonality and texture are what matter. They stand on their own. That's the approach which these performers so successfully take.

At the heart of the set is what at first sight appears a misfit: Sparge la morte al mio Signor [tr.12], the longest piece here at almost seven and a half minutes. In fact to transfer the remorse to images of the unjustly (with ambivalences) murdered Christ illuminates the complexity of Gesualdo's thinking in these works. The suggestion is clear … alongside remorse and torment should come forgiveness and some sort of 'settlement'. Indeed by the time we get to Arde il mio cor [tr.19], the darkness has lifted somewhat, though Delitiæ Musicæ's tempi are still slow, if a little less deliberate. Although those resounding bass notes of Walter Testolin are held for just as long and are as chilling, there is a sense of hope. Certainly the remaining three pieces look upward and let light in.

Nevertheless, overall we're not allowed to forget the trauma, the potential for trauma, the torment represented by (secular) love, and the totality of a soul so affected when subjected to such searing and unrelenting self-examination. Not once do the singers lay the mud or paste on too thickly. Nor do they overlook the innovative nature of the sonic impact of the poetry … dissonance, distortion, a little interruption of the metrical line and much expressive, more easily-flowing consonance between text, harpsichord and song. You can hear this in the fittingly final Il sol qual or piu splende [tr.22]. While the phrase 'tour de force' would be wrong because it would suggest the need for a more mighty and strenuous push than is necessary here, the achievement of Longhini with Delitiæ Musicæ is a considerable one.

Their tone is just right from first to last, their articulation, emphases and sense of seriousness yet neither drab nor spuriously sparkling are indeed delightful. There is, to be sure, little of the lighthearted and springing qualities which we often associate with some madrigals. The purpose and drive behind these interpretations makes them hugely successful.

The booklet that comes with the CD has useful background - particularly to the killing and its subsequent effect on Gesualdo. It contains all the texts in Italian with English translation. The acoustic is clear and not too resonant, though full of intensity in atmosphere. If you've already been attracted to this excellent series, don't hesitate to add this to the collection. It's also a convincing and sensitive enough set of performances to encourage you to start and explore the lot. The Fifth Book is eagerly awaited.

– Mark Sealey, MusicWeb International

Acclaimed for her 'beautifully clear, warm and intelligent coloratura' and 'naturally bright, vernal timbre', Spanish soprano Maria Bayo has shone as a prima donna internationally, yet reserves a special place for the music of her native country.

Composed over a period of some thirty years, the six string works in this programme cover the full stylistic range of Penderecki' towering compositional career.

Includes sonata(s) by Dietrich Buxtehude. Soloists: John Holloway (Violin), Ursula Weiss, Jaap ter Linden, Mogens Rasmussen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

Beneath the shimmering surface of Delius�s little-known violin sonatas are the latent exuberance and nostalgic rapture which have made his orchestral music so popular. Across the decades separating the B major Violin Sonata of 1892 from the Third Violin Sonata of 1930, Delius developed a unique musical language which leavened the post-Romantic heritage of Wagner with French Impressionism and European and Afro-American folk idioms; an intoxicating mix that moved Sir Thomas Beecham to call him �the last great apostle in our time of beauty and romance in music�.

Taking its name from Evan Ziporyn’s Hive, which grew out of the composer’s experience as a beekeeper, this album brings together an engaging selection of pieces for solo clarinet and clarinet ensembles of various sizes. From Piazzolla’s popular tangos to Harbison’s Bach/Stravinsky-inspired Trio Sonata, Schuller’s Duo Sonata and Barker’s Single Six, both jazz-inflected yet classical in spirit, to Persichetti’s lyrical Serenade, Clarinet Hive is an endlessly fascinating showcase of the clarinet’s expressive and virtuosic potential, as well as its wide range of subtle sonorities.

The works on this disc span much of Astor Piazzolla's compositional career, from the Sinfonia Buenos Aires of 1951 to the Concerto of 1979. The latter has a title, "Aconcagua", the highest peak in the Andes, but it was not given by the composer. All of this music is stunning, and it's marvelously performed here. The best-known work, naturally, is an arrangement: Las Cuatro Estaciones, here in the version for string orchestra by Leonid Desyatnikov.

I have to confess that I prefer a more varied scoring in this music, but it would be very hard to beat this performance for clarity and beauty of texture. Tianwa Yang handles the solo violin part with aplomb, digging into the "dirty" sounds--the glissandos and other effects--with relish, but without ever coarsening her tone as so many others routinely do. There's elegance here as well, and she finds it. The result is that the "Spring" fugato, for example, has amazing rhythmic definition but also a very welcome lightness and freshness.

The Bandoneón Concerto offers a perfect marriage of Piazzolla's tango-saturated melos with large-scale form. It's worth recalling that the composer spent several years studying with Alberto Ginastera, as well as Nadia Boulanger, and all of his music in whatever form betrays a very high level of compositional craft. Daniel Binelli plays the solo part extremely well, and he's perfectly balanced against the larger ensemble. He also participates (to a lesser degree) in the Sinfonía Buenos Aires, in which the influence of Ginastera is very evident (and entirely welcome).

This early work is thrilling: a blend of Latin rhythm, soulful melody, explosive percussion, and now and then a touch of Stravinsky. The finale will blow you away, and there are some haunting timbres in the slow movement featuring the combination of bandoneón and woodwinds. The Nashville Symphony under Giancarlo Guerrero plays all of this music with the necessary guts and also a welcome degree of polish. The players sound completely at home in the idiom, and Guerrero delivers bold, uninhibited interpretations across the board. This is just a great disc of colorful, distinctive orchestral music, and it belongs in every collection.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

William Mathias' eloquent and accessible style comes to the fore in these premiere recordings of his music for violin and piano. His unpublished Violin Sonata is a highly original and ambitious work from his student days.

The fourth volume in Naxos’s highly praised series of Debussy’s Orchestral Works presents music drawn from three of his theatrical ventures and from one of his Prix de Rome entries. The prelude, fanfares and four symphonic fragments from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien were taken for concert performance from Debussy’s incidental music for Gabriele D’Annunzio’s scandalous mystery play. While rarely heard today, the ‘danced legend’ Khamma, set in ancient Egypt, and incidental music for Shakespeare’s King Lear, provide suitably atmospheric music, as do the Cortège et air de danse from The Prodigal Son, the cantata which gained Debussy the Prix de Rome in 1884.