The Naxos Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition presents all of Schubert' Lieder, over 700 songs, grouped according to the poets who inspired him.

Despite the fact that new recordings of classical guitar music should be banned for the next several decades (if not centuries), there will always be exceptions. This is certainly one. Paganini wrote his 40-plus “whims” for a young lady guitarist. They consist of short vignettes, often based on music by famous operatic composers: Mozart and Rossini especially. They are delightful and wonderfully played here by Denis Sungho Janssens. The pieces make no apology for being simple and charming, and you can take them in small (or large) doses, as you please. The disc makes excellent background music but sustains the attention if that’s your pleasure. Indeed, pleasure is the entire point. Excellent engineering.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was the most important Brazilian composer next to Villa-Lobos. Guarnieri’s piano music embodies his most distinctive stylistic features. One of his most beloved works, the Dança Negra shares folk-music inspiration with the Suite Mirim. The Ponteios are characterized by an enormous variety of Brazilian music styles and moods, and the Sonata can be seen as a summary of Guarnieri’s musical personality. Max Barros’s “unfaltering brio and a complete command of the idiom” (Gramophone) can also be heard in Guarnieri’s Piano Concertos (8.557666 and 8.557667).

This fourth volume in Naxos’s critically acclaimed series of Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco’s orchestral music juxtaposes his magnificent Symphonic Poem in the form of variations on an Oriental Theme, Vathek, with his final symphony, an appealing masterpiece that combines Neo-classical stylishness with late Romantic richness. Álvaro Cassuto, Portugal’s finest living conductor and an authority on the classical music of his country, is an ideal interpreter of this eminently satisfying yet unaccountably neglected repertoire.

A glorious, joyous, tuneful celebration of the days of Silent Cinema.

Of course there were no soundtracks for films of the silent era. Music was provided, in situ, in cinemas, by pianists or small instrumental groups, and, very occasionally, by orchestras playing in large cinemas for important film premieres. Often the music played comprised odd snippets - frequently from well known classical compositions that fitted the locations, pace and mood of the on-screen action. Years later when these Silent Era classics were rediscovered, new original music was composed for them. Foremost amongst composers for silent films are Carl Davis – and William Perry. This Naxos CD is a celebration of Perry’s work.

William Perry’s Gemini Concerto draws cleverly on themes created for films of the 1920s; for example the ‘New York: Broadway and Finale’ quotes music written from: Show People (1928), Fine Manners (1928) starring Gloria Swanson and from King Vidor’s 1928 masterpiece, The Crowd. The Gemini Concerto was written for the Swiss identical twin sisters, Fiona and Ambra Albeck, featured on this recording. It was premiered in Greenfield Massachusetts in May 2010.

The Gemini Concerto begins with an ‘Introduction and Travel Music’ that is a fizzy, exuberant mix of styles beginning with a ‘we’re off’ train whistle sparking material evocative of accelerating train wheels; this sparkling Introduction has colourful harmonies and imaginative orchestrations and ensembles - piano and violin solos, chamber and orchestral segments - all in pursuit of adventure, discovery and revelling in nostalgia. The sense of the train proceeding continues with ‘Dublin, Celtic Air and Runaway Reel’ which is the Concerto’s second movement that has a typically Irish tune with a prominent violin solo. The third movement takes us to Berlin for a ‘Cabaret March and Berliner Lied’, beautifully evocative, reminiscent of that city between the wars. It has an exquisite poignant melody for piano and violin - the Berliner Lied – that speaks of sadness of parting. This movement is worth the price of the CD alone. On to Moscow for a ‘Twilight Troika and Romance’ horses trotting through a snowy landscape; sleigh bells a-ringing before bells of a different kind introduce a sweet Romance for piano and violin à la Rachmaninov. In Vienna there is a sparkling and gaily romantic ‘Polytonal Polka and Waltz ‘Wiener Wein’ that sends champagne corks a-poppin’. Finally we land in New York for the Concerto’s glittering, jazzy ‘Broadway Ballet and Finale’.

