Includes fantasia(s) by Luis de Narváez. Soloist: Shirley Rumsey.
Includes tiento(s) by Alonso de Mudarra. Soloist: Shirley Rumsey.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Hedos Ensemble. Conductor: Bernhard Böhm.

The Eton Choirbook is a giant 500 year-old manuscript from Eton College Chapel, and one of the greatest surviving glories of pre-Reformation England. This recording features the earliest polyphonic Passion by a named composer, two heartrending motets for five and six voices, two thrilling settings of the Magnificat, and an extraordinary canon in 13 parts, Jesus autem transiens. The ensemble TONUS PEREGRINUS has been widely acclaimed, not least for its “richly sung and very well recorded” programme of Orlando Gibbons, L’Estrange, and Pitts. (The Penguin Guide on Naxos 8.557681)

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Ciaramella.

Includes waltz(es) by Franz Schubert. Ensemble: Thalia Schrammeln Ensemble. Soloists: Harald Huemer, Reinhold Rung, Gerald Grünbacher, Heinz Hramada.

Elizabeth Hainen has won international recognition as one of today's foremost virtuoso harpists. Currently principal harp of the Philadelphia Orchestra, she's done much to encourage the composition of new works for her instrument. This release includes works conceived originally for single action harp, introduced in the 18th century and others written for the double-action pedal harp.

Theodore Kerkezos, as his name suggests, is of Greek birth and background. He also happens to be a stupendously accomplished virtuoso on his chosen instrument. This is some of the best sax-playing I have heard. I also wish to commend Mr. Kerkezos for choosing a program made up entirely of works originally written for saxophone. A number of instrumental recital entries to come my way lately have been heavily skewed towards transcriptions of works written for media other than those presented on the CD. Kerkezos sticks to works on this release that are mostly well known. Elsewhere, I review another Kerkezos disc containing rather less familiar material.

Glazunov’s E flat Concerto is probably the most often heard work here, at least in its original scoring. A number of fine recordings of it are available, including a German import DG with saxophonist Eugene Rousseau, which includes the Villa-Lobos and Ibert pieces Kerkezos has chosen. Also available is a budget priced EMI CD with saxophonist John Harle and Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; it, too, includes the Ibert and the Villa-Lobos, as well as the Debussy. Each of these entries also includes one or more works not included on the other, so choosing one or another of them may come down to not just the merits of the performances (they are all excellent), but the other works offered.

As I’ve already indicated, Kerkezos’s playing leaves nothing to be desired; it is superb on all counts. His playing of the Glazunov concerto is so sensitively shaped and expressively shaded that one can be forgiven for momentarily being lulled into wondering if maybe Glazunov really was a great composer after all. But two other items of interest also make a strong case for this new release. Darius Milhaud’s wonderful Latin American-inspired Scaramouche suite was originally scored for saxophone and orchestra, but was later arranged by the composer himself for two pianos. While recordings of the original version are not rare, the piece is more often heard in its two-piano version, thus making Kerkezos’s new performance all the more welcome.

Yet perhaps most interesting of all is the world premiere recording of a concerto for saxophone and orchestra, titled Song of Dionysus, written in 2002 for Kerkezos by Ekaterini Karamessini (b. 1967). She holds multiple post-graduate degrees from the University of Sussex, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music in the US. She was a prize-winner at the Chanctonbury Composition Competition for the Millennium in England, and many of her works—including chamber, symphonic, choral, ballet, and opera—have been performed in the US and the UK. Her Saxophone Concerto played here is a real beauty. The measure of its appeal is that it makes me want to hear more music by this very talented composer.

This is a fine release all around. Martyn Brabbins and the Philharmonia are in top form, Theodor Kerkezos is as good as sax-playing gets, and at Naxos’s budget price, how can anyone afford to pass this up?

Jerry Dubins, FANFARE

Music for Saxophone and Orchestra

MOZART / CRUSELL / BACH, J.C.: Music for Oboe and Strings

The euphonium is said to have been invented in Weimar in 1843. In German and Russian military bands it came to replace the bassoon, suggesting that transcriptions of works for bassoon should make an interesting and useful addition to euphonium solo.

