Camillo Togni was one of the most representative figures of 20th-century Italian music. He was inspired to write numerous works for his friend the acclaimed flautist Roberto Fabbriciani, a musician as close as any to this composer’s complex, mysterious and deeply poetic musical language.

As a pianist and cellist Georges Onslow had a particular affinity with chamber music, and his String Quartets are given an almost orchestral quality with their addition of the rich sonorities of a double bass. String Quintet No. 28, with an especially beautiful Adagio with more than a trace of the influence of Mendelssohn, combines Baroque poise with expressive Romantic writing, while String Quartet No. 29 is light-hearted and good-natured, with hints of Schubert in its melancholy lyricism and unexpected key changes. In praising the Elan Quintet’s first volume, a MusicWeb International reviewer declared, “I cannot fault their playing: their tonal quality is ravishing, their ensemble perfect.” The combination of string quartet with double bass has opened up a richness of tone and distinct soundscape that the Elan Quintet has dedicated itself to exploring, celebrating works by renowned composers such as Schubert, Dvorak, and Cambini, working with contemporary artists in creating new works for quintet, and rediscovering neglected masterpieces by composers including Onslow and Bridge.

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REVIEW:

The present two Quintets came from the latter part of Onslow's life, and, placing them in a time-frame, also after the death of Beethoven, yet were still in the style of Mozart. Forget that aspect and simply enjoy the geniality of uncomplicated music making. In both works Onslow calls for a degree of technical expertise, and we thankfully have the young Spanish quintet, Elan, as the hugely talented performers. Add to this a quite superb sound, the instruments perfectly balanced, and I do urge you to discover these ‘World Premiere Recordings’.

– David’s Review Corner (David Denton)

Bedrich Smetana’s ‘Festive Symphony’ was composed in 1854 when hopes for Emperor Franz Joseph becoming King of Bohemia were high. The splendid sounds of Smetana’s only formal symphony pre-echo later masterpieces such as ‘Ma Vlast,’ but his use of the Austrian Imperial anthem became unacceptable in the subsequent spirit of Czech nationalism, resulting in the work’s neglect. With its sparkling overture and lively rural dances, ‘The Bartered Bride’ secured Smetana’s international reputation and, as the only Czech opera of its day to enter the standard repertoire, it became a beacon for the nation’s 19th century musical renaissance. Conductor Darrell Ang is the artistic director and chief conductor of China’s Sichuan Symphony. He regularly conducts orchestras across the world, including the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Ang’s first album for Naxos was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2016.

Boccherini enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime thanks to music that emphasized rich melody, instrumental vibrancy and disarming beauty. He chose the intimacy of a chamber music setting for his Stabat Mater, writing for a solo soprano and string quintet with the instrumental textures weaving the fabric of the text's meaning. The result is passionate music with power, depth and pathos. As a virtuoso cellist he was perfectly placed to write chamber music. In the Quartet, Op. 52, No. 3, a colorful tapestry of contrasting events frames moments of bucolic excitement and lyric interlude, while the expertly structured Quintet, Op. 42, No. 1 directly evokes the Stabat Mater in it's themes.

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.

Described by The New York Times as ‘driven by a playful, modern sensibility’, the music of Swiss composer Richard Dubugnon blends elegant Gallic transparency with the rhythmical and structural complexity of German musical culture. The result is a very individual and immediately communicative idiom, notable for its colourful orchestration. Arcanes Symphoniques is a musical game, each performance of its brief allegorical movements taking on a different meaning derived from the symbols on Tarot cards. The unusually scored Triptyque and mini-opera Le Songe Salinas use texts by Stéphane Héaume in settings both tragic and sensually exotic.

Agustin Barrios Mangore’s first public appearance was as ‘the Paganini of the guitar from the jungles of Paraguay.’ This flamboyant image was soon retired, but his legacy as a composer has endured and flourished, as have the recordings he made as the first guitarist to take advantage of new technology from as early as 1910. Ranging from romantic enchantment to fearsome virtuosity via works with Bach-like restraint, this programme embraces Barrios Mangore’s art from his earliest known piece, Abri la puerta mi china, to the reconstruction of the substantial Diana Guarani from a recording made in 1943. 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 from the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul in 2017.

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REVIEWS:

Celil Refik Kaya is an eminent guitarist and the technical challenges, which are sometimes quite testing in Barrios’s music, are negotiated elegantly and effortlessly. The recording and production at large are in the safest of hands with radar couple Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver in charge and with Graham Wade’s all-embracing liner notes as guide book. There is also uncommonly extended playing-time, more than 84 minutes! You get a lot of music for your money.

– MusicWeb International

Barrios has the twin virtues of a disciplined, classical backbone and a lushly romantic outlook. Celil Refik Kaya brings a spontaneity to the more hackneyed salon pieces, and suitable gravitas for the more complex works. Virtuosity and musicianship galore are on display in this superb release.

– Music for Several Instruments

This compilation of concertos for mallet instruments features triple GRAMMY Award-winning percussion virtuoso Dame Evelyn Glennie and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. Alexis Alrich’s Marimba Concerto, a rich amalgam of bold rhythms and exuberance, also explores Mexican and Asian-inspired music. Sir Karl Jenkins traces the 15th-century tune La Folia, furnishing it with refinement and strongly characterized intensity. Ned Rorem’s Mallet Concerto highlights the contrasting resonances of four different pitched mallets in music of drama and dynamism. Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a career as a full-time solo percussionist. As an eclectic and innovative musician and composer, she is constantly redefining the goals and expectations of percussion. Her diverse collaborations include performances with Björk, Bobby McFerrin, Sting, Mark Knopfler, The King’s Singers and Béla Fleck. She has performed as soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras, and took a lead role in the opening ceremony to mark the 2012 Olympics in London. Dame Evelyn Glennie has commissioned over two hundred new works for solo percussion from many of the world’s most eminent composers. She has made over forty solo recordings, three of which have received GRAMMY Awards. She has received over ninety international awards, including an Order of the British Empire (OBE), Dame Commander (DBE) and the Companion of Honour.



