Franz Anton Hoffmeister was active in Vienna both as a composer and a publisher, becoming closely associated with Mozart and including works by Beethoven amongst his editions. The combination of violin and cello had its appeal for the amateur market, though Hoffmeister’s Duos Op. 6 include plenty of technical challenges. Conjectured as being from Beethoven’s final years as a young man in Bonn, the three refreshing and inventive Duos for Clarinet and Bassoon are so pleasing that they have appeared in numerous arrangements

Written over a period of 18 years, Rachmaninov’s sets of Preludes are a mirror and a record of his compositional development. With so rich a variety of character, color, texture, and mood, no two preludes are fully alike, and differentiation of tempo and register ensures that each prelude’s character is clearly defined. The first eleven pieces were conceived by Rachmaninov as a single cycle, and their full-hearted Romanticism contrasts with the significantly more angular, modernistic Op. 32. Whether evoking ballad or bell toll, the exotic or folk influences, the Preludes stand in the great tradition of works by Bach and Chopin written in all 24 major and minor keys.



REVIEW:

Giltburg's sensitivity is abundantly demonstrated here; he’s always careful to avoid climaxes becoming overbearing or, heaven forbid, percussive. The G flat major Prelude that ends Op 23 is a good example of his songfulness, while the fifth of the Op 32 set has a lovely airborne quality, better conveying its flickering delicacy than Lugansky, who is a shade slower. In a similar vein, the eighth Prelude of Op 23 is another highlight.

 

Giltburg’s preoccupation with clarity of texture means that the tumultuous climax of Op 32 No 8 in A minor never becomes overbearing; he dispatches it with ease. This is followed by a wonderfully rich reading of the A major Prelude, while the siciliano rhythm of No 10 has a solemn tread. The gruff march of No 5 has more potency in the hands of Lugansky, though the inner section is done with great sensitivity, Giltburg revealing the duetting lines quite beautifully.

 

The driving drama of the C major Prelude that opens Op 32 also has more poetry than in many accounts. The closing Prelude of Op 32 sums up Giltburg’s approach – opening with a quietude that harks back to the early C sharp minor Prelude, while the turmoil that follows is presented with an absolute command of texture and clarity but without the storminess some bring to it, though its closing chords have a glorious richness.

– Gramophone

Pancho Vladigerov is considered by many to be the most influential composer that Bulgaria has yet produced, gaining fame between the World Wars and earning the admiration of Shostakovich. The three works recorded here are a testament to Vladigerov's mission to bring Bulgarian music to international attention, successfully combining elements of folk music with European classical tradition. The Vardar Rhapsody has been called 'the Bulgarian equivalent of Chopin's Polonaise in A,' and the lively and exotic Seven Symphonic Bulgarian Dances is among the most notable of a series of works that fuse joyous regional melodies with sophisticated Western orchestration.

Sergey Prokofiev is acknowledged as one of the 20th century's greatest composers, and his enduring popularity today rests on a rich legacy of orchestral and chamber works. Less well known are his songs, which display a lyrical component that suited his liking for clear and simple forms. This can be heard particularly in Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova, but all of these pieces show Prokofiev to be a worthy successor of the great 19th-century tradition of art songs. Margarita Gritskova's voice was described by Opera News as 'a spectacular instrument' in her recording of Russian Songs previously released on Naxos.

Considered to be the only significant composer of Australia and New Zealand representing the Late Romantic era, his prototypical late Romantic style evolved to include elements of the Maori culture to the extent that he was given the name of Arapeta Hira by the Maori. Featuring the New Zealand based Dominion String Quartet whose discography is dedicated to the works of this unjustly neglected composer.

All of the composers on this album were part of a new 'English Style' that blended traditional lyricism with wider influences from Europe and Scandinavia. They shared a rebelliousness against established musical conservatism and created vivid responses to nature and the living folk heritage of England and Ireland. From Vaughan Williams' enchanting textures, via Bax and Bridge's harmonic surprises, to Delius's return to his roots at the end of his life- this is a rich collection of shimmering gems from the British Isles. Gerald Peregrine is an Irish cellist who has established a career as a soloist, chamber and orchestral performer. Born in Dublin to a large musical family, he studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Dublin Institute of Technology, before commencing his studies in London with William Pleeth. He plays on a French cello by Roger and Max Millant and a bow by Eugene Sartory. Antony Ingham studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Royal College of Music, where he now works regularly as a piano accompanist at the junior and senior departments for competitions, exams and recitals. He has performed as a collaborative pianist in concert halls all over the world, and is a dedicated piano teacher.

João de Sousa Carvalho was one of the most important Portuguese composers of his generation. L’Angelica was his first opportunity to write a courtly drama after being appointed as music master to the royal princesses, and impressing these noble patrons was a top priority. Setting a libretto by the great poet Metastasio, Carvalho brings out every ounce of dramatic intensity in his richly expressive score, the story of how the beautiful Angelica uses and misuses her seductive charms told in music so captivating that Queen Maria entrusted her composer with key royal commissions thereafter.

