The String Quartet in E minor by Ethel Smyth, one of the most innovative and original figures in English music, has a masterful coherence and consistency. With eloquent writing for the viola in particular, it is both playful and reverential, and ends with a flourish – forthright, bold and uncompromising, like Smyth herself. Delius wrote the early String Quartet in 1888 but it was rejected for performance and he was later to reuse the Scherzo for his mature Quartet of 1916–19. In 2018 the score of the two opening movements of the 1888 Quartet, long assumed lost, reappeared at auction and have been edited and reunited with the final two in this premiere recording, which adds significantly to our understanding of Delius’s early compositional directions.

REVIEWS:

A Delius discovery is brought to life with compelling musicianship…The Villiers Quartet gives it a fine first recording, captured in warm and well-balanced sound.

-- The Strad

Full marks to the Villiers Quartet for bringing this new and challenging repertoire to life.

-- Gramophone

...what I like about this quartet very much is its questing nature – this is a kind of musical laboratory for Delius to test out ideas, nascent harmonies and textures that would define his mature music in the years ahead.

-- MusicWeb International

Josef Bohuslav Foerster was the successor to Dvořák as organist in Prague, a lifelong friend of Mahler, and a pivotal figure in Czech music, whose almost 200 compositions take in all the major genres. The three selected works here offer an overview of his orchestral music. Recalling several equally majestic pieces by Smetana, the arresting Festive Overture combines Czech flair with Viennese elegance, while From Shakespeare explores characterization with warmth and resourceful orchestration. The early Symphony No. 1 in D minor offers a darkness-to-light trajectory suffused with rich mid-Romantic colors.

Like alchemists of old, attempting to recombine the four elements, here Fábio Brum presents four distinct musical languages in a program forged during lockdown. Gabriele Roberto’s Tokyo Suite charts the astonishment of a traveler dazzled by the vast megapolis, whereas Dimitri Cervo’s The Brazilian Four Seasons offers a colorful, energetic panorama of the natural and human worlds. Fábio Brum’s very personal musical journey is highlighted by the contrast between the Talmudic contemplation of Menachem Zur’s De Profundis and the abstract ruminations of Nicola Tescari’s Trumpet Concerto ‘Nine Moods.’

Version without Narration - World Premiere Recording

Franz von Suppé became famous all over the world for the easy brilliance of his operetta melodies. He also achieved great success with theatrical stage music, including this version of Jules Verne’s adventure novel Around the World in 80 Days. Verne’s interest in science and new discoveries reflects the optimism of the late 19th century, and Suppé’s music is a perfect reflection of the light and dark in the narrative, evocatively tracking Phileas Fogg’s enterprising and at time dangerous voyage, and taking in the exotic orient and Gold Rush America along the way.

The 20th century saw an abundance of notable Russian cellists inspiring an extensive repertoire by Soviet composers. In the cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, both composers explore the rich and emotive timbre of the instrument with expressive subtleties and bittersweet emotions, alongside their typical touches of wit and irony. Internationally acclaimed pianist Evgeny Kissin has recently returned to composing, and his Cello Sonata is akin to a ballad in its restraint and introspection.

Check out this Naxos Live Q+A with the artists!

Ron Goodwin is famous for several iconic film scores such as the rousing 633 Squadron. His was an instantly recognizable musical voice, combining an innate ability to write both memorable tunes and to evoke the many moods demanded by film directors, qualities that extend into the gloriously evocative Drake 400 and New Zealand Suites. Goodwin’s long and distinguished career earned him multiple Ivor Novello Awards and a Golden Globe Award among many other accolades. Conducted by the composer, this recording represents the best of a true leader in the field of popular music.

Erich Zeisl emerged as a prominent example of Viennese moderate modernism in the 1920s. After emigration he sought – but failed – to establish himself in Hollywood but found new depths of expression in composing Jewish music. His songs show an imaginative richness of melodic distinction that embraces the romantic as well as the grotesque and is always rooted in late Romanticism. Apart from his distinctive sequence of spirituals, all the songs date from his days in Austria and show why Zeisl was held in such admiration by Korngold, Stravinsky, Milhaud and many others.

This new installment in the Naxos Lifestyle Series is titled Music for Book Lovers: Classical Music for Reading. This is an ideal special edition for book lovers. Nestle into your favorite reading spot and experience how this music speaks volumes as the perfect accompaniment to your page-turning. Works include pieces from composers like Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Boulanger, Ravel, Godowsky, and more. (Naxos)

Peter Breiner is one of the world’s most recorded musicians with over 2 releases and more than two million albums sold, of which his Beatles Go Baroque alone reached sales of a quarter of a million copies. In addition to being a multifaceted composer, arranger and conductor, Breiner is also a pianist, and the third of his 'Calm Romantic Piano Music' series melds melodic substance with delicate musical expressiveness. (Naxos)

Henri Tomasi’s violin works are little known but they offer a compact insight into the direction of French 20th-century composition. The Violin Concerto ‘Périple d’Ulysse’ is a late work, by turns alluring, tragic and violent, conveyed through rhapsodic virtuosity and a rich sense of color. The Capriccio is full of elegance and refinement with emotional intensity in its slow movement and brilliance in its finale. Chant hébraïque conjures up Orientalist motifs while the sequence of early works for violin and piano reference Tomasi’s Corsican heritage and evoke quasi-cinematic exoticism.

