Darius Milhaud frequently composed music for stage and screen. The Suite derives from his incidental music for Jean Anouilh’s play Le Voyageur. The outer movements of Scaramouche are taken from his stage music for Charles Vildrac’s adaptation of Molière’s Le Médecin volant, with the central movement drawn from the overture for Jules Supervielle’s Bolivar. Le Printemps and the Cinéma-Fantaisie similarly rework previously composed music. In each case, Milhaud created new works whose sophistication, lively rhythms and elegance matter more than their origins. The two remaining works, the Violin Sonata No. 2 and the Sonatina for clarinet and piano, were freshly composed and show Milhaud’s remarkable ingenuity.

MILHAUD: Saudades do Brazil / La muse menagere / L'album de

This is one of those discs whose totality earns it a highest recommendation, even though individual listeners may have alternate preferences for individual works. La Création du monde, for example, receives an excellent, gutsy performance with aptly raucous contributions from solo clarinet, trumpet, and percussion. My personal favorite remains the classic Arthur Weisberg rendition on Nonesuch, whose jazzy excitement remains unmatched; but this newcomer is not just very good artistically, it's really well recorded, with a tightly focused bass and plenty of tactile immediacy. Both Le Boeuf sur le toit and Suite provençale are brash pieces that basically play themselves, and it's no insult to Casadesus and his Lille orchestra when I say that they let the music make it's points naturally, through infectious rhythm and plenty of extravert character.

L'Homme et son désir, based on an incomprehensible scenario by Paul Claudel, is a magical, marvelous piece scored for solo strings, harp, a handful of winds and brass, tons of percussion, and four wordless vocalists. It was one of the pieces that made Milhaud's reputation in the early decades of the 20th century, but (perhaps due to the odd forces required) it seems to have vanished since. The music contains haunting modal melodies, passages of biting polytonality, sensuous contributions from the soloists, and it all adds up to an unforgettable experience. Casadesus turns in an expert performance, and if the vocal contributions aren't uniformly on the same high level as the instrumental (tenor Mathias Vidal sounds like he's gargling), it's not the kind of work where beauty of tone is a paramount consideration. Atmosphere is what counts, and that you can hear in abundance.

So while this or that performance may not be absolutely perfect, the disc as a whole makes an ideal introduction to some of Milhaud's best work. It also makes an eloquent case for a revaluation of this prolific and neglected figure, and it would grace any serious record collection. At the Naxos budget price, you really should give this a listen. It's a delight. [07/18/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Although biographical details of his life remain sketchy, Luys Milán’s Libro de música de vihuela de mano intitulado El Maestro is certainly the oldest surviving printed collection of vihuela music. Tuned like the contemporary Renaissance lute, the Spanish vihuela is a guitar-shaped instrument and for it Milán wrote a series of compelling works including fantasias and pavans that maturely fused improvisatory and polyphonic elements. This recording presents all the solo vihuela pieces from the first book of El Maestro in the order in which they appear.

The importance of Mieczysław Weinberg’s 24 Preludes for solo cello, written for Rostropovich, lies beyond their superficial resemblance to Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier or the piano preludes of Chopin or Weinberg’s colleague Shostakovich. Instead, it resides in Weinberg’s remarkable ability to write for solo cello with almost limitless imagination, using myriad musical styles and varied techniques. These fascinating qualities are also to be found in his more expansively lyrical Sonata, a masterfully written outpouring of deep emotions. Latvian-born cellist Josef Feigelson has enjoyed a solo career spanning over three decades and champions neglected cello repertoire.

Johann Michael Haydn's music has inevitably been overshadowed by that of his elder brother Franz Joseph, but his music represents some of the best features of 19th century classicism. These four Sinfonias span just over a decade, from the graceful combination of elegance and liveliness in the Sinfonia in D, the muted violins in the Adagietto affettuoso of the Sinfonia in E-Flat, the lovely sicilienne of the Sinfonia in B-Flat to the substantial Sinfonia in F, which features a solo violin and cor anglais playing together or in alternation.

