The influx of European composers to England in the 18th century led to a particularly active musical life, especially in London, but the influence of composers like Hellendaal, Castrucci, and especially Handel, led to the development of a musical culture whose native participants included the likes of William Boyce, Thomas Arne, John Stanley, and Charles Avison. These and many others were eager to take up the gauntlet tossed down by the Continentals, and they did so, but with the anticipated varying results. While the names of Boyce, Arne, and Stanley are rather well known among aficionados of 18th-century music in the sceptered isle, the same is not quite true for Charles Avison (1709–1770).

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Avison spent most of his life in his native city, but for 11 years he resided in London, where he came under the influence of Corelli’s student and champion, Francesco Geminiani. Geminiani exerted a strong influence upon the young Avison and when the latter returned to Newcastle, he organized a series of 14 subscription concerts two weeks apart during the winter months. In addition to composing, Avison was a musical mover and shaker on his home turf, writing musical criticism. His treatise, An Essay on Musical Expression (which proclaimed Geminiani to be a greater composer than Handel), appeared in 1752. Avison was responsible for the introduction of Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin to England, and he cobbled together a number of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas into a set of string concertos.

Beyond the transcriptions of Rameau and Scarlatti, Avison’s authentic output is relatively small and consists of concerti grossi, keyboard concertos, and chamber music. John Johnson published the dozen concertos in this collection in London in 1758, at a time when Avison’s reputation was at its zenith. The composer’s debt to the Italian tradition in general and to Geminiani in particular is apparent, but rather than being a mere epigone, Avison strikes out on his own in a number of ways. While the majority of these concertos follow the structural pattern of the Italian concerto da chiesa, the first work in the set opens with a movement reminiscent of the tripartite French ouverture; the ninth and twelfth concertos follow the concerto da camera model with its fast-slow-fast sequence. Avison also expands the concertino, adding a viola to the normal complement of two violins and violoncello. There are also moments when—via the melodies—one is transported to the English countryside and the mind’s eye can almost envision a rustic gathering with the village folk clapping in unison while a fiddler merrily plies his craft and a band of revelers circles the brightly-colored maypole. The writing saves the truly difficult parts for the concertino, but the ripieno is given plenty to do by way of passages that are quite satisfying for musicians whose skills do not approach the virtuoso level. Led by Ukranian-born Pavlo Beznosiuk, a fixture in the early-music life in England and on the Continent, who has performed with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music, Ton Koopman’s Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and others. The Avison Ensemble was established for the sole purpose of acquainting the musical public with the work of a composer hailed by The New Grove as being “the most important English concerto composer of the 18th century.” They have furthered the revival of the Newcastle subscription concerts that Avison established over 250 years ago.

This is uncomplicated music, calculated to entertain, not to stimulate one’s intellect. The lack of profundity here is outweighed by the ability of Avison to craft interesting music that can be taken up and be happily tossed about by members of the ensemble; the band knows how to do this and do it well. Beznosiuk and his exceptionally gifted ensemble of young colleagues further enhance Avison’s gifts by serving up performances that sizzle with energy and spring in their step. Melodic lines are well shaped and the overall presentation is texturally lean and tightly focused. Though this is far from great music, these readings are enthusiastic and polished enough to satisfy any lover of the Baroque in general or the English Baroque in particular.

Michael Carter, FANFARE

What a delightful surprise! Two of these works, the elegantly neo-classical Concerto Grosso and the colorful Three Symphonic Versions, were recorded by Dorian in Venezuela some years ago under Eduardo Mata--and quite well too, but these newcomers offer every bit as much energy with even greater clarity of texture. The percussive finale of Versiones (Xilófono) gains in stature in this performance, the variety of incident belying its brevity (just three minutes). In the Concerto Grosso for string quartet and orchestra, the four soloists offer smoother timbres than Dorian's Cuarteto Latinoamericano, with absolutely no loss of verve or rhythmic incisiveness. The exchanges between quartet and orchestra also register more effectively, with a less jarring sense of separation between them thanks largely to conductor Maximiano Valdés' more graceful and discreet accompaniments.


The Symphonic Dances are new to CD--and are wholly characteristic. Gregoriana, the second movement of four, sounds like the little brother to the first movement of the Versiones. The opening Overtura typifies Orbón's brilliant sense of instrumental color allied to artful formal control. If you enjoy, say, Copland of the famous ballets, then you will love this music as well. The final dance offers a riot of rhythmic and instrumental fireworks, and like all of Orbón's music it lasts not a second too long.


