The Italian Dramatic Lament is a collection of early music, primarily vocal music that was popular in 17th century Italy. Composers wrote and often performed music that was meant to move the audience to tears (thus the name lament). This new group, winner of the Early Music America Competition in 2003, picks both vocal and instrumental laments from the Lament literature and performs them beautifully in the style and appropriate instrumentation. Catherine Webster, the soprano, handles all this music and ornamentation with ease, and the ensemble plays at top notch performance level.

Includes fantasia(s) à 4 by Orlando Gibbons (Renaissance). Ensembles: Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd.
Includes galliard(s) by Orlando Gibbons (Renaissance). Ensembles: Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd.
Includes galliarde(s) by William Byrd. Ensembles: Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd.
Includes pavan(s) by William Byrd. Ensembles: Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd.
Includes pavane(s) by Orlando Gibbons (Renaissance). Ensembles: Rose Consort of Viols, Red Byrd.

A splendid achievement. A strong case for English clarinet music.

Naxos has assembled an attractive collection of English clarinet works that are predominantly in a late-Romantic vein. It is hard to mention English clarinet music without references to Frederick Thurston, a student at the Royal College of Music (RCM), who was the greatest clarinettist of his generation. Thurston’s art inspired a large quantity of clarinet music from composers such as Bliss, Arnold, Ireland, Bax, Finzi, Rawsthorne and William Lloyd Webber.

The attractive opening score is from Edward German who, although writing in several genres, is mainly remembered today for his music for the stage; notably the comic opera Merrie England (1902). German’s Romance is the earliest score on the disc and clarinettist John Bradbury and pianist James Cryer provide a relaxing and well paced reading for this undemanding listening experience.

Composed in 1934 Bax’s Sonata two movement Sonata is dedicated to his friend Hugh Prew an amateur clarinettist. The premiere was given by Frederick Thurston and pianist Harriet Cohen at a recital of the London Contemporary Music Centre at the Cowdray Hall in 1935. In this interpretation the good humoured first movement Molto moderato is pervaded with nostalgic yearning. Largely brisk music the second movement Allegro Vivace is hectic and waspish with technical demands of considerable virtuosity required from John Bradbury.

Edwin Roxburgh was a composition pupil of Herbert Howells at the RCM and later studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. The Four Wordsworth Miniatures, composed in 1998, were commissioned by Linda Merrick who premiered the score. The four movements have been given descriptive titles by the composer and these are narrated here as a preface to the performance. John Bradbury communicates a serious character to the opening miniature Calm Is The Fragrant Air whilst Waters On A Starry Night is frenetic and virtuosic. Thoughts That Do Often Lie Too Deep For Tears is yearning music that emanates from the lowest registers of the clarinet and in the final piece The Cataracts Blow Their Trumpet the soloist is in an upbeat and playful mood.

One of Gerald Finzi’s finest scores is his celebrated Clarinet Concerto composed for Thurston in 1948-49. His fondness for the clarinet is demonstrated the Five Bagatelles, Op. 23 written around a decade earlier (1938-43) and intended for clarinettist Pauline Juler. The attractive suite of five distinctive short movements has become a cornerstone of the clarinet repertoire and has been arranged into various alternative scorings. A bright and breezy Prelude contains a melancholic central section; Bradbury is sad and mournful in the Romance and the calm and engaging Carol has a strong nostalgic tinge. In the Forlana Bradbury and Cryer convey a fresh, outdoor feel and the light and brisk Fughetta makes for an optimistic conclusion.

William Hurlstone was a star composition student of Stanford at the RCM. In 1906 Hurlstone became Professor of Counterpoint at the College but his career was cut short later that year by his untimely death. A clarinettist himself, Hurlstone wrote his Four Characteristic Pieces for George Clinton in 1899, a suite that deserves to be a staple of the repertoire. The opening piece is the creative Ballade generously crammed with ideas and emotional contrasts. Bradbury and Cryer in this interpretation of the much admired Croon Song evoke comforting images of a domestic nature. The dance-like Intermezzo has a scurrying quality and the concluding Scherzo with its character of a fresh, cool breeze suggests a bracing walk on the hills.

