Includes work(s) for piano by Manuel de Falla. Soloist: Daniel Ligorio.

BLANCAFORT Pastorel-la. American Souvenir. Sonatina antiga. Ermita i panorama. Cavantina i diàleg. Romance, Intermezzo, and March • Miquel Villalba (pn) • NAXOS 8.557335 (64:38)


This is the fourth in a series devoted to the piano music of Catalan composer Manuel Blancafort (1897–1987). His work resembles that of his fellow Catalan Federico Mompou. I hear a similar tough edge to the harmony, stabs of dissonance underpinning the intimate surface, but Blancafort draws on a wider stylistic range, incorporating neo-Classical influences ( Sonatina antiga ) and often a Debussyan sparkle. A fluency to the writing indicates the composer’s prowess as a pianist, and one or two pieces that wind down in a gradual rallentando remind us that the Blancafort family was in the pianola business.


I have found this disc beguiling, returning to it out of sheer pleasure as much as reviewing necessity. The stately Cavantina and the similarly melancholy Saraband that constitutes the central movement of the Sonatina (Tendresa) reveal a considerable depth of feeling. On a more Impressionistic note, the piece entitled Ermita i panorama (“Hermitage and Panorama,” 1930–31) opens with a folksy theme, sounding like a Hispanic Vaughan Williams, then blossoms into virtuosic activity. With its rippling surface, this could be a newly discovered prelude by Debussy.


American Souvenir (1926–29) consists of two movements. The first was inspired by an Atlantic crossing the composer undertook, where the slow progress of the voyage was punctuated by the distant sounds of bustling activity and the resident American jazz orchestra on board. The second is a tribute to Charlie Chaplin, a screen star who fascinated Blancafort—much as he fascinated the composer’s French contemporary Charles Koechlin. In both these pieces, Blancafort retains his personal voice (as indeed did Koechlin in his own Chaplin tribute, the final movement of the Seven Stars Symphony ). There is no mock-ragtime to depict the 1920s; rather the composer has evoked the energy of that era through his own musical language, more a passive observer than participant. A tinge of pathos to the high jinks makes the second piece suitably “Chaplinesque.”


The music covered in this program comes from a six-year period centering on the late 1920s, with the exception of the three-part Romance, Intermezzo, and March , written in 1942. In this suite of pieces, Blancafort has pared back his textures and any French influence has practically disappeared. The result is plainer, closer to Mompou in its concision. Several of these works remain unpublished, including Ermita i panorama and the lilting Pastorel-la that opens the recital.


Pianist Miquel Villalba presents this unfamiliar music with skill and sensitivity; one senses that his heart is in it. The sound is enjoyably warm and clear. In its gentle way, this disc is a winner.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott

Includes work(s) by Isaac Albéniz. Soloist: Guido Gonzalez.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Raphaele Calace Quintet. Soloists: Ugo Orlandi (mandolin), Alessandro Bono, Maura Mazzonetto.

SOUTHERN HARMONY • Russel C. Mikkelson, Richard L. Blatti, 1 cond; Ohio State University Wind Ens • NAXOS 8.572342 (60:20)


KABALEVSKY (arr. Hunsberger) Colas Breugnon: Overture. 1 STEVENS Symphony in Three Movements. GRANTHAM Southern Harmony. LAURIDSEN (arr. Reynolds) O Magnum Mysterium. COPLAND (arr. Svanoe) El Salón México


This disc represents the Ohio State University Wind Ensemble’s second entry in Naxos’s ongoing Wind Band Classics series.


The program gets off to a rousing start with a thrilling virtuoso romp through Donald Hunsberger’s idiomatic transcription of Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture. John Stevens’ Symphony from 2006, cast in the familiar fast-slow-fast three-movement format, is vaguely reminiscent of the wind music of Vincent Persichetti, and bears an even stronger influence of the many band composers of the 1960s and 1970s, most notably John Barnes Chance, Robert Washburn, and my own beloved teacher, Fisher Tull. The entire symphony is based on a theme that is stated by the horns at the outset. Throughout the work, the theme is subjected to rather routine and rudimentary developmental techniques—i.e., rhythmic transformations, interplay of melodic fragments, chorale harmonization, and the obligatory fugue. While I will not make any claims that the work is an unheralded masterpiece, I can state that it did hold my interest, even on repeated listenings—that is, until the third movement, where the music loses its focus and direction. This movement also features a devilishly difficult trumpet solo, which the poor trumpeter just barely manages to pull off. The performance, recorded a year earlier and by an ensemble with substantially different personnel from that used for the other works on the disc, suffers from some rather serious intonation problems in the upper woodwinds that are not present in the remainder of the program.