As noted above, the playing of the Asturias Symphony Orchestra is very fine. The players sound right at home in the idiom despite the fact that the composer, though of Spanish origin, spent most of his career in Cuba and later the United States, his music owing as much to the New World as to the Old. First rate recorded sound rounds out this superb collection, perhaps the best release thus far in Naxos' Spanish music series and certainly one of the most important and purely enjoyable.


Perhaps Naxos can get its hands on the composer's long-thought-lost Symphony in C and give us a premiere recording along with the remaining orchestral works (there are only a couple of others). Like so many of his Spanish forebears, Orbón's output is very small, but it's of the highest quality and always is superbly crafted. Don't miss this chance to get to know him. [2/21/2004]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (St. Martini, San Martini, etc.) is another of those almost countless composers whose names have more or less fallen into the cracks in the floor of music history. Born in late 1700 or early 1701 in Milan, Sammartini?an oboist?spent all his life in the city. He was the seventh of eight children born to a French father, Alexis St. Martin, an oboist who emigrated to Italy, and an Italian mother.


Sammartini was well established in his hometown by the time he was 25. His Christmas oratorio, Gesu bambino adorato dall? pastori , was composed in 1726 and performed to unanimous critical and public acclaim, although the German flutist and composer J. J. Quantz wrote in less than complimentary terms of Sammartini?s musical gifts; apparently Quantz had been possessed by the proverbial Green-Eyed Monster.


The 1730s saw a steady stream of well-written symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and dramatic works from Sammartini?s pen. His music also began to receive recognition outside of Italy; his initial foray into the genre of opera, Memet , was performed in Lodi in 1732 and possibly in Vienna the same year. It wasn?t long before Sammartini had become the leading figure in the earliest symphonic school in Europe. It included such now-obscure names as Brioschi, Galimberti, Giulini, Lampugnani, and Chiesa.


In spite of his reputation in Italy, Sammartini?s music was better known beyond its borders. Publishers such as Leclerc (Paris) and Walsh (London) engraved Sammartini?s music, and one of his symphonies was performed in Amsterdam in 1738. In Paris, the Concert Spirituel performed a Sammartini symphony in 1751; his music was equally popular in England, being admired and praised by the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III.


Sammartini?s 67 surviving symphonies exhibit the gradual but dramatic stylistic shift from the Baroque to the Classical idiom; the six recorded here stem from his early period (1724?39) to around 1750. In addition to the obvious and expected stylistic progression, Sammartini also increased and strengthened the orchestra in his later symphonies by adding parts for oboes, horns, and trumpets. Most of the early symphonies omit violas; the middle symphonies employ trumpets and horns, and the late symphonies?none of which are offered here?include independent parts for oboes.


Kevin Mallon and his exceptional little band have a string of fine recordings on Naxos, including instrumental music by Boyce, Wassenaer, and Boismortier; there are also recordings of choral and vocal music by Caldara and Wanhal. Furthermore, they have begun a cycle of Vivaldi?s sacred music. Mallon?s musicians are well tuned to the repertoire they have recorded, and in each and every CD from Naxos they demonstrate an exceptional command of their period instruments. Stylistic idiosyncrasies are bypassed; instead, Mallon opts for sound musical judgment, resulting in a release that is leisurely paced, but never lacking in vitality, excitement, or commitment. The running time of the disc?just over an hour?is somewhat stingy and could have allowed for the inclusion of one of the later symphonies and a broader picture of Sammartini?s work in the genre, but I won?t complain in excess, for what is here has delighted this auditor repeatedly.


FANFARE: Michael Carter

Chopin turned the Scherzo into a new form of piano composition: an independent virtuoso work which he laced with drama, Polish folk song, tranquility and nuance. With their rhythmic lilt and filigree ornamentation the Impromptus are infused with Romantic freedom, while the Allegro de concert, Op. 46 was originally conceived as a movement for a projected piano concerto but was instead revised for solo piano. Mao Fujita was awarded Second Prize at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019. A laureate of numerous national and international competitions such as the World Classic in Taiwan (2010, first prize in the junior section), the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition in Vienna (Austria, 2013), the Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians (2015), the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition in (USA, 2016) and many others. In 2017 he won the first prize as well as three special prizes at the Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland. In October 2019, Fujita made his UK debut with the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, which was critically acclaimed by The Times. Immediately following this success, he made his debut in Seoul and Moscow. Mao Fujita has recorded several albums under the Naxos Japan label, which include woks by Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Liszt and Prokofiev, among others.

