Although they are less central to his output than orchestral, vocal or piano music, Karol Szymanowski wrote a number of works for violin and piano, spanning his entire career.

Magic on a budget: Szymanowski's fantasy world is beautifully caught

Naxos offers an exceptionally clear recording of these three concertante works by Szymanowski, not just the two Violin Concertos but an orchestrated version of the Nocturne and Tarantella. Ilya Kaler, as on his other Naxos discs, gives pure, clear readings with flawless intonation and careful use of vibrato. Having a Polish conductor and orchestra as his accompanists adds to the idiomatic feel of each, with the magical orchestral sounds beautifully conjured up, particularly in No 1, the more radical of the two works.

Like Kaler, Thomas Zehetmair plays with flawlesss intonation in a wonderfully pure reading, using minimal vibrato. Kaler is a degree warmer with a shade more vibrato, and the Naxos recording brings out the fantasy of the composer’s orchestration, particularly in No 1, with wonderful clarity. Lydia Mordkovitch is warmer still, playing with hushed intensity in the gentle passages and relishing the pure beauty of the passages of writing above the stave. In the more openly lyrical Second Concerto, Mordkovitch makes the Andantino deeply reflective at a very measured pace, while the others adopt more flowing speeds with lighter results.

Kaler then plays the relatively brief Nocturne and Tarantella just as sympathetically, with the Tarantella a flamboyant virtuoso vehicle making a splendid climax to an excellent disc. The point which trumps all competition inevitably is that the Naxos issue, beautifully and idiomatically played and brilliantly recorded, comes at such a reasonable price.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [7/2007]

SZYMANOWSKI: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2

The composer's love of exotic colours is exploited to the full by 'home' forces

As he reveals in an interview in this issue, Antoni Wit is one of the world’s best-selling conductors, and yet he is very far from the celebrity of an Abbado or a Haitink. Less charismatic than either of those, perhaps, but as he shows here once again he has a exceptional talent for inhabiting a composer’s sound world. These are performances of great affection and, typically for Wit, sound totally idiomatic.

-- Gramophone [5/2008]

Antoni Wit almost always can be relied on to deliver very thoughtful, beautifully musical, even inspired results, and there's no question that he conducts these works extremely well. The performances of both symphonies have a confidence and warmth about them that bespeaks a thorough understanding of Szymanowski's richly textured idiom. The Song of the Night (a.k.a. Symphony No. 3) has many of the same qualities that made Wit's Mahler Eighth so special: terrific choral singing, a bigness of conception that never precludes physical excitement, and very natural balances between vocal and instrumental forces.

The Straussian Second Symphony is a much tougher work conceptually, and here it seems to me that Wit could have asked for a sharper rhythmic edge to the string playing in the first movement, and perhaps a bit more contrast between the variations of the finale. The large acoustic that so benefits the Third Symphony also blunts the edge of this purely instrumental piece, but the fact is that a good deal of the problem lies with the work itself--its not quite resolved conflict between structure and musical idiom--and Wit's performance remains as fine as any currently available. Certainly this very enjoyable (and very inexpensive) disc should satisfy any fan of this splendid but still underrated composer.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

As previous issues in this series have shown, when Antoni Wit and his forces are in top form in the music of Szymanowski, they're pretty much unbeatable. At last, we have a complete symphony cycle in performances that will serve as the reference for all newcomers. Szymanowski repudiated his First Symphony on stylistic grounds (too Wagnerian), and it certainly does not represent the direction he ultimately took. But it's still great fun: a big, bold, scant 20 minutes of colorful scoring and exuberant musical ideas. The Concert Overture is even more so. It's pure Richard Strauss, only better in some respects--packing all the ebullience of Don Juan or Ein Heldenleben (or both!) into a relatively concise curtain-raiser.

The performance of the Symphonie Concertante, one of Szymanowski's greatest works, is superb. Pianist Jan Krzysztof Broja plays the solo part beautifully. He's got the chops for the big moments in the outer movements, but it's his delicacy at the start of the central andante that's most memorable. Wit, typically, directs the orchestra with remarkable clarity as well as power. The finale in particular never has sounded less "clogged" texturally, while the very natural engineering always leaves plenty of room for the sound to expand and fill the hall at those ecstatic climaxes that are such a hallmark of this composer. A splendid release!

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

SZYMANOWSKI: String Quartets / STRAVINSKY: Concertino

SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Works, Vol. 1

Szymanowski: King Roger

The music of amateur composer Imre Szechenyi is only just being fully explored, more than a century after his death. Count Imre Szechenyi of Sarvar-Felsovidek was a Hungarian nobleman and landowner, and Austro-Hungarian diplomat and politician. He was Austrian ambassador in Berlin during the government of Bismarck. He signed for the Austrian emperor Bismarck’s Alliance of the Three Emperors in 1873. Szechenyi was only a composer in his private life, although his pieces were quite cultivated. A collection of his Lieder was released earlier this year, and now the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MAV presents his complete dances for orchestra in their world premiere recordings.