Perry has drawn together music from three of his scores to form the somewhat less original, less inspired The Silent Years: Three Rhapsodies for Piano and Orchestra. The first of these Rhapsodies is on music for the 1927 John Barrymore swashbuckler, The Beloved Rogue which was a film based on the adventures of 15 ^th century rogue and poet, François Villon. Fanfares announce a swaggering devil-my-care theme for Villon. The suite includes music for court pomp and majesty and the requisite love music - material that Korngold would not have sniffed at - Blood and Sand famously starred Rudolph Valentino and Perry’s score is suitably exotically Latin, including flashing flamenco rhythms and music reminiscent of de Falla, for this Andalucian-based torrid melodrama about the fortunes of bullfighters. The evocative score follows this story of bravery in the bull ring, passion and betrayal and ultimate tragedy. Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush inspired Perry to pen music suggesting labouring with pick and hammer, comic and poignant adventures of prospector Charlie, a New Year’s party dance, Charlie’s shy romancing and his big gold strike.

Perry explains that he sometimes conceives themes that could be used to score film assignments he might yet receive. Accordingly, from such a store of themes, he has drawn together another brilliantly coloured suite of music entitled, Six Title Themes in Search of a Movie. Number one is a Dance Overture for an imaginary film that might conceivably be entitled ‘Wild Nights in Toronto’. It’s wild alright, bright and breezy and jazzy redolent of the roaring twenties with gangsters and their molls. Next we travel to France for a typically Gallic waltz that could grace such a film called ‘Raincoats of Dijon’; the obligatory accordion is featured prominently. Then it is south to Italy for a Serenade for a projected film ‘Angelus for an Angel’. The orchestration calls for wistful use of tubular bells. The fourth theme carries us off to South America and another Perry dream film, ‘The Bridge on the River Plate’. This time he uses stirring quick march music that he had actually composed for a silent film about World War I, What Price Glory; the soldiers must be in a happy mood judging by their whistling! Now comes a Nocturne in jazz blues mode for a film that might be entitled, ‘The Black Marigold’ – possibly a film noire set in a Manhattan night club? The final theme is for an imaginary science fiction film called ‘Voyage to the Dog Star’. This is a glamorous score that reminds one more of those Ziegfeld musicals and Bette Davis tear-jerkers than a sci-fi epic. The music might remind one of the grand Late Romantic piano concertos and there is a grandiloquent solo Siren Song from Irish soprano Helen Kearns as the space craft nears the fiery surface of Sirius. A wonderful way-over-the-top finale.

The RTÉ Orchestra and Paul Phillips play these colourful and melodic works with great enthusiasm and panache and mention must be made of Robert Nowak’s brilliant orchestrations.

Naxos have really gone to town with the documentation for this release. The 16-page booklet includes colour pictures of the composer and all the artists, plus full notes and even musical examples. ’Pity then that the dates of composition and films are not always given.

A glorious, joyous, tuneful celebration of the days of Silent Cinema.



-- Ian Lace, MusicWeb International

World-renowned conductor Bruno Walter was particularly well acquainted with Gustav Mahler's work, and was employed as his assistant at the Hamburg Opera at the time Mahler's Second Symphony was given it's premiere in Berlin. Walter prepared his precise and imaginative "reduction for piano" soon afterwards and in close collaboration with the composer. Bruno Walter regarded the "Resurrection" Symphony as one of his mentor's key works, from the "dramatic struggles" of the first movement to the "lightning bolt" that inspired it's sublime choral finale.

Conan the Barbarian is a 1982 adventure film, directed and co-written by John Milius. It was his intention to create an opera in the form of a film. Since the opera contains very little dialogue, he used the music to support the story line. The music composed by Basil Poledouris (1945-2006) conveys a sense of power and energy but also expresses many tender moments. The superb Glatter-Götz/Rosales organ in Claremont, California was designed to inspire creativity and innovation, and Philipp Pelster's vision in making a complete film-score transcription especially for the unique possibilities of this instrument transforms the orchestral colors of the original to generate a completely new and richly rewarding musical experience.

HANDEL: Solomon, HWV 67

Winner of the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition, the Canadian pianist Avan Yu (born 1987) devotes his Naxos CD debut to Schubert songs transcribed by Franz Liszt. He offers all but two of the 12 Winterreise transcriptions, plus 10 selections from Liszt’s piano version of the entire posthumously published Schwanengesang cycle.