In recent years a number of composers have explored the tonal chemistry of timbre and texture offered by the ensemble of cello and guitar. The examples here, from South America and Eastern Europe, are among the most ambitious and technically demanding yet to have been written. Vivacious Latin-American rhythms, such as the Milonga and Chacarera, are explored by Edwin Guevara, while the Bulgarian Atanas Ourkouzounov creates an aura of indigenous folk culture in Tanzologia. Both lyricism and rhythmic dynamism suffuse Dusan Bogdanovic’s Quatre pieces intimes. The Venezuelan cellist, Cecilia Palma, and the Colombian guitarist, Edwin Guevara, formed the Duo Villa-Lobos in 2003 while at the Liceu Conservatory of Music in Barcelona. They have performed concerts in Europe and the United States and specialize in original music for guitar and cello duo. In 2017 they gave the world premiere performance and were the dedicatees of Gran Concierto Sinfonico, “La Madre Monte,” Op. 198 by Jaime Zenamon, with the University Philharmonia Orchestra at the hill Auditorium in Michigan. They have also received the prize for contemporary music at the Arjau Festival. Cecilia Palma is a member of the cello faculty at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and cellist of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota. Edwin Guevara is a member of the guitar faculty at the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional de Colombia, and is a Knobloch Strings, Bermann Editions and Savino Music artist.

Septura head homeward with a recording of British music from the first half of the twentieth century- a golden age in England’s otherwise checkered compositional history, and a period in which brass instruments, in the form of the brass band, established their place at the very heart of British musical culture. From the many composers of the period whose music endures we have chosen four of the finest: iconic works by Elgar, Parry, Finzi and Walton, reimagined for the unique sound of the brass septet. Septura brings together London’s leading players to redefine brass chamber music through the uniquely expressive sound of the brass septet. By creating a canon of transcriptions, arrangements and new commissions for this brand new classical configuration, Septura aims to recast the brass ensemble as a serious artistic medium. Currently ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the group is recording a series of albums for Naxos, each focused on a particular period, genre and set of composers, creating a ‘counter-factual history’ of brass chamber music.

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REVIEW:

The lineup of three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba is unexpectedly expressive in Elgar’s Serenade in E minor (originally for strings). If you like English pastoral music, and the sound of brass, this album is irresistible.

– The Observer (UK)

Septura turns to one of the most groundbreaking periods of music history: France at the onset of the twentieth century. In this fertile compositional field, solo brass instruments flourished, but the chamber music landscape was barren. And so the group re-imagines works by three composers who defined France’s unique musical direction: Faure, Debussy and Ravel. Conjuring the full kaleidoscope of colors possible from seven brass instruments, they trace the origins of Impressionism, from Faure’s masterful melodies through to the iconic piano works of Debussy and Ravel.

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REVIEW:

The Fifth in this series from the quite remarkable London-based Septura is a disc full of innovative ideas of re-scoring familiar music made by members of the septet. The most extended section of the disc comes with six of the Preludes Debussy wrote for solo piano arranged by Simon Cox; here Septura embellish the music with the sonorities Debussy would no doubt have used. Indeed the arrangement of La Cathedral engloutie, which ends the disc, emerges as one of the finest pieces the composer never actually wrote. The virtuosity that the group display is quite remarkable, technical challenges never existing in their elevated musical world. The recording quality is equally superb.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

No brass series would be complete without Giovanni Gabrieli, and his music is the starting point as Septura continue on their counterfactual course, imagining that four titans of the counter-reformation had written for brass. The sacred choral works of these renaissance masters- Victoria, Gabrieli, Palestrina and Lassus- are a perfect fit for the musical and emotional compass of the brass septet, and the result is a stunning survey of the culminations of the Spanish, Venetian, Roman and Franco-Flemish schools.

Reviwew:

There is an overwhelming sense of sincerity present in both the skilfully crafted new arrangements, made by the ensemble’s artistic directors, Simon Cox and Matthew Knight, and the execution of performance, which is characterised by an approach to sound concept and turn of phrase that is seemingly laced with historical consideration and musical purpose.

– Brass Band World

Stretching back from the stark Soviet soundscape of Shostakovich, to the early pre-modernism of Prokofiev, to the pre-revolutionary opulence of Scriabin and Rachmaninov, Septura redresses a lack of original music for brass by these great composers by charting a turbulent 70 years of Russian history. Brass instruments feature prominently in these composers' symphonic output, and Septura is a natural fit for their chamber music. The focus is piano music with one prominent exception: perhaps Septura's most ambitious transcription to date, Shostakovich's profound and deeply personal Eighth String Quartet.