Zemlinsky: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

“Perched at a sonic event horizon, the nine string quartets of composer Gloria Coates exquisitely warp listeners’ sense of place. The floorboards yield like latex and the supernovae above are seduced to within an arm’s reach through her elongating, microtonal alchemy. In the deft hands of the UK’s Kreutzer Quartet, the nocturnal harmonies found here are rendered not bleak, but radiant.” – Doyle Armbrust, Time Out Chicago


At long last, the aural equivalent to Salvador Dali's melted watches! Gloria Coates (b. 1939) has created a string quartet language out of glissandos: long, short, abrupt, gradual, creaky, rounded, often dissonant, sometimes consonant. The music conjures up vivid aural images. The Fifth Quartet, for instance, begins with delicate high-register, insect-like squeals. These assiduously descend into detuned, slow moving canons that resemble a chorus of drunken cartoon cats and coyotes intoning half-remembered hymns and barroom ballads. Its second movement is built from glissandos that ascend and descend in super-slow motion. By contrast, the third movement nearly recaps the second at a hundred times the speed, the double stops suggesting a veritable orchestra of quartets whizzing before you in a race against time.


The brief First Quartet dates from the composer's late 20s and reveals that the basic elements of her present style already were in place, if not so extreme in their deployment. I especially like the Sixth Quartet's concluding "Evanescence" movement, where palpable melodic shapes emerge from intertwining long, sustained, slowly modulated glissandos, demarcated by occasional gentle pizzicato dabs. If Coates is the painter, the Kreutzer Quartet is the widely varied palette of colors and the big, austere canvas. The sheer variety of nuance and timbre the players bring to these scores will be hard to equal, let alone surpass. Kyle Gann's exemplary notes are analytical without being academic.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
Reviewing original release of Quartets 1, 5 & 6

I get the feeling that Gloria Coates does not spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not other people enjoy her music. That is a compliment, not a complaint. Whether or not you like what she does, she does it with a very personal style and with great conviction. The present CD, the fifth of Coates’s music to be released under Naxos’s American Classics imprint, ranks very low on the list of CDs one would play as light background music during a convivial dinner with friends. Coates’s music, this CD included, forces one to consider why we listen to music at all, and to examine what we mean by “entertainment.” To my thinking, entertainment, in the usual sense of the word, is overrated. We need to devote equal time and effort to moving ourselves into new emotional and intellectual territories, even at the risk of causing ourselves a little pain.


Coates is an American who now lives in Germany. In an interview, she describes the German culture as “very serious and formal,” and comments, “One is left alone much of the time unless he plans ahead.” Is there anyone in the United States who is writing music quite like Coates’s? Not that I am aware of. Her music says difficult things—things Americans seem unwilling to say at this point.


This is the world premiere recording of her recent (2007) String Quartet No. 9. The work is in two movements, both of them slow, and both of them making an almost obsessively detailed exploration of texture and sound. The first is a canon and nearly a palindrome, although the materials thus treated are not only melodic but also textural. The long, siren-like glissando, a trademark of Coates’s music from the start of her career, appears six minutes in and produces an unsettling effect. The listener also is thrown off kilter by pitch, because the first violin and the viola are tuned down one quarter-tone. Glissandos occur in the second movement, albeit within a narrower range; imagine listening to the slow movement of a late Beethoven quartet on a turntable whose motor is giving out and from an LP that has been pressed off-center. As Kyle Gann writes in his booklet notes, “The atmosphere is unworldly, creepily dissonant and yet serene, a kind of music of the spheres.”


The Sonata for Violin Solo (2000) allows aspects of Coates’s compositional style to stand out in stark relief. The movement titles—Prelude, Fantasia, Berceuse, and Hornpipe—suggest Handel or Bach, or at any rate more “traditional” composers, but once again, Coates goes her own fascinating way.