This is the first of what one hopes will be a complete set of the Michael Haydn symphonies. If so, this release is a more than auspicious start, which will give much pleasure, especially in these idiomatic performances (on modern instruments).

For all that Michael lurks in the shadow cast by his brother, recent performances – and it is welcome to have so many more, especially on CD – have made it clear that he was no minor figure, but an accomplished composer in his own right. His contemporaries had little doubt of his stature. Although his relationship with Leopold Mozart was strained, he had a close friendship with Wolfgang, who appears to have been influenced by his music, and certainly promoted it in Vienna. A common feature between the two, heard to good effect in these symphonies, is a charming gift for writing effectively for the woodwinds.

Nor should these symphonies be considered less pleasurable than those by Josef. If there is a difference, it is not in musical facility nor in ingenious orchestration. If Michael does not quite plumb the same depths, there are similarities in construction and in the unusual effects. Listen for example, to the Rondeau of the C major work (track 8) as a splendid instance of confident, even exuberant, invention. There is an interesting study to be done on the extent to which Josef influenced his brother and vice-versa. They corresponded but rarely met during the forty years of Michael’s time in Salzburg, yet there are similarities in approach. I sometimes forget which brother I am hearing, though Michael was less of a pioneer. Also, he had a strong preference for major keys, as here (only Symphony No 20, not on this disc, is in a minor key), which slightly limited his emotional range. His gift is for the exciting.

This CD will give enormous pleasure, and perhaps encourage wider performance. Gallois has the music’s measure and the orchestra plays very well. It is interesting to make comparisons with Bohdan Warchal’s set of 20 symphonies on CPO (CPO 9995912), though the D major is not included there (but it is on a recording from the same label conducted by Johannes Goritzki – CPO 9991792) . The CPO set is a joy – so is this.

I look forward very much to the remainder of this series. It would be a wonderful if Naxos turned its attention to a complete set of the Masses. Josef thought Michael’s finer than his own, not without justice. From time to time a new recording appears (Hungaraton have shown commitment to the cause), but there is so much to explore.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Wilkinson)

Sinfonia in G major (Perger 16) (Symphony No. 25)
Sinfonia in D major (Perger 21) (Symphony No. 30)
Sinfonia in C major (Perger 19) (Symphony No. 28)
Sinfonia in A major (Perger 15) (Symphony No. 24)

Meyerbeer is best known for his spectacular operas, such as the Italian Semiramide and Il Crociato in Egitto that won him great popularity. Less well-known are his songs, of which 26 were presented in the first volume of this series. In this second volume the music covers a substantial period of the composer's life with settings in French, German and Italian that explore the joys and pain of love, Arcadian idylls and religious themes. Four of the songs are heard in world premiere recordings.

Giacomo Meyerbeer’s eminence as an operatic composer was such that the works he wrote for the Paris Opéra between 1831 and 1865—Robert le Diable, Les Huguenots, L’Africaine and Le Prophète—were among the most spectacular and popular, well into the twentieth century. These overtures and orchestral pieces illustrate the power of Meyerbeer’s writing, his sense of drama, his orchestral coloring, and his melodic beauty. L’Etoile du Nord and Dinorah, written for the Opéra Comique, are lighter in tone, but notable for their programmatic inventiveness.

Meyerbeer created his operas as vast, elaborate woven tapestries-showered with detail and colour-the result of years of painstaking work. This landmark recording of the Crusader in Egypt was made in January 2007.

Giacomo Meyerbeer was one of the most significant opera composers of all time. The four grand operas represented here brought him his greatest fame, with Les Huguenots being one of the most performed of all operas. Meyerbeer’s contributions to the French tradition of opéra-ballet acquired legendary status, including the ghostly Ballet of the Nuns from Robert le Diable; the exotic orchestral colour of the Marche indienne in L’Africaine; and the virtuoso Ballet of the Skaters from Le Prophète in which the dancers famously glided over the stage using roller skates.