SYNERGY • Robert W. Rumbelow, cond; John Bruce Yeh (cl, 1 bh 2 ); Teresa Reilly (cl); 3 Molly Yeh (perc); 4 Columbus State University Wind Ens • NAXOS 8.572319 (67:46)


DAUGHERTY Brooklyn Bridge. 1 BURRITT Duo Concertante for Clarinet and Percussion. 1,4 GILLINGHAM Concertino for Four Percussion and Wind Ensemble. DAVID Fantasy Etudes, Book II. 2,3 McALLISTER Black Dog 1


The Naxos Wind Band Classics has to be one of the most valuable series that Naxos has produced so far. Using licensed recordings made primarily by local production teams and often produced by the ensemble director or soloist, Naxos has documented a wide range of fine university and service ensembles. The 24 releases so far have made available an attractive assortment of fine compositions for wind ensemble, from the traditional to the avant-garde, some transcriptions, but many original compositions. They haven’t caught up with Klavier’s long-running Wind Project with the indefatigable Eugene Corporon, not to mention that label’s many other wind ensemble releases, or the almost encyclopedic, though variable, Mark Custom catalog, but Naxos has only been at it for four years. Give it time.


Synergy is the latest release in the series, so titled to celebrate the collaboration of the Columbus State University (Georgia) Wind Ensemble with Chicago Symphony assistant principal clarinet John Bruce Yeh; his wife, clarinetist Teresa Reilly; and his percussionist daughter Molly Yeh. It is hard to gauge the synergistic effect of the Yeh Family Residency, as it is called here, having no benchmark, but the energy, precision, and musicianship of the ensemble and soloists in this studio recording—made after the March 20, 2007, concert—are all high.


The most substantial work on the CD is Michael Daugherty’s 2004 “panoramic clarinet concerto,” Brooklyn Bridge . The four contrasting movements represent the views from the bridge toward the compass points. Looking east, the music stretches and bursts into life as the great city awakens, and it is edgy and sullen as it looks west toward the site of the World Trade Center. It contemplates the north with an infectious Latin rhythm, and is lyric, with a melody of uncommon pensive beauty, as it looks south toward the Statue of Liberty. The writing for the clarinet is both congenial and challenging and Yeh plays it beautifully. This performance is softer-grained than the premiere recording by clarinetist Michael Wayne and the University of Michigan Symphony Band (Equilibrium 75 or 86), in part because the CSU ensemble has been given less presence in its recording, but also because of the greater intensity and extraordinary playing of the Michigan band. If the Daugherty were my only concern, I’d go for the Equilibrium recording, but I would be missing some excellent companion works.


Chief among these is percussionist/composer Michael Burritt’s brilliant, jazzy Duo Concertante. Written for John and Molly Yeh, it is a moving tribute both to Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa, and to the Yehs. J. M. David’s fascinating set of Fantasy Etudes for clarinet, basset horn, and small wind ensemble, a CSU commission for this concert inspired by works of Mussorgsky, Ligeti, and Stravinsky, is also well worth knowing. David Gillingham’s haunting Concertino, though not perhaps the most melodically inspired piece, showcases the excellent CSU percussionists with sonorities both thundered and (most effectively) whispered. And Scott McAllister’s Black Dog , which reimagines the Led Zeppelin song as a rhapsody for clarinet and band, brings the program to a conclusion that is both tender and, at the end, rousing. Yes, the recording could have provided more impact, especially for the brass, and a more realistic balance between the soloists and ensemble, but overall this is an impressive release.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames


I understand why this is issued under the Naxos Wind Band series, but it’s almost a recital disc for the truly excellent John Bruce Yeh. A member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he plays on all the pieces except the Gillingham. The program follows an arch progression from solo to duet to quartet and back again. All told, it’s a very satisfying progression – bravo to whoever designed it.

The repertoire itself is mostly excellent – the McAllister may be a bit too long, and I wasn’t fully convinced by the Stravinskyesque touches of the David, though it has grown on me. But all the works have their charms, and the Daugherty is a wonderful surprise, the best work of his I’ve heard. The first movement opens the disc in tremendously convincing fashion, drawing the listener in for the full length of the work. The second movement accesses a tenderness and harmonic sensitivity I didn’t give Daugherty credit for. The fourth movement is a witty romp that doesn’t feel disposable the way this type of music sometimes can. The Burritt is also very accessible, in a standard fast-slow-fast shape and filled with memorable melodies and colors. I hope it has more of a life outside of this disc! The percussion soloist is Yeh’s daughter, and she was in high school when she recorded this remarkable performance. Yeh’s wife joins him on the David, where she also plays extremely well – what a family! Finally, the Gillingham is another excellent, colorful work which has already found a place in the repertoire. Moving steadily from a place of stillness and suspense to one of dramatic declamation, it is playable by an excellent amateur group but doesn’t feel like a “compromised” work at all. This performance cleanses the palette effectively for the rest of the disc yet also feels very much of a piece with the rest of the program.