One might think that Emily Dickinson would elicit a brighter response from any composer. All of the Lyric Suite’s (1996) seven movements are headed by a fragment from Dickinson’s poetry. The Belle of Amherst was a mystic and a visionary, though, and Coates’s music underscores the notion that much of Dickinson’s work was actually quite strange, considering the time and place in which she lived. Once again, unusual playing techniques, including strings tuned a quarter-tone flat, create a sound world that is eerily beautiful and queasy.


For Coates newbies, any of the discs featuring her orchestral works might be a slightly easier introduction. Nevertheless, I feel that the present CD is an honest representation of who she is and what she does.


The Kreutzer Quartet has participated in earlier Coates recordings, and the quartet’s first violinist, Peter Sheppard Skærved, has championed Coates for her music for two decades. (Neil Heyde is the quartet’s cellist.) It is hard to know what to say about the performances, except that there would be little point in performing and recording this music if one didn’t believe in it. Separately and together, the quartet’s members, plus pianist Chadwick, are committed to the task, and carry it out with deep concentration.


As usual, the cover art is a painting by Gloria Coates, whose visual art looks much like her music sounds. As the saying goes, when God gave out talent, she stood in line twice.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle
Reviewing Quartet no 9, Violin Sonata, Lyric Suite

Rachmaninov’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 3’ is a complex, epic narrative that moves from a simple opening melody to the triumphant apotheosis at its conclusion. The composer ingeniously links motifs, melodies and at times whole sections between the movements, unifying the concerto into a single overarching storyline. In the ‘Variations on a Theme of Correlli,’ Rachmaninov reworks the original theme using his unique harmonic language until there is no trace left of its Baroque or Renaissance origins. Pianist Boris Giltburg was born in 1984 in Moscow and has lived in Tel Aviv since early childhood. He began lessons with his mother at the age of five and went on to study with Arie Vardi. In 2013 he took first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, catapulting his career to a new level. His previous solo Rachmaninov recording was named Gramophone album of the month in June 2016, and more recently his first concerto album won a Diapason d’or for his account of the Shostakovich concertos.

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REVIEWS:

Boris Giltburg’s new Naxos recording of the D minor Concerto with Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra shatters the encrustation of reputational habit, offering instead a vividly imaginative re creation of a score that lives and breathes with irresistible vitality. Giltburg’s approach is fundamentally lyrical, rhetorically apt and, aided and abetted by Prieto and the Scots, sensitive to every marking in the score.

– Gramophone The opening bars of this Third Concerto performance set the scene for a very personal approach to the ones we have already on disc; the whole performance gives us a totally new approach where the choice of tempos is very personal, at times unusually relaxed, at other times are charging headlong. The first movement cadenza is almost improvisatory in every respect, and sets out his credentials as one of today’s most outgoing virtuosos. His finale is full of white-heat moments. The conductor, Carlos Miguel Prieto, is at one with his soloist, while the Royal Scottish National are on fine form. A very attractive account of the Variations on a Theme of Corelli closes the disc. The recorded quality of the concerto is excellent..

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Sibelius may not have written the flashiest piano music of his time, yet the stark beauty of his mature harmonic language and instinct for effective keyboard deployment (which certainly developed as he progressed) characterize each and every work on this disc. As with previous volumes in this series, pianist Håvard Gimse imbues these pieces with all the color, dynamic range, technical control, insight, and tender loving care he can muster, and there's much to savor despite this collection's anonymous-sounding titles.


In particular, the collections of Op. 75 and 85, subtitled "The Trees" and "The Flowers", are appealingly nature-inspired, and Gimse wrings every drop of poetry from their often unassuming outward appearance. And that's saying a lot, since Gimse is one of the most cultivated, musicianly pianists on the scene. Top class sonics and fine annotations further enhance my recommendation. If you've been collecting Naxos' Sibelius piano music cycle, you'll want this disc as a matter of course.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Ronald Binge was one of the most highly respected and successful English composers of his generation. He played a significant role in creating the Mantovani sound, but his big breakthrough came with the Elizabethan Serenade, which became an international hit. The evocative moods and memorable melodies of his best works saw their regular use as themes for TV and radio, and the soothing tones of Sailing By are still in use today as the close-down music for BBC Radio 4.

