The late 19th Century was the heyday of the drawing-room ballad, when families and friends entertained each other with a wide range of songs.

Froberger: Toccatas and Partitas / Meditation / Lamentation

Fanfare, Capriccio and Rhapsody embraces an extraordinary range of musical styles from a wide variety of sources. The Medieval Suite pays homage to Leonin, Perotin and Machaut, three master-composers from the Middle Ages.

The Easter cantata Passio et Resurrectio, by the contemporary Neapolitan composer, Sergio Rendine, is a musical setting of the feelings expressed by ordinary people about the most important event in the church calendar.

Of Georgian/Russian and Greek/Austrian parentage, British composer Lydia Kakabadse has a number of music theatre, vocal, choral and chamber works to her credit. The Arabian Rhapsody Suite for string quartet is characterized by vibrant rhythms and melodies.

Of all the volumes in this series, the current one presents arguably the most diverse sample of Villa-Lobos' musical language and techniques.

Frank Ticheli' award-winning Symphony No. 2 has been described as 'uninhibited, high-flying and intensely rhythmic'.

Awarded the Prix de Rome in 1955, Rene Maillard achieved fame as a young French composer with works such as the virtuosic, Baroque-inspired Concerto Grosso and the Concerto da Camera No.

This new sequence of Christmas carols was written in 2007 by the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy and composer Sasha Johnson Manning, and premiered in the same year. The Manchester Carols re-tell the Christmas Story for the 21st Century.

IMMORTELLES DU PIANO

Gottlieb Muffat was the youngest son of composer Georg Muffat, inheriting a prodigious talent at the keyboard. The cosmopolitan nature of his works shows the influence of French, German and Italian styles, and his music was of such quality that it was extensively 'borrowed' by Handel. The elegant and at times spectacularly ornamented and virtuoso Componimenti Musicali suites are amongst Muffat's few surviving works. Naoko Akutagawa's recording of Graupner's Partitas (8.570459) has been described by MusicWeb International as "captivating from beginning to end".

Includes work(s) by Rodolfo Halffter. Ensemble: Madrid Community Orchestra. Conductor: José Ramón Encinar.

Of Ukrainian origin, Boris Pigovat (b. 1953) is now based in Israel where he has won several distinguished national awards. His Holocaust Requiem received the ACUM (Israeli ASCAP) prize in 1995, and was premi�red at a concert dedicated to the massacre of Jews at Babi Yar. Each movement is named after the Latin Mass text, the emotional symbols of sorrow, suffering and hope expressed purely instrumentally but led by the 'human' voice of the viola. The deliberately Russian Romantic style of Poem of Dawn was especially chosen by the composer for the work's dedicatee, acclaimed violist Anna Serova. "I'm sure that the Holocaust Requiem has a great future. Boris Pigovat's composition is very sophisticated, but it isn't flowery or pretentious. It is simple but not primitive, it is frank and heartfelt, an outstanding work." ('The Day' - Ukrainian daily newspaper)

The eminent Swiss-born, German-based clarinetist Eduard Brunner has had an immense influence on the development of modern repertoire for his instrument, commissioning and premiering an extraordinary number of new works from the world' leading composers.

BEETHOVEN Piano Trios: No. 1 in E?; No. 2 in G; Allegretto in B? • Xyrion Tr • NAXOS 8.557724 (64:26)


Pianist Nina Tichman, violinist Ida Bieler, and cellist Maria Kliegel joined forces in 2001 to form the Xyrion Trio. This release, their second in their complete Beethoven piano trio series for Naxos, presents the first two of the three op. 1 trios, along with the much later B? Allegretto. Judging both from their individual talents and the cohesive ensemble of their partnership, Xyrion is equal to the stiff competition in this already widely recorded repertoire. Their readings have great energy and polish, a sure sense of style and, most compelling, refreshing spontaneity and unmistakable ardor.


The shapeliness and contour of the opening thematic material of the E? Trio immediately signals these musicians’ capacities for vivid dynamic contrasts and boldly articulated rhetoric, characteristics beloved by Beethoven. When Tichman spins out the second movement’s delicious cantabile, Bieler and Kliegel answer her with solicitude and sympathy, creating the impression of a most civilized, heart-felt conversation among the best of friends. Their rustic treatment of the Scherzo, cited by Czerny as “the first scherzo in very quick time, a species of music of which Beethoven was the original inventor,” with its evocations of folk bagpipes, is simply irresistible.


The aura of animated dialogue is maintained throughout the G-Major Trio. Savor for instance the grumpy interjections of the piano’s left hand in the development of the Allegro vivace. The finale of this trio, like its predecessor’s, is a fleet presto, here tossed off with a Mendelssohnian sprightliness.


Whereas Beethoven’s op. 1 was published in 1795, the B? Allegretto, dating from 1812, did not appear in print until three years after the composer’s death. It was written for Maximiliane Brentano, the 10-year-old daughter of Antonie and Franz Brentano. Maynard Solomon has plausibly suggested that the mother, Antonie, could have been the intended recipient of Beethoven’s famous letter addressed to the “Immortal Beloved.” This charming piece is perfectly suited for a child, though clearly one who must have been an extremely talented young pianist. Xyrion’s performance is appropriately straightforward and playful.


My sole reservation, and a minor one, is that the quality of the recording makes the musicians sound a little distant. Fortunately they don’t sound muffled, and the abundance of nuance with which these sparkling performances fairly burst is not sacrificead. Even if you already own one or more recordings of these trios—and the Beaux Arts (Philips 468411) immediately comes to mind as one of the best—I think you’ll find a great deal that is interesting and fresh in this Xyrion disc. If you don’t, I can’t think of a better introduction to these charming works with which the young Beethoven made his public debut. Heartily recommended.


FANFARE: Patrick Rucker