Then there are the performances. Yeh dominates the disc, and completely inhabits these pieces, making each performance feel definitive. He’s a fabulous player who deserves this level of exposure. As for the band, their performances are thrilling, extremely precise and well rehearsed while still being very musical – there’s a palpable sense that everybody cares about every note. It’s a balancing act few wind bands seem to be able to achieve on recordings, with too many erring on the side of precise-but-not-musical - an understandable but regrettable error. On this disc, there’s a real sense of communication from composer, through ensemble, to listener. Congratulations and appreciation to everyone involved with this project for achieving it.

-- Benn Martin, MusicWeb International

Diamond dedicated his Symphony No. 8 to his friend and mentor, composer Aaron Copland on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. The work was completed in November 1960 and received it's premi�re with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic on 27th October, 1961. While essentially tonal in harmonic language, Diamond incorporated highly chromatic elements and even a twelve-note tone row, not unlike what the Symphony's dedicatee was doing during this same period in his Connotations, though Diamond's work is far less aggressively dissonant in overall sound. The composer provided these notes for the premi�re performance: I. Moderato-Adagio-Allegro vivo. The basic row is proclaimed in the very opening bars of the introduction; it is in two halves. The first, a forceful rhythmic theme of five notes (4/4), is thundered out by the orchestra tutti. The second, a more lyric theme of seven notes (3/4), is sung softly by a single clarinet. Thematically, the second phrase is destined to be the more important; in fact, the row is immediately rearranged and presented by a solo horn, which starts with this second phrase in an even more lyric version, and concludes with a lyric transformation of the thundering five-note opening. The fast body of the movement, a free sonata-allegro structure, starts with a heavily syncopated version of the row as presented by the French horn. This is the principal theme; a contrasting second theme is presented at a more relaxed tempo by a solo clarinet, ben cantando, over a soft counterpart of strings. Both themes are developed, and return in very nearly their original form during the course of this long but highly concentrated movement. The conclusion is a stunning climax compounded of the essence of both themes. II. Theme (Adagio), Variations and Double Fugue. After a two-measure introduction, which turns into a sequential accompaniment, the first violins begin a high, flowing melody that is the theme (3/4). Soon the orchestral basses and cellos enter with this same melody, while the violins continue the forty-measure theme. Variation No. 1 is a canon, in which the violins lead and cellos follow with the same melody, always at a distance of one measure. There are seven variations in all, the last of which repeats a long section from No. 1, and then leads without pause into the lively double-fugue. The first principal theme of this is derived from the principal theme of the first movement. Other themes from the first movement make their appearance, too, as the Symphony moves on to it's climax and conclusion.

Alexander Moyzes was among the leading Slovak composers of his generation, drawing inspiration from the traditions and landscape of his own country while absorbing a number of wider contemporary trends. His Symphony No. 3, or Little Symphony is derived from an earlier Wind Quintet, while Symphony No. 4, with its occasional suggestions of Mahler and Sibelius, combines protest at the injustice of war with the past history of the Slovaks. The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra was established in 1929 as the first professional symphony orchestra in Slovakia. The orchestra is currently led by conductor Mario Kosik. It has made a large number of recordings for labels including Opus, Supraphon, Naxos and Marco Polo. In addition to regular season concerts, which feature works by Slovak composers, many of them as premieres, the orchestra has performed at concerts abroad, visiting Austria and Hungary, and touring in Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Once in a while, you hear a piece of classical music that captures you completely; you drop everything, clear your head, and immerse yourself in the magnificent power of the symphonic orchestra. This disc contains some of our favorite orchestral repertoire - all exceptional performances recorded in spectacular sound. There are some familiar "spectaculars" as well as lesser known showpieces that we think deserve attention. Great music deserves to be played often and heard by many, so please enjoy often and with others!

I can see significant interest and many converts to brass band music being generated by this disc from the Black Dyke Band.

This Naxos release consists of eleven popular works in arrangements for brass band. I hope that it heralds a continuing Brass Band Classics series. Here the term ‘arrangement’ is used in its broadest sense, not differentiating between those scores that strive to stay faithful to the original in the way of a transcription and those that make freer use of the material. Eight different arrangers, mainly celebrated figures in the brass band movement, have been at work here. Notable is Alan Fernie, a Royal Academy of Music student who is represented by four separate pieces.

The compass of brass band music has been significantly augmented by this activity. In addition to original brass band works it was in the 1930s that the fashion developed for making popular works of the standard repertoire available for brass bands to play. Around the mid-twentieth-century the popularly of banding was given the strongest possible advocacy when distinguished conductors, knights, Malcolm Sargent; Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli all directed concerts of massed brass bands.