The British folk-song settings of Percy Grainger are held in particularly high esteem in the wind band repertoire, and deservedly so. Donald Grantham, in his brilliant Southern Harmony , bestows a similarly innovative and ingenious treatment to American folk-based material. The work consists of settings of four tunes taken from the shaped-noted songbook Southern Harmony and Musical Companion , compiled in 1835 by William Walker. Like Grainger before him, Grantham arranges the material with bold, exotic harmonies, innovative melodic and rhythmic treatments, novel instrumental effects (the chorus of hand clappers in the third movement is especially delightful), and vividly colorful orchestrations. The highlight of the work (and this disc) is the second movement, an absolutely heart-wrenching setting (and performance) of Wondrous Love . The Ohio State musicians play their collective hearts out and conductor Mikkelson shapes the movement with a loving hand, wringing every last drop of emotion out of the music. If this does not give you goose-bumps, nothing will.


When it appeared in 2003, Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium took the choral world by storm. The original version for unaccompanied chorus has received literally thousands of performances and at least 30 recordings. Though only six minutes in length, the piece nonetheless packs a huge emotional wallop, at least in its original choral setting. The band arrangement, though certainly lovely in its own right, does not re-create the ear-caressing sensuality or the spiritual mysticism of the original. The phrasing in this performance is curiously inflexible and a bit clipped, which is odd considering the conductor’s moving account of Wondrous Love . The program concludes with an exhilarating run-through of Aaron Copland’s familiar El Salón México in a new arrangement that unfortunately does not represent an improvement over the standard band transcription.


The Ohio State University Wind Ensemble has long held a well-deserved place in the upper echelon of university band programs in this country, and aside from the aforementioned blemishes in the performance of the symphony, it fully lives up to its reputation. The recorded sound is excellent, vividly detailed with a pleasing concert-hall ambience.


FANFARE: Merlin Patterson

Good performance and excellent sound to match the colour of these sturdy pieces.



SOUSA MUSIC FOR WIND BAND, VOL. 8 • Keith Brion, cond; Royal Artillery Band • NAXOS 8.559248 (58:48)


The High School Cadets. The Northern Pines. El Capitan: Selections; O, Warrior Grim. Boy Scouts of America. Crusader March. On the Campus. Jack Tar. Comrades of the Legion. Pride of Pittsburgh. At the King’s Court. The Washington Post


Here is the latest entry in the ongoing Sousa series by Naxos. As with similar Naxos projects, this is planned to be as complete as possible and will include unpublished items as well as the officially cataloged works. Volumes 2, 3, and 4 were reviewed by James Camner in Fanfare 25:5, 27:3, and 28: 1, and Volume 7 by Ronald E. Grames in 32:5. As Grames conveniently summarizes Camner’s reviews and provides a discussion of competing major sets of Sousa works on disc, I will refer readers to him for further details on those points. (On a side note, as a high school student I was a pupil of the first-chair trombonist of the Detroit Concert Band, Jim Lane, when that ensemble was making its classic recordings of 116 Sousa marches under the great Leonard B. Smith in the 1970s.)


John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) became conductor of the U.S. Marines Band in 1880, formed his own band in 1892, and went on European tours in 1900, 1901, 1903, and 1905, and a worldwide tour in 1910–11. He composed more than 200 works, including more than 130 marches plus symphonic poems, suites, operas, and operettas. Being something of a polymath, he also wrote several novels and an autobiography and organized the first national trapshooting association. The works featured here span from 1888 ( Crusader March ) to 1931 ( The Northern Pines ). The most famous piece performed here, the Washington Post march composed in 1889, made Sousa’s reputation and turned the “two-step” dance into a world-wide craze. In addition to marches both famous and obscure it includes a potpourri suite from his most successful operetta, El Capitan (1895), and an instrumental transcription of the aria “O Warrior Grim” from the same, plus the suite At the King’s Court (1904) composed for a performance before King Edward VII. On the Campus has a brief text by Sousa’s daughter, Helen Sousa Abert, sung by the band members. The text is not provided in the booklet, and I can only make out about two-thirds of the words; perhaps a reader with sharper ears than mine or access to the score can write in and supply the lyrics.


Keith Brion is one of the world’s premier Sousa scholars and conductors—he has his own New Sousa Band and has published numerous performing editions of Sousa’s music—and I have little to add to the praises heaped on him by Camner and Grames. The Royal Artillery Band, with more than 50 members, plays with great elegance and style; as is typical its pace is a little more leisurely than that of an American ensemble. While I would prefer the extra degree of rhythmic snap that a Frederick Fennell would bring to these pieces (his Sousa recordings for Mercury are true classics), these are excellent performances in their own right and should be snapped up by all Sousa lovers. Recommended.