We are told nothing in the booklet notes about composer Paul Patterson who I discovered studied trombone at the Royal Academy of Music before concentrating on composition. Patterson’s teachers were Richard Stoker, Elisabeth Lutyens and Richard Rodney Bennett. In 1994 he was selected to represent Britain in series of 50 works to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Béla Bartók’s death. These were being broadcast by Hungarian radio on the European Broadcasting Union. Patterson’s contribution to the series is his single movement Soliloquy. This virtuosic showpiece for solo clarinet is a paraphrase on a theme from the fifth movement of Bartók’s 1943 Concerto for Orchestra. Bradbury awakens the Soliloquy from its generally carefree disposition with sporadic jazzy salvos demanding considerable skill and brilliance.

William Lloyd Webber was a student of Vaughan Williams at the RCM becoming in 1946 a professor at the college and teaching harmony and counterpoint. Lloyd Webber wrote a suite of six Country Impressions in 1960 for a variety of wind instruments with piano accompaniment. One of this series was Frensham Pond, Aquarelle. The picturesquely titled miniature Frensham Pond (not On Frensham Pond as stated in the notes) is to my ears one of the most attractive works that Lloyd Webber wrote. Frensham pond is situated close to Farnham in Surrey and in the score the players give a sunny and endearing performance that evokes a gentle impression of water, woodland and heath. At just over double the length of Frensham Pond, the earlier score Air and Variations bore a dedication to, "Frederick Thurston and his pupils at the RCM". With adroitness and affection the partners relish the variety of mood and Bradbury seems to savour the increased opportunity for virtuoso clarinet display.

Bliss, who also studied with Stanford at the RCM, developed into one of the most influential figures in British music and was regarded for some years as an enfant terrible. Following his knighthood in 1950 he was awarded the prestigious appointment as Master of the Queen’s Musick. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 tragically took the life of Bliss’s brother Kennard and the impressive Pastoral, a fitting lamentation for clarinet and piano, was composed soon after. Bliss clearly enjoyed writing for the clarinet and in 1932 wrote a well regarded Clarinet Quintet for Thurston. I consider the Pastoral to be one of Bliss’s finest works and the partnership of Bradbury and Cryer demonstrate their considerable affection for the score. One feels swept way on a tide of haunting emotion joining Bliss on a rare quasi-pastoral excursion.

Perhaps the finest performed and recorded rival version of English clarinet music likely to be encountered in the catalogues are from Thea King and Clifford Benson from 1989 at St George’s, Brandon Hill on Hyperion Dyad CDD22027. The Hyperion set duplicates the Finzi, Hurlstone and Bliss scores and is coupled with the Stanford Clarinet Sonata, Ferguson Four Short Pieces, Howells Clarinet Sonata, Reizenstein Arabesques and the Cooke Clarinet Sonata.

As usual I sound tested this disc on six or so different CD players before writing about the sound quality. This Naxos disc recorded at the Wathen Hall in Barnes was not one that immediately sounded appealing as on two of my players some peak level regulation was necessary to tone down the fierceness, although there were no problems with my other players. After the required adjustment I was left with a consistently warm and bright, clear and well balanced sound.

Hugh Prew was it seems the dedicatee of Bax’s Sonata and a member of the composer’s cricket team. This fact has inspired the author of the booklet notes to give over a whole page to cricket references in the form of a timeline that links the composition dates of the scores to key events in the English cricket year. The inclusion of these cricket statistics, extraneous to the music, seems to have been researched at the expense of relevant information on the actual scores. Unless I’m mistaken nowhere does it mention that both Roxburgh’s Four Wordsworth Miniatures and Patterson’s Soliloquy are works for solo clarinet not clarinet and piano.

This Naxos disc is a splendid achievement and clarinet soloist John Bradbury, supported by James Cryer, make a strong case for this collection of English clarinet music; much of which is rarely heard. I especially enjoyed Hurlstone’s delightful Four Characteristic Pieces and Finzi’s Five Bagatelles are sublime.

Michael Cookson, MusicWb International

This premiere recording of master percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie's new international ensemble offers a programme of fourteen improvised pieces that push the boundaries of spontaneous music-making. The group brings together musical traditions from four varied cultures (Scotland, Serbia, the United States and Denmark) but with a common goal: to create spontaneous music of great beauty and power which utilizes the basic formal elements of musical composition- melody, harmony, rhythm, and form.

Classical Music

One of the leading English composers of his generation, Vaughan Williams went some way towards creating a specifically English musical idiom, influenced by his interest in folk-song yet underpinned by a personal vision and language.