REVIEWS:

In Ned Rorem’s Mallet Concerto, the longest piece, the contrasting colors of four mallet instruments give Glennie the chance to show her chops on xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and vibraphone. There is no grandstanding, though. This is a subtle, understated piece, with attenuated, finely sculptured melody, a mature example of Rorem’s supremely civilized art.

– American Record Guide

Alexis Alrich's Marimba Concerto calls for a performance of virtuosity, while for the listener it is highly attractive, with a tunefulness taking us back to the mid-20h century. Ned Rorem, now in his ninety-eighth year, composed the Mallet Concerto in 2003 to a commission from Glennie. In five sections, each having a descriptive title, the music moves between shimmering beauty and dramatic paragraphs all technically demanding, the end product being one of readily likeable and unusual timbres. Another commission for Glennie brings the disc to the Welsh-born Karl Jenkins, one of today’s most performed living composers. La Folia a taste of the music that brought him success, this time with the Baroque era as its starting point. An unusual and attractive release.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Mieczyslaw Weinberg's works for flute were mainly conceived for the renowned soloist Alexander Korneyev. The earliest of these is the 12 Pieces from 1947, a playful series of character studies that touch on a variety of moods. Also from 1947, the recently rediscovered 5 Pieces draws on Debussy and the early string quartet Capriccio, Op. 11 for it's ironic good humor. The First Flute Concerto has a genial air with klezmer influences while the Second Flute Concerto, among Weinberg's last works, is often introspective and valedictory in mood. This is the first complete recording of Weinberg's entire output for accompanied flute. Flutist Claudia Stein has appeared with numerous international orchestras and performed regularly in the Bayreuth Festival orchestra. As a chamber musician she has appeared at major European festivals, as well as in Israel, America and Japan. She has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Philippe Jordan and Sebastian Weigle.

Vítezslav Novák, a composition student of Dvorák, rose to prominence with a series of increasingly ambitious orchestral works that reflect his very personal amalgam of folk music elements, impressionism and late Romanticism. The far-ranging harmonies heard in Toman and the Wood Nymph earned Novák some notoriety – his evocation of supernatural magic and human passion results in music of heady intensity. The evocative aura of the later South Bohemian Suite is notable for the subtlety with which folk songs are embedded into its textures.

Ferdinand Ries is remembered as Beethoven's one-time pupil, secretary and copyist, but the discovery of his many compositions showed him to be a forward-looking composer in his own right. The 1799 Cello Sonata in C minor is among the first of it's genre, the 15-year-old Ries already showing remarkable talent in it's 'Sturm und Drang' moods. The Trio, Op. 63 was admired in it's day for it's ingenuity of modulations' and fashionable London society lapped up the exotic themes of works such as Introduction and a Russian Dance and the virtuosic Trois Airs Russes Varies.

Wolfgang Rihm, one of the foremost contemporary composers, has created a powerful body of music for the violin. Gesungene Zeit is one of his most performed works, and it demonstrates why Rihm is so admired: music that begins and ends in ethereal lines while embracing agitation and threnody alike. The beautifully transparent and sensuous Lichtes Spiel is 'light, but not lightweight' in the composer's words, and COLL'ARCO takes the soloist to the extremes of virtuosity in his largest concertante work for the violin, teeming with reminiscences, intricacy, and drama. Volume 1 can also be heard on Naxos.

The area in southeast Europe known as the Balkans has long established folk traditions rich in complex rhythms and evocative melodies. Innovative guitarist Mak Grgic has selected the music of five composers to explore the variety and piquant colors embedded in their compositions. Drawn from his evolving suite called laments, Dances and Lullabies, Miroslav Tadic traces Macedonian folk songs, while each of the other composers brings very personal qualities. Vivid harmonies, vivacious interludes, syncopated rhythms, and a lively, jazz-like feel all combine to create a tapestry of moods and textures. Lauded by The New York Times and The Washington Post, Mak Grgic is emerging as a highly esteemed performer on the international stage. An expansive and adventurous repertoire attests to his versatility and wide-ranging interests, ranging from Baroque and Renaissance to music of the cinema and from ethnic music of his native Balkans to extreme avant-garde and microtonal music.

In the autumn of 1912 Jean Sibelius was commissioned to compose music for Poul Knudsen's surreal pantomime, Scaramouche, an experience that Sibelius soon regretted taking due to reservations about the production. Rarely performed today, Scaramouche is a curiosity within the Sibelius' discography. With the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lief Segerstam featuring soloists Bendik Goldstein (viola) and Roi Ruottinen (cello).

Herbert Howells' style, immediately recognizable for it's long melodic lines, rhapsodic nature and rich harmonies, defined the sound of English cathedral music in the 20th century. His studies in London imbued his works with sophistication and a French influence, which were intertwined with a nostalgic 'heartache' for the 'real Gloucestershire,' as can be heard in String Quartet No. 3. The charming little character stories in 'Lady Audrey's Suite' tell of countryside and church, while the Piano Quartet in A minor is dedicated "To the Hill at Chosen and Ivor Gurney who knows it," portraying a favorite local vantage point at different seasons as well as poignantly remembering a lost friendship.