Martinu: Epic of Gilgamesh (The)

There are two aspects underlying this recording by Raphael Feuillatre, First Prize winner at the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America Competition in 2018: original works for the guitar and transcriptions. Among the former is Villa-Lobos’s Prelude No. 5, part of one of the most evocative and Romantic guitar cycles of the 20th century, the Chopinesque brilliance of the inventive Valse by Barrios Mangore, and the compendium of virtuosity that is Llobet’s Variations on a Theme of Sor. The transcriptions range from Rameau, through Rachmaninov’s pianistic showcase, the Prelude No. 4, Op. 23, to the superbly evocative Alfonsina y el mar by Ariel Ramirez.

Alberic Magnard became a French national hero when he died defending his home at the outbreak of the First World War and, although he wrote relatively little, his catalogue is full of expansive and beautifully crafted music. Magnard was a symphonist at heart, and with its evocations of landscape and expressive lyricism his Third Symphony was admired by Paul Dukas for its ‘perfect clarity’ and as an ‘all too rare creation.’ The luminous Fourth Symphony is one of Magnard’s last surviving works- a masterpiece that successfully synthesizes Wagnerian high drama with Classical transparency.

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REVIEW:

There’s little to quibble about concerning this well-filled new disc containing Albéric Magnard’s two best (and best-known) symphonies. Fabrice Bollon delivers confident, flowing performances that fully encompass the music’s wide-ranging expressive vocabulary, from the haunting modal opening of the Third Symphony, to an amazing clean and clear fugal development in the finale of the Fourth. He and the Freiburg orchestral clearly enjoy the rustic charm of the two scherzos, while the profound lyricism of the slow movements emerges naturally and songfully, without dragging.

If there are any negatives, they have to do with the Freiburg Philharmonic which, despite committed playing, sounds a bit undernourished in the string section. In the richly scored Fourth Symphony the added clarity this offers the woodwinds compensates to some degree, but I found myself wishing that these symphonies would get picked up by one of our truly great orchestras. The music deserves the attention, and it would be wonderful to hear it done at the very highest level. As it stands, this does not displace Thomas Sanderling’s reference versions on BIS, but it’s a heck of a lot less expensive and well worth hearing all the same.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)

This high-quality production begins with Tim Hugh's lucid, thoughtful, penetrating account of Gerald Finzi's reflective and often elusive Cello concerto. Hugh's measured, noble expressivity gives the unsettled opening movement a powerful sense of line and also real pathos. In contrast, Raphael Wallfisch's 1986 recording for Chandos takes the first movement at a broader pace, but Hugh's urgent arguments seem more alive to dynamic shadings and are more poignantly resigned. Hugh gets more bite and punch into Finzi's "Scotch-Snap" rhythms here, and attains a bleaker, blacker atmosphere than Wallfisch in the coda. Although there are passages where a larger orchestra would have added greater impact, the Northern Sinfonia accompanies Hugh beautifully in the andante, where you'll hear several outstanding contributions from the winds. Hugh's finale, too, generates starker contrasts than Wallfisch's, particularly during the unexpected slow episode part way through, and in the scurrying passagework elsewhere, where soloist and orchestra achieve a chamber-like intimacy.


Peter Donohoe is soloist in Finzi's two works for piano and orchestra, the Eclogue (1929--accompanied by strings alone) and Grand Fantasia and Toccata (1927), both of which were conceived for a piano concerto that never materialized. Donohoe's direct, un-mannered treatment of the Eclogue results in a finely controlled performance that casts ample light on the text without sentimentalizing it. The Nimbus version with Martin Jones and the English String Orchestra under William Boughton is well played too, but the washy acoustic robs the music of inner detailing that registers clearly on the Naxos disc. The Grand Fantasia and Toccata is a demanding virtuoso work inspired by Finzi's love of Bach. What's so compelling about Donohoe's account is that he sees the piece as a kind of neo-Baroque refraction, more closely associated with the 20th century than the 18th. It's a keenly incisive performance; Donohoe's strident accents and penetrating clarity seem ideal, but the loudest passages could still gain from fuller-sounding orchestral support. Phillip Fowke recorded the piece for EMI with Richard Hickox in 1988, but his version hasn't the austere power of Donohoe's. This Naxos release combines performances of impressive stature with pleasingly natural and well-balanced recorded sound. It'll prove hard to beat, especially at budget price.
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9, WAB 109

Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos (Complete), Vol. 1

Robert Craft always conducts splendid late Stravinsky, or selects the best players to do the chamber works full justice, and so it proves here. Granted, the program is a bit of a mish-mash, but that’s only to be expected given the composer and the length of each work. In the Duo, Frautschi and Denk play with just the right crispness and clarity, and you’ll search in vain for a better version of Abraham and Isaac (not that there are all that many). In short, if you’ve been collecting this series, which Naxos hopefully will box up complete someday, then you’ll want to add this disc to your library as well.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The most beautiful music from the world's greatest ballets (Swan Lake, Spartacus, Copp�lia, Masquerade, The Nutcracker, Sylvia, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Giselle). The word 'ballet' is French; it was adopted by the English sometime in the seventeenth century. It was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the genre really started to develop into the art form that we recognize on the stage today. A fusion of dance, music, drama, sets and lighting, ballet is one of the ultimate arts. Following are the stories of some of the world's greatest ballets, so the listener may enjoy more fully the collection presented here.

We remember Hildegard if nothing else for her 1980s "revival", or perhaps from Anonymous 4's hit 1997 recording featuring "Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula" (with the provocative title 11,000 Virgins). Her writings, her prophecies and visions, her poetry and music, and her founding and nearly 30-year leadership of the convent at Rupertsberg established Hildegard as one of the more remarkable and influential figures of her time; the question today is how to best present her music--long sequences of unison chant--which of course was intended for worship and prayer, not for "performance". Some have answered that question by arranging the melodies--for string quartet (Kronos Quartet), brass ensemble (Empire Brass), solo voice and cello (Matt Haimovitz, Eileen Clark)--or even "reworking" them with added percussion, whistles, electronic sounds, and cellos (Richard Souther).

Some performers seek authenticity by employing only female voices, but there is good evidence that her music also would have been sung during her lifetime by men. So this program, its selections taken from Hildegard's collection of 77 "poetical-musical" works known as Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the harmony of celestial revelations) and presented in their original, unadulterated form (no whistles, cellos, or tubas!), takes a very sensible and listener-friendly route: the eight responsories and antiphons alternate between one group of four women and one of four men. The contrast of timbres from track to track is a nice effect, and thanks to some very well-matched and impressively well-practiced voices, the inflections, phrasing, and even the smallest nuances of textual emphasis achieve the desired uniformity while retaining the interesting tonal character of four combined voices. (We shouldn't be surprised at the high level of technical and musical accomplishment demonstrated here--a glance at the list of singers reveals several of Britain's finest, most experienced and versatile choral musicians.)

Oxford's Chapel of Hertford College proves to be an ideal venue for this pure, unadorned, unaccompanied vocal music, and Jeremy Summerly's short but informative notes provide just enough details to give listeners new to this music a start in understanding the mystique of this fascinating and uniquely gifted celebrity from the 12th-century--a true Renaissance woman long before the Renaissance was invented.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful Capriccio espagnol reflects a Russian fascination with distant lands, evoking sunny climes and exotic dancing in one of the composer’s most popular and uplifting scores. Steeped in the cultural nationalism of the ‘Mighty Handful’, the Overtures are linked to deeply Russian themes and tales, portraying dramatic life amongst the Tsars with brilliant orchestration and inspired use of folk or liturgical melodies. This release follows the multi-GRAMMY®-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Seattle Symphony ‘spectacular’ (MusicWeb International) recording of Sheherazade (8.572693).

RODRIGO: Per la flor del lliri blau / A la busca del mas all

Bartok: Piano Music, Vol. 4: For Children

A useful adjunct to the Kodály Quartet's budget Haydn series, the disputed Op. 3 works attributed to Pater Romanus Hoffstetter plug one of the last remaining gaps, with attractive readings of Quartets Nos. 3-6. The playing is very fine indeed; outer movements, such as No. 3's brilliant concluding Presto, display tremendous verve and enthusiasm. First violinist Attila Falvay plays with imagination, accuracy, and panache, even in complex passagework above the staff, as in No. 5's Presto. The players also get comic moments totally right (such as the minuet of the same work), letting the music make the jokes obvious, without the need for exaggeration. But they also play with utmost finesse and tonal beauty, the best moments of all coming in the Largo of No. 3 and in the Adagio of No. 4.