Winner of the prestigious ECHO Klassik Best Up-and-Coming Artist Award 2014 and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics 2014 for her Naxos recordings of the Mendelssohn Violin Concertos and Complete Music for Violin by Sarasate, Tianwa Yang is referred to as “an unquestioned master of the violin” by American Record Guide who “rises above her competition” (Fanfare), while quickly establishing herself as a leading international performer and recording artist. As a critically acclaimed Naxos recording artist, Ms. Yang most recently released the Violin Concertos by Castelnuovo-Tedesco recorded with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and the complete Solo Sonatas by Eugene Ysaye which immediately won several awards. The Best of Tianwa Yang features a nice programmed selection of her most popular and well-loved recordings.

Classical Music

Impressive throughout … an excellent way to explore his output.

This is a Naxos compilation of works by Thomas Tallis, originally recorded for a range of other discs, performed by the Oxford Camerata under the direction of Jeremy Summerly. The disc features a range of works, in both Latin and English texts, including shorter anthems and mass settings and more extended works. O Sacrum Convivium, written for Elizabeth 1st, features smooth flowing lines and gentle dissonances, and sets the scene for the rest of the disc, with the Oxford Camerata’s blended vocal tone full of expression and resonance. Audivi vocem features plainchant-style sections and choruses, while Discomfort them, O Lord is based on repeated sequences and has a complex monophonic style. Loquebantur variis linguis is a faster work, with imitative entries and rich polyphonic writing interspersed with unison chant settings.

The Sanctus from the Mass for Four Voices is a beautiful setting with strongly characterful word setting, including a bright, major key Gloria and Hosanna. I call and cry to thee, O Lord is an English setting of O Sacrum Convivium and it is interesting to hear the effect of a change of language. The Lamentations of Jeremiah are presented in two separate sets. Set I is well paced, with tempo changes well handled and clearly defined sections. Set II has a beautifully calm and expressive opening, with individual lines entering one by one to build up a stunning five part choral sound. This slow paced music gradually unfolds and provides one of the highlights of the disc.

Videte miraculum features some wonderfully dissonant harmonies, with tension and release an important element of the interaction between the parts. Another slow-moving work, this has a contemplative feel, using mostly simple rhythms and alternating between monophonic writing and polyphony.

The disc ends with the impressive forty-part motet Spem in alium, arguably one of Tallis’s most well-known and dazzling works, with eights choirs of five voices combining to create an elaborate tapestry of sound. Harmonic shifts come like waves, and the full force of all forty voices in the tutti sections has a sense of powerful expression. It is hard to hear definition in the individual parts in this recording (although some come through better than others) and it is difficult to capture the effect of this piece on a recording; this is one piece where a live performance holds an extra dimension, especially if the choirs can be separated around the audience. Nevertheless, the overall effect works well and this is an enjoyable recording.

The choir is impressive throughout this disc, although the blend of voices varies between tracks (presumably because the recordings were made at different times with slight alterations to personnel). Hearing this selection of works by one composer gives a fascinating insight into the range of Tallis’ music, both in terms of compositional style and textural use of the choir. His vocal writing has a sense of naturalness and paved the way for generations of composers after him, defining a style and creating a lineage of British choral music. This disc serves as an excellent way to explore his output, with some beautiful singing from the Oxford Camerata.

-- Carla Rees, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) served in the Russian navy and with the encouragement of his mentor Balakirev, a member of "The Five," pursued his musical education. He taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1871 till "Bloody Sunday" in 1905 when he was dismissed for political involvement. Many of his students also went on to successful careers in music. He taught Glazunov, Respighi, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Myaskovsky, and Lyadov among so many. While he composed operas, chamber music, songs and choral music it is his orchestral material that he is at the front of the line including Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, Russian Easter Festival, and Antar all represented on this CD. And yes his famous "Flight of the Bumble-Bee," template for the Green Hornet theme, and used in numerous cartoons and films is included. Also included is a duet arrangement by Kreisler for violin and piano of the "Hindu Song," well known as "The Song of India" made famous by Tommy Dorsey.

Take a large spoonful of Bolero, add a small amount of Pavane, simmer in the heat of Feria, then mix with a little Blues and you have the perfect Ravel. It's the recipe for success in the 'Best of' market, particularly when you have Naxos's stunning performances. What did the critics say when the discs, from which this compilation is taken, were first issued. "The whole performance, throbbing with life, makes you listen afresh", was the Gramophone's view of Thiollier's performance of the Piano Concerto. "Superbly recorded", was the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs accolade for Ma m_re l'oye, while Fanfare adds the Rapsodie Espagnole is "well conceived, executed and recorded".