Aside from his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven's general link with the theater in Vienna came about largely with incidental music or songs to be inserted into the works of other composers- insertion arias. Konig Stephan was written to celebrate the politically significant opening of a new theatre in Pest, it's triumphant mood honoring the ruling Austrian Emperor. Standard Bearer of female heroism Leonore Prohaska is commemorated with a Soldier's Chorus and a Romance with harp accompaniment. In Friedrich von Matthisson's poem Opferlied ('Sacrificial Song'), a young man prays to Zeus to bestow upon him beauty and goodness in youth and old age. Two of Beethoven's four settings are heard on this wide-ranging programme.

Vaughan Williams withdrew or destroyed many works from his earliest period, but with its haunting opening and luminous polyphonic textures he considered The Solent as amongst his ‘most important works’. The Fantasia is his earliest known piece for solo instrument with orchestra and contains some of his most bravura writing, contrasting with the graceful geniality of the Suite. Depicting a sublimely pastoral scene and now one of the best loved pieces ever written, Vaughan Williams called The Lark Ascending a ‘romance’, a term reserved for his most profoundly lyrical utterances.

In addition to his influence as a pianist and leading keyboard composer in Vienna, the Bohemian Leopold Kozeluch wrote an important body of symphonies that rank among the most significant of their time. The four examples here, heard in original, corrected editions, show consummate mastery of proportion, instrumental control and thematic development and all exude characteristic freshness and sophistication. The Symphony in B flat, titled L’Irresolu is especially noteworthy not only as his most unusual work in the genre but for its sheer boldness of expression. Volumes 1 and 2 can also be heard on Naxos.

Antonin Dvorak's success in Europe during the 1880s led to invitations to visit England and the commissioning of his oratorio Saint Ludmila for the Leeds Festival. It tells the moving and turbulent story of Ludmila's conversion to Christianity, an important event in Bohemian history that led to her becoming Bohemia's patron saint. Written for large forces and with a predominant part for the chorus in the tradition of Handel, Saint Ludmila is full of Dvorak's typical warmth and melodic beauty, and stands alongside his Stabat Mater and Requiem as one of his greatest works. Here, the piece is interpreted by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, led by Leos Svarovsky. Leos Svarovsky studied flute and conducting at the Academy of Music in Prague as the last student of the renowned professor Vaclav Neumann. He started his career at the National Theatre in Prague as assistant to Zdenek Kosler and subsequently went on to hold principal positions with the Prague Chamber Opera, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, the Brno Philharmonic, the Zilina State Chamber Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Orchestra, and others.

Although Auber was one of the most popular of 19th-century French composers, his music is seldom revived in the opera house. This series is restoring his overtures and orchestral excerpts from operas, a swathe of refined and elegant music showing his importance in operatic history. Featured in this volume are the overture from La Muettede Portici, his revolutionary masterpiece, as well as premiere recordings of music from La Barcarolle and Les Chaperons blancs, exuding both the drama and the charm that permeate all his mature works.

When his pupil, the Infanta Maria Barbara married the heir to the Spanish throne, Domenico Scarlatti travelled with her from Lisbon to Madrid, a move that led to the completion of hundreds of single-movement sonatas or exercises. Designed for her to play, and containing some of his greatest music, the sonatas offer a plethora of features that have ensured their lasting popularity and influence. In this volume one can encounter effortless use of repetition, imitation and arpeggio figuration, dynamic left hand octave writing and hand crossing, some, as in the Sonata in C minor, of spectacular velocity. Born in Israel, Eylam Keshet began his musical studies at the age of nine. He has participated in prestigious festivals and events all over the world, and has been awarded scholarships for excellence from several foundations.

Appearing here in her début solo album, Italian lyric soprano Maria Luigia Borsi has been acclaimed for her ‘grace, beauty, animation and variety’ (The Sunday Times). Her Willow Song from Verdi’s Otello has been described as ‘gorgeously sung’ (Opera News) and her rôle in Puccini’s Turandot as demonstrating ‘extraordinary communicative skills’ (Opera Magazine). This program includes some of the most moving and dramatic arias from Italian opera, including the tragic heartbreak of Madama Butterfly and the shimmering beauty of Catalani’s Ebben? Ne andrò lontana from La Wally.

Ross Harris's Fifth Symphony was inspired by the poems of Panni Palasti, many of which reflect her experiences during the siege of Budapest in World War II. Forming the emotional core of the work and set to gentle melodies against hushed, sophisticated orchestration, the three songs form a stark contrast with the violent and disturbing imagery of the two Scherzos and the austere beauty of the opening and closing Adagios. The beautifully textured Violin Concerto hovers tantalisingly between tonality and atonality, with the soloist rarely out of the limelight, decorating and rhapsodising on the material.