Can Attila is one fo the leading Turkish composers of his generation. Success in film and television music has been accompanied by comparable achievement in the orchestral repertory. The Gallipoli campaigns in the First World War have always held particular significance for Atilla, and Symphony No. 2 "Gallipoli" - The 57th Regiment is a war symphony, composed for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the battle. This powerful elegy, in which the first two movements have an important role for solo cello, commemorates the tragic Turkish 57th Regiment and is also dedicated to the Anzac soliders who perished in the battle.

How to depict scenes of battle in music is a task that has long fascinated composers. From the dawning of the Renaissance the first successful programmatic works appeared from Susato, Dowland and Biber. But it was the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that witnessed a true flourishing, when composers utilized the full resources of contemporary symphonism to evoke the tumult of battle. Later the medium of film, notably those produced in Hollywood, brought with it colorful and gripping scores.

"Avner Dorman, a 31-year-old Israeli composer who lives in New York, clearly believes that the language of the early 20th century — essentially tonal but ripping free of tonality; within shouting distance of Romanticism but not under its shadow — can still be useful. Though the piano works here are accessible and inviting, describing Mr. Dorman as conservative wouldn't be quite right. These works draw on the energy and spikiness of Prokofiev and Bartok in textures interwoven with moves borrowed from rock, jazz and Middle Eastern folk music...Eliran Avni plays these works with an assurance and flexibility that make them sound as if they had been in his repertory forever. He has the ironclad technique that Mr. Dorman's writing demands, but there is ample suppleness in his playing as well, a quality that makes the slow, quiet movements as arresting as the fiery ones."
- Allan Kozinn, NEW YORK TIMES

Naxos, the world's leading classical music group, supports the Alzheimer's Association with the release of the Purple Classics series. Each release in this new series of 10 recordings features approximately 2 hours of classical music on 2 CDs. For every CD sold through June 23, 2017, Naxos will donate $.50 to the Alzheimer's Association, with a minimum donation of $25,000,to advance their efforts in Alzheimer's care, support and research.

LES PLUS BELLES PAGES DE LA MU

Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) is known today for billions of little guitar pieces that dot just about every Spanish guitar collection. You might assume from this that he was either a composer of little consequence, or one of those guys who lived forever but wrote only a tiny amount of music. He was neither. In Spain he is best known as the composer of Luisa Fernanda (1932), one of the greatest and most popular of Zarzuelas. You might call it the “West Side Story” of Spain. He also wrote operas and concert works, including ten concerted pieces for guitar and orchestra, all of which Naxos proposes to record in this new series.

Now I have to confess, the very thought of more guitar music CDs makes me want to scream. We get solicited to review at least a dozen new ones every month, but this is different. Torroba was a major composer, a far more interesting creative personality than, say, the better known Rodrigo, and it’s not as though we suffer from a glut of good modern guitar concertos (other than those of Leo Brouwer). So the prospect of three discs devoted to the Torroba guitar concertos is an exciting one, and this disc marks an auspicious beginning.

You would expect Pepe Romero to excel at the Concierto en Flamenco–he knew the composer and he is fully at home in both classical and Flamenco guitar. The piece is gorgeous, the performance vibrant and passionate. Here and in the following Diálogos entre guitarra y orquesta, it’s great to be able to forget about classical forms (each piece has four movements instead of the usual three) and simply revel in the bold contrasts and captivating melodies with which Torroba festoons both works. Writing for guitar and orchestra isn’t easy–the two really have no business together–but Torroba’s scoring masterfully supports the soloist while never denying the orchestra the opportunity to assert itself boldly and colorfully.

The soloist in Diálogos is Romero’s gifted pupil, Vicente Coves, who plays as well as his mentor, and whose brother leads the orchestra vividly and sympathetically. Both guitarists also offer a solo piece. Romero presents Aires de La Mancha, and Coves the Suite Castellana, which dates from around 1920 and contains the composer’s first essay for solo guitar (Danza). The engineering, happily, is uniformly excellent, with particularly well-judged balances between solos and the orchestra. Even if you think you’ve heard it all when it comes to guitar music, you will want this disc and, I suspect, the whole series.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

A perennial outsider in French music, Albert Roussel was the tutor of a whole generation of composers, including such diverse figures as Eric Satie and Edgard Varese.

A product of Samaras's operatic maturity, Tigra, heard here in a faithfully orchestrated version by Byron Fidetzis, is a ravishing love story set in medieval Venice. With it's innovative harmonic language, musical Orientalism and Franco-Italian influences it helped pave the way for the emerging Greek National School. Epinikeia is reminiscent of Samaras's famous Olympic Anthem of 1896, whilst Chitarrata is a youthful work composed in Paris. World premiere recordings.

Franz Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 99 in E flat major was his first ever symphony to use clarinets; No. 100 in G major gained it's 'Military' appellation due to it's grand second movement featuring cymbals and triangle; and No. 101 in D major has long been nicknamed 'The Clock' due to the ticking rhythm in the second movement for plucked strings and bassoons. Previous volumes in the series are available on 8.574516 and 8.574517.

Sergey Taneyev's supreme mastery of European classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions, and contrasts dramatically with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor.

REVIEW:

In the Violin Sonata, the players add some piquant touches to the occasionally dissonant harmonies and bring a degree of charm to the composer’s rustic-sounding rhythms and melodies. The Piano Quintet receives a fantastic performance, really capturing the gripping tension and turmoil the music whips up.

— Fanfare

Stellar Moldovan-Israeli violinist Janna Gandelman presents a programme of original violin pieces by Catalan composers alongside transcriptions by luminaries such as Fritz Kreisler and Joseph Szigeti. She is accompanied by the Spanish pianist Laia Martin.

The latest instalment in this popular series turns to the life and times of George Frideric Handel. Written by Davinia Caddy, narrated by Nicholas Boulton and featuring excerpts from Handel's most popular works culled from the Naxos label and it's affiliates.

Albert Dietrich - a composer and friend of the Schumanns and Brahms - has largely been forgotten since his death in 1908. However, the Symphony in D minor heard here was one of the most performed symphonies of it's day. Albanian violinist Klaidi Sahatci is the soloist in the Violin Concerto in D minor. Christoph Konig conducts the acclaimed ensemble Solistes Europeens, Luxembourg.

Part of the British Music Society series, this work presents Grace Williams’ songs and folk-song arrangements in world premiere recordings. The acclaimed Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams is accompanied by the Australian pianist and composer Wendy Hiscocks.

Franscisco Mignone was a leading figure in the Brazilian music scene during the 20th century. The concertos and concertinos heard here all share a Brazilian nationalist idiom. Neil Thompson and Giancarlo Guerrero conduct the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra with featured soloists Ovanir Buosi, Alexandre Silverio, Emmanuele Baldini and Fabio Zanon. Includes two world premiere recordings.