Liszt’s lavish filigree may sound a little overloaded by purist standards, yet he always treats the melodies with respect and intelligent registral deployment. Many young virtuosos plow through these transcriptions with little indication that they know the original songs. Avan Yu, however, brilliantly reconciles Schubert’s melodic trajectory with Liszt’s intricate textures.

In Winterreise’s Mut, for example, Yu differentiates the accompaniment’s springing rhythms and the legato vocal line through touch and timbre, while Das Wirtshaus’ arpeggio waves maintain a discreet background, even at climaxes. In Schwanengesang I’m especially impressed by how Yu gives shape and meaning to Am Meer’s tremolos, rather than rattling them off in the manner of a silent movie pianist. Likewise, Kriegers Ahnung’s chromatic flourishes and double notes convey appropriate flair yet never overstep their supporting role.

It would have been nice if Liszt’s six remaining transcriptions from these cycles had also been included, but one shouldn’t complain in light of Yu’s highly appealing artistry. On the basis of the present release, plus a number of YouTube links that feature some excellent Debussy Etudes and a complete audio-only Liszt Sonata, I’d like to hear more of Avan Yu both on disc and in concert.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

We know L’Éventail de Jeanne (Jeannes’s Fan), a collaborative ballet in ten movements by ten composers, primarily from Ravel’s opening Fanfare and Poulenc’s Pastourelle, but the other numbers have plenty of appeal. Roussel’s bittersweet Sarabande adds weight to an otherwise frothy brew, while Florent Schmidt’s concluding Kermesse-Valse provides a buoyant concluding apotheosis. Other savory bits include a polka by Darius Milhaud and perky Canarie by Alexis Roland-Manuel, but it’s all good fun and played here with exemplary spirit and point by John Axelrod and the Loire ensemble.

Here’s an interesting tidbit. Poulenc’s Pastourelle appears to be a nearly literal crib from the “Balalaika” movement that concludes Stravinsky’s Suite No. 1 for small orchestra (sound clips). I wonder if this was noticed at the time?

Ravel’s Mother Goose makes a logical coupling–another children’s ballet, composed and scored with a similarly light touch. Axelrod’s is a sensitive performance, a touch on the slow side, perhaps, but well-proportioned and sensitively detailed. The orchestra plays quite well, with the many woodwind solos sweet and smooth, if perhaps lacking the ultimate character that we hear from Martinon (EMI/Warner) or Ozawa (DG). Axelrod dwells lovingly on the concluding Fairy Garden, and when the music is so beautiful who can blame him? This disc, in short, is a joy. Don’t overlook it.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

Great performances of this massive symphony aren’t exactly thick on the field, but my goodness, this is one of them. Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic play with 100 percent commitment in every single bar. The first movement opens broadly, the intensity already palpable. Taking full advantage of excellent sound and a wide dynamic range (crank up the volume for this one), the central march and battle will have you sweating in your seat. The unrelentingly sustained passion that Petrenko brings to this long section triumphantly vindicates Shostakovich’s controversial vision, and at the same time makes short work of a 28-minute overall timing.

It may sound odd, but what stands out most in the scherzo (for me anyway) is the strikingly sharp pizzicato violins accompanying the shrill clarinet in the movement’s central outburst (sound sample below). Obviously this isn’t the most important idea, but the fact that Petrenko and his strings take such care to characterize even simple accompaniments helps us to understand just why this performance is so compelling. Like the first movement, the Adagio has a strikingly intense central episode, one whose contrasting power helps to sustain interest in the slow, grave outer sections. Then we come to the finale, with a thrilling, wild allegro, and a broad, take-no-prisoners coda that’s simply immense. Petrenko’s Shostakovich cycle already is one of the best out there, but this release really puts the seal on his achievement. This is absolutely essential, and as I said, it’s exceptionally well recorded to boot.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Although Couperin is best known today as a composer of harpsichord music, he remained deeply involved in chamber music throughout his career. Les Nations is a vast project in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe – France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont – and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata, with its free-form virtuosity, and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite. Juilliard Baroque brings together some of the world’s most respected and accomplished early music instrumentalists for this invigorating program.