FANFARE: James A. Altena


The high points of this eighth volume of the complete Sousa band music include a medley of “greatest hits”, from El Capitan, the immortal Washington Post March and nearly as immortal Boy Scouts of America (if you were ever a Boy Scout), and the suite At the King’s Court. You might not think that band instruments would be best suited to represent the three ladies at court (the countess, duchess, and queen, respectively), but Sousa manages it with aplomb. The performances, as with the other issues in this series, are lively and idiomatic, the sonics equally satisfying. If you’re collecting this series, go for it.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This Sousa wind band series continues to grow. One has to admit that Sousa’s prolific output of stirring tunes is justly acknowledged by Naxos. This inventive composer has found many textural corners to turn in a march, even if some of his musical devices have become predictable.
 
The most interesting track for many will be the long forgotten El Capitan: in this compilation there is a generous selection covering the numbers from this Broadway show. Many forget that Sousa was an enthusiastic composer for the stage, with nine operettas to his name, written between the 1880s and early 1900s. Of them El Capitan is the most notable. A Bride Elect selection was included in Volume 4 of this series, and marches from both operettas appeared in Volume 7.
 
Some of the titles provide little indication of the music to follow. In The Northern Pines, the only connection happens to be the location of a national music camp in Michigan. Likewise, the Crusader March having associations with the Knights Templar, carries no aural link yet it is a good piece with an excellent sense of flow, punctuated by fanfare sections.
 
Sousa is always sparkling in style. His fun and humour is perhaps most apparent in his use of novel decoration for the comic cuts introduced in track 7, On the Campus, the only track to include a chorus. Up to now, the most famous of Sousa marches that had been missing from the previous volumes in this series, The Washington Post, now makes an appearance as the last track. This sturdy piece echoed round many a circus ring in Britain and on the Continent as well as America before being flung into popularity by the BBC’s Monty Python programme. In contrast the delicately phrased waltz style, O Warrior Grim is a tranquil piece with carefully balanced cornet solo (by Martin Hinton).
 
Keith Brion needs to be congratulated for the most successful ambience. Then there’s precision playing by the Royal Artillery Band and a recording nicely balanced by Mike Purton. In military music there is often a tendency for the percussion to mask the more delicate phrases of woodwind, yet here much sensitivity is shown to provide us with wide dynamics and colour.
 
The notes, in English only, are adequate yet disappointing; all the more so when the jewel case is filled with a lavish catalogue on heavy-weight paper of Naxos American Classics. This catalogue is likely to be discarded. More information about Sousa’s background and influences would have been welcomed, considering his enormous output of some two hundred pieces.
 
-- Raymond J Walker, MusicWeb International

Sousa, the American master of the march, also enjoyed great prestige in the realm of operetta. The suite from The American Maid, set in a glass factory and culminating in scenes based on the 1898 Spanish-American War, was among the first theatrical shows to employ actual film footage. The beautiful quintet from his early operetta The Smugglers was scored for his eminent brass virtuosi. The medley of drinking songs called A Mingling of the Wets and the Drys was composed during Prohibition, while the unusual and previously unrecorded March of the Pan Americans- Part One celebrates the independent nations of North and South America in 1915 with zest and elan.

The personification of turn-of-the-century America, John Philip Sousa toured the world and won unprecedented fame. His marches are acknowledged as some of the best in the genre and The Triumph of Time embodies all the nobility of his great parade marches. Sousa the successful operetta composer is encountered in the dashing overture to The Irish Dragoon, in the spirited Circus Galop, and in selections from The Charlatan, one of his most lyrical and successful operettas. Showpieces and solos enhance a program that also features the iconic Sousa/Walter Damrosch arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner.

The unprecedented popularity enjoyed by John Philip Sousa was garnered through constant national and international touring with a band that included some of the very best American instrumentalists. +Volume 14 of this series includes brilliant show overtures, such as The Glass Blowers, theatrical marches such as The Lambs, the suite El Capitan and His Friends, from three of Sousa's remarkably successful operettas and,last but not least, the 22 year-old composer’s extraordinary collection of patriotic songs of many countries, +The International Congress, which ends with The Star Spangled Banner set against the violin obbligato from Wagner’s Tannhauser.

Includes work(s) for guitar by Fernando Sor. Soloist: Goran Krivokapic.

SOR: Souvenir d'Amitie / 6 Petites Pieces, Op. 47

SOR: 6 Divertimenti, Op. 13 / Cinquieme Fantaisie, Op. 16

Enrique Soro rose to great esteem not only as Chile's leading composer but as a distinguished pianist, conductor and teacher. The Sinfonia romantica was the first symphony to be composed in Chile and remains the most important example of the genre in the country's musical history. Soro's melodic distinction, mastery of orchestration and his sense of form are equally distinguished. The Tres aires chilenos espouse a kind of nationalism, fusing Chilean folk music, specifically the tonada, with the European classical tradition. The rousing Danza fantastica is a perfect concert opener.

Includes fantasia(s) for guitar by Fernando Sor. Soloist: Adam Holzman.

SOR: Guitar Duets, Vol. 2