REVIEW:

The most substantial work on the disc is 1962's Violin Concerto ‘Periple d’Ulysse’ (Ulysses’ Journey). Cast in four movements it’s a veritable tour-de-force for the soloist, demanding a virtuoso technique of the highest order. The work is brilliantly scored; Tomasi’s colorful orchestration is impressive by any standards. It’s highly rhapsodic, with moments of passionate intensity and drama.

The three-movement Capriccio (1931, rev. 1950) was, in effect, the composer’s first violin concerto. It conveys a distinctly Gallic tone. Once again, Tomasi proves himself a colorful and imaginative orchestrator. Two sprightly outer movements bookend a central Andante, described aptly in the booklet as “a moment of sheer beauty”. Moraly fully savors its glories with a beautiful, rich, ravishing tone. Although only a short piece, the Chant hébraïque, written two years before the Capriccio, is a well-crafted score. It’s gossamer orchestration and exotic flavour are enticing. Stéphanie Moraly is joined by pianist Romain David for the remaining four pieces. All are brief, the longest is just under six minutes.

I have really enjoyed this CD and recommend it wholeheartedly, simply because it ticks all the right boxes. Moraly and David perform these works with distinction. Their playing has precision and panache, and expressive warmth when called for. I admire their sublime musicianship. The recording is top notch.

-- MusicWeb International

You can’t go wrong with 68 minutes of gentle, relaxing, and intelligent music.

Brazilian composers in the 19th century often sought state scholarships to enable them to study in Europe where they were to become influenced by the German, Italian and French compositional schools. They also became involved in the vogue for writing suites based on ancient dances, such as Nepomuceno’s delightful Ancient Suite, premiered at Grieg’s home, or Braga’s Madrigal-Pavana which evokes the belle époque ballrooms of Rio de Janeiro. Miguéz’s Suite in the Old Style is polyphonic and lively, while Gomes’ Sonata for Strings is his finest non-operatic work.

REVIEWS:

Though these Brazilian composers—all born from 1836 to 1868—aren’t household names, they’re well worth your attention. Carlos Gomes's perky, witty Sonata for Strings reminds me a lot of Rossini; the melodies are reserved almost solely for the violins, and they sound like they should be arias instead of a sonata. Alberto Nepomuceno studied in Italy and Germany, but his Suite Antique is a cousin to the Holberg Suite by his friend Grieg. Brass, winds, and timpani join strings in Leopoldo Miguez’s Suite a Antiga, and the oboe solo in the “Aria e Double” is spare yet beautiful. His tunes are fetching, and his countermelodies are inventive and attractively detailed. He gets more chromatically adventurous than the others, too. You can’t go wrong with 68 minutes of gentle, relaxing, and intelligent music. The sound is reverberant though not plush.

-- The Absolute Sound

The English Chamber Orchestra give suitably refined performances, its elegant sound being ideal for this repertoire.

-- Gramophone

The delightful Sonata for Strings by Carlos Gomes (1836–96) that opens the disc may remind some of, say, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. The good humor continues thereafter in this enjoyable snapshot of the 19th-century Brazilian chamber orchestra music, all seemingly played with relish by the ECO.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Dom Pedro I was the first Emperor of Brazil, proclaiming its independence from Portugal in 1822. A gifted musician, Pedro I is one of only a few monarchs to have become known as a composer. A performance of his Abertura (‘Overture’) was organized in Paris in 1832 with some in the audience convinced that it had been composed by Rossini, while the Hino da Independênciado Brasil (‘Hymn to the Independence of Brazil’) remains one of the country’s best-loved anthems. Operatic in character, the Te Deum celebrated the baptism of Pedro’s first son, and the joyous Credo is one of his most frequently performed works.

REVIEW:

Pedro’s capable works serve as reminder about the potent—if all too natural—mix of politics and music history. Brazil’s first emperor showed considerable musical talent as a child. Stories abound about his rich singing voice and fine technique on several instruments. He studied composition in the Rio de Janeiro court with Marcos Portugal, who had achieved fame in Europe for Italian opera. He also learned from Sigismund Neukomm, once a pupil of Joseph Haydn.

The Te Deum and Credo on this recording are two of Pedro’s largest extant works. Both show an affinity for theatrical flair and bel canto styles. The composer’s mastery of dramatic contrasts reveals a unique blend of religious reverence and celebratory zeal.

A world-premiere recording, the Te Deum offers both intensity and reflection. Conductor Fabio Mechetti and the modern-instrument Minas Gerais Philharmonic convey seismic urgency throughout. The soloists are likewise superb. Soprano Carla Cottini finds the melancholy of “Tu ad liberandum.” The dark blend of mezzo-soprano Luisa Francesconi and tenor Cleyton Pulzi tease out the pathos of “Te ergo.”