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Review:

All eight players are totally absorbed in the style. Their often dense ornamentation never sounds calculated or contrived; their rhythmic flow in slower movements has a captivating insouciance, relaxed, gently fluid. This is French playing that would be hard to better.

– BBC Music Magazine

Matthew Locke was Henry Purcell's direct predecessor at the English court and one of the best-known composers of mid-17th century England. Although this recording provides abundant examples of his harmonic genius, he remains less well-known than Purcell, whose melodic facility he lacked. This release by the U.S. group Wayward Sisters (which includes theorbist and honorary sister John Lenti) provides a reasonable place to start with his music: his compositions for "broken consort," or a mixed group of strings and winds, were numerous, and this release, the first in a series, covers only a small proportion of them. The collection called Tripla Concordia that frames the Broken Consort suites includes longer sequences of brief dances but is otherwise cut from the same cloth. The medium allowed Locke to merge the older style of English polyphony with the "concerted" or contrast-based style coming in from abroad, and this is accomplished in any clever ways in these little dances. Wayward Sisters, although their name may see them miscategorized as an Americana band, understand the music and give it brisk, lightly sentimental performances in something of a French style. The suburban Toronto church where the music was recorded is congenial to it, and in general the music provides the same mix of sophistication and fun that it did 350 years ago for its royal patrons.

-- All Music Guide

Since ancient times, many cultures have made their homes on the South American continent and have brought with them their customs, religions and their music. It is thought that when the Spanish conquistadors came to the Americas in the early 1600s, they arrived with many unfamiliar musical instruments including an ancestor of the modern guitar. 400 years later we still see the influence of the guitar's roots in the contemporary music of composers from Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Whether influenced by native folk music or simply the cultural diversity of the region, the music included in this boxed set will surely convey the flavor that can only be expressed by the Latin guitar.

A disc of exciting wind band transcriptions from the award-winning University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble.

In the last of his three volume series devoted to Granados's orchestral music, two very different compositional strands are explored. The early Suite oriental reveals his sense of vivid orchestral color and melodic imagination, couched in the exotic language of the time. Written in a more pared-down style, the one-act "lyric poem" Liliana, a collaboration with the writer Apelles Mestres, is a four-movement suite in which Granados conjures up a vivid, mythical world. Elisenda is another impressionistic score, both emotive and ethereal, here performed in its arrangement for piano and chamber orchestra.

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REVIEW:

Pablo González and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra respond, as they have throughout this series, with warmth and an attractively natural sense of how to turn a phrase. The woodwinds are the real stars, though: supple oboes with just a hint of nasal buzz.

– Gramophone

Whilst Alessandro Scarlatti was largely responsible for the early development of Neapolitan opera, his son Domenico is most famous for his extensive series of keyboard sonatas, of which some 555 survive. His employment at the Spanish court in Madrid led to a series of works largely designed for the Infanta, Maria Barbara, later to become queen. These sonatas are amongst the most significant of all 18th-century keyboard works.

Slovak-born composer and conductor Peter Breiner has received considerable international acclaim for his adaptations, and his Tchaikovsky arrangements are particularly impressive examples of his art. He has already arranged The Seasons (8.553510) and Songs (8.555332) but here he turns to opera. With deftness and subtlety he has taken motifs from Tchaikovsky’s first opera Voyevoda to craft six richly scored movements, two of which have rôles for solo strings. The Queen of Spades was composed in 1890 and Breiner’s selections fully explore the music’s romance and drama in their new form.

Japanese organist Mari Fukumoto has won First Prize at two of the world’s leading competitions, the 7th International Organ Competition, Musashino-Tokyo, and the International Organ Competition of the 62nd Organ Week in Nuremberg. She has also broadcast extensively on German radio. Her wide-ranging programme explores the connections between the works of Bruhns and Buxtehude, J.S. Bach and Grigny, and those of Messiaen and the contemporary Romanian-German composer Michael Radulescu.