The performers here are the Black Dyke Band, formerly the Black Dyke Mills Band, under their Principal Conductor and Director of Music, Nicholas Childs. Arguably the best known brass band on the world stage the Black Dyke Band has been voted ‘Champion Band of Great Britain’ on twenty occasions as well as receiving a large number of other prestigious awards. From Queensbury, Bradford the Black Dyke Band were founded over one hundred and fifty years ago in a town where a tradition of brass band music can be traced back to 1816.

Instantly recognisable to virtually all listeners is the opening work, the magnificent Grand March from Verdi’s opera Aida. This stunning arrangement by Alan Fernie seems especially suited to the martial, fanfare-like quality of the considerable brass elements that Verdi designed in his score. Black Dyke impress and entertain and the solo passage between 2:01-2:41 is especially effective.

Brahms composed his Academic Festival Overture (1880) to thank the University of Breslau for conferring on him an honorary doctorate. The composer caused a stir amongst the University hierarchy by including several popular melodies from student drinking songs and this 1936 brass arrangement by Denis Wright highlights them to great effect.

Bizet is represented by three scores. The first is Goff Richards’s brass arrangement of Au fond du temple saint (Deep inside the sacred temple) universally known as the Pearl Fisher Duet from the 1863 opera The Pearl Fishers. I was bowled over by the beautiful rich timbre of Black Dyke’s two euphonium soloists David Thornton and John French in this splendid Pearl Fisher Duet that has been polled more than once as the nation's favourite tune.

Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen is an acknowledged masterpiece. Here Alan Fernie has arranged five popular extracts into a well designed and contrasting suite for brass containing the essence of Spain. I especially enjoyed the confident swagger given to the portrayal of the bullfighter’s life by Black Dyke in the colourful Toreador’s Song.

Howard Lorriman has made a brass arrangement of the Farandole from the Second Suite from Bizet’s 1872 incidental music to Alphonse Daudet’s play L'arlesienne (The Woman from Arles). The Farandole, a lively traditional Provençal chain dance, is represented here by proud and effervescent music that Black Dyke develop into a thrilling and almost frenzied conclusion.

Stephen Roberts in 1996 produced an arrangement of Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from Holst’s most popular work. The perpetually heard central melody was subsequently arranged to the words “I vow to thee, my country.” Ably supported by the impeccable quality of ensemble the arrangement sounds especially effective in its brass guise.

A perennial favourite: the ubiquitous Nimrod from Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, ‘Enigma’ (1899) is the ninth variation and a musical representation of his friend A.J. Jaeger; the publishing manager at Novello. This performance of Eric Ball’s 1983 version of this easygoing and cheerful variation sounds highly impressive with an agreeable glow.

Achieving recognition as a stand-alone work the Prelude and Fugue: The Spitfire is extracted from Walton’s 1942 film score The First of the Few. It starred Leslie Howard who also directed. This marvellously played Alan Fernie arrangement just loses too much orchestral colour from Walton’s original.

Gershwin based his folk opera Porgy and Bess (1934-35) on Porgy the novel by DuBose Heyward. This successful arrangement by Alan Fernie uses four popular songs from the opera: the brash It ain't necessarily so; the joyous I got plenty o' nuttin'; the tender and poignant Bess, you is my woman now and the uplifting hymn I'm on my way.

Prolific arranger Dutchman Klaas van der Woude has prepared for brass the Hymn to the Fallen from John Williams’s score to Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The Hymn to the Fallen is the highlight of the score and serves as a fitting requiem to all the soldiers who gave their lives during the World War II, Normandy landings in 1944. Superbly played by Black Dyke the heart-rending arrangement is defined by the distinctive plea of the fanfare-like theme that opens the piece.

The release concludes with Tchaikovsky’s celebrated 1812 Overture (1880) in a version by Robert Childs; the brother of Nicholas Childs the conductor. The myriad moods are superbly captured in this adroit arrangement. The build-up to the powerful and triumphant conclusion is especially successful.

Throughout this exciting release the outstanding feature is the security of ensemble. The excellence of the vivid and well balanced sound from Morley Town Hall together with the helpful essay from Roy Newsome contributes to the desirability of the disc.

With the wide appeal of these popular scores and the exceptional standard of the performances from the Black Dyke Band I can see significant interest and many subsequent converts to brass band music being generated by this disc. I sincerely hope that this is the first of many volumes from Naxos of Symphonic Brass.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Award winning American keyboard-player Glen Wilson follows up his acclaimed releases of Buxtehude' harpsichord music "strongly gestural and rhetorical", Couperin' Tombeau de M. de Blancrocher "considerable technical virtuosity", Farnaby' Harpsichord.