Lighter in style is Pedro’s Abertura, an overture famously performed under Rossini’s baton at the Theatre Italien in Paris in 1832. Here, the emperor shows his greatest debt to the celebrated operatic composer. Strings and winds dance gracefully as Mechetti and the orchestra convey joy and exuberance. They do the same in the Hino da Independência, Pedro’s familiar anthem to Brazilian independence. Chorus and orchestra reveal all its pomp and ceremony, a timeless call for unity in the wake of the current political turmoil.

-- Early Music America (Aaron Keebaugh)

This disc is a riot. Pedro I (1798-1834) was the first Emperor of Brazil, and he also fancied himself a composer. His style is pure Italian, as in Rossini, and the fact that the two major works on this disc are (theoretically) liturgical matters not a bit. They are pure opera buffa. If you thought the style of Haydn’s and Mozart’s Masses and other sacred works unsuitable for the Divine Service, then you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. Pedro was not at all interested in counterpoint, just “the tune,” and there are some delightful ones here, provided you can forget the words entirely. Both the Credo and Te Deum divide the texts into a series of arias and choruses, with recurring themes and orchestration that features solo woodwinds floated atop simple dance rhythms. The brief Ouverture comes across as a parody of the Italian opera style of the day, with an over-enthusiastic bass drum vulgarizing the texture most entertainingly, while the Hino da Independência do Brasil does exactly what you expect it to.

The performances here are quite confident and enthusiastic. Soprano Carla Cottini has the most solo music to sing, and she does it very well. In fact, all of the soloists have pleasing voices, except for tenor Cleyton Pulzi, who is pretty bad, but the chorus is just dandy, and the Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra under Fabio Mechetti acquits itself admirably. Look: no one is going to claim that this is great music, but it’s lots of fun, and it sheds light on a fascinating corner of the world that few of us know anything about, especially during this period. It’s delightful to hear what can be done with these timeless texts when one ignores considerations such as, well, taste. In short, the music has a wonderful period flavor, and you’ll enjoy the opportunity to hear it.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Edith Sitwell’s invitation to William Walton to collaborate on an innovative, revolutionary new work came at a critical moment in the young composer’s career, and Façade proved to be his first great success. The peerless combination of a peculiarly English dry wit, genuine pathos and superlative technical skill remains an extraordinary achievement. Sitwell’s verses conjure a satirical and poignant world of bourgeois late-Victorian England, while Walton’s settings unfailingly enhance and enrich the texts in a work in which words and music are unquestionably of equal importance. This release includes the first recording of Small Talk (1922) and three numbers first performed in 1977 but subsequently rejected by the composer.

REVIEW:

JoAnn Falletta is to be congratulated for bringing us Walton’s revisit of the piece in 1978 when he was 76, featuring eight more poems (the work’s original subtitle, “An Entertainment,” became “A Further Entertainment:). Falletta also includes some additional material, beginning with “Small Talk” from 1922 and three numbers from 1977, “Daphne,” “The White Owl,” and “The Last Galop”—the late ones have never been recorded before.

The special charm of this release is to be found in the acting skills of the narrators, now expanded from two to three. Falletta realized that Sitwell’s poems contain actual characters who could be brought vividly to life, and she has chosen her cast well. Hila Plitman is extremely versatile, sounding at times Russian or German in her delivery (she is actually Israeli). Fred Child is a vocally nimble PBS narrator, and well-regarded bass-baritone Kevin Deas comes across richly with an arch demeanor suggestive of the childlike nature of some of the poems. The result is extremely satisfying. Of course, the performance necessarily emerges sounding less British, less reserved and less formal, but we Americans have our own silly Ogden Nash tradition, and Façade is none the worse for a more extroverted American approach. Jo Ann Falletta and her Virginians play with sass and spark.

-- Fanfare

Richard Danielpour is one of the most decorated, frequently performed and recorded composers of his generation. His commissions include works for some of the most celebrated artists of our day. Each of the Twelve Études is dedicated to a particular pianist with its own substantial technical demands, but all are conceived as concert pieces with a self-contained narrative. The variations in the Piano Fantasy are based on the final chorale of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. All of these world premiere recordings were made in close collaboration between the composer and acclaimed pianist Stefano Greco.

REVIEW:

In the 40-minute cycle, Twelve Etudes for Piano, the composer roams through a wide variety of moods, but also presents challenges to the pianist such as playing with the left hand on the keys and plucking strings inside the piano with the right hand. Stefano Greco masters all of this with aplomb.

In addition to two miniatures, the Piano Fantasy subtitled ‘Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden’ from 2008 is also heard. It is based in continuing variations on the final chorale from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, although the theme does not appear until the end of the work. This piece also shows Greco as an excellent performer.

-- Pizzicato

This recording represents a survey of American music composed for violin and piano between 1980 and 2010. These masterpieces are by four American composers distinguished by the highest honors of their profession, and whose international careers and creative voices have been shaped by major political, social, and cultural events during the last 50years. From the ethereal electronic sounds that surround the players in Sebastian Currier's Digital Mist to the Chinese evocations in the complete violin and piano works of Chen Yi, this collection has been made in close collaboration with the composers and includes three world premiere recordings.