Both the works on this recording were written during wartime. Debussy’s 1915 En blanc et noir, composed during a late creative burst, is his musical response to the horrors of World War I. Messiaen’s revolutionary Visions de l’Amen from 1943, written to be performed by the composer and his teenage pupil, Yvonne Loriod, is a profound religious meditation whose emotional intensity is overwhelming. The rôle of the two pianos is clearly divided. Melodic and expressive elements are confined to the second piano, Messiaen’s part, whereas all that is percussion, brilliance and rhythmic development is heard in the first piano, Loriod’s part.

Not to be missed.

The Naxos roster of fine discs with vocal and other music by Olivier Messiaen is now graced with Harawi, one of the composer’s central works for voice, and the earlier Trois Mélodies, written when the composer was only 22.

Trois Mélodies is Messiaen’s musical response to the death of his mother three years previously, and is full of tender melodic expression and, aside from a passionate climax in the first Pourquoi? and the opening of the last La fiancée perdue, restrained tonalities and dynamics in the piano. The texts of the outer songs were written by Messiaen himself, and the central song is on a poem by his mother. In the booklet notes David McCleery points out the influence of Debussy in Messiaen’s earlier pieces. The pianistic techniques indeed resonate with a longer tradition of French song which also includes composers such as Fauré. Messiaen’s own compositional language is by no means fully formed here, but these beautiful songs are a perfect precursor to one of the most potent song-cycles of the 20 ^th century.

My experiences with Harawi began on the 10th of May 1990, when I had the privilege of seeing it performed live at the IJsbreker in Amsterdam by Yumi Nara and Jay Gottlieb. Their recording appears on the Deutsche Grammophon ‘Complete Edition’, though I am not sure if this is the same version as that with the Accord label, on which I turned out to be less keen than the live performance. Hetna Regitze Bruun and Kristoffer Hyldig are a powerful duo, and Hyldig certainly pulls no punches. Bruun’s voice is recorded if anything with marginally less presence than the piano, but isn’t swamped even through some of the richer textures in the accompaniment, and the balance leaves room for her own dynamic range to reach its full potential without pushing the recording equipment beyond its limits. Listen to the demanding Adieu on track 10 to hear the soprano voice arc over the resonance of the piano in hair-raising style. 
Harawi is a strange mixture of Messiaen’s extravagantly perfumed tonalities, and the Peruvian traditional music which has its visual expression in the striking cover to the published songs. The cycle is part of Messiaen’s ‘Tristan trilogy’, whose members further include the Turangalila-symphonie and Cinq Rechants. The vocal writing occasionally forays into regions unfamiliar to the generally romantic feel of these ‘songs of love and death’, with repetitious, almost instrumental statements such as the Doundou tchil of the fourth song, intended to represent the ankle-bells worn by Peruvian dancers. Messiaen doesn’t stray too far beyond his own more usual idiom however, and gems such as Amour oiseu d’étoile always bring us back to the composer’s familiar sublime magic. The composer’s own texts are not given in the booklet, but almost more usefully, Erik Christensen provides a description and narrative context for each song.

This is a mighty song-cycle, and requires commanding performances from the musicians. The duo in this recording not only rise to the challenge, but excel in communicating its extremes of content, from vast landscape and fauna to folkloristic legend, and more importantly of human emotion. Hetna Regitze Bruun’s range and expressive power is remarkable, and only the coloratura turns which occur in the Répétition planétaire seemed as if they might have been a little less stiff. Harawi is a confrontation, an assault on the senses - involving and rewarding in equal measure, but an exhausting labyrinth nonetheless. Naxos has brought us a world class recording of this seminal vocal repertoire, and at bargain price this is a release not to be missed by Messiaen collectors.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International 

Livre du Saint-Sacrement (The Book of the Blessed Sacrament) is Messiaen’s last and longest organ work, a thematic cycle based on the sacrament of Communion comprising eighteen movements, many based on his recorded improvisations, arranged into three thematic groups. Hailed for his prodigious technique, vivid interpretive imagination and charismatic showmanship, Paul Jacobs is widely acknowledged for reinvigorating the American organ scene with a fresh performance style and ‘an unbridled joy of music-making’ (Baltimore Sun). He has performed the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in nine-hour marathons in eight American cities.

MESSIAEN: Preludes / 4 Rhythmic Studies / Canteyodjaya