WEINBERG Symphony No. 12. The Golden Key: Ballet Suite No. 4 • Vladimir Lande, cond; St. Petersburg St SO • NAXOS 8.573085 (75: 40)


I have been at least mildly enthusiastic about Lande’s previous Weinberg discs for Naxos (Symphony No. 6 on 8.572779 and Symphony No. 19 on 8.572752) and this one is as good, if not better. This is not the first recording of Weinberg’s Symphony No. 12—Maxim Shostakovich had that privilege—but it appears to be the only one available on CD, and the coupling, which is very different in tone, and a nice complement to the symphony, is as enjoyable as it is generous.


Weinberg’s Symphony No. 12 “In Memoriam D. Shostakovich” was composed in 1976, a year after Shostakovich’s death. Many of Weinberg’s works are stylistically similar to Shostakovich’s. This is not surprising, as Shostakovich was a friend and mentor to Weinberg, almost from the time that the latter arrived in the Soviet Union after fleeing his native Poland. This symphony is particularly Shostakovich-like. Although it is “in memoriam,” it is not funereal in tone. In fact, like many of Shostakovich’s works, it displays an emotional ambiguity that encourages a number of interpretations from performers and from listeners alike. Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony appears to have been an especially strong source of inspiration, but the work’s structure—for example, the epic first movement—is more reminiscent of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. The D-S-C-H (D-E?-C-B) monogram even makes several subtle appearances. The symphony’s themes are distinctive, and Weinberg is a surefooted musical architect. Another similarity with Shostakovich is his ear for unusual scoring, and his always interesting and sometimes grotesque use of wind instruments at the extremes of their register. No one hearing this symphony for the first time will miss its connections with Shostakovich. Weinberg is not an imitator, however, any more than Telemann imitated Bach.


The Golden Key is a ballet from 1955 based on a story by Aleksey Tolstoy. The lead character, Burattino, is a puppet, and the eponymous golden key allows its bearer to enter the country of Happiness. In addition to puppets, there are various animal characters as well. On one level, this is an innocent ballet—even a children’s ballet—but its themes of rebellion and idealism also suggest a deeper and even socio-political interpretation. Shostakovich’s ballet scores have their moments of excellence as well as moments of more workmanlike writing. The Golden Key , from what I have heard of it, is at least on their level. The first three suites were recorded by Mark Ermler with the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra—Olympia OCD 473, if you can find it. That disc also included excerpts from the Fourth Suite. In other words, all four suites have been recorded. Taken together, they add up to about 85 minutes of music, so I am wondering if all of the ballet’s music was used in one of the four suites.


As on the previous CDs, Lande and the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra are very satisfactory. Certainly one can imagine more assertive conducting and a richer sounding orchestra, but I don’t think anyone will be unhappy with these performances. In fact, I would say that this is an improvement from the earlier recordings, particularly that of the Symphony No. 6, but that’s one Weinberg symphony in which there was more competition. If you’re interested in Shostakovich, or in music from the Soviet Union in general, there is absolutely no reason not to give this fine new CD a try.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Sandro Fuga inherited a passion for art and music from a family line which includes the composer Luigi Nono. +He felt himself part of a long tradition, seeing music as the expression of emotions and refusing to join in with avant-garde “musical clownery”. +The First Sonata is unusual in form, its dramatic, agitated central movement flanked by slow movements of great emotional intensity. +The Second Sonata is more elegiac, though not without virtuoso dialogue and a spectacular conclusion. +By turns melancholy and strikingly luminous, the Third Sonata is filled with genuinely moving impressionistic meditations.

The Emory Symphonic Winds, comprised of members of the Emory Wind Ensemble and the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, are American leaders in the commissioning of new music. Bruce Broughton’s In the World of Spirits was dedicated to the ensemble and is a work of action, dynamism and electric physicality. Christmas carols and hymns are explored by Gustav Holst while Jennifer Higdon charts the intangible beauty of music itself. Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas Music is a classic of symphonic band writing: rich, colorful and sonorous.

Eugène Ysaÿe was a towering figure in the history of the violin. He also composed a number of important works, most inspirationally the cycle of Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, which rank among the greatest and most demanding of the twentieth century. Each is dedicated to a fellow violinist and friend, whose style of performance and musical preoccupations they reflect. Echoes of Bach are present, as are dance motifs, and virtuoso figuration, reflecting the eminence of the dedicatees.