The famous Serenade from No. 5 has been very widely recorded, but apart from the mono 1951/52 Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet recordings of Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6 (reissued by Preiser), there are no modern alternatives to this admirable Naxos production. Truthful, well-balanced sound and faultless musicianship makes this another winner. [9/28/2002]
--Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

GIULIANI: Variations

There is no want for recordings of this opera, and several are terrific: Jennifer Larmore/Raul Gimenez (Teldec); Horne/Alva (Opera d'Oro); Horne/Ramey (Erato); Baltsa/Raimondi (DG). But there's always room for another if it's good, and this new release, recorded at the 2008 Wildbad Rossini Festival, is excellent--and the least expensive of them all.

The star here is Lawrence Brownlee, the superb coloratura-lyric tenor who is giving Juan Diego Florez a run for his money. Warm of tone, stylish, accurate, rhythmically impeccable, fearless of high notes, involved with the text, and capable of marvelous patter (his first-act duet with Mustafa is a gem), Brownlee is the best Lindoro on disc. He is given both of his arias, which he dispatches nimbly and naturally.

Almost as fine (behind only Samuel Ramey) is Lorenzo Regazzo's Mustafa, here portrayed not as a buffoon but as a man smitten and naive to the wiles of women. The voice is appealing, dark, and round-toned, and he sings the coloratura and patter handily. I like that he doesn't growl and yelp like most basses do in this role; he may be a tyrannical character but he's in a position of power and distinction. The other two low men's voices are equally good: Giulio Mastrototaro's Haly is colorful and self-assured, and Bruno De Simone's is the best Taddeo on disc. He has the Rossini style down pat and sings with impeccable diction. He doesn't sound young, but that's hardly an issue. Both men are fine in ensembles.

Marianna Pizzolato is a far lighter mezzo than we normally hear in this role. I guess in keeping with underplaying Mustafa's foolishness, we avoid having an Isabella who sounds as if she could conquer Algiers singlehandedly--as, say, Baltsa and Horne could. Pizzolato is more in the Teresa Berganza class (although the voice is not as lovely); there are no booming low notes, but she commands the role on her own terms. There's little to argue with vocally--she has the technique down pat--and she has a good sense of fun as well. Ruth Gonzales as Mustafa's poor, fed-up wife, Elvira, can be slightly shrill but is mostly an excellent part of the ensemble, and mezzo Elsa Giannoulidou holds up her end as Zulma.

Alberto Zedda, an old hand who can occasionally be more scholarly than entertaining, is at his best: zippy tempos prevail (in fact, the finale to Act 1 is faster than I've ever heard it--a remarkable example of how well rehearsed the performance is); vocal lines are ornamented wisely (not the old fashioned way, with big high notes at the end of arias and scenes, but rather within the numbers themselves); and the opera comes across as charming.

This work can seem like hectoring and can be somewhat cruel; the choice of singers, tempos, and overall outlook makes it concentrate on the love story and the peculiarities of East meeting West. The Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir, Cluj is superb, singing at times at a whisper very accurately and offering real personality, and the Virtuosi Brunensis plays with vigor. The recording is fine, with voices always audible and well-balanced. If you're in need of a L'Italiana, this one will please you, particularly at half the price of the others; otherwise the Larmore/Teldec release is the best cast, overall.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

It took me only a few seconds of listening to realise that there was likely to be something special about this recording. The Overture is so well known and often played, but here it comes up with the kind of invigorating freshness and brightness that brings an immediate grin to your face. Partly this is due to the use of the recent critical edition by Azio Corghi, whose changes of flute to piccolo in the allegro section, and detailed changes of phrasing throughout are entirely for the better, but it is due even more to the sheer rhythmic grace and suppleness of the playing. Alberto Zedda may have been nearly 80 when this recording was made but you would never guess it from the results. The orchestra sounds to be of an appropriate size for the work – not on historic instruments, I understand, but certainly historically informed - and it has been recorded in an acoustic which appropriately feels like the kind of medium-sized opera-house that Rossini would have expected.

Apart from Lawrence Brownlee the cast is not as starry as other versions of the work, but what is much more important is that the majority of the soloists are native speakers of Italian and all have clearly been thoroughly rehearsed together as an ensemble. Brownlee sings with grace and manliness - an uncommon quality in this role. Bruno de Simone and Lorenzo Regazzo have voices which are clearly distinguishable from each other and both are masters of Rossini’s writing for comic basses. The ladies are perhaps less individual, Marianna Pizzolato in particular lacking the kind of vivid characterisation that we find in recordings with, say, Marilyn Horne or Jennifer Larmore. Nonetheless she sings with great beauty where required, and at all times communicates the dramatic situation to the audience. It is indeed this quality of communication which makes the recording special. There is no sense of a routine run-through; instead there is the freshness of apparent new discovery.