Tianwa Yang has quickly established herself as a leading international performer and recording artist. She has recorded critically acclaimed interpretations of the complete music for violin and orchestra, and for violin and piano by Sarasate.

REVIEWS:

[Tianwa Yang] plays all this music like an expert gymnast showing the wannabes how to flip on the balance beam and land on one foot as if in their sleep. She maintains poise regardless of speed or difficulty. I’m sure that getting these works under her fingers took hours and hours of practice, but her smooth delivery keeps the “yes, but” factor out of the way. She exudes a command bordering on relaxation, even in the trickiest passages, yet her emotional ties to the music are always at or hear a white heat. Thus does she present us with these six crown jewels as if she were offering us a piece of her own soul.

-- The Art Music Lounge

Tianwa Yang’s colors are gorgeous, her nuances magical. Not technique (though she is technically flawless), but expression is her first concern. So, with her rich musicality, she becomes a fascinating narrator in Ysaÿe’s masterworks.

-- Pizzicato

Fresh from her recorded triumphs in Sarasate and Mendelssohn, Tianwa Yang negotiates the musical and technical chicanery of Ysaÿe’s six solo Sonatas with great aplomb. Even bearing in mind outstanding accounts by [others], Yang’s rare ability to sustain a convincing emotional narrative in these elusive scores proves highly compelling. Completely unfazed by Ysaÿe’s near-constant Bachian cross-referencing and mild harmonic astringencies, she moulds even the most challenging of phrases with a dedicated sensitivity and affectionate warmth.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Innovative music printer Pierre Attaingnant published the first editions of keyboard music ever to appear in France in 1531. Only one copy of each of these seven tiny but crucially important volumes has survived, in which anonymous composers made arrangements of some of the most beautiful chansons, motets and dances from the reign of Francois I- keyboard music that shows France at the forefront of developments in this field. Glen Wilson has corrected the countless errors in these original sources, restoring this rare and enchanting music and allowing it to shine in it's original glory.

Gustav Holst’s youthful enthusiasm for Wagner is reflected in his ebullient Walt Whitman overture written in 1899. Shortly afterwards he composed the Cotswolds Symphony which embraces hints of contemporary British folk music but is dominated by the slow movement, a profound elegy for the utopian socialist William Morris. Though completed at college, A Winter Idyll shows real orchestral assurance. Indra is an accomplished tone poem revealing Holst’s interest in the legends of India, whilst the glittering and evocative Japanese Suite was written in response to a request from a Japanese dancer appearing in London. The Ulster Orchestra is one of Northern Ireland’s cultural cornerstones and since its foundation in 1966 has become one of the major symphony orchestras in the United Kingdom and Ireland. JoAnn Falletta was appointed Principal Conductor in May 2011, the orchestra’s twelfth but first female and first American to be appointed to the post.

REVIEW:

All of this music is early with the exception of the Japanese Suite, and all of it has appeared on CD before, most notably (with the exception of the symphony) on the superb series of Holst discs issued over the years by Lyrita with such luminaries as Adrian Boult, David Atherton, and Nicholas Braithwaite at the helm. I would never want to part with those three Lyrita discs, but I find this new Naxos disc just as satisfying, and Falletta’s generally more inward, reflective style offers new insights. That it contains a performance of Holst’s only completed orchestral symphony, which gives the work new stature, only adds to its value as an addition to a discography understandably, but regrettably, dominated by one magnificent work. While only one of these works qualifies as a mature composition in a distinctive voice, even the student-written A Winter Idyll shows its composer in a good light, and proves that while fame may have eluded him until midlife, it was not for lack of talent or skill.

A Winter Idyll, the Walt Whitman Overture, and the “Cotswolds” Symphony, all effectively apprentice works written between 1897 and 1900, owe much to the example of the great German Romantics. The influence of Mendelssohn and Schumann in particular should not be surprising given Holst’s then-recent tutelage by Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music. And even a casual listener to the symphony will be able to guess that Holst was then much taken with Wagner. What is notable, however, is just how effectively he has already incorporated these voices into one of his own, albeit one less individual than that of the composer of The Planets, or Egdon Heath, or even Beni Mori of but a few years hence.

The symphony has had one previous recording on Classico with Douglas Bostock conducting. It is still available on other reissue labels, but Falletta’s performance improves on the earlier effort in every way. Tighter and weightier than Bostock in the main—though the scherzo is engagingly quicksilver—she convinces one that the symphony is much more than just a frame for the moving elegy for socialist visionary William Morris that comprises the second movement. Falletta similarly finds new depth in the transitional symphonic poem Indra (1903), emphasizing atmosphere and warmth where the alternative reading by Atherton inclines more toward brilliance and contrast.

The Japanese Suite is the one work here that is representative of the mature Holst, to the extent that any work can be said to represent a composer who notoriously hated to repeat himself. It reflects his developing interests in things Asian, and in folk music, and it shows him free of the old-school German romantic model. It was written in 1915 in response to a commission from Japanese dancer Michio Ito for a London recital, and so is exactly contemporaneous with The Planets. In fact, Holst stopped work on the larger suite to write the smaller one, and many ideas found in the former are adapted to the scale and delicacy of this attractive work that has been unfairly overshadowed by its bigger and more flamboyant sibling.

Its neglect may to some degree reflect the challenge it offers the conductor. Neither Falletta nor Andrew Davis in the other currently available recording on Chandos can match the character of Boult’s recording on Lyrita. More than either, Boult and the late-’60s London Symphony Orchestra bring out, through canny pacing, phrasing, and articulation of these haunting ancient tunes, the Japanese flavor Ito sought in this work. Falletta’s performance is still wonderfully sensitive and perfectly scaled, but here I must register my one clear preference for an alternative.

That said, clearly there is some good chemistry going in Ulster between its fine orchestra and the new American principal conductor. One can only hope that there will be many more releases like this in the future, and in the superb sound provided by the Grammy-winning producer and engineer, Tim Handley and Phil Rowlands. Definitely a winner.

FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

As featured at the 2013 London Proms on August 17th, Marin Alsop conducts Brahms's a German Requiem, which is almost certainly triggered by the death of his mother in 1865. It is of his greatest and most popular works, quite unlike any previous Requiem. With texts taken from Luther's translation of the Bible and an emphasis on comforting the living for their loss and on hope of the Resurrection, the work is deeply rooted in the tradition of Bach and Schuutz, but is vastly different in character from the Latin Requiem of Catholic tradition with it's evocation of the Day of Judgement and prayers for mercy on the souls of the dead.

Rafael Aguirre is acknowledged as one of today’s most celebrated virtuoso guitarists, having won first prize at 13 of the world’s most prestigious international competitions: a record-breaking achievement for a Spanish musician. Following on from his previous, acclaimed recording (8.572064), this full-blooded recital is of music by Spanish composers or those influenced by Iberia, from the pure flamenco of Paco de Lucía’s Guajiras to Debussy’s impressionistic Soirée dans Grenade, and from Albéniz’s Triana, named after the gypsy quarter in Seville, to the virtuoso fireworks of Tárrega’s Gran Jota.

Fernando Lopes-Graça was one of the most prolific Portuguese composers of the 20th century. His use of Portuguese folk-music to forge a personal style is represented in the Suite Rústica No 1. More sombre moods are expressed in the dark atmosphere of December Poem, which contrasts with the extrovert Festival March. Neo-classical in its extended structures and thematic development, Lopes-Graça’s award-winning Symphony maintains an unmistakable connection with the colours and textures of his nation to create music of great expressive and dramatic depth.

Frederick Delius’s beautiful songs show his extraordinary gift for melody. John Ireland admired Delius enormously and his songs are inspired by a wide variety of literature, including his hugely popular setting of John Masefield’s Sea Fever. Renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber celebrates both composers’ remarkable melodic gifts in these sensitive arrangements, and pianist John Lenehan has received great acclaim for his Naxos recordings of Ireland’s complete piano music.

Includes work(s) for guitar by Federico Moreno Torroba. Soloist: Ana Vidovic.