This is wholly appropriate as L’Italiana in Algeri was written when the composer was only twenty-one. He had written nine operas before it but here reveals himself for the first time as a complete master of writing for the stage and one determined to make this clear to the audience. The special merit of this performance is that the performers are clearly working as an ensemble. It was recorded at live performances but the only significant adverse effects are very occasional moments of ragged ensemble and the brief applause at the end of some, but not all, numbers. On the other hand the very positive effect is the palpable sense of involvement in the performance from everyone involved.

Naxos have recorded a number of Rossini operas at the Wildbad Festival already, but this is by some way the best I have heard so far. No libretto is included with the set and that on their website is in Italian only. There is however a detailed and helpfully cued synopsis which is some consolation - although in a comic opera you really do need to be able to understand all the words to appreciate it as the composer intended.

-- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International

Although one of his most consistently lyrical operas, La rondine remains one of Puccini' least known. Dissatisfied with the result of his work, Puccini wrote three versions, with two different endings, and continued to make further revisions up to h.

This excellent first volume in what promises to be a two-disc collection of Poulenc's complete chamber music offers performances that compare favorably with the best available. All of the musicians are superb, but several deserve special mention. Alexandre Tharaud plays Poulenc's piano parts with great flair, wit, and a true feeling for the music's manic shifts from raucous high spirits to nostalgia and melancholy. Since all of these works feature the piano, the importance of his contribution can't be overestimated. Laurent Lefèvre's reedy, piercing, truly "French" sounding bassoon is a highlight both of the Sextet and the delicious Trio for piano, oboe, and bassoon. It's very difficult to find a bassoon player with sufficient dynamic range to balance the more penetrating tones of the other players, and Lefèvre not only holds his own in the ensemble, but his unfailing musicality and dead accurate intonation triumphantly vindicates the affection that Poulenc shows for his instrument. Finally Olivier Doise's oboe playing offers a sweet, focused tone throughout his range, and this makes the Oboe Sonata a much more moving and less squeaky affair than it so easily becomes in less sympathetic hands. If the string players in Volume II offer the same level of accomplishment, then this series will be the outstanding bargain of Poulenc's centenary year. As it stands, this initial installment, brightly and clearly recorded, is indispensable. Look for further volumes to be released throughout 2000, beginning in early spring. [1/2/2000]--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Includes christmas carol(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Musica Ficta Vocal Ensemble Copenhagen. Conductor: Bo Holten.
Includes christmas song(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Musica Ficta Vocal Ensemble Copenhagen. Conductor: Bo Holten.

Like most of his early works, Dvorák's Op. 1 String Quintet does not deserve its current obscurity. Certainly it lacks the melodic distinction of the much later piece that's also included on this finely played, excellently recorded disc. Still, the music captures and holds the attention, lacks for nothing in energy in its outer movements, and shows a fine sense of formal balance. The so-called "American" Quintet Op. 97 reveals the quintessence of the mature Dvorák: a generous fund of folk-inspired melody, a marvelously danceable scherzo, crystal clear construction in all four movements, and a fascinatingly colorful exploration of string textures. The augmented Vlach Quartet makes the most of both works, offering playing in which good balances and accurate intonation never get in the way of the music's often gutsy, vigorous character. They're particularly effective in the finale of Op. 97, whose "Humoresque No. 5"-style melody can sound too slender for a large movement if not given enough rhythmic profile. These players also exploit the husky sound of the two violas to evocative effect in the slow movements of both works. In short, this recording makes a fine addition to the group's distinguished ongoing cycle of Dvorák chamber music for strings. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

NIELSEN, C.: String Quartets, Vol. 2

Johann Baptist Vaňhal was one of Haydn’s most important contemporaries. His symphonies in particular were widely admired throughout Europe, with music historian Dr. Charles Burney reporting that Vaňhal’s symphonies were known in England before those of Haydn. The finely wrought works in this recording include the Symphony in F minor, considered one of his best in this genre, and the Symphony in C which was highly popular in its day. All of these works illustrate Vaňhal’s sophisticated mastery of musical structure, imaginative handling of the orchestra, and a